African Americans Choose Red States
I saw this graph last weekend in the Washington Post. It illustrates the decline of the black population in Washington, DC:
The number of African Americans residing in the District plummeted by more than 11 percent during the past decade, with blacks on the verge of losing their majority status in the city for the first time in half a century.
According to census statistics released Thursday, barely 50 percent of the District’s population was African American in 2010 — a remarkable shift in a place once nicknamed “Chocolate City.”
The black population dropped by more than 39,000 over the decade, down to 301,000 of the city’s 601,700 residents. At the same time, the non-Hispanic white population skyrocketed by more than 50,000 to 209,000 residents, almost a third higher than a decade earlier.
And then this morning, the great Glenn Reynolds links to this piece by Walter Russell Meade:
The Census reported that waves of blue state blacks fled the stagnant job opportunities, high taxes and rotten social conditions of the mostly blue northern states to seek better lives for themselves in the south.
He adds this bit of incendiary -- and undeniable -- analysis:
Blacks across the North are fleeing the urban paradises of liberal legislation and high public union membership for the benighted suburbs. The Times interviewed a professor to get the straight scoop:
“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.” [bold italics added]
When whites leave failing blue cities and states, the pundits call this racism: all those white Californians fleeing Nancy Pelosi’s utopia for less ambitious jurisdictions where ordinary people can do things like get jobs and buy homes are clearly pathetic trailer trash hicks too dumb, too selfish and above all too racist to understand the gloriously multicultural blue beauty of California today.
So what are we going to call the young, educated Blacks making similar choices? Dumb cracker racists?
It seems that many African Americans are voting Republican. With their feet. How long before they start voting that way in the voting booth?
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Jul '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
"It seems that many African Americans are voting Republican. With their feet. How long before they start voting that way in the voting booth?"
Rob, I love your sunny optimism, but I am not so sanguine. I think it more likely that Northern, urban blacks will take with them the same politics which largely contributed to the decline of the ruined cities they're abandoning.
Case in point: Sheila Jackson Lee, raised in New York City and now an 8-term Congresswoman in Houston, routinely re-elected with over 70% of the vote.
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
The Republicans should go out of their way to recruit the African-Americans voting with their feet.
Jun '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
This has gotta scare the Dems. I have always wondered why when I visit the South I see black people in the rural areas but I don't see this in the Northern and Western states. I think it was culture shock and the fact that rural white American conclaves are hard to break into. I think there is racism in the rural areas of America but less now. I've seen it and heard it expressed -- but mostly in jokes and throw away lines. The weird thing is that they will bend over backwards when actually confronted with black people.
I spent 5 summers in my high-school years (1960s) on a farm in Montana. I heard racist stuff but these people had never been close to black people -- except in military service, of course.
I don't have the data but my gut tells me that it all comes down to a good work ethic to be well received in the rural communities of the North and West. If they would just stick it out. Ask Clarence Thomas how well he is received when he tools around this incredible country. I bet he will agree with me.
Jul '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
I have to concur with Kenneth on this one. If there is hope, it will come from the likes of C.L. Bryant, Allen West, and Herman Cain, not fresh pandering from the GOP leadership, and it will most likely come from the rising generations for whom a black president is as much a part of America as Moon landings and baseball.
PG County, MD, is a DC suburb that has been absorbing urban blacks for fifty years now. In the course of doing so, the politics and the norms skewed in the direction of the usual urban pathologies, but did not entirely succumb. The resulting county is deep, deep blue.
Watching a GS-14 & GS-15 hold forth about how Plymouth Rock landed on them gave me excellent preparation for Michelle Obama's denunciation of America as mean owing to the inexcusable absence of proper subsidies for her children's piano lessons.
I expect to see the cycle continue wherever they land to the extent they have influence, and a generational erosion of attitudes in places. With figures like Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby speaking out, in addition to the above, some glacial momentum might be measured soon.
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
Well, I don't think Prince George's County is going red anytime soon. And I don't have a flicker of hope that federal employees will ever be anything but ardent Dems.
But it's interesting, and hopeful, that a bunch of regular, urban African Americans are voting with their feet, choosing red states. Glacial change, maybe. But change nonetheless.
Jul '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
Kenneth: I think it more likely that Northern, urban blacks will take with them the same politics which largely contributed to the decline of the ruined cities they're abandoning.
· Mar 28 at 12:51pm
I completely agree.
The Republicans should go out of Their way to recruit Freedom loving Americans. It's just kind of ironic that the majority of "African-Americans" just ain't that into it.
May '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
Well, some federal employees are Republicans. More than you might think. Some even live in PG county! I live in PG, though our community is atypical for PG, and I've even seen a few Gadsden flags in my neighborhood. Believe me that many blacks in PG are diehard Dems. During the 2008 campaign, a black man followed me home, stopped in front of my house, and began shouting obscenities at me for having a McCain sticker on my car. All of this took place with me standing on my front porch with my children. . But I think a good approach to fixing some of our government woes is for more conservatives to work for the gov't. Besides that, the only other hope of the DC burbs going red is recruiting the Hispanic vote. That's the group with the largest population growth. I don't think we have much hope of gaining ground with the black vote, but we might make some with Latinos, particularly in the 2012 presidential election.
Mar '11
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
Rob, I take umbrage at that notion. We are well out numbered perhaps, but we are not as rare as a Caspian tiger.
You tell em Karen; If you want a little less confrontational community, move one more county to the east, we are still mostly represented by the Republicans.
Ricochet is a real nice refuge of sanity at times when one feels surround by a sea of cluelessness.
Edited on Mar 28, 2011 at 6:54pmJul '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
GLDIII
Rob, I take umbrage at that notion. We are well out numbered perhaps, but we are not as rare as a Caspian tiger. ...
Even my Virginia neighbors tend toward a Democrat orthodoxy. The last proposal I saw for redistricting surrenders all hope of eking a GOP vein out of DC's Virginia suburbs, which means I am likely stuck with this hockey puck Connelly until I wise up and move further out.
May '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
GLDIII
You tell em Karen; If you want a little less confrontational community, move one more county to the east, we are still mostly represented by the Republicans.
Ricochet is a real nice refuge of sanity at times when one feels surround by a sea of cluelessness. · Mar 28 at 6:52pm
Edited on Mar 28 at 06:54 pm
I love Anne Arundel Co.! We actually looked at buying a house in Annapolis, when we moved back this way from Norfolk. My husband did a tour at the Naval Academy, but now works in VA. Unfortunately, we moved to MD during the housing boom and wanted a single family home with a yard, closer to Metro. His commute is brutal enough as it is. But I can still dream!
And you are right about Ricochet. It's an oasis.
Mar '11
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
Karen;
My sympathies on your husband's commute, my wife does the carpool thing daily to Alexandria which is probably a few mile south of your husband's destination. At least with the WW bridge done it takes about 45 minute now. We are ~7 mile from the USNA and have been midshipman sponsors for 10 years. Those kids have been a wonderful example of good solid citizens. My eldest applied, but the competition from Maryland is intense for the nominations. He will recycle for next year. In any other state he would have cleared fairly easily, shame we cursed him by locale.
In another post I raised the possibility of a national capital soirée since I see at least five of us in close proximity. Rob has some roots here and Peter also has excuses to visit the region. They have done one in San Francisco & New York City. Since we live near the nexus of national woe, perhaps it is our turn next. Certainly more affordable than corralling them on the next NR cruise in November.
Edited on Mar 29, 2011 at 6:19amNov '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
You're all welcome to join me out here in good ol' Fauquier County, where we're still stubbornly Red. Sure, I pay twice as much for water in a month as I paid in Fairfax in a quarter--but I've swapped Connolly for Rob Wittman. Huzzah! :o)
May '10
Re: African Americans Choose Red States
GLDIII: Karen;
In another post I raised the possibility of a national capital soirée since I see at least five of us in close proximity. Rob has some roots here and Peter also has excuses to visit the region. They have done one in San Francisco & New York City. Since we live near the nexus of national woe, perhaps it is our turn next. Certainly more affordable than corralling them on the next NR cruise in November. · Mar 29 at 6:15am
Edited on Mar 29 at 06:19 am
I think that's a great idea. Not sure when, though. I know the National Portrait Gallery is doing an exhibition of portraits of Ronald Reagan opening in July. I don't know how extensive the exhibit will be, and it might be too far off. There's also an ongoing Reagan Centennial Exhibit at the National Archives. Those events might make visiting D.C. a bit more appealing.