Implicit Racism, Colorblindness, and Narrow Definitions of Discrimination: Why Some Whites Prefer "All Lives Matter" to "Black Lives Matter

First published: May 12, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12458

Commentary

The Black Lives Matter movement has been called "the civil rights issue of our time.

And the All Lives Matter (ALM) movement quickly emerged as a counter-response to the BLM movement. Previous research has examined several predictors of ALM support over BLM, but these do not include levels of racial bias, a potentially relevant construct of racism.

In a cross-sectional study (N = 287), a measure of racism (implicit and explicit) and an ideological stance on the construction of "racism" (discouraging perceptions of contemporary inequality and discrimination) were used in a study that examined the extent to which they could predict White participants' support for ALM.

Using multiple regression analysis, we found that implicit racism, colorblindness ideology, and narrowly defined boundaries of discrimination more positively predicted support for ALM than for BLM.

Explicit racism, collective narcissism, and right-wing political orientation did not predict support for ALM, nor did the (two-way) interaction of these predictors Implications for understanding the All LivesMatter movement are discussed.