Sociological Forum, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2002 ( C  2002) Democracy’s Dilemma: Explaining Racial Inequality in Egalitarian Societies 1 Colin Wayne Leach 2 While contemporary criticisms of Gunnar Myrdal’s liberal reformism provide an important perspective on racial ideology (G. Myrdal (1944) An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Democracy. New York: Harper & Row), most people miss Myrdal’s most provocative point. Rather than assuming that egalitarianism could only oppose racial inequality, Myrdal argued that commitment to egalitarianism led Euro-Americans to avoid the dilemma pre- sented by racial inequality in an egalitarian society. Rather than predicting the disappearance of racism, this analysis can be used to predict an increas- ing demand for racism in the wake of de jure attempts to eliminate racial inequality. KEY WORDS: modern racism; egalitarianism; ideology; democratic values; An American Dilemma. The Negro problem is not only America’s greatest failure but also America’s incomparably great opportunity for the future. ... America can demonstrate that justice, equality and cooperation are possible between white and colored people. (Myrdal, 1944:1021) Equality is democracy’s promise. From Paris streets to Chiapas hills, egalitarians have demanded that democracy honor its word. So, too, did the U.S. civil rights movement challenge inconsistencies between espoused 1 A previous version of this paper was presented at the International Society for Political Psychology’s 17th annual meeting, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1994. 2 Department of Psychology, University of California, 351 Social Sciences 2, Santa Cruz, California 95064; e-mail: cwleach@cats.ucsc.edu. 681 0884-8971/02/1200-0681/0 C  2002 Plenum Publishing Corporation