Book contents
- Whitelash
- Whitelash
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction The Long Night of Déjà Vu
- 1 Electing Trump and Breaching Norms
- 2 The Exoneration of White Voters
- 3 White Voters and the Law of Alternative Facts
- 4 The Sirens of White Nationalism
- 5 Law as Pretext
- 6 Voting While White
- 7 Holding Candidates and Parties Accountable
- 8 We the People: Fashioning a Legal Remedy for Voter Whitelash
- Conclusion The Globalization of Whitelash
- Notes
- Index
2 - The Exoneration of White Voters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 January 2020
- Whitelash
- Whitelash
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction The Long Night of Déjà Vu
- 1 Electing Trump and Breaching Norms
- 2 The Exoneration of White Voters
- 3 White Voters and the Law of Alternative Facts
- 4 The Sirens of White Nationalism
- 5 Law as Pretext
- 6 Voting While White
- 7 Holding Candidates and Parties Accountable
- 8 We the People: Fashioning a Legal Remedy for Voter Whitelash
- Conclusion The Globalization of Whitelash
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Donald Trump won 58 percent of the white vote to Hillary Clinton’s 37 percent, a record-shattering 21 points, surpassing Ronald Reagan’s 20-point margin in 1984. These exit polling numbers nearly mirror a poll taken almost two months before the election. When asked whether they thought Trump was a “racist,” 54 percent of whites responded no, while 37 percent said yes. With contortionist logic, while 54 percent of whites believed that Trump was not a racist, 54 percent also believed that Trump “appeals to bigotry.” It is implausible that there was no overlap among these 54-percenters, and it is equally implausible that both statements could be true at the same time. As sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva has paradoxically observed, how can there be racism—here, appeals to bigotry—without racists?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- WhitelashUnmasking White Grievance at the Ballot Box, pp. 27 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020