The term commonly refers to a political voting bloc which emerged in the early 1990s as a reaction to perceived injustices faced by white men in the face of
affirmative action quotas in the workplace, much like how the
Reagan Democrat bloc emerged a decade earlier.[5] Angry white men are characterized as having animosity toward young people, women or minorities, and liberalism in general.[6]Donald Trump's male supporters have been described by some political commentators as angry white men.[7][8][9][10]
Australia
It appeared during Australia's
1998 federal elections.[11] New political parties appeared in that election due to the preexisting
fathers' rights movement in Australia. These included the Abolish Family Support/Family Court Party and the
Family Law Reform Party.[11] Similar to the usage of the term in the United States, the Australian men categorized as angry white men opposed what they perceived as the feminist agenda. These political parties were created as a reaction to the historic number of women elected to the House of Representatives.[11] Members of these groups claimed that "feminists have entrenched themselves in positions of power and influence in government and are using their power to victimise men".[11]
Senator
Eric Abetz from the centre-right
Liberal Party, arguing against
Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, said in 2016 that it was "passing strange" that the
Australian Human Rights Commission does not seem to care about what he perceives as "racist terminology" such as angry white man, but does care if another color is used to describe someone. "One cannot help but think that the term 'white' can only refer to skin colour and therefore [you] are making reference to a skin colour [and] one assumes it must have been on the basis of race that the comment was made", he commented.[12]
^Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2006, angry white male n. (also with capital initials) Polit. (orig. and chiefly U.S.) a (usually working-class) white man with-right wing views (typically including opposition to liberal anti-discriminatory policies), esp. viewed as representing an influential class of voter
^
abcdSawer, Marian (1999). "EMILY'S LIST and angry white men: Gender wars in the nineties". Journal of Australian Studies. 23 (62). Perth, Australia: Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology: 1–9.
doi:
10.1080/14443059909387494.