Racial Polarization and "Tribal America"
Fall 2015, Cornell Belcher was a visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics where he presented a series of lectures exploring the impacts of race on the evolution of the American electorate and the future of politics. The thematic topics of the lecture explored how our current “political polarization” is simply a byproduct of “racial polarization” and the implications for the United States if we cannot come together in order to win the future. The following Harvard interview describes some of those themes.
In a new nationwide survey of African-Americans, a full half of respondents said they don't know a single person in their community who works in the technology industry.
Despite the African American community's overwhelming adoption and enthusiasm for mobile technology as consumers, they have yet to fully realize the economic opportunities that mobile tech offers. There is a substantial opening and this research explores opportunities for using mobile technology to spur economic empowerment.
When asked what concerns them most – between the possibility of continued acts of terror by Islamic extremists on American soil or the possibility of increased discrimination and acts of violence toward Hispanics and other minorities because of heightened anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican rhetoric – a national sample of Hispanics are remarkably almost just as fearful of the increasing hateful rhetoric emerging from politics as they are about terrorism.
South Carolina, the state that effectively decided the Democratic nomination in 2008, will do so again in 2016. For all the grandeur and hype around the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, and despite all the fury that followed in the spring state skirmishes, it is here in the most genteel of Southern states, where the shadow of racial matters is always present, that Hillary Clinton will essentially win the Democratic nomination or see it begin to slip from her grasp. It is also here where Sen. Bernie Sanders will either be able to break through and compete effectively for the African-American vote, or he will not be the Democratic nominee. If he cannot crack Clinton’s so-called “firewall” and compete effectively for the African-American vote in South Carolina this weekend, the contest is more or less over.
Black Votes Matter is a description of recent research by brilliant corners Research & Strategies describing the intersection between the Obama Surge Voter coalitions of 2008/2012, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the 2016 election cycle. This research explores how the BLM movement will have resounding effects on this election cycle far greater than most progressives have acknowledged.