Rugged Meritocratists: The Role of Overt Bias and the Meritocratic Ideology in Trump Supporters’ Opposition to Social Justice Efforts:

摘要

Opposition to social justice efforts plays a key role in reproducing social inequalities in the United States. Focusing on supporters of Donald Trump as a possible exemplar of politically structured resistance to these efforts, the author asks whether and why Trump supporters are more likely than other Americans to oppose social justice efforts. Analysis of a proportionally representative, postelection survey (n = 1,151) reveals that Trump supporters are indeed more opposed to social justice efforts. They also express greater overt race, class, and gender bias, yet this bias does not explain their opposition. Rather, many Trump supporters are “rugged meritocratists” who oppose these efforts because they believe U.S. society is already fair. To expand support for social justice efforts, rugged meritocratists must first be convinced that systemic inequalities still exist.