great white hope

noun

variants or less commonly Great White Hope or white hope or White Hope

plural great white hopes also Great White Hopes or white hopes or White Hopes

1

a

: a white person (especially a contender for a title or position held by a Black person) who is seen as championing or representing white people

Note: This sense owes its existence to the racist backlash that occurred after American boxer Jack Johnson became the first Black world heavyweight champion in 1908. In its earliest uses, the phrase (which then more often took the form white hope or White Hope) referred to any of various white boxers regarded as having the potential to unseat Johnson. It later came to be applied in other contexts. In later uses, the forms great white hope and Great White Hope predominate.

Those who conceded, but resented my rightful claim to the [world heavyweight champion] title, started a turmoil by hunting a "white hope" or one who would regain the title for the white race.

—Jack Johnson

… the game broke out in a rash of White Hopes when Jack Johnson was champion …

—Jack Dempsey and Wesley Stout

The cause of all these words, all this excitement, all this passion, was not a political crisis or a natural catastrophe—it was a prize fight, the 1910 contest between Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, and Jim Jeffries, the great white hope of the western world.

—Lerone Bennett Jr.

There may be no more charged phrase in all of the American lexicon than "the great white hope." The term came into existence almost a century ago in the era of Jack Johnson, the great American heavyweight fighter who happened to be black.

—John Ridley

… by the time he [Bill Bradley] joined the Knicks in 1967—cast as a "great white hope" in a league increasingly led by Black players—he had grown uncomfortable with the attention.

—Paul Putz

"When white people with cultural power can define a moment with white protagonists, they'll do it. … if ever you can have a great white hope, you're going to have a great white hope. Racism is always afoot."

—Tongo Eisen-Martin, quoted in San Francisco Chronicle Datebook

Will Cook County get another Black state's attorney in Clayton Harris III, or will the white minority find a way to have Eileen Burke or Bob Fioretti as their great white hope come November? We shall see.

—Chicago Crusader

b

often offensive : someone or something on which many people's hopes are centered

Note: Although this meaning is superficially neutral, it is often considered offensive due to the term's racist origins.

2

disapproving : white savior

… [Dr. Nozella] Brown has seen outsiders come in before with investment plans and promises about turning the area around. … "They come in like the great white hope and (say) 'We're saving you'," said Brown …

—Suzanne King

… the collaborators … began to fear the story underplayed the experience of the Osage people and repeated tired tropes. "We didn't want to go much further with this great white hope saving Native Americans," says [screenwriter Eric] Roth.

—Rebecca Keegan

Word History

First Known Use

1911, in the meaning defined at sense 1a