.png)
UCL’s department of Political Science (hosted by Dr Adam Harris) brought together experts on identity, politics, and conflict in the US that hold a wide variety of perspectives. Together they discussed issues of protest, partisanship, voter suppression and hate speech, in addition to how the country might begin to move forward from the January 6th Capitol insurrection.
Panellist Overview:
Dr Katie Gaddini
Dr. Gaddini is a lecturer at UCL in the Sociology department. She has also been fitted with the Sarah Parker Redmond Centre for the study of racism and racialisation at UCL and is an expert in white evangelical support for Donald Trump. Her research focuses on white evangelical support from the far right, which is the topic of her forthcoming book ‘The Struggle to Stay’.
Gaddini is currently conducting qualitative research with white American evangelicals on the topic of faith and politics. Most of her participants voted for Trump in 2020, and she hopes to contribute the perspectives and voices of these people into the general discussion on identity politics. One observation Gaddini makes is around the highly partisan language that is operative in US politics today and that these are, of course, part of the wider duelling and polarised discourses that circulate across the US media and households.
Dr La Gina Gause
Dr. Gause is an associate assistant professor of Political Science at the University of California San Diego and is an expert on racial politics, equality, and representation. She also focuses on the use of protest among different marginalised groups.
Currently, Gause is working on a book manuscript on the use of protest by different groups and how protests help these groups regarding representation within society. She speaks on how the events of the last year of the last presidency exposed the deep differences in understanding what democracy in the United States should be and who should benefit from democratic representation.
Dr Kerry Haynie
Dr. Haynie is an associate professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Duke University and is an expert on racial politics in the United States, with multiple books on the subject including race, gender, and legislative representation. Haynie has also written on understanding minority and immigrant voting in America.
Colonel Mike Jason
Colonel Jason retired as a Colonel in the United States Army in 2019. He was deployed overseas on multiple operational and combat missions, leading the US armed forces in Germany, the Balkans, Iraq as well as commanding a special operations task force in Afghanistan. Currently, he advises numerous non-profit groups and organisations on veterans’ issues. His experience and expertise help to shed light on the significant over-representation of military veterans implicated in the Capitol insurrection and concerns about the growing extremism, including support for white nationalism, within the US armed forces.
Dr Candice Smith
Dr. Smith is an associate professor of Political Science and African American studies at Penn State and is an expert on race politics within the US. Smith focuses on the political and policy ramifications of shifting demographics in the US and has written multiple books on the subject, including a ‘Stay Woke’ people’s guide to making all Black Lives Matter. She also is a huge advocate for increasing civic education on American democracy in US schools.
Protests, Partisanship, and Polarisation
Gause claims that protests and partisanship are very closely related to each other. For example, the current protest wave of Black Lives Matter has roots in drastic social, political, and economic inequality. ‘Protest is a symptom of frustration within society’, according to Gause, and leads people to identify themselves with different groups and camps.
Haynie also compares the police, government, and media responses to BLM protests with those of the Capitol insurrection. It is clear that these responses depend on who is protesting, since the rioters at the Capitol were essentially welcomed with ‘open doors’ to the building, which is in stark contrast to BLM protestors, who were frequently met with force from the National Guard. Gause further highlights how Black rights movements are still met with violence despite that 93% of BLM protests in the US have been peaceful (meaning no use of violence or property destruction was present in their protests).
Additionally, Jason incorporates the military perspective through illuminating how soldiers think about and react to BLM. Their oath of office is to protect and defend the US constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Capitol insurrection, on the other hand, attempted to stop a constitutional process different from the former manifestation of basic civil and equal rights.
Protesting, however, does not only polarise people but also does the opposite: it can engage them in politics and encourage them to become more active, aware participants.
Challenging Voter Suppression and Growing Political Violence on Both Sides
Smith points out that voting is an ambiguous area of policy in the US because the constitution says very little about it, with the overarching point being that an individual cannot be denied the right to vote because of their race, sex, religion etc. Therefore, what the US is seeing is an increase in innovations on how to suppress this right- for example, the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court case. However, Smith strongly recognises that there are people outside and within the government who are trying to work against this to stop the suppression of voting rights.
Haynie remarks that voter suppression can also push people into becoming more politically active and finding alternative ways to make their voices heard in a ‘you denied me here, so I’ll find a way there’ manner.
The Republican Party is pinpointed by the panellists as a major source of voter suppression. In recent years, the traditionally white middle-class party has attempted to incorporate more poor, working-class, blue-collar white Americans into their electorate. This, once again, pushes back against minority movements who are concerned with equal voting rights. It is not just that the Republicans are invoking more challenges against the suppressed, but that more people across the border paying attention to the institutions that are affecting their lives. Gause argues that Republicans should stop their provocations, because this actually makes people want to mobilise in retaliation.
Jason notes how there is a long, deep-rooted history of political violence within the United States. Two presidents have been assassinated and there has been a perennial history of violence against Black people. Jason therefore questions whether the Capitol insurrection, in addition to the current protests, are more violent than what the US has seen in the past.
Gause also demonstrates the difference in reaction to political violence. For example, white armed men were essentially allowed to walk into the Capitol building; however, if a Muslim American was to walk into the Capitol, they would be considered a terrorist threat.
Identity Politics and Hate Speech
Gaddini uses her research on white Evangelicals to discuss the concept of white identity in the US. She recognises that her participants were split in terms of opinion around Donald Trump. Despite 81% of them voting for him in 2016 and the majority of them also voting for him in 2020, his presidential term disillusioned many Evangelicals. She argues that some, however, challenge the legitimacy of the current Biden regime, with the most obvious example being the Capitol riot.
Hate speech, Haynie contests, should not be prohibited. This is because he would rather be able to hear hate speech and know where it is coming from, so that one can challenge it. The removal of hateful symbols, according to Haynie, will result in important memories being lost, which are vital to American history. Jason, on the other hand, argues that certain institutional hate symbols need to be removed from the public square. His example is that there are still army bases named after Confederate (and by extension, racist) generals in the US.
It is always important to keep in mind the role of institutions in the wake of the US Capitol insurrection because, as pointed out by Smith, it is the elites which so often attempt to manipulate the will of the public. In Florida, 64% of people voted to ensure that former felons could have the right to vote. However, the Florida legislature manipulated the situation so that public will would not come to fruition. This illuminates how many institutions in the US remain flawed to this day.