Inspiring visibility: Exploring the roles of identification and solidarity for alleviating Black women’s invisibility in politics

Abstract

We explored whether a Black female politician would alleviate feelings of invisibility among Black women even when they believed the politician deviated from the ingroup prototype by not supporting ingroup interests or by being low in ingroup solidarity. Study 1 demonstrated that relative to Black men and White men and women, Black women identified the most with Vice-President Kamala Harris and reported feeling the highest invisibility in politics immediately after Harris exited the Democratic primary election, but did not report higher support for Harris’s political platform. Study 2 further showed that a Black female politician who supported a policy that is viewed as harmful to Black Americans still helped alleviate feelings of invisibility for Black women because they strongly identified with the politician. However, a Black female politician opposing this policy was the most beneficial, demonstrating the importance of both identification and solidarity for inspiring visibility.