Anger and Racial Politics: The Emotional Foundation of Racial Attitudes in America

Description

Politicians, scholars, and pundits often disagree about whether race has been injected into a political campaign or policy debate. Some have suspected that race sometimes enters into politics even when political elites avoid using racial cues or racially coded language. Anger and Racial Politics provides a theoretical framework for understanding the emotional conditions under which this effect might happen. Banks asserts that making whites angry - no matter the basis for their anger - will make ideas about race more salient to them. He argues that anger, and not fear or other negative emotions, provides the foundation upon which contemporary white racial attitudes are structured. Drawing on a multi-method approach, he demonstrates that anger plays an important role in enhancing the impact of race on whites' preferences for putting an end to affirmative action, repealing health care reform, hanging the confederate flag high, and voting for Tea Party-backed candidates. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Table of contents Acknowledgments Introduction Social Identity Theory What Lies Ahead 1 A Theory of Anger and Contemporary White Racial Attitudes Cognitive Appraisal Theories of Emotion Blame Appraisals: Linking Anger to Contemporary White Racial Attitudes Racially Liberal Whites Racial Socialization Emotional Priming: Activating Existing Racial Predispositions with Anger Why Not Fear 2 The Emotional Foundation of White Racial Attitudes Emotions and Racism, from Old to New Experimental Test of the Effects of Emotions on Racial and Nonracial Attitudes Experimental Manipulation Manipulation Check: Did the Emotion Induction Evoke the Intended Emotion? Can Emotions Prime Racial and Nonracial Attitudes? Open-Ended Responses: Racial Thinking across Experimental Conditions Survey Data: Relationship between Specific Emotions and Racial and Nonracial Attitudes Emotions and Ethnocentrism Conclusion 3 The Emotional Content in Racialized Campaign Ads Primes White Racial Attitudes Racial Campaign Appeals: From Explicit to Implicit The Racial Priming Effect Crime Experiment: An Experimental Test of an Anger-Laden and a Fear-Laden Implicit Appeal Experimental Manipulation The Effects of Implicit Appeals Bush versus Dukakis: The 1988 American National Election Study Conclusion 4 The Public’s Anger: Racial Polarization and Opinions about Health Care Reform The 2009–2010 Health Care Reform Debate Affective Intelligence Theory Health Care Experiment Experimental Manipulation: Emotion Induction The Effects of Anger, Fear, and Enthusiasm on Health Care Reform Opinions Anger versus Enthusiasm and Health Care Reform Conclusion 5 The Tea Party’s Angry Rhetoric and the 2010 Midterm Elections Tea Party Movement: Selling and Drinking the Tea 2010 ANES of Evaluations of Government and Society Study Measures Senate Results House Results Rallying the Troops Conclusion Measurement Appendix Conclusion Emotions and Prejudice Abroad Implications Notes Introduction 1 A Theory of Anger and Contemporary White Racial Attitudes 2 The Emotional Foundation of White Racial Attitudes 3 The Emotional Content in Racialized Campaign Ads Primes White Racial Attitudes 4 The Public’s Anger: Racial Polarization and Opinions about Health Care Reform 5 The Tea Party’s Angry Rhetoric and the 2010 Midterm Elections Conclusion Bibliography Index