Identity Politics in US National Elections by Tauna S. Sisco & Jennifer C. Lucas & Christopher J. Galdieri

Author:Tauna S. Sisco & Jennifer C. Lucas & Christopher J. Galdieri
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031283840
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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How do attitudes about the BLM movement impact presidential voting in 2020?

Theoretical Framing: Blumer’s Group Position Perspective

This analysis is grounded in interdisciplinary social psychological perspectives on group identity and hostility. In particular, the work emerging from Blumer’s (1958) racialized group position model informs our theoretical framework. In brief, Blumer’s groundwork supposes that members of advantaged groups, through in-group messaging and socialization, internalize the belief in the superiority of their group, the “naturalness” of their advantage, and come to see attempts at racial equity as threats of “unjust” stealing of material and symbolic resources by undeserving racial groups. Accordingly, race based prejudice is taken to be a response to perceived threat and to be normative within the racial group, not deviant. Key to this perspective, is that one attaches some aspect of their personal well-being to that of the group to which they feel a belonging (Blumer, 1958; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Tajfel et al., 1971). Importantly, this framework understands definitions of racial in-groups and out-groups, and friendly and oppositional groups as historically and socially contingent and malleable. Messages from group elites about other groups, and the group’s history of economic competition will shape whether out-groups are perceived as threatening.

The discussion of work on reactions to BLM above focused largely on white voters. Extensions to the group position model that explain inter-group hostility across racial groups broadly, not just from dominant groups, as a group position mechanism (Bobo, 1999; Bobo & Hutchings, 1996) help us to conceptualize a racialized process in which non-Black minority voters are also threatened by BLM. To generalize, Bobo and Hutchings (1996) contend that those who perceive racial alienation (or the belief that their group has been alienated and disadvantaged on the basis of race) will perceive other races to be a threat, and for this to generate inter-racial hostility. To this end, we should expect that racialized movements like Black Lives Matter could generate a threat response from non-Black individuals. Given racialized history in the United States associating Blackness with criminality, Black men in particular are more likely to be seen as threatening and deserving of the use of police violence (Wilson et al., 2017). So, attempts to reduce the violence experienced by Black Americans at the hands of police, may be interpreted as “unjust” attempts to avoid the consequences for criminality by non-Black voters.

Beyond concerns over racism in police violence, the movement’s larger discussion of systemic racism tied to the word “Black” in the movement’s name, may generate similar threat responses regarding economic and political resources. There is reason to suspect that this will be true not only of white individuals, but of non-white communities too. In particular, given the lack of long-term history with racialized oppression in the United States, we might expect this to be particularly strong among immigrant communities who Bobo and Hutchings (1996) identify as having low levels of racial alienation. This lack of a feeling of having experienced racism may lead to these individuals perceiving the movement as unwarranted. To

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