Angry white male
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic — Islamophobic — you name it." --Hillary Clinton |
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An angry white male (AWM) is a pejorative U.S. political reference to someone with what is typically known as a traditional conservative viewpoint, especially in the context of U.S. politics, characterized by opposition to racial quotas, political correctness, affirmative action, and other liberal policies.
The term was popularized in reference to a political voting bloc which emerged in the early 1990s as a reaction to perceived injustices faced by white men in the face of affirmative action quotas in the workplace. The term later gained prominence in the 1994 federal elections in the US, in which a large number of neo-conservative, white voters turned out. This new voting bloc swept in the first Republican majority Congress since the 1960s. Subsequent scholarship has focused on the various factors that motivated the turnout, including the anti-black backlash triggered by the racial hoax perpetrated by Susan Smith.
In popular culture
The movies Joe, Falling Down, and Clint Eastwood's performances in both the Dirty Harry series and Gran Torino have been described as definitive explorations of the angry white male. The protagonist of Falling Down, a former defense worker who descends into a spiral of increasing rage and violence, was widely reported upon as a representative of the stereotype.
See also
- American Dream
- Angry Black Woman
- Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
- Identity politics
- Male privilege
- NASCAR dad
- Patriarchy
- Play the white man
- Soccer mom
- Stereotypes of white Americans in the United States
- Systemic bias
- White privilege