Does political distrust generate a desire to engage in the political process or does it foster demobilization? Utilizing a theoretical framework rooted in government experiences and a mixed-methods research design, this article highlights the racially contingent meaning of political distrust to show that both relationships exist. For Whites, distrust is tied to a perception of tax dollars being poorly spent, leading to increased political involvement as Whites to try to gain control over “their” investment in government. For People of Color, distrust of government is grounded in a fear of the criminal justice system, and thus drives disengagement by motivating a desire for invisibility in relation to the state. Ultimately, this finding highlights a previously unseen racial heterogeneity in the political consequences of distrust. Further, it demonstrates how the state perpetuates racially patterned political inequality in a time when many of the formal laws engendering this dynamic have fallen away.

政治上的不信任是否会产生参与政治进程的愿望，还是促进复员？本文利用植根于政府经验的理论框架和混合方法的研究设计，强调了政治不信任的种族特有含义，以表明这两种关系都存在。对于白人来说，不信任与对税收美元支出不佳的看法有关，导致白人参与试图获得对其“政府”投资的控制权，从而增加了政治参与。对于有色人种，政府的不信任基于对刑事司法制度的恐惧，因此通过激发人们对国家隐形的欲望而驱使脱离接触。最终，这一发现突显了在不信任的政治后果中以前看不见的种族异质性。进一步，