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by Michael C. Dawson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. 410 pp. $32.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-226-13860-7.
The American political system has a huge elephant in its living room that both the mainstream media and political parties, with few exceptions, prefer to ignore. That is the problem of a widened and seemingly intractable divide separating black American and white American political outlooks. A generation after the 1960s Civil Rights reforms, which many observers optimistically expected to heal the nation's racial wounds, serious racial frictions persists, as white Americans have become more politically conservative and black Americans more politically alienated. This is reflected in their very different views about such things as the O. J. Simpson verdict, racial discrimination, reparations for slavery, and government responsibilities for the economic well-being of its citizens. But are all black Americans of one mind concerning these and other matters? What has become of the black community's capacity for mobilizing large scale movements to protest its grievances?
In light of the persisting frictions of American race relations and the pervasive ignorance about the current ideological differences among black Americans, Michael Dawson was moved to explore contemporary black political ideologies. The outcome of that exploration is Black Visions, which is the most comprehensive inquiry into black political ideologies ever undertaken. Running counter to the prevailing thought among public opinion theorists, Dawson embraces the thesis that black political ideologies matter, not simply because they reflect the views of black political elites, but also, and more important, because they structure black public opinion and black politics. The three determinants of that black public opinion, he suggests, are the individual's social location, spatial location, and exposure to black information networks. His objective is the pursuit of answers to four empirical questions:...