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Title: Most-racial, not post-racial: Group voting in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: In the aftermath of Barack Obamas victory in 2008 was lauded as a sign of a diminished importance of race in American politics and the potential dawn of a post-racial era. While it is well-known that social inequalities persist across ethnoracial groups and racialized discoursehas been resilient, an underlying premise of the notion of post-racial politicsthat the election of a minority-race candidate was marked by an election that had transcended racial electoral politicshas not been directly considered. Using a new measure useful in comparing the extent to which electorates are organized along racial lines, this paper explores trends in racial division in voting in American politics, arguing that the 2008 election was not characterized by post-racial voting patterns, but rather that recent electoral politics in the United States havebeen notably divided along ethnic lines in both historical and cross-national comparative terms. Far from post-racial, the 2008 election must be included in any list of most-racial elections. A subsequent subnational analysis identifies drivers of and exceptions to this reality.

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Authors: Ogorzalek, Thomas K.

Publisher: Columbia University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

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