'For most of the period since the civil rights movement, the best scholarship has found that whites’ identities as white people played little role in their racial politics, at least as compared to their resentments of blacks. Ashley Jardina’s book has changed that. It provides us with the most thorough and convincing evidence of the continuing centrality of white identity in many whites’ thinking about race in America.' David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles
'For too long now, political scientists have tended to firewall the study of white Americans to the questions of whether out-group bias persists and, if so, whether it continues to bear the virulence of Jim Crow-style racism or manifests in new indirect, implicit strains. White Identity Politics is a breakthrough that invites us to rethink the roots of both white prejudice and white solidarity. This is an indelible and indispensable corrective that ought to be read by anyone bewildered by our current political moment.' Taeku Lee, University of California, Berkeley
'White Identity Politics provides a timely and insightful look at American racial politics from the perspective of the white majority. Jardina argues that growing demographic diversity has politicized white identity, generating a sense of white deprivation and defense of white privilege that is distinct from racial animus. Many whites do not identify strongly with their racial group but those who do show clear favoritism for policies and political candidates who promote white interests and maintain white numerical supremacy. By shifting the focus away from white prejudice and toward the defense of white privilege, the book makes an invaluable contribution to the study of American race and ethnic relations.' Leonie Huddy, Stony Brook University, New York
'The timing thus could not be better for Duke University political scientist Ashley Jardina’s eye-opening book, White Identity Politics, which uses extensive survey research to explore the meaning of white identity today.' Richard D. Kahlenberg, Washington Monthly
'The volume is a smart, well-researched text that uses empirical data to undergird the author’s claims … An important book.' R. A. Harper, Choice
'Excellent … an important contribution to our scholarly and societal knowledge of identity more broadly and to how we conceive of groups in contemporary society.' Samara Klar, The Journal of Politics
'Let me cut right to the chase. Every scholar of public opinion, racial and ethnic politics, and political psychology in the United States should read and own this book. It will be pulled off the shelf and cited often. It will inspire.' Deborah J. Schildkraut, Public Opinion Quarterly
'Jardina situates White solidarity as a construct that requires greater scrutiny and … [shows] White identity is not merely conservatism, working class ideology, nationalism, or racial prejudice. Instead it operates as a coherent and meaningful core attachment among members of the dominant racial group … A must read for all who endeavor to understand contemporary politics, public opinion, or social stratification in the United States.' David C. Wilson, Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
'Jardina’s research is carefully executed and there is no doubt that she has painstakingly attempted to proactively respond to potential criticisms … a must read for all who endeavor to understand contemporary politics, public opinion, or social stratification in the United States.' David C. Wilson, Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
'Jardina examines the increasing relevance of white identity in America … Jardina finds that about thirty to forty per cent of white Americans say that white identity is important to them.' Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker
'Jardina’s research finds that it isn’t just pundits and political scientists who have zeroed in on whiteness as an affirmative political identity: Many white Americans are identifying themselves with their racial group as well … Despite common oversimplifications about who these voters are, Jardina finds little evidence to suggest they are largely members of an economically fragile working class.' David A. Graham, The Atlantic
2019-01-04
A data-based examination focuses on what defines white identity and how it shapes political beliefs.
In this debut sociology book, Jardina takes a scholarly look at the evolution of white identity and white consciousness in the United States, drawing on several national surveys as well as an existing body of research. After a review of current literature on racial identity theory, the author takes readers through a statistical analysis that measures the correlation between people's identification with whiteness and how they understand its role in their lives. She also offers a number of potentially related views and beliefs, like opinions about Social Security, welfare, and Medicare; real and perceived economic status; and the changing status of whites. Jardina finds little evidence of a connection between economic status and white identity but a "powerful and robust" link between white identity and negative attitudes toward immigration. The book concludes that while previous studies have looked at whiteness as a response to other ethnic groups, it is more effective to assess whites' attitudes toward their own community—in-group rather than out-group relations, in sociology terms. While the volume's many figures and paragraphs of statistical analysis can make for dry reading—though excerpts from responses to the surveys' open-ended questions do provide some anecdotal leavening—Jardina's prose is strong when she begins to draw conclusions from her data: "Put bluntly, the politics of white identity is marked by an insidious illusion, one in which whites claim their group experiences discrimination in an effort to reinforce and maintain a system of racial inequality where whites are the dominant group with the lion's share of power and privileges." The work's narrative structure will be more appealing to the specialist or researcher than to casual readers. But for its intended audience, the volume is an admirable success, with coherent arguments (many continued in the detailed endnotes), a clearly explained research process, and a new outlook that may encourage readers to approach questions of white identity from a more useful perspective.
A well-researched analysis of what white identity means from an academic's point of view.
