Abstract
This paper assesses the extent to which race continues to define nonwhite political activism in the post-segregation era. Analyzing the content of political campaigns during key Democratic primaries and special elections in New York City from 1944 until 2006, this paper explores how local political institutions, specifically party organizations, and shifting socioeconomic conditions influence the claims native black, Caribbean, and Puerto Rican politicians make on government. Contrary to prevailing views of nonwhite politics, I find that the content of nonwhite elite political appeals grew less racial and more economic and ethnic. To the extent that racial appeals persist, they are mostly symbolic. Secular population shifts as well as political interventions (i.e. party actions and public policies) pluralized the organizational resources available to nonwhite political entrepreneurs. This increased the supply of nonwhite candidates and, in turn, increased political competition. In response to this competitive electoral context, nonwhite politicians formulated substantive economic appeals that crossed ethnic boundaries or mobilized symbolic ethnic appeals.
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