The widespread belief that racism among young white adults has increased in the 1980s is scrutinized using 12 racial policy questions from the General Social Surveys and the National Election Studies. Under the assumption that age effects can be treated as negligible, the article evaluates the importance of period and cohort effects in shaping the present racial attitudes of adults who have come of age since 1959. After outlining two possible patterns of differences among cohorts that could have resulted from the impact of historical circumstances during the formative years of early adulthood, the article concludes that there is no indication of decreasing tolerance among cohorts coming of age in the 1980s. Similarly the period effects are seldom significant over the years from 1984-90 and thus show no consistent decline in racial liberalism.