Did you hear the joke about economic anxiety?

Seriously. Just a Picture.

A fascinating study was recently reported in Vox and The Root. And the conclusion of that academic study(1) is, as the title sadly suggests, that a mere photograph of a black person can actually make a Trump supporter angry. From The Root:

“When researchers simply asked subjects how they felt about a not-so-complex housing-assistance issue, they were split on their support. But there was a subtle twist to the study: When the information about the issue was accompanied by a picture of a white person, Trump voters were much more likely to support it than when they were cued by an image of a black person.”

If the study ended there, it would probably reveal only what we (sadly) already knew about too many of our fellow Americans.

But there was more:

“The study revealed that when Trump voters were exposed to the “black cue,” it not only made them less supportive of the issue. It made them angry. Yes, a picture of a black man—not an actual black man, but a picture of a black man—made them mad.”

German Lopez at Vox states this latest study is so notable simply because:

“...all it uses is an image of a black man to produce its results. That suggests that Trump has a powerful incentive to get people to keep thinking about race: If his most ardent supporters just need a slight racial cue to come around to his conservative policy views, then Trump simply has to bring up race to get his supporters fired up for him.”

There is no bigger (and staler) joke about 2016 then economic anxiety. Michael Harriot at The Root notes that this study comes on the heels of a volume of recent research correlating racial resentment to Republican preference:

Then there was the study that linked whites’ perception of our need to get “tough on crime” to racial resentment. And that other research that linked the government’s need to fix structural inequality to racial resentment. Don’t forget the Pew Research Center’s data showing that most Republicans oppose Black Lives Matter.

I wish I were unsurprised that Republicans would have a hard time supporting the concept that human lives matter.

So what does this mean?

We were already aware that there is a strong correlation between Trump supporters and racial resentment. And this racism permeates all public perception. For example, one of the most illuminating data sets, in my opinion, is the Gallup economic confidence indicator, which spiked after Donald Trump was elected, and has remained at an elevated rate, despite little to no improvement in the economy between Barack Obama and Mr. Art of the Deal.

Remember all those diaries bemoaning the economy under Barack Obama🤔

But how do we square this revelation with the fact that there were a non-insignificant number of Obama voters in 2012 who voted for Donald Trump? I think the best response is a quote by Josh Marshall:

I think political racism or white supremacy is best seen like a virus which can remain dormant only to be activated under certain conditions.

The Trump administration has already been open that they seek a cultural racial wedge issue ahead of 2018. They will try again in 2020, too. And their allies, not just domestically in the GOP and aligned media, but overseas (Russia), will be all too ready to help gin up racial resentment again.

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(1) Luttig, M.D., Federico C.M., and Lavine, H.G., Research & Politics. (In Press).