Whiteness and Civilization: Shame, Race, and the Alt-Right in the Age of Trump

Professor Donovan Schaefer
University of Pennsylvania

Is President Trump an ideologue? Or is his appeal best understood as a result of affective forces rumbling underneath the surface of how we think about politics? This talk suggests that Trump’s coalition is motivated primarily by a particular configuration of white shame in the aftermath of liberal and progressive challenges to white dominance. Using affect theory, it proposes that multiple sites of Trump’s support, such as the online alt-right, can all be analyzed in terms of an aggressive response to challenges to white dignity