Rooted in White Identity Politics: Tracing the Genealogy of Critical Race Theory Discourse in Identity-Based Disinformation

2025/01/27 by M. A. L. Smith, Christina L. Myers, Miyoung Chong +7 · 2 voices · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Rhetoric and Communication Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/10584609.2025.2458069

openalex publication_date 2025/01/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently garnered considerable political attention. This study examines how partisan news headlines discussed CRT, specifically analyzing how the incorporated language can resonate with white Americans’ shared imaginaries to reframe CRT. We employ a critical disinformation approach to interpret the computationally analyzed partisan news headlines (N = 7320) from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2022. Right-leaning sources overwhelmingly discussed CRT, including language evocative of white Americans’ racial consciousness and racial resentment. We discuss our findings considering the impact of identity-based disinformation amid increasing opposition to diversity. Discussion reflects upon the need for critical approaches to disinformation research that center historical and sociopolitical contexts.

Citations

• Whites’ Racial Policy Attitudes in the Twenty-First Century: The Continuing Significance of Racial Resentment
• A Theory of Resonance
• United States: Racial Resentment, Negative Partisanship, and Polarization in Trump’s America
• BERTopic: Neural topic modeling with a class-based TF-IDF procedure
• Critical Race Theory: How Policy Language Differentially Engages Symbolic Racism and Partisanship
• Curated Flows: A Framework for Mapping Media Exposure in the Digital Age
• Black Trolls Matter: Racial and Ideological Asymmetries in Social Media Disinformation

Cited by

• From strategy to sentiment: examining the role of partisan news in fostering white racial consciousness and shaping attitudes toward critical race theory

Discussions

• Special shout-out also to @smithmarisaa.bsky.social et al. for their much more in-depth work on the politicized discourse around critical race theory: 
 doi.org/10.1080/1058... [bsky, 6 points, 1 comments]
• “Rooted in White Identity Politics” 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1058... traced white identity in anti-CRT discourse. This B-side shows its influence: Fox News exposure during heavy CRT coverage in 2021 was ass [bsky, 3 points, 1 comments]

Related

• From strategy to sentiment: examining the role of partisan news in fostering white racial consciousness and shaping attitudes toward critical race theory
• Divisive or Descriptive?: How Americans Understand Critical Race Theory
• Reporting From the Whites of Their Eyes: How Whiteness as Neoliberalism Promotes Racism in the News Coverage of “All Lives Matter”
• Critical Race Theory: How Policy Language Differentially Engages Symbolic Racism and Partisanship
• New Directions in Critical Race Theory and Sociology: Racism, White Supremacy, and Resistance