Study: Jan. 6 Riots Motivated By Racism and White Resentment, Not 'Election Theft'

[appalachiablue]

This had nothing to do with 'patriotism.'
_______

Daily Kos, April 6, 2021. - Ed.

The first major comprehensive study of those arrested for participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol strongly indicates that the true motivation of these rioters was not some quasi-patriotic reaction to Trump’s fanciful assertions of election fraud. Rather, the root cause underlying that day of violence boils down to out-and-out racism by insecure whites, alarmed about the prevalence of darker-skinned Americans in their hometown environments. In other words, this was certainly an attempt to overthrow a legitimate, democratic election. But it was an opportunistic insurrection, borne out of deep-seated resentments having nothing to with democracy but rather with preserving and maintaining white power in this country.

- As reported by the New York Times: When the political scientist Robert Pape began studying the issues that motivated the 380 or so people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack against the Capitol, he expected to find that the rioters were driven to violence by the lingering effects of the 2008 Great Recession. But instead he found something very different: Most of the people who took part in the assault came from places, his polling and demographic data showed, that were awash in fears that the rights of minorities and immigrants were crowding out the rights of white people in American politics and culture.

Pape, a security expert and political science professor at the University of Chicago, drew on comparative demographic and geographical data from those arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and others arrested at 2 post-election, pro-Trump rallies last year. His preliminary findings, published Tuesday in the Washington Post, revealed one singular fact: One fact stood out in Mr. Pape’s study, conducted with the help of researchers at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, a think tank he runs at the University of Chicago. Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic white population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists. This finding held true, Mr. Pape determined, even when controlling for population size, distance to Washington, unemployment rate and urban or rural location.

Pape’s research confirmed what seems patently obvious based on those arrested for the Jan. 6 riots to date: 95% were white and 85% were male. As Pape notes, the rioters were not all from “deep-red” counties or states: “Some 52 % are from blue counties that Biden comfortably won.” But as his Post op-ed describing the research findings explains, a consistent majority of the insurrectionists lived in counties that had rapidly diversified in recent years. Pape uses Texas, home to many of the rioters, as an example:...

More,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/6/2024696/-Study-suggests-the-Jan-6-riots-were-motivated-by-racism-and-white-resentment-not-election-fraud

[tulipsandroses]

1. I could have saved him the time and money and told him that. Its really not that complicated

Racist fucks are not that hard to figure out. The real problem is why anyone wants to keep studying these folks. Its always something, economic anxiety, stolen election. Code word for we are racist.

[chia]

2. Surprise! Said no one, ever....

[doc03]

3. Stop the Steal was their excuse. nt

[appalachiablue]

4. How I remember, the slogan was all over-

anything but the truth!

[doc03]

5. And now we find out it was to take his supporters

money to pay off his campaign fraud.

[appalachiablue]

6. Yes, the Grift, samo