‘They say they don’t see color, but maybe they should!’ Authoritarian populism and colorblind liberal political culture

ABSTRACT

While easy to empirically document the explicit bias underlying authoritarian populism, most of the individuals animating the movement are driven by sentiments harder to detect, such as implicit bias and what is known as the colorblind ideology. Drawing from semi-structured interviews of Colorado (USA) residents (n = 71), the paper makes the following three contributions: presenting populism as something more than a homogenous entity; its qualitative empirical material on the implicit biases held among Trump supporters even in the face of observed minority poverty; and, finally, its specific angle on race politics, building on prior accounts that unpack authoritarian populism through racialized imaginaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial resentment
• political ideology
• rural-urban
• rural populism
• racism
• racial politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [grant number NRF-2016S1A3A2924243], the National Institute of Food and Agriculture [grant number NIFA-COL00725], and the Office for the Vice President for Research, College of Liberal Arts, and Office of Engagement at Colorado State University.

Notes on contributors

Michael Carolan

Michael Carolan is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts. He has published over 200 peer review articles and chapters. His recent books include The Real Cost of Cheap Food, The Sociology of Food and Agriculture, No One Eats Alone: Food as Social Enterprise, and The Food Sharing Revolution: How Start-Ups, Pop-Ups, and Co-Ops are Changing the Way We Eat. Additionally, Dr. Carolan regularly writes pieces for public audiences. His pieces regularly appear in such outlets as The Conversation, Bloomberg, Market Watch, Mental Floss, Business Insider, Alternet, World Economic Forum, Houston Chronicle, Bangor Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post, Popular Science, The Smithsonian Magazine, Salon, The Independent, Market Watch, Scroll.in, and New Food Economy. Dr. Carolan is also Associate Editor for the following journals, Journal of Rural Studies, Society and Natural Resources, and Sustainability.