Decentering the “White Working Class”

Abstract

This essay is a review of William Connolly’s Aspirational Fascim, and thus an extended analysis of the intersection of affect, race, class, and democracy. Connolly explores the role of negative affective contagion in mobilizing aggrieved white working class communities and argues for more inclusive pluralistic democracy and the use of positive affective democratic contagion to resist fascism. But he limits the radical potential of his argument because he focuses primarily on the white working class, thereby paying too little attention to the negative affective experiences of the trauma of racism. He should also interrogate not only fascist but also other types of negative affective support for Trump. I frame the essay as an invitation for productive engagement and conversation with Connolly.