Even Print is Black and White
By Hope Ditto, Political Theory & Philosophy Staff Writer

Throughout the course of US history, African Americans have been shunted to the side by whites in both local and national political affairs. It appears that general society considered only Whites capable of governing this country. But more recently, as social thought has progressed and the tide of racism recedes, an influx of black involvement in politics has emerged. In the last century, this country has seen a transition taking blacks from second-class citizen status to serious political players on both the state and national levels of government. African Americans have now successfully been elected to both Houses of Congress and to citywide and statewide leadership positions. They have also been appointed to the Supreme Court and the President’s Cabinet. Blacks have been able to overcome the legacy of prejudice, to a certain extent. There still remains one task, one prejudice to overcome, one question to answer: whether this country is capable of electing a black man into the head position of government. By studying the history of blacks in politics, and particularly voting patterns for black candidates in major elections, it is possible to predict how American citizens will react to a black man in a national presidential election. In a more practical sense and with a disregard to party alliance entirely, does Barack Obama 1 have a chance at getting elected President of the United States?

Since African Americans have gained their freedom and citizenship, they have worked tirelessly to create a presence in the national political arena. Like many other minority groups, blacks have faced an especially uphill battle in order to earn the respect of the citizenry. African American men officially received their citizenship and voting rights via the 14^th and 15^th amendments to the Constitution, which were passed immediately following the end of the Civil War. Shortly thereafter, the first black man was elected to the House, Joseph Rainey, and then the Senate in the 1870s, Hiram Revels. However, as the Jim Crowe era of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries progressed, blacks found themselves shut out of office for several decades. In fact, it was not until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement that African Americans broke back into state and national politics at all. But, in the 60s, the first black was appointed to the Cabinet (Robert C. Weaver as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Johnson), the first black was appointed to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, and the first black mayor of a major city was elected (Carl Stokes in Cleveland, Ohio). Since then, African Americans have been successfully elected governor of Virginia and Massachusetts, and been appointed to other important positions, including the last Secretaries of State. Still, to date, there have been a total of only five African American senators, two governors, and two Supreme Court Justices. 1 While progress has been made, it seems that there is still ground left to cover on the road to equality.

The development and current role of African Americans in political office raises a more general question: is there still an undercurrent of racism within the country? Certainly, leaps of progress have been made throughout the past half-century.

While we have now established the role of blacks within politics, it must also be acknowledged the predominance of women and other minorities in politics. Compared to African Americans, women were later to join the political game. The first woman elected to the House was Jeanette Rankin in 1917 from Montana. Since, women have far surpassed the progress of African Americans. In fact, in the 107^th Congress, there were 13 female senators and 61 female congressmen, a record percentage to date. Additionally, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of 110^th Congress, making her the first woman Speaker of the House.

African Americans have served time as political leaders in our country, certainly, but situations in the country seem to handicap their abilities to garner widespread appeal. Currently in the US, the practice of benign gerrymandering, or the designating of congressional districts based on racial background, is altogether common. While it should be acknowledged that many neighborhoods or towns have one dominant race, and while it is true that minorities tend to have their own particular interests or issues, benign gerrymandering has a crippling effect on a broader scale. By isolating minority groups into their own district, these groups are not gaining public attention for their causes, and are instead still operating only inside their own channels of communication. Beyond that, by only representing a congressional district of their own minority, the politicians fail to gain statewide or national attention. Without this attention, procuring necessary name recognition and funding for a statewide or national campaign is exponentially more difficult to accomplish. Though benign gerrymandering is often overlooked as a common practice, its effects are widespread and severe for minority groups. Certainly this is one distinction in issues facing women versus minorities, because women are obviously not shunted into their own congressional districts. Only when lawmakers reassess and recognize the trouble caused by benign gerrymandering is causing will change and progress be possible for the African American community.

This all brings us back to my initial question: is our nation willing to elect a black man to high office? The answer may not be as obvious as you would think. This is because of a modern phenomenon known as the Bradley-Wilder Effect, so named for two men whose elections it determined. The phenomenon occurs when polls indicate that a majority of American citizens intend to vote in an election for a black man, and then decide at the 11^th hour to cast a different ballot. It occurred when Tom Bradley ran for governor of California in 1986. Polls indicated that Bradley, the longtime mayor of Los Angeles, was ahead of his opponent by several points leading up to the election, but ended up several points shy of a victory. While Bradley’s race certainly called attention to the strange predicament, it was when Douglas Wilder ran for governor of Virginia and experienced the same odd pattern that heads turned. Researchers have traced the discrepancy in both cases to the number of voters who openly declared support for the black candidate, but did not actually vote for him. A similar pattern occurred in the 1988 Wisconsin Democratic primary when Jesse Jackson lost much more significantly than anticipated to Michael Dukakis 2 . Colin Powell has even said that this phenomenon is what kept him out of the presidential race in 2000. What does this all mean? There may very well be no way to predict an answer to the initial question. There may be no accurate way to determine prior to an election whether an African American can win.

No answer exists as to whether this country really will elect an African American come November 4, 2008. In fact, there is question whether the Democratic Party will even elect an African American as their national candidate for the presidency. What is for sure is that, if this country, this great experiment of democracy, is to live on and prosper, it is time to put racism in the past. It is time for the US to join so many European and Latin American countries and acknowledge that being white, Christian, and male are not prerequisites for leading the country. It is time for the nation to put aside race or sex and instead work to elect the leader who is best qualified to serve the country. If our country wishes to continue as the most powerful and progressive nation in the world, the people of the United States must finally learn to put aside appearance and prioritize leadership ability and political prowess.

1. "Barack Obama: U.S Senator From Illinois," U.S. Senate Members, U.S. Senate, 07 Feb. 2007 <http://obama.senate.gov/>.

2. Borgana Brunner, "Famous Firsts by African Americans," InfoPlease, 07 Feb. 2007 <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html>.

3. Ellis Cose, "Black Candidates and White Voters," Newsweek 30 Oct. 2006.