Colorblind Cops in Christian America: Christian Nationalism, Race, Politics, and Beliefs About Racist Policing

• In Event: Attitudes about Race, Racism, & Police

Abstract

Motivated by a societally important and ongoing national conversation around racial inequality in policing, this study explores how Christian nationalism shapes perceptions of racial bias on the part of police, as well as the extent to which these effects are conditioned by social identities related to race and politics. Data are taken from the 2021 General Social Survey. Though Americans generally believe police treat White Americans somewhat better than Black and Hispanic Americans, Christian nationalism is negatively associated with Americans recognizing inequality in policing. Yet interactions show these associations differ by racial, partisan, and ideological identities. Specifically, Christian nationalism only seems to incline White Americans to deny racial inequality in policing, not Black or Hispanic Americans. Political identities show a different pattern. Christian nationalism has essentially no influence on Republicans and “extremely conservative” Americans’ views on whether police treat White Americans better than racial minorities. Instead, Christian nationalism seems to make Democrats and “extremely liberal” Americans indistinguishable from their Republican and “extremely conservative” counterparts. Findings thus indicate the influence of Christian nationalism on Americans’ evaluations of racial inequality in police treatment are both racialized and one-directionally partisan.

Authors

• Christopher Han-Fai Seto, Purdue University

• Darci Schmidgall, University of Oklahoma

• Samuel Perry, University of Oklahoma