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Sociology

Skidmore College

Theses/Dissertations

2021

Racism

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Know Better, Do Better? Do Higher Levels Of Education Predict White Democrats’ Antiracist Attitudes Relative To Action?, Riley Boyd, Riley 'Tucker' Boyd May 2021

Know Better, Do Better? Do Higher Levels Of Education Predict White Democrats’ Antiracist Attitudes Relative To Action?, Riley Boyd, Riley 'Tucker' Boyd

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

Conventional wisdom says that when you know better, you do better. Various theories of racism generally conform to this popular understanding, motivating colleges and businesses to invest in anti-bias trainings and other educational interventions. This study aims to make contestable the logic of ‘know better, do better’ as applied to racism through asking the question: does education predict white Democrats’ antiracist attitudes relative to their political action? Informed by Mueller’s (2020) Theory of Racial Ignorance and Hersh’s (2017) concept of ‘political hobbyism,’ I propose that white Democrats with higher levels of education will, on average, score higher on an ‘Antiracist …