Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:07:01.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Racial Reparations against White Protectionism: America's New Racial Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2021

Rogers M. Smith*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Desmond King
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, Oxford University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

After more than half a century in which American racial politics has been structured primarily as a clash between two rival “racial orders” or “policy alliances,” the longstanding coalitions are transforming into ones centered on significantly new themes. The racially conservative “color-blind” policy alliance is, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, becoming an alliance promising “white protectionism.” The “race-conscious” policy alliance is, with the mobilizations around the slogan of Black Lives Matter, becoming an alliance focused on “racial reparations” to end “systemic racism.” These new, even more, polarized racial policy alliances have counterparts across the globe, and they are likely to shape political life for many years to come.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Biondi, Martha. 2003. “The Rise of the Reparations Movement.” Radical History Review 87: 518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black Lives Matter. 2020a. “Chapters.” https://blacklivesmatter.com/.Google Scholar
Black Lives Matter. 2020b. “What We Believe.” https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/.Google Scholar
Brownstein, Ronald. 2020. “Why Republicans Still Can't Quit Trump.” The Atlantic, June 11. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/republicans-2024-nominee-will-be-trump-acolyte/612925/.Google Scholar
Bryant, Nick. 2017. “Barack Obama Legacy: Did He Improve US Race Relations?BBC News, January 10th. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38536668.Google Scholar
Buchanan, Larry, Bui, Quoctrung, and Patel, Jugal K.. 2020. “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History,” New York Times, July 3. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html.Google Scholar
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. 2014. “A Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, June. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/.Google Scholar
Collins, Sean. 2020. “Trump Once Flirted with White Nationalism. Now It's A Centerpiece of his White House.” Vox, July 21. https://www.vox.com/21313021/trump-white-nationalism-supremacy-miller-bannon-immigration.Google Scholar
Confessore, Nicholas. 2016. “For Whites Sensing Decline, Donald Trump Unleashes Words of Resistance,” New York Times, July 14, A1.Google Scholar
Darity, William A. Jr., and Mullen, A. Kirsten. 2020. From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demerjian, Karoun. 2020. “Trump Threatens to Veto Military Bill Over Confederate-Named Bases, Forcing A Showdown with Republicans,” Washington Post, July 21. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-veto-confederate-bases/2020/07/21/9a45fa88-cb7b-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html.Google Scholar
Dias, Elizabeth. 2020. “Christianity Will Have Power.” New York Times, August 9th. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html.Google Scholar
Feinberg, Ayla, Branton, Regina, and Martinez-Ebers, Valerie. 2019. “Counties that Hosted a 2016 Trump Rally Saw a 226 Percent Increase in Hate Crimes,” Monkey Cage, March 22. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/22/trumps-rhetoric-does-inspire-more-hate-crimes/?noredirect=on#click=https://t.co/bYXsN60xzH.Google Scholar
Fies, Andy. 2020. “Evanston, Illinois Finds Innovative Solution to Funding Reparations: Marijuana Sales Taxes,” ABC News, July 19. https://abcnews.go.com/US/evanston-illinois-finds-innovative-solution-funding-reparations-marijuana/story?id=71826707.Google Scholar
Gambino, Lauren. 2020. “Call for Reparations are Growing Louder. How is the U.S. Responding?The Guardian, June 20. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/joe-biden-reparations-slavery-george-floyd-protests.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Emma. 2020. “How Reparations for Slavery Became a 2020 Campaign Issue.” New York Times, June 18. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/politics/reparations-slavery.html.Google Scholar
Gonyea, Don. 2017. “Majority of White Americans Say They Believe Whites Face Discrimination,” NPR News, October 24.Google Scholar
Google Trends. 2020. “Reparations for Slavery,” August 10, 2020. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F01vp9c.Google Scholar
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. 2020. “What is Owed.” New York Times Magazine, June 30. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/24/magazine/reparations-slavery.html .Google Scholar
Harris, Roger D. 2020. “‘Black Lives Matter’ is International: Where There is Oppression, There will be Resistance,” June 18, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. https://www.coha.org/black-lives-matter-is-international-where-there-is-oppression-there-will-be-resistance/.Google Scholar
Hart, Gillian. 2020. “Why did it Take so Long? Trump-Bannonism in a Global Conjunctural Frame.” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 102(3): 239–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Charles P. 2003. “The Politics of Racial Reparations.” Journal of Black Studies 34(2): 131–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Charles P. 2007. Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Holpuch, Amanda. 2019. “Stephen Miller: The White Nationalist at the Heart of Trump's White House.” The Guardian, November 24. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/24/stephen-miller-white-nationalist-trump-immigration-guru.Google Scholar
Jardina, Ashley. 2019. White Identity Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jardina, Ashley, and Traugott, Michael. 2019. “The Genesis of the Birther Rumor: Partisanship, Racial Attitudes and Political Knowledge.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics 4(1): 6080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Thai. 2020. “Slavery Reparations Seem Impossible. In Many Places, They're Already Happening.” Washington Post, January 31. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/31/slavery-reparations-seem-impossible-many-places-theyre-already-happening/?arc404=true.Google Scholar
Karni, Annie, Haberman, Maggie, and Ember, Sydney. 2020. “Trump Plays on Racialized Fears of Terrorized Suburbs to Court White Voters.” New York Times, July 29. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/trump-suburbs-housing-white-voters.html.Google Scholar
King, Desmond, and Smith, Rogers M.. 2005. “Racial Orders in American Political Development.” American Political Science Review 99 (1): 7592.Google Scholar
King, Desmond, and Smith, Rogers M.. 2011. Still A House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama's America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kirby, Jen. 2020. “‘Black Lives Matter’ has Become A Global Rallying cry Against Racism and Police Brutality,” Vox, June 12. https://www.vox.com/2020/6/12/21285244/black-lives-matter-global-protests-george-floyd-uk-belgium.Google Scholar
Langer, Gary. 2020. “63% Support Black Lives Matter as Recognition of Discrimination Jumps: POLL,” ABC News, July 21. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/63-support-black-lives-matter-recognition-discrimination-jumps/story?id=71779435.Google Scholar
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. 2020. “Our Work.” August 10, 2020. https://civilrights.org/our-work/.Google Scholar
Lee, Trymaine. 2020. “Transcript: Into Jamaal Bowman's Insurgent Run.” Into America, NBC News, July 14. https://www.nbcnews.com/podcast/into-america/transcript-jamaal-bowman-s-insurgent-run-n1233817.Google Scholar
Lillis, Mike, and Wong, Scott. 2019. “Reparations Bill Wins new Momentum in Congress.” The Hill, April 4. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/437286-reparations-bill-wins-new-momentum-in-house.Google Scholar
Liptak, Kevin, and Holmes, Kristen. 2020. “Trump Calls Black Lives Matter A ‘Symbol of Hate’ as he Digs in on Race,” CNN Politics, July 1. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/politics/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-confederate-race/index.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/politics/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-confederate-race/index.html.Google Scholar
Movement for Black Lives. 2020. “Policy Platforms.” M4BL. https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/.Google Scholar
NAACP. 2020. “NAACP Strategic Plan: Game Changes for the 21st Century.” NAACP. https://www.naacp.org/about-us/game-changers/.Google Scholar
Newburger, Emily. 2001. “Breaking the Chain.” Harvard Law Bulletin, July 1. https://today.law.harvard.edu/feature/breaking-chain/.Google Scholar
Peiser, Jaclyn. 2020. “‘Their Tactics are Fascistic’: Barr Slams Black Lives Matter, Accuses the Left of ‘Tearing Down the System’.” Washington Post, August 10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/barr-fox-antifa-blm/.Google Scholar
Pereira, Ivan. 2020. “Asheville City Council Approves Reparations Plan as Providence Explores Idea.” ABC News, July 16. https://abcnews.go.com/US/city-council-asheville-north-carolina-unanimously-approves-reparation/story?id=71795059.Google Scholar
Rickford, Russell. 2016. “Black Lives Matter: Toward a Modern Practice of Mass Struggle.” New Labor Forum 25 (1): 3442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Randall. 1999. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: The Penguin Group.Google Scholar
Rose, Max, and Soufan, Ali H.. 2020. “We Once Fought Jihadists. Now we Battle White Supremacists.” New York Times, February 14. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/opinion/politics/white-supremacist-terrorism.html.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M., and King, Desmond. 2020. “White Protectionism in America.” Perspectives on Politics 18.Google Scholar
Stanley-Becker, Isaac. 2020. “As Protests Spread to Small-Town America, Militia Groups Respond with Armed Intimidation and on-Line Threats,” Washington Post, June 18. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-protests-spread-to-small-town-america-militia-groups-respond-with-online-threats-and-armed-intimidation/2020/06/18/75c4655e-b0a1-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html.Google Scholar
Szetela, Adam. 2019. “Black Lives Matter at Five: Limits and Possibilities.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 43 (8): 1358–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016a. “Remarks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio,” August 15. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-youngstown-state-university-youngstown-ohio.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016b. “Remarks at the Washington County Park Fair in West Bend, Wisconsin.” August 16, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-washington-county-fair-park-west-bend-wisconsin.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016c. “Remarks at a Rally at Sun Center Studios in Chester Township, Pennsylvania.” September 22, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-rally-sun-center-studios-chester-township-pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016d. “Remarks at the Cleveland Arts and Sciences Academy in Cleveland, Ohio.” September 8, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-cleveland-arts-and-social-sciences-academy-cleveland-ohio.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016e. “Addressing Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.” July 21, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-accepting-the-presidential-nomination-the-republican-national-convention-cleveland.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016f. “Remarks at Great Faith International Ministries in Detroit, Michigan.” September 3, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-great-faith-international-ministries-detroit-michigan.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2016g. “Remarks to the 11th Annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. Omni Shoreham Hotel.” September 9, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-11th-annual-values-voter-summit-washington-dc-omni-shoreham-hotel-washington.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald J. 2020. “Remarks by President Trump at South Dakota's 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration,” July 4th. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-south-dakotas-2020-mount-rushmore-fireworks-celebration-keystone-south-dakota/.Google Scholar
Worland, Justin. 2020. “America's Long Overdue Awakening to Systemic Racism.” Time, June 11. https://time.com/5851855/systemic-racism-america/.Google Scholar