Riptides: How the Spread of Racial Policies Fuels Volatility in American States

How does state-level policymaking contribute to the perpetual state of racial volatility in America? Riptides examines racialized policy diffusion through a unique framework that captures what motivates the speed and spread of racially progressive and regressive policies. It argues that the nation is locked in a constant competition between racial factions seeking to either preserve or dismantle racial hierarchies. States have, over time, developed and maintained policy cultures that reflect their commitment to and alignment in that competition over racial progress. The most innovative and influential states typically are among those with the broadest influence over the state policy landscape, and they have chosen sides in the policy conflict between white supremacists and transformative egalitarians. They parlay their broader influence into efforts to shape and reshape the racial policy condition in their states and beyond. Once innovated, racialized policies become highly contagious, as progressive and regressive policies diffuse simultaneously across a network of persistent, yet fragile, state-to-state relationships.

This book uses a novel social network analysis approach to map and analyze the spread of racially progressive and regressive policies from state to state to capture the political, social, and racial dynamics that have informed racialized policy innovation and diffusion processes since the Civil Rights Movement. In turn, it sheds light on how policy diffusion is a racialized process, how racialized policies diffuse, and how states use policy innovation and diffusion to shape and reshape the racial condition in America.