whitelash

See also: white-lash and white lash

English

Alternative forms

• white lash, white-lash

Etymology

Blend of white +‎ backlash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)waɪtlæʃ/
• Rhymes: -æʃ

Noun

whitelash (plural whitelashes)

1. A backlash by white people against other ethnicities. [from 1970]

   Coordinate term: blacklash

   • 1970 January, John H. Britton, “Into age of sick seventies”, in Jet magazine, page 7:

     This was the blacklash. The whitelash came, too, and blood flowed in the streets.

   • 1996, “'The Lash', 1977”, in Classroom Activities on Wisconsin Indian Treaties and Tribal Sovereignty, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, →ISBN, page 266:

     There are four ‘whitelash’ bills currently before Congress, designed to seriously undermine Native American rights [and] sovereignty, and treaty land.

   • 2000, David Myles Jones, A "new Breed" of Black Consciousness: Re-reading Gender, Ideology, and Generational Change in Neo-black Literature and Criticism, 1965-1975, Volume 2, University of Minnesota, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 406:

     for more on 'whitelash' reactions to militant black writing.

   • 2001, Fiona Mackay, Love and Politics: Women Politicians and the Ethics of Care, Continuum, →ISBN, page 75; n. 3.:

     There has been a particularly acute white backlash or 'whitelash' in the United States against affirmative action programmes which promote women and black men.

   • 2010, William Hairston, Suburban-Ghetto: A Novel, →ISBN, page 56:

     See how the white-lash gave Blacks and Latinos the blues! No way to claim investment profits shareholders lose!

   • 2016, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “Building a Multiracial Movement in the Trump Era”, in Anand Gopal, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Owen Jones, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, editors, The Anti-Inauguration: Building resistance in the Trump era, Haymarket Books, →ISBN:

     The best example of this is when CNN's Van Jones characterized Trump's election as revenge, or a 'whitelash,' against black voters, who overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

   • 2017, George Yancy, On Race: 34 Conversations in a Time of Crisis, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 7:

     My sense is that even Obama didn't see Trump coming; he didn't see the full extent of the whitelash. And it is that whitelash, the likes of which we have yet to see fully, that drives home the fierce urgency of now.

   • 2018, Miguel A. De La Torre, “Chapter 11: Deporter-in-Chief: Why Reject Christian Hospitality?”, in Juan M. Floyd-Thomas, Anthony B. Pinn, editors, Religion in the Age of Obama, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN:

     And while many accomplishments exist for celebrating during the Obama years, specifically in the midst of a Trump whitelash, Obama's immigration policies have been devastating to migrants south of the border

Anagrams

• whaleshit