Racial Narratives, Group Identity, and African-American Political Behavior

Abstract

My dissertation seeks to advance the racial politics and political behavior literatures in American politics by focusing on the role of "racial narratives" in explaining historical changes in African-American political behavior over time. I accomplish this by generating a narrative approach to political behavior, drawing from political theorizing on collective identity formation and social constructivism in facilitating political action. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, my narrative approach to political behavior helps to explain patterns in African-American political behavior throughout American history. Four "racial narratives" are articulated and defended: a "white supremacist" narrative, an "egalitarian-transformative" narrative, a "nationalist-solidarist" narrative and finally an "anti-transformative" narrative. Each of these narratives are developed in particular periods of American history by white and African-American elites, and they do affect African-American political behavior in predictable ways given the arguments, ideas and concepts that comprise each narrative. The dissertation concludes by engaging with a narrative model of political behavior and proposing future research using this model, particularly in regards to the "intersectionality" of various social identities (class, gender, and sexual-orientation), and the degree to which an emphasis on "racial narratives" can contribute to theoretical and empirical understandings in the fields of American racial politics and American Political Development.