The Birth of a Nation: Media and Racial Hate

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ang, Desmond
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201867
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1424-+
• 关键词: INSTRUMENTAL-VARIABLES; television; VIOLENCE; propaganda; origins; IMPACT; radio; south; movie; rise

摘要

This paper documents the impact of popular media on racial hate by examining the first American blockbuster: 1915's The Birth of a Nation, a fictional portrayal of the KKK's founding rife with rac-ist stereotypes. Exploiting the film's five-year road show, I find a sharp spike in lynchings and race riots coinciding with its arrival in a county. Instrumenting for road show destinations using the location of theaters prior to the movie's release, I show that the film significantly increased local Klan support in the 1920s. Road show counties continue to experience higher rates of hate crimes and hate groups a century later. (JEL J15, K42, L82, N31, N32, N41, Z13)