Essay On White Identity Politics

Unsurprisingly, when it comes to the claim that liberals would abandon their ideology for security, Merton had an additional explanation for this. Merton claims “when you see your future is out of your hands and that you are totally unprepared for it, you are going to fall back on the past, and you are going to end up in the arms of the conservatives” (Letters to White Liberal). In this election, what whites seen as jeopardizing their futures was the fact that they are going to be a minority by 2044 (Pew). The reminder of that they were going to become a minority in the next few decades caused white identity politics to gain traction. In simpler terms, white identity politics has resulted from what Robin DiAngelo calls “white fragility”.

His language promising to “make America great again” spoke directly to the anxieties that white identity politics is centered around. So much so that the belief in white identity politics became an indicator in determining the likelihood of a person was voting for Trump. With that being said, white identity politics has been tied to prejudice. There was a strong correlation between prejudice and white identity politics. At least 60% that believe in the importance of white racial identity, believed that they saw discrimination against whites, and were worried that whites were losing jobs to minorities indicated that they would vote for Trump, as seen in the Washington

However, this rise in white identity politics is not an American-specific phenomenon. Its rise has occurred in multiple different countries in Europe (crisis of white identity poltics, NYT). Denmark and Germany both have anti-immigrant parties that are rapidly growing in popularity. Britain removed itself from the European Union in part to be able to choose how to regulate immigration. Currently, one of the main French presidential candidates is Marine Le Pen. Le Pen is a candidate described as