The Psychology of White Nationalism: Ambivalence Towards a Changing America

Abstract

The rise in White nationalist ideology in America is one of the pressing issues of our times. In this article, we make the case that White nationalists both extol the talents and virtues of White Americans and idolize and romanticize a former White‐dominated America, while simultaneously condemning and demonizing the current state of America for Whites. This fundamentally ambivalent ideology contributes to dangerous downstream consequences such as fomenting violence against groups that threaten Whites’ status and resources and even calling for outright civil war. This article also examines the psychological impact of rapid demographic and cultural changes on groups in positions of power, and how these changes make some Whites, especially those who might already be suffering from instability, disenfranchisement, and loss, gravitate to groups who validate their fears and transform them into aggrieved entitlement and moral outrage. Finally, this article proposes policies that decision‐makers and other leaders can take to undo the foundational ideologies that White supremacy is built upon and to help curtail its spread.

Perceived status threat and health among White Americans: A scoping review

“…As such, future research should document the psychological effects of experiencing status threat. Furthermore, it is plausible that there are some psychological benefits for far-right leaning White Americans when they see their formerly fringe ideologies being amplified by politicians and conservative media outlets ( Reyna et al, 2022 ), yet included studies did not pursue this topic.…”

“…Furthermore, Parker's (2021) analysis of self-identified Republican voters portrayed that a perceived threat to their status motivated the majority of Republican voters in 2020 to vote for Trump. In our current political climate, far-right and racist rhetoric is becoming more mainstream ( Reyna et al, 2022 , Skonieczny, 2021 ). Because of this, it is especially important to understand the relationship between status threat and health.…”

Reckoning With Race and Gender in Public Administration and Public Policy: A Substantive Social Equity Turn

“…For example, Writing with Fire —a 2022 Oscar‐nominated documentary filmed over five years—chronicles the everyday journalistic acts and small victories of Dalit feminist women going against entrenched caste system and patriarchy in rural India. Reyna, Bellovary, and Harris (2022, p. 80) highlight the global scope of racial justice concerns, “Far‐right, racial extremism is on the rise across the globe, especially in Europe and parts of Asia/Australasia.” The challenge of giving substance to social equity scholarship and not being content with performative scholarly acts that do not do enough to promote race‐aware and gender‐aware scholarship can only be overcome with everyday scholarly acts of organizing, writing, teaching, and valuing and supporting scholars to do this important work. We hope you derive energy and inspiration from the symposium contributions and join the scholarly movement to give substance to social equity scholarship!…”

Attachments, trauma, and COVID-19: Implications for leaders, groups, and social justice.

“…This requires groups and/or leaders being invested and attuned to the experience within a group and knowledgeable about the group’s history. We need to work harder to understand what is happening to White people with privilege who also may struggle with economic hardships, fear, increasing suicide rates, and disenfranchisement (Reyna et al, 2022). We also need to focus more on and what is happening for the BIPOC community during a pandemic where there is incredible loss, racism, and violence on top of being socialized within a White supremacist culture, a culture that has been dehumanizing, abusive, and hateful towards them (Johnson-Agbakwu et al, 2022).…”