For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Understanding Black Politics: Faith, Representation, and Black Political Voices

Episode Summary

Political scientist Andra Gillespie (Emory University) discusses the significance of black politics in 2020, including the need to fix disproportional representation, ideological sorting in party politics, the experience and salience of racial identity as a grounding factor for black political engagement, pursuing justice through the political process, and bringing political science to bear on lives of faith. Interview by Ryan McAnnally-Linz

Episode Notes

Political scientist Andra Gillespie (Emory University) discusses the significance of black politics in 2020, including the need to fix disproportional representation, ideological sorting in party politics, the experience and salience of racial identity as a grounding factor for black political engagement, pursuing justice through the political process, and bringing political science to bear on lives of faith. 

Show Notes

• Disproportional representation of African-Americans in Congress
• Ideological Sorting, Partisanship, and Race
• “Welcome to America’s Freedom Church”: How Rev. Raphael Warnock, the pastor of MLK’s Ebenezer Baptist Church is leading the Georgia U.S. Senate race
• Pursuing Justice in the Political Process: Voting Rights, Disenfranchisement, and Representation
• Political rules and doing the right thing
• Vocation and Christian public engagement
• The role of faith in ideological sorting, and faith in black politics

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