Electoral Politics Is Not Enough: Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Urban Politics

3. Awareness of African American and Latino Policy Preferences

Chapter 3 Awareness of African American and Latino Policy Preferences In a representative democracy, elected officials must understand their constituents ’ concerns. The extent to which white and minority leaders agree on the issues of greatest concern to African Americans and Latinos, and how city leaders gain awareness of racial and ethnic minority interests provide great insight into conditions under which government responds to African Americans and Latinos. They also address the character of the American republic for, in this form of government, conventional channels, namely size of the minority electorate and the percentage of minorities on the city council , should increase awareness of minority interests. MEASURING AWARENESS Through an extensive search of the local newspaper in each city, I identified the names of well-established white, African American, and Latino leaders within each city. They include a mayor, city council members, and heads of social service organizations or community groups that command a strong media presence. I then interviewed these individuals, along with reporters from local newspapers, and asked respondents to provide names of other leaders. After this first wave of interviews, which usually included three or four members from each community, I interviewed people whose names were given to me by at least two people. Because many leaders tended to provide the names of political actors, such as elected and appointed officials, I also 41 42 Electoral Politics Is Not Enough asked for names of leaders in nonelected positions, those who possessed considerable knowledge about a particular community but whose accomplishments occurred outside the political realm. Leaders also provided names and leaders of prominent local churches, community-based organizations, and neighborhood groups. This combination of positional and reputational leaders serves as a source of informed understanding of local governance. During each interview, white leaders named what they felt were the issues of concern to both African Americans and Latinos, whereas African American and Latino leaders identified the issues of greatest concern to their respective communities. I coded the answers to this open-ended question into broad categories, and created an index to measure the degree to which white leaders’ perceptions converge with African American leaders and with Latino leaders.1 In each city, I calculated the issue that received the highest number of first responses by African American or Latino leaders. The numerator for this index is the number of times white leaders gave this issue as their first response as the greatest concern to African Americans/Latinos in this city. The denominator is the total number of times white and African American/ Latino leaders could agree on the issue of greatest concern. The result represents the extent to which white and African American or Latino leaders agree on the issue of greatest concern to African Americans or Latinos. Calculating white leaders’ level of awareness of African American and Latino interests in each city produced eight similarity scores. An example serves to clarify the calculations. In Bridgeport, I interviewed sixteen white leaders and eleven African American leaders. The denominator for the white and African American index is eleven—the highest number of times white and African American leaders could agree on the issue of greatest concern to African Americans. The total number of times white and African American leaders provided the same issue of greatest concern to African Americans in Bridgeport was nine, which was then divided by eleven, the total possible number of agreements. This equation produced a similarity score of eighty-two for white and African American leaders in Bridgeport. The score means that 82 percent of white and African American leaders agree on the issue of greatest concern to African Americans in Bridgeport. Standard statistical methods inadequately addressed this study’s research questions. Initially, chi-square tests were utilized to measure whether a difference existed between white and African American (or Latino) leaders’ perceptions of the issues of greatest concern to African Americans (or Latinos). A chi-square test indicates whether white and African American leaders’ views possess statistical dependence.2 It gauges if white and minority leaders’ perceptions are dissimilar, but it does not measure the extent to which perceptions vary across the four cities. This work’s research question examines conditions under which leaders are more likely to understand and respond to Awareness of African American and Latino Policy Preferences 43 minority interests. A chi-square test fails to serve this purpose. Consequently, the index devised calculates the degree to which majority...