Explaining White Opposition to Black Political Leadership: The Role of Fear of Racial Favoritism

Despite the election of America's first Black president, most non‐Hispanic Whites continue to oppose Black political leadership. The conventional explanation for White opposition is sheer racial prejudice, yet the available empirical evidence for this theory is inconsistent. I test an alternative theory that Whites perceive Black political leaders as a threat to their group's interests. Using a new survey measure and nationally representative panel data covering the 2008, 2010, and 2012 U.S. elections, I find that a majority of Whites perceive Black elected officials as likely to favor Blacks over Whites. Moreover, fear of racial favoritism predicts support for Barack Obama in both cross‐sectional models and fixed‐effects models of within‐person change, controlling for negative racial stereotypes. I replicate these findings using a separate cross‐sectional survey fielded after the 2014 election that controls for racial resentment. Collectively, these results suggest that perceptions of conflicting group interests—and not just prejudice—drive White opposition to Black political leadership.     

Disavowing White Identity: How Social Disgust can Change Social Identities

Recent work finds that the sense of solidarity some whites feel with their racial group is strongly associated with their political attitudes, particularly since the election of Barack Obama. Prior work has also noted that levels of this identity have been stable across time and data sources. We, however, document a notable decline in levels of white identity in both panel and cross-sectional national survey data immediately after the 2016 presidential election. Using a two-wave panel design, we examine the factors associated with this decline. We examine whether particular emotional reactions, especially disgust toward Donald Trump, pushed some whites away from their racial identity. We also consider the possibility that some whites may have felt that Trump's election reduced perceptions of racial or political threat, therefore lowering levels of white identity. We find the strongest support for the former hypothesis; the decline in white identity was driven mostly by whites expressing disgust toward Trump. Our results highlight the effect that the political environment can have on group identities and point in particular to the significant role that disgust may play in attenuating the strength of group solidarity.     

Racism and White Counselor Training: Influence of White Racial Identity Theory and Research

White counselors currently and in the future are projected to constitute the majority of counseling practitioners. In a racist and culturally diverse society, White counseling students need to learn to effectively counsel racially diverse clients. In this article, the inclusion of awareness, knowledge, and skills around racism and racial identity development is discussed as critical to counselor training programs with White counseling students. Intentional and strategic efforts to assist White counseling students recognize their personal racial identity and privileges of racism are presented as tools to assist the counseling profession to reduce the perpetuation of racist attitudes and racism.     

The Unbearable Lightness of Being White

In this article I explore the relationship between feelings of superiority, White privilege, White guilt, and a denied White racial identity and how these dynamics are enacted in therapy between White therapist and client. I discuss the concepts of White privilege, White guilt, color-blind racial ideology, and the invisibility of Whiteness and their importance in understanding problems in White identity development. Throughout this discussion I draw implications for clinical practice and training. I conclude by suggesting a process for identifying the dynamics of privilege and power in cross-cultural interactions through the use of self-reflection.     

Two-Headed Coins or Kandinskys: White Racial Identification

Racial identity means different things to members of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. However, while the study of race and politics is often the study of White racial attitudes ( Dawson & Cohen, 2003 ), research on racial identity almost always refers to non-White identity. This article addresses this hole in the literature by examining the extent and effects of White identity. We compare White identification and Black identification using National Election Studies data (1972–2000) and examine the relationships between racial identity and racial and political attitudes. This study adds a missing case to the study of racial identity, tests how well the theories about the concept travel across cases, and highlights the need for more frequent studies of the racial identity of all groups.     

A Change is Gonna Come: Generational Membership and White Racial Attitudes in the 21st Century

The election of President Barack Obama offers a unique opportunity to test the impressionable‐years hypothesis—the theory of political socialization that predicts that widely experienced political events can have a lasting impact on the political attitudes of individuals who experience that event in their youth, thereby creating a generational distinction. Using data from an original survey embedded in the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we examine the racial attitudes of White youth who came of age during Barack Obama's presidential campaign and election to see if those individuals are significantly more liberal on racial attitudes than older generations of Whites. In other words, we look for early evidence that an “Obama generation” has emerged. We find there are indeed early signs of a generational distinction. Members of the “Obama generation” are more strongly opposed to racial resentment, but they exhibit similar levels of opposition to old‐fashioned racism as older cohorts. Additionally, we uncover that the factors that traditionally structure racial attitudes among Whites, most notably contact, education, and residential proximity, work quite differently for members of this generation. We take these findings as initial evidence that Barack Obama's presidency will have a lasting impact on the racial views of a generation of Americans.     

Resolving the Tensions Between White People's Active Investment in Racial Inequality and White Ignorance: A Response to Marzia Milazzo

This article responds to Marzia Milazzo's article ‘On white ignorance, white shame, and other pitfalls in critical philosophy of race’ (2017), in which Milazzo argues that the concepts white shame, white guilt, white privilege, white habits, white invisibility and white ignorance are pitfalls in the process of decolonisation. Milazzo contends that the way these concepts are theorised in much critical philosophy of race minimises white people's active interest in reproducing the racial status quo. While I agree with Milazzo's critique of white shame and white guilt, I argue that these affective responses are fundamentally different to the remaining concepts. Drawing on critical whiteness studies and agnotology, I argue that white privilege, white invisibility and white ignorance are valuable conceptual tools for revealing (as opposed to minimising) white people's active investment in maintaining racial inequality. Whereas Milazzo sees a contradiction between white people's active interest in maintaining racial inequality and concepts like white invisibility and white ignorance, I argue that, correctly theorised, these concepts resolve this apparent contradiction. I contest Milazzo's call to reject white privilege, white invisibility and white ignorance, arguing that these concepts are useful tools in the project of decolonisation.     

When to Preach About Poverty: How Location,Race, and Ideology Shape White Evangelical Sermons

Social scientists have long been interested in how intergroup contact or elite messaging can reduce or eliminate racial biases. To better understand the role of religious elites in these political questions, we show how a church location's income and racial characteristics interact with racial and economic ideologies to shape the political content of sermons. Testing our theories through both quantitative and qualitative analysis of an original data set of more than 102,000 sermons from more than 5200 pastors, we show that contact is only effective as a means of decreasing prejudice to the extent that actors—in our case, pastors—are ideologically capable of reconciling their potential role in economic inequality. White Evangelical pastors rarely preach about issues of poverty or racial justice overall, but the context of the preaching matters. We find that the greater the share of Black population there is in a church community, the less likely White Evangelical pastors are to mention issues of poverty or racial justice, and when they do mention it, they hold to ideological commitments that avoid blaming systems for racialized economic inequality.     

The Minimal Cue Hypothesis: How Black Candidates Cue Race to Increase White Voting Participation

Racial group interests can compete in politics. One way competition may occur is when Black candidates cue racial thinking among Whites, leading to rivalry at the ballot box. I address this hypothesis with theories of identity, affect, and racial cognition. I argue that Black Congressional candidates cue these factors among Whites, leading the factors of White racial prejudice and White race liberalism to impact Whites' voting participation. I employ logistic regression analysis of data from the American National Election Study in 1988, 1992, and 2000. The effects of racial prejudice on the predicted probability of voting occur among all Whites, as well as White Republicans, White Democrats, and White conservatives. The effects of White race liberalism occur among all Whites, as well as White Democrats and White liberals. The effects are strongest when Whites are in elections with Black candidates that are either challengers or in open seats.     

Vicarious Experiences of Major Discrimination and the Life Satisfaction of Black and White Adults from a Community Sample

The racism-related stress framework argues that racism can influence the well-being of individuals through personal and vicarious experiences of discrimination, but studies on racism and health have primarily focused on understanding how personally experienced discrimination shapes these outcomes. Using data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N?=?1,252) the present study examines the racial differences in vicarious experiences of major discrimination among Black and non-Hispanic White adults from a community sample. Additionally, given longstanding evidence of racial disparities in life satisfaction, this study assesses whether the effects of vicarious experiences of discrimination influence overall life satisfaction of both Black and White adults. Results reveal significant racial differences in the types of vicarious discrimination that both groups are exposed to, and that Black adults are more exposed to vicarious experiences of major discrimination relative to White adults. Furthermore, findings indicate that vicarious experiences of discrimination, in addition to personal experiences of discrimination, are associated with lower levels of overall life satisfaction among Black adults, but not for White adults. This study extends the broader literature on racism-related stress and offers new insights for understanding racial differences in overall life satisfaction and well-being.

     

Personal Political Salience: The Role of Personality in Collective Identity and Action

Personal political salience (PPS) is proposed as a personality characteristic that assesses individuals' linkage of political events with their personal identities. Its role in facilitating the development of politicized collective identity and action is examined. In four samples of midlife and activist women, we show that PPS was consistently related both to politicized gender identity and political participation. Further analyses show similar results for PPS, politicized racial identity, and political participation. Politicized gender identity mediated the relationship between PPS and women's rights activism, and politicized racial identity mediated the relationship between PPS and civil rights activism. PPS is demonstrated to independently predict political action and also to provide a personality link between group memberships, politicized collective identity, and political participation.     

Evangelical Civil War on the College Campus,White Evangelical Right Framing Resistance to Racial Justice in 2020s America

This paper examines a civil war brewing among evangelicals on the college campus over racial justice—calls for greater racial equality, equity, and inclusion—in the era of Black Lives Matter (BLM). It examines how the white evangelical right are framing their resistance to racial justice and redrawing the color line in the contemporary college evangelical landscape not with distant “social justice warriors” in broader secular society, but with those right inside their evangelical community who, at varying levels, are coming out in support for racial justice in 2020s America. To do this, I first examine the varied campus evangelicals that support racial justice and how they express and frame their support as proper religious practice. I then explicate how the white evangelical right utilize a strategy of colorblind-othering to fight against these co-evangelicals that support racial justice. Data for the study come from the Landscape Study of Chaplaincy and Campus Ministry (2019–22).     

White Feminist Therapists and Anti-Racism

The tenacity of White racism is analyzed and a model for active anti-racism is presented. The daily, on-going effects of White Privilege are also explored, including their impact on a White feminist therapist's work with her clients. Recognizing that an individual's personal anti-racism is never completed, the author discusses the necessity of individual feminist involvement in cognitive and affective domains in exploring Cultural Literacy and White Privilege. The importance of both external and internal motivators are also emphasized and suggestions given for developing external motivators when necessary. Applications of external motivators for anti-racism in therapy and community involvement, the personal and the political, are discussed.     

The relationship of sex role identity and social and politicalattitudes

A study is reported of the relationship between conscious social role preferences, unconscious sexual identifications, and attitudes toward five categories of social and political issues. Based on factor scores of inventory items, the categories include political liberalism, birth control, sex role morality, racial discrimination, and the achievement ethic The population studied consisted of men and women from communities designated working class, middle class, and upper class Controlling for the effects of age, sex, marital status, occupation, education, and political party preference, results indicate statistically significant associations between conscious and unconscious masculinity and femininity and attitudes toward all five categories of issues The patterns of associations, however, are not always consistent Discussion includes a consideration of sex role identity as a value and the implication of sex role differentiation for the integration of personality as well as social institutions     

Black client,white therapist: Working with race in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in South Africa

In post‐apartheid South Africa we speak about race extensively. It permeates our workplace, weaves a thread through the fabric of our professional and personal lives, as well as our private conversations and public interactions with others. From within psychoanalytic theory, the thread weaves through the unknown content of our racialized unconscious. When there is a focus on race in the South African psychoanalytic context it largely takes the form of the struggle to articulate the complexities of working with difference, as Swartz notes, or the struggle to map out issues of race. Such struggles are not localized in South Africa, but strongly reflect a much broader struggle within the global psychoanalytic community, as mirrored in the expanding focus on race. Although the consulting rooms seem far removed from the ongoing political tensions that have recently emerged in South Africa, psychoanalytic psychotherapy remains a space of meaningful engagement with the other, and where the therapeutic dyad is one of racial difference it permits an encounter with our racialized unconscious. This article seeks to document the experience of my black client and my white response to her racial pain and struggle; in doing so, I describe the racial ‘contact’ between us and within us that triggers a racialized transference and countertransference dynamic, which contains the space for racial healing for both of us.     

Does Freedom of Speech Include Hate Speech?

I take it that liberal justice recognises special protections against the restriction of speech and expression; this is what I call the Free Speech Principle. I ask if this Principle includes speech acts which might broadly be termed ‘hate speech’, where ‘includes’ is sensitive to the distinction between coverage and protection, and between speech that is regulable and speech that should be regulated. I suggest that ‘hate speech’ is too broad a designation to be usefully analysed as a single category, since it includes many different kinds of speech acts, each of which involves very different kinds of free speech interests, and may cause very different kinds of harm. I therefore propose to disaggregate hate speech into various categories which are analysed in turn. I distinguish four main categories of hate speech, namely (1) targeted vilification, (2) diffuse vilification, (3) organised political advocacy for exclusionary and/or eliminationist policies, and (4) other assertions of fact or value which constitute an adverse judgment on an identifiable racial or religious group. Reviewing these categories in the light of the justifications for the Free Speech Principle, I will argue that category (1) is uncovered by the Principle, categories (2) and (3) are covered but unprotected, and that category (4) is protected speech.     

Thinking through war: the social thought of Richard T. Ely, John R. Commons, and Edward A. Ross during the First World War

This paper examines the social thought of University of Wisconsin professors Richard T. Ely, John R. Commons, and Edward A. Ross during World War I. Like many of their fellow scholars, these three were actively involved in the pro-war effort. Although their support for the war was strongly conditioned by personal and occupational considerations, the impact of their wartime service was not restricted to those realms. Their social thought, which they impressed into service explaining and justifying the war, was itself altered in subtle and sometimes surprising ways by the forceful positions they took on the political, economic, and racial significance of the conflict.     

Religious Conservatives and Outsiders: Determinants of Cross-Racial Ties Among White Christians

This article analyzes how a congregation’s theology and denominational affiliation influence the racial ties of its white members. We posit two distinct pathways. In the first, theologically conservative congregations generate more embedded social ties (measured by number of friendships) than do non-conservative congregations, and more congregation friendships increase the likelihood of cross-racial ties. In the second pathway, congregations not affiliated with historically major denominational families report higher levels of racial diversity, and high levels of congregation racial diversity increase the likelihood of cross-racial ties. Our key methodological innovation is to divide Evangelical congregations into two categories: those affiliated with the historically major families (Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian) and those not (e.g., Pentecostal, Seventh-Day Adventist). Christian groups that join theological conservatism and outsider (non-major) status generate high levels of friendships and racial diversity in their congregations, both of which contribute to cross-racial ties among white members. Analysis of survey data from a national probability sample of white Christians (2006 Faith Matters Survey) mostly supports our hypotheses.     

Social categories in the making: construction or recruitment?

Real kinds, both natural and social categories, are characterized by rich inductive potential. They have relatively stable sets of conceptually independent projectable properties. Somewhat surprisingly, even some purely social categories (e.g., ethnicity, gender, political orientation) show such multiple projectability. The article explores the origin of the inductive richness of social categories and concepts. I argue that existing philosophical accounts provide only a partial explanation, and mechanisms of boundary formation and stabilization must be brought into view for a more comprehensive account of inductively rich social categories.

     

The Hearts and Guts of White People

Beginning with the experience of a white woman's stomach seizing up in fear of a black man, this essay examines some of the ethical and epistemological issues connected to white ignorance. In conversation with Charles Mills on the epistemology of ignorance, I argue that white ignorance primarily operates physiologically, not cognitively. Drawing critically from psychology, neurocardiology, and other medical sciences, I examine some of the biological effects of racism on white people's stomachs and hearts. I argue for a nonideal medical theory focused on improving wellness in a society that systematically has damaged the health of people of color. The essay concludes that to be fully successful, critical philosophy of race must examine not just the financial, legal, political, and other forms of racism, but also its biological and physiological operations.