“Breaking Bad” in Black and White: What Ideological Deviance Can Tell Us about the Construction of “Authentic” Racial Identities

This article contributes to the study of racial-group politics by examining how Black and White Americans create authentic racial identities through the regulation of ideological adherence to color-consciousness and color-blindness, respectively. The article first theorizes about the relationship between racial ideology and racial authenticity. We then illustrate our hypotheses through an analysis of responses of Black and White racial group members to Black conservatives and White racial justice activists, whose viewpoints and agendas are read as contradictory to the broad goals of the majority of their racial counterparts. We explore, through an examination of empirical instances of chastisement, exclusion, and public de-authentication of individuals who deviate from the dominant ideology of their racial group, some of the ways Black and White Americans attempt to control in-group political behavior and to enforce indigenous standards for group-based public representation.

Photo Left: Police Accountability Protest Seattle. Protest in downtown Seattle protesting police brutality against Blacks in Ferguson and in the Eric Garner shooting. Protest was on January 10, 2015. Flikr user scottlum

Photo Right: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Jeff Kennel on Flikr.