The Washington Post's Christopher Ingraham devoted a Monday item to trumpeting the study of two Illinois political scientists, which supposedly determined that "racial prejudice could play a significant role in white Americans' opposition to gun control." Ingraham spotlighted that the professors "found that whites were significantly less likely to support gun control measures when they had recently looked at pictures of black people, than when they had looked at pictures of [whites]." He also noted that the researchers cited "a rich body of sociological literature," which claim that whites have used "the trope of 'rights'...in defense of white privilege."
Ingraham led his article, "White resentment is fueling opposition to gun control, researchers say," by summarizing the results of Alexandra Filindra and Noah J. Kaplan's paper, which wasn't released in recent days, but back in November 2015. After noting the detail about those who viewed the "pictures of black people," the journalist underlined that "the study, which surveyed 1,000 white respondents, also found that the higher they scored on a common measure of racial prejudice, the stronger negative effect the photos of black people had on the respondents' support for gun control."
The Washington Post writer spent several paragraphs on the "rich body of sociological literature" that Filindra and Kaplan, who are professors at the University of Chicago at Illinois, referenced on the "language of racial resentment:"
...Racial resentment, as Filindra and Kaplan define it, is a prejudice based in the belief that blacks don't value independence and hard work and instead push for special rights conferred by the government. It upholds whites as morally superior while ignoring the structural advantages of whiteness.
Historians have noted how this type of language has often been employed by whites in the post-World War II era to oppose programs like civil rights and affirmative action....'homeowner rights' [was] used in defense of residential segregation, 'taxpayer rights' marshalled against welfare programs and affirmative action, or 'victims' rights employed in support of punitive criminal justice policies," Filindra and Kaplan write. "In each case, the trope of 'rights' was used in defense of white privilege."
Particularly with respect to the modern gun-rights movement that really took off in the '80s and '90s, the language "creates this distinction between 'law-abiding citizens' and 'criminals,'" Filindra says. She points to the type of language that's frequently used by gun rights groups who warn of ever-present threats by "predatory criminals" and a murkily-defined "they" who want to "take your guns away."
Ingraham added that the two political scientists hyped that "juxtapositions of 'law abiding citizens' and 'criminals' [are] evocative of racialized themes, as crime has long been associated with blacks in the white mind."
The journalist disclosed that the professors "say their research does not imply that all white gun owners are racist, nor that all support for gun control carries racial baggage." However, they also contended that "for a certain subset of white gun-rights supporters, particularly those who are inclined to hold certain prejudicial beliefs, messages about individualism and liberty and rights are understood in a very specific way."
Filindra acted as a mind-reader as she expounded on this supposed understanding:
..."I am showing my white nationalist pride in a sort of generic way through gun ownership," Filinda posits. "This is my way of expressing my 'more-equal-than-others' status in a society where egalitarianism is the norm. I can't say that some people are better and some are worse in terms of racial groups. But I can show it symbolically. I can show I'm a better citizen."
Ingraham later turned to Australian academic Kerry O'Brien, who highlighted that the study provides additional "casual evidence" regarding a supposed connection between "racial resentment and gun ownership." O'Brien pointed out that this supposed correlation has been "well-established in existing sociological literature going back at least 30 years."
Near the end of his article, the Washington Post correspondent noted that "Filindra says that her study illustrates the limits of trying to change gun policy by appealing to hard evidence....these messages are likely falling on deaf ears if many white gun owners' identities are strongly intertwined with gun ownership."
