To say there has been an issue of political exclusion for African Americans throughout American history is an understatement to say the least. While some scholars suggest that practices of exclusion are best understood either culturally or ideologically, their detractors say it is best understood by looking at the issue through an institutional lens. While both sides have compelling arguments to prove their points, the issue of political exclusion is complex and can be best discussed by using a combination of both sides of the argument. It is with this that I hope to describe why I think this option is the best one to view the political exclusion of African Americans in our very short yet tumultuous history as a nation. Let’s first look at
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King, 2005). But more than most approaches used, their thesis also points out how injustices have been contested by not only political institutions and actors, but by those they injured as well. Unlike other scholars, King and Smith see all political institutional orders as “coalitions of state institutions and other political actors and organizations that seek to secure and exercise governing power in demographically, economically, and ideologically structured contexts that define the range of opportunities to political actors” (Desmond S. King, 2005). They describe racial institutional orders as “ones in which political actors have adopted and adapted racial concepts, commitments, and aims in order to help bind together their coalitions and structure governing institutions that express and serve the interests of their architects” (Desmond S. King, 2005). The alliances made by political actors to further ideological goals, quiet social anxieties, or for political power by itself have combined what some scholars have generally treated as “ideational” and “institutional” …show more content…
It is with this approach that analysts can, and should, “inquire whether the activities of institutions and actors chiefly concerned either to protect or to erode white supremacist arrangements help to account for the behavior and changes in the nation’s political institutions, coalitions, and contests they study” (Desmond S. King, 2005). Not using this process, according to King and Smith, must be explicitly justified. The framework that is advance by King and Smith seeks to aid in the study of all political orders, including the political exclusion of African Americans, which will help not only identify, but measure the intertwining of institutions, ideologies, and cultural means of exclusion. They go on to state that “the institutionalization of formal segregation laws in one part of the United States, combined with only de facto segregation elsewhere and formal national promises of civic equality, meant that the opportunities for America racial egalitarians” (Desmond S. King, 2005) were higher than in other countries that practiced racial orders, such as South Africa, but not more than Brazil, which did not seem to experience the problem as
King, 2005). But more than most approaches used, their thesis also points out how injustices have been contested by not only political institutions and actors, but by those they injured as well. Unlike other scholars, King and Smith see all political institutional orders as “coalitions of state institutions and other political actors and organizations that seek to secure and exercise governing power in demographically, economically, and ideologically structured contexts that define the range of opportunities to political actors” (Desmond S. King, 2005). They describe racial institutional orders as “ones in which political actors have adopted and adapted racial concepts, commitments, and aims in order to help bind together their coalitions and structure governing institutions that express and serve the interests of their architects” (Desmond S. King, 2005). The alliances made by political actors to further ideological goals, quiet social anxieties, or for political power by itself have combined what some scholars have generally treated as “ideational” and “institutional” …show more content…
It is with this approach that analysts can, and should, “inquire whether the activities of institutions and actors chiefly concerned either to protect or to erode white supremacist arrangements help to account for the behavior and changes in the nation’s political institutions, coalitions, and contests they study” (Desmond S. King, 2005). Not using this process, according to King and Smith, must be explicitly justified. The framework that is advance by King and Smith seeks to aid in the study of all political orders, including the political exclusion of African Americans, which will help not only identify, but measure the intertwining of institutions, ideologies, and cultural means of exclusion. They go on to state that “the institutionalization of formal segregation laws in one part of the United States, combined with only de facto segregation elsewhere and formal national promises of civic equality, meant that the opportunities for America racial egalitarians” (Desmond S. King, 2005) were higher than in other countries that practiced racial orders, such as South Africa, but not more than Brazil, which did not seem to experience the problem as