Of suspicious minds: Race, scandal, and the DC mayoralty

Crawford, Nyron N.

doi:10.1080/07352166.2018.1514263

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Not all issues in New Orleans local politics are easy to place on an ideological spectrum. For example, corruption in New Orleans is always a major issue in local elections and does not track easily with an ideological position (Crawford 2019). We rely on scholarship on New Orleans politics to classify liberal, moderate, and conservative issues in local politics (Burns and Thomas 2015;Chambers and Nelson 2014;Lay 2016).…”

Section: Ideological Signals From the Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are You Picking Up What I Am Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections

Holman

Lay

2020

Urban Affairs Review

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In November 2017, New Orleans elected the first woman, and first Black woman, mayor in the city’s history. Voters were unable to rely on gender, race, or partisanship to differentiate between the candidates in the race. How, then, do voters make decisions absent traditional heuristics? Using an analysis of campaign materials and two-wave panel survey, we show that the candidates sent ideological signals with endorsements and issue foci and that voters responded by placing the candidates ideologically. Those voters who could not differentiate between the candidates’ ideologies were less likely to turn out to vote and took longer to decide in the elections. Using a new measure of relative ideological distance adopted for multicandidate races, we show that the distance between each voter and the nearest candidates correlated with vote choice. Our results add to our knowledge of voting behavior and the use of ideology in local elections.

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Section: Ideological Signals From the Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are You Picking Up What I Am Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections

Holman

Lay

2020

Urban Affairs Review

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“…The case of Colin Kaepernick is instructive because his silent protest was anchored in racial solidarity against police violence, and like the experience of Walter Beach and others, after Kaepernick’s contract expired, no other NFL team signed him. His experience may remind black Americans of the ways in which white power structures punish outspoken black celebrities and mobilize in response (Crawford 2018; Hodge et al 2008; Musgrove 2012; Nunnally 2012; Warner 1977). Kaepernick’s position as a claimant in a lawsuit against the NFL suggests he was harmed by an unfair action taken by the league, which is important insofar as others have argued that the black community mobilizes around controversial black public figures who, they suspect, have been targeted, retaliated against, or harassed by white-dominated institutions in realms such as sports, media, and law enforcement (Russell-Brown 2005).…”

Section: Rebellion and Punishment: The Black Athlete Activist As Celementioning

confidence: 99%

Shut Up and Play: Black Athletes, Protest Politics, and Black Political Action

Towler¹,

Crawford²,

Bennett³

2019

Perspect. polit.

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The convergence of sports and celebrity can have a powerful influence on everyday politics, especially for groups underrepresented in mainstream American society. This article examines the relationship between race, celebrity, and social movements, specifically Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police violence and whether his activism mobilizes black Americans to political action. Using the 2017 Black Voter Project (BVP) Pilot Study, we explore African American political engagement in the 2016 election, a time devoid of President Obama as a mobilizing figure. We find African Americans who strongly approve of Kaepernick’s protest engage in politics at elevated rates, even after accounting for alternative explanations. Moreover, approval for Kaepernick also moderates other forces rooted in group identity, such as identification with the Black Lives Matter movement. In the end, Kaepernick and the protest movement he leads offers a powerful mobilizing force for African Americans.

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“…However, several studies have revealed that the misgivings Black Americans have about government are often related to their direct or vicarious experiences with the state (Gibson and Nelson 2018; Peffley and Hurwitz 2010; Weaver and Lerman 2010). Other scholars, moreover, have shown that Blacks’ suspicion about racial harassment is related to positive evaluations of scandalized Black politicians (Crawford 2018). Taken together, if Black Americans already assume racial prejudice in state-sanctioned actions against BEOs, an explicit racial defense only confirms their prior beliefs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If “scandals are struggles over symbolic power in which reputation and trust are at stake,” then, suspicion of a wayward politician should manifest as a negative appraisal of that politician's character (Funk 1996; McDermott, Schwartz, and Vallejo 2015; Thompson 2000, 245). In contrast, precisely because questions of misconduct strike at the core of public integrity, the racial defense may mobilize Blacks to protect Black political leaders from efforts that seek to embarrass or discredit them (see, e.g., Crawford 2018; Russell Brown 2005). For example, some observers believe “playing the race card is an effective tactic because accusations of racism are plausible,” since “there are in fact a lot of instances of racism” (Ford 2008, 22).…”

Section: Accounting For Alleged Misdeedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 Elder (2008, 101), for instance, contends that Black leaders "effectively convince their constituents that a racist criminal justice system unfairly went after them" (Elder 2008, 101). Racial defenses are believed to be compelling in this regard because accusations of racism are understood as a plausible explanation for unfavorable interactions with the state (Crawford 2018;Ford 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“It’s a Racist Plot”: An Experimental Test of the Racial Defense

Crawford

2021

Urban Affairs Review

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Black municipal leaders are routinely accused of using race and racism to sidestep allegations that they have run afoul the ethics of public office. That is, they use racial defenses to respond to what they view as racist attacks against them. This type of race-based account has been treated as commonplace in American politics, but its effectiveness as a political account has received little scholarly attention. For example, how effective is the racial defense at minimizing negative political fallout for scandalized Black politicians? Using data from a survey experiment, I test how Black Americans respond to the political accounts profferred by Black elected officials accused of official misconduct. I show that a strategy involving a racial defense can yield positive evaluations in terms of trait judgment and voter intention, while offering no comment reduces participant suspicion about investigative malfeasance.

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Of suspicious minds: Race, scandal, and the DC mayoralty

Cited by 7 publications

References 51 publications

Are You Picking Up What I Am Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections

Are You Picking Up What I Am Laying Down? Ideology in Low-Information Elections

Shut Up and Play: Black Athletes, Protest Politics, and Black Political Action

“It’s a Racist Plot”: An Experimental Test of the Racial Defense

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