Discussion on White Southern support for the Confederate battle flag
Continuing from this Twitter thread...
Hi Logan,
1. I do not dispute the claimed correlation between White Southerners' racial attitudes and support for the Confederate battle flag, but the Wright and Esses 2017 analysis suggests an important causal claim that a meaningfully-large percentage of White Southerners support use of the Confederate battle flag for reasons unrelated to racial animus. Is there evidence that that causal claim is not correct?
2. I think that a "'heritage' doesn't tell us much" claim should be based on the performance of measures of pride in Southern heritage. Civil War knowledge and linked fate with Southerners are not measures of pride, so these measures cannot support a claim about the low explanatory power of pride.
3. Could you articulate what is inadequate about the Wright and Esses racial attitude measures? Given the results that Carney and Enos reported here, racial resentment does not appear to be an adequate measure of racial attitudes.