According to a recent paper about the “dog whistle effect”, racial resentment is “primarily driven by social concerns about relative racial group positions [and is] connected to both explicit and implicit indicators of racial animus” (Drakulich et al, 2020). The authors of this paper operationalize racial resentment as the average of responses to the following statements:  

  1. Blacks should overcome prejudice and work their way up without “special favors”

  2. Inequalities would be solved if Blacks tried harder.

  3. Slavery and discrimination created conditions that remained significant barriers for lower class Blacks, and

  4. Blacks had gotten less than they deserved.

To simplify a bit, higher levels of agreement with the first two statements and of disagreement with the last two got one a higher racial resentment score. As the authors explain, “rejection of structural explanations for racial inequalities, the embrace of individualistic explanations, and …perceived line-cutting” reflect racial resentment.

But aren’t those sentiments just another way of expressing traditional American values such as self-reliance and the work ethic? Consider:

“There was a time, in these United States, when a candidate for public office could qualify with the electorate only by fixing his birthplace in or near the "log cabin". He may have acquired a competence, or even a fortune, since then, but it was in the tradition that he must have been born of poor parents and made his way up the ladder by sheer ability, self-reliance, and perseverance in the face of hardship. In short, he had to be "self made". The so-called Protestant Ethic then prevalent held that man was a sturdy and responsible individual, responsible to himself, his society, and his God. Anybody who could not measure up to that standard could not qualify for public office or even popular respect.” - Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

Or are self-reliance and the work ethic inherently racist values?

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Reference:

Drakulich, K, Wozniak, KH, Hagan, J, Johnson, D. Race and policing in the 2016 presidential election: Black lives matter, the police, and dog whistle politics. Criminology. 2020; 58: 370– 402. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12239