MAGA Motivation: White Fear of Losing Out Fomented Insurgency

DC Bus shelter, 8 blocks from the Capitol, January 16, 2021

“When the political scientist Robert Pape began studying the issues that motivated the 380 or so people arrested in connection with the attack against the Capitol on Jan. 6, he expected to find that the rioters were driven to violence by the lingering effects of the 2008 Great Recession.

But instead he found something very different: Most of the people who took part in the assault came from places, his polling and demographic data showed, that were awash in fears that the rights of minorities and immigrants were crowding out the rights of white people in American politics and culture.”

— “Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds,” Alan Feuer, New York Times

More:

“What an analysis of 377 Americans arrested or charged in the Capitol insurrection tells us,” Robert A. Pape, Washington Post

_______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wUR

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

When White Supremacists Overthrew a Government

In 1898 thousands of white supremacists expelled the leaders of Wilmington, North Carolina, destroyed black-owned businesses and properties, and killed an unknown number of black residents. A Vox video, produced by Ranjani Chakraborty.

______________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tlS

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

The White Elephant In the Room

“From polling and the behavior of individual politicians, it’s become harder to deny that people support the president not just for being president, but for his core message of white resentment and grievance—the only area where he has been consistent and unyielding.”

 “In an analysis of recent polling . . . William Saletan observes that, across a number of questions gauging racial animus, Republicans generally (and Trump supporters specifically) are most likely to give answers signaling tolerance for racism and racist ideas. Forty-one percent of Republicans, for example, say that whites face more discrimination than blacks and other nonwhite groups (among strong Trump supporters, it’s 45 percent). Ten percent of Republicans and 19 percent of strong Trump supporters have a favorable impression of white nationalists, while 13 percent of the former (and 17 percent of the latter) say it’s ‘acceptable’ to hold white supremacist views.”

“White identity politics have always been dominant in American life, one of the key forces that shape much of the nation’s political and social landscape. It’s not that Trump is new; it’s that he’s explicit, and in making his open appeal to white identity and its supposed endangerment, he has raised its salience. Before Trump, white resentment was part of Republican politics. In the age of Trump, it increasingly defines it.”

— “White Elephant,” Jamelle Bouie, Slate

Related:

“The First White President,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

___________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-qwI

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine