This archive report was first published on 21 July 2019.
Published on July 21, 2019, a shift in the Republican Party's stance on racial and ethnic diversity has left many questioning the implications of white anxiety in American politics.
According to Daniel Hopkins, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, the Republican Party's swift shift in rhetoric on racial and ethnic diversity is a mystery. 'To me, the mystery is the speed with which what seemed to be a set of well-established norms crumbled,' Mr. Hopkins said.
Since 2012, the Republican Party had been actively courting Latino voters, but by 2016, it had doubled down on appeals to white voters. This shift has led to a substantial number of white voters believing they face discrimination, with many concerned that employers and schools may give preference to nonwhite candidates.
They also express resentment towards the lack of a 'white history' month, with 29 percent of whites supporting the idea. This sentiment is a potent force in politics, as anger is a particularly effective emotion in getting people involved in politics, according to Davin Phoenix, a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine.
Mr. Phoenix argues that anger is more effectively leveraged among white voters than other groups, pointing to the cultural stigma in America against public expressions of anger by African-Americans and other minorities. Mr. Trump's claim that four minority congresswomen should leave America rather than critique it is a version of this idea.
