Black Protesters in a White Social Movement: Looking to the Anti–Iraq War Movement to Develop a Theory of Racialized Activism

Abstract

On the basis of ethnographic and historical accounts, many movement scholars hold that differences in political expectations and interaction styles inhibit cross-racial collaboration in social movements. Inspired by this research, the authors ask three questions about minority participation in social movements and address them using a survey of more than 6,000 participants in the anti–Iraq War movement. First, the authors ask about relational inequality. Did Black protesters have fewer ties with the antiwar movement than Whites? Second, the authors ask about siloing. Were Black protesters disproportionately concentrated in specific movement organizations? Third, the authors ask if patterns of inequality were similar for Latino and Asian activists? The authors find evidence of relational inequality for Black activists but not Latino or Asian activists. They find evidence of siloing for all three ethnic groups. These empirical results are used to articulate an account of racialized activism with special attention to organizational processes.