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This introductory chapter presents an overview of African American Republicans. The experience of being African American and Republican unfolds within a political party that is unarguably dominated by whites. Consequently, African American Republicans must manage blackness in a predominantly white context. Their strategies for linking blackness with their partisanship raise questions about taken-for-granted assumptions regarding racial identity and black people's political behavior. Thus, the case of African American Republicans shows the importance of attending to the variation in how black people understand their racial identity. Moreover, the experiences of African American Republicans force consideration of the different ways that black people attach meaning to their racial identity and how those meanings inform political behavior.

This chapter explores contemporary African American Republicans' reputation by looking at two important constituencies: other black people and white Republicans. Though they manifest it in different ways, black Republicans fear that their partisanship causes both groups to question their racial authenticity. Among other blacks, this questioning coalesces into a “sellout critique” that frames African American Republicans as operating counter to their black identity. On the other hand, African American Republicans report being held in a “skeptical embrace” by white Republicans who worry that African American Republicans will not be able to subordinate their racial identity to their Republican partisanship. Both the sellout critique and the skeptical embrace are grounded in a perceived incongruence between black racial identity and Republican partisanship. Yet African American Republicans themselves articulate strong identification with black identity and Republican partisanship. As a consequence, they are challenged with linking their racial identity and their partisanship in a way that removes unexpectedness.

This chapter addresses how the tensions between the different factions of African American Republicans structure relations with white Republicans. White Republicans provide the platform upon which black Republicans gain election, notoriety, and resources. The relationship is symmetrically beneficial since black Republicans provide tangible proof of racial diversity within the GOP. To maintain support among white Republicans, African Americans must talk about black identity in a way that is consistent with what white Republicans want to hear. When African-Americans call on white Republicans to speak to black interests specifically and treat conservative social policy as a basis for black advancement, relations with white Republicans are contentious and adversarial. As a consequence, a very specific kind of African American Republican rises to prominence within the GOP.

This chapter focuses on African American Republicans who can be labeled as “color-blind” because their strategy for linking black identity to Republican politics involves de-emphasizing the role of race in black people's lives. These African American Republicans see themselves as linked to a broader black community, but they reject identity politics as the pathway to racial uplift. They endorse Republican social policy as part of a commitment to an abstract notion of conservative politics, not because the policies are good for black people. Indeed, for race-blind African American Republicans, the best thing for blacks is to abandon race-based identity politics.

This chapter shows how differences in their approaches to thinking about race and their framing of conservative social policy prevent African American Republicans from forming stable, long-term organizations. Multiple cases of organizational failure demonstrate how internal conflict inhibits basic organizational tasks like defining audiences, developing organizational missions, and determining tactics. Indeed, it is difficult for African American Republicans to organize because of intense interpersonal conflicts and political disagreements, both of which are actually manifestations of competing beliefs about the role of black racial identity in the political arena. These fights simultaneously expose the personal and political fault lines among African American Republicans.

This chapter examines an opposing strategy used by race-conscious African American Republicans. For this group, race is central to their personal and political motivations; black identity provides the motivation for joining the Republican Party. They also use black identity to inform how they discuss the merits of conservative social policy. Indeed, they construct black Americans in a way that highlights the impact of racial discrimination and disparate treatment on their life chances, creating a respectable picture in need of economic policy changes and framing conservative values as the ones best suited to create those solutions. Thus, in contrast to their race-blind counterparts, this group supports Republican policies because of their perceived benefits to blacks.

This concluding chapter explores the broader lessons that can be taken from the case of African American Republicans. This research demonstrates the importance of understanding how the political context in which African American Republicans are embedded shapes the way they understand race and how they can express their racial identity. Rather than being only about how race drives political behavior, the experience of African American Republicans is animated by a reciprocal relationship between race and politics. These findings call attention to the multiple ways in which race works in the political arena, but they also provide guidance for how one might think about the ways that other social identities inform political behavior.