Can he say that? Who’s going to stop him?: Liberal and conservative racial norm enforcements against Trump’s racial derogations

Abstract

Throughout his campaigns and presidency, Trump repeatedly flouted the norm prohibiting racially derogatory appeals, leading many to wonder if modern racial norms against explicit racism had eroded. Despite the centrality of the normative prohibitions against explicit racism in the scholarship of modern racisms, few examined how these racial norms operate as norms. This paper foregrounds two interventions. First, I emphasize that studies of racial norms must interrogate not only parameters of acceptable behaviors, but also mechanisms for sanction. Second, I highlight that, as all norms are simultaneously cooperative and coercive, how social actors construct the meanings of the norm itself shapes its enforcement. This paper draws from interviews with a multiracial group of 65 liberal and conservative activists to answer how they understand the acceptability of Trump's remarks and how they reasoned the actions they did or did not take as a result. I find that even enthusiastic Trump supporters recognize Trump's remarks as unacceptable. Yet, both liberals and conservatives express unwillingness to sanction Trump's behavior. This is especially the case among the understudied conservatives of color. I highlight that both liberals and conservatives refrain from sanctioning Trump and his supporters by constructing racial norms as coercive.