White identity politics: linked fate and political participation

Abstract

Hopes that Barack Obama’s election in 2008 would usher in a post-racial America were dashed by the rise of the Tea Party and the 2016 presidential contest. Despite renewed attention to White political behavior following the campaign of Donald Trump and rise of the “Alt-Right,” the identity-to-politics link for Whites remains underexplored in the field of political science. Analysis of data from the 2012 American National Election Study and the 2016 Collaborative Multi-racial Post-election Survey indicates that Whites, depite their privileged majority status, feel their fate is tied to members of their racial group at levels comparable to Black, Latinx, and Asian Americans. Furthermore, we find that a sense of racial linked fate was associated with significantly higher rates of participation in multiple electoral activities, including turning out to vote, registering to vote, contributing money to a candidate, volunteering for a political campaign, and participating in protest among Whites in both elections with notable partisan differences.

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