Responses to the Unite the Right Rally: Perceptions, Stress, and the Moderating Role of Interpersonal Proximity

Demonstrations led by right-wing extremist groups and racially motivated hate crimes have increased significantly since the 2016 election of Donald Trump (Edwards and Rushin in The effect of Trump’s election on hate crimes. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3102652 , 2018). However, few studies have examined racially marginalized (RM) persons’ perceptions of such events or their potential impact on mental health for this population. Thus, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the association between RM individuals’ perceptions of the 2017 Unite the Right rally as a racially motivated hate crime and subsequent perceived stress. Additionally, we investigated the moderating role of interpersonal proximity (i.e., direct or indirect knowledge of someone personally affected by the events that occurred at the rally) in the relationship between hate crime perceptions and stress. Survey data were collected from 388 RM adults living in Virginia at the time of the rally. Our results suggest that perceiving the rally as a hate crime was positively associated with greater levels of stress. Moreover, interpersonal proximity moderated this association, such that the relationship between hate crime perceptions and stress was significant and positive for those who knew someone affected by the rally, but unrelated for RM people who did not know someone affected by the rally. Implications and future directions are discussed.