Hard White: The Mainstreaming of Racism in American Politics

by Richard C. Fording, Sanford F. Schram

The white nationalist movement in the United States is nothing new. Yet, prior to the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many Americans assumed that it existed only on the fringes of our political system, a dark cultural relic pushed out of the mainstream by the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. The events in Charlottesville made clear that we had underestimated the scale of the white nationalist movement; Donald Trump's reaction to it brought home the reality that the movement had gained political clout in the White House. Yet, as this book argues, the mainstreaming of white nationalism did not begin with Trump, but began during the Obama era.

Hard White explains how the mainstreaming of white nationalism occurred, pointing to two major shifts in the movement. First, Barack Obama's presidential tenure, along with increases in minority representation, fostered white anxiety about Muslims, Latinx immigrants, and black Americans. While anti-Semitic sentiments remained somewhat on the fringes, hostility toward Muslims, Latinos, and African Americans bubbled up into mainstream conservative views. At the same time, white nationalist leaders shifted their focus and resources from protest to electoral politics, and the book traces the evolution of the movement's political forays from David Duke to the American Freedom Party, the Tea Party, and, finally, the emergence of the Alt-Right. Interestingly it also shows that white hostility peaked in 2012--not 2016.

Richard C. Fording and Sanford F. Schram also show that the key to Trump's win was not persuading economically anxious voters to become racially conservative. Rather, Trump mobilized racially hostile voters in the key swing states that flipped from blue to red in 2016. In fact, the authors show that voter turnout among white racial conservatives in the six states that Trump flipped was significantly higher in 2016 compared to 2012. They also show that white racial conservatives were far more likely to participate in the election beyond voting in 2016. However, the rise of white nationalism has also mobilized racial progressives. While the book argues that white extremism will have enduring effects on American electoral politics for some time to come, it suggests that the way forward is to refocus the conversation on social solidarity, concluding with ideas for how to build this solidarity.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2020

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some dumb reason, I naively thought that the civil rights movement of the 60’s had effectively put an end to white supremacy in this country. Oh, I knew there was malfeasance here and there, but I seriously thought we, as a society, had evolved beyond blatant, slathered-up, racist, political rhetoric. I was wrong.

Racism never left the American political landscape, it evolved. As post reconstruction Jim Crow hierarchies started to crumble, racism adapted. Whites who once saw black Americans as inferior now see them as threatening their privileged status. And it isn’t just black citizens who are in the crosshairs: growing Latinx and Muslim populations are also popular targets of opportunity.

In the U.S., white people, specifically white Christian people, more specifically white Christian MEN, have historically been the “ingroup.” Various nonwhite groups, especially those cast as threatening, are the “outgroups.” Here in Hard White, university professors Richard Fording and Sanford Schram soundly and effectively argue that it is the stoking of white hostility toward these perceived outgroups, more so than any other tactic, that has ushered us to the la-la-land of twitter rants and coded euphemisms.

“The white supremacy that haunted America’s past remains an enduring feature of U.S. politics. While it never left, its return to the mainstream in recent years awaited a prominent demagogue who would effectively champion the cause of aggrieved whites. That champion arrived...”

This book is a statistician’s dream. There are over sixty charts, tables, and graphs here representing everything from white nationalist demographics to voter turnout analysis. There is nothing put forth here that isn’t statistically verified or at least arguably discernible. *If I rated books based on how many highlighters I burned through, this one would get a 3.

“Scholars who study the rise and fall of democracy elsewhere recognize four conditions that pose threats to the sustainability and survival of democracy: political polarization; conflict over who belongs as a member of the political community (particularly along lines of race, ethnicity and national origin); high and growing economic inequality; and excessive executive power... Today, for the first time in American history, we face all four threats at once.” ~Henry Farrell, Washington Post, August 14, 2020

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine if overly math based analysis of white racial consciousness and identity in relation to the 2016 election. Puts too much on minorities to fix the problem.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

HARD WHITE details how the mainstreaming of racist beliefs mobilized into the mainstream, particularly through the Tea Party movement that arose in response to the election of Obama, ultimately resulting in Trump and a newly emboldened and virulent prejudiced element. The text is quite dense and academic and would especially be suited to scholarly research, but doesn't always hold up for the casual reader.

[Amira]

Very interesting and relevant book and definitely helped me understand the 2016 election. I wish it Trump's appeal to minorities and white women, as it primarily focused on his appeal to white men. But overall I highly recommend!