Backing Barack Because He&#8217;s Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The multiracial idea has at least two versions. One is that multiracial people are of mixed blood or mixed genetic material. The other is that multiracial people are those with parents of different recognizable races. On examination, both of these positions present problems. The first is most blatantly tied to the racist science of the nineteenth century. It suggests that a person with both black and white ancestry is not adequately or accurately described as black (or white). This assertion rests on the discredited biological model. To sustain this position, one would have to show not only that bloodlines or genes are the appropriate foundations upon which to classify races, but also that bloodlines or genetic indicators are clear. Stated more strongly, this view implies that pure blood-lines—people who are uniracial—define the current racial categories.

Many of the proponents of new multiracial categories are politically left of center and reject the overt racism of nineteenth-century biology. Yet, a number of the assumptions adopted by these advocates end up relying, unwittingly, on the same discredited science, one of the main assertions of which was that race and racial categories were based on blood or genes. Supposed racial difference cannot be sustained on this basis, however; the majority of white Americans have African ancestry, the majority of blacks have white ancestry, and a substantial number of each have American Indian ancestry. Indeed, under the old hypodescent or “one drop” rule, which asserts that “white blood” is pure and therefore contaminated by even one drop of “black blood,” most white Americans are, in fact, African American.

john a. powell, Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), 39.

Backing Barack Because He’s Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election

Backing Barack Because He’s Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election

Social Science Quarterly
Volume 92, Issue 2, June 2011
pages 423–446
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2011.00776.x

Ray Block Jr., Assistant Professor of Political Science/Public Administration
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse

Objective. If racial considerations influenced the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, then how did they shape the campaign, why did race matter, and for whom were such considerations important? I hypothesize that various racial attitudes exert unique influences on voters’ support of Obama and that the effects of these attitudes differ by race.

Methods. Using a Time Magazine poll, I distinguish between “attitudes regarding Obama’s ‘Blackness’” and “opinions about race relations,” and I examine such sentiments among White and African-American respondents.

Results. Regardless of race, Obama support was highest among voters who were “comfortable” with Black candidates. However, increased optimism with racial progress had no effect on Blacks’ voting intentions, and it actually lowered Obama support among Whites.

Conclusion. The conventional wisdom is that African Americans “backed Barack because he is Black”; I demonstrate that Obama’s race mattered more to White voters than it did to Blacks.

Read or purchase the article here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 7th, 2013 at 06:07Z and is filed under Articles, Barack Obama, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Mixed Race Studies

Backing Barack Because He’s Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election

Pages

Categories

Calendar of Posts

Links

Meta