Americans Respond to Hurricane Katrina: The Subtle Political Effects of Race

Although most Americans agree that the government response to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast was disastrously slow, they differ in their views of the victims and in apportioning blame. A poll conducted by Newsweek magazine shortly after the storm found that 31 percent of white Americans in contrast with 65 percent of African-Americans thought the government responded slowly because most of the people in the direct path of the storm were African-American. With support from the Foundation, Leonie Huddy and Stanley Feldman will delve deeper into the complex workings of race and class in public reactions to Hurricane Katrina. From 2003-2004, Huddy and Feldman conducted the American Racial Opinion Survey (AROS), which measured racial attitudes from traditional racism to racial resentment. They will now reinterview the respondents of the original AROS survey with questions about Hurricane Katrina, asking about their trust in government, their support for government reconstruction policies and programs for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and their reaction to the victims—both those who stayed and those who left. In addition, Huddy and Feldman will interview a new pool of 120 whites and 215 blacks with a new survey containing questions both on general racial attitudes and political ideology as well as on Hurricane Katrina.