Shayla C. Nunnally
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measures that capture the racial contact that African Americans may have racial groups in
their social environments.
These racial contextual variables consist of measures for the percentage white
population (ctywhite), percentage black population (ctyblack), percentage Asian
population (ctyasn), and percentage Hispanic population (ctyhispn) in the respondents’
communities.
9
I expect that an increased presence of several of these racial groups within
the same locality may lead to increased potential for conflict (McClain and Karnig 1990;
McClain 1993; McClain et al. 2002; Anderson 1992).
10
As the population of each of
these groups increases, there will be a reduction of trust in African Americans’ local
government, as they may perceive this conflict more personally at this level of
government. I expect that there will be no statistical effect of racial contextual variables
on political trust in national government.
Although racial isolation, historical racial segregation, and childhood experiences
with other racial groups in urban areas may have some effect on interactive behavior
between racial groups, it still may be the case that the percentage populations of racial
groups have some bearing on the extent to which African Americans trust in other racial
groups. A variable that accounts for racial context does not measure the quality of
relationships among racial groups. However, as people have more experiences living in
racially diverse contexts, I see that competition for resources is even more racialized.
Additionally, those who live in their communities longer (livcom) will be expected to
display less trusting attitudes in local government than newer residents. This is due in
part to the impact of racial group conflict over local resources. Newer residents may be
less likely to know about historical relations between groups in their areas.
Again, although I am able to test the quality of racial contact, I covary a measure
of interracial social networks (racntwk) to test whether one’s diversity of racial
friendships increases the possibility that one would be more trusting of other racial
9
Note, “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably in the dataset.
10
McClain and Karnig (1990) find that although there is no direct evidence suggesting competition
between blacks and Latinos in urban areas with at least 10 percent populations for blacks and Latinos and
over a 25,000 person population, there is a much likely chance that with increased populations of black s,
that is, places with black majorities, Latinos are less likely to do as well as blacks in social, economic, and
political contexts. McClain (1993) finds in a similar exploration of racial competition, that in municipal
employment, those areas with at least a 10 percent black population and a 10 percent Latino population and
overall population over 25,000 persons are more likely to have decreased municipal employment among
blacks and Latinos in respect to whites, that is, while there appears to be no competition between blacks
and Latinos per se. This evidence leads us to consider that, despite evidence of cross-racial competition,
there may still exist attitudes or perceptions of competition or conflict that divide these groups, and hence,
possibly, increase racial uncertainty, and relatedly, interracial trust.
Convention