• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
The Empathy of Black Voters thumbnail

The Empathy of Black Voters

July 24, 2020
Labor Market Added 517,000 Jobs In January—Unemployment Rate Falls To 54-Year Low Of 3.4% thumbnail

Labor Market Added 517,000 Jobs In January—Unemployment Rate Falls To 54-Year Low Of 3.4%

February 4, 2023
Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated) thumbnail

Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated)

February 4, 2023
Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend thumbnail

Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend

February 3, 2023
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

February 3, 2023
GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data thumbnail

GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data

February 3, 2023
Small Businesses Lost 75,000 Jobs in January thumbnail

Small Businesses Lost 75,000 Jobs in January

February 2, 2023
DARPA wants to push the boundaries of where satellites can fly thumbnail

DARPA wants to push the boundaries of where satellites can fly

February 2, 2023
Pamela Anderson says she and Kid Rock broke up over her 'Borat' cameo thumbnail

Pamela Anderson says she and Kid Rock broke up over her ‘Borat’ cameo

February 2, 2023
Biden and McCathy's debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies thumbnail

Biden and McCathy’s debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies

February 2, 2023
Doc Re-Used Nasal Surgery Devices; Humira Patent Game; Nonprofit Hospital Tactics thumbnail

Doc Re-Used Nasal Surgery Devices; Humira Patent Game; Nonprofit Hospital Tactics

February 2, 2023
Market Your Business With These National Days in February 2023 thumbnail

Market Your Business With These National Days in February 2023

February 1, 2023
Here’s How Much Emergency Cash You Should Keep at Home thumbnail

Here’s How Much Emergency Cash You Should Keep at Home

February 1, 2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate
Saturday, February 4, 2023
66 °f
Wellfleet
58 ° Tue
63 ° Wed
68 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
  • Login
  • Register
FREE Cape Cod News
DONATE
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Free Cape Cod News
No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
  • Videos
Home News Politics

The Empathy of Black Voters

FREE Cape Cod News by FREE Cape Cod News
July 24, 2020
in Politics, U.S.
Reading Time: 5 mins read
Donate
0
The Empathy of Black Voters thumbnail
639
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on TwitterShare on Facebook

Last month’s Democratic primaries in New York likely made history—for all of American politics. Mondaire Jones won in the 17th Congressional District, which includes Rockland County and parts of Westchester County, while Ritchie Torres won in the 15th Congressional District, in the Bronx. As both districts are deep blue, Jones and Torres will almost certainly become the first openly gay Black and Black-Latinx members, respectively, ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. But their victories aren’t just symbolically significant: They also seriously challenge the myth that Black voters are reluctant to support LGBTQ candidates. According to a survey conducted just before primary day by Data for Progress, Torres had higher support among African Americans than non-Black voters. (No such data exists on Jones voters.)

Black voters have long been depicted as hostile to LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage. Last fall, a leaked memo from Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, based on internal focus groups, worried that “being gay was a barrier” for some Black voters in South Carolina. Asked on CNN whether Buttigieg’s sexual orientation would be a problem, South Carolina Representative James E. Clyburn, who is Black, said, “I’m not going to sit here and tell you otherwise, because I think everybody knows that’s an issue. But I’m saying it’s an issue not the way it used to be.” David Axlerod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, warned that Buttigieg’s sexual orientation was “a real issue for him [because there] has been historical resistance within elements of the African-American community to homosexuality.”

But our research shows that these concerns are unjustified and unfair. In fact, Black voters are now more likely to support gay candidates and other minority candidates than non-Black voters. This is partly because gay candidates in the United States tend to be Democrats, and African Americans remain incredibly loyal to the party, regardless of the candidate’s identity. But there is more to it than that.

This past spring, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of over 6,000 likely American voters. We asked respondents whether they would vote for Donald Trump or Buttigieg, if the latter were to become the Democratic nominee. Black voters overwhelmingly supported Buttigieg over Trump, 70 versus 12 percent, while white voters narrowly backed Trump, 46–42 percent. Even when we highlighted Buttigieg’s sexual orientation, displaying a picture of the candidate kissing his husband, Chasten, on stage, Black voters remained substantially more supportive of him versus Trump, 61 to 11 percent, versus 40–48 among whites.

There are, however, substantial variations within the Black community. When Buttigieg was presented as a proudly gay man, he lost a third of his vote among Black men, as almost all switched to undecided. In contrast, Black women supported Buttigieg over Trump by over 70 percent regardless of whether he was presented in a neutral way or as proudly gay. Black voters under 35 supported Buttigieg over Trump by massive margins (75–11), and even more so when his sexual orientation was accentuated (78–3). Older Black voters were far less enthusiastic supporters of Buttigieg (57–17, with 26 percent undecided) and were thrown into a quandary when Buttigieg was presented as proudly gay (31–15, with 54 percent undecided).

African Americans show greater support than white voters for other minority candidates, above and beyond party ID. In our survey, we also investigated the likelihood of voters to support candidates running for Congress with the following conditions: being overweight with diabetes; having experienced a heart attack, cancer, HIV, depression, bipolar disorder; being in a wheelchair; being blind or visually impaired; being deaf; and being a little person. Black voters said in significantly higher numbers than all other groups that they were more or much more likely to vote for a candidate knowing that the candidate had a health condition or disability.

DATA FROM MAGNI-REYNOLDS SURVEY, CONDUCTED BY DYNATA POLLING

Such support may be due in part to familiarity, as Black Americans are more likely to be overweight, have diabetes, experience heart attacks, die from cancer, have depression, use a wheelchair, be blind, and be HIV-postive, than the general population. More recently, African Americans have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. There is overwhelming evidence that African Americans are much more likely to be hospitalized and die from the coronavirus than whites.

Black Americans, however, are not more likely to have a bipolar disorder or to be—or be related to—little people. African Americans are also much less likely to be deaf than the general population. This suggests that their higher levels of likelihood of voting for candidates with these conditions is partly the result of empathy rather than direct experience. As members of a historically disadvantaged and oppressed group, they can relate to the conditions of those who have been unfairly treated, even if they belong to a different group. As a result, they are more likely to support members of other groups who have faced discrimination.

In recent months, the coronavirus crisis and growing outrage over racist policing have highlighted the violence and discrimination faced by Black people in America. Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has never been so high, as hundreds of thousands of white people have joined anti-racism marches across the country, and books about racism and white nationalism have climbed bestseller lists. White people are slowly realizing how racism is a tumor at the heart of America and are showing greater empathy toward African Americans. But it will require much more progress to close the yawning empathy gap between Black and white voters.

Read More

FREE Digital Newspaper Subscription!
Sign up for your free digital subscription. The FREE Cape Cod News

Unsubscribe
FREE Cape Cod News

FREE Cape Cod News

Free Cape Cod News is what's happening in the Cape Cod, U.S and World & what people are talking about right now. Local newspaper. Stay in the know. Subscribe to get notified about our latest news.

Related Posts

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail
News

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

by FREE Cape Cod News
February 3, 2023
Biden and McCathy's debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies thumbnail
News

Biden and McCathy’s debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies

by FREE Cape Cod News
February 2, 2023
House GOP prepares vote to remove Omar from committee after McCarthy finds escape hatch thumbnail
News

House GOP prepares vote to remove Omar from committee after McCarthy finds escape hatch

by FREE Cape Cod News
February 1, 2023
Sen. John Cornyn asks whether President Biden and Democrats think '$31 trillion of debt doesn't matter' thumbnail
News

Sen. John Cornyn asks whether President Biden and Democrats think ‘$31 trillion of debt doesn’t matter’

by FREE Cape Cod News
January 31, 2023
Load More
Please login to join discussion

Follow Us on Twitter

FREE Cape Cod News - Your source for local Cape Cod news, latest breaking U.S. and World news. Every day, all day. Subscribe for your favorite categories.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated) thumbnail

Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated)

February 4, 2023
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

February 3, 2023
Biden taps Democrat on interstate energy commission as its interim chair thumbnail

Biden taps Democrat on interstate energy commission as its interim chair

January 4, 2023
Labor Market Added 517,000 Jobs In January—Unemployment Rate Falls To 54-Year Low Of 3.4% thumbnail

Labor Market Added 517,000 Jobs In January—Unemployment Rate Falls To 54-Year Low Of 3.4%

February 4, 2023
Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated) thumbnail

Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated)

February 4, 2023
Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend thumbnail

Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend

February 3, 2023

FREE Cape Cod News On Twitter

Today’s News

  • Labor Market Added 517,000 Jobs In January—Unemployment Rate Falls To 54-Year Low Of 3.4% February 4, 2023
  • Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated) February 4, 2023
  • Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend February 3, 2023
  • Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report February 3, 2023
  • GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data February 3, 2023
FREE Cape Cod News

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
  • Login
  • Sign Up

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist