Racialized Emotions: Happiness and Pleasure in American Racism

This article addresses Dr. Eduardo Bonilla‐Silva's challenge to examine positive emotions as part of racism, a concept he labeled Racialized Emotions. For good reason, contemporary scholars often emphasize negative attitudes and emotions associated with modern‐day racism and how they hinder support for racial policies and political actors. However, we argue that reflections on racially controversial policies and political actors can produce positive emotions among individuals who hold racist viewpoints as well. Using data from the 2018 American National Election Study pilot study, we analyze emotional reactions to Donald Trump as a case study of how an authority figure can shape racialized emotions. Our findings reveal that higher levels of racial resentment and group threat are linked to increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions in response to Trump's actions and rhetoric. This supports the notion that racism can have emotional benefits, highlighting a positive emotional side of racism that is often ignored in the media and scholarship.