Question:

Topic: Racial Threat, Voter Suppression, and Partisanship: The State of Black Representation in America

Essentially this paper must be a research based monograph that offers an insight into the issues described above. This monograph should support the argument that race is a prevalent and often times determining factor when look at policy attitudes and behaviors. 

Answer:

Title: Racial Threat, Voter Suppression, and Partisanship: The State of Black Representation in America

Introduction

The United States of America has been recording a rise in the minority population since the 1960s. A remarkable development during the 1960s with regard to minorities was the publication of the Civil Rights Act. This Act provided the country’s black community with an excellent opportunity of seeking out and obtaining a level of success equivalent to that of their white counterparts.

However, since the enactment of this Civil Rights Act, the country’s black population has not quite been able to advance at the level that had been envisaged. Pundits have provided different explanations for this unfortunate turn of affairs. One of these explanations is that elite affluent white elites have stymied the progress and advancement of blacks as well as other minority communities. These affluent exist in both business and political circles.

This paper addresses the racial issues that have brought about a partisan split across the US. This split has resulted in legislation and business ethics that have widened the gap between white wealthy Americans and other minorities. The paper adopts the position that these tactics are intentionally used to preserve the wealth and power enjoyed by upper class whites in America, in what is known as the racial threat hypothesis. These tactics are taken to be reactionary and are traceable to the advantages that were given by the Civil Rights Act, which was the main outcome of the Civil Rights Movement.

In this monograph, the first time period analyzed is the one immediately following the passage of the Civil Rights Act. In this time period, analysis is made to determine the existence of party shifts that were based entirely on racial attitudes. The expectation is that this data will convey the idea that the perceived threat of black advancement was great among both liberal and conservative politicians. This perceived threat resulted in a shift that favored white wealthy interests, particularly in the South.

An integral part of this analysis will dwell on the black electoral strength and the quality of black representation. This focus is necessary because of its ability to provide a negative correlation that is in support of the racial threat hypothesis. In this hypothesis, the paper will set out to show that neither conservative nor liberal politicians are interested in creating for or respond to the needs of lower class individuals. Instead, these politicians have a tendency to direct a bulk of their assistance to more affluent Americans. The lower class, which consists primarily of blacks, Hispanics, and poorly educated whites, are taken to often vote in league with this policy. This paper will also explore the contention that white affluent elites normally favor other white affluent elites in an attempt to preserve wealth and power among their ranks. An assessment is also made regarding claims that white elites, including the conservative ones, actively are always ready to actively stifle liberal policy if it benefits minority groups or the lower class.

Overview of the racial threat hypothesis

Racial threat hypothesis is founded on the notion that voters tend to derive political motivation from the existence of a proximate racial out-group. For many decades this hypothesis has remained controversial. This hypothesis points out that dominant groups normally use state apparatuses to exert control over subordinate groups who are a threat to their interests. Key (1949), in explaining this hypothesis, argued that when minority groups increase their level of visibility and presence, they start being perceived by whites as a political and economic threat.

Other explanations of the racial threat hypothesis give the suggestion that the main responses of dominant groups include symbolic segregation, political discrimination, and threat-oriented ideologies. In some studies, the impact of racial threat is normally tested in relation to voter mobilization, with observational data being relied upon in a wide range of geographical locations and units of analysis. Most of these studies have assessed the racial theory hypothesis in relation to increase or decrease in voter participation. For the most part, conflicting findings have been generated, thereby contributing to the existing controversy.

Period immediately following the passage of the Civil Rights Act——5

During the 1960s, the subject of race was a dominant one in American politics. The only other time when this issue was at the center stage of the country’s politics was at the time of the Civil War. This was largely because of the Civil Rights struggle, characterized by revolts and controversies over the policies that different states adopted in relation to issues of reform and repression. There were numerous debates regarding the true meaning of race.

However, during the 1970s, things started changing dramatically. The racial minority movements that had thrived during the previous decade had by now started waning, even though racial oppression had not been completely eradicated. During the 1980s, issues of race began taking center stage once again. This time, however, they appeared to take the form of a ‘backlash’ to the gains that racial minority movements of the previous era had amassed. This backlash was presented mainly by academics and conservative movements, mainly with the support of Reagan administration. However, unlike others before them, they were launching their attacks in a manner that made it impossible to throw in accusations of racism.

However, back into the 1960s, specifically after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, it became clear that the black movement was increasingly losing the support of white Americans. Indeed, the groundbreaking civil rights law that had been passed in 1964 marked the beginning of a mood change in the US Congress, which affected the remaining civil rights bills that were yet to be made into law. By 1968, opinion polls clearly showed that 75% of white Americans shared the view that ‘the rate at which the black people were uplifted was too fast’.

Many whites started insisting that the process of racial change needed to be gradual because, according to them, the black people were not yet ready for handle their new-found freedom (Klatman, 1994). The whites argued that it was not proper to let loose ‘these people’ overnight after a hundred years of lack of freedom. In essence, the white Americans were treating blacks like children, such that the more they were given, the more they would keep asking for. The dominant feeling among the white majority was that they – and not the black minority – ought to decide the changes needed and the pace at which they would be implemented.

The anxiety that motivated such ideas arose from the whites’ tendency to fantasize black domination. They fantasized that some regions and cities would become black-dominated, fortunes would be reversed, and whites would be on the receiving end of revenge attacks. This explains why white Americans whole-heartedly embraced integration only in those areas where the population of blacks was very low.

Many Afro-Americans were disquieted by the underlying assumption that the many whites had abandoned the civil rights ideals as a result of Black Power militancy (Omi, 2005). They were skeptical about the notion the white backlash was the new phenomenon that had just been unearthed by media pundits. Rather, they thought that the whites had found out a new way of covering the old-fashioned racism in new clothes. They considered this twist a dangerous one, because the racial crisis was now being blamed on the prejudices that the whites had towards the minority blacks’ behavior.

In the example of California, the late sixties were conflict-ridden. Many whites in this state reminisced life in the 1940s, when there was only a few Afro-Americans living there. During this time, the main victims of the state’s systematic racism were Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese. Although racism against blacks still persisted, this minority group was considered too small to constitute a racial threat, and therefore not much attention was paid to them (Giles, 1994).

The ‘native Californians’ were surprised by this racial violence, and were yet to accept that radical demographic changes had taken place in the years following the World War II (Voss, 1996). During these years, many wartime industries had attracted many blacks from the south. At the height of the civil rights movement, this growing population started becoming very active politically. After the passing of the Civil Rights Act, many white Californians started blaming advocates of militancy in the civil rights movement of subverting the racial harmony that had always existed in California (Tolbert, 2003).

During the late sixties, the black movement was vocal in its use of militant approaches of challenging the privileged status that white Americans had enjoyed for centuries (Kinde, 2010). This triggered racial prejudices that in ordinary situations would never be expressed openly. Their nonnegotiable demands must have stirred white Americans in their save havens. The stirred lot, a significant number of which comprised of conservative white political elites, had to look for ways of dealing with this new threat (Abramowitz, 1994). This was more so the case when the militant black activists started threatening to offset the dynamics of the political process. In this undertaking, the whites’ interpretation was that there was a threat of the core foundations of the American culture being trashed. In this regard, the main values that were viewed as being at risk included fair play, work, and patriotism. This fear explains the whites’ backlash against radical black movement supporters during the late sixties.

From a political perspective, the effects of increased level of consciousness and militancy among blacks started being felt right after 1964. A significant change entailed Republican ascendance and Democratic decline in the American presidential politics. The level of party loyalty among working class whites started waning remarkably, triggering significant Democratic losses. Political analysts argued that this turn of events was a reflection of whites’ disapproval of the Democratic Party’s decision to endorse the civil rights and to maintain a cordial relationship with African Americans.

This interpretation is an acceptable one, considering that a positive correlation was found between the probability of white Americans voting for presidential candidates that were racially conservative and the proportion of Afro-Americans who resided in the immediate political context. Indeed, this correlation acted as a justification for the concept of racial threat. The resulting party shifts were caused predominantly by perceptions of racial threat.

Since 1964, Democrats have been playing a racially liberal role while Republicans have been favoring racially conservative options. Moreover, among the whites, the working class people are the ones who have tended to be most sensitive to racial threat. Although the analyses of racial threat were done mainly by political scientists, the racial threat hypothesis has attracted interest from other disciplines. This is evident, for instance, in the use of sociological theories of racial conflict to explain the political dimensions of race and ethnicity.

A crucial question here is about why working class whites ended up being more sensitive to racial threat compared to white elites. Many explanations are normally provided. One of them is that working class whites were afraid that their political power would diminish if minority blacks were empowered. This fear has strong relationship with the zero-sum game, in which the influence of the working white class, which had been long-established within the Democratic Party, started weakening. This was because the Democratic Party came to be highly dependent on the votes of the country’s black population.

A different explanation was that working-class whites were more afraid of living near black people compared to elite whites. The sheer spatial proximity and greater exposure to conflicts and competition from most of the blacks in their daily lives made them to become more sensitive to the gains that the blacks were making in the wake of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. A slight variation of this version of interpretation is based on the argument that working class sensitivity was motivated more by resentment and less by fear. The resentment arose because these working class whites felt that they had ended up bearing a disproportionately higher cost of the country’s racial reforms that Democrats had advocated for compared to the other whites.

However, the argument fronted on the basis of working whites’ resentment of the turn of events appears to be selectively applicable depending on geography (Percival, 2009). For instance, the likelihood of experiencing racial reforms among the working class white population depended on whether one lived near Afro-American neighborhoods or not. Those who lived in such areas had to learn to live with the effects of these racial reforms, such as affirmative action efforts and integration of schools and neighborhoods. For higher-income whites, the likelihood of living with such effects was remote.

In spite of variations in these explanations, all of them allude to the issue of class as a major factor determining the major social cleavage that emerged in the years following the agitation of the Civil Rights Movement. This social cleavage was responsible for generating variations in the way different whites experienced racial threat. Some other factors, such as region and education, influenced racial threat as well, although none was as influential as social class.

This perceived threat resulted in a shift that favored white wealthy interests, particularly in the South. When the Republican Party started shining particularly in presidential elections in the South, a stage had been set for a shift that would ensure that the white wealthy interests in the South would continue being safeguarded.

Black electoral strength and the quality of black representation

With the gains made after the era of Civil Rights activism, the white working class started feeling a real threat to the political power they had held onto for centuries. They felt an impending threat of labor-market competition as well as the undesirable scenario of having to engage with blacks in the control and management of local learning institutions.

During the early 1970s, the civil rights movement’s political significance started waning. This affected the electoral strength of voters in areas inhabited by Afro-Americans (Avery, 2010). The civil rights movement’s activities started gradually being replaced by those of democratically elected black leaders. This was seen by whites as a significant threat to their continued dominance of the country’s politics. At first, it is local black mayors who started ascending to high political positions.

The expectations of the black community were very high for the newly elected political leaders, who they expected to defend their cause with as much vigor as that of the civil rights movement (Avery, 2010). This cause had to do with economic security and social justice. In the face of growing economic problems and recessions, black mayors were shouldered with the responsibility of creating an enabling political environment for the creation of new jobs. For this to be accomplished there was a general feeling that the out-migration of old industries had to be halted and maintained within respective cities. Similarly, efforts had to be made to attract the establishment of new industries.

The new political leaders were also expected to succeed in the power-broking role (Avery, 2010). In this regard, they had to maintain cordial relations with the media, satisfy the growing demand for whites to be treated preferentially like it had always been the case, and establish rapport with both local governments and Congress. A good example of a state where this situation played out well is Mississippi. In this state, black representation improved in both local and county governments after 1967 (Parker, 2010). This was evident in the increase in the number of black candidates who were elected to office. This led to more than doubling of the number of officeholders after 1971.

In Mississippi, the elections of 1971, just like those of 1967, were characterized by claims of irregularities, whereby white election officials wanted to prevent black candidates from being elected (Lublin, 1997). A major underlying problem that had continued to exist, though, was racial gerrymandering of elections and district borders. This underlying problem was a major threat to the impending success of the black people in the state’s electoral processes in both the 1970s and 1980s. This was in spite of the Supreme Court victories of black voters over the massive resistance program introduced by the state legislature.

The struggle over redistricting of counties in Mississippi indicates the way African Americans resisted white political manipulation. This struggle was seen to bear fruits when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Meanwhile, the white political leadership increasingly appeared to be willing to use all means it could to ensure that no power was shared with the black voters who were continually expressing the feeling of being enfranchised. Whenever they saw an opportunity to dilute the black voting strength, particularly through various state statutes, the white elites were ready to do so.

Indeed, after 1965, racial gerrymandering was prevalent across the South. With the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the dominant white political class started influencing the way redistricting efforts were carried out so that majority-minority districts would be formed (Avery, 2010). This rationale for redistricting was to ensure that minority races such as Blacks and Latinos got an opportunity for political representation. This clash of interests made redistricting one of the most controversial issues to emerge with the passing of the Voting Rights Act.

Those who advocated for racial redistricting insisted that it was necessary so as to create opportunities for the representation of African-American and Latino. With this representation, the proponents argued that this would create a platform for minority political opinions to be expressed on the corridors of power. In contrast, though, opponents of this policy insisted that it went beyond the intended scope of the Voting Rights Act and perpetuated racial distinctions in society. A further contention was that Latinos and African Americans had the power to win elections without necessarily being assisted through racial gerrymandering.

Indeed, opponents saw this redistricting as a way of harming the efforts of minority groups of advancing their policy goals. This is indeed true because, for all practical purposes, it reduced the electoral influence of minorities, such that these minorities could not extend their political influence beyond clearly set-out district borders. This was a clear attempt by white supremacists to dilute the threat of unstoppable growth in the political power of minorities. Opponents of redistricting were right in decrying the hypocritical actions of white elites, including the conservative ones, who were actively stifling liberal policy merely because this policy would end up benefiting minority groups (Avery, 2010).

In recent times, controversy has heightened over the efficacy of using racial redistricting as a way of promoting minority representation. During the redistricting round of 1990, many states established new majority-minority districts whose boundaries were highly irregular. An unfavorable turn of events for this policy, though, came when the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause was being violated through the use of race as the main factor during redistricting (Chong, 2010).

Already, the negative effects of redistricting are being felt in the US. For one, in the South, it has created a scenario where the House is highly unlikely to adopt legislation that is favorable to African Americans (Joseph, 2006). Moreover, it has created a scenario where more Republicans are elected. This happened in 1994, following the 1990 round of redistricting, when Republicans managed to achieve landslide victory in the House of Representatives (Fendrich, 1993).

These efforts by white elites have ended up creating a scenario where black representation remains low (Avery, 2010). Although this representation increased dramatically after 1965, it did not continue increasing at the pace that militant civil rights activists had envisaged. Prior to the Civil Rights era, the white political class had astoundingly succeeded in ensuring that the black people did not have access to the ballot. To achieve this goal of violating the black people’s voting rights, they had put in place all manner of obstacles including property tests the poll tax, grandfather clauses, and the understanding clause. Over the course of America’s history, these obstacles had led to a situation where there were only 3% black registered voters in the South by 1940.

Although the obstacles are gone now, the white political class has not run out of ideas on how to prevent the minorities from turning tables and gaining majority power (Wolbrecht, 2010). This is in spite of the hundreds of grassroots-based struggles that characterized the Civil Rights Movement, the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, and a series of ‘minority-friendly’ Supreme Court decisions.

The problem underrepresentation among blacks and minority races has a lot to do with the material conditions of the population. Indeed, democracy itself if highly dependent on material conditions that extend beyond issues of formal rights (Blauner, 1989). Owing to their history of racial discrimination, minority races have traditionally been on the fringes of the American national economy, as evidenced by huge differences in income and wealth.

Although many blacks have managed to make inroads into the middle class since the days of civil rights activism, some glaring disparities in economic opportunities still persist. Moreover, white elites, both conservative and liberal, have not quite gotten over the perceived racial threat, and this makes them continue pushing for policies that inhibit the material success of minority races as well as people of lower classes. This explains why, for example, the likelihood of blacks being unemployed remains twice as likely as that of whites. Moreover, black workers falling in the category of ‘discouraged workers’ is still much higher compared to that of whites. This is the category of individuals who have given up employment hope and are no longer looking for work, and for this reason are not included in the country’s official employment indices. When such people become employed, their earnings are normally meager.

To be in tune with the sweeping changes in racial thinking, both conservative and liberal white elites have made themselves appear to be supporting integrationist policies. However, when it comes to implementation and enforcement, they take a back seat or create structural obstacles aimed at making the goal unachievable. Such structural obstacles mainly manifest themselves at the level of political representation in the Congress. An excellent example is that of the scenario in 1970s when most whites appeared to be supporting the idea of black and white children attending school together. However, only one in four whites expressed desire in having the federal government see to it that this policy was actually implemented.

Therefore, although it is true that racial attitudes in the US have ‘massively liberalized’, this has taken place at the level of principles and not policies. This is where the need to reassess black electoral strength and the quality of black representation becomes evident. Specifically, many questions linger regarding why the election of African Americans to political office has failed to improve the black community’s well-being.

Response to Civil Rights Activism: The ‘White Backlash’

            Black leadership brought about a far-reaching impact on the attitudes and behaviors of whites. The whites started identifying more as a group and feeling really threatened whenever the black leaders positioned themselves in a manner likely to threaten their political power and wealth. Electoral victories by black leaders started being viewed as direct threats to the traditional balance of power between whites and coloreds. This explains why the level of white backlash increased proportionately with the rise to positions of leadership by various African Americans.

The rise of racial minorities also triggered such responses as increased in the whites’ tendency to be racially conservative, and a rise in incidences of whites’ violence against blacks. Similarly, the increasingly evident challenge to white domination, authority, and power triggered a rise in the rate of white voter turnout. Similarly, this challenge also influenced many whites to defect from the Democratic Party in favor of the Republican Party. This triggered an expectation of future rise in opposition to black leaders and white racial intolerance.

A rather interesting observation, though, is that white opposition is normally stronger to black challengers than to black incumbents. When black challengers manage to be elected to positions of leadership, the opposition directed to them by whites tends to diminish. This clearly indicates that at the beginning, the opposition is motivated by a feeling of threat, hence the need to preserve the status quo. However, with the blacks’ rise to incumbency, this opposition wanes, perhaps because of the realization that their fears and anxieties were unfounded.

This tendency for the whites’ views on black leadership to diminish after the latter’s rise to incumbency has inspired many scholars to study the effects that black leadership has on the racial views of white Americans (Banks, 2009). The scholars have expressed immense interest in knowing why black incumbents are extremely good at winning reelection bids. This success is normally evident in areas where whites have the option of supporting a white challenger and mounting a stiff opposition (Banks, 2009). However, more research is needed in the area of voting patterns of the white Americans. Preliminary findings, though, indicates that black leadership, particularly at the mayoral level, tends to make a difference in the views, and subsequently, voting patterns, of white Americans.

Nevertheless, the fact that black incumbents appear to easily find favor among white voters does not necessary mean that this in any way changes the white policy preferences. Rather, this appears to simply allay the fears that whites could be having regarding blacks and their leadership qualities. In terms of policy preferences, it is obvious that a white voter would not change his mind about an affirmative action program that may essentially make him lose his job to an African American.

Although this scenario presents quite an ambiguity, the bigger picture is that of a black community whose wellbeing is largely dependent on white policy preferences (Stanford, 2010). This is because, although much may seem possible regarding the support of black incumbents by whites, much does not seem to be happening regarding policy issues. Until white elites feel threatened, black incumbents may continue living under the illusion of improved racial relations. When threats intensify, whites tend to invoke their power to influence policy. In this regard, they support only those policies that lead to the preservation of their power, authority, and influence.

The issue of population size of blacks triggered a slightly different effect on both the racial attitudes and policy stances of the white Americans. A high population of blacks tends to trigger stronger anti-black sentiments across states. Similarly, it leads to a dramatic rise in racial resentment. Moreover, stronger feelings of conflict between various racial groups tend to be implied in the way the white people go about their business. This creates the feeling that problems of interracial contact are more deep-rooted, and they do not simply entail black leaders rising to positions of authority. The obvious inference, in line with the racial threat hypothesis, is that it the issue of interracial contact has a lot to do with the preservation of power and influence along the ranks of both conservative and liberal white elites and politicians.

A key question is about which whites tend to change their minds in response to dynamics in interracial relations (McDermott, 2005). To imply that black leadership brings about positive change in the attitudes of the white people regarding racial attitudes does not in any way mean that all white Americans tend to change their perceptions of black Americans and their leadership abilities. In spite of their experiences with the exemplary leadership styles of black mayors, many white Americans are opposed to black leadership.

This situation is compounded by differentials in the agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties. The same case applies to the link that possibly exists between the tendency to be conservative and anti-black sentiments. In this case, one may predict a situation where white republicans become more resistant to the information provided by black leaders. On the other hand, white Democrats have an inclination to be more receptive. This, in effect, creates the impression that most of the positive change achieved with regard to voting behavior and racial attitudes is largely a reserve of white Democrats.

It is particularly interesting the way the white backlash was at play in Kentucky during a referendum vote aimed at striking out school segregation from the constitution of the state. This particular instance of white backlash was an indicator of the existence of ‘old-fashioned racism’ long after the passing and enactment of the Civil Rights Act (Voss, 2001). The case of Kentucky was an excellent indicator of the variations in patterns of American civil conservatism vis-à-vis the contemporary changes in popular thinking on racial relations (Voss, 2001).

Conclusion 

In summary, racial relations in the United States of America changed in a dramatic way since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. Remarkable developments occurred following the phenomenal success achieved following the militant agitation for equal rights by the country’s minority groups. White Americans felt threatened by these changes, and this influenced scholars to propose the ‘racial threat hypothesis. This paper has assessed the applicability of the racial threat hypothesis in explaining white’s response to increased demands for equal rights by racial minorities.

This paper concludes that the racial threat hypothesis is an excellent model for explaining the new ways in which racism started manifesting itself in the post-civil-rights era in the US. Dominant white political elites were not about to give up the power, wealth, and authority that they had gotten used to enjoying for centuries. They felt threatened by continued agitation for equal rights by minority groups, especially African Americans. Although the whites appeared to support black incumbents, this support did not replicate itself in matters of policy preferences. This explains the continued suppression of policies that are beneficial to minorities even long after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.

 

References

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