Implicit racism, colour blindness, and narrow definitions of discrimination: Why some White people prefer ‘All Lives Matter’ to ‘Black Lives Matter’

West, Keon; Greenland, Katy; Laar, Colette van

doi:10.1111/bjso.12458

Cited by 34 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 112 publications

(131 reference statements)

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“…Using techniques of statistical regression, they show that support for ALM is predicted by 3 sets of variables: implicit anti-Black racism, endorsing colour-blind ideologies that downplayed racial inequalities, and narrow definitions of racism implying that racism is ascribed only in exceptional cases. For West et al (2021), this set of findings means that implicit anti-Black racism and downplaying the extent of anti-Black racism contribute to support for ALM, rather than any inclusive position. Further, it becomes easier for White individuals to justify support for ALM without expressly disagreeing with the cause of BLM: Support for ALM can instead be recast as in line with the status quo, which does not treat racism as a pressing concern.…”

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 96%

“…For participants, making race an explicit part of official and public life in Sweden meant bringing to fore the racism in Swedish society. As in West et al.’s (2021) paper, resistance to making race a more relevant part of social life involved contending with implications of racism.…”

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For West et al. (2021), this set of findings means that implicit anti‐Black racism and downplaying the extent of anti‐Black racism contribute to support for ALM, rather than any inclusive position. Further, it becomes easier for White individuals to justify support for ALM without expressly disagreeing with the cause of BLM: Support for ALM can instead be recast as in line with the status quo, which does not treat racism as a pressing concern.…”

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors note that ALM presents themselves as more inclusive than BLM because of their colour-blind position, given that BLM makes race explicit. West et al (2021) test the role of implicit or explicit racism, colour-blindness, definitional boundaries of discrimination, collective narcissism, and political affiliation. Using techniques of statistical regression, they show that support for ALM is predicted by 3 sets of variables: implicit anti-Black racism, endorsing colour-blind ideologies that downplayed racial inequalities, and narrow definitions of racism implying that racism is ascribed only in exceptional cases.…”

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

“…West, Greenland, and Leuven, v. L. (2021) examine the support for the All Lives Matter (ALM) among White individuals who presented itself in opposition to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The authors note that ALM presents themselves as more inclusive than BLM because of their colour‐blind position, given that BLM makes race explicit.…”

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobilizing race and racism: Visible race and invisible racism

Sambaraju

McVittie

2021

British J Social Psychol

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Social psychological research into racism has, to date, concerned itself mainly with racism as a form of prejudice. Different approaches to the study of racism have thus originated in understandings and theorizing of prejudice more generally. A particular focus of such work has been the apparent decline, within contemporary society, of instances of what might readily be recognized or treated as prejudice in public settings, and the explanation for this decline in, or absence of, explicit prejudice. Recent events, however, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, but also elsewhere, have been marked by overt concerns with racism. These events, public debate, and counterarguments, all suggest that concerns with race and racism have become more manifest in present society. It is this context that provides the background for this special section.The papers in this special section include studies that offer a social psychological examination of contemporary engagement with race and racism. The studies here examine and interrogate the social psychological significance of race and racism in settings and contexts where these are not merely salient but are explicit. While it is hard to make claims about whether occurrences of racism have increased or forms of racism have changed in recent times, it is certainly the case that race and racism are more visibly part of our social lives (Burke, 2017).Events such as the police killings of Black persons in the United States have been ongoing for a long period in various forms (Ward, 2018). However, the recent shootings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among others, resulted in the rekindling of a global movement to tackle racism across countries and contexts (BlackLivesMatter, 2020;Chugtai, 2020). Outside of policing, areas such as sports, academia, and public spaces are increasingly subject to scrutiny for how race and racism are dealt with in these settings. There have been growing calls for the removal of statues of controversial historical figures implicated in potentially racist activities (Treisman, 2021); there are increasing calls for acknowledging the role of race in various sports (Ali, 2020;Rainford-Brent, 2021); and in academia, there is an institutional recognition of racism (Subbaraman, 2020). Irrespective of the reasons for the prominence of race and racism, it is the case that contemporary social life in the 'Western' world has to contend with race and racism, and the implications of this for our behaviours.Social psychological work on race and racism has traversed the full range of sociopolitical contexts that people find themselves in. Researchers from various approaches and methodologies continue to be keenly concerned with various aspects of race and racism. Throughout the history of social psychological work, approaches have reflected not only prevalent theories but also ongoing societal concerns. For instance, the work of Allport (1954) and the subsequent approaches of 'subtle prejudice' were developed in the context of the post-Jim Crow e...

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Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resistance To Mobilizing Racementioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobilizing race and racism: Visible race and invisible racism

Sambaraju

McVittie

2021

British J Social Psychol

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Satirizing Race

2022

Diversity and Satire

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All Lives Matter discussions on Twitter: Varied use, prevalence, and interpretive repertoires

Goodman,

Perkins,

Windel

2024

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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All Lives Matter (ALM) has emerged as a response to, and critique of, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) anti‐racist movement. ALM has been shown to work to undermine and attempt to deracialise BLM; however, there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of how ALM functions in online interactions. The research questions are therefore: What different ways is ALM used in Twitter debates?, How prevalent are these different uses?, and What function do the different uses of ALM perform in the wider debate around BLM? To address these questions, we employed a mixed‐method approach drawing on topic modelling and critical discursive psychology of Twitter posts using the hashtag #AllLivesMatter. A corpus of 294,217 unique tweets sent by 145,994 unique users was subject to Structural Topic Modelling (STM), which resulted in 60 topics, and from this, a sub‐dataset of 180 tweets was generated for discourse analysis. The STM identified 12 distinct uses of ALM, ranging from direct and even extreme opposition to BLM to criticisms of ALM and support of BLM and anti‐racism messages, both of which are explored in the discourse analysis. Together, the analysis suggests that, at least on Twitter, the ALM hashtag is not one‐dimensional nor a settled debate. Moreover, the Twitter public can use the ALM hashtag to denounce racism and the ideological pretext of ALM.

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Implicit racism, colour blindness, and narrow definitions of discrimination: Why some White people prefer ‘All Lives Matter’ to ‘Black Lives Matter’

Cited by 34 publications

References 112 publications

Mobilizing race and racism: Visible race and invisible racism

Mobilizing race and racism: Visible race and invisible racism

Satirizing Race

All Lives Matter discussions on Twitter: Varied use, prevalence, and interpretive repertoires

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