He said what?! Group threat and explicit racial rhetoric in American politics

In recent years, the United States has witnessed a resurgence in the use of overt references to race and identity by politicians. This increase is surprising since previous studies in political communication and racial priming suggest that citizens reject explicit references to race. My dissertation examines why this change has occurred. I propose and find that when members of a dominant group feel threatened by a minority group, they are more likely to be receptive to denigrations of that minority group as their prejudice is activated in order to maintain their group position. Racially, when whites feel that their group's status on top of the racial hierarchy is threatened, they are more willing to tolerate overtly negative denigrations of African Americans and other racial minority groups. I use survey experiments, observational survey data, and analyses of congressional race television advertisements to evaluate and support my claims.Doctor of Philosoph