“Time and again, racist ideas have not been cooked up from the boiling pot of ignorance and hate. Time and again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era, in order to redirect the blame for their era’s racial disparities away from those policies and onto Black people. ”
― Ibram X. Kendi
Equity Challenge Week 4 Politics and Race
In continuing to highlight the presence of racism in our societal structures, today we’ll be looking into the political system, and analyzing how race can impact the political spectrum, as well as analyzing prominent topics where race and politics intersect. Views of discrimination vary widely by race, ethnicity and partisan lines. Data lovers can dive deeper into shifts in public opinion on the role of government in a variety of differnt policy areas with data from the General Social Survey.
Key Terms:
Racial Resentment: A way to measure white Americans’ attitudes toward Black Americans based on respondents’ answers to questions about perceptions about disparities. This metric is more a measure of worldview than a measurement of personal racism.
Articles
The Role of Racial Resentment in Our Politics
- Ian Shapiro from The Brennan Center for Justice examined levels of racial resentment amonth white Republicans and white Democrats going back to 1986. Read this article to learn whats changed in the last 30 years and why that gap has increased so drastically.
Black Voter Suppression (10 Minute Read)
- Read this article to get a perspective on republican efforts to exclude African Americans from the polls, which the author deems reminiscent of efforts of Southern Whites that enabled the Jim Crow era.
The 14 Most Common Arguments against Immigration and why They’re Wrong
- Description from Article: “Arguments against immigration come across my desk every day but I rarely encounter a unique one. In 2016, I wrote a blog responding to the most common arguments with links to different research. Since then, academics and policy analysts have produced new research that should be included. These are the main arguments against immigration, my quick responses to them, and links to some of the most relevant evidence.”
Video
Does Racism Affect How You Vote? (8:48)
TEDx Description: “Nate Silver has data that answers big questions about race in politics. For instance, in the 2008 presidential race, did Obama’s skin color actually keep him from getting votes in some parts of the country. Stats and myths collide in this fascinating talk that ends with a remarkable insight.”
Podcasts
DACA Decision: Check-In with Miriam Gonzalez (17 Minutes)
Listen to this podcast to hear from DACA recipient Miriam Gonzalez, a strong advocate for the policy since 2017, and her feelings after learning that the Supreme Court ruled that DACA could stay in place. Additionally, listen to Harvard Professor Roberto G. Gonzalez discuss how DACA has made a significant impact on hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults’ lives.
America’s Concentration Camps? (28 Minutes)
Description via NPR: “There’s a debate over what to call the facilities holding migrant asylum seekers at the southern border. We revisit an earlier controversy to help make sense of it.”