Campus Racial Violence and White Supremacy on College Campuses During the Trump Presidency

• In Event: Racial Violence on Campus

Abstract

Drawing from an originally constructed database of 350 racist incidents that occurred on college and university campuses across the nation from 2013-2018, we examine whether there was an increase in reported racist incidents after the launch of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on June 16, 2015. More specifically, we interrogate possible connections between incidents involving white supremacy and/or white nationalism and Trump’s racialized presidential rhetoric. We utilize various tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical framework, while also utilizing several themes from the study of presidential rhetoric subdiscipline as a conceptual framework. In doing so, we are able to critically analyze the racial elements of Trump’s presidential rhetoric through a CRT lens.

Authors

• Sy Stokes, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Oscar Patron, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Kaylan Baxter, University of Southern California

• Sarah M. Toutant, Child Care Resource Center

• James Bridgeforth, University of Southern California

• Jaymon T. Ortega, University of Southern California

• Isaiah Simmons, University of Southern California