Race, Ethnicity, and Lay Explanations of Poverty in the United States

In this review, the author considers research on race/ethnicity and stratification beliefs, with special focus on beliefs about the causes of poverty in the United States. Stratification beliefs research has traditionally focused on describing what is believed about inequality, demonstrating the antecedents of beliefs, and outlining the consequences of belief adherence for the person, politics, and society. Race and ethnicity matter for Americans’ beliefs about poverty in a number of important ways. Research documents that the poor are themselves racialized in the public mind. The racial composition of people’s communities has demonstrable effects on how people think about the poor. And race/ethnic group membership is one of the most potent individual-level determinants of beliefs about poverty. Research also documents important consequences of such stratification beliefs, including their impact on people’s voting behavior and support for social policies designed to ameliorate racial and other inequalities. The author concludes with suggestions for future research in hopes of advancing our understanding of links between race/ethnicity, stratification ideology, and relevant attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.