Race, Ethnicity and Political Power

Abstract

In the century and a half since the end of slavery, minority participation in representative politics has made significant advancements. Due in large measure to the civil rights struggles of various groups, both legislative and judicial remedies have made it feasible for members of racial and ethnic minority groups to be elected to political office. The single most significant piece of legislation that ensured expanded political participation was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While this legislation has indeed helped numerous minorities to run successful campaigns for public office, there is debate over whether this has helped to improve the lives of the most vulnerable members of minority groups.

Overview

During Reconstruction, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana was a black man. Blacks held a significant number of seats in the state legislatures of many of the Southern states, and a few were elected to Congress. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American elected president of the United States. However, even by the mid-2010s relatively few governors, senators, or members of the House of Representatives were people of color. Despite Obama’s election, African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities are still not elected to public office in numbers that reflect their proportion of the population. However, legislative changes and judicial rulings have had an impact on the realistic chances that a person might, regardless of race or ethnic origins, hold office or in some meaningful way participate in the American political system.

The Right to Vote. The ability of a racially or ethnically distinct group to vote is a necessary precursor to political office holding. Although the right to vote is a seen as a fundamental aspect of the American system of government, it is not a right explicitly stated in the Constitution. The drafters of the Constitution left the matter of the franchise to the states; such was the case until the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870, specifically prohibiting states from denying the right to vote to any man on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Still, this was a prohibition, not an "affirmative right to vote" (Hall, 2005, p. 1053). The decades following ratification of this amendment saw countless strategies designed to deny people of color the right to vote, without explicitly prohibiting them from doing so. Examples include the creation of a poll tax, 'grandfather' clauses, literacy tests, and outright voter intimidation. It was not until the 1960s that the Supreme Court enforced the spirit of the Fifteenth Amendment in any meaningful way.

Once the right to vote was established, it became necessary to create a playing field where all candidates could compete. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and subsequent to that, redrawn congressional district lines, have helped to ensure a greater level of participation. A look at the demographics of the United States demonstrates why it is important to allow every group to have a voice in shaping policy. Nonetheless, it is not a given that participation by members of one's own ethnic or racial group will ensure a better outcome for that group.

History. In his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. responded to the suggestion that blacks were asking for too much too soon by saying that three hundred years is a long time to wait . For more than half the time that Europeans and their descendants have been in the Americas, the American legal system permitted slavery. At the end of the Civil War, new methods of control ensured that the descendants of those slaves would be kept out of the political mainstream. The "Redeemers," members of the Democratic Party who believed they were redeeming the honor of the South by reclaiming white control and discouraging black political participation, came to power in the 1870s and 1880s. With this, political participation for blacks in the South, where upwards of 95 percent of them lived, became almost nonexistent. It was not until the Populist movement later in the 1880s and into the 1890s that blacks found any political outlet in the South. Even within the People's Party, willingness to accept blacks as equal members of the party and especially as members qualified to hold office was deeply controversial and was ultimately used as a tool to split the party, thus ending that one avenue for blacks to have a political voice at the end of the nineteenth century (Ayers, 1992).

The balance of political power between Native Americans and the U.S. government has also been a constantly evolving one. Originally, the U.S. government dealt with the tribes as "domestic sovereign nations" and made treaties with them as between two governing bodies. In 1871, the U.S. made a unilateral decision to end the era of treaties, thus ending any pretense of the tribes as sovereign entities with independent political power. The Dawes Act of 1887 further undermined the power of tribal government, creating a relationship between the individual Indian and the U.S. government. Throughout the twentieth century, policy has shifted to give tribal governments more avenues to pursue legal claims to land and water rights. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 returned some sovereignty to the tribes (Brinkley, 1997). This shift has caused a sense that the potential exists for the tribes to truly force change that might be beneficial to their interests (Lacy, 1985). Additionally, the American Indian Movement (AIM), a civil rights organization that grew out of the 1960s protest era, also served as a perceived threat, one that could awaken and articulate long-standing Indian grievances.

Co-optation. Lacy uses the term "co-optation" to explain a shift in the balance of power between the U.S. government and Native American tribes. He argues that co-optation "occurs if, in a system of power, the power holder intentionally extends some form of political participation to actors who pose a threat" (1985, p. 83). One way the threat has been manifested in tribal relationships is their growing ability to use the courts to sue for land and water rights. Even the potential of a suit can be perceived as a threat. As the perception of threat increases, the option of co-optation becomes more viable. The goal is to diffuse resistance; the process is democratic only if the participation offered is "genuinely oriented to the interests of the people" (1985, p. 86). Deeply connected to this concept is the notion of fair play that is embedded in the American self-concept. As Lacy explains, Indians have something akin to colonial status in their own land. Bringing the tribes into the political arena can blunt this realization (1985, p. 90). The Indian Gaming Act of 1988 can be seen as an example of co-optation. As the political clout of the tribes increased, they were able to bring pressure to pass federal legislation acknowledging their right to run gaming operations on, and in some cases off, their reservations. The vast sums that some of these operations have generated have in turn been used to increase political participation by Native Americans (Gudzune, 2007).

Co-optation is a concept that can easily be applied to other groups. At the dawn of the Civil Rights Era, it became obvious to some players that a realignment of political power was a far better choice than revolution. Drawing blacks into the political arena might be one way to avoid catastrophic clashes that the country was witnessing in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 provides an interesting example of how badly policy can go wrong when one race is excluded. It was the failure to allow any input by members of the black community that helped to exacerbate an already very difficult situation. Little Rock was governed by a small group of businessmen who preferred to exercise power behind the scenes, creating the illusion that their political and economic interests did not intersect. A controversial issue like desegregation left them unable to create policy capable of dealing with the situation at hand. Further complicating the picture was a Supreme Court increasingly willing to accommodate legal complaints from the African American community (Anderson, 2004).

The Voting Rights Act. Black political power in Arkansas was severely limited in 1957. While technically able to vote, African Americans' presence in the voting booth was limited by both a poll tax and by intimidation. Thus, they had very little leverage in a dispute in which their well-being was a central issue. Congressman Brook Hayes played a critical role mediating between President Dwight Eisenhower and Governor Orval Faubus, but he never consulted with any blacks, saying, "The political thinking of the black community was not as vital at that time as it later became, of course, because it was not a matter of political weight or thinking" (as cited in Anderson, 2004, p. 607). Black voters had very limited leverage in school board elections, only to choose between hardcore segregations and reluctant integrationists.

The Voting Rights Act grew out of the civic uproar that resulted from images of sheer brutality in the deep South, directed against peaceful protesters. First signed into law in 1965, it was updated in 1970, 1975, and 1982. It banned practices such as literacy tests, prohibited states from diluting minority votes, and allowed the federal government to intervene in states with a history of discriminatory practice. Originally, the law targeted only blacks, but by 1975, the scope was expanded to protect Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. In addition, it banned English-only ballots. The administration of President Ronald Reagan strongly opposed the extension of the law, granted in 1982, allowing twenty-five additional years of federal supervision. A compromise allowed for a "bail out" for a state that can demonstrate that it has a record free of discriminatory practice for ten years (Hall, 2005). The act and its special provisions were reauthorized for another twenty-five years in 2006.

Discourse

Voting & Representation. It has long been taken as an axiom that as blacks registered and voted, candidates, especially black candidates, would be elected who had particular sympathy for the problems of the black community (Bonds, 2007). As voting increased more than fivefold during the second half of the twentieth century, so did the number of black elected officials, from fewer than 1,500 in 1970 to around 10,500 in 2011 (Eilperin, 2013). Often working in coalition with liberal white legislators, new opportunities have opened up, including job placements within municipal services, an increased share of municipal contracts, and more representation on appointed city boards and commissions (Bonds, 2007). Other research contradicts these finds. Beauregard, Bobo, and Gillian all suggest that as black political power increased, many other factors counteracted any positive impact. These included:

Others suggest that rigging a few districts to have a majority black population diminishes their political power in the rest of a state.

Congressional District Lines & Race. One section of the Voting Rights Act that has drawn extensive review by the courts deals with drawing up legislative district lines. The Voting Rights Act requires federal courts to take a close look at all actions that can have a disparate impact on minority voters. For more than two decades after the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Allen v. State Board of Elections (1969), federal district courts had found that voting districts that had no overtly discriminatory impact, but were designed to dilute the impact of minority voters, were in violation of the Voting Rights Act (Hall, 2005). Hall argues that the result was "nothing less than a revolution in Southern politics … with the payoff seen in the election of hundreds and even thousands of minority candidates to office" (Hall, 2005, p. 818).

After the 1990 census, states spent a great deal of political energy creating new congressional district lines, many of which had contortionist boundaries, all in the interest of creating districts with predominately minority or majority voter representation. The goal of the legislatures were not always the same; at times it was to maximize minority representation, in other instances it was to concentrate minority votes in one district, denying them any voice in the remaining districts. Either way, the process reveals an underlying fault line in American politics. On one hand, there is the "universalist" concept, respecting the basic democratic ideal of one person, one vote, with the understanding that individuals make rational choices. On the other hand lies the "particularistic identity" concept, which

During the 1990s, the federal courts consistently struck down these gerrymandered districts as violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, stating that the districts were created based on race, not on permissible grounds such as geography or party affiliation. As the redistricting process became increasingly enmeshed in legal wrangling, the inherent tension between the individualistic and particularistic approaches intensified. The lower courts have further inflamed passions by rejecting far more districts that solidify minority voting power than those that concentrate majority white voting districts (Forest, 2001).

The Supreme Court began to shift in 1993 with Shaw v. Reno, brought by opponents of the redistricting in North Carolina resulting from the 1990 census. They specifically objected to a minority district that snaked across the north central part of the state, often only connected by the width of the interstate highway system. Sandra Day O'Connor found this far too similar to the racist gerrymandering of the past. Hall concludes: "Race-based districting—and by implication, all forms of race-conscious remedies—were called into question as an appropriate response to discrimination and exclusion from power" (Hall, 2005, p. 819). The court has reinforced this decision a number of times, through Bush v. Vera (1996) and Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board (1997). In Hunt v. Cromartie (1999), the court shifted again, allowing race to be one of many factors considered in a redistricting plan.

Further Insights

"The Talented Tenth." In 1903, W. E. B. DuBois wrote his famous essay "The Talented Tenth," in which he argued that the black race would need to be rescued and guided by the ten percent of its most exceptional members. This stood in contrast to Booker T. Washington's address in 1895 at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition in which he argued for accommodation to the racial status quo, with an expectation that black leadership could not emerge until blacks had gained the necessary skills through self-help, monetary savings, and industrial education. Observers who saw DuBois's approach as elitist considered Washington's program one that gave hope to the common man. Cunnigen sees a continued repudiation of any hint of the "elitism" attributed to DuBois, arguing that any black candidate

He goes on to claim that some of the leaders who claim the mantle of the common man or woman are "mere political hacks," more interested in "self-aggrandizement" than the betterment of the race (2006, p. 27). Unfortunately, he provides no specific examples to support the claim.

Cunnigen instead uses the response of the black leadership of the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to argue that merely having black elected officials in no way guarantees that a city with a predominately black underclass will be well-served. Cunnigen uses a popular expression from the rural South that encapsulates the "faith, endurance and perseverance over the sometime formidable racial oppression of the region and nation … 'If God's willing and the creek doesn't rise,'" (2006, p. 25) as an ironic reminder of the failure of the political leadership during Hurricane Katrina. By 2005, New Orleans had a long history of black leadership: blacks comprised 67 percent of the population of the city and had helped to elect an African American as mayor, three of seven city councillors, and their member of Congress. Cunnigen argues that strong political clout provided little socioeconomic payoff for the city's black population. Unlike other urban centers, there is no well developed mass transit system; this played a significant role in the high Katrina death toll, as the 14 percent of the population without private transportation had very limited options for fleeing the storm.

Welfare Access & Eligibility. One arena where a lack of political power has had a direct and negative impact on the lives of minorities is eligibility for welfare payments. While there is a substantial body of research that documents the extensive mistreatment of black families within the welfare system (Brinkley, 1992), Reese and Ramirez argue that it is equally critical to understand the formal and informal practices that kept Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and many other immigrant groups off of welfare rolls. They suggest it is equally important to study how these groups can organize to reshape welfare policies. Just as blacks organized during the Civil Rights Movement to expand and equalize their access to programs, Hispanic activist joined together when faced with a significant loss of benefits in 1996.

Revisions to national welfare policy were passed under the administration of President Bill Clinton, fueled, according to Reese and Ramirez, by racist opposition to rapid increases in rates of immigration, restricting access to a wide variety of income support programs for legal immigrants. Adding to the decline in numbers of immigrants applying for any sort of income support program was the fear that participation might enhance their chances of deportation (2007). In contrast, in California, a coalition of Latino politicians and many organizations that represent Latinos, Asians, immigrants, and welfare recipients joined together to advocate for a welfare policy that was inclusive, rather than exclusionary. As a result, California became one of the two most generous states to legal immigrants, restoring their right to participate in the four most critical support programs: Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

What makes this victory most amazing is that it was extremely expensive for taxpayers, and it happened despite a strong presence of nativists sentiment in the state. Schneider and Ingram point out that "there are strong pressures for public officials to … devise punitive, punishment oriented policy for negatively constructed groups" (as cited in Reese & Ramirez, 2007, p. 32). Advocates had to overcome a political climate in which it was common to hear references to an overreliance on welfare by immigrants. It was done by mobilizing dense concentrations of ethnic groups, both immigrants and citizens alike, and was helped by the ethnic makeup of the state legislature, with a significant number of Latino legislators, who served as "social movement actors within the polity" (Reese & Ramirez, 2007, p. 32).

Resources Necessary for a Political Voice. In American politics, it takes resources to have a voice. This is equally true for populations that are outside the mainstream culture and economy; thus, resource mobilization theory is concerned with ways that a deprived group can find the resources necessary to have a political voice. There are three types of resources.

• First is "ecological concentration," or the concentration of groups within space so as to facilitate mobilization; it eases communication among group members and increases their solidarity (Reese & Ramirez, 2007, p. 43).
• Next, there needs to be social networks of like-minded people, especially if the networks can be "co-opted" for a particular purpose. These can include neighborhood associations and churches.
• Finally, scholars and wealthy sponsors are essential. Grassroots organizing on its own is generally not enough to successfully change social policy; the need for grant funding to hire organizers and lobbyists is critical when the goal is significant policy change, especially when that policy benefits a group that is often denigrated (Reese & Ramirez, 2007).

Conclusion

The population of the United States has increased significantly since the mid-twentieth century, more than doubling from a 1950 total of 152 million to an estimated 325 million people in December 2016. According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the population will be about 416 million by 2060, with whites (including Hispanics who identify as white) making up around 70 percent of the population. Hispanics of any race will grow to about 120 million, blacks to 60 million, Asians to 39 million, and multiracial people to 26 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). With these demographic realities in mind, it is clear that the American political landscape will continue to evolve to become more racial and ethnically diverse. What is less clear is whether or not this change will be beneficial to some of the more vulnerable members of the minority groups. Examples can be found where increased representation has had a quantitatively positive impact, but there are also examples where minority populations gain very little from having members of their group in high office.

Terms & Concepts

Co-optation: "In a system of power, the power holder intentionally extends some form of political participation to actors who pose a threat" (Lacy, 1985, p. 83).

Gerrymandering: Drawing district voting lines in a way that does not respect any natural boundaries, but rather demonstrates a desire on the part of the creators to affect a particular outcome.

Indian Gaming Act: Congressional legislation, dating from 1988, that allows tribes to negotiate with states to create gaming facilities both on and off tribal lands.

Nativist: A person who prefers people similar in demographic features to themselves; most importantly, a preference for people who were born in one’s own country rather than immigrating there.

Particularistic Identity Concept: A political understanding that "individual identity is primarily constituted by memberships in communities" and thus community representation is the vital outcome for voting (Forest, 2001, p. 143).

Reconstruction: 1865–1875, A term used to describe the process the federal government used to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union after the Civil War; it is also known as a time when former slaves received some measure of protection from former slaveholders.

Redistricting: Every ten years, based on the current census results, new lines for congressional districts must be drawn.

Resource Mobilization Theory: When a deprived group wishes to mobilize for a political fight, they must take specific steps to ensure that they will have the resources, both financial and human, to successful win the battle.

Universalist Identity Concept: The political understanding of the basic democratic ideal of one person, one vote, with the understanding that individuals make rational choices (Forest, 2001).

Voting Rights Act of 1965: Civil Rights legislation that has been renewed in subsequent years that allows the federal government to play a role in assuring fairness in any voting locale with a history of discrimination; it has also played a critical role in the political battles over redistricting.

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Suggested Reading

Reed, A. (2016). The post-1965 trajectory of race, class, and urban politics in the United States reconsidered. Labor Studies Journal, 41(3), 260-291. doi:10.1177/0160449X16655674. Retrieved December 22, 2016, from EBSCO online database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=118868883&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Epstein, L., & Walker, T. (1992). Constitutional law for a changing America. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

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Kinder, D. R., & Dale-Riddle, A. (2012). The end of race? Obama, 2008, and racial politics in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Logan, E. (2014). Barack Obama, the new politics of race, and classed constructions of racial blackness. Sociological Quarterly, 55, 653–682. Retrieved January 15, 2015, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=97654913&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Lyons, O., et al. (1992). Democracy, Indian nations, and the U.S. Constitution. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishing.

Miller, J. (1987). Democracy is in the streets: From Port Huron to the siege of Chicago. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Wilkinson, B. C. (2015). Partners or rivals? Power and Latino, black, and white relations in the twenty-first century. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.