From Barack Obama to Donald Trump: understanding the arc of twenty-first century presidential elections through the lens of white racial selfhood, white racial rhetoric, and racialised emotions

2025/07/14 by Enid Logan · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Critical Race Theory in Education

paper · doi:10.1080/01419870.2025.2523361

openalex publication_date 2025/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

Here I analyse contemporary US presidential politics through the lens of white racial selfhood, rhetoric, and emotions. From Obama’s election to the present, I argue, we see the unfolding of a battle between white liberalism and white conservatism, with the lines between the two becoming ever more stark. Both start out fundamentally rooted in “colorblind” understandings of race. But shortly into Obama’s first term, we see deeply politicised senses of race consciousness emerge on the right and left. White conservatives and white liberals move in opposite directions, however, with the former becoming more racially reactionary and the latter becoming markedly more progressive. If Trumpism is to be stopped, I argue, opponents must recognise and respond to the ways Trump has sought to tap into, amplify, and define differing forms of white racial selfhood, rhetoric and emotion, as well as ones linked at present to gender.

Citations

• The (dis)similarities of white racial identities: the conceptual framework of ‘hegemonic whiteness’
• The affective politics of whiteness: mobilizing white women on the left before (and after) the 2024 U.S. Election
• “They’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats”: xenophobia and group threat as a path to the White House
• The 2024 U.S. presidential election & the politics of race: responding to a moment of crisis with analysis, insight & action
• Beyond the book club: white antiracist organizing before and after the 2024 election
• Not a “sorority party”: black sororities in defense of themselves and Kamala Harris
• The lessons of the hour: the anti-democratic republican MAGA movement and systemic white racism

Cited by

• The 2024 U.S. presidential election & the politics of race: responding to a moment of crisis with analysis, insight & action
• Beyond puzzlement: rethinking Latino conservatives’ politics of race, ethnicity, and immigration in the Trump era

Discussions

• #ERSNew #SpecialIssue 🐣🔓 Logan argues that if Trumpism is to be stopped opponents must respond to the ways that he has sought to tap into, amplify, and define differing forms of white racial selfhoo [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]