Abstract
The US presidential election of 2016 shocked the world. News outlets argued it was a mobilization of white working-class voters, feeling economically left out, that carried Donald Trump to the White House. Make America Great Again conjured an America where peace, prosperity, safety, and white identity were revered. This chapter explores how poor whites have been duped, once again, into aligning themselves with rich white elites in an effort to fortify white power structures at the expense of Black and Brown folks (and unknowingly poor whites themselves), and to reimagine an America devoid of conflicts of color, while portraying an illusion of meritocracy. Therefore, how does the US deal with the real or perceived grievances of working-class whites, in a landscape where neoliberal economics and globalization have created a new racial and socioeconomic caste system throughout the world?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. Grand Haven: Brilliance Audio.
Anderson, S. (2017). Wisconsin’s wealthiest and poorest school districts in 2017: You may be surprised to learn how many students are in poverty in your school district. https://patch.com/wisconsin/shorewood/wisconsins-wealthiest-poorest-school-districts-2017
Bashi, V. (2004). Globalized anti-Blackness: Transnationalizing Western immigration law, policy, and practice. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(4), 584–606. http://www.vilnatreitler.com/resources/Globalized-AntiBlackness.pdf
Boddy, J. (2017). The forces driving middle-aged White people’s deaths of despair. NPR: KCRW. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/23/521083335/the-forces-driving-middle-aged-white-peoples-deaths-of-despair
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015). The structure of racism in color-blind, “post-racial”. America American Behavioral Scientist, 59(11), 1358–1376. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764215586826.
Case, A., & Deaton, A. (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the United States of America. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078.full
CNN Exit Polls. (2016). https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results
Coates, T. (2014). Slavery made America: The case for reparations: A narrative bibliography. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/slavery-made-america/373288/
Coates, T. (2017). The First White President: The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
Cox, D., & Jones, R. (2017). Beyond economics: Fears of cultural displacement pushed the white working class to Trump. PRRI/The Atlantic Report. https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/
Democratic National Committee. (2018). https://www.democrats.org/party-platform
DuBois, W. E. B. 1868–1963 (2007). Black reconstruction in America: An essay toward a history of the part which Black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860–1880. New York: Oxford University Press.
Edsall, T. (2017). White-on-white voting. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/trump-white-voting.html
Fanning, R. (2015). Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: There’s a war on cops and the media ‘are not in the police officers corner’: Lt. Governor Dan Patrick tells Texas Standard why there’s a need to improve positive relations between police officers and the public. Texas Standard. http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/lt-gov-dan-patrick-theres-a-war-on-cops-and-the-media-are-not-in-the-police-officers-corner/
Frank, E. (2018). Oconomowoc High School Principal Joseph Moylan abruptly quits, midyear. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/lake-country/news/oconomowoc/2018/02/28/joseph-moylan-out-oconomowoc-high-school-principal-board-member-resigns/380607002/
Friend, D. (2017). The naughty nineties: The triumph of the American libido. New York/Boston: Twelve Hatchet Book Company.
Frum, D. (2000). How we got here: The 70s: The decade that brought you modern life (for better or worse). New York: Basic Books.
Goodwyn, W. (2017, April 4). Alt-Right, White nationalist, free speech: The far Right’s language explained. http://www.npr.org/2017/06/04/531314097/alt-right-white-nationalist-free-speech-the-far-rights-language-explained
Gross, K. N. (2015). African-American women, mass incarceration, and the politics of protection. The Journal of American History, 102, 25.
Gruley, B., & Clough, R. (2017). Remember when Trump said he saved 1,100 jobs at a carrier plant? Well globalization doesn’t give a damn. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-29/remember-when-trump-said-he-saved-1-100-jobs-at-a-carrier-plant
Guo, J. (2017). The disease killing white Americans goes way deeper than opioids. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/24/the-disease-killing-white-americans-goes-way-deeper-than-opioids/?utm_term=.8f0ea87ea5bc
Hayes, C. (2017). A colony in a nation. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Held, A. (2018). Steve Bannon takes anti-establishment message overseas: ‘Let Them Call You Racists’. NPR: The Two-Way. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/11/592702598/steve-bannon-takes-anti-establishment-message-overseas-let-them-call-you-racists
Henley, J. (2016). White and wealthy voters gave victory to Donald Trump, exit polls show. The Guardian.
Johnson, A. (2018). Oconomowoc schools impose limits on ‘privilege’ discussions after parents complain. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2018/03/09/oconomowoc-schools-impose-limits-privilege-discussions-after-parents-complain/407222002/
Jones, M. (2014). 5 ways marginalized people can recognize their privileges in other areas. http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/12/the-privileged-oppressed/
Kendzior, S. (2015). The view from flyover country: Dispatches from the forgotten America. New York: Flatiron Books.
King, M. L. (1965). Remaining awake through a great revolution. Oberlin College Archives. http://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html
Lardier, D., Herr, K., Barrios, V., Garcia-Reid, P., & Reid, R. (2017). Merit in meritocracy: Uncovering the myth of exceptionality and self-reliance through the voices of urban youth of color. Education and Urban Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124517727583.
Litke, E. (2017). Yes, we are experiencing a net outflow of illegal, undocumented workers from America back to Mexico. PolitiFact Wisconsin. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/apr/26/ron-kind/yes-experiencing-net-outflow-illegal-undocumented-/
Lopez, G. (2017). Survey: The poor white working class was, if anything, more likely than the rich to vote for Clinton. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/9/15592634/trump-clinton-racism-economy-prri-survey
Marcus, D. (2017). The conservative defense of privilege theory. The Weekly Standard. http://www.weeklystandard.com/a-conservative-defense-of-privilege-theory/article/2010348
Marshall, J. (2015). You can’t understand American politics without reading this study. Talking Points Memo. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/you-can-t-understand-american-politics-without-reading-this-study
McCammon, S. (2017). 2 years after S.C.’s flag came down, cities grapple with confederate symbols. https://www.workplacefairness.org/unions-right-to-work
National Partnership for Women and Families. (2017). Latinas and the wage gap. http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/workplace-fairness/fair-pay/latinas-wage-gap.pdf
Norton, M., & Sommers, S. (2011). Whites see racism as a zero-sum game that they are now losing. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691611406922
Prager, D. (2016). The fallacy of ‘White Privilege’. The National Review. https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/02/white-privilege-myth-reality/
Reich, R. (2017). Why Trumponomics fail. http://robertreich.org/post/157418350405
Reid, J.-A. (2017). Obama’s Presidency & its aftermath, conversation 1033. USC Festival of Books: Los Angeles.
Reilly, K. (2016). Here are all the times Donald Trump insulted Mexico. TIME. http://time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/
Republican National Committee. (2018). https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf
Roediger, D. (1991). The wages of whiteness: Race and the making of the American working class. New York: Verso.
Rothwell, J., & Diego-Rosell, P. (2016, November 2). Explaining nationalist political views: The case of Donald Trump. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2822059
Scott, E. (2017). Trump: ‘I just don’t want a poor person’ in Cabinet economic jobs. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/donald-trumppoor-person-cabinet/index.html
Singal, J. (2014). Reza Aslan on what the new atheists get wrong about Islam. https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/reza-aslan-on-what-the-new-atheists-get-wrong.html
Sommers, S. (2011). When Whites feel marginalized. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-sommers/jockeying-for-stigma_b_868716.html
Stauffer, B. (2017). What’s going on with America’s White people? Politico Magazine. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/problems-white-people-america-society-class-race-214227
Sullivan, A. (2016). Democracies end when they are too democratic: And right now America is a breeding ground for Tyranny. New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html
Timm, J. (2017). Fact check: No evidence undocumented immigrants commit more crimes. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fact-check-no-evidence-undocumented-immigrants-commit-more-crimes-n777856
VOICE Office. (2018). https://www.ice.gov/voice#wcm-survey-target-id
Williamson, K. (2017). Do Whites benefit disproportionately from welfare? https://www.nationalreview.com/blog/corner/washington-post-welfare-stupidity-whites-benefiting-disproportionately/
Wilson, V., Janelle Jones, Kayla Blado, & Elise Gould. (2017). Black women have to work 7 months into 2017 to be paid the same as white men in 2016. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/blog/Black-women-have-to-work-7-months-into-2017-to-be-paid-the-same-as-white-men-in-2016/
Wise, T. (2011). White like me: Reflections on race from a privileged son. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press.
Wood, G. (2017). His Kampf: Richard Spencer is a troll and an icon for white supremacists. He was also my high-school classmate. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/his-kampf/524505/
Workplace Fairness. (2018). Right to work laws. https://www.workplacefairness.org/unions-right-to-work
Zeitz, J. (2017). Does the white working class really vote against its own interests? Trump’s first year in office revived an age-old debate about how some people choose race over class—And how far they will go to protect the system. Politico Magazine. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/31/trump-white-working-class-history-216200
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ritter, Z.S. (2019). Estranged in Their Own Land: Real and Imagined White Marginality in the Era of Trump. In: Brug, P., Ritter, Z., Roth, K. (eds) Marginality in the Urban Center. Neighborhoods, Communities, and Urban Marginality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96466-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96466-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96465-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96466-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)