The Myth of Post-Racial America

2019 ◽  
pp. 93-124
Author(s):  
Angie Maxwell ◽  
Todd Shields
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Federal Programs ◽  
White Southerners ◽  
White Voters ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Beyond portraying race relations as a zero-sum economic game, GOP contenders courted southern white voters by championing “colorblindness.” The color-blind message gave white Americans and, particularly, white southerners a way to move past race, while rendering federal programs to counteract institutional racism unnecessary. Replacing race-baiting with race-burying, the Long Southern Strategy catalyzed a political muteness on race that endured and gave rise to a myth of post-racialism. This myth, while attractive to white southern voters, not only misconstrues the degree and nature of racial animus still present in the hearts and minds of many white Americans, but it also fuels Racial Resentment at continued efforts to protect minority civil rights, at politically correct speech, or at efforts to address structural racial inequities.

scholarly journals Civil Rights, Culture Wars, Voting and the Downfall of the Democratic Party in the South

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
James L. Baumgardner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Correctness ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
The South ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
White Southerners ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
White Voters

Throughout much of its existence, the Democratic Party was heavily dependent upon the votes of the white South for its electoral success. In the last forty years, that situation has changed drastically. The erstwhile Democratic Solid South has been transformed into a Republican bastion. While many commentators still seek to explain this phenomenon in terms of race, white Southerners publicly are able to maintain political correctness by setting their change of political heart in a quite different context. This paper seeks to place the current political situation in the South in a historical context that explains how the racial issues that actually launched the downfall of the Democratic Party in that region became eclipsed by a national cultural conflict that has allowed an ever increasing number of white voters in the South to explain themselves in the transcending language of morality that comes so easily to Republicans rather than in the debasing context of race.

Look Away! Dixie’s Landed!

2018 ◽  
pp. 123-154
Author(s):  
Nina Silber
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Lost Cause ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Gone With The Wind ◽  
White Southerners ◽  
Civil War Era ◽  
The New Deal

The pro-Confederate Lost Cause memory of the Civil War continued to have considerable staying power during the 1930s, seen most notably in the popularity of the book and film versions of Gone With the Wind. At the same time, the Lost Cause was adapted to fit the sensibilities of this era. Many white Americans, for example, were drawn to the suffering of Civil War era white southerners in light of the economic trials of the 30s. Conservatives also doubled-down on the Lost Cause narrative as they pushed back against aspects of the New Deal agenda, as well as a reawakened civil rights movement and anti-lynching campaign. Finally, conservatives adapted the Lost Cause story to target Northern radicals and communists as the same kind of agitators who punished white southerners during Reconstruction. Black activists and communists tried to expose the racist and unpatriotic underpinnings of the Lost Cause but often fell short.

New Deal Liberalism and Racial Liberalism in the Mass Public, 1937–1968

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
White Southerners ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
White Voters ◽  
Racial Liberalism ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
The New Deal

Few transformations have been as important in American politics as the incorporation of African Americans into the Democratic Party over the course of the 1930s–60s and the Republican Party's growing association with more conservative positions on race-related policies. This paper traces the relationship between New Deal economic liberalism and racial liberalism in the mass public. A key finding is that by about 1940, economically-liberal northern white Democratic voters were substantially more pro-civil rights than were economically-conservative northern Republican voters. While partisanship and civil rights views were unrelated among southern whites, economic conservatives were more racially conservative than their economically liberal counterparts, even in the south. These findings suggest that there was a connection between attitudes towards the economic programs of the New Deal and racial liberalism early on, well before national party elites took distinct positions on civil rights. Along with grassroots pressure from African American voters who increasingly voted Democratic in the 1930s–40s, this change among white voters likely contributed to northern Democratic politicians' gradual embrace of civil rights liberalism and Republican politicians' interest in forging a coalition with conservative white southerners. In attempting to explain these linkages, I argue that the ideological meaning of New Deal liberalism sharpened in the late 1930s due to changes in the groups identified with Roosevelt's program and due to the controversies embroiling New Dealers in 1937–38.

scholarly journals “We Are Not Copyists”: Socialist Networks and Non-alignment from Below in A. Philip Randolph’s Asian Journey

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-428
Author(s):  
Su Lin Lewis
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Labor Movements ◽  
Trade Unionist ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cultural Freedom ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Abstract In 1952, A. Philip Randolph, the head of America’s largest black union and a prominent civil rights campaigner, traveled to Japan and Burma funded by the American Committee for Cultural Freedom. In Asia, he encountered socialists and trade unionists struggling to negotiate the fractious divides between communism and capitalism within postwar states. In Burma, in particular, Western powers, the Soviet bloc, and powerful Asian neighbors used propaganda, aid missions, and subsidized travel to offer competing visions of development while accusing each other of new forms of imperialism and foreign interference. In such an environment, a battle for hearts and minds within Asian labor movements constituted the front lines of the early years of the Cold War. Randolph’s journey shows us how Asian socialists and trade unionists responded to powerful foreign interests by articulating an early sense of non-alignment, forged in part through emerging Asian socialist networks, well before this was an official strategy. The Asian actors with whom Randolph interacted in Japan and Burma mirrored his own struggles as a socialist, a trade unionist, and a “railway man” while furthering his campaign for civil rights at home. This article uses Randolph’s journey to examine parallels and divergences between African-American and Asian socialists and trade unionists during the early Cold War, an age characterized by deepening splits in the politics of the Left.

Beyond the border war : student civil rights activism at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri, 1946-1954

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Beth Brown
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Student Activism ◽  
University Of Kansas ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
The University ◽  
The 19Th Century

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation examines post-World War II student civil rights activism at two Midwestern college campuses, the University of Missouri (MU) and the University of Kansas (KU). Missouri and Kansas have conflicting histories concerning race dating back to Bleeding Kansas and the history of race relations on the campuses of KU and MU. This history is especially complicated during the period between 1946 and 1954 because of heightened student activism that challenged racial injustices. Race relations on campus largely mirrored that of the state's political environment, with KU having integrated in the 19th century, whereas MU did not desegregate until 1950. However, the same did not apply to the success of student activists at each school where MU students found success fighting against discriminatory practices in Columbia, whereas local business leaders and the university administration stymied KU students. The dissertation examines the exchange of ideas and strategy among students, which occurred through athletics, debates, guest speakers, and various regional and national groups. In particular, the study argues that campus spaces, such as residential co-ops and student organizations, were deeply significant because they served as incubators of activism by offering students a place to talk about racial and social injustice and plan ways to challenge these inequalities and effect change on campus and in the broader community.

LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE VIEWS OF MARRIAGE

Think ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (34) ◽  
pp. 33-56
Author(s):  
Matthew Carey Jordan
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
Successes And Failures

This essay is about liberal and conservative views of marriage. I'll begin by mentioning that I would really, really like to avoid use of the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’, but when push comes to shove, I know of no better labels for the positions that will be discussed in what follows. I would like to avoid these labels for a simple reason: many people strongly self-identify as liberals or as conservatives, and this can undermine our ability to investigate the topic in a sane, rational way. Politics, at least in the contemporary English-speaking world, functions a lot like the world of sports. Many people have a particular team to which their allegiance has been pledged, and the team's successes and failures on the field are shared in the hearts and minds of its loyal followers. In my own case – and here, I ask for your pity – I am a fan of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns. As much as I might wish things were otherwise, I rejoice in the Browns' (rare) triumphs and suffer when they lose (which happens frequently). I do not wait to see what happens in the game before I decide which team to cheer for; if it's an NFL game, and I see orange and brown, I know where my allegiance lies. Furthermore, I identify with my fellow Browns fans in a way that I cannot identify with followers of, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Clevelanders are my people. We share something, and what we share unites us in opposition to Steeler Nation. Their victories are our defeats. It is a zero-sum game: for one of us to win, the other must lose.

scholarly journals INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN AMERICAN POST-CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN DEAR MARTIN BY NIC STONE (2017)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afifah Indriani ◽  
Delvi Wahyuni
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Civil Rights Era ◽  
Group Interest ◽  
Post Civil Rights

This thesis is an analysis of a novel written by Nic Stone entitled Dear Martin (2017). It explores the issue of institutional racism in the post-civil rights era. The concept of systemic racism by Joe R.Feagin is employed to analyze this novel. This analysis focuses on four issues of systemic racism as seen through several African-American characters. This analysis also depends on the narrator to determine which parts of the novel are used as the data. The result of the study shows that African-American characters experience four forms of institutional racism which are The White Racial Frame and Its Embedded Racist Ideology, Alienated Social Relations, Racial Hierarchy with Divergent Group Interest, and Related Racial Domination: Discrimination in Many Aspects. In conclusion, in this post-civil rights movement era, African-Americans still face institutional racism.

scholarly journals Relações raciais, racismo e políticas públicas no Brasil contemporâneo

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Theodoro
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Racial Issue ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
Real Importance

Este artigo parte da constatação de que a desigualdade no Brasil tem como cerne a questão racial. E exatamente por seu conteúdo racial essa desigualdade é naturalizada pela sociedade. Programas como o Bolsa Família e o Brasil Sem Miséria trouxeram uma significativa redução da pobreza e da miséria, ainda que os níveis de desigualdade e da própria incidência da pobreza e da miséria continuem extremamente altos. A continuidade dessa trajetória, não apenas de erradicação da pobreza e da miséria, mas de construção de uma sociedade de iguais só será garantida se enfrentarmos o cerne dessa desigualdade: o racismo e seus desdobramentos. Há, portanto, a necessidade de que se dê a real importância às políticas de ação afirmativa como complemento indispensável das políticas sociais clássicas e mesmo daquelas direcionadas ao combate à pobreza e à miséria. A sociedade racista molda instituições racistas. O racismo institucional é a forma mais acabada de mecanismo de exclusão e de negação da igualdade. Em um projeto de sociedade democrática e pluralista o Estado deve funcionar como um potencializador das mudanças. E essas mudanças só ocorrerão na medida em que as ações afirmativas forem utilizadas de forma efetiva e associadas ao conjunto das ações governamentais, sem o que continuaremos a reproduzir desigualdades, ainda que em patamares menores de pobreza e miséria.Palavras-chave: Racismo, questão racial, políticas públicas, ações afirmativas---Relaciones raciales, el racismo y las políticas públicas en Brasil contemporáneoEste artículo parte de la constatación de que las desigualdades en Brasil tienen en la cuestión racial su punto neurálgico. Justamente por su contenido racial, las desigualdades han sido naturalizadas por la sociedad. Programas como « Bolsa Familia » y «Brasil Sin Miseria »generaron una reducción significativa de la pobreza y la miseria, a pesar de que los niveles de desigualdad y de la incidencia de la pobreza y la miseria siguen siendo extremadamente altos. La continuación de esta tendencia, no sólo para la erradicación de la pobreza y la miseria, sino para construir una sociedad de iguales sólo se garantizará si nos enfrentamos a la esencia de esta desigualdad: el racismo y sus consecuencias. Por tanto, existe la necesidad de darle una importancia real a las políticas de acción afirmativa como un complemento necesario de las políticas sociales clásicas e incluso de las destinadas a la lucha contra la pobreza y la miseria. Una sociedad racista produce instituciones racistas. El racismo institucional es el mecanismo más eficaz de la exclusión y la negación de la igualdad de condiciones. En un proyecto de sociedad democrática y pluralista, el Estado debe actuar como un potenciador de los cambios. Y estos cambios se producirán en la medida en que la acción afirmativa sea utilizada con eficacia y asociada al conjunto de acciones del gobierno, sin lo cual vamos a seguir reproduciendo las desigualdades, aunque con niveles más bajos de pobreza y miseria.”Palabras-clave: Racismo, problemática racial, políticas públicas, acciones afirmativas---Race relations, racism and public policies in contemporary BrazilThis article stems from the observation that the inequality in Brazil has as its core a racial issue. And it is precisely for its racial content that this inequality is naturalized by society. Programs such as "Bolsa Familia" and "Brasil Sem Miséria" have brought a significant reduction in poverty and misery, even though the levels of inequality and the rate of poverty and misery remain extremely high. The continuation of this trend, not only to eradicate poverty and misery, but to build a society of equals will only be guaranteed if we face the root of this inequality: racism and its consequences. Therefore, there is the need to give real importance to affirmative actions as an indispensable addition to the classical social policies and even those aimed to fight poverty and misery. A racist society creates racist institutions. Institutional racism is the most complete mechanism of exclusion and denial of equality. In a project of democratic and pluralistic society, the state should act as a potentiator of change. And these changes will only occur when affirmative actions are used effectively and when such actions are associated to a set of government actions, without which, we will continue to reproduce inequalities, even at lower levels of poverty and misery.Key words: Racism, racial issues, public policy, affirmative action

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