Where do you live Mav? Nice to see another Washingtonian here.
Norman Yetman's "Race and Ethnicity" is a seminal paper on this topic. The actual number on AA in WA was 75% (Kamb, Lewis. 1995. "Who Benefits Most (From Affirmative Action)?", state commissioned study). Barth and Noel's "Conceptual Frameworks for the Analysis of Race Relations: An Evaluation" (Social Forces, Vol. 50, No. 3. (Mar., 1972), pp. 333-348.) is an in-depth analysis of Park's race cycle, accepted by most sociologists as the framework for race relations. Most of the other theorists I'm familiar with require acceptance of some form of institutional racism, as this is the general theme of sociological race relations.
Psychology: the two eminent studies on the implicit association tests.
Dasgupta, Nilanjana; McGhee, Debbie E; Greenwald, Anthony G; Banaji, Mahzarin R. Automatic preference for White Americans: Eliminating the familiarity explanation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Vol 36(3) May 2000, 316-328.
Greenwald, Anthony G; McGhee, Debbie E; Schwartz, Jordan L. K. Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. [References]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 74(6) Jun 1998, 1464-1480.
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PRMoon, I don't think it has to sink into the mud automatically. I know that it will, but I also think it's important to engage people like this rationally, because racism is a rational set of beliefs. Misguided, sure, but rational.