The New Racial Threat: White Marginalization and Racial Policy Attitudes.

How do white individuals, exposed to the fact that nationwide, the minority population is growing and will in a few decades surpass the white population, respond to the changing balance of power that may accompany changing demographics? We believe this question is particularly salient given 1) the 2008 census projections that by 2042, non-Hispanic whites will be less than 50% of the total United State's population; 2) the presence of a record number of blacks and Latinos in positions of local, state and federal positions of power; and 3) the election of the first black man as the nation's Commander in Chief. We will probe the saliency of these phenomena through a survey experiment. We hypothesize that white individuals exposed to a "racial threat" questions referencing 1) whites becoming a numerical minority and 2) increases of blacks and Hispanics in positions of political power will be a) less likely to support federal policies like affirmative action and b) more likely to support "strict" immigration policies than white individuals not exposed to the "racial threat" cue. We believe our project will make a timely addition to public opinion literature as well as shed light on race relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]