White backlash

"White rage" redirects here. For the book, see White Rage.

White backlash, also known as white rage[1][2] or whitelash, is related to the politics of white grievance, and is the negative response of some white people to the racial progress of other ethnic groups in rights and economic opportunities, as well as their growing cultural parity, political self-determination, or dominance.[citation needed]

As explored by George Yancy,[3] it can also refer to some white Americans' particularly visceral negative reaction to the examination of their own white privilege.[4][5] Typically involving deliberate racism and threats of violence, this type of backlash is considered more extreme than Robin DiAngelo's concept of white fragility, defensiveness or denial.[3]

It is typically discussed in the United States with regard to the advancement of African Americans in American society,[6] but it has also been discussed in the context of other countries, including the United Kingdom and, in regard to apartheid, South Africa.[7]

  1. ^ Anderson, Carol (16 November 2016). "Donald Trump Is the Result of White Rage, Not Economic Anxiety". TIME. White rage got us here ... Barack Obama's election — and its powerful symbolism of black advancement — was the major trigger for the policy backlash that led to Donald Trump
  2. ^ Trethewey, Natasha (8 November 2018). "Natasha Trethewey: By the Book". The New York Times. Carol Anderson's "White Rage" takes what many of us have known, perhaps existentially or intuitively, and puts it in a new framework, adding a synthesis of thoroughly researched archival evidence that documents the deeply entrenched and ubiquitous nature of white rage — white backlash, across time and space — as response to black advancement.
  3. ^ a b George Yancy (2018). Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50. ISBN 978-1538104057. The responses that I received, however, speak to something more extreme than just reactionary or unreceptive responses. Rather than "white fragility", these responses are ones that speak to deep forms of white world-making
  4. ^ Blasdel, Alex (24 April 2018). "Is white America ready to confront its racism? Philosopher George Yancy says we need a 'crisis'". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Jaschik, Scott (24 April 2018). "Backlash". Inside Higher Ed.
  6. ^ Hughey, Matthew W. (2014). "White backlash in the 'post-racial' United States". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 37 (5): 721–730. doi:10.1080/01419870.2014.886710. S2CID 144964391.
  7. ^ Rhodes, James (9 February 2010). "White Backlash, 'Unfairness' and Justifications of British National Party (BNP) Support". Ethnicities. 10 (1): 77–99. doi:10.1177/1468796809353392. S2CID 144343983.