{"id":24726,"date":"2021-02-03T20:27:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=24726"},"modified":"2021-02-04T00:10:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T04:10:42","slug":"the-racial-wealth-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-racial-wealth-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"The Racial Wealth Gap and Conservative Denial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the racial wealth gap<\/a>? How does the denial of the racial wealth gap inform the beliefs of conservatives and the Tea Party?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is statistical evidence to suggest the existence of the racial wealth gap. However, Tea Party conservatives cite wealthy Black celebrities as evidence that there is no black wealth gap and falsely claim that Black people are getting ahead while whites are losing their status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the racial wealth gap and what it means for conservative politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conservative Beliefs<\/strong> About the Racial Wealth Gap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although they deny harboring any personal racial animosity toward minorities, many Tea Party attitudes toward government redistribution programs are racially tinged<\/strong>. This includes their denial of the black wealth gap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her conversations with conservative Louisianans, Hochschild observes that, despite their professed innocence on racial matters, Tea Partiers do believe in a racial hierarchy\u2014one in which white people (and white men, in particular) belong at the top. Their resentment at the \u201cline cutting\u201d phenomenon stems from their belief that this rightful position has been unfairly usurped. They see a media landscape that celebrates the glamorous lives and exploits of Black celebrities like Beyonc\u00e9, Jay-Z, and Serena Williams, while ignoring (when not downright denigrating) white working-class people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure of former President Barack Obama looms large in the racially inflected Tea Party narrative of unfair advantage. <\/strong>They see the first African-American president as the line-cutter-in-chief, gleefully waving ahead the other non-white line cutters in his political coalition through his liberal tax-and-spend programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Tea Partiers in Louisiana, Obama prioritized the takers over the makers (we discussed the \u201cmakers and takers\u201d trope in Chapter 2). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These themes are amplified by conservative media like talk radio and Fox News, which focus on supposed \u201cwelfare queens\u201d living a glamorous lifestyle on the government dime. This further contributes to the feelings of diminished honor. People on the right believe themselves to be suckers for working hard for a living, while others <\/em>are enjoying the luxurious benefits of government largesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They proclaim \u201csympathy fatigue\u201d when they hear about the supposed plight of immigrants and minorities<\/strong>. For them, it is absurd to feel sympathy for people who\u2019ve simply been handed every advantage in life, while they <\/em>have had to work and struggle for everything\u2014and still find themselves falling behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, these views are a distortion of reality, as Hochschild points out. Historically, Black people have been at the back <\/em>of the proverbial line, being \u201ccut\u201d in front of repeatedly by white people through the institutions of slavery, segregation, lynching, and discrimination, which stole their labor, dignity, and even their lives over the course of centuries. This legacy persists today when we look at the racial wealth gap\u2014on average, Black households earn only 55 percent of what white households earn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the racial wealth gap? How does the denial of the racial wealth gap inform the beliefs of conservatives and the Tea Party? There is statistical evidence to suggest the existence of the racial wealth gap. However, Tea Party conservatives cite wealthy Black celebrities as evidence that there is no black wealth gap and falsely claim that Black people are getting ahead while whites are losing their status. Read more about the racial wealth gap and what it means for conservative politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,31,24],"tags":[194],"class_list":["post-24726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-money","category-society","tag-strangers-in-their-own-land","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Racial Wealth Gap and Conservative Denial - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The tea party doesn't believe in the racial wealth gap. 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