Dr. David Wilson discusses his forthcoming book, Racial Resentment in the Political Mind (co-authored with Darren Davis).

About this event

In this CJMD spotlight, Dr. David WIlson will discuss his work on racial resentment in American politics.

Even though African Americans are among the most aggrieved and targeted groups in American society, their absence from the racial-attitudes literature implies their political beliefs are less meaningful and studying them would contribute very little to existing theory. In their forthcoming book, Racial Resentment in the Political Mind (University of Chicago Press), Wilson and his co-author, Darren Davis, propose that justice-motivated threats to the status of racial minorities lead these minorities to hold negative sentiments toward the producer of the injustice: Whites. African Americans' resentment toward Whites stems from a threat to their current state of racial progress, and a desire to not return to periods of the past where they faced explicit subjugation merely because of their skin color. African Americans want to eliminate racial inequality and inequity, and policies and thus appeals to advance their status have substantive political consequence. Wilson and Davis argue that African Americans hold legitimate resentments toward Whites due to their denials of the prevalence and consequence of racial discrimination; moreover, they believe Whites unjustly benefit from a system that rewards them for simply being White. In the end, African Americans' quest for civil rights and social justice is resented by Whites, and Whites' maintenance of their group dominance is resented by African Americans.

Free

Please note that only registered users will receive the Zoom link for this event, 24 hours in advance. If you have not received the Zoom link by 10 a.m. on the day of the event, please contact Matthew Powers at mjpowers@uw.edu.