U.S. Election Results: What Do They Really Mean?

Running head: U.S. ELECTION RESULTS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN? 1

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Introduction

The focus of this essay will be to understand the recent election from a Social Psychology standpoint with resources that originate from the Social Psychology Network website (Plous,

1996-2016). The issues that will be discussed are to understand the U.S. Election results by race, gender and class, the threat of increasing diversity and what exactly is meant by that, potential impact on LGBT Rights, the Million Women March planned, what the U.S. Election results mean for science and coping with the stress associated with the post-election results. First, I will discuss the election results by race, gender and class.

Election Results by Race, Gender and Class

The election results that garnered Donald Trump a victory as the next President of the

United States created deep divisions in the United States amongst issues such as race, gender, class and education (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). White people and rich people of a higher income bracket were more likely to vote for Donald Trump (Tyson & Maniam, November

9, 2016). As well, White people and rich people who were of the male gender were more likely to vote for Donald Trump (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). There were many rich White women that did vote for Hilary Clinton (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). Understanding that Hilary Clinton had prior experience in the White House and also was extremely knowledgeable on international issues garnered Hilary Clinton many votes from the rich White female elite, as well as some of the rich White male elite as well (Tyson & Maniam, November

9, 2016). Hilary Clinton also received many votes from the Black, Hispanic, Asian, Aboriginal,

South Asian and other rich people of color that were willing to have the potential of the first female American President and make history as this educated and rich set of people were the kinds of people that in many ways had also created their own sense of history in America with U.S. ELECTION RESULTS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN? 3 their success in the country (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). There were also some

People of Color that did not vote for Hilary Clinton due to cultural values that did not see it fit for a woman to be in public political office and this created divisions among the diverse of

Americans who are educated and rich towards voting for Hilary Clinton (Tyson & Maniam,

November 9, 2016).

Some cultures that do not hold a Western value system, including some White cultures as well, still see women as second-class citizens and Tyson & Maniam (November 9, 2016) note that if it was Hilary Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton running for re-election he would have stood a much better chance of beating Donald Trump in the presidential race for one of the top positions in the world to become president of the United States.

The Social Psychology of understanding the race, class, gender elements of the American election stem from understanding the deep social constructs that exist in America today (Tyson

& Maniam, November 9, 2016). In a county that is the largest human trafficker of female bodies in the world, it would be unlikely that there would be a female President of the United States any time soon (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). Understanding the way that a female body is understood by Americans, which can be easily understood with its hyper-sexualisation in the media and women such as Hilary Clinton who are smart, savvy, well-versed on political issues are not understood by men who still rule the world (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016).

As well, Donald Trump dominated the campaign with fickle and antagonizing issues at hand and took the lead in the campaign of trivializing the issues that really mattered – such as how to make America a great country again (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). Donald

Trump spent more time slinging arrows at Hilary Clinton and abusing the woman in a way that would be deemed criminal and deviant behavior by any social psychologist and understood as U.S. ELECTION RESULTS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN? 4 such (Tyson & Maniam, November 9, 2016). Next I will discuss from a Social Psychologist’s perspective the threat of increasing diversity.

Threat of Increasing Diversity

According to Major, Blodorn & Blascovich (October 20, 2016) many White Americans are extremely scared of the power that many diverse groups have in America. To understand the

White American mindset is to understand the historical background of the country which was built on the free labor of Africans that were enslaved and brought to America against their will – sold and battered to build America for free labor. Not only did the White America enslave

African Americans historically to build the country, however did not understand the differences in culture that existed among the New Africans to America and were scared and ignorant of why the Africans were different. They created what was known as a concept known as the “Inferior

Seed,” (Morrow, 1979). The differences of skin color, the differences of hair texture and style, the often hard-working nature of the Africans despite not being paid for their work, the often compliant attitudes of the New Africans to the subject and enforced labor that they were put under was actually something that many Whites admired, however as a collective force this admiration turned to jealousy and then the “superiority/inferiority” complexes needed to be established on a Social Psychology level in order to keep the Black people down and in their places as servants to the White Americans owners (Major, Blodorn & Blascovich, October 20,

2016). Treated worse than dogs are treated today, African Americans were lynched, laws were created that stripped them of all of their rights and they were subjected to slavery ultimately

(Morrow, 1979). White Americans know of this history and rather than repent from their sins and their potential guilt from these wrongdoings, they continue to force the issues of a superiority complex (which is really an inferiority complex in Social Psychology analysis) in U.S. ELECTION RESULTS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN? 5 order to push away the shame associated with such a horrific historical past (Major, Blodorn &

Blascovich, October 20, 2016). In other words, it is the fear of the unknown (Major, Blodorn &

Blascovich, October 20, 2016). People usually prefer to deal with people that look like them and particularly with a strong Christian elite emphasis in the United States, some of the thinking that supports Trump is based on old teachings of Christianity that are also historic in the United

States as well (Luther, October 31, 1517).

Conclusion

This essay has discussed the American Election results based on a social construct of

Social Psychology. Using the Social Psychology Network as a basis for the information and sources contained in this essay (Plous, 1996-2016). U.S. ELECTION RESULTS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN? 6

References

Luther, M. (October 31, 1517). 95 Theses. Retrieved from:

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/ninetyfive.txt

Major, B., Blodorn, A. & Blascovich, G. M. (October 20, 2016). The threat of increasing

diversity: Why Many White Americans Support Trump in the 2016 presidential election,

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. New York, New York: Sage Journals.

Retrieved from:

http://gpi.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/20/1368430216677304.abstract

Morrow, W. (1979). 40 Years Without a Comb. United States: William Morrow.

Plous, S. (1996-2016). Social Psychology Network, Wesleyan University. United States:

Wesleyan University. Retrieved from: https://www.socialpsychology.org/

Tyson, A. & Maniam, S. (November 9, 2016). Behind Trump’s Victory: Division by race,

gender, education, FactTank. United States: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/