Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-4-2021
Publication Title
Politics, Groups, and Identities
Department
Political Science
Abstract
The Black Political Identity is often treated as a monolith in American politics, with interest groups and political parties employing blanket policy solutions to appease and engage African Americans. However, observations and scholarship show that Black Americans are not monolithic, possessing divergent views about social policies, so much so that some Black Americans can hold political positions that are oppositional to collective Black advancement. Therefore, this work theorizes the concept of insulated Blackness – the extent to which self-identified African Americans oppose pro-Black remedial policies and/or disagree with commonly held ideologies about the Black condition, as a result of an existence insulated from frequent experiences of racial discrimination. This analysis will use the 2016 American National Election Study to assess experientially constructed political Blackness in terms of policies and ideologies considered synonymous with Blackness. The analysis also presents predicted probability models that demonstrate that political Blackness is rooted in the heightened racial discrimination experiences. We conclude that self-identified Blacks may exist outside of the identity of political Blackness because they perceive they are insulated from racial discrimination.
Recommended Citation
Lewis, Timothy E. and Nelson, Sherice J., "Insulated Blackness: The Cause for Fracture in Black Political Identity" (2021). SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. 150.
https://spark.siue.edu/siue_fac/150