U.S. Race Politics: Learning from the Experiences of African Americans

Abstract

This research details three markers in the history of race and ethnic relations through a theoretical lens that addresses them from an African American perspective to illustrate what Latin Americans can learn from the experiences of blacks in American politics. The three markers include Chief Justice Taney's decision in Dred Scott (1857), the Supreme Court's decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) and Harold Washington's Chicago Mayoral Campaign in 1983. These events offer a critique and praxis of pluralism in traditional political theory and do shape the political landscape for race and ethnicity. Where they offer perspectives for racial and ethnic minorities in the United States to learn from, Latin Americans in particular, given controversies surrounding recent immigration patterns, can gain from knowledge and the analysis of the events. Likewise, the African American community can gain from Latin American perspectives. Through shared, periphery frames of reference, the brief history, and the environment surrounding the markers, in advancing a common ground from a critique of traditional political theory, the research thus provides direction for theory development that respects the value of pluralism despite its failures from theory into practice.