Bootstrap Blackness: Black Men, Conservatism, and Party Politics

• In Event: Masculinity as a Political Force

Abstract

The Million Man March of 1995 displayed the diversity of Black political thought stemming as far back as Booker T. Washington, through Louis Farrakhan, to Barack Obama and beyond. Conservatism within the Black electorate has always existed despite the relative capture of Black voters within the Democratic party. On the one hand, Black men are not the steadfast keepers of the Democratic party like their Black female counterparts, in that they vote for Democratic candidates in lesser numbers than Black women. However, Black men still vote for Democratic candidates at exponentially greater rates than Latino, Asian, white male, and female voters. While the Democratic Party has noted the importance of Black women to the party, Black men have often been the scapegoats when elections fall to Republicans, despite their robust turnout compared to other groups. To date, scholars have overlooked Black men’s involvement in the Democratic party and their ebbs and flows in Republican party interest and conservatism. We argue that Black men’s political leanings have been a complex amalgamation of their relative position to their attitudes toward Black women, white men, and other policy issues. Using the 2020 CMPS, we argue that Black men’s interest in party politics, although not as strong as Black women’s, is still robust compared to other racial and ethnic groups. We aim to illustrate the nuance and changing strengths of partisan attachments among Black men over time.

Authors

• Christina M. Greer, Fordham University

• Christine Marie Slaughter, Boston University

• Chaya Crowder, Loyola Marymount University