Ifthehar Ahmed

Shamecca Harris

Freshman Composition 101

4 November 2018

Race relations means “relations between members or communities of different race within one country,” as told in dictionaries. This issue has been sort of a trending topic within America for the last couple years, with the polarizing presidential appointment of Donald Trump, all because of the rhetoric that he has seemed to generate from his rallies. The divide between the Democratic and Republican parties have also been polarized sue to this issue, constantly painting each other in a bad light, democrats propagating the belief that republicans are racist bigots and the republicans commenting on the issues of the politically correct nature of the democrats. With the resurgence of race-related issues, it’s best to reflect on a similar occurrence of race and politics being mixed up in the past, especially within the era between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement and ask how the opinion on race relations between the two parties is changed since then and the background behind it.

In the present day, the uproar regarding Donald Trump’s election by the Democratic party caused more racial liberalism to arise, that is according to New York Times’ Sean McElwee’s “The Rising Racial Liberalism of Democratic Voters.” In the article, it’s shown that the Democrats have really been focusing on the discrimination against minorities more than ever, shown with the General Social Survey showing that the from 1977 to 2016, the percentage of white democrats who say inequality is caused by individuals’ willpower has declined from 63% to 28%, while the percentage of white democrats who say inequality is caused by discrimination has increased from 44% to 54%(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/opinion/democrats-race.html).  This was caused by the rhetoric that Hillary Clinton had applied in her campaign, as stated that “during her 2016 campaign, Mrs. Clinton invoked concepts like intersectionality, white privilege, implicit bias and systemic racism.”  What this concludes about the current take on race relations is that the effects are very polarizing on both sides, with even our former Democratic president Barack Obama proclaiming that the rhetoric will cause a racial divide. This and the combination of the more conservative(often perceived as ‘racist’) rhetoric that Trump employs, it’s sort of expected for this polarization to come into effect. For more evidence on the democratic side, the NYT conducted a voter study group that surveyed 2,400 white Democrats in 2011 and 2016 to see how liberal they were with race questions and, not to anyone’s surprise, they got even more liberal, i.e. when they were asked the statement “Slavery and past discrimination still hold back black people today,” there were 62% who agree in 2016 as supposed to 48% in 2011(full chart at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/opinion/democrats-race.html). Indeed, Democrats have become a completely leftist(in sometimes an extreme way) on race, concluding that there is a system of prejudice at work.

Republican conservatives, in response to the Democratic liberals, have also tried to compile evidence that the ones that perpetuate the racism is not them but the Democrats themselves, at least that’s the message being derived from the article by The News Virginian’s Walter E. Williams’s article, “Liberals, blacks thrive on racism narrative.” To summarize, Williams states how  “white liberals and the Democratic party are the major beneficiaries of keeping black people fearful, angry, victimized and resentful,” and how “racial harmony would be a disaster for leftists, be they politicians, academic liberals or news media people(https://www.dailyprogress.com/newsvirginian/opinion/guest_columnists/opinion-liberals-blacks-thrive-on-racism-narrative/article_1b830844-74fc-11e8-b620-ebd95586217b.html).” Already, we are getting a view into how Republicans and Conservatives view the opposite party, as a sort of fear-mongering and how they have been sort of been scapegoats for the race relations issue that currently plague the country, again very polarized view of a party. They have employed various evidence trying to support their stance of the victimization of black people and the problems they face i.e. “Dr. Shelby Steele, a scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said: ‘Instead of admitting that racism has declined, we (blacks) argue all the harder that it is still alive and more insidious than ever. We hold race up to shield us from what we do not want to see in ourselves.’” Not only that, they even compiled an escalation of the ever various problem of single-parent households in the black community, stating that,” As late as 1950, female-headed households were only 18 percent of the black population. Today 70 percent of black children are raised in single-parent households. In the late 1800s, there were only slight differences between the black family structure and those of other ethnic groups.” This related to the polar views of race relations today due to the fact that the Republicans taking a conservative approach constantly have to sort of debunk the claims that the Democratic party makes and then they have to rebut and so on and so forth. The point is that both parties have developed a sort of mentality in which they are trying to reveal their subjective “truth” of race in the society we live in today. Democrats try to instill that minorities (more specifically blacks) are at racial disadvantage while Republicans rebut that with claiming that Democrats perpetuate racism while claiming that they are some sort of solution to the supposed “racism” in society today.

Going from the information gathered here, we can observe how polarizing the two sides are. But how was the opinion on race relations during a similar era, during the American Civil War. It’s common history knowledge that the Civil War was strongly influenced by racism because at that moment in time, African-Americans in the South were enslaved, mistreated and discriminated against by the wealthy, powerful white plantation owners. However, everyone seems to have forgotten the party affiliation of these plantation owners and to some people’s shock, they were Democrats as detail by Andrew Gelman’s “How Did the Republican States switch to the Democrats and Vice Versa,” with the exact statement “From 1876 through 1964, the South was run by white-dominated state Democratic organizations whose racial exclusion policies were tacitly accepted by the leadership of the national Democratic and Republican parties(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2013.856147?scroll=top&needAccess=true).” Really, this highlights a certain irony in which the Democratic, Liberal party which tries to champion itself as a party supporting minorities was once the sole perpetuator of African-American slavery. Well, what about the Republicans? Well, since Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, it should be obvious on what they have stood for. However, for a little refresher, Abraham Lincoln of the Republican party was the sole reason why African-Americans were able to gain rights and freedom. This sort of mindset is very consistent with the current ideology of Republicans, who don’t advocate for racism at all. So overall, it seems that the Democratic party had done a full 180 and suddenly, started to support the minorities and the Republicans have stayed true to their beliefs. Indeed, Liberals today would’ve been Republican if the Democrat party was anything like it was before.

From then on, African-Americans have been solely Republican due to the efforts of Abraham Lincoln, maintaining that allegiance all the way to the Great Depression. However, it should be noted that during the Reconstruction, according to Timothy J. Hoffman’s “The Civil Rights Realignment: How Race Dominates Presidential Elections,” racial issues took a back drop within the two major parties as stated, “The issue of race failed to influence the behavior of the major parties, and blacks were not even allowed at Democratic Party conventions in any official capacity until 1924 (Jackson 2008). As a result, the black vote in presidential politics remained solidly Republican because of past loyalties to the Party of Lincoln. Only significant changes in the political landscape of the nation would be able to reverse this trend(https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=pa).” What this demonstrates is that while Republicans and Democrats had the same views as they were in the Civil War, they both now had indifference towards the subject and therefore, was a stagnant time in terms of progression of improving race relations, with blacks only being Republican because of the party’s past actions in liberating African-American slaves. However, then came the rise of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was motivated to change the Democratic party’s agenda on blacks due to how he only received “only 23% of the black vote in the 1932 presidential election(https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=pa).” For example, a major reform that he had implemented was the New Deal, benefitting blacks greatly as stated, “Roosevelt actively used government to improve the economy by creating agencies like the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Works Progress Administration, and Public Works Administration, and his National Recovery Act helped workers by requiring a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and giving labor the rights to organize and strike. Roosevelt also made inroads with African Americans by choosing Harold Ickes, a Republican from Illinois, as Secretary of the Interior. Ickes was a strong proponent of civil rights for African Americans and sought to make great strides to improve the quality of life for blacks in the country (https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=pa).”  As you can imagine, FDR quickly gained favor from the black community and had helped with improving the Democratic party’s image in relation to them, the possible turning point in which we start to finally see what resembles the Democratic party of today. Yes, Republicans still had some allegiances, but Democrats during the Great Depression certainly helped with converting some African-Americans over in their sides.

Back in the ever-polarizing present day parties, we see how Democrats still believe that racism is afoot and deeply rooted in society, according to Jonathan Chait’s “Obama Calls Racism ‘Deeply Rooted.’ He’s Right.” In the article, he cites Obama’s statement on the supposed “deeply rooted” racism that is happening in modern day society. Chait also cites the examples how racism is still a part of society, listing evidence that “ Employers are less likely to call back an equally qualified candidate whose résumé has a black-sounding name. Police in simulations are more likely to shoot black suspects. White medical staff are less likely to perceive pain by African-Americans. Despite having similar rates of marijuana use, blacks are more than three times as likely to be arrested for it(http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/12/obama-calls-racism-deeply-rooted-hes-right.html).” What this demonstrates about the Liberal view of race relations is that they believe that although we may have had the Civil Rights movement to proclaim that blacks are equal, they are still discriminated against in modern day society. Another piece of evidence that Chait employs is that of professional opinion, as he references to Chris Mooney who conducted a study based on images and the words associated with them, stating the results when ‘“Sometimes you’re asked to sort African-American faces and “good” words to one side of the screen. Other times, black faces are to be sorted with “bad” words. As words and faces keep flashing by, you struggle not to make too many sorting mistakes. And then, suddenly, you have a horrible realization. When black faces and “bad” words are paired together, you feel yourself becoming faster in your categorizing — an indication that the two are more easily linked in your mind. “It’s like you’re on a bike going downhill,” [David] Amodio says, “and you feel yourself going faster. So you can say, ‘I know this is not how I want to come off,’ but there’s no other response option(http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/12/obama-calls-racism-deeply-rooted-hes-right.html).”’ What we can conclude from this study is that the test subjects have unconsciously categorized African-Americans as “bad,” supposedly perpetuating the idea that racism is still deeply rooted.

On the conservative side, they can be polarized on how racism and Democratic portrayal of the issue of race-relations, as seen in the Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo’s “Conservatives Should Care about Institutional Racism.” In this article, she describes how the conservatives may points about the concern of this institutional racism but need to think more critically in acknowledging some truths on the matter. One statement perfectly conveys this dilemma, “While implicit bias, the cause of much of this inequality, is a difficult problem to confront, conservatives seem rarely to acknowledge its existence and its consequences, much less offer suggestions about how to counter it. Sometimes, as a conservative, it feels like we fixate on a mosquito that’s buzzing in our ear while fellow citizens are being stung by hordes of bees. When our first response to cases like Walker’s or the Philadelphia Starbucks customers’ is to complain about the oppressiveness of political correctness, to immediately scrutinize the motives of the black persons involved while leaving the motives of involved others untouched, or to balk about special treatment, something is wrong(https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21367/).” In terms of race relations, this all circles back to how there are some critiques on the conservative side of how sometimes, they are not able to acknowledge an tackle some of the arguments Democrats make on the racism plaguing society today. Indeed, they have some points that are valid but aren’t able to see that the opposition’s points can be valid as well, and there is a lack of acknowledge of the fact that maybe there are some racial biases that are plaguing modern society.

This is very reminiscent of the Republican party during the Reconstruction and Civil Rights era, with the relation between the party and blacks deteriorating after they decided to incorporate southern whites into the GOP.  This resulted in a clash between the two factions in the party and blacks began to leave. Then, in 1900, blacks started to shift towards the Democrats, with “ Two movements, the Negro National Democratic League and the Niagara Movement….cemented blacks to the Democratic Party(https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472099672-ch2.pdf).” What this once again convey is that because of the internalized conflict with the southern whites, blacks ultimately decide to just leave in favor of the Democratic party. Ultimately, this conveys that the two parties go back and forth with racial ideologies mainly to promote their own political agenda.  Along with that, during the Civil Rights movement,  it has seemed that this time, Republicans were the racist ones, as “Largely moribund by the 1960s, the conservative movement reinvented itself in the 1970s, first by incorporating neoconservatives who eschewed old-fashioned racism…(http://www.charltonmcilwain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Hall-Jacquelyn.pdf).” This further proves the idea that the ideologies of parties in race relations go back and forth, as the Democrats became more accepting of blacks while the Republicans regressed.

Overall, the point made with these political parties and race relation is that there is constant swapping of ideologies with both parties, showing that the political party labels of “Republican” and “Democrat” are just name only. On day, “Democrat” might be racist and then the next day, it might mean “fighting for the minorities” while the Republicans can have the opposite effect and vice versa. The point is that whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican, they can easily switch to the other side because at the end of the day, both are just flexible labels that can be changed to fit the agenda of a party.

Works Cited

1. McElwee, Sean. “The Rising Racial Liberalism of Democratic Voters.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/opinion/democrats-race.html. The New York Times. 23 May 2018
2. Williams, Walter E. “OPINION: Liberals, blacks thrive on a racism narrative.” https://www.dailyprogress.com/newsvirginian/opinion/guest_columnists/opinion-liberals-blacks-thrive-on-racism-narrative/article_1b830844-74fc-11e8-b620-ebd95586217b.html. The News Virginian. 20 Jun. 2018
3. Gelman, Andrew. “The Twentieth-Century Reversal: How Did the Republicam States Switch to the Democrats and Vice versa?” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2013.856147?scroll=top&needAccess=true%29&. 8 Nov. 2013
4. Hoffman, Timothy J. “The Civil Rights Realignment: How Race Dominates Presidential Elections.” https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=pa. 2015
5. Chait, Jonathan. “Obama Calls Racism ‘Deeply Rooted.’ He’s Right.” http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/12/obama-calls-racism-deeply-rooted-hes-right.html. Intelligencer. 8 Dec. 2014
6. Menchaca-Bagnulo, Ashleen. “Conservatives Should Care about Institutional Racism.” https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21367/. Public Discourse. 23 Apr. 2018
7. “Party Politics and the Racial Divide.” https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472099672-ch2.pdf.
8. Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd. “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.” http://www.charltonmcilwain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Hall-Jacquelyn.pdf. 19 Nov. 2011

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