Anti-minority attitudes and Tea Party Movement membership

In 2009, shortly after the election of the United States' first black President, a new protest movement emerged. When some supporters of this new Tea Party Movement (TPM) expressed their ire with race-laden messages various commentators suggested that racism may be a major motive for TPM activism. Accordingly, this study draws on national survey data to examine the extent to which racial attitudes and conservative ideology are associated with self-declared membership in the TPM while controlling for contextual factors that have proven influential in other rightist movement research. Key findings reveal that aside from conservative political ideology, racial resentment is indeed among the strongest predictors of TPM membership. Supplemental analyses explore the extent to which conservatives differ from TPM members. The results show that very conservative individuals and TPM members evince similar attitudes. The findings are discussed in terms of contemporary race relations and the implications for future social movement research.