Trump-era racism was more overt than anything since the civil rights era

Evidence

Our second major goal was to test the hypothesis that symbolic racism is a considerably stronger political force in contemporary America than are other, more traditional indicators of racial prejudice. This case, too, we believe has been made quite strongly in our data. In bivariate correlations or in regression analyses, symbolic racism dominates while stereotypes and old-fashioned racism have little residual effect. Nor does prowhite loyalty play a significant role in opposition to racial policies. Other researchers’ reports in the published literature of weak effects of racial attitudes have arisen, we believe, because they have been looking in the wrong place for them. This is not to say that antiblack affect and traditional racial stereotypes (or even pockets of old-fashioned racism) no longer exist. But they no longer have the political strength that symbolic racism has. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3742 (#complicates, via linked claim)

It is funny, at least to me, that pundits and scholars identify Trump with a distinctive political lineage that excludes Reagan. The explicitness of his racism and the brazen way he has discarded the post–civil rights consensus about how to talk and not talk about race has led some to liken him to Strom Thurmond of the Dixiecrat Party in 1948 or to the racist campaign of George Wallace in 1968 or to Patrick Buchanan’s runs for president in 1992, 1996, and 2000. These are clear racist demagogues, and Trump stands among them. But in some ways, and perhaps it is intentional, such classifications are too easy. They suffer from the limits of melodrama, where good and evil are clearly discernible and heroes always come to the rescue as in the cowboy movies of old or the blockbuster Marvel films of today. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 507 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Imperial ethnocratic racism spanned the pre-Trump bipartisan consensus; Trump legitimated overt anti-Muslim racism that post-civil-rights Republicans only dog-whistled; Trump’s overt racism differed in style from prior administrations but not substance. (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Trump’s overt racism differed in style from prior administrations but not substance. #qualifies (0.85)
• Linking Trump to old demagogues lets America frame racism as a past aberration #qualifies (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 507
• Symbolic racism now dominates older forms of racial prejudice in American politics #complicates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3742
• Blatant racism has shifted into subtle aversive forms #contradicts (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1101
• Overt racism has been replaced by subtle implicit bias #contradicts (0.75) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 21
• Overt racism faded but reemerged as subtler symbolic and modern racisms. #contradicts (0.75)
• Racism persists but has shifted from blatant to unconscious subtle forms #contradicts (0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 143
• Old-fashioned racism declined but prejudice mutated into subtler forms #contradicts (0.70)