Year: 2023
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: One ever feels his two-ness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.-W.E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk 2With a nod to the great W. E. B. Du Bois, in African American Coping in the Political Sphere, Sullivan and Harman present a fascinating portrait of the "two-ness" in the souls of African Americans more than 100 years after Du Bois's characteristically astute observation.The authors' comprehensive analysis of data from the National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative sample of African Americans conducted between 2001 and 2003, revealed, among other things, how much African Americans believe in the American Dream (does hard work lead to success?); the diversity of their political ideologies (are you conservative, moderate, or liberal?); and the degree of their support for various social policies designed to mitigate or undo historical racial injustices (do you support reparations for slavery?).Sullivan and Harman break entirely new ground, however, by positing that the degree to which individual African Americans say they confront adversity with high-effort coping, by which is meant with energy, optimism, and a determination to succeed, influences their political ideology, their social policy preferences, and whether they are actively engaged in the political arena.As a cutting-edge work in Black political psychology, African American xvii
Author: Sherman A James
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4392548968