Description
Political polarization is not limited to the United Sates. Britain politics are also polarized. In both countries, as extreme left and extreme right political movements gain strength, one of the key demographics is the white working class, who, feeling alienated from the political process, has abandoned the political center.This SDG will consider both countries, looking for underlying causes for white working class alienation. We will see how, in both countries, the decreased political center makes it difficult to build centrist coalitions, that, in previous periods, account for well-functioning governments. This SDG will raise critical questions about how political beliefs and future elections will change the fate of immigrants and minorities in terms of their relationship with the rest of the UK and/or US.We will use two core books to explore this subject. The first, The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality by Justin Gest, looks at both Youngstown, Ohio and Dagenham, England to present a nuanced understanding of white working class politics and values. The second core book, White Backlash: Immigration, Race and American Politics by Marissa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal, won the American Political Science Association's Ralph J. Bunche Award. It is focused on the US, and we will use it as a case study.
Weekly Topics
1. The theory of immigration politics (White Backlash introduction and chapter 1) (60 pages)
2. Political Marginality, a new minority and Displacement in East London (The New Minority, chapters 1,2 and 3) ( 73 pages)
3. Insecurity in Youngstown, Ohio (The New Minority, chapter 4) (42 pages)
4. Crumbling Institutions and Class and culture identities: understanding social hierarchy (The New Minority, chapters 5, 6 and 7) (47 pages)
5. Views on Immigration and the vote (White Backlash, chapters 2 and 3) (54 pages)
6. Understanding the roots of the backlash: the geography of immigration and media coverage (White Backlash, chapters 4 and 5 and Newark article) (65 pages)
7. British and American support for the radical right and appeals to the white working class
(The New Minority, chapters 8 and 9) (27 pages)
The Consequences (White Backlash, Chapter 6 and the conclusion) (27 pages)
Bibliography
The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality by Justin Gest (2016).
White Backlash: Immigration, Race and American Politics by Marissa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal (2017).
Other resources:
The Politics of Losing: Trump, the Klan and the Mainstreaming of Resentment, by Rory McVeigh and Kevin Estrep February 19, 2019, Columbia University Press
Five Decades of White Backlash, by Vann Newkirk, The Atlantic Monthly, January 15, 2018
