Misunderstood Stories: Narratives and Insight into Black Political Engagement

• In Event: Unpacking Black Political Perspectives

Abstract

Despite the election of our first Black President in 2008, Black representation across U.S. politics remains limited and disproportionate. Furthermore, racial and class gaps persist across modes of political participation in the U.S which exclude low-income and working class people from fully participating in democracy. Previous studies on the gaps between Black and white political participation reveal that low-income and working class Black people participate at a rate higher than the same population of white people (Laurison et al 2022). Additionally, groundbreaking work demonstrated that traditional partisan models do not fit Black voters, and thinking around political engagement needs to similarly advance (Jefferson 2020). These studies reveal that previous models of considering Black voter engagement eclipse the robust reality of being a Black voter in the U.S. As such, the unique dynamics of Black participation should be examined to understand how to decrease the Black political engagement gap.

Recent literature that describes the turnout gap offers structural answers to the issues that persist with Black political engagement, but few studies use narratives to examine how Black respondents think of their relationship to politics (Fraga 2018). To understand class and racial gaps in voting, we conducted 260 semi-structured interviews with low-income and working-class people across Pennsylvania. In this paper, we focus on 106 Black respondents, how they view politics and political participation, and the strategies they say might increase their political engagement. Hearing how Black people construct their engagement on their own terms offers pertinent insight into how to begin to end the engagement and turnout gap.

Preliminary observations from our narratives include feelings of disappointment coinciding with disengagement post Obama, a lack of progress for Black people in the U.S., and maintained responsibility to their communities and civic duties. For example, Aaron, a 52-year-old Black dishwasher in Pittsburgh, told us politics is “all hooey. I look at my paycheck, and I’m still being screwed. Democrats don’t really care about the poor, either.” In discussing reasons for their own disengagement from politics, very few mentioned barriers to voting; instead, they suggested engagement might increase with more and better communication with campaigns and politicians. By focusing on Black citizens’ entire relationship to politics—their activism, organizing, community engagement, and awareness—we have a better picture of their political participation in every mode of participation, rather than solely electoral insights.

This project is based on the insight that people in different racial and class groups approach politics differently; our work (with research assistants from the communities we are studying) aims to get at these perspectives. Additionally, we examine how Black respondents believe their engagement could change and what strategies political organizations focused on mobilizations might employ to increase Black turnout. Understanding these narratives from Black voters allow us to expand our past conceptions of Black political engagement, and think through how the methods of Democracy must be expanded to include historically minoritized groups.

Dawson, Michael C. 1995. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton University Press.
Fraga, Bernard L. 2018. The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America. Cambridge University Press.
Laurison, Daniel, Hana Brown, and Ankit Rastogi. 2022. “Voting Intersections: Race, Class, and Participation in Presidential Elections in the United States 2008–2016.” Sociological Perspectives 65 (4): 768–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214211059136.
Jefferson, Hakeem. 2020. “The Curious Case of Black Conservatives: Construct Validity and the 7-Point Liberal-Conservative Scale.” SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3602209. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3602209.

Authors

• Rachel Broun

• Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore College