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Angry white male

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Not to be confused with Angry young men.
For the book about racism in the UK, see Angry White People.

A pro-Trump protestor in St. Paul in March 2017

The "angry white male" or "angry white man" is a stereotype of white men holding conservative or right-wing views in the context of U.S. and Australian politics, often characterized by opposition to progressive social policies and liberal beliefs. The term is usually applied to white men from the United States and Australia.[1] In the United States, the greatest perceived threat to white male dominance has been advances of white women and people of color following the women's liberation movement and Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to immigration, multiculturalism and LGBT rights.[2]

Theory

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One of the major American political movements of 1992 was women's rights. A reactionary backlash described by The Atlantic as the "Revolt of the Angry White Male" arose against the women's movement.[3] The revolt of the angry white male quickly brought up a questions and concerns that have long since haunted American politics.[3] Although, the primary concern regarding these questions has occurred since women's suffrage, at least since the 1920s around women's rights to vote, they became prevalent again in the 1990s.[3] While the question was initially related to whether women would vote differently from men if given suffrage, otherwise known as the right to vote, the gender pay gap gave new salience to women's rights issues.[3] While the issue of women's rights was a prevalent in the 1990s the movement of "Angry White Males" has grown substantially since.[4]

More recently, Professor Bob Pease's view of the theory surrounding Angry White Male voters has stated that they see themselves as a voting bloc with their gender under attack which underscores why Angry White Male voters are more likely to feel politically disenfranchised and to therefore vote for right wing populist parties as a result.[5]

In Pease's view, the resultant right wing populist political movement of Angry White Males is often summarized as having experiential periods of loss both psychologically and sociologically surrounding their sense of perceived losses of the traditions of "man" and the perceived emasculation of men.[5] Pease suggests that the populist polemics of Angry White Males' claim to make men great again by opposing equal rights and restoring hegemony to its masculinist right.[5]

United States

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The term commonly refers to a political voting bloc which emerged in the early 1990s as a reaction to perceived injustices faced by white men in the face of affirmative action quotas in the workplace, much like how the Reagan Democrat bloc emerged a decade earlier.[6] Angry white men are characterized as having animosity toward young people, women or minorities, and liberalism in general.[7] Donald Trump's male supporters have been described by some political commentators as angry white men.[8][9][10][11]

Speaking in 2008, then-senator Barack Obama spoke of the small town residents left behind by successive administrations, saying that he felt it was "not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations".[12] In 2015, he referenced male blue-collar workers having what he saw as a "justified, but just misdirected" sense of fear, frustration and anger, and believed that Donald Trump's campaign was taking advantage of that sentiment.[12]

Australia

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The concept also appeared during Australia's 1998 federal elections.[13] New political parties appeared in that election due to the preexisting fathers' rights movement in Australia. These included the Abolish Family Support/Family Court Party and the Family Law Reform Party.[13] Similar to the usage of the term in the United States, the Australian men categorized as angry white men opposed what they perceived as the feminist agenda. These political parties were created as a reaction to the historic number of women elected to the House of Representatives.[13] Members of these groups claimed that "feminists have entrenched themselves in positions of power and influence in government and are using their power to victimise men".[13]

Senator Eric Abetz from the centre-right Liberal Party, arguing against Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, said in 2016 that it was "passing strange" that the Australian Human Rights Commission does not seem to care about what he perceives as "racist terminology" such as angry white man, but does care if another color is used to describe someone. "One cannot help but think that the term 'white' can only refer to skin colour and therefore [you] are making reference to a skin colour [and] one assumes it must have been on the basis of race that the comment was made", he commented.[14]

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Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker in the 1970s US television sitcom All in the Family, with Jean Stapleton as his wife Edith

The term is applied to those believed to be opposed to the civil rights movement and second-wave feminism.[15]

The films Joe,[16] Raging Bull,[17] Falling Down, Cobb,[17] God Bless America, Taxi Driver, Joker, and Clint Eastwood's performances in Dirty Harry[17] and Gran Torino have been described as an exploration of the angry white man.[18][19][20] In particular, the protagonist of Falling Down (a divorced, laid-off defense worker who descends via chance and choice into a spiral of increasing rage and violence) was widely reported upon as a representative of the stereotype.[21]

The character Archie Bunker from the TV sitcoms All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place "turned the angry white male into a cultural icon", according to CBS News.[22] Walter White in the television series Breaking Bad has also been described as an "angry white male".[23]

See also

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References

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Citations

  1. ^ Blake, John (November 20, 2021). "There's nothing more frightening in America today than an angry White man". CNN. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  2. ^ Steven M. Gillon (August 29, 2017). "Why are so many white men so angry?". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  3. ^ a b c d Steven Stark (July 1996). "Gap Politics". The Atlantic.
  4. ^ Noble, Carolyn (2020). The Challenge of Right-wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 55. ISBN 9780429056536.
  5. ^ a b c Noble, Carolyn (2020). The Challenge of Right-wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 55. ISBN 9780429056536.
  6. ^ Heather Digby Parton (March 28, 2016). "The truth about Donald Trump's angry white men: Inside the media narrative that the media doesn't understand". Salon.
  7. ^ Kimmel, Michael S. (November 5, 2013). Angry White Men: American Masculinity and the End of an Era. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-568-58696-0.
  8. ^ Wilkinson, Francis (August 23, 2016). "The beginning of the end of angry white males". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois: Tribune Publishing. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  9. ^ Rajghatta, Chidanand (July 28, 2016). "Donald Trump's vote bank: Angry white males with no college degrees". The Economic Times. Mumbai, India: The Times Group. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  10. ^ Mantyla, Kyle (August 26, 2016). "How 'Angry White Male' Wayne Allyn Root Knows That Trump Has Deep Support Among Black Voters". Right Wing Watch. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  11. ^ Schwartz, Dana (August 1, 2016). "Why Angry White Men Love Calling People 'Cucks'". GQ. New York City: Advance Publications. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  12. ^ a b Ross, Janell (November 25, 2021). "Obama revives his 'cling to guns or religion' analysis — for Donald Trump supporters". Washington Post. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d Sawer, Marian (1999). "EMILY'S LIST and angry white men: Gender wars in the nineties". Journal of Australian Studies. 23 (62). Perth, Australia: Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology: 1–9. doi:10.1080/14443059909387494.
  14. ^ Hutchens, Gareth; Karp, Paul (August 15, 2016). "Eric Abetz says the phrase 'angry white man' is racial vilification". The Guardian. London, England. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  15. ^ Rosin, Hanna (November 24, 2013). "Even Madder Men: 'Angry White Men,' by Michael Kimmel" (review)". The New York Times. New York City.
  16. ^ Packer, George (February 14, 2012). "Poor, White, and Republican". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
  17. ^ a b c Hunter, Stephen (February 19, 1995). "'Cobb' is latest foray by Hollywood into soul of a bitter white male Major-League Anger". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland: Tribune Publishing.
  18. ^ Romney, Jonathan (February 22, 2009). "Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood: The screen legend plays an angry old man at war with the city of Detroit". The Independent on Sunday. London, England: Independent Print, Ltd. Archived from the original on May 7, 2022.
  19. ^ Senaga, Ryan (January 14, 2009). "Angry white man: Clint Eastwood channels ghosts from past films in Gran Torino". Honolulu Weekly. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
  20. ^ "Angry white men on film: Seven times cinema got to the Trump vote before us". Cambridge Day. November 18, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  21. ^ Gutiérrez-Jones, Carl Scott (2001). Critical race narratives. New York City: NYU Press. pp. 61–5. ISBN 978-0-8147-3145-1.
  22. ^ "Farewell Archie". CBS News. New York City: CBS Corporation. June 21, 2001.
  23. ^ Vanderwerff, Emily (September 22, 2013). ""Breaking Bad's" racial politics: Walter White, angry white man". Salon.com. New York City: Salon Media Group.

Further reading

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