Race and Gender identity and public opinion in South Africa and the US

The US and South Africa both share a history of British and other European colonization and are thus affected by its resulting hierarchies, both by race and gender. The establishment and subsequent enforcement of these hierarchies have had disastrous effects on life trajectories and well-being of various “minority” populations. And though some hard-earned progress has been made, these hierarchies have continued to actively shape person and group outcomes. However, how do these identities shape public opinion, especially given the removal of blatantly discriminatory laws and the passing anti-discriminatory legislation? As such, we conducted an online survey to explore attitudes and opinions involving access, mobility, perceived competence, and determinants of inequality concerning race and gender. In addition to developing original questions, the researchers revised survey questions from previous research (Bailey 2004; Bonilla-Silva 2014) and social surveys (the General Social Survey, the Bogardus Social Distance Scale, and the Americas Barometer social survey by LAPOP), on connected subject matter that they sought to investigate. The survey consists of 80 questions with sections covering aspects relating to public opinion, crime, perceptions of race and gender, and national identity. Most of the survey questions are multiple-choice items and allow for either one answer or multiple answers. There are a few comment sections in the survey that allow for qualitative information to elicit some reasons for the answers given. Once the survey was finalized, it was converted into web surveys and administered through the assistance of OSR (at IPPSR) and Qualtrics at MSU using their previous panel and snowball sampling to recruit the maximum number of participants in each country (the US and South Africa respectively). The following procedure was followed for this study: Qualtrics contacted participants to participate in the study through their research panel. The research panel consisted of independently recruited participants by Qualtrics for the study. The participants were required to complete an informed consent form before completing the survey and were aware that at any point, they could stop participating in the survey. The participants were able to complete the web survey at their convenience and no incentive was given for participation in the study. Their participation was therefore voluntary. Once a selected number of participants (1100) had completed the survey, the survey was stopped, and an anonymous dataset was given to the researchers for data analysis. This study can be regarded as low risk since the risks involved in participating in the study are low and the benefits associated with the research are high, this is following the South African Good Clinical Practise Guidelines (Department of Health 2006). Efforts were made to protect individual autonomy, minimize harm, and maximize benefits. The survey did not require individuals to give any identifying information, and they could stop participating at any point in the survey if they felt uncomfortable. It should be noted that no one with a connection to the research will know the identity of any individual recruited to participate in the survey or who completed the survey. After the data collection, the researchers received a de-identified dataset. The following ethical procedures were adhered to for this study, namely: confidentiality, informed consent, voluntary participation, and safeguarding information. This study received ethics approval from the Michigan State University Ethics Committee (MSU Study ID: STUDY00007718). In investigating the nuances of race and its effects on public opinions, we build on a growing body of work that examines the construct as multidimensional. Thus, we measure race as racial (census) category and skin color, which becomes even more imperative given the varied contexts of investigation.