5 - The Racial Enthusiasm Advantage in Politics

Summary

Chapter Five investigates the idea that while African Americans exhibit an anger gap in politics, they also demonstrate an enthusiasm advantage. With aid of survey data, I demonstrate that across different political eras that carry positive prospects for African Americans—from Clinton to Obama—greater proportions of black individuals exhibit pride relative to comparable whites. Further, these pride exhibits a stronger mobilizing effect on black participation relative to whites. This chapter also highlights the findings from a second original experimental study, in which black subjects exhibit a uniquely motivating effect of hope on their participation in a local issue area. This chapter ultimately illustrates that the boost to black participation accrued from the enthusiasm advantage is generally not sufficient to balance out the disparity caused by the anger gap. Whereas pride exhibits participation-stimulating effects for African Americans that are on par with the effects of anger, the potential mobilizing power of hope on black participation is limited to very specific contexts.