{"id":17369,"date":"2019-07-29T05:22:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T05:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17369"},"modified":"2019-07-30T07:16:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T07:16:55","slug":"why-trumps-stoking-of-white-racial-resentment-is-effective-but-makes-all-working-class-americans-worse-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-trumps-stoking-of-white-racial-resentment-is-effective-but-makes-all-working-class-americans-worse-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump’s stoking of white racial resentment is effective \u2013 but makes all working-class Americans worse off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey<\/a>, University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/a><\/em> and Eric Hoyt<\/a>, University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Many white men say<\/a> they feel<\/a> threatened<\/a> by the increasing presence and success of minorities in the workplace.<\/p>\n

As social<\/a> scientists<\/a>, we wondered if there is any evidence to support this perceived economic threat, a perception that can provide fertile ground for current rounds of racist and xenophobic political messaging.<\/p>\n

Our work at the Center for Employment Equity<\/a> at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, involves using Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data to explore workplace discrimination and diversity in states and cities across the U.S. Our aim is to discover and promote more equitable workplaces.<\/p>\n

In our most recent report, called \u201cRace, States and the Mixed Fate of White Men<\/a>,\u201d we examined the connection between minority populations and the job prospects of white men in private-sector companies.<\/p>\n

White male privilege<\/h2>\n

Social scientists generally agree on three research findings about white men in the U.S. and the notion that they are losing their unearned but expected racial privileges.<\/p>\n

First, white men at every education level are more likely than women and non-Asian minorities to get access to higher-wage jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second, while wages of average working-class people in the U.S. have stagnated in recent decades<\/a>, and economic insecurity has grown, earnings for middle- and upper-class jobs \u2013 which are dominated by educated whites \u2013 have soared.<\/p>\n

A third and more recent finding is that working-class white men are the group that is most racially resentful and most opposed to further immigration<\/a>. This finding is based on analyses of survey data of the whole U.S. population examining both voting behavior and attitudes toward blacks and immigrants, zeroing in on President Donald Trump\u2019s core supporters and the content of his political messaging to them.<\/p>\n

This resentment probably explains why working-class whites, particularly men, are so receptive<\/a> to President Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant and racist messages \u2013 and why he targets them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We suspected that the reception to racist and xenophobic messages might be a reflection of a growing competition between working-class whites and minority men for increasingly insecure, low-wage jobs.<\/p>\n

White men dominate the executive suite<\/h2>\n

In our study, we compared different racial groups\u2019 share of specific occupations with their percentage of their state\u2019s workforce. In other words, we wanted to see how over- or underrepresented white, black and Hispanic men were in various jobs.<\/p>\n

In general, we found that while some white men are prospering in executive and managerial roles, there is another group of white men with very different employment experiences.<\/p>\n

At the top end of the labor market, our data showed that in every state, white men were overrepresented in executive and managerial jobs. But this white male privilege varied substantially by state. White men got even more of the top jobs in states with larger minority populations.<\/p>\n