Racializaton of Institutions

Racialization is the level to which the public and elite language used to describe an institution and its actions evoke race and thus make relevant and highlight debates around racial inequality or racial resentments.

Research Questions

  • Which agencies are more racialized than others?

    • How has that changed over time?

    • How does that vary across different contexts?

      • e.g. draft and final rules, media coverage, and advocacy reports
  • How do perceptions of racialization vary between agencies perceived as conservative versus liberal?

Perceived Ideology

  • Perceived liberal-conservative leaning via expert surveys, appointments, donations, and voting patterns

  • Our study brings race to the forefront in understanding how agencies are perceived

(Clinton and Lewis (2008); Richardson et al. (2019); Richardson et al. (2024); Epstein (1999); Nixon (2004); Chen and Johnson (2014); Maranto (2005); Maranto and Hult (2004); Bertelli and Grose (2011))

Historical Institutional Racialization

  • Racialized history shapes perceptions of agencies

  • We introduce a quantitative measure of racialized institutions, building on rich qualitative research in ADP and REP

(King, 1999; Choi and Rainey, 2010; Schickler, 2016; Tate, 2003; White and Laird, 2020; Mansbridge, 1999; Watkins-Hayes, 2009; Minta, 2009; Juenke and Preuhs, 2012; Hayes and Hibbing, 2017)

Race & Policy Framing

  • Racial attitudes & framing affect policy preferences

  • Our work bridges public opinion research with institutional behavior, elite decision-making, and policy outcomes.

(Gilens, 1999; Kellstedt, 2003; Hutchings & Valentino, 2004; Bartels, 2020; Stephens-Dougan, L., 2020; O’Brian, 2024)

Data

  • Mandate for Leadership (Project 2025)

    • 128 agencies, 18,826 sentences, 4,606 racialized terms

  • New York Times

    • 22 agencies, 131,948 articles, 9,703 racialized

  • Rulemaking Documents

    • 226 agencies, 110,313 rules, 23,083 racialized
  • Perceived Agency Ideology (Richardson et al., 2019)

Draft and Final Rules

Affirmative Action; African American; alien; Antiracist; Arab American; Asian American; Black american; Colorblindness; Critical Race Theory; D.E.I.; DACA; Diversity equity; Diversity, equity; Drug Cartel; Black men; Black woman; Black women; Border Crisis; Equity; Ethnicity; Gang; Hispanic; Unaccompanied Alien Childen; underserved; Undocumented; White Privilege; Illegal Alien; Immigrant; Immigration; Intersectional; latina; latino; MENA; Meritocracy; Mexican Cartel; Multicultural; Muslim; racial; Racial inequities; Racial injustices; Racial Justice; Racism; Racist; Secure Border; Secure the border; Slavery; Unaccompanied Alien Childen; underserved; Undocumented; White Privilege; Citizenship; Civil Rights

Agency Rules, 2005-2024

Mandate For Leadership Reports

Race; Racial; Racism; Discrimination; Discriminate; Slavery; Ethnicity; Diversity; DEI; Equity; Equality; Inclusion; Citizen; Citizenship; DACA; Immigrants; Immigration; Illegal; Civil Rights; Affirmative Action; Head Start; African American; Black; Latino; Hispanic; Muslim; Asian; Color; Racist; Bureau of Indian; native; woke; wokeism; Illegal Alien; Cartel

Comparing across contexts

For each source, we have two counts: \(r_{i}\) (the count of racialized documents/articles/sentences about agency \(i\)) and \(y_{i}\) (the total document/article/sentence about agency \(i\)).

Percent Racialized \(x_i = \frac{\sqrt{r_{i}}}{\sqrt{y_{i}}}\) (variance stabilized)

Racialization Score \(z_{i} = \frac{x_i - \bar{x}}{sd(x)}\) (standardized, mean 0, standard deviation 1)

Figure 5: Racialization in Rulemaking vs. Project 2025

Figure 6: Racialization in Project 2025 vs. New York Times

Figure 7: Racialization in Rulemaking vs. New York Times

Racialization and Perceived Ideology

Figure 8: Correlation Between Racialization and Perceived Ideology

Figure 9: Correlation Between Racialization and Perceived Ideology

Next Steps

  • Dynamic Racialization Scores
  • Economic Redistribution
  • Compare with Other Agency Characteristics (e.g campaign donations)

Key Takeaways

  • Racialization varies over time, despite stable core missions
  • Racialization is tied to perceived ideological extremism
    • perceived “centrist” agencies received less racialized attention.

Feedback

  • How can we make these measures useful?

  • Contact: kmagana@umich.edu | judgelor@umich.edu

Extra

Figure 10: Distribution of Racialized Words in Mandate For Leadership (Project 2025)

Figure 11: Distribution of Racialized Words in New York Times Articles, 2005-2024

Figure 12: Distribution of Racialized Words in Proposed and Final Rules, 2005-2024

Racialization & DOGE Layoffs

Project 2025 & DOGE Layoffs

NYT & DOGE Layoffs

Rulemaking Racialization & Layoffs

Layoff Predictions

MPSA 2025 - “Racialization and Perceived Institutional Ideology” - Karla Magaña & Devin Judge-Lord