Social Issues Essay

Without a certain degree of control over the governmental levels of power, blacks end up disproportionately dependent on white-created legislation and white administration of those laws (Pohlmann, 219). The potential dangers of gerrymandering involves the distribution of blacks into districts where they are diluted into a minority or the creation of districts where blacks are an excessive majority so that an overall district majority white can be achieved (Thornburgh v. Gingles, 31). These redistricting plans severely hindered blacks ability to vote for a representative of their choice (1). However, in order to stem the progress of racially discriminating gerrymandering, these districts are examined based on the impact and district composition

1828 was the true year America became a democracy, because finally all white men were able to vote. Prior to this there were restrictions such as land and taxes thet prevented a large amount of white men from voting. In 1828 they all could which was supposembly a true democratic nation. But, it was until 1920 that woman were given this same right, and not until 1965 that there was a law in place that prohibited the refusal of voters based on skin color, which truly gave African Americans the security to vote. Now that everyone can vote, different patterns occur over all the different demographic groups in relation to public opinion, political party affiliations, and electons. These different demographic groups include, but are not limited

Author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and an associate professor here at Ohio State, wrote an article “Why Hilary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote.” This article not only touches on how Hilary Clinton is only using black people as her “winning card (Alexander, 2)” in the 2016 Election, but also her past decisions she made as the wife of the 42nd President of the United States that should be taken into consideration by black voters. Mrs. Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the two Democratic Party presidential candidates. Although Bernie Sanders promises “a political revolution that will bring universal healthcare, a living wage, an end to rampant Wall Street greed, and the dismantling of the vast prison state...(Alexander, 5),” Hilary Clinton seems to be receiving all of the black votes, according to recent polls. Alexander explains that because many African Americans believed (and still believe) that Bill Clinton was the first “black president,” Ms. Clinton will receive several black votes.

The topic of race, redistricting, and minority representation in Congress has emerged as one of the most salient issues in contemporary political thought. The creation of so‑called majority minority districts has been attacked as unfair and racially polarizing by some observers and ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The study of race in relation to American politics and institutions, and, in particular, to the institution of Congress, has produced a wealth of research and literature in recent years. This scope of budding research ranges from legislative activity and Congressional voting to the electoral process and campaigning. This study examines the effects of

In the south during the 1980’s the Democratic Party gained strength and a solid foothold. This time was known as the “Solid South.” It was called this due to the fact that white powerful democrats were able to get elected anyone they wanted using a variety of underhanded tactics including fraud, violence and blatantly racist laws.

The response the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party got was that the Democratic Party wanted to seat all whites, but they protested against it and wanted whites and African Americans. Many people of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party came all over to protest and fight to win, but they failed to win because they also turned down the second offer they got asked. These events reveal that the political system is formed by people voting for what they believe in and standing for what’s right.

In her article “Black Conservatism in America,” Angela K. Lewis delves into the intricacies of black political affiliation and identification. Lewis, an assistant professor of government at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has done extensive research into the formation and types of black conservatism. She states that the current discussions on black conservatism fail to include any historical information, implying that black conservatism is a newly-formed ideology. Lewis’ research seeks to fill the gaps that currently exist by tracing the development of black conservatism. Specifically, this research aims to trace the levels of black conservatism over the last 25 years and to enumerate the support, if any, of black conservatism in the

As University of Chicago professor Dr. Michael Dawson explains in his book Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics, Washington’s dismissal of “mainstream opinion of the black population” alienates black voters. Magnifying this alienation is the fact that President Obama, the most identifiable figure in black political America, contributes to this dismissive rhetoric, Dawson calling Obama “out of step with the mainstream of black America.” Indeed, with the most racially inclusive political climate in American history, the pervading sentiment among blacks about their future in the United States remains pessimistic. Likely attributable to the aforementioned perceived ideological disconnection, black pessimism harmfully yet inevitably dictates the voting tendencies of a powerful bloc: “…Barack Obama, the centrist candidate who sought to bury race as an issue…quite likely owes his election to the continued power of black nationalism.” Only Washington can reverse this pessimism, and sentencing reform, an issue of great importance to the black community at large, is an opportunity for Washington to both demonstrate its commitment to black voters and shift black political sentiment from pessimism to

David Axelrod a major political consultant, who had worked on prominent Black political figures’ campaigns, Harold Washington, John Street, Michael White, and Dennis Archer, all who became mayors of major cities who sold these non-threatening images to white voters (p. 151). Projecting Obama as a candidate who represents all of America, racially mixed, brought up in a single parent home raised by his white mother, brilliant Harvard Law professor and the typical “All American Boy” done good, endeared him to both Whites and Blacks. Bringing in many powerful Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy and others that counteracted support for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was another smart move (p.154). Blacks on the other hand don not have many options in elections for national offices, such as President, Senator etc., so whoever wins the Democratic candidacy for office can count on the majority of them to cast their votes for them. In the final tallies in November 2008, Obama became the first Black Elected President of the United States, and the policies of not addressing race along with the positive display of a “race-neutral” candidate won over the majority of America (p.

From the beginning of racial divides in society, minorities, specifically Blacks, have been discriminated against their voting rights. They have not only been unrepresented in the number of candidates running for positions but also the number of voters who are registered and participate in elections. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was prohibited for voters to be racially discriminated against. But since then, many revisions have been added, tightening the rules for registering and participating in voting. Many of these rules prevent minorities from voting but aren’t considered racially discriminatory by the Supreme Court. These laws usually are created by Republican politicians, right before a major election, and in result help decrease the number of votes on the Democratic ballot, since most minorities vote Democratic. Although these laws don’t really change, some are challenged and removed by the Supreme Court on the argument that they prevent certain races from being able to vote. Throughout history, Blacks and other minorities have been targeted and prevented from participating in elections, hurting Democratic candidates through strict voting laws created by Republicans.

Instead of Clinton only appealing her politics for the race to the Black-Americans, she has begun to use her second strategy. Clinton’s second tactic allows her to attract the votes of conservative and moderate White-Americans. Additionally, since a large amount of support for Hillary Clinton’s campaign is solidified by Black-Americans, Hillary will continue to increases her winning percentage for presidency by obtaining White votes. In another excerpt from the column, Key Bloc of Black Mayors to Back Hillary Clinton, Perry Bacon Jr. illustrates the overwhelming Black support of Hillary Clinton. He states: “Clinton's strong support among African-Americans, favor the former secretary of state over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by over 50 points in many polls” (NBC News). As a result of this, Clinton has realized that she earned the admiration, support, and trust of Blacks-Americans to an extent of not being fearful of losing their votes. Although her racial moderate remarks will naturally cause her to lose a small fraction of Black voters, it is crucial to understand that many other Blacks will remain loyal and continue to support her. Additionally, this is because the Clinton campaign has done an excellent job in appealing to the socioeconomic empathy of African-Americans. Evidence of the Clinton campaign becoming more

George Wallace (Democrat) led a social movement so angry and powerful that he forced Richard Nixon (Republican) to learn the art of fully exploiting white voter’s racial fears without running openly racist campaigns or governing in a racist way. Since then, people with presidential aspirations and the presidents themselves have evolved and refined these tricks into racially coded political advertisements, slogans, and symbolically charged events. George Wallace came into power by leading a social movement that was based on exploiting white voter’s racial fears. At the beginning, the Democrat’s positions were openly racist. Wallace started exploiting white voter’s racial fears when he stated “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” Eventually, talk of race came to be “coded” into politics, like issues of “welfare reform.” Most candidates in today’s world would not openly incite racism.

Moreover, Trump is not the first republican president to base his politics upon racist fears but the term, “Southern strategy.” was instead popularized by political strategists like Richard Nixon and Kevin Philips in the 1960s. With the enforcement of The Voting Rights Act, many Negroes were registering as Democrats in the South as the majority of whites who were Negrophobe started quitting the Democrats and realigning with the republicans. In this case scenario, the Whites are seen moving to Republican Party because of the blacks’ registration as democrats otherwise without this change of events the whites would be very comfortable with their old comfortable arrangement with the local democrats. Revelation by Philips that racism resulted in political profits led to politicians like

Race sometimes can be difficult to pinpoint with voting behavior, but it has been done. Griffin and Newman (2013) were able to conduct an experiment centering around the voting behavior of African Americans. Africans Americans tend be subjected to middle and lower social classes. In their experiment they found that African Americans will solely be more attracted to the Democratic Party because of the issues that party chooses to tackle. Griffin and Newman stated, “The prospect of African Americans beginning to vote for Republicans seems unlikely at present.” The experiment conducted by Griffin and Newman brings up many points. For example, they mention that Democratic candidates often focus on African Americans when campaigning because the Black population makes up a good part of society and their issues are important. Many minorities are often targeted by the Democratic Party because of their efforts regarding civil rights laws. In their research Griffin and Newman mentions, “When Republicans appeal to African Americans, they often do so explicitly with the reasoning that Democrats have no incentive to maintain African Americans’ support and do little to maintain it.” Halley, Acock, and Greene (1976) was also able to show the correlation with African Americans tending to vote for Liberal candidates. In this experiment they were also able to expand in racial groups; which now included Latino and Caucasians. In their experiment they found that Latinos tend to also vote for Liberal candidates, while Caucasians seemed to sympathize with the Republican Party. The experiments conducted by Griffin, Newman, Halley, Acock, and Greene has allowed for a correlation between party identification and race to be found. While it is interesting there is one more indicator that should be looked

The African American group has leaned towards the democratic vote since John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson, this extreme change of voting occurred during the Civil Rights movement when both of these men were “outlawing public discrimination, and garnering 94% of the black vote” (University of California, 1). This demographic group is rapidly growing due to the fact that it is an ethnicity, and that they have always voted democrat for the beliefs and role the democrats have played in order to better the specific race. The 2016 election proved once again to be a great success for the democrats when it came time for the African American support, this is shown through the astounding eighty-eight percent vote for Hillary Clinton. The African American vote is a very crucial poll that the democrats rely on, due to the decrease in percentage from the 2012 election (Obama) at ninety-three percent to Hillary’s poll numbers at eighty-eight percent from the same demographic group. The factor of the Civil Rights movements that shaped the world we live in today is a huge factor on why the African American ethnicity will always lean towards the democratic view. Without that major factor all of the electoral votes would be very different, and would look as if they would always lean more towards a liberal or republican view.