Once inside the Pepsi Center, I ran into Political Scientist, Robert Starks. After chatting with him, I decided to start my research process. My research extends from work that I've been doing for approximately 9 years now. While my focus used to be on white racial attitudes, I now examine black intra-racial attitudes. In short, my previous research was in the area of white racism, however now, my focus has been black self-hatred. It's not that simple, but, I have been charged with the responsibility of writing this blog in a way that my grandmother would have understood it. Specifically, I provided a frame for respondents, "currently, blacks lag behind whites in almost every economic and education category," Open-ended-question: what do you think attributes to these disparities? The respondent, then, provides me with an open ended response. Some blacks blame blacks, themselves for their failures, while others blame the system (i.e., structural barriers, such as the lack of educational opportunities).
Given that my access was limited to the periphery of the arena, I was relegated to seeing Bill Clinton on the jumbotron. But, why would I want to hear them? I'm here to do research right? I interviewed 65 people on my first day. Oh yeah, the highlight was meeting Congressman John Lewis, an icon from the civil rights movement. Headed out for Day4. P.S. at the end of the night, I got an opportunity to see Barack, when he made his guess appearance. The climate was very different from the research world that I was restricted to earlier in the day. It was filled with electricity... People are really excited about change... Me, I'm a bit numb... but don't let me rain on your parade. Get EXCITED!
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1 comment:
Your examination of intra-racial attitudes will have several possibilities in terms of helping us come to grips with our prejudices and how these biases might, in fact, impede our progress.
The Democratic Party's nomination of Sen. Obama challenges us in many ways. One issue is that many of us never saw it coming--I think many African Americans resolved that they would not ever see this day come in their lifetime, as evidenced by several interviews in the media. Thus, now that this day is here, Obama's candidacy forces us to consider if we can fully support a candidate who is not a White man.
It may be unspoken, but there is some cognitive dissonance as we try to imagine a life in an Obama presidency, in terms of his cabinet selections, Supreme Court appointments, etc. Further, some Blacks have wondered aloud if his election would mean more support for America's notion of meritocracy.
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