Black Politics Today

The Era of Socioeconomic Transition

Theodore J. Davis Jr.

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136975202
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica

The late 1980s ushered in a new era of black politics, the socioeconomic transition era. Coming on the heels of the protest era and politics era, the current stage is characterized by the emergence of a new black middle class that came of age after the Civil Rights struggle. Although class still isn't a strong factor in the external politics of the black community, it is increasingly a wedge issue in the community's internal politics. Black politics today is increasingly less about the interest of the larger group and more about the interest of smaller subgroups within the community.

Theodore J. Davis Jr. argues that the greatest threat to the social and political cohesiveness of the so-called black community may be the rise of a socially and economically privileged group among the ranks of black America. This rift has affected blacks' ability to organize effectively and influence politics. Davis traces the changes in economic status, public opinion, political power and participation, and leadership over three generations of black politics. The result is an insightful analysis of black politics today.

1

BLACK POLITICS TODAY

The evolution

With the election of the first U.S. president of African heritage in 2008, one could make several claims about black politics today. For one, it could be argued that black politics has matured and become an integral part of American politics. No longer would the statement “not in my life time” be heard when asking about the prospects of a president of African heritage. It could also be argued that the election of the first president of African heritage was a clear indication that black politics was no longer in its infancy or to be considered fringe politics. That black candidates were now acceptable to significant segments of population beyond the black community and that America had become a post-racial society. Likewise, it could be argued that black politics had moved (or was moving) into a new phase, a new era. That President Obama offered black politics a “paradigmatic atmosphere of ‘hope,’ ‘change,’ and ‘Yes We Can,’ which captured, renewed, and revitalized the faith of an intergenerational remix of people both across the nation and around the world.”¹ Finally, it could be said that the election of the first president of African heritage represents “the rebirth of black politics” and “resurrection of black consciousness.”²

At the other end of the spectrum, it could be argued that the election of Barack Obama was the beginning of the end of black politics. That since the 1970s, there has been sufficient evidence of a black political culture that’s decaying, and that effective, results-oriented politics was being replaced with rhetoric and symbolism.³ That Barack Obama’s election represented a “generational transition that was reordering black politics” and embracing “the idea that black politics might now be disappearing into American politics in the same way the Irish and Italian machines long ago joined the political mainstream.”⁴ Regardless of which position one takes, several things are characteristically different about black politics today when compared with black politics in the past.

First, since the 1980s black politics has moved beyond protest politics and seeking mass political participation. Over the years, there has been an evolutionary change in the elected positions that black politicians have sought and whom they pursued as their electoral constituents. Black politicians in the 1960s and 1970s primarily sought local positions and those representing predominantly black constituencies. As a result, there was a large number of blacks elected to city and county councils, followed by school boards and elected law enforcement offices. There were a few blacks holding mayoral positions in municipalities where blacks were a sizeable majority of the population. During the 1970s and late 1980s, black politicians began to successfully seek federal and state legislative offices representing majority black districts. The late 1990s ushered in a new trend in the type of elected office sought by black politicians. More and more black politicians sought statewide executive and legislative (U.S. Senate) positions. In addition, an increasing number of black politicians sought local and state offices in which the electoral districts were not predominately black. Today’s black politicians are also no longer wedded exclusively to the Democratic Party. In 2010, there were more than 30 black candidates who ran for Congress as Republicans⁵ further removing themselves from black politics as it was once known. Although Obama was not the first person of African heritage to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president (Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Carol Moseley-Braun and Al Sharpton all sought the nomination), he was the first to have significant appeal to groups outside of the black community enabling him to win the nomination.

Second, over the years the link between black politicians and black politics has also changed. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a strong link between black politicians and black politics. Black politicians today are just as likely to distance themselves from “black politics” as they are to embrace it. The link has manifested itself over three waves: the civil rights wave, the technocratic wave and the transformative wave.⁶ Black politicians in the first wave (the civil rights black politicians) were very attached to the black community—attached to the extent that they were often accused of being involved in highly polarized elections and politics that appealed primarily to blacks, and the legacy of the civil rights politicians was described as “intense racial conflict.”⁷ For the first wave of black politicians, the civil rights movement served as valuable training ground.⁸ Furthermore, first-wave black politicians (along with black ministers) were the primary architects of black politics. For first-wave black politicians, black politics was the only path available to political office.

From the late 1970s into the early 1990s, the link between black politicians and black politics weakened somewhat as black politicians sought to expand their electoral base. Black politicians in the second wave were described as “technocrats” who promised to manage government in an effective and efficient manner while attempting to appeal to business owners and middle-class whites.⁹ Much of the pro-black political rhetoric of the 1960s and 1970s began to change (to soften) among this wave of black politicians in order to appeal to populations beyond blacks. Thus, this wave of black politicians looked toward broadening their political base by forming coalitions with other minority groups and white liberals. By the start of the millennium, the third wave of black politicians had begun to emerge. Third-wave black politicians were described as “transformative.”¹⁰ Third-wave black politicians looked to galvanize cross-racial segments of the population by building coalitions among various groups. Many of today’s black politicians have completely abandoned the pro-black political rhetoric of the past and the appeal exclusively to black voters. They have embraced a style of politicking that hardly focuses on race at all. Today’s black candidates are less likely to be leaders in the black community or to overtly tie themselves to black politics. Manning Marable wrote of the lack of a connection between black social and political institutions and today’s black politician.¹¹ For a growing minority of today’s black politicians the main link to black politics is through Democratic Party politics. Thus, the link between contemporary black politicians and black politics is somewhat weaker.

Finally, the political strategies employed by black politicians also make black politics today different from the past. Today’s black politicians tend to minimize the issue of race. Fraser refers to this as the “post-racial” or “post-black” model of black politics.¹² According to Fraser, under this model, candidates like Obama avoid focusing on issues of race and downplay their blackness. That’s not to say that race isn’t important to them; rather it is to suggest that there has been a shift in how race is dealt with in black politics. Prior to the passage of the civil and voting rights legislation of the 1960s, the electoral political strategy employed by black politicians was more a symbolic act of protest. Most blacks who ran for office did so without the expectation of winning; rather they sought to make a political statement. Many were well known individuals like Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois and others were lesser known black leaders like Ella Baker and James Ford who ran as third-party candidates seeking offices ranging from vice president to U.S. Senator.¹³ The political strategy employed by black politicians in the 1960s through the early 1980s was about empowerment and mass direct political action. There was nothing symbolic about their political intentions. Black politicians during the 1970s and early 1980s sought to make the black community a political force to be reckoned with while improving the social and economic quality of life within the black community. During this period, black politicians ran as representatives of the group and they directly appealed to and promoted political interests of the black population.

By the late 1980s, black politicians started to pull back from appealing exclusively to black voters and sought to expand the political base. Although today’s black politicians identify with the racial group and understand the issues confronting the black community, their campaigns tend not directly to promote the political interests of the black community. Many of today’s black politicians have embraced the idea that the best way to advance the cause of the black population is to advance the cause of all people. Obama, for example, employed an unconventional strategy of building his base among white liberals first and then working to attract black voters.¹⁴ This race-neutral strategy minimizes the fear of white voters who would be turned off by policy positions steered too closely to black interests.¹⁵ The logic was that running a campaign that explicitly addresses the issues facing blacks would derail black candidates’ chances of winning primary or general elections. This chapter continues with a brief discussion of the evolution of black politics and changes in the focus of black politics over time. Key to this discussion is the view that black politics has moved into a new era or new phase.

The Evolution of Black Politics

Unlike the politics of other minority groups, the foundations for black politics are the issues associated with historical roots, physical characteristics, and institutional practices of society. More specifically, black politics is a reaction to racism, racial oppression, and the socioeconomic plight of a people in a historical context. Over the years, several definitions of black politics have emerged. Black politics has been defined as the sum of the total actions, ideas, and efforts aimed at creating better conditions for African descended people in the U.S.; thus it is an agenda for raising the psychological, cultural or material quality of life.¹⁶ It has been defined as the purposeful activity of black people to acquire, use, and maintain power, and it reflects the historical tensions and constraints between and among black people and white people.¹⁷ It has been described as an empowerment process that includes holding office, enacting public policy, and raising the socioeconomic status of the black community.¹⁸ The definition used for our purpose augments previous definitions of black politics by describing it as the efforts by the black community to seek and effectively use power to influence the allocation of society’s resources and values. Additionally, black politics involves all of those activities engaged in by the black community to influence the political conduct of others: namely the white majority.

There is a uniqueness about black politics that sets it apart from the politics of other racial minorities. Black politics has been described as inextricably linked to the collective aspirations of a people to share in the social and economic security and opportunities allocated to others through a process that has often been undemocratic.¹⁹ The characteristic that most differentiates black politics from the politics of other groups is the idea of “struggle.”This struggle has manifested itself in many different ways over the years: 1) a struggle over strategy, 2) a struggle by the dominant group to maintain its power base, 3) a struggle to collaborate between and among black and white factions, and 4) a struggle for authority and participation in policy making.²⁰ Over the years, as new minority groups have emerged, the nature of majority/minority politics and “the struggle” has changed. In post-civil rights United States, the rules of binary racial politics no longer apply because racial politics is not just a black/white phenomenon anymore.²¹ Nevertheless, there is a uniqueness about black politics that distinguishes it from that of other racial and ethnic minorities and this uniqueness has led to black politics going through several periods of change since the 1950s.

The Protest Era

The first era of black politics coincided with the civil rights movement and was labeled the “Protest Era.” The Protest Era began to build momentum after World War II. In the initial phase of the Protest Era (the 1940s to late 1950s) the nature of black politics was legalistic. By this it is meant that the courts served as the platform for addressing the social and political injustices that blacks faced. Initiated by calls for justice by numerous individuals and civil rights organizations, efforts to increase blacks’ political influence and social quality of life were pursued within the formal legal structures of the political system (the courts). For the most part, these challenges were centered on two key provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. The equal protection clause requires states to provide the same protection of the law to all people within their jurisdictions; the due process clause states that the government must respect the legal rights of the individual and give them an opportunity to come before the law. There were numerous court cases that successfully used these provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to challenge discrimination in education, housing, and public accommodations.

At the same time, there were a number of informal and symbolic events that also moved the issues of political and social justice to the forefront of the nation’s agenda. Although there were many, and most occurring on the local front, perhaps key among them was Jackie Robinson’s integration of major league baseball and President Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces. Both events were noteworthy because they allowed blacks to be co-participants in two highly-visible and culturally and politically relevant institutions in society. In post-World War II America, baseball was the premier sporting activity. It was one of the ultimate symbols of American culture, producing many of the day’s heroes and it was a pastime shared by Americans of all races, age groups, and income levels. For the longest time baseball symbolically reinforced the ideal of racial segregation with one league for whites and another league for blacks. Jackie Robinson’s breaking of “the color line” in baseball was one of many symbolic acts indicating that it was time to move toward the inclusion of blacks into the social mainstream of America. Another important action occurred in 1946 when President Harry S. Truman wrote to the National Urban League saying “that the government has an obligation to see that the civil rights of every citizen are fully and equally protected.”²² In July of 1948, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 that ended racial segregation within the military. The significance of this order was the expansion of blacks’ role in defending the nation and thus symbolically giving blacks a meaningful stake and elevated political importance in society.

In the latter phase of the Protest Era (the late 1950s throughout the 1960s), the nature of blacks’ political activity became less legalistic and more about direct mass action. Blacks wanted more than symbolic changes in American social structure and they employed new tactics to bring awareness to their desires. All across America, blacks began to engage in various tactics to challenge discrimination, segregation and to gain access to the political system. There were numerous sit-ins, protest marches, and boycotts among other tactics. Sometimes these new tactics were organized and sometimes they were spontaneous. During the second phase of the Protest Era of black politics, blacks also began to use different methods to bring about change within the political system itself. They began to utilize the courts less and to make the most of the legislative process to change or initiate laws to extend civil and voting rights to blacks. The black community did so with a great deal of success.

Because of blacks’ political mobilization, Congress passed key pieces of legislation. The Civil Rights Acts of 1964²³ and 1968²⁴ had great social and political significance, especially several key titles in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that set the stage for changes in blacks’ social and political development, among them voting rights, injunctive relief against discrimination in places of public accommodation, public facilities, and public education. This 1964 Act also called for nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs and promised equal employment opportunities. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 opened doors to greater educational and employment opportunities for upwardly mobile and middle-class blacks. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing based on race, creed, or color. Also known as the Fair Housing Act, it was especially significant because it gave wealthier blacks an opportunity to reside in neighborhoods other than the predominately segregated ones that they had been forced to live in previously.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (renewed and expanded in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2007) further enhanced opportunities for political development by prohibiting discrimination against blacks and other groups seeking the right to vote.²⁵ It suspended literacy tests and authorized registration by federal registrars in places where these tests were used. Shortly after passage of the various Acts, blacks’ political activity increased. In addition, as a result of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, some blacks began to prosper economically, and major changes occurred in the social composition and development of the black community. The significance of the civil rights legislation...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Black Politics Today: The evolution
• 2. A Community in Transition and Dividing by Class
• 3. The Foundations for a Political Divide
• 4. Attitudes and Perceptions in Black and White: What They Suggest About Race and Politics
• 5. Blacks’ Public Opinion Today: A Question of Consensus
• 6. Black Politics and the Continuing Struggle for Political Influence in the Socioeconomic Transition Era
• 7. Black Political Leadership Today
• 8. Beyond Socioeconomic Status: Other Factors Influencing Black Politics Today
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index