Thinking through race: white racial identity, motivated cognition and the unconscious maintenance of white supremacy

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent research in political science has demonstrated the effects of implicit racism on whites’ political preferences and judgments. One startling finding from this research is that even white people who think of themselves as racially egalitarian can be influenced by implicit racism without intention or awareness. While this research has been useful for identifying the ways in which whites’ unconscious biases influence political decision-making, it leaves open the questions of how and why unconscious, yet racially motivated political cognition takes place. In this paper, I offer a theoretical model of white racial reasoning, during which whites think through their racial identity, interpreting and evaluating phenomena in the social environment in ways that allow them to protect a positive sense of self and racial group. I argue that well-meaning whites’ identity investments, and not antipathy toward outgroup members, drives cognitive processing and the political judgments that result. I conclude the paper with research-based strategies for political actors hoping to help whites resist racially coded appeals and encourage more egalitarian political judgments.