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It was found that many Republican party members don't see race or social welfare issues as real or big problems in America. So, the reason for many African Americans as Democratic is due to racial issues and the different standpoints that the two political parties have on them.

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African Americans used to be primarily affiliated with the Republican Party, but it has now flipped. This change is mainly due the fact idea that the Republican Party does not care to address the inequality in the US or people's rights.

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If you'd walked into a gathering of older black folks 100 years ago, you'd have found that most of them would have been Republican.

Wait... what?

Yep. Republican. Party of Lincoln. Party of the Emancipation. Party that pushed not only black votes but black politicians during that post-bellum period known as Reconstruction.

Today, it's almost the exact opposite. That migration of black voters away from the GOP reached its last phase 50 years ago this week.

Walking through the Farmer's Market at 18th Street and La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, a mixture of Angelenos strolled the asphalt parking lot, surveying rows of leafy produce and ripe stone fruit. Virtually all the people I approached who were registered voters were registered to one party.

"I'm affiliated with the Democratic party, of course!" laughs Arthur Little, a thin man in shorts and electric turquoise-framed sun glasses.

"Why 'of course'?" I asked.

"Because I think of it as the party that is at least officially interested in putting people's rights before corporate rights," Little shakes his head. "I don't even know why a black person even would be a Republican," he muses, as he walks off with his teenaged son.

Darlene Lee-Bolgen, eyeballing fresh fingerlings and young onions, said she was worried about income inequality, and she didn't believe that was a Republican concern. "It doesn't seem like they're for the regular people, for civil rights... they're not doing anything to help the people. They're all for themselves."

Black voters began supporting the Democratic party in greater numbers almost a century ago. But the events of 1964 marked a dramatic shift in voting patterns that's still with us today.
A More Even Distribution
Vincent Hutchings, a political scientist who studies voter patterns at the University of Michigan, says the first major shift in black party affiliation away from the Republican Party happened during the Depression. Franklin Roosevelt's second administration - led by the New Deal - made the Democrats a beacon for black Americans deeply affected by the crushing poverty that was plaguing the country.

But many black voters stuck with the party of Lincoln.

"The data suggests that even as late as 1960, only about two-thirds of African-Americans were identified with the Democratic Party," he says. "Now, two-thirds is a pretty big number. But when you compare it to today, that number hovers at about 90 percent."

Ninety percent. So what happened?

Well, according to Hutchings and to Tufts University historian Peniel Joseph, Barry Goldwater happened.

"Barry Goldwater, for Republicans, becomes a metaphor for the Republican response for this revolution that's happening in the United States," Joseph says.

The "revolution" was Freedom Summer, the period 50 years ago when hundreds of college students, most of them white, had journeyed to Mississippi to help black Mississippians become registered voters. The state's response to that integrated movement had been swift - and violent. Less than a month before the GOP met for its national convention in San Francisco, organizers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney (who was African-American and Mississippi-born) and Michael Schwerner had been kidnapped on a dark back road in Neshoba County. The only hint that they'd existed was Schwerner's charred Ford station wagon.

The media attention that followed the men's disappearance roiled the entire South. (Their bodies would be found in early August, buried in the shallow earthen works of a dam.)

Then, two weeks after the men's disappearance and mere days before the GOP convention opened, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, making discrimination in public venues illegal.

Peniel Joseph says the events outside the GOP's convention hall affected what went on under its roof. Supporters of the presumed front-runner, liberal New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, were blindsided by the party's well-organized conservative wing, which nominated Arizona's Sen. Barry Goldwater. His nickname was "Mr. Conservative."

Goldwater can be seen as the godfather (or maybe the midwife) of the current Tea Party. He wanted the federal government out of the states' business. He believed the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional - although he said that once it had been enacted into law, it would be obeyed. But states, he said, should implement the law in their own time. Many white southerners, especially segregationists, felt reassured by Goldwater's words. Black Americans, says Vince Hutchings, felt anything but:

"African-Americans heard the message that was intended to be heard. Which was that Goldwater and the Goldwater wing of the Republican party were opposed not only to the Civil Rights Act, but to the civil rights movement, in large part, as well."
An Abrupt Exit From The GOP
When Goldwater, in his acceptance speech, famously told the ecstatic convention "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," he was speaking of "a very specific notion of liberty," says Peniel Joseph: "Small government, a government that doesn't give out handouts to black people. A government that doesn't have laws that interfere with states' rights. A government that is not conducting a war on poverty."

It was a signal both sides heard loud and clear. Goldwater attracted the white Southern votes his advisers thought were essential, paving the way for the "Southern Strategy" that Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan would use successfully in later years. And the third of black Republican voters remaining speedily exited the party.

"It was an abrupt shift," says Hutchings. "For [the] relatively few - but still not trivial - fraction of blacks, they moved aggressively, and almost unanimously, into the Democratic Party."

And black voters have stayed there, in increasing numbers, ever since. Not that all of them want to be.

Back at the farmer's market, Jasmine Patton-Grant, in a flower-patterned sundress, sells lavender soap and lotions to passers-by. She says she grew up in a family of Democrats, going into the voting booth with her father when she was a toddler and voting in elections - national and local - since she was legally able to vote. She considers voting a privilege and her civic obligation. And she says she's sick of the choices she sees before her.

"I'm a Democrat only because I've inherited that from my family," she explains. "It's not as if I'd ever be a Republican, but I'm completely dissatisfied with both parties."

Which suggests if an alternative comes along that Patton-Gant and others find attractive, the black voter party affiliation percentages might change yet again.

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Why Did Black Voters Flee The Republican Party In The 1960s?

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast If you'd walked into a gathering of older black folks 100 years ago, you'd have found that most of them would have been Republican. Wait... what? Yep. Republican. Party of Lincoln. Party of the Emancipation.

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Although America is referred to as the melting pot, that is not accurate due to the divide between the races. Most ethnic groups are prevented from getting accepted as part of American society; therefore there is a racial divide in America.

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Today, one out of four Americans is a member of a racial or ethnic minority and it is clear that this number will increase dramatically over the next decade. As a result, the nature of race relations in American society today is of critical importance. In view of the size of America's minorities and the continued influx of new immigrants from developing nations, the social fabric of American society has undergone some very fundamental changes. In the recent past the melting pot theory was used as the primary explanation for the introduction and adaptation of immigrants in American society. With the influx of immigrants from developing nations and a dramatic increase in the minority population, new theories must be advanced to account for the racial diversity in American society today. The orientation toward the social integration of America's minorities must be viewed in terms of a bi-cultural, bi-racial, bilingual society based on the general acceptance of cultural pluralism. Therefore, immigrants are no longer required to relinquish their language and culture in order to gain acceptance into American society. Rather, the cultural diversity of all American minorities should be respected and encouraged. After all, America is a nation of immigrants and as a society we must be willing to accept cultural diversity.

Journal Information

The Humboldt Journal of Social Relations (HJSR) is a peer reviewed free online journal housed in the Department of Sociology at Humboldt State University. This internationally recognized journal produces one annual themed spring edition focused around current issues and topics. While the articles primarily draw authors from the social sciences, we have also facilitated interdisciplinary collaborations among authors from the arts, humanities, natural sciences & the social sciences.

Publisher Information

As a department we work to address social justice at the local, regional and global level. Through our research and our community involvement, we commit to continue addressing various issues of social injustice. As a department we will foster a desire and respect for social change amongst our students and our local community. As part of this social justice work we developed a strong critical criminology major that began accepting students in 2013/14. The CJS major is embedded within the sociology program and builds upon our existing strengths in inequality, environment and community.

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RACE RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES on JSTOR

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Today, one out of four Americans is a member of a racial or ethnic minority and it is clear that this number will increase dramatically over the next decade. As a result, the nature of race relations in American society today is of critical importance.

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Most of Americans believe that race relations are bad, and that people not seeing discrimination is a big problem. In fact, a good majority of people that believe race relations are bad believe they have gotten worse with Trump's election.

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Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project

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A majority of Americans say race relations in the United States are bad, and of those, about seven-in-ten say things are getting even worse. Roughly two-thirds say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Donald Trump was elected, even if not necessarily more acceptable.

Opinions about the state of race relations, Trump's handling of the issue and the amount of attention paid to race vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups. Blacks, Hispanics and Asians are more likely than whites to say Trump has made race relations worse and that there's too little attention paid to race in the U.S. these days. In addition, large majorities of blacks, Hispanics and Asians say people not seeing discrimination where it exists is a bigger problem in the U.S. than people seeing it where it doesn't exist, but whites are about evenly divided on this.

This chapter also explores Americans' views of intergroup relations; whether they think the better approach to improving race relations is to focus on what different groups have in common or on the unique experiences of each racial and ethnic group; whether they have ever heard friends or family members make potentially racist or racially insensitive comments or jokes and, if so, did they confront them; and views about white people and black people using the N-word.

Majorities of whites, blacks and Hispanics say race relations are bad

About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say race relations in the U.S. are generally bad, a view that is held by majorities across racial and ethnic groups. Still, blacks (71%) are considerably more likely than whites (56%) and Hispanics (60%) to express negative views about the state of race relations.

Democrats have more negative views of the current state of race relations than Republicans. About two-thirds of Democrats (67%) say race relations are bad, while Republicans are more evenly divided (46% say race relations are bad and 52% say they are good). These partisan differences are virtually unchanged when looking only at white Democrats and Republicans.

Overall, 53% of the public says race relations are getting worse. Views are particularly pessimistic among those who say race relations are currently bad: 69% of this group says race relations are getting even worse, and 22% say they're staying the same. Just 9% think they're getting better. Among those who say race relations are good, 30% see things getting even better, while 30% say they're getting worse and 40% don't see much change.

Majority of Americans say Trump has made race relations worse

Two years into Donald Trump's presidency, 56% of Americans say Trump has made race relations worse. A relatively small share (15%) say the president has made progress toward improving race relations, and 13% say he has tried but failed to make progress; 14% say Trump has not addressed race relations.

Assessments of the president's performance on race relations vary considerably along racial and ethnic lines. Most blacks (73%), Hispanics (69%) and Asians (65%) say Trump has made race relations worse, compared with about half of whites (49%).

Democrats and Republicans have widely different opinions of the president's handling of race relations. Fully 84% of Democrats say Trump has made race relations worse, compared with 20% of Republicans. And while 34% of Republicans say Trump has made progress toward improving race relations, virtually no Democrats (1%) say the same. Among Democrats, views on this don't vary much along racial or ethnic lines, but white Democrats (86%) are somewhat more likely than black Democrats (79%) to say Trump has made race relations worse.

Most Americans say it's become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump's election

Majorities across racial and ethnic groups say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected, but blacks (76%) and Hispanics (75%) are more likely than whites (60%) to say this is the case. Whites are more likely than blacks and Hispanics to say expressing these views is about as common as it was before Trump's election.

Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected (84% vs. 42%). Half of Republicans - vs. 12% of Democrats - say people expressing these views is about as common as it was before, while small shares in each group say it is now less common than before Trump's election. These partisan differences remain when looking only at white Democrats and Republicans.

Among whites and blacks, the view that expressing racist or racially insensitive views is now more common is particularly prevalent among those with more education. Some 84% of blacks with a bachelor's degree or more education and 86% with some college experience offer this opinion, compared with 66% of blacks with a high school diploma or less education. Among whites, the difference is between those with at least a bachelor's degree (71% say expressing these views has become more common) and those with some college (55%) or no college experience (53%).

More than four-in-ten say it's now more acceptable for people to express racist or racially insensitive views

While most Americans say it's become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump's election, fewer (45%) say this has become more acceptable. About a quarter (23%) say it's now less acceptable for people to express these views, and 31% say it's about as acceptable as it was before Trump was elected.

Overall, blacks (53%) are more likely than whites (43%) or Hispanics (45%) to say it's become more acceptable for people to express racist or racially insensitive views. Among Democrats, however, whites are the most likely to say this (70% of white Democrats vs. 55% of black and 57% of Hispanic Democrats).

Again, educational attainment is linked to these views. Among whites, blacks and Hispanics, the view that it has become increasingly acceptable for people to express racist or racially insensitive views is more prevalent among those with more education. Overall, 58% of adults with at least a bachelor's degree say this has become more acceptable since Trump's election, compared with 44% of those with some college and 36% of those with a high school diploma or less education.

Views on whether it's become more acceptable for people to express racist views since Trump was elected are also strongly linked with partisanship. More than six-in-ten Democrats (64%) say this is now more acceptable; 22% of Republicans say the same. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say this is about as acceptable as it was before Trump's election (50% vs. 15%).

For the most part, Americans see positive intergroup relations

Despite their generally negative assessments of the current state of race relations, Americans tend to say that most racial and ethnic groups get along well with one another. Among those who gave an answer, about six-in-ten or more say this is the case for whites and Asians (88% say these groups get along very or pretty well), Hispanics and Asians (73%), blacks and Hispanics (65%), whites and Hispanics (63%) and blacks and Asians (62%). Relatively large shares do not know enough about how some of these groups get along to give an answer.

Assessments of how well blacks and whites get along are more divided. Among those who gave a rating, 51% say these groups generally get along well, while 49% say they don't get along too well or at all. Whites are far more positive than blacks in their views of how the two groups get along. About six-in-ten whites (58%) say blacks and whites get along well; the same share of blacks say these groups do not get along well.

There's a significant age gap among blacks on this issue: Blacks ages 50 and older express more positive views of black-white relations than do their younger counterparts. Among those in the older group, 53% say blacks and whites get along very well or pretty well, compared with 33% of black adults younger than 50.

Whites and Hispanics also offer considerably different views of how their groups get along, though majorities of each say they get along very well or pretty well (70% of whites vs. 54% of Hispanics). And while large shares of blacks and Hispanics say their groups generally get along, blacks (83%) are more likely than Hispanics (69%) to say this.

While those who say race relations are good are consistently more positive about how these groups get along, more than half of those who say race relations are bad also say intergroup relations - with the exception of black-white relations - are also generally positive. When it comes to how blacks and whites get along, just 36% of those who say race relations are bad say these groups get along well, compared with 76% of those who say race relations are good.

No consensus on best approach to improving race relations

More than half of Americans (55%) say that, when it comes to improving race relations, it is more important to focus on what different racial and ethnic groups have in common; 44% say it's more important to focus on each group's unique experiences.

Asians (58%), blacks (54%) and Hispanics (49%) are more likely than whites (39%) to say it's more important to focus on the unique experiences of different racial and ethnic groups. Still, about four-in-ten or more of these racial and ethnic minorities say the better approach to improving race relations is to focus on what different groups have in common.

Among whites, opinions vary considerably across age groups. Younger whites are the most likely to say that, when it comes to improving race relations, it's more important to focus on what makes different groups unique: 54% of those younger than 30 say this. In contrast, majorities of whites ages 30 to 49 (57%), 50 to 64 (63%) and 65 and older (67%) say it's more important to focus on what different racial and ethnic groups have in common. Age is not significantly linked to views about this among blacks or Hispanics.

Opinions about the amount of attention paid to race vary across racial and ethnic groups

About four-in-ten Americans (41%) say there's too much attention paid to race and racial issues in the country these days; 37% say there's too little attention, and 21% say it's about right. Whites are far more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to say there's too much attention paid to race, while blacks are more likely than other groups to say too little attention is paid to these issues.

Half of whites say too much attention is paid to race and racial issues these days, while smaller shares say there is too little (28%) or about the right amount of attention (21%). In contrast, about two-thirds of blacks (67%) and half of Hispanics say there's too little focus on race. Asians are more divided, with similar shares saying there's too little (39%) and too much (36%) attention paid to race and racial issues. A quarter of Asians say the amount of attention paid is about right.

Among whites, the view that the country is too focused on race is more common among those who are older and without a bachelor's degree. Opinions also differ considerably across party lines: Three-quarters of white Republicans think there's too much attention paid to race and racial issues, compared with 21% of white Democrats. About half of white Democrats (48%) say there's too little attention paid to these issues and 29% say it's about right. Black Democrats are far more likely than their white counterparts to say there's too little attention paid to race: 71% say that's the case.

Majority of Americans say racial discrimination is overlooked

When it comes to racial discrimination, a majority of Americans (57%) say the bigger problem for the country is people not seeing discrimination where it really exists, rather than people seeing racial discrimination where it really does not exist (42% say this is the bigger problem).

More than eight-in-ten black adults (84%) and somewhat smaller majorities of Hispanics (67%) and Asians (72%) say the bigger problem is people not seeing racial discrimination where it really exists. Among whites, about as many say the bigger problem is people overlooking discrimination (48%) rather than seeing it where it doesn't exist (52%).

Younger whites, as well as whites with a bachelor's degree or more education, are more likely than older and less-educated whites to say the bigger problem for the country is people not seeing racial discrimination where it really exists. Views also differ sharply by party, with white Democrats and white Republicans offering views that are the mirror image of each other: 78% of white Democrats say the bigger problem is people not seeing discrimination where it really exists, while 77% of Republicans say the bigger problem is people seeing discrimination where it doesn't exist.

One-in-five black adults say all or most whites in the U.S. are prejudiced against black people

Relatively small shares of Americans overall think all or most white people in the country are prejudiced against black people (9%) or that all or most black people are prejudiced against whites (13%). But majorities say at least some whites and blacks are prejudiced against the other group (70% say this about each group).

Among blacks, one-in-five say all or most white people in the U.S. are prejudiced against black people; 6% of whites say the same. The difference, while significant, is less pronounced when it comes to the shares of blacks (10%) and whites (14%) who say all or most black people are prejudiced against white people; 12% of Hispanics and 16% of Asians say this.

Whites (46%), blacks (44%), Hispanics (47%) and Asians (47%) are about equally likely to say they often or sometimes hear comments or jokes that can be considered racist or racially insensitive from friends or family members who share their racial background. About half in each group say this rarely or never happens.

Among those who say they hear these types of comments, even if rarely, majorities of whites (64%) and blacks (59%) say they have confronted a friend or family member who shares their racial background about this; 50% of Hispanics and 43% of Asians say they have done this.

While many say they have confronted a friend or family member who has made a racist comment, the public is skeptical that others would do the same. Only 6% of all adults think all or most white people would confront a white friend or family member who made such a comment about people who are black, and 3% say that all or most black people would do the same if a black friend or family member made a racist comment about people who are white.

Seven-in-ten say a white person using the N-word is never acceptable; about four-in-ten say it's never acceptable for blacks

Most Americans (70%) - including similar shares of blacks and whites - say they, personally, think it's never acceptable for a white person to use the N-word; about one-in-ten say this is always (3%) or sometimes (6%) acceptable. Opinions are more divided when it comes to black people using the N-word: About half say this is rarely (15%) or never (38%) acceptable, while a third say it is sometimes (20%) or always (13%) acceptable. Again, black and white adults offer similar views.

Among blacks, opinions about the use of the N-word by black people vary across genders and age groups. Black women are more likely than black men to say this is never acceptable (43% vs. 31%). And while half of blacks ages 50 and older say it's never acceptable for black people to use the N-word, 29% of blacks younger than 50 say the same.

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How Americans see the state of race relations

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A majority of Americans say race relations in the United States are bad, and of those, about seven-in-ten say things are getting even worse. Roughly two-thirds say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Donald Trump was elected, even if not necessarily more acceptable.

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America is racist through the racism that exists in its social institutes. The gaps in the way that different races are treated in the healthcare system, criminal justice system,  educational system, etc show the racism that exists in America.

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His choice of words was categorical. When Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, responded to Joe Biden's speech to Congress last week, he said: "America is not a racist country."

But racial disparities exist in the US healthcare system, its criminal justice system, its educational system and its economic system. Those gaps are wide. They are persistent. And, in some cases, racial disparities have grown over time rather than narrowed.

Dataset after dataset, from non-partisan thinktanks to government sources, consistently show these racial disparities. And, unless one believes inherent, biological differences exist between racial groups in the US that would explain their differing success in the country (a belief that would, by the way, be racist), the only possible explanation for all this is structural racism.

These differences exist from the moment that a child is born in the US. One in every seven Black babies has a low birth weight compared with one in every 15 white babies, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from 2019.

And the gaps remain. Black, Hispanic and Native American children are more likely to live in poverty than their white, Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander counterparts, as census data from 2020 reveals.

By the time that graduation rolls around, just 74% of Native American or Alaska Native children will complete their public high school education, compared with 79% of Black children and 89% of white children. These statistics come from the US Department of Education, 2017-2018.

In adulthood too, racial discrimination affects just about every aspect of a person's life. The 2018 American Community Survey (conducted by the Census Bureau) reveals that people of color are most likely to work in low-paid frontline jobs.

And tragically, though not surprisingly, these are the jobs that often have the greatest exposure to the risks of Covid-19. Black people in the US are almost 1.9 times more likely to die from the disease than their white counterparts. For Hispanic or Latino people, the risk is 2.3 times higher, and for Native Americans it's 2.4 times higher than white people.

Crucially, these statistics can not be treated in isolation. Health is affected by poverty. Poverty affects educational outcomes. Education affects economic security and so it goes on.

Research has shown that Black babies are more likely to be born at a low birth weight because of the physical demands of the low-paid work that many of their mothers are doing. That low-paid work can make it harder to get health insurance too. While just 5% of white people in the US don't have health insurance, that share doubles for Black people (10%) and doubles again for Hispanic people (20%), according to the census. And of course, a lack of access to healthcare puts an individual at greater risk of dying from Covid-19.

To say that the US is not a racist country is to make a statement that exists outside of reality. It is a fantasy to which many people, especially white Americans, would like to cling.

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Tim Scott says 'America is not a racist country' - the data says otherwise | Mona Chalabi

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His choice of words was categorical. When Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, responded to Joe Biden's speech to Congress last week, he said: "America is not a racist country." But racial disparities exist in the US healthcare system, its criminal justice system, its educational system and its economic system.

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Before that, we have to question whether America will truly admit to itself that there is a problem, or will it deny it, even with solid proof. People feel no desire to talk about it because many feel personally attacked about whether or not he/she is racist, especially if he/she receives benefits from being white in America. Plus, even without racist Americans, racism can still exist due to the racism embedded in "social institutes" and systems.

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South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott shocked many people when, in response to President Joe Biden's congressional address, he stated that " America is not a racist country ." He admitted that he himself had experienced " the pain of discrimination, " and noted, " I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason, to be followed around a store while I'm shopping. " When asked o n ABC's Good Morning America the following day , Vice President Kamala Harris s eemed to agree with Scott when she s aid , "I don't think America is a racist country." Yet immediately following this sentence she quickly pointed out , "But we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today."

As Soledad O'Brien said, "It sounds like a racist country to me," in to Scott-but it seemingly applies to comments by Harris as well. President Biden, who seemed to not pull any punches during his speech, stated, "W e have a real chance to root out systemic racism that America ." However, Biden appeared to his remarks on The Today Show to align more with Harris and Scott (to a certain degree) by noting that slavery and Jim Crow laws had a cost.

It is almost as if simply saying America is not racist, but then turning the other cheek and saying it is racist in subtler terms and that racist things have been done to you makes it ok. It is confusing to Americans and the international community. To supporters, these comments are disappointing . To others, they were shocking. For me , the cognitive dissonance of some of our elected leaders is real and explainable . The re is an oversimplification of racism in America, because as sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva notes, there can be systemic racism without racists.

W hen a person critique s America for the racism that i s deeply embedded in our social institutions, some feel they are being personally attacked. This is because deep down they realize that they benefit from unearned assets associated with whiteness. Scott, Harris, and Biden recognize this and try to balance these varying perspectives as they worry about voters nationally and in a state like South Carolina.

Recently, a at a city council meeting had a meltdown when trying to explain why she does not want critical race theory taught in her children's school. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that s ystemic racism as a concept is " a bunch of horse manure ." So, not only has Florida made it legal to harm people protesting, but he banned teaching critical race theory in schools. For a deeper dive on critical race theory , people should read the work of sociologists Victor and Ted , who lay out why DeSantis' perspective is problematic .

I conducted with Matt Hunt on what predicts who believes they are middle class. For education, income, and occupational prestige, Black people are less likely to identify as middle class compared to whites with comparable levels of these socioeconomic outcomes. Why? It is because social class is not just about what a person looks like on paper , but how people experience social class in everyday life and t he deference that one receives for their socioeconomic status. Black people are less likely to get that deference, while white people are often afforded more. It is so commonplace for white people that some cannot fathom living without it. This is because many white people, particularly white people with lower levels of education and income, realize that comes with a premium that extends beyond economics to include cultural and social capital. As Pr esident Lyndon Johnson said, " If you can the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and h e'll empty his pockets for you."

Harris and Scotts' comments are puzzling at a broader level as well considering how much of a collective memory their experiences with racism are- Harris reliving her systemic experiences with bussing and Scott recounting the nearly 20 times he has been pulled over by police, where being an elected official potentially made the interaction worse.

These stories acknowledge that life is different if you are Black, and unfortunately systemic racism seems to ripple through our social institutions and into our daily social interactions, whether in Congress or at a coffee shop down the street from the Capitol. These type s of experiences-racialized cuts and hurdles- have a cumulative effect on . Sociologist s Pam Jackson and Jason Cummings' research documents that middle-class Blacks have worse health profiles than working-class whites. They attribute this difference to the daily racialized trauma experienced in predominately white environments like work and neighborhood settings.

Systemically, we know that Black people compared to whites are more likely to attend schools with less funding per student, less likely to obtain a job because of our "Black-sounding" name or even when attending an Ivy League university , less likely to obtain a (even when having the same credit score ), have their homes appraised for equitable value, more likely to experience pregnancy complications and maternal mortality , and more likely to have contact with police and the criminal justice system .

Systemic racism inhibits (rather than prohibits like in the past) people's ability to actualize all aspects of the American Dream. This occurs  even for highly-educated Black people with high incomes and no criminal record. In fact, research documents that white people with a criminal record are more likely to get called back for a job than Black people without one.

Research documents that hard work (or lack thereof ), intellect, or criminality do not explain these outcomes. Instead, it is the embedded deeply within our social institutions' , rules, regulations, and laws that segment people's experiences along racial lines. It is the same for gender. Women can achieve but have a much harder time doing so. If not, America would have had a woman vice president and speaker of the House sitting behind the p resident long before 2021.

What people do not seem to realize is that being upwardly mobile does not negate encountering racist hurdles on the pathway to success. Our current system is set up for some people to have to jump over hurdles to succeed, while others get to simply run to the finish line without those sa me racial hurdles. Rather , it is about whether the pathways to success are equitable . This is what America says it is: an equitable democracy. People are pushing for America to reach its true ideal s and the only way this can properly occur is acknowledging the systemic barriers that prevent us from getting there. Moreover, it is not that racial progress has not been made. It is that the United States has yet to make enough progress. In this regard, comment s of our top elected officials are disappointing, yet predictable.

Black people who succeed often walk on pins and needles because they realize that their success, and more so maintaining it, is precarious.   As a result, some Black people aim to make white pe ople feel comfortable. Many of us are mostly socialized to do so. I t is often a survival strategy for our lives during police encounters or economic survival in boardrooms. Some of us who succeed may experience "survivor's remorse" because we are some of the few to "make it." We actually embody the American Dream and become the in-person example to people who do not want to admit that systemic racism exists. We may even convince ourselves that racism is more prominent on the individual level than the institutional level. We simultaneously represent racial progress but are also most likely to be subjugated to racial discrimination because of the predominately white spaces we are embedded within. We experience a chronic form of double-consciousness   and admitting as such can often lead us to being conscious of the slow death we often experience through the cumulative racist cuts and hurdles we encounter.   The American Dream being achievable for a few does not absolve the system and an imperfect union, even when some of those successful people try to rationalize systemic racism away.

In most instances: When Black parents worry about their straight-A student's traffic encounters with the police more than they do a potential accident, this is because of experiences with racism. When a Black couple is about to have a baby and has to think consciously about what hospital to deliver in so they can obtain equitable care, this is racism. When a Black parent worries about their child attending a prestigious university outside of an urban area, this is often because of the racism they worry about them encountering driving to the school and even once physically on the campus of the school. And even more urban universities are not absolved from .

Systemic racism is not simply a thing of the past. It is up close and personal in the present.

R acism may be no more transparent in an institution with the least representative racial progress like the Senate. There have only been 11 Black senators in roughly 232 years. Clearly, the Senate is the exact space we need people with the courage to say the blunt, honest truth about our nation's past and present. Only then can we actualize a future where systemic racism does not exist. It is imperative for a , reconciliation, and reparative process to commence. This starts with atoning for the enslavement of of Africans whose descendants contin uously fall systemically behind , whether they end up being the lone Black Republican senator or a Black police officer who might have the power to pull him over.   We must have the courage to speak truth to power and one of the places it starts is in Congress.   "If not now, then when?"

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South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott shocked many people when, in response to President Joe Biden's congressional address, he stated that " America is not a racist country ." He admitted that he himself had experienced " the pain of discrimination, " and noted, " I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason, to be followed around a store while I'm shopping.