How Do Black Americans Talk about Personal Responsibility?
Location
King Building 101
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-27-2019 5:00 PM
End Date
4-27-2019 6:20 PM
Abstract
The purpose of my research is to analyze the relationship between dominant ideas of personal responsibility and Black Americans engaging in the politics of respectability. In particular, I analyze the relationship between the weaponized discourse of personal responsibility underlying welfare reform during in relation to some contemporary discourses espoused by Black Americans. This project is significant because it explains how target populations engage with weaponized policy discourses, whereas most analysis of theses discourses focus on evaluating either their accuracy and/or their socioeconomic effects. By doing so, I highlight Black American agency instead of treating them as passive actors. My research is centered on the following question: What social-psychological factors lead some Black Americans to reproduce dominant ideas of personal responsibility? I answered this question by interviewing senior Black Americans who were alive during the Clinton Administration in my hometown of San Angelo TX. San Angelo is a mid-sized conservative leaning city, with a relatively stable Black community. I found that most Black Americans largely reworked and somewhat accepted most o the dominant ideas surrounding personal responsibility. Further, my results were relatively stable across different demographic factors, including socioeconomic status and community standing. Therefore, these results are significant as they answer what leads some Black Americans to perpetuate a policy discourse that is weaponized against members of their group.
Keywords:
American Politics, Black Politics, Political Theory, Political Psychology
Recommended Citation
Forbes, Jaques, "How Do Black Americans Talk about Personal Responsibility?" (04/27/19). Senior Symposium. 2.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/seniorsymp/2019/panel_20/2
Major
Politics; Law & Society
Advisor(s)
Marc Blecher, Politics and East Asian Studies
Project Mentor(s)
David Forrest, Politics
April 2019
How Do Black Americans Talk about Personal Responsibility?
King Building 101
The purpose of my research is to analyze the relationship between dominant ideas of personal responsibility and Black Americans engaging in the politics of respectability. In particular, I analyze the relationship between the weaponized discourse of personal responsibility underlying welfare reform during in relation to some contemporary discourses espoused by Black Americans. This project is significant because it explains how target populations engage with weaponized policy discourses, whereas most analysis of theses discourses focus on evaluating either their accuracy and/or their socioeconomic effects. By doing so, I highlight Black American agency instead of treating them as passive actors. My research is centered on the following question: What social-psychological factors lead some Black Americans to reproduce dominant ideas of personal responsibility? I answered this question by interviewing senior Black Americans who were alive during the Clinton Administration in my hometown of San Angelo TX. San Angelo is a mid-sized conservative leaning city, with a relatively stable Black community. I found that most Black Americans largely reworked and somewhat accepted most o the dominant ideas surrounding personal responsibility. Further, my results were relatively stable across different demographic factors, including socioeconomic status and community standing. Therefore, these results are significant as they answer what leads some Black Americans to perpetuate a policy discourse that is weaponized against members of their group.
Notes
Session VII, Panel 20 - Political | Psychology
Moderator: Cecilia (CeCe) Longo, Oberlin College Research Fellow in History and Politics