Abstract
Justin Gilmore’s article "Neo-Authoritarianism and the Contestation of White Identification in the US" examines how the political forces around Donald Trump are often interpreted as an external attack on American democracy, and how the dynamism of these attacks is thought to emanate from various sites of white chauvinism. This article argues that such an interpretation is partial. The upsurge associated with “Trumpism” represents a distinctive contestation of an alternative type of white identity, one that has been elemental for a progressive form of neoliberalism. Although the neoliberal construction of white identification is distinctive, and indeed kinder, its material basis rests on a financialized form of social reproduction that promotes white advantage without outright discrimination. Yet, ongoing economic stagnation has unsettled this foundation, opening up possibilities for radicalization from the right. This paper thus reframes the emergence of today’s right authoritarianism as endogenous to the US political system.
Recommended Citation
Gilmore, Justin.
"Neo-Authoritarianism and the Contestation of White Identification in the US."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
23.1
(2021):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.4014>
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