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We define racial transcendence as an elevated status in which evaluations of an individual are no longer shaped by the race of the attitudinal target or the race of the person making the evaluations. Observers argue that Oprah Winfrey transcends race, meaning that she is just as likely to receive support from non-Blacks as she is from fellow Blacks. But this argument may not follow when Oprah moves into the political arena. We use two surveys to demonstrate this: The first survey supports Winfrey’s transcendence, while we see in-group support in the second. We find that Oprah enjoys her greatest support among racial fellows, and her favorability flows along the lines of race and gender: Her greatest supporters are Black women. Oprah’s ability to offer political cues also flows along lines of race and gender: Those most likely to be influenced by her Obama endorsement are Black women.

Despite a recent increase in research on its sociopolitical implications, many questions regarding rap music’s influence on mass-level participation remain unanswered. We consider the possibility that “imagining a better world” (measured here as the degree to which young African Americans are critical of the music’s negative messages) can correlate with a desire to “build a better world” (operationalized as an individual’s level of political participation). Evidence from the Black Youth Project (BYP)’s Youth Culture Survey (Cohen 2005) demonstrates that rap critique exerts a conditional impact on non-voting forms of activism. Rap critique enhances heavy consumers’ civic engagement, but this relationship does not occur among Blacks who consume the music infrequently. By demonstrating rap’s politicizing power and contradicting certain criticisms of Hip Hop culture, our research celebrates the possibilities of Black youth and Black music.

To explore the evolution of political-science research on race, Walton et al., have done a systematic review of more than a century of publications appearing in the discipline’s oldest and most prestigious journals: Political Science Quarterly and the American Political Science Review, respectively. Walton and his colleagues uncover “dual traditions” of race scholarship: an “African American Politics” (AAP) paradigm emphasizing empowerment and Blacks’ cultural distinctiveness, and a “Race Relations Politics” (RRP) approach that focuses on Blacks’ socio-political status vis-à-vis Whites. Using computer-assisted text analyses, we introduce a measure of racial dialogue that is informed by theory and has suitable empirical properties. We replicate and extend Walton’s research by adding a third periodical (the Journal of Politics) and demonstrating that, while race conversations are becoming more frequent over time, the dialogues taking place in mainstream journals typically fit Walton’s RRP (rather than AAP) tradition. Following our analyses, we offer guidelines for researchers seeking to apply our measure to alternative contexts.

Activists and scholars argue that the election and presence of Black mayors increase Black political engagement; however, later research suggests that this diminishes over time. Furthermore, a body of research suggests that homogenous racial contexts and contextual poverty decrease political participation. In this article, we ask one question: How does demographic context and length of Black mayoral tenure influence Black political participation? Using a national data set of Black respondents, we find that participation increases as cities become “Blacker.” However, simultaneously we find diminishing returns to Black political empowerment, particularly compared with new Black empowerment contexts.

Testing the proposition that electing black mayors has a positive effect on black political participation, scholars found that black incorporation historically lead to increased black political engagement. However, the research that examines whether length of mayoral tenure influences black political participation is limited. We test this proposition using the 1993—1994 National Black Politics Study. Our findings suggest long-term political incorporation decreases local black political participation while it increases voting for President. However, as the black population percentage of a city rises, local black political participation increases. These findings extend the research on the effect of political incorporation on participation by considering political and demographic context and by engaging in intraracial rather than interracial comparisons.

While the study of Black politics in the American context has not been a top priority in political science, it is indisputable that this topic in general is more likely to be discussed in the discipline's journals in recent decades than in the more distant past. What accounts for this noticeable increase in prominence? How did the study of Black politics move from total obscurity to occupying a more significant (although still relatively marginalized) position within mainstream political science? To answer these questions, we draw a parallel between politics and political science. Specifically, we posit that the increased focus on African American politics is due to Black agency in the form of social movement activity, which reached its zenith during the civil rights movement. Before the civil rights movement, we note as numerous others have, that the racially conservative views of American society in the nineteenth century resulted in Black politics being an understudied area. We argue, however, that as social movement activity increased the salience of racial issues in America, so too did it raise the importance of race for political scientists.

The importance of the political church in Black political participation has brought to the attention of scholars the differences among Black churches and their effect on Black mobilization. The Black church has on many occasions transformed itself into a politicized organization. These political churches become settings that encourage political knowledge and skills (Tate, 1993) and communicate political activity as a norm (Calhoun-Brown, 1996). The earlier work on political churches has established the importance of these organizations for voter turnout and other forms of political participation. What has been left unexamined is the nature of the political churches themselves. This project disentangles these churches by looking at the heterogeneity within the structures of the political churches. In general, we seek to understand which of the internal activities of the political church tend to foster acts of political participation. We hypothesize that cost- underwriting activities and obligation-creating activities within the church setting have the greatest impact on participation. By examining a robust and expansive operationalization of the political church construct, we find that these types of political church activities matter more than other activities. In specifying how churches may work to directly affect the participation of their members, we seek to expand the scope of general comprehension of political churches.

The psychological impact of video gaming has received considerable attention in recent years, reflecting their continually increasing popularity. Much of the research has been driven by concerns over the negative impact of video game play, particularly in relation to violent games and young people. However, there is evidence for positive effects in relation to perceptual skills and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, casual video game play has been shown to reduce stress and improve mood. This study was designed to further investigate the potential benefits of video game play on psychological wellbeing. Two commercial, but non-traditional, video games were selected. The games chosen were developed to engage players in an interactive exploratory journey intended to ?contribute meaningful, enriching experiences that touch and inspire them?. The two experimental game conditions were compared to an internet search control condition. Participants took part in several sessions over a number of weeks to allow the effect of regular play to be evaluated. Standardised measures of stress, affect, psychological wellbeing and flow were taken throughout the study. The results are discussed in the context of developing video games with the explicit aim of enhancing the psychological wellbeing of users.

This paper examines race and contextual effects, especially as applied to the study of racial politics. Contextual analysis has proven to be an extremely useful technique in political science. Yet there are instances in which it may be misapplied. I argue that some of the findings in the extant literature fail to specify properly the mechanisms by which contextual effects operate, and that such a failure leads to incomplete the orizing about racial politics. I make two basic arguments. The first is that the major theoretical element, group conflict, is under-examined as long as we think of conflict between groups only in terms of mass public attitudes. I suggest, instead, that we pay more attention to elite strategies. The second argument is that group theories seem less generalizable as long as we concentrate on Whites as the only relevant political actors. In summary, I contend that politics are not given priority in contextual models of race. Moving beyond some of the current, more standard applications will allow us to demonstrate empirically a richer picture of how race shapes the political options of certain groups in America, especially Blacks and other minority groups.

Burke, Christopher M. The Appearance of Equality: Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, and the Supreme Court. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Pp. viii, 212. $59.95, hardbound. Bybee, Keith. Mistaken Identity: The Supreme Court and the Politics of Minority Representation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Pp. 206. $40.00, hardbound. Riley, Russell L. The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality: Nation Keeping from 1831 to 1965. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Pp. xiv, 373. $22.50, softbound; $49.50, hardbound.

Contains fulltext : 140422.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

Purpose – The chapter examines the relationship between Black elected officials (as candidates and in office) and the media that covers them by examining how media use race when discussing these officials.Design/methodology/approach – The chapter uses a content analysis design. The basic strategy is to examine eight years’ worth of discussion in newspapers, both in Ohio and nationwide, concerning Mark Mallory as he runs for mayor of Cincinnati and then acts as mayor from 2005 to mid-2012.Findings – The chapter provides information on how the media (mainstream media and Black media) includes racial mentions when discussing Mark Mallory. The findings support my two main hypotheses: that Mark Mallory is more heavily racialized as a mayoral candidate in mainstream newspapers than he is as a sitting mayor, and that for Black newspapers, he is more heavily racialized at either stage (candidate or sitting mayor) than he is with mainstream newspapers.Research limitations/implications – Because the research only looks at one individual, the findings lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers should expand the focus to examine more Black elected officials and/or Black candidates for office.Practical and social implications – The chapter shows how discussions of race around a Black elected official may be beyond that official’s control.Originality/value – This chapter is original in showing how race can be made a part of the public media discussions of minority elected officials. The research design gives us a template for future study of the influence of race in media representations in minority politics.