Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190265960
- eISBN:
- 9780190939403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190265960.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Beyond portraying race relations as a zero-sum economic game, GOP contenders courted southern white voters by championing “colorblindness.” The color-blind message gave white Americans and, ...
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Beyond portraying race relations as a zero-sum economic game, GOP contenders courted southern white voters by championing “colorblindness.” The color-blind message gave white Americans and, particularly, white southerners a way to move past race, while rendering federal programs to counteract institutional racism unnecessary. Replacing race-baiting with race-burying, the Long Southern Strategy catalyzed a political muteness on race that endured and gave rise to a myth of post-racialism. This myth, while attractive to white southern voters, not only misconstrues the degree and nature of racial animus still present in the hearts and minds of many white Americans, but it also fuels Racial Resentment at continued efforts to protect minority civil rights, at politically correct speech, or at efforts to address structural racial inequities.Less
Beyond portraying race relations as a zero-sum economic game, GOP contenders courted southern white voters by championing “colorblindness.” The color-blind message gave white Americans and, particularly, white southerners a way to move past race, while rendering federal programs to counteract institutional racism unnecessary. Replacing race-baiting with race-burying, the Long Southern Strategy catalyzed a political muteness on race that endured and gave rise to a myth of post-racialism. This myth, while attractive to white southern voters, not only misconstrues the degree and nature of racial animus still present in the hearts and minds of many white Americans, but it also fuels Racial Resentment at continued efforts to protect minority civil rights, at politically correct speech, or at efforts to address structural racial inequities.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226626628
- eISBN:
- 9780226626642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226626642.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
With respect to race and segregation in the United States, there are two incontrovertible facts. First, the country's different racial groups—whites, Asian Americans, African Americans, and ...
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With respect to race and segregation in the United States, there are two incontrovertible facts. First, the country's different racial groups—whites, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos—are highly segregated from each other. Second, feelings of racial resentment and competition are not exclusive to any one racial group, each of which tends to harbor stereotypes toward the other that are less favorable than perceptions of their own groups. In other words, regardless of one's own ethnic background, race is a key indicator of self-perception and community in the United States. However, it is not clear how these two facts are related. This chapter, which looks at differences in racial attitudes across neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, shows that racial resentment is consistently higher in metropolitan areas that are more racially diverse, particularly among whites and blacks. Racial resentment is consistently lower in more racially diverse neighborhoods, a pattern that is largely similar for all four racial groups. Together, these findings shed new light on the connection between social environments and racial attitudes.Less
With respect to race and segregation in the United States, there are two incontrovertible facts. First, the country's different racial groups—whites, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos—are highly segregated from each other. Second, feelings of racial resentment and competition are not exclusive to any one racial group, each of which tends to harbor stereotypes toward the other that are less favorable than perceptions of their own groups. In other words, regardless of one's own ethnic background, race is a key indicator of self-perception and community in the United States. However, it is not clear how these two facts are related. This chapter, which looks at differences in racial attitudes across neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, shows that racial resentment is consistently higher in metropolitan areas that are more racially diverse, particularly among whites and blacks. Racial resentment is consistently lower in more racially diverse neighborhoods, a pattern that is largely similar for all four racial groups. Together, these findings shed new light on the connection between social environments and racial attitudes.
Roy Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520239418
- eISBN:
- 9780520939738
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520239418.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. It shifts the focus of ...
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This book reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. It shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, the book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to the author's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness—in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, the author explains, by a tangible act which turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality; that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows them to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. The author's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework—namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. The book makes the case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America.Less
This book reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. It shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, the book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to the author's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness—in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, the author explains, by a tangible act which turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality; that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows them to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. The author's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework—namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. The book makes the case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America.
Charles S. Bullock, Susan A. MacManus, Jeremy D. Mayer, and Mark J. Rozell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190065911
- eISBN:
- 9780190065959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190065911.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Donald Trump, the thrice married and publicly philandering Manhattan resident who had recently been pro-choice and pro-gun control, won the Republican nomination and the presidency in 2016 in part ...
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Donald Trump, the thrice married and publicly philandering Manhattan resident who had recently been pro-choice and pro-gun control, won the Republican nomination and the presidency in 2016 in part through his very strong showing among Southern white voters. How he managed to do that is the story of this chapter. Trump appealed to Southern white racial resentment, as well as to the anti-immigration fervor particularly evident in the low growth “stagnant” Southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi. But what was really remarkable is how he won the GOP nomination by doing well in all regions. The Republican Party has become unified around a largely Southern conception of conservatism: deeply religious, pro-military, and less concerned with free trade. In the general election, by contrast, regional polarization intensified in 2016. In both elections, Trump’s path to victory required him to do well among Southern whites, which he ably did.Less
Donald Trump, the thrice married and publicly philandering Manhattan resident who had recently been pro-choice and pro-gun control, won the Republican nomination and the presidency in 2016 in part through his very strong showing among Southern white voters. How he managed to do that is the story of this chapter. Trump appealed to Southern white racial resentment, as well as to the anti-immigration fervor particularly evident in the low growth “stagnant” Southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi. But what was really remarkable is how he won the GOP nomination by doing well in all regions. The Republican Party has become unified around a largely Southern conception of conservatism: deeply religious, pro-military, and less concerned with free trade. In the general election, by contrast, regional polarization intensified in 2016. In both elections, Trump’s path to victory required him to do well among Southern whites, which he ably did.
Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190265960
- eISBN:
- 9780190939403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190265960.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The Long Southern Strategy was “long” because all three components of the strategy—choosing to exploit white racial angst, fear of feminism, and evangelical righteousness—were necessary to build a ...
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The Long Southern Strategy was “long” because all three components of the strategy—choosing to exploit white racial angst, fear of feminism, and evangelical righteousness—were necessary to build a solid red base in the states of the old Confederacy. The stark polarization that resulted from these partisan choices unraveled the New Deal coalition. It also redivided white Americans not just along the Mason-Dixon line, but across the imagined fault line of southern identity. Thus, conservatism was redefined on the basis of white southern identity, and that definition became the baseline ideology of the Republican brand nationwide. A partisan sorting and realignment followed. As a result, the distribution of white Americans who harbor Racial Resentment or Modern Sexist attitudes or who identify as Christian fundamentalists is no longer even across the parties, and now, within the GOP, there is not enough opposition to fully suppress such prejudice or religiosity.Less
The Long Southern Strategy was “long” because all three components of the strategy—choosing to exploit white racial angst, fear of feminism, and evangelical righteousness—were necessary to build a solid red base in the states of the old Confederacy. The stark polarization that resulted from these partisan choices unraveled the New Deal coalition. It also redivided white Americans not just along the Mason-Dixon line, but across the imagined fault line of southern identity. Thus, conservatism was redefined on the basis of white southern identity, and that definition became the baseline ideology of the Republican brand nationwide. A partisan sorting and realignment followed. As a result, the distribution of white Americans who harbor Racial Resentment or Modern Sexist attitudes or who identify as Christian fundamentalists is no longer even across the parties, and now, within the GOP, there is not enough opposition to fully suppress such prejudice or religiosity.
Ellen Reese
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520244610
- eISBN:
- 9780520938717
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520244610.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
This chapter explores the forces shaping the contemporary welfare backlash that led to the passage of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and continues to ...
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This chapter explores the forces shaping the contemporary welfare backlash that led to the passage of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and continues to shape Congressional debates about its reauthorization. It argues that attacks on welfare mothers resonated strongly with the public, especially white voters, because they appealed to antitax sentiments, racial resentments, traditional “family values,” and rising expectations that poor mothers work. Proposals to deny benefits to legal immigrants passed, despite the fact that most Americans opposed them. Appealing to nativist sentiments, anti-immigrant groups and right-wing think tanks urged Congress to adopt these policies. A coalition of Christian Right groups and right-wing think tanks championed “pro-family” and “pro-church” welfare policies in the 1990s. They wielded considerable influence over the contents of PRWORA. Right-wing Republicans sought more far-reaching reforms than other politicians were willing to support, stalling the passage of welfare reform for several years.Less
This chapter explores the forces shaping the contemporary welfare backlash that led to the passage of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and continues to shape Congressional debates about its reauthorization. It argues that attacks on welfare mothers resonated strongly with the public, especially white voters, because they appealed to antitax sentiments, racial resentments, traditional “family values,” and rising expectations that poor mothers work. Proposals to deny benefits to legal immigrants passed, despite the fact that most Americans opposed them. Appealing to nativist sentiments, anti-immigrant groups and right-wing think tanks urged Congress to adopt these policies. A coalition of Christian Right groups and right-wing think tanks championed “pro-family” and “pro-church” welfare policies in the 1990s. They wielded considerable influence over the contents of PRWORA. Right-wing Republicans sought more far-reaching reforms than other politicians were willing to support, stalling the passage of welfare reform for several years.
Gary C. Jacobson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226589206
- eISBN:
- 9780226589480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226589480.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter argues that popular reactions to recent presidents have consistently reinforced the widening demographic, cultural, ideological, and even cognitive differences between ordinary ...
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This chapter argues that popular reactions to recent presidents have consistently reinforced the widening demographic, cultural, ideological, and even cognitive differences between ordinary Republicans and Democrats. Presidential candidates and presidents have thus been both the instruments and victims of the polarized partisanship that has emerged as the defining feature of American national politics during this century. Polarization was essential to the election of Donald Trump, whose campaign and conduct in office have so far served to magnify the demographic and cultural divisions between ordinary Democrats and Republicans. Although Trump executed a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and continues to attract vigorous criticism from many of its luminaries, his impact during his first year in office on how people view his party has been at least as large as that of previous presidents. In the intra-party struggle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Republicans, Trump has so far emerged as the consistent winner. But given his unpopularity outside core Republican circles, and especially among growing segments of the population, Trump’s dominance and prospective rebranding of the party threatens to erode its popular image, reputation, and appeal both immediately and for the long term.Less
This chapter argues that popular reactions to recent presidents have consistently reinforced the widening demographic, cultural, ideological, and even cognitive differences between ordinary Republicans and Democrats. Presidential candidates and presidents have thus been both the instruments and victims of the polarized partisanship that has emerged as the defining feature of American national politics during this century. Polarization was essential to the election of Donald Trump, whose campaign and conduct in office have so far served to magnify the demographic and cultural divisions between ordinary Democrats and Republicans. Although Trump executed a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and continues to attract vigorous criticism from many of its luminaries, his impact during his first year in office on how people view his party has been at least as large as that of previous presidents. In the intra-party struggle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Republicans, Trump has so far emerged as the consistent winner. But given his unpopularity outside core Republican circles, and especially among growing segments of the population, Trump’s dominance and prospective rebranding of the party threatens to erode its popular image, reputation, and appeal both immediately and for the long term.
Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190265960
- eISBN:
- 9780190939403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190265960.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
In an effort to win southern white voters, the GOP embraced the old southern religion turning the church faithful into the party loyal. They did so because in many parts of the South, the church ...
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In an effort to win southern white voters, the GOP embraced the old southern religion turning the church faithful into the party loyal. They did so because in many parts of the South, the church remains the central institution defining, organizing, and politicizing its surrounding community. A “sacred canopy” drapes over the region, where there is a common cosmology that is intractable from southern white identity, including its reverence for white supremacy and patriarchy. In general, as a block, white southerners were more evangelical, Protestant, fundamentalist, and moralist than the rest of the country. The not-so-new southern religiosity satisfies an appetite for certainty, conformity, and even social status. As a means to solidify southern white support, the Long Southern Strategy framed southern white Christianity as under attack and cast the GOP as its protector, the price of which is increased cultural defensiveness, anxiety, fear, and distrust.Less
In an effort to win southern white voters, the GOP embraced the old southern religion turning the church faithful into the party loyal. They did so because in many parts of the South, the church remains the central institution defining, organizing, and politicizing its surrounding community. A “sacred canopy” drapes over the region, where there is a common cosmology that is intractable from southern white identity, including its reverence for white supremacy and patriarchy. In general, as a block, white southerners were more evangelical, Protestant, fundamentalist, and moralist than the rest of the country. The not-so-new southern religiosity satisfies an appetite for certainty, conformity, and even social status. As a means to solidify southern white support, the Long Southern Strategy framed southern white Christianity as under attack and cast the GOP as its protector, the price of which is increased cultural defensiveness, anxiety, fear, and distrust.
Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190265960
- eISBN:
- 9780190939403
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190265960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Beginning with Barry Goldwater’s Operation Dixie in 1964, the Republican Party targeted disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the ...
More
Beginning with Barry Goldwater’s Operation Dixie in 1964, the Republican Party targeted disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the GOP, the party capitalized on white racial angst that threatened southern white control. However—and this is critical—that decision was but one in a series of decisions the GOP made not just on race, but on feminism and religion as well, in what is called here the “Long Southern Strategy.” In the wake of Second-Wave Feminism, the GOP dropped the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and promoted traditional gender roles in an effort to appeal to anti-feminist white southerners, and it politicized evangelical fundamentalist Christianity as represented by the Southern Baptist Convention. All three of those decisions were necessary for the South to turn from blue to red. To make inroads in the South, however, GOP politicians not only had to take these positions, but they also had to sell them with a southern “accent.” Republicans had to mirror southern white culture by emphasizing an “us vs. them” outlook, preaching absolutes, accusing the media of bias, prioritizing identity over the economy, depicting one’s way of life as under attack, encouraging defensiveness toward social changes, and championing a politics of vengeance. Over time, that made the party southern, not in terms of place, but in its vision, in its demands, in its rhetoric, and in its spirit. In doing so, it nationalized southern white identity, and that has changed American politics.Less
Beginning with Barry Goldwater’s Operation Dixie in 1964, the Republican Party targeted disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the GOP, the party capitalized on white racial angst that threatened southern white control. However—and this is critical—that decision was but one in a series of decisions the GOP made not just on race, but on feminism and religion as well, in what is called here the “Long Southern Strategy.” In the wake of Second-Wave Feminism, the GOP dropped the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and promoted traditional gender roles in an effort to appeal to anti-feminist white southerners, and it politicized evangelical fundamentalist Christianity as represented by the Southern Baptist Convention. All three of those decisions were necessary for the South to turn from blue to red. To make inroads in the South, however, GOP politicians not only had to take these positions, but they also had to sell them with a southern “accent.” Republicans had to mirror southern white culture by emphasizing an “us vs. them” outlook, preaching absolutes, accusing the media of bias, prioritizing identity over the economy, depicting one’s way of life as under attack, encouraging defensiveness toward social changes, and championing a politics of vengeance. Over time, that made the party southern, not in terms of place, but in its vision, in its demands, in its rhetoric, and in its spirit. In doing so, it nationalized southern white identity, and that has changed American politics.
