Race in the Color‐blind Era: Deracialization and Black Elected Officials

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reviews the emergence of Black elected officials and the deracialization concept within the literature of Blacks politics. The aim is to provide an overview of the critical issues and debates regarding Black elected officials since the Civil Rights Movement. I contend that an understanding of deracialization as an analytical construct, to assess the viability of Black elected officials and election outcomes, is clearer when examined from the perspective of structural change. Rather than just examining specific candidates and campaigns, a sociological approach that situates Black elected officials within the macro changes of society explains the contradiction of greater political representation yet persistent racial inequality. I conclude this paper with a brief discussion of how the study of deracialization as racial phenomena can be advanced through critical discourse analysis that identifies candidates within social networks of power and influence.