The End of an Idyllic World: Nostalgia Narratives, Race, and the Construction of White Powerlessness

Abstract

We examine the experiences of whites displaced by racial change by focusing on the ways in which nostalgia narratives are used to construct and maintain white racial identity in an era of color-blind discourse. Expanding on the analysis of nostalgia as a tool to create identity in response to a loss in one’s place attachment, we explore how nostalgia is used in constructing and maintaining contemporary forms of whiteness. Based on data from in-depth qualitative interviews, we find that nostalgia narratives are useful in framing white racial identity along the themes of innocence and virtuousness as well as powerless and victimhood. In the shared storytelling of this nostalgic past, whites create a present that plays by color-blind rules, while reproducing, reiterating, and strengthening whiteness.

“It’s Like Going Back in Time”: How White Retirees Use Expatriation to Reclaim White Dominance

“…This feeling may be influenced by their upbringings, as the formative years of this age cohort coincided with an immigration pause in the United States, as well as an especially low number of non-European immigrants (Martin 2014). Their experiences are similar to those of other white individuals who indicated racial change was a destructive force to their lifestyle (Maly et al 2012). The expatriates’ perception that racial diversity causes harm has been reflected in other research, in which white individuals report feeling like outsiders within their diversifying communities (Abrajano and Hajnal 2015; Hewitt 2005).…”

“…Indeed, nostalgia often develops after individuals who have been displaced work to reclaim a shared sense of identity (Milligan 2003). Thus, research has documented the ways that whites respond to feelings of victimization with narratives of racial nostalgia, such as how they rosily recall racially segregated neighborhoods (Maly and Dalmage 2015; Maly, Dalmage, and Michaels 2012) and mythologize the antebellum and Jim Crow South (Lavelle 2014, 2017; McPherson 2003). Importantly, the presence of white racial nostalgia does not depend on the accuracy of the memory of the past, but instead, nostalgia itself an act of creating narratives about what can be understood to be a desirable identity and experience.…”

The Psychology of White Nationalism: Ambivalence Towards a Changing America

“…It manifests as a dichotomy between a sense of racial and national greatness and entitlement that idealizes and romanticizes a former America dominated by Whites, while simultaneously condemning modern America's current state with its decline and devaluation of White status and culture. We argue that this conflicted state contributes to a false narrative of injustice, deprivation, victimization, and threat (e.g., King, 2017; Maly, Dalmage, & Michaels, 2013; Van den Bos, 2018) that could lead to dangerous downstream consequences, such as support for policies that disadvantage other racial groups, appeals to violence against groups that threaten Whites’ status and resources, and even calls for civil war.…”

Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign and Adorno’s Psychological Technique: Content Analyses of Authoritarian Populism

“…Furthermore, this characterisation of Trump as demagogue more clearly positions him as a captivating leader who wishes his audience to identify themselves on the basis of imagined precariousness and perceived victimisation (see Johnson 2017;Maly, Dalmage and Michaels 2012). These anxieties have real causes, and they are not only 'imaginary'.…”