General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWill White Voters in the Black Belt Ever Get Out of Their Own Way?
Fifty years after Freedom Summer, a report by former NAACP President Ben Jealous says this question matters because cross-racial coalitions will be one key to finally bringing political equality to the South.
BY: JENÉE DESMOND-HARRIS
Posted: June 16 2014 6:02 PM
In the area of the American South informally known as the Black Belt, cross-racial political coalitions should form naturally. After all, the poverty rate in the region hovers around 16.5 percent and cuts across racial lines. Plus, polling has shown that white Southerners hold populist views similar to their black neighborsthe majority agreeing that the government should spend more on health, education and improving peoples standard of living.
But according to True South: Voters of Color in the Black Belt 50 Years After Freedom Summer, a report released Monday that focuses on voting in those Black Belt states where politics is still defined by racial polarization (meaning voters and candidates of color are largely locked out of any meaningful participation), thats not the case.
Its author, former NAACP President Ben Jealous, whos now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says thats because white conservative leaders have systemically undermined these coalitions by playing up racially divisive wedge issues and the strategy of divide and conquer has worked. Thus, he writes in the report, In recent years, candidates in the Black Belt have consistently voted differently than voters of color, even if this has meant voting against their economic self-interest.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2014/06/democracy_in_the_black_belt_ben_jealous_report_on_voting_and_democracy_in.html
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Even if white voters dont budge, True South concludes, theres still the possibility of change when it comes to race and political representation. Registering just 30 percent of unregistered black voters would yield enough new voters to upset the balance of power in North Carolina and Virginia in presidential or midterm election year, says Jealous. This, he predicts, could allow voters of color to elect a candidate of their choice, and, at a minimum, affect the political decisions of all candidates in the race.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Hopefully one day soon. We have to register those voters. I may try to do it in my neighborhood too since this is a red state. I think we can get purple soon if we try hard enough.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I think we are watching the 99% coalesce against the 1% in the south. I don't know, though. I am hearing some noise but, closer to election time ... it is still too soon to tell in my neck of the woods. I am in a red county in a purple state. My county's unemployment is one of the highest in the nation. It is going to be interesting, for sure.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)The Black Belt is a region of the Southern United States. Although the term originally described the prairies and dark soil of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi,[1] it has long been used to describe a broad agricultural region in the American South characterized by a history of plantation agriculture in the 19th century and a high percentage of African Americans in the population.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, as many as one million enslaved African Americans were taken there in a forced migration to work as laborers for the region's cotton plantations. After having lived for several generations in the area, many stayed as rural workers, tenant farmers and sharecroppers after the American Civil War and emancipation.
Because of the decline of family farms,[citation needed][dubious discuss] the rural communities in the Black Belt commonly face acute poverty, rural exodus, inadequate education programs, low educational attainment, poor health care, urban decay, substandard housing, and high levels of crime and unemployment. While African-American residents are disproportionately affected, these problems apply broadly to all ethnic groups in the Black Belt. The region and its boundaries have varying definitions, but it is generally considered a band through the center of the Deep South, although stretching from as far north as Delaware to as far west as East Texas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_%28U.S._region%29#mediaviewer/File:Black_belt_counties.png
The location of the Black Belt (sociological sense) in the United States.
more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_%28U.S._region%29
full disclosure = I am not in any of the counties shown on that map
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)I'll try to find something, i feel like we just leave democratic votes on the table by not focusing more attention on poor southern and red state voters.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)the south is not a real popular subject around here, if you haven't noticed.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Such beautiful country down there, it still gets treated like the confederacy. My dad was from Alabama and said he got treated worse when he first got to Los Angeles. More segregated than where he lived before. He had white neighbors in the South, but not in Cali. It's still informally segregated in lots of places.
tkmorris
(11,138 posts)It's just that a post like that one isn't contentious in any way. There is no "issue" to discuss, no controversy. It reads more like a PSA and I don't know what most posters could possibly say in response to it. "Thanks for the info" maybe, but that's kinda lame, or maybe "yeah I knew that" but that comes off wrong. So they see it, they read it, then they shrug and move on.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)generating more replies?
I am fine with this my OP sinking with no replies if it helps bravenak's thread get more attention/thought/conversation.
How to address The Black Belt situation and garner votes for Democrats in this area/states.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)North Carolina in particular is definitely turning more and more blue every year, overall. So's Florida. And so are all the larger cities in general, especially Atlanta. All I cam say is, now's not the time to give up.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Our policies would be great for those areas, we just need to tell the voters face to face if we can.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Republicans control the legislature AND Executive Mansion, leading to over a year's worth of Moral Monday protests because of GOP *destruction.*
There are a helluva lot of Unaffiliateds:
http://www.ncsbe.gov/webapps/voter_stats/results.aspx?date=06-14-2014
Wealthy retirees are pouring into this state, and they don't necessarily vote D.
We'll see what November brings with Koch-backed Tillis v. Kay Hagan.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Candidates of color (who are then elected) vote vote against their interests, why?
bravenak
(34,648 posts)It's an area in the south.
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)I saw the map of it up thread.