THE RISE OF WHITE IDENTITY POLITICS
what issue does this protest stem from?
The key issue that is most significant in helping to contextualize the protestors’ demands and frustrations in the Critical Race Theory (CRT) Protest in Loudoun County, U.S is the rise of white identity politics and its establishment in conservative spaces.
The Diversification of America's Demographic
The racial demographic in America has been substantially growing in recent years due to factors including increasing immigration, higher birth rates in racialized groups, and death rates exceeding births by white people (Jardina, 2019). Some scholars observed the importance in recognizing how the multi-racial population, which is currently America’s fastest growing racial group, complicates our traditional understanding of racial positions – that is, bringing forth a debate regarding who can claim a racialized identity, and who, a white identity; along with an inner battle with self-identity for multi-racial identifying people (Song, 2020). In a theoretical, albeit socially complicated sense, if the definition of white changes and whiteness is more obtainable, then the number of white Americans can increase (Song, 2020). The idea of the white American, then, is not real if we conflate it with the fact that identity is an ever-evolving, human construction made to categorize people and justify discrimination and white superiority (Song, 2020). But it is difficult to oversee, and we must understand, just how dangerously important identity can be for Americans (Song, 2020; Jardina, 2019).
This perceived vulnerability is reversed, coming at the expense of marginalized groups that are making gains in areas of diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion, largely in part to social movements which serve as a collective resistance to the structures of white hegemony – the patriarchy, homophobia, racism and xenophobia, among many deep-seated structures in its society (Walters, 2018, p. 480). These grievances also come at the expense of the left-winged media who, according to the right, have deemed identity politics as the “politically-correct” side of history because any form of progression that expands “beyond white parameters” is good (Walters, 2018, p. 476). But for some white Americans, many of which are aligned with the right and alt-right extremist groups, the left-winged media is pushing an agenda that embraces liberal ideologies like multiculturalism to its viewers, in turn playing a hand on a national and international scale in alienating white Americans from the status quo (Deena et al, 2021).
As a result, white Americans are revitalizing a new kind of identity politics – white identity politics – from its contemporary manifestation to prioritize the common interests and historical benefits of the white American (Walters, 2018). They are responding to these perceived threats with increasing social control over marginalized groups, using group solidarity and their own kind of political mobilization to reinforce “homogeneity over diversity, stability over change, and hierarchy and order over radical egalitarianism” (Melcher, 2021; Inwood, 2018; Deena et al, 2021). In short, their ultimate goal is to preserve the white American identity.
The White American Identity
But what exactly is the white American identity? While scholars have long theorized this, two conceptualizations that are traceable to emerging modern anxieties that white Americans are facing eradication stand out: the early formation of Colonial America; and how whiteness is substantiated on white supremacy (Pinder, 2010; Brown, 2021). The separation of the American colonies from the British was especially important in establishing an independent American cultural identity (Pinder, 2010). The idea that America was a “white man’s country” became a literal and symbolic association with one's 'Americanness' (Pinder, 2010).
In particular, the Naturalization Act of 1790 gave citizenship solely to white men, providing the footing for determining who were Americans which was largely, and still continues to be, dictated by skin colour (Pinder, 2010). The promotion of a cultural oneness for a homogeneous society forgets the many Indigenous, Black, and Chinese people, for instance, living on the same land (Pinder, 2010). What can be said is that the same legality in terms of rights afforded to the American were not given to perceived “cultureless” others (Pinder, 2010). These groups “carried a mark of inferiority” that justified their discrimination by, and at the hand, of white Americans, and was further heavily reinforced in American institutions, and public and social settings (Pinder, 2010).
Whiteness, then, signifies a great sense of dangerous power (Brown, 2021). As an extension, the American identity cannot be entirely understood as what it has evolved into today for racialized individuals – the deconstruction and reclaiming of identity to finally be American enough (Moya & Hames-Garcia, 2000). Rather, it is important to define how, at the roots, to be American is to be white, and grasp how white identity politics is conceivably intertwined with a doctrine of white supremacy (Brown, 2021).
The Data Says: White American's Feel Their Identity Is Under Attack
revitalizing the white In-group: Donald trump, white supremacy and conservatism
White supremacy is the belief that white people are inherently superior over all other racial groups to the extent that they are willing to commit violence, or neutralize what they consider racialized “threats” instead of “groups” to maintain dominance (Haner & Sloan, 2022).
One person in particular that is responsible for activating current in-group identity for white Americans is Donald Trump, a conservative-aligned individual (Sides et al, 2017). Trump rallied his voting base by appealing to economic and cultural grievances, promising to liberate “the people” from the “stranglehold of multiculturalism” (Sides et al, 2021; Inwood, 2018). He notably drew on the anxieties of the white working-class identity by evoking a fearful response towards increased immigration (Inwood, 2018; Rudden, 2021). There were widely spread delusions of a fake economic crisis in which “illegal aliens” are coming in to take their jobs and send a large percentage of white Americans into unemployment (Inwood, 2018; Rudden, 2021).
Photo Credit: Berman, 2021
Trump also condemned the removal of confederate statues like Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville (Sides et al, 2021). He defended white supremacist marchers who violently took to the streets in anger for challenging those “trying to take away our history and our heritage” (Sides et al, 2017, p. 2). These occurrences greatly reflect a study that concluded some white Americans find themselves with no identity if they renounce white supremacy (Brown, 2021). It also found that white supremacy can afford white Americans more opportunities to define their identity in the way that oppression, inter-generational trauma, and pride can for racialized groups (Brown, 2021).
During his presidency, and in the last few months, Trump drew on the ranks of alt-right and white supremacist groups to revitalize his sense of leadership (Deena et al, 2021). In particular, he revitalized a white consciousness that “yearn[ed] for the good ole days” when white supremacist ideologies dominated marginalized groups (Deena et al, 2021). On January 6, 2021, the Capitol Hill Insurrection took place to overturn Joe Biden's election win (Warden, 2021). The rioters, who compared themselves to being American Revolutionaries, waved confederate flags, carried nooses to symbolize slavery, bore swastikas representative of fascism and hatred during the Nazi regime, and flashed the ‘O.K’ hand gesture (Warden, 2021). Through this unified act and display of white power using historical contexts, the Insurrection echoed the fear that a “white genocide” is underway in America (Warden, 2021). They wanted to prove to themselves while pushing back on marginalized numbers that they are still superior; scholars suggest that, in many ways, the white American in-group are a “parody [of] their omnipotent leader” (Warden, 2021; Rudden, 2021).
The Revitialization of White Fear in Pictures:
Trump supporters stormed the U.S Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. Photo Credit: Anadolu Agency, 2021
Donald Trump speaks at a rally in El Paso, Texas on February 11, 2019. The signs read, "Finish the Wall" and "Build the Wall," in reference to building a wall on the border of Mexico. Photo Credit: Raedle, 2019
As part of the "Unite the Right" rally, white Nationalists lead a torch march through the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017 in opposition of the removal of a Confederate statue. Photo Credit: Shurtleff, 2017
What is especially paramount with Trump is that his ideas of white supremacy, white nationalism and white innocence that both “enables white supremacy” became a host for white identity political discourse (Pinder, 2010; Brown, 2021). Since Trump left office, white Americans are eagerly seeking similar minded people to build their in-group (Deena et al, 2021). They are also intentionally engaging with information and supporting similar policies and politicians that share their views which are often found in conservative news outlets (Deena et al, 2021).
The issue, now, is that contemporary identity politics has an opponent: conservatism and their undying promise to fight for a white identity that is under siege by multicultural forces.
Header Photo Credit: "Race plays an ever important," 2021