The Influence of Black Lives Matter on Mainstreaming Intersectional Black Politics

Abstract

Cathy Cohen’s (1999) theory of secondary marginialization helps to explain why the needs of some members of Black communities are not prioritized on “the” Black political agenda; indeed, some groups are ignored altogether as mainstream Black public opinion shifts to the right (Tate 2010). However, the increasingly vocal Black Lives Matter Movement calls for an intersectional approach to Black politics. This movement was founded by queer, Black women, and its platform requires its participants to take seriously the notion that since Black communities are diverse (i.e. family structure, gender, sexuality, immigration status), so are the needs of its members. To what extent has the attention brought to intersectionality influenced the political attitudes, policy preferences, and opinions of average Black citizens? We analyze data from the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), which includes a sample of 3000 Blacks to answer this question. In this paper, we assess whether and the extent to which Blacks not only support the Black Lives Matter Movement but also whether its call for careful consideration of queer, transgender, ex-felon, and undocumented, immigrant Blacks has been mainstreamed. Additionally, through a survey experiment we are able to assess whether priming racial identity leads Blacks to be more empathetic to traditionally marginalized members of the racial group and society, more generally.

Keywords: Black politics; Black Lives Matter; secondary marginalization; intersectionality; survey; experiment