This post is just about some interesting information that I came across.
There's a survey that comes out every October that I heard about on a podcast that NPR does called Code Switch. The episode is titled, "The White Elephants in the Room" and the whole episode is a really interesting post-election commentary if you want to give it a listen.
The survey, however, is called The American Values Atlas. It's a comprehensive survey that looks at American values across several different groups and even has ranking systems.
What I heard about on the podcast that shocked me was the information about White Evangelicals as a group.
Now, remember, I grew up in a very white evangelical Christian church and environment. I've broken down the nonverbal messaging I received from that environment and how that intersected with other parts of my identity.
So you can imagine my shock at learning some of the history behind this group's voting patterns.
SIDEBAR: If we're really going to get into the post-election go around, if you follow me on Instagram, you have already seen me comment on my unbelief in the Democratic party and Joe Biden as the savior to oppressed peoples while also plainly stating that Trump is a racist, a fascist, and a bigger fish to fry in an advocacy sense.
I always thought my first election voting [side note: for Biden if that was unclear] would be a feeling of achievement and importance and joy but all I felt after this was finally all over was.. nausea.
The praise I was seeing for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris simply for him not being Trump and her not being white was disgusting. I understand that joy is a motivating factor in political activism and just... waking up everyday but I wanted to see more of this praise curtailed with a desire to start completely changing our systems to work better for our citizens. Maybe that's me jumping the gun but after sitting through what felt like an endless election cycle, I was ready to get back to what was important (in theory) about elections.
I am hopeful that they will be held accountable for all that they promised and more but the US political system has shown that that rarely happens.
Okay so the American Values Atlas. Basically, the guy who founded it, Robert P Jones, grew up as a Southern Baptist and was always interested in White Evangelicals as a group and their relationship to these assumed attributed traits of xenophobia, racism, and anti-abortion. I highly encourage you to check out the site from his nonprofit research organization, PRRI.
He recounts the history of White Christian private schools and how the Brown v Board of Education decision led to their conception.
Essentially, when public schools were forced to integrate due to the Supreme Court decision, white racists did what they did best: they fled.
They fled to newer schools, funded to be better than any public school and consequentially, more disparity arose in education levels.
Additionally, the anti-abortion platform wasn't always taken by White Evangelicals at large. It wasn't until later; it was actually encouraged at some point for women to have abortions.
Yeah, this whole podcast and the work from Jones was incredibly interesting and perplexing.
This is not an attack on White Evangelists (even though most of them can really strike a nerve) but rather an examination at the reasoning of their voting habits. It explains that this group is what is referred to as value voters. Part of the main reason, Jones believed, that they voted for Trump in higher numbers for both election cycles was due to the values he presented. He argues that a distaste for racial equality and more open immigration was always integral to White Evangelist establishment. The anti-abortion and other issues were secondary.
It is just an insane parallel to the general disbelief in how "grab them by the p*ssy" Trump managed to wrack up a vast majority of the White Evangelical vote. But it makes a lot of sense.
All this to say, what do you value as a member of your society? Is it directly a byproduct of the groups you belong to? Is there anything wrong with that?
I would argue that we are all going to be influenced by our identifiers even if that influence is that you believe the opposite of what everyone else around you believes. There is no way to be able to tell if you would've came to that conclusion independently of your environment. However, this is meaningful to be able to critically analyze your opinions and ask yourself why you think the ways you do.
I was told in therapy once to analyze my values. I was so caught up on the idea of being "good" or "bad" and it took me looking at what I could list as my values to realize that those those things were what made me into a decent person that was doing their best. It also allowed me to be critical of what I said I valued yet wasn't attributing any of my time or resources to.
Photo from NPR podcast Code Switch
Comments