It’s Not the Message, It’s The Messenger: Organizational Identity and White Men’s Opposition to Women’s and African Americans’ Civic Participation

Abstract Theories of structural racism and sexism build from an assumption that members of privileged groups react negatively when non-privileged identities link to an agenda for change. We directly test that assumption with three online experiments administered to national samples of white men in the United States. Respondents evaluate web pages of (fictitious) civic organizations displaying agendas that could undermine race and gender hierarchies. We find that in each experiment, respondents are much more likely to disapprove of the organizational identity of the civic organizations if they are evaluating an organization that indicates it is a “Black Alliance,” or a “Women’s Alliance,” rather than simply an “Alliance.” Disapproval of the organizational identity, in turn, differentiates respondents in terms of their levels of support for the organization and its goals. Results across the three experiments are strikingly similar, reflecting the shared micro-level assumption in different macro-level theories.