Since the election of President Donald Trump, there's been a lot of talk about how demographic changes, and the prospect of racial equality, have left his strongest supporters fearful of losing "their" America—which they see as, by rights, a largely white nation.
Yet commentators have paid less attention to the fact that many white American liberals harbor some of these same racial fears: a fear of not being part of the majority, and a fear of losing the privileges they were born with.
Fundamentally racist ideals are not the exclusive province of the right. A Reuters pollduring the 2016 election found that over 30 percent of Trump voters believed black people to be less intelligent than white people. But the same poll found that over 20 percent of Hillary Clinton voters felt the same way.
Racism can be found across the political spectrum, and there is a long history of white liberals preaching equality while being reluctant to fully embrace efforts to make society more equal in ways that might discomfit them even a little. People born with privilege and power are often squeamish about giving any of it away.
Joe Feagin, distinguished professor in sociology at Texas A&M University, says that white liberals are "good on certain racial issues" but often don't put a lot of action behind their words, or don't go as far as they could to make racial equality a reality.
Feagin recounts a story about President Lyndon B. Johnson that illustrates his point. Johnson was responsible for getting three major civil rights laws passed during his presidency but was still leery of fully embracing the fight for equality.
During the 1968 presidential campaign, while Johnson was still in the race, he created what was called the Kerner Commission to investigate why black Americans were rioting in cities around the country. In the end, the commission concluded that poverty and white racism were the causes. Upon seeing the results of his own commission, Johnson backed away from its report and even aspersed its findings.
"That was the only commission in U.S. history which used language about white racism being the problem with race in this country," Feagin says. "Johnson saw the report and knew it was political dynamite during his 1968 run for president and backed off and attacked his own commission."
When it came down to it, Johnson prioritized the delicate feelings of white Americans over the needs of black Americans. He chose to appease white voters rather than confront the monumental problem of systemic racism.
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