President Obama and the Intensification of Black Threat from 2008 to 2012

Abstract

Extant research shows Barack Obama’s emergence on the national political scene stirred racist sentiments in some whites’ political attitudes and behaviors. During his first four years of presidential leadership, national rhetoric focused increasingly on racial issues. This created more salient frames that encouraged Americans to link local demographics to national politics. We test if this resulted in greater racial animus among whites with an investigation of black threat theory in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. In 2012, whites were less likely to vote for Obama as black concentration increased in their counties of residence. The 2008 data show weaker evidence of a relationship. Whites living in the poorest counties drive this result and real or perceived changes in the economy do not explain it away. Feelings of black threat among whites have intensified as racial issues have increasingly come to the forefront of national political discourse.