Alt-White? A Gendered Look at “Victim” Ideology and the Alt-Right

Status Threat, Social Concerns, and Conservative Media: A Look at White America and the Alt-Right

“…Such works, along with others [16][17][18][19][20][21][22], align with the emerging literature attempting to understand the recent conservative movement uprising, particularly among White Americans, and the election of Donald Trump. For instance, scholars find that Donald Trump's campaign promise to 'Make American Great Again' and return America to the Christian, conservative values it (supposedly) once held significantly aided in his election and particularly appealed to White America [23,24].…”

“…Our results revealed null or only moderately significant effects for gender (see Tables 2 and 3). However, extant research finds significant variation between White men and women in extremist beliefs and behaviors [20,[125][126][127] as well as varied impacts of gender normative beliefs within similar contexts [16,128]. Future research should more deeply examine the variations between White men and women as well as the influence of internalized gender normative beliefs on similar associations as analyzed here.…”

The White Right: A Gendered Look at the Links Between “Victim” Ideology and Anti-Black Lives Matter Sentiments in the Era of Trump

“…Berbrier (2000), for example, finds this sense of victimhood to be rampant among white supremacists, and others have identified this ideology among those in the Alt-Right (e.g. Boehme and Isom Scott, 2020; Hammon, 2013; Isom et al, 2021). Berbrier (2000) posits five themes of white victimhood: “(1) that Whites are victims of discrimination, (2) that their rights are being abrogated, (3) that they are stigmatized if they express “pride,” (4) that they are being psychologically affected through the loss of self-esteem, and (5) that the end product of all of this is the elimination of "the white race” (p. 176).…”

“…Given far-right groups’ sense of victimhood and disdain for political correctness and social justice (Berbrier, 2000; Southern Poverty Law Center, nd), it is no wonder they quickly rallied around Trump’s presidential campaign. Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” quickly dubbed “Make America White Again” (Barnett, 2018), spoke to the nostalgia touted by the far-right, signaling his own belief that the country should be restored to its former white supremacist, patriarchal condition (Boehme and Isom Scott, 2020; Isom et al, 2021). Trump’s overt racist remarks reinforced the far-right’s own notions of white supremacy, and his willingness to reject the politically neutral approach that most politicians observe by emitting hate speech signaled his own opposition to “political correctness” (Barkun, 2017).…”

“…Blalock, 1967; Blumer, 1958; Bobo and Hutchings, 1996; Olzak, 1992). These feelings are widespread within the realm of the far-right conservative movements (Berbrier, 2000; Boehme and Isom Scott, 2020; Kimmel, 2017), which are commonly characterized by “1) a strong sense of white identity, 2) a belief in the importance of white solidarity, and 3) a sense of white victimization” (Hawley, 2018b, para 5).…”