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Obama's Discussion of Racial Policies and Citizens’ Racial Resentment in the Experimental Setting
Author(s) -
Gillion Daniel Q.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12394
Subject(s) - resentment , race (biology) , political science , racial equality , public opinion , racism , rhetorical question , public administration , criminology , sociology , law , politics , gender studies , linguistics , philosophy
Did President Barak Obama's discussion of racial policies lead to a public backlash and invoke sentiments of racial resentment? Previous studies of citizens’ racial attitudes suggest that the American public tends to have an unfavorable view of race‐specific policies that provide advantages and unique resources to minorities. Moreover, these programs invoke sentiments of racial resentment. However, I argue that when the president leads on racial issues by implementing and discussing race‐specific policies, he can guide perceptions on race in the direction of the public policy that was enacted. Through original experiments, I find strong support for this claim. I conclude with a discussion of the implications this work has for rhetorical approaches presidents take to address inequality from the Oval Office.