Donald Trump’s election wasn’t because of a financially distressed white working class but a racist one, according to a recent survey. (Caiaimage/Lukasz Olek/Caiaimage)
A new report revealing so-called cultural anxiety behind the white working-class votes that pushed Donald Trump into the White House has the public wanting to it be labeled what it is: racism.
The results of a survey conducted in partnership with the Public Religion Research Institute were published by The Atlantic Tuesday, May 9. The piece proclaimed that racism, what the article coined “cultural anxiety” and “fear of social change,” was to blame for working-class white people electing Trump. The survey suggested working-class white people who were facing financial distress were the ones who voted for Hillary Clinton, putting a hole in a theory that this group was supportive of Trump.
“Besides partisan affiliation, it was cultural anxiety — feeling like a stranger in America, supporting the deportation of immigrants and hesitating about educational investment —that best predicted support for Trump,” it said.
The survey revealed 68 percent of working-class white voters declared the American lifestyle must be guarded against “foreign influence.” The assertion, “things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country,” was supported by almost half of survey takers.
Plus, among the 27 percent of working-class white people who supported systematic deportation of illegal immigrants, 87 percent gave Trump their vote.
Online, many took issue with the sanitized language for racism.
https://twitter.com/1942bs/status/861963285624762368
@AngryBlackLady Cultural anxiety is strange and unnecessary doublespeak for racism and homophobia.
— haunted ravioli (@logomachyknight) May 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/HeatherApplebum/status/862279146659086336
@MrDane1982 @soledadobrien Cultural anxiety is polite term for Racism let’s be real and stop the baby sitting BS for the WWC. As if there’s no black or brown WC.
— SCOTTFAM (@rescott534) May 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/marylaurymd/status/862141907715207168
@Suzette11779959 was it called cultural anxiety when Africans were stolen from their homeland & shipped across the Atlantic?
— #BGM(BlackGirlMagic)🔥 (@NowYouSeeMe66) May 9, 2017
But "cultural anxiety" sounds so much better! Nice euphemism, Atlantic.
— 🐘Jazzie🐘 (@baddogs4343) May 9, 2017
"Cultural anxiety" is a nice euphemism for "racism," The Atlantic. https://t.co/PfUMWgNrQp
— Michael Watson (@MichaelWatsonDC) May 9, 2017
Vann R. Newkirk II, who writes for The Atlantic, acknowledged the euphemistic phrase “cultural anxiety” and explained the survey captures other elements that led the white working class to vote for Trump.
https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/861992759934291968
https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/861994515485384704
but there are other elements of bigotry, and also fear of stuff like “political correctness” & loss of religion
— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) May 9, 2017
but it also captures some other stuff like nationalism, disconnection from institutions, etc.
— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) May 9, 2017
