POL200 Has America become a "color-blind" and "post-racial" society?

Query

Has America become a "color-blind" and "post-racial" society?

Essay

“I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away.”
~President Barack Obama 2013 Remarks on Trayvon Martin

Modern racism

Katherine Tarca has a succinct explanation a new breed of racism. “American racism has changed … away from an outright racism that is no longer socially acceptable toward a more subtle form termed "aversive," "laissez-faire," or "colorblind" racism. …Using this ideology, Whites can appear to embrace "equality for all" while maintaining a belief in the inferiority of Black individuals.”

This may be at the root of the sudden flip from Blue to Red, when some former democrats voted for Trump in the 2016 Presidential election, instead of maintaining their support for the democratic party.

States that Flipped

Peabody award-winning Journalist Nikole Hannah Jones asks a strikingly obvious question “Why had states that reliably backed Obama — states like Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — flipped Republican?”

Hannah describes Rev. Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisolm and ventures that “large numbers of rural and suburban white voters were willing to cast their lot with Obama and his multiracial coalition — not necessarily out of some sense of racial enlightenment or egalitarianism but because at the time, they saw it as being in their own best interest. Class and economic anxieties did not erase racial ones; they just in that moment transcended them.”

Race? Gender? Or just to Shake things up?

Consistent with researchers Dean and Paolino, some people just like to cause trouble. 16-17% of voters vote not by their preferred party, but for a divided government, regardless of the political platform the candidate sits on. That ~17% might be enough to swing the vote.

That the African American candidate will be from the democratic party (all the prior nominees have been so) gives us less of an understanding of the voter’s acceptance of a black president. If an African American were to run as a Republican, would he have an equal chance at attaining presidency?

Maybe it was not color-blindness or racial issues, but gender discrimination that led to Mr. Trump becoming the 45^th President? Law Professor Omri Ben-Shahar opines: “He [Trump] won because Hillary Clinton was less attractive to the traditional Democratic base of urban, minorities, and more educated voters.” That, and of course, the Electoral College.

Political Science Professor Kathleen Dolan in her research with Timothy Lynch explains that voters follow party lines, irrespective of candidate gender. “..we have this expectation from living in the world that sex really matters,”  Dolan says, “It does not change things at all. What matters 99.9 percent of the time is their political party.”

Black Presidential Candidates

In 1888 132 years ago, former slave and abolitionist Fredrick Douglas was (nominally) a candidate for the US Presidency, receiving one vote. In 1904, 116 years ago. George Taylor received 65,000 votes for presidency. Channing Philips in 1968 received 67,5000 votes. Shirley Chisolm in 1972 won 152 Delegates. Jesse Jackson in 1984 won 7 million votes. Alan Keyes received a nominee in 1992. Barack Obama won the presidency on 2008.

As our country ages, the cultural mingle and the melting pot swirls. These may ultimately coalesce into one color-less color. Therefore racism, be it subvert or overt, is on the decline. Today, 11 states show a 41% or higher population of minorities. 15 states are 20% of less minorities. [Patterson pg 155]  

Have voters become color-blind? Is race no longer an issue, now that we have had a successful first African American descent President of the United States?

Absolutely not. The so-called color blindness is just a way to pretend away America’s brutal history of disavowing people of color their rights for several hundred years. Unfortunately, the current POTUS makes disparaging racial comments so often, according to NAACP, there have been a 12% increase in hate crimes under his administration, likely much more as some cities haven’t reported.

Bibliography

BEN-SHAHAR, OMRI. The Non-Voters Who Decided The Election: Trump Won Because Of Lower Democratic Turnout. 17 Nov 2016. 26 Mar 2020. <https://www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2016/11/17/the-non-voters-who-decided-the-election-trump-won-because-of-lower-democratic-turnout/#7b0d1a9a53ab>.

DOLAN, KATHLEEN & TIMOTHY LYNCH. "It Takes a Survey: Understanding Gender Stereotypes, Abstract Attitudes, and Voting for Women Candidates." American Politics Research (2013). 26 Mar 2020. <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673x13503034 >.

HANNAH-JONES, NIKOLE. The End of the Postracial Myth. 15 Nov 2016. 26 Mar 2020. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/20/magazine/donald-trumps-america-iowa-race.html>.

LACEY, DEAN and PHILIP PAOLINO. "Do Some Americans Prefer Divided Government and Vote toCreate It?" 2016. <https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/9/280/files/2016/10/lacy_paolino_divgov_ver6.pdf>.

NAACP. NAACP Sees Continued Rise in Hate Crimes, Legacy of Trump’s Racism. 29 Jun 2018. 26 Mar 2020. <https://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-sees-continued-rise-hate-crimes-legacy-trumps-racism/>.

OBAMA, BARACK. Remarks by the President on Trayvon Martin. 19 July 2013. 26 Mar 2020. <https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/07/19/president-obama-speaks-trayvon-martin >.

PATTERSON, THOMAS. We The People. 13th. New York: McGraw, 2019. page 155.

TARCA, KATHERINE. "Colorblind in Control: The Risks of Resisting Difference Amid Demographic Change." Educational Studies vol. 38, no 2. pp. 99-120 (Oct 2005). 26 Mar 2020. <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.mendocino.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=bfcb53ee-1489-4686-ab82-fdec6a31892b%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=18796651&db=a9h>.

~621 words, not including opening quote and query.
POL200 Liljeblad, Mendocino College Spring 2020