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On the Ballot in 2020: Will the United States (finally) embrace civil rights?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2020

Lisa García Bedolla Open the ORCID record for Lisa García Bedolla [Opens in a new window]
Lisa García Bedolla*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: lgarciab@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

This article situates the 2020 presidential election within the context of U.S. history, specifically the longstanding relationship between white supremacist views and what types of U.S. citizens were considered capable of exercising democratic citizenship. I argue that President Trump's use of racialized, nativist tropes must be understood within that context and the ongoing backlash to the advancement of civil rights in the United States. White resistance to racial progress is not new, nor is the violence associated with it. Only by looking at the intersection of white racial resentment and modern sexism can we fully understand the durability of the Trump coalition. The article closes by considering what political scientists should be learning from this moment in order to better explain American political dynamics moving forward.

Keywords

Racecivil rightsvoting behaviorgenderintersectionalitysexismracismcitizenship
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 71 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

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