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Mark, as I suggested to Eugene, it might make sense to read Michael Dawson’s Black Visions. His penetrating analysis distinguishes – correctly – between social, economic and racial issues. There is no doubt that many African Americans tend to support socially conservative positions, particularly those involving homosexuality. What is interesting, of course, is that African Americans, with good reason, do NOT trust white conservatives. And that is, at bottom, the critical point.
Having said that, the next two or three election cycles will reveal whether or not, or to what extent, African Americans will vote for white conservatives. Whether homosexuality and same sex marriage will function as wedge issues that drive or cause African Americans to vote for white conservatives is, to my mind, the question of the hour.
One might argue that there is as kind of cognitive dissonance at work – African American social conservatives voting for black – and white – social liberals. But there is perhaps a simple and straightforward explanation of what is at work here: race trumps these social issues. And this is why I don’t put much stock in polls like the one that you cited, because African Americans do not ACT on their supposed beliefs in the political arena. One is forced to ask whether those beliefs are strongly held, or whether the reality of racial oppression gives black people pause, and thus produces something like the following: “I don’t like affirmative action, but it is better than anything else on the scene.” I give you J. C. Watts, the most notable exponent of that view. You will find this and much more in my article on Clarence Thomas.
Simply put, I think that the truth of the matter is that the J.C. Watts position may be the one that the polling data has incompletely uncovered. After all, as you know, the formulation of the questions is everything (almost) when it comes to polling. Dawson’s book gets us past these problems with an examination of the dynamics and structure of African American political ideologies (of which Dawson identifies six). It is worth noting that the ideology of Clarence Thomas claims but a miniscule fraction of the black polity.
The best “poll” would be to spend an afternoon in an African American barbershop. Clarence Thomas does not come out well in those places. The level of revulsion and disgust that black people have for him is truly remarkable. Again, to say that some polls indicate that lots of black people don’t like affirmative is really to misapprehend, if not misrepresent, the dynamic reality of African American political ideology, and the deeply embedded distrust that African Americans properly have for white conservatives.
But I will grant you, as I said above, that we will see if black political behavior will change in any significant respects over the next few years. My prediction, for what it is worth, is that there will be some shift to the political right in the African American electorate, but the shift will be slight. And I am utterly convinced that J.C. Watts’ position will shape the views of the vast majority of African American conservatives, and that the utterly reactionary views of Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly will continue to be marginal – at least in the black communities.
Black political thought is far more subtle than many give it credit for being. However, on the question of white conservatives and their political and social agendas, black people are not stupid, and by and large, African Americans reject these people and their proposals. It is in this context that one has to try to understand African American “opposition” to affirmative action.
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A one minute Google search (all I have time for right now) turned up a 1995 Washington Post article that includes the following paragraph:
"The survey [a 'poll of 1,524 randomly selected Americans'] found that affirmative action, like most racial issues, sharply divides whites and blacks. And within communities of color, a debate about affirmative action also rages: Nearly half of all African Americans interviewed said they opposed affirmative action programs giving preference to minorities."
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aa032495.htm.
Would Michael argue that the poll was anomalous or that attitudes have changed in the ten years since the poll was taken?
I raise this point not really to argue over the views of African Americans about affirmative action, but because Michael suggests that Justice Thomas's thought is not in any sense representative of African American thought.
Even if most African Americans disagree with Justice Thomas on affirmative action, his views may, on many other issues, resonate with a majority of African Americans. I worked with two real estate agents in Los Angeles this summer who are African American women. Their strongly held views on Establishment Clause issues - e.g., Newdow and the removal of the tiny cross from the Los Angeles County seal - were much closer to those of Justice Thomas than to the views of the strict separationists on the Court.
Mark S. Scarberry Pepperdine University School of Law
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I think that the only thing that one can say for sure is that Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly do not support affirmative action. Polling data and studies of the political views of African Americans tend to show that the vast majority of black people in this country support affirmative action. One cannot assume that either of these two people are in any sense representative of African American thought, particularly when all of the available evidence points to the contrary.
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Vince Koven writes:
I
suppose that depends on how you define "anti-Catholic," but the
proponents of this legislation (all Catholics, so far as I can tell) are
adopting the *political* stance of supporting the lay Catholics who have been critical
of church-closing decisions. More votes in the pews than in the pulpits, I
guess.
I think this raises a very interesting question going well beyond the specific example. Many people who have studied abortion note that women are basically split on the issue, which makes it problematic to argue that those of us who support reproductive choice (as I do) are "pro-women" and those against are "anti." Similarly, one of the things that Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly have taught us is that African-Americans do not necessarily support affirmative action and, indeed, are willing to argue that it is functionally anti-Black to support it. I don't agree, but I'm not sure that I'm any longer willing to say that opponents of affirmative action are "anti-African American." If one accepts Catholic theology, then I suppose that the "pro-Catholic" position is indeed the pulpit (and ultimately the Papacy) rather than what the laity happen to profess, but that is obviously a tendentious argument (for most of us). With regard to almost all Protestant denominations (or Judaism), there would certainly be no reason at all to reject the laity in favor of ministers or rabbis.
sandy
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