Emotions as a Mobilization Catalyst? Evidence on Antiracist Protest from a Cross-Sectional Survey in Germany

In recent years, antiracism has gained increasing prominence not only in the U.S. but also in various European countries, where ten thousand of persons have been mobilized online and offline in summer 2020. While participation and public support of Black Lives Matter as the most prominent contemporary antiracist protest campaign are extensively researched for the U.S. context, large-N empirical analyses of antiracist mobilization in European societies are still lacking. Given the distinct histories of antiracist mobilization, discourses on racism and the distinct demographic compositions in the U.S. and in European countries, it is plausible to expect that patterns of participation differ across space. Against this background, this paper seeks to make an empirical contribution to the understanding of antiracism outside the U.S. and to advance theoretical debates on drivers of political mobilizations by racialized groups and ‘conscience constituents’. From the recent proliferation of literature on antiracist mobilizations in the United States, it can be inferred that these are significantly more diverse in the composition of participants, younger, and more intersectional in their range of issues than other mobilizations. The literature on immigrant mobilization also shows that immigrants' own experiences of discrimination can act as a mobilizing factor. Accordingly, from a theoretical point of view, antiracist mobilizations urge for a reengagement with varying mobilization patterns of racialized individuals defending their own interests and others acting in solidarity. In this paper, we suggest emotions to be key in explaining participation in antiracist protest action for both racialized and non-racialized individuals. Based on a representative survey on the topic of racism in Germany (N=5003) conducted between April and August 2021, we argue it is the combination of a direct or indirect experience of racism and a strong emotional reaction to this experience, which increases the probability of antiracist engagement.