Between Anger and Engagement: Donald Trump and Black America

Abstract

History suggests that social movements for change are often met with powerful counter-movements. Relying upon movement counter-movement dynamics, this paper examines whether or not contemporary reactionary conservatism—in this case Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016, offers an opportunity for African-American mobilization. Today, the reactionary right presents a threat to racial progress and the black community as it has grown from direct opposition to the election of President Obama, immigration reform, and gay and lesbian rights. With conditions ripe for a movement in response to the right, we examine the mobilizing effect on African-Americans of the threatening political context symbolized by Donald Trump. If African-Americans are to retain political relevance beyond the Obama era, then black turnout will need to reach rates similar to the historic 2008 election. Using the 2016 Black Voter Project (BVP) Pilot Study, we explore African-American political engagement in the 2016 election, a time void of President Obama as a mobilizing figure. We find that African-Americans who hold strong negative opinions of Trump in 2016 voted at rates similar to the historical turnout of 2008, offering a possible strategy to mobilize blacks beyond Obama's presidency. Moreover, the threat that Trump represents significantly drives blacks to engage in politics beyond voting even after accounting for alternative explanations. In the end, Trump and the reactionary movement behind him offers a powerful mobilizing force for an African-American population that can no longer look toward the top of the Presidential ticket for inspiration.

Shut Up and Play: Black Athletes, Protest Politics, and Black Political Action

“…In addition, President Trump’s taste for controversy, aggrandizement, and bold pronouncements of law and order while using explicit racist, sexist, and Islamophobic language raises serious threats to already vulnerable communities; recent research directly connects opposition to Trump, which is characterized by perceptions of racism, to significantly higher levels of political interest and engagement (Towler and Parker 2018). Thus, although BLM’s use of online organizing may be limiting the power of the movement to urge blacks to act—research suggests face-to-face contact is the strongest mobilizer (Gerber and Green 2000)—we believe that the organizational network, specifically its built-in-leaders, such as Kaepernick, represent a mobilizing elite.…”

Voter registration and political knowledge among American Indians

“…Scholars have also focused on the relevance of group identity and group consciousness for elevating minority political participation (Miller et al 1981). Other researchers documents how political threat mobilizes minority populations (Pantoja and Segura 2003; Towler and Parker 2018).…”

How to Sound the Alarms: Untangling Racialized Threat in Latinx Mobilization

“…Among various racialized groups, scholars found a positive correlation between anger and a willingness to vote among Black Americans (Banks 2014;Towler and Parker 2018) and Latinx Americans (Gutierrez et al 2019). However, Phoenix (2019) and Valentino et al (2011) found that anger is not politically mobilizing in the absence of skills and resources.…”