BLACK REPUBLICANS: "INCONGRUOUS INTERSECTION OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND AMERICAN CONSERVATISM"

Leah Wright Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2015) ("One lingering question that this book hopes to address has been a topic of regular debate and discussion since the political realignment of black votes in the 1936 presidential election: Are black voters irrevocably lost to the Republican Party? The short answer s no, at least not at the local level, This study demonstrated that black voters were willing to support the right Republican candidate, so long as he or she (and the supporting state and local party organizations) demonstrated a genuine empathy toward African Americans, conducted sincere and aggressive outreach, and presented solutions that addressed issues of black concern; local politics undoubtedly offers a level of nuance that allows individual politicians to sidestep the rancor between African Americans and the GOP." Id. at 308. "The fundamental dilemma for the Republican Party in winning black voters at the national level boils down to issues of politics and policy. To put it another way, African Americans interpret the GOP's 'colorbling' approach as insensitive to their history and lived experience--a disconnect that is sorely exacerbated by the fact that Republicans rarely consider race except to use it as an antagonism. More to the point, colorblindness as a political strategy presents a quandary, because it presumes that everyone shares the same set of problems, histories and racial experiences; it sees the nation as a meritocracy, assumes equality, and sidesteps the complexities of race. Certainly there are commonalities that cross racial lines, kike economics and religion. Appealing to African American solely on these merits, though, does not work because the country, even as it professes to be race neutral, is in fact, race, conscious. As we have seen in this study,  not only did black Republicans understand this truth, but white Republican often did as well; yer many of matter group shied away from this approach, out of fear of alienating white voters." Id. at 309-310. From the bookjacket: "The Loneliness of the Black Republican provides a new understanding of the interaction between African Americans and the Republican Party, and the seemingly incongruous intersection of civil rights and American conservatism.).