From Barack Obama to Donald Trump: understanding the arc of twenty-first century presidential elections through the lens of white racial selfhood, white racial rhetoric, and racialised emotions

Here I analyse contemporary US presidential politics through the lens of white racial selfhood, rhetoric, and emotions. From Obama’s election to the present, I argue, we see the unfolding of a battle between white liberalism and white conservatism, with the lines between the two becoming ever more stark. Both start out fundamentally rooted in “colorblind” understandings of race. But shortly into Obama’s first term, we see deeply politicised senses of race consciousness emerge on the right and left. White conservatives and white liberals move in opposite directions, however, with the former becoming more racially reactionary and the latter becoming markedly more progressive. If Trumpism is to be stopped, I argue, opponents must recognise and respond to the ways Trump has sought to tap into, amplify, and define differing forms of white racial selfhood, rhetoric and emotion, as well as ones linked at present to gender.