The Persistence of White Working-class Individualism

• In Event: 1483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 15. Racial Identity and Individualism Among Working Class Whites in the Trump Era

Abstract

A vast literature suggests that individualistic explanations of poverty and inequality are more popular than non-individualistic ones in American society. Times of increased economic insecurity, such as our current age of extreme inequality, are a natural test of the dominance and durability of these individualistic beliefs. To accomplish such a test, we chose a subgroup of Americans who have received considerable attention in recent decades due to their increasing economic and social insecurity: the white working class in the U.S. We interviewed 20 non-Hispanic white working-class custodial workers from five Appalachian universities in three states (Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) during the summer and fall of 2017. We asked them a series of questions about their stratification beliefs, exploring both how they explained poverty and inequality in the U.S. in general, as well as how they explained their own economic and social fortunes. We analyzed the data utilizing grounded theory methods. We found strikingly individualistic beliefs about American poverty and inequality in general, as well as their own personal economic and social fortunes. These findings suggest that increased economic and social insecurity has not significantly altered the popularity of individualism among white working-class Americans. We discuss the implications of these findings in how they relate to theories of structural and symbolic violence, as well as their implications for social welfare support in the United States.

Authors

• Lawrence Eppard

• David Brady, University of California-Riverside

• Henry Giroux, McMaster University