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chapter 4 The 2008 Election, Black Women’s Politics, and the Long Civil Rights Movement Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore In May 2009, the New York Times ran a story under this headline: “NO RACIAL GAP SEEN IN ’08 VOTE TURNOUT” (Figure 1). Now, this would have been news, if only it had been true. It wasn’t. The longstanding racial electoral gap in presidential elections, in which whites turn out to vote in higher percentages than other groups, narrowed to .9 percent but did not disappear. Black voter turnout was 65.2 percent, and white turnout was 66.1 percent. Thus, even though fewer blacks voted than whites, the Times reported that the gap “evaporated.”1 The article continued:“black women turned out at a higher rate than any other racial, ethnic and gender group.” This implies that black women did something very different from other identity groups in the election. In fact, at 68.8 percent, black women turned out in numbers only .8 percent higher than the next-highest group: white female eligible voters at 68 percent. The Times framed the article to imply that it’s a trouncing when black women turn out in numbers .8 percent higher. However, when white people turn out in numbers .9 percent higher than black people, they aren’t ahead; rather, “the longstanding gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election.”2 Figure 1. % Change in Voter Turnout Rates among Eligible Voters, 2008 and 2004 2008 2004 % Change ALL 63.6 63.8 –0.2 WHITE 66.1 67.2 –1.1 BLACK 65.2 60.3 4.9 HISPANIC 49.9 47.2 2.7 ASIAN 47.0 44.6 2.4 Source: Pew Center tabulations from the Current Population Survey, November Supplements Data Looking at male voting patterns negates the story of the vanishing racial gap, as well. Of black male eligible voters, 60.7 percent turned out, 3.5 percent lower than the 64.2 percent turnout of white male eligible voters. Knowing that black men turned out in numbers 3.5 percent lower than white men did, with white voter turnout .9 percent higher than black voter turnout, one might question a headline that declares: “NO RACIAL GAP SEEN IN ’08 VOTE TURNOUT.”Perhaps this one would be more appropriate:“BLACK MEN’S TURNOUT LAGS AT POLLS, DESPITE BLACK MALE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT” (Figure 2). Certainly, Figure 2 indicates a receding tide of whiteness at the voting booth, but it also demonstrates three important points that go unmentioned in the Times story: the change has been evenly spread over two decades, it is incrementally small each year, and the white percentage decrease is due more to increases in Hispanic and Asian voting percentages than to a wave of black voters. The percentage of black voters (of those who actually cast votes in presidential elections) increased by only 2.3 percent in two decades, from 9.8 to 12.1 percent. Moreover, the Obama candidacy did not have a dramatic effect on the black vote share. The increase in the percentage of voters who were black between 1996 and 2000 was .9 percent, only slightly less than the 1.1 percent increase between 2004 and 2008. The New York Times headline might have read:“OBAMA CANDIDACY BRINGS ONLY A 1.1% INCREASE IN BLACK VOTE SHARE OVER 2004.” The Pew report upon which the New York Times story was based pointed out this fact, not mentioned in the Times: “The white share [of turnout] is the lowest ever, yet is still higher than the . . . white share of the total U.S. population.”Given the tone of the story, it is astonishing to discover that the white share of the total U.S. population is around 66 percent and that 76 percent of those who voted were white. Or by another measure, the white share of the voting-eligible population (adult citizens excluding felons) is 73.4 percent, yet 76.3 percent of the vote was white (Figure 3). Shouldn’t Figure 2. Voters by Race and Ethnicity (%): 1988 through 2008 ASIAN HISPANIC BLACK WHITE 1988 3.6 9.8 84.9 1992 1.2 3.8 9.9 84.6 1996 1.6 4.7 10.6 82.5 2000 1.8 5.4 11.5 80.7 2004 2.3 6.0 1.0 79.2 2008 2.5 7.4 12.1 76.3 Source: Pew Research Center 54 glenda elizabeth gilmore...

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