| integer on 8 Jan 2001 08:25:17 -0000 |
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>In the United States, we're witnessing an incrasingly politicized black >electorate; it was the Congressional Black Caucus in the House of Repre- >sentatives that objected to Bush's election. The Black Radical COngress >BRC-NEWS list, moderated by Art McGee, funnels articles, media news, calls >for action. I'm sending the following on to nettime as an index of the >list quality/relevancy to US politics and media; I'm hoping many of you >will subscribe, if you haven't already. > >The NY Times Almanac reports that a black male born today has a 28.5% >probability of incarceration. Bush, by proxy, if nothing else, is a >butcher. > >- Alan http://www.m9ndfukc.org/nato.0+55+3d ma! read. = had b!n dze kasz b4 Bush ja. > > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 22:08:49 -0500 >From: Jennifer Jones <jdj16@columbia.edu> >Reply-To: mm247@columbia.edu >To: brc-news@lists.tao.ca >Subject: [BRC-NEWS] The Black Electorate -- 2000 > >Along the Color Line > >December 2000 > >The Black Electorate -- 2000 > >By Dr. Manning Marable <mm247@columbia.edu> > > Black America tried its best to keep George W. Bush >out of the White House. Its inability to do so does not >negate the many significant gains it achieved in the >electoral arena. > > The 2000 presidential election was by far the >closest in terms of the Electoral College since 1876, and >the closest in terms of the popular vote since Kennedy's >narrow margin of victory over Nixon forty years ago. Yet >despite widespread reports that voter turnout was heavy, >the actual number of votes cast was about 104 million, only >one million more than in 1996. Less than 51 percent of all >eligible voters cast ballots, compared to 49 percent in 1996 >and 50 percent in 1988. Considering that both major parties >spent more than one billion dollars in the general election, >with millions of phone calls and direct mail, the turnout >was remarkably weak. The lackluster major presidential >candidates, Bush and Gore, failed to generate any >enthusiasm or deep commitment among the voters. > > The African-American electorate, however, was the >exception to the rule. In state after state, black turnout >was stronger than anticipated, and comprised the critical >margin of difference for Gore and hundreds of Democratic >candidates in Senate, House and local races. Nationwide, a >clear majority of white voters went for Bush over Gore, 53 >percent vs. 42 percent. African Americans, however, went >overwhelmingly for Gore, 90 percent vs. 8 percent. Bush's >feeble share of the black vote was actually less than his >father had received as the Republican presidential candidate >in 1992, or that Bob Dole garnered in 1996. Bush's 2000 >black vote was the lowest total received by any Republican >presidential candidate since 1964, when Barry Goldwater >received only six percent. > > In Florida alone, the African-American vote jumped >from 527,000 in 1996 to 952,000. In Missouri, over 283,000 >blacks voted, compared to only 106,000 four years ago. > > In state after state, African Americans were the >critical margin of victory for the Gore-Lieberman ticket. >In Maryland, Bush defeated Gore among white voters by a >margin of 51 to 45 percent. But African-American turnout >represented a substantial 22 percent of Maryland's total >statewide vote. Because black Maryland voters supported >Gore by 90 percent, Gore cruised to a 17 point victory in >the state. In Michigan, the white electorate backed Bush, >51 to 46 percent, but African Americans came out for Gore >at 90 percent, giving the state to the Democrats. > > In Illinois, a massive turnout of African-American >voters in Chicago helped to give Gore 56 percent of the >statewide total vote, and a plurality of over 600,000 votes. > > The NAACP's National Voter Fund, and the Association's >$12 million investment in the elections, was the principal >factor behind the surge in the African-American electorate. >The NAACP financed a political "command center" with dozens >of full-time staff members and volunteers running telephone >banks and a satellite TV uplink. Thousands of black churches, >community-based organizations, and labor groups mobilized >African Americans to turn out on Election Day. Jesse Jackson's >campaigning was also critical to Gore's success in the swing >states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. > > Less publicized, but potentially just as important >as the African-American vote, was the electoral response by >organized labor. The AFL-CIO devoted millions of dollars to >the effort to defeat Bush. In Michigan, for example, where >labor households represented roughly 30 percent of the state- >wide vote in 1992, the union vote eight years later totaled >44 percent of the state's electorate. In Pennsylvania, union >households comprised 19 percent of the statewide vote in >1992, but increased to 26 percent of all voters last year. > > The greatest tragedy of the 2000 presidential race, >from the vantagepoint of the African-American electorate, >was that the black vote would have been substantially larger, >if the criminal justice policies that have been put in place >by the Clinton-Gore administration had been different. As >noted by the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, >and Human Rights Watch, over 4.2 million Americans were >prohibited from voting in the 2000 presidential election, >because they were in prison or had in the past been >convicted of a felony. Of that number, more than one-third, >or 1.8 million voters who are disenfranchised, are African >Americans. This represents 13 percent of all black males of >voting age in the U.S. > > In Florida and Alabama, 31 percent of all black men >as of 1998 were permanently disenfranchised because of felony >convictions, many for nonviolent crimes. In New Mexico and >Iowa, one in every four African-American males is permanently >disenfranchised. In Texas, one in five black men are not >allowed to vote. > > The selection (not election) of George W. >Bush should not discourage African-American leadership >or institutions. More than any other Americans, we fought >and died to enjoy the right to vote. Now we must mobilize >to insure that every citizen, including prisoners and those >who have been previously convicted of felonies, can exercise >their full democratic rights. The black vote is the decisive >constituency in the fight for democracy in America. > >-- > >Dr. Manning Marable is Professor of History and Political >Science, and the Director of the Institute for Research in >African-American Studies, Columbia University. "Along the >Color Line" is distributed free of charge to over 350 >publications throughout the U.S. and internationally. >Dr. Marable's column is also available on the Internet >at <http://www.manningmarable.net>. > >Copyleft (c) 2000 Manning Marable. Redistribute Freely. > > >[IMPORTANT NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this >list are solely those of the authors and/or publications, >and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official >political positions of the Black Radical Congress (BRC). >Official BRC statements, position papers, press releases, >action alerts, and announcements are distributed exclusively >via the BRC-PRESS list. As a subscriber to this list, you >have been added to the BRC-PRESS list automatically.] > >[Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other >mailing lists, as long as the wording/attribution is not altered >in any way. In particular, if there is a reference to a web site >where an article was originally located, do *not* remove that. > >Unless stated otherwise, do *not* publish or post the entire >text of any articles on web sites or in print, without getting >*explicit* permission from the article author or copyright holder. >Check the fair use provisions of the copyright law in your country >for details on what you can and can't do. > >As a courtesy, we'd appreciate it if you let folks know how to >subscribe to BRC-NEWS, by leaving in the first seven lines of the >signature below.] > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News Articles/Reports >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=unsubscribe%20brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Digest: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news-digest> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Help: <mailto:worker-brc-news@lists.tao.ca?subject=brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive1: <http://www.mail-archive.com/brc-news@lists.tao.ca> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive2: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/brc-news> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Archive3: <http://archive.tao.ca> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Post: <mailto:brc-news@lists.tao.ca> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ><www.blackradicalcongress.org> | BRC | <blackradicalcongress@email.com> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >_______________________________________________ >Nettime-bold mailing list >Nettime-bold@nettime.org >http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold