Colloquium

Dr. Gerald Higginbotham, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Psychology, University of Virginia

Title: Voting: A privilege or a right? 

Abstract: Voter suppression is linked to a long, racist history of laws and practices in the U.S. Yet, today White Americans show non-trivial support for both legal and currently illegal voter suppression policies (e.g., voter ID laws, English literacy tests). In recent research, I have begun to indirectly consider how fundamental rights (e.g., gun rights granted by the 2nd amendment) may be perceived as in-group privileges among White Americans. This talk will focus on recently collected data that more directly tests whether perceiving voting as an exclusionary privilege (i.e., accessible to those who qualify) underlies racist motives behind support for voter suppression among White Americans. Across national data and convenience sample surveys, we find that perceiving voting as a privilege is linked to greater support for suppressive voter access policies and is reliably predicted by anti-Black attitudes. In a follow-up experiment, we examine whether targeting the belief that voting should be a privilege reduces support for suppressive voter access policies. Discussion will center Black Americans’ psychology to highlight how the meaning and outcomes of perceiving voting as a privilege are likely shaped by history and cultural experiences tied to racial group membership.