Black Curativeness: Understanding Black Voter Selection through an Assessment of Racially-charged Districts

Abstract

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 most scholarship on Black voter selection explains who Black voters select as opposed to why they select them. This study seeks to deepen understandings of Black voter selection beyond descriptive explanations through an assessment of a racially-charged district. Racially-charged districts can be used as microcosms for understanding political thought and behavior of racial minorities, particularly Black voter selection. These locales, where proven racial inequity propels race and racism as the overarching themes for all political and social concerns, are important in understanding why Black voters show positive affect towards viable Black candidates. Using data from the 2016 University of Missouri-St. Louis Exit Poll, this research provides evidence towards explaining why a candidate’s race is a prominent factor in vote choice for Black voters. The study concludes a substantial segment of the Black voting demographic view the election of Black officials as paramount and remedial to enduring institutional discrimination on the basis of race—a notion of Black curativeness