Managing a Skeptical Embrace: How Ideas about “Black People” Mediate Interracial Relations among Republicans

• In Event: 050 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. The Mechanisms of Color-Blind Racism

Abstract

The article examines color blindness and race consciousness among African American Republicans as responses to the loyalty concerns of their white counterparts. Given the perceived incongruence of black racial identity and Republican partisan affiliation, African American Republicans must work to align blackness and Republican-ness. They adopt two strategies to achieve this alignment: color blindness and race consciousness. Ideas about black people, specifically ideas about the role of racism and discrimination in black people’s lives, provide motivation for each strategy. Data suggests that adoption of the color blind strategy is more effective in allying the anxieties of white Republicans. The political demands of white Republicans support the use of color blindness as a political strategy among African American Republicans. The case illustrates how the symbolic construction of “black people” as a category is central to the proliferation and success of color blind political behavior.

Author

• Corey D. Fields, Stanford University