These historical associations do not imply a unidirectional causal path from belief in racial difference to other facets of racism. Feagin (2001) argues that slavery was considered an economic necessity by the wealthy founders of our country and that racist beliefs developed to justify it, and Omi and Winant (1994) describe racial meanings as being constantly transformed by political struggle. However, Link and Phelan (2001) conceptualize stigma (in this case racism) as the co-occurrence of reciprocally interrelated components such that changes in any one component can affect other components and in turn the overall level of stigma. In this way, increased belief in the distinctiveness of black and white people, whatever the source of the changed beliefs, may exacerbate all aspects of racism, including structural and individual discrimination, stereotypes, and negative emotions.
