Inverting the Lens: White Privilege Denial in Evaluations of Politicians and Policy

Abstract

Public understandings of race in the United States have evolved, at least among some, to acknowledge that whiteness confers privilege. In contrast to the negative racial stereotypes that animate racial resentment, white privilege inverts the lens by focusing on whites and the notion that whiteness confers unearned advantages. Given the centrality of race in American politics, we investigate white privilege denial and whether it matters politically. Our inquiry shows white privilege denial is a distinct racial construct and that nearly half of whites are at least somewhat in denial with nearly one-third rejecting all the white privilege items. We found that white privilege denial is politically consequential, helping explain white attitudes across a range of political attitudes including support for political leaders, parties, and public policy. To capture the range and complexity of racial attitudes among whites, we recommend that studies of racial attitudes in politics include white privilege denial.

Beliefs That White People Are Poor, Above and Beyond Beliefs That Black People Are Poor, Predict White (But Not Black) Americans’ Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients and Policy

“…Although White Americans, on average, may be more attuned to White poverty than Black Americans are, some White Americans may be more likely to attend to White poverty than others. In particular, a variety of work suggests that some White Americans are reticent to acknowledge the status conferred to them due to racism in the United States (i.e., “White privilege denial”; Dobbs & Nicholson, 2022; Phillips & Lowery, 2015). Indeed, a growing contingency of White Americans express feeling that White people experience racism (Norton & Sommers, 2011), that White people have been left behind (Graham & Pinto, 2021; Jardina, 2019), and that White people’s relative status is at risk (Cohen et al, 2017).…”