Implications of Strict Voter ID Legislation on African Americans in Virginia

by Marcus Coleman, Ph.D.

During Black History Month, the United States celebrates the life and history of African Americans.  In the midst of those celebrations, we commonly learn about African-American leaders who set forth to bravely face the perils of oppression, but we also honor those who set an example of perseverance and resilience in our own lives.

Yet, while we celebrate the social, economic, and political ascendance of African Americans, our fate, as a political voting bloc, is being legally truncated.  To illustrate, recently Virginia passed a strict photo voter ID law, further reigning in long-suffered voting rights.

In 2000 and 2004, Republican President Bush won Virginia’s Electoral College votes, but in 2008 and 2012 Democratic President Barack Obama won Virginia’s Electoral College votes.  Simultaneously, Republicans have a stronghold on the Virginia House of Representatives and Senate.  With that said, minority voter growth in Northern Virginia exceeds 20% since 2000, which has created pockets of reliable Democratic leaning voters in large metropolitan areas of Virginia, e.g. Fairfax, Loudon, Arlington, Alexandria, and Prince William.

Regarding voter turnout, research shows that voter ID laws may marginally depress African-American voter turnout, but it must also be said that growth in African-American voter turnout during Presidential elections in Virginia persists.  However, African-American voter turnouts for midterm elections in Virginia lack energy.  Thus, a strict photo voter ID law in Virginia may allow the state’s Republican lawmakers to maintain their governing majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, but it will do little to reroute the trajectory of Virginia’s Electoral College as a swing state that leans Democratic.

The passage of voter ID laws symbolizes an effort to disenfranchise those who do not possess a photo ID. A simplistic argument merely argues that those without a photo ID are irresponsible, but a more nuanced understanding of civic responsibility recognizes that the possession of a photo ID should not be the measure of citizenship.  Instead, a patriotic critique of the United States via civic engagement has always been at the heart of American citizenship.  That citizenship is what motivates African American communities to work toward political, social, and racial parity.

Nationally, approximately 35% of eligible voters do not to participate in our representative democracy. Locating those who are most at risk for being systematically excluded from voting will increase voter participation.  So, as we close another Black History Month, let us not forget those who toiled for recognition, respect, and enfranchisement.  Thus, African Americans must continue to display their strength as voters in national elections, but also in local and state elections.

Marcus Coleman is a Research Fellow for the Joint Center’s Civic Engagement and Governance Institute. For more information on Dr. Coleman and his work, please visit the Joint Center website.

Unconscious Bias

By Michael Wenger, Senior Fellow

In all likelihood the racial disparities that still persist in the institutions of our society will not be much talked about by the two major candidates in the upcoming Presidential election.  President Obama will avoid the issue of racial bias in order not to be labeled as the African American President and risk scaring off white voters.  Governor Romney will avoid the issue because the Republican Party appears to have little interest in attracting black voters, and its policies reflect this lack of interest.

Yet, because the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has recognized the importance to our moral integrity, our economic strength, and our political stability of eliminating these disparities, it will not allow them to be totally ignored.  The Foundation recently held its second annual America Healing conference in New Orleans.  It was attended by more than 500 people, most of whom are engaged on a daily basis in trying to promote racial equity and foster racial healing in communities throughout the country.  The Joint Center, as one of the Foundation’s designated “anchor organizations,” played a significant role at the conference.

When Kellogg issued its first request for proposals under the America Healing initiative about two years ago, it received more than 900 funding requests from community-based organizations in all but one of our 50 states.  It was able to provide funds to more than 100 organizations, and it was these grantees who gathered in Asheville, NC last year and in New Orleans last month.    This year’s conference featured small group sessions designed to promote racial healing, workshops designed to inform participants about promising activities to combat structural racism, a film about Harry Belafonte’s inspiring life and a live on-site conversation with him, and plenary sessions on the generational divide, power and democracy, the work of the “anchor organizations,” and unconscious bias.

Perhaps the most compelling plenary session was the one on unconscious bias.  It featured research that illustrates the reality that most, if not all, of us harbor within our unconscious minds biases toward those from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.  According to the polling data, one of the great paradoxes of race relations in today’s American society is that the vast majority of us believe in justice and fair play for all of our citizens, but our behavior often doesn’t match our beliefs.  This disconnect shows up consistently in research documenting that, despite good intentions, school officials disproportionately punish students of color for bad behavior in schools, employers discriminate against applicants of color, and law enforcement officials disproportionately profile, prosecute, and incarcerate young men of color for non-violent crimes.

Sadly, none of us are immune from this bias.  So, in order to make our behavior more consistent with our beliefs, we must not only recognize the persistence of these disparities, we also must acknowledge our role in perpetuating them.  Until we do so, our behavior will continue to privilege white Americans while victimizing non-white Americans, and our entire society will suffer.

Michael R. Wenger is a Senior Fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. More information on Mr. Wenger and his work can be found on the Joint Center website.

Will Santorum Be Easier to Defeat Than Romney?

by Michael R. Wenger, Senior Fellow

Beware of what you wish for is a line with which we are all familiar.  It seems that there always are unintended consequences.

Some Democrats who are now rejoicing over the ascendancy of Rick Santorum in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination have cited that he’ll be much easier for President Obama to defeat than Mitt Romney, whose reputed “turn-around” experience in the private sector is viewed, in a weak economy, as the greatest challenge to a second Obama term.

I’m not so sure.  Among the most important factors for voters in choosing a President are likeability and sincere commitment to principle.  Ronald Reagan projected both qualities.  Many Americans who had voted for John Kennedy in 1960 voted for Ronald Reagan 20 years later despite the fact that the philosophies of the two appeared to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum.  I would argue that the voters didn’t change their minds on the issues so much as they were influenced by the fact that both candidates appeared likeable, optimistic, and sincere, while their opponents, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, respectively, did not project any of these qualities.  Bill Clinton in 1992 and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 also projected all three qualities.  Their opponents, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, and John Kerry, respectively, were viewed as wishy-washy, somewhat humorless, and not committed to any core principles.  Similarly, in 2008 both President Obama and his family were personally engaging, and his message of hope and change resonated with the public.

Now consider Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.  Romney, according to all polls, is viewed as relatively unlikable (remember “I’m not concerned about the very poor”) and straight-laced, and he has built a well-deserved reputation for insincerity (remember “I can’t have an illegal immigrant working for me, because, for gosh sakes, I’m running for office”) and for changing his positions on core issues.  Santorum, on the other hand, appears to be likable and relaxed, sort of like the guy next door, and he clearly is sincere about and committed to his core beliefs.  I believe it matters less to voters what these beliefs are than that they feel they can trust him to take the same stand on issues in the White House as he does on the campaign trail.  In these days when it seems that you can’t trust anything an elected official tells you, that’s a valuable attribute.

I believe that, barring an economic catastrophe or some other unforeseen disaster, President Obama will defeat either Romney or Santorum in the general election, perhaps easily.  But Democrats should not rejoice at the prospect of facing Santorum rather than Romney.

Michael R. Wenger is Senior Fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. More information on Mr. Wenger and his work can be found on the Joint Center website.

Looking Ahead to 2012

by Ralph Everett, Esq.
originally published in The Washington Informer

Elections are about opportunity. And with so many critical issues hanging in the balance at present, 2012 will be an especially important time for Americans themselves to influence the direction of our country.

With the recovery just beginning to pick up the pace, 2011 was a challenging year for most everyone, regardless of their race, across nearly all economic indicators – jobs, net worth, home values. And while it is true that black unemployment runs almost twice that of the general population – at more than 16 percent – some studies now show that as a direct result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, some 6.9 million Americans were kept above the poverty line, including 1.3 million African Americans.

It is also true that President Obama inherited an economy that was in almost unprecedented free-fall and acted quickly to stop the hemorrhaging and began to rebuild. He has been working to help create the economic conditions for employment growth through efforts to rebuild critical infrastructure and our public education system.

And while current economic conditions point to job creation and economic recovery as the premier issue for the 2012 campaign, the past year has not been devoid of hope and the outlook is not without considerable promise for the African American community.

For example, at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies we have been encouraged by our progress in directing greater focus under the new health care law toward addressing longstanding racial disparities in health outcomes and access to health services.

On other fronts, despite all the problems afflicting areas of concentrated poverty, the numbers of young, educated African American adults are growing. A recent Washington Post poll showed that their optimism is on the upswing, with most of them saying they are better off than their parents, and that their children will be better off than they themselves are now.

Further, young African Americans are adopting broadband and mobile Internet technologies at among the highest rates of any group. As the new online technologies continue to revolutionize how people receive information, interact with each other and take part in civic and political dialogue, we are seeing exceptional potential for enabling more people of color to participate and to engage in our civic and political life.

But we need to be mindful that political trends sometimes work at cross-purposes. A report the Joint Center issued recently pointed to a precipitous drop in the number of African American state legislators in the South who serve in the majority party – from more than half to fewer than five percent in just past few years. The result is that black voters and black elected officials in that region have less influence now than at any time since the civil rights era. On top of this, there is a strong move in these and other states to make it more difficult for people to register and vote, either through tougher identification requirements at the polls, shortening of the early voting periods or through restrictions on voter registration drives and other such measures.

Accordingly, 2012 will be a critical year for voting rights and political participation, which should be at the core of our efforts to put America back on track toward ever-expanding opportunity and a better quality of life for all. African Americans in particular need to engage and participate and take full advantage of this precious right that our parents and grandparents fought so vigorously for a half-century ago. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican is not the issue. What matters is that you get to the polls and cast your ballot.

Accordingly, we need a more concerted effort to address the apathy that many of our fellow citizens feel, and to find ways to expand political participation, which is so vital to the successful functioning of our democracy. To help accomplish this, the Joint Center this year established our Civic Engagement and Governance Institute, which will work to improve the quality and quantity of the interaction between citizens and their government, and to provide space for analysis, ideas and dialogue aimed at bringing more people into the process – and ultimately driving the solutions that will improve lives and build futures.

Elections matter. Fully participating in elections and exercising the right to vote matter even more. Nothing less than the American Dream will hang in the balance in 2012.

Ralph Everett, Esq., is the President and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC. More information on Mr. Everett and his work can be found on the Joint Center website.