Dimensions of Blackness

Racial Identity and Political Beliefs

Jas M. Sullivan, Jonathan Winburn, William E. Cross Jr.

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781438471600, 9781438471617
• eBook ISBN: 9781438471624
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

While the dynamics of racial oppression limit the range of attitudes blacks may construct and hold, their basic humanity introduces additional attitudinal variance that is nearly boundless. Rather than claim it is possible to conceptualize and measure every iteration of blackness, modern social theorists such as Robert Sellers and William Cross Jr. contend that one should systematically "sample" the unmanageable range of different identity frames found among blacks. In Dimensions of Blackness, the authors suggest there is no single, solitary way to express black racial identity. They move away from blackness as binary and instead reveal what happens when black racial identity is conceptualized with "difference of opinion." Using a multidimensional perspective this book explores whether black racial identity differences among blacks influence political attitudes and behavior.

1Understanding Black Racial Identity

As the tragic events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, unfolded in the fall of 2014, much of the mainstream print and television media’s portrayal of events focused on issues of black and white. In much of this rhetoric was a presentation of the “black” view as a single, unified voice surrounding the tragic, complicated, and often confusing events of the death of Michael Brown and the subsequent protests and riots, followed by the non-indictment by the grand jury, which fostered more protests and riots. When former National Basketball Association (NBA) star and current NBA analyst Charles Barkley spoke out against the protests and riots, it stirred a controversy. In a series of back-and-forth open letters between Barkley and current cohost and former NBA player, Kenny Smith, Barkley said, “Listen man, I know that I’m Black and I’m always going to be. I know anytime I disagree with Black people I’m going to be a sell-out or an Uncle Tom.”1

During the 2012 presidential election, actor Stacey Dash, most notably from the movie Clueless, endorsed Mitt Romney for president. This endorsement by a black celebrity for a white candidate over a very popular black incumbent president set off a firestorm. Comments on social media ranged from calling Dash an “airhead, a “nobody,” and an “indoor slave,” to suggesting she was “no longer Black.” Even Samuel L. Jackson posted on Twitter: “Is Stacey Dash crazy?” There was so much animosity, Dash responded by saying, “The fury, I really don’t understand the fury. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. … But you know what, you can’t expect everyone to agree with you. I was shocked, saddened. Not angry.”2 She went on to argue that

It’s my right as an American citizen, it’s my constitutional right to have my choice to who I want to vote for President. And I chose him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.3

When Barack Obama announced that he was entering an already-crowded field of contenders vying to be the president of the United States, he attracted a great deal of attention from political pundits and white Democrats. However, there was some ambivalence among blacks toward his candidacy. According to the Washington Post-ABC poll taken December 2006 and January 2007, Hillary Clinton was “preferred” three to one over Obama by black Democrats, and four out of five black Democrats viewed her “more favorably” than Obama.4 Even in the early primary season, some black legislators endorsed Clinton instead of Obama, and the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, said she was “99 percent sure her group would not support Obama en masse the way the powerful women’s political organization Emily’s List was backing Hillary Clinton.”5 It was certainly not the type of reception the black electorate often gave to a black Democratic candidate. Based on precedent, black Democratic candidates have often enjoyed strong support among blacks and have struggled mightily to gain support among whites. In this case, oddly enough, Obama found himself as a stranger working diligently to gain the support of blacks.

What then was holding blacks back from supporting Obama? Was it his policies? Voters didn’t clearly know what those were early on. So it was difficult to say that was the reason. Was it his political inexperience? There had been other black candidates with less political experience. Neither Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton held elected positions, but they, while unsuccessful, ran for the presidency. So that didn’t seem like a probable reason. Was it his race? While no one in the black community questioned whether Obama was black (regarding skin color), there was a considerable amount of questions surrounding his “blackness.” In other words, was he “black” enough?

Some suggested that questions regarding Obama’s blackness were linked to his background. Obama was born to a white mother from Kansas and a black Kenyan father, raised in Hawaii by his white grandparents, and had spent a few years in Indonesia with his Indonesian stepfather. Even Obama realized “there were elements within the black community who might suggest ‘Well, he’s from Hyde Park’ or ‘He went to Harvard’ or ‘He was born in Hawaii, so he might not be Black enough’ ” (Fletcher, 2007). However, Obama explained in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “I’ve never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race, or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe.” Nevertheless, his background and experiences had created a situation in which Debra J. Dickerson, a black author and essayist, declared that “Obama isn’t Black”6 in the American racial context, “because he does not embody the experiences of most Blacks whose ancestors endured slavery, segregation, and the bitter struggle for civil rights.”7 Dickerson further explained

I’ve got nothing but love for the brother, but we don’t have anything in common. His father was African. His mother was a white woman. He grew up with white grandparents. Now, I’m willing to adopt him. He married black. He acts black. But there’s a lot of distance between black Africans and African-Americans.8

According to Ron Walters, “They [blacks] have a right to be somewhat suspicious of people who come into the country and don’t share their experiences.”9

These cases show opposing views within the black community, which is often a surprise to many, since generally it has been portrayed that all blacks think alike. Prior research has shown that black intragroup racial identity differences exist, and, consequently, in this chapter we discuss the following: 1) theories and conceptualizations of black racial identity, 2) black racial identity formation, and 3) its effect specifically on politics and measurement of black racial identity (both multidimensional and unidimensional). Beyond simply outlining the difference between the type of measures, this chapter lays the foundation for the movement away from a sole reliance on unidimensional measures to the adoption of multidimensional measures in political research.

Defining and Conceptualizing Black Racial Identity

Generally, the concept of black racial identity is ambiguous and socially constructed. It implies a “consciousness of self within a particular group.” It has been viewed as the “meanings a person attributes to the self as an object in a social situation or social role,”10 and it relates to a “sense of people-hood, which provides a sense of belonging.”11 Black racial identity is “emerging, changing, and complex,”12 and “there is no one identity among Blacks that can be delineated, as social scientists have sometimes suggested, but many complex and changing identities among them.”13 The “level of uncertainty about the nature of Black racial identity”14 and the “indicative confusion about the topic”15 is illustrated by the lack of a standard definition. Nevertheless, according to symbolic interactionism, “racial identity is treated as one of the many identities contained within self,”16 and it is given fundamental and overriding importance in the United States. Winant (1995) explained

Racial identity outweighs all other identities. We are compelled to think racially, to use the racial categories and the meaning systems into which we have been socialized. … It is not possible to be “color blind,” for race is a basic element of our identity. … For better or worse, without a clear racial identity, an American is in danger of having no identity.17

Due to its multifaceted nature, black racial identity has been conceptualized by scholars in a variety of different ways, including “racial categorization,” “common fate or linked fate,” “racial salience,” “closeness,” “Black separatism,” “racial self-esteem,” “Africentrism,” “racial solidarity,” and “racial awareness and consciousness.”18 Others suggest that black racial identity has “multiple dimensions,” and formation occurs over time through various “stages.”19

Some researchers studying racial identity have focused on universal aspects of group identity, using blacks as an example. Gains and Reed (1994) refer to this work as part of the mainstream approach.20 Researchers of the mainstream perspective typically employ measures of group identity that are applicable to a variety of groups.21 Much of the early mainstream perspective research defined racial identity based on a group’s stigma and status in society. The earliest sociological research investigated the racial preferences and self-identification of children, which was determined by having children select between white and black stimuli such as dolls.22 Based on this work, researchers concluded that black children had a more negative orientation to their own race than white children. Consequently, blacks’ “self-hatred” became a staple in much of the early work from the mainstream perspective.23

In the late 1960s, researchers began to redefine black racial identity based on the uniqueness of black oppression and cultural experiences. William Cross (1971) defined the concept as stages of identity that change across an individual’s lifetime. He called this process “nigrescence” or a resocializing experience that “seeks to transform a preexisting identity (a non-Afrocentric identity) into one that is Afrocentric.”24 This research constituted an Afrocentric approach, or what Gains and Reed referred to as the “underground perspective.”25 The underground (or Afrocentric) approach emphasizes “the experiential properties associated with the unique historical and cultural influences associated with the African American experience,” and for this reason, Afrocentric theorists argue against using models based on other racial or ethnic groups to explain the experiences of blacks.26

Afrocentric researchers have defined racial identity based on physical characteristics, cultural and political alliances, ancestry, and history. Sanders Thompson defined it as “a psychological attachment to one of several social categories available to individuals when the category selected is based on race or skin color and/or a common history, particularly as it relates to oppression and discrimination due to skin color.”27 For Sanders Thompson, racial identification is particularly significant for blacks because it provides insight into the unique psychological orientation resulting from sustained disparities in the historical conditions of racial groups in American society.

A pivotal component of Afrocentrism is the measure of adherence to the seven principles (or Nguza Saba) of the Afrocentric worldview. These Afrocentric principles are essentially “codes of conduct for daily life” that “represent guidelines for healthy living.”28 The main tenets include umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity), and imani (faith). These tenets are symbolic and philosophical and not empirical and materialistic, as many consider the Eurocentric model.29

Research in the underground approach has also defined racial identity by describing what it means to be “black.” For example, Sellers, et al., referred to racial identity as “the significance and meaning that African Americans place on race in defining themselves.”30 Put another way, this research provides “identity profiles” regarding individuals’ feelings about their racial group membership. These profiles can vary “as a function of identity development,” as described in Cross’s nigrescence model, “or exposure to a fostering sociocultural environment,” as seen in Baldwin’s African Self-Consciousness model.31 Together, the diversity in these definitions illustrates the complexity of racial identity among blacks. Recognizing this complexity, scholars have developed different measures that tap identity. These measures are often clumped into two major categories—multi-dimensional and unitary measures.

Formation of Black Racial Identity

Black racial identity formation is produced by the everyday “interactions and challenges” that an individual encounters.32 It is “dynamic and changing over time, as people explore and make decisions about the role...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Understanding Black Racial Identity
• Chapter 2 Measuring and Analyzing the Influence of Multidimensional Racial Identity
• Chapter 3 Social Dominance Orientation
• Chapter 4 Black Nationalism and Racial Attitudes
• Chapter 5 Policy Attitudes
• Chapter 6 Political Participation
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Models for Single-Item Measures
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover