Is it true: not one black Republican senator or Congressperson?

[adigal]

I heard this yesterday? Is this true? And then they get all outraged about Mrs. Kings' funeral?? Damn hypocrites!

[HereSince1628]

1. Ever heard of a guy named Obama?

[Somawas]

2. Yes. But he's not a Republican.

[HereSince1628]

4. Sorry, apparently not awake enought to read complete sentences.

[wicket]

14. Don't feel bad, I did the same thing

Time for some coffee! :D :donut:

[murielm99]

3. Obama is not a repuke,

even though some people here like to accuse him of it.

[Road Scholar]

7. You better check your figures. Nobody with one eye and half

sense would ever call him a repuke.

[William769]

6. Oy vey.

:eyes:

[Connie_Corleone]

5. LOL!!

[GrantDem]

8. Not since J.C. Watts

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. The last black GOP congressman was J.C. Watts, who's now retired.

The last black GOP senator was Edward Brooke, who served from 1967-1979, though he was considered a liberal Republican.

Currently, Obama is the only black senator, period.

[fasttense]

10. Oh my god, Starbucks Anarchist, Obama

is the only black Senator? What is this country coming to?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. And technically, he's half-black.

So basically 1/2 of 1% of the Senate is really black.

[Broke In Jersey]

13. So... in a nation comprised with 12% black -

there is only 1 senator who is??? Pathetic for both parties!!!

[SharonAnn]

18. J. C. Watts' father said, "A black man voting Republican is like a

chicken voting for colonel Sanders."

[adigal]

12. And the Repubs have the audacity to preach to the Dems

about how they should behave at the funeral of a black civil rights leader???

I think we should all call local right wing talk shows and ask the hosts (who are ALL closet racists) how the republican party is the "Big Tent" party when the door is closed to black representatives???

Damn hypocrites.

[Sammy Pepys]

15. I'm so sick of this racial crap....

Who cares if the Reps don't have any black folks in Congress!:grr:

If you try playing that card, you're just going to have Condi and Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell thrown back at you. Besides, they're all creaming themselves over Michael Steele making a Senate run, so it's a pointless argument anyway.

We should be worried about wire tapping and the war and administration crimes and our OWN representation Congress...not this!

[auburngrad82]

16. They are appointed, not elected

They are basically there to add a little color to the palette.



Liberal bumper stickers

[Sammy Pepys]

17. see my last line....

and by the way, WAR EAGLE!B-)

[adigal]

19. Well - the 12% of blacks who make up our nation

might just care.

And Condi and Colin are just there so the administration can say that they are "inclusive." In fact, I just heard Sean Hannity say that last night. ;)

And I CAN worry about wire tapping and the war and administration crimes and our OWN representation in Congress at the same time...amazing thing about Dems, we can do more than one thing at a time!

[Bridget Burke]

21. "our OWN representation in Congress"???

OK, it's fine if those non-white folks are ignored by the political party in power--we white folks have good white representatives!

My Representative is Sheila Jackson Lee--a Democrat. I'm melanin-deficient but am glad she's representing me. (The less said about my Senators, the better. We share skin color but nothing else.

[Igel]

20. No. But that's surprising for what reason?

It used to be true that there were no congressfolk whose ancestors were Poles. The dem machine was heavily Irish and other non-East-European white. Poles were overwhelmingly dem, but hadn't made their mark in the dem election machine yet. They also were concentrated in specific geographic areas. They didn't get good educations. And since they were dem, they didn't typically run as repubs. Moreover, there was "racism" against Poles, in both parties.

Now, if blacks vote 90-95% dem, and most black reps come from areas with a heavy black population, we'd expect most elected blacks to be dem right off the bat. The black republican population is small, at or less than 1 percent, so we shouldn't really expect an outstanding number of black repubs in a group of 53 or 54. The surprising thing is that there aren't more black dem congressfolk.

Then add disparate educational outcomes: Most congressfolk have degrees, with JD having a plurality. Blacks go to college less often than whites, and typically fewer pursue JDs. That shrinks the pool even more. The current batch of congressfolk reflect the state of affairs in college 10-30 years ago (or more).

Yeah, there's likely racism in the non-election of blacks. But I think there's also a lot of self-selection going on. I'd expect more dem black congressfolk, but no more repub congressfolk. And I don't expect parties to front candidates on the basis of race unless there's political advantage in it. For dems, actively promoting black candidates has no great payoff--they get black votes usually, anyway. For repubs, it's a chicken-or-the-egg problem, one that historically hasn't paid dividends in voting patterns.

Should this change? Yes. But is it a surprising bit of trivia? No. It's fairly predictable.