Republican Heroes: The Racial Breakdown

Below: "Republican Heroes," from the Republican National Committee Site

Of the Republican Heroes posted:

• 8 out of 18 are identified as African American men
• 5 out of 18 are white men
• 1 is identified as a Latino man
• 4 out of 18 are white women
• 0 out of 18 are identified as Latino women
• 0 out of 18 are identified as African American women
• 0 out of 18 are identified as Asian American
• 0 out of 18 are identified as Native American

Want to know more?

Check out Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party of Lincoln, by Tasha S. Philpot. (Winner: 2008 W. E. B. DuBois Outstanding Book Award) This important book focuses on how parties use racial images to shape and reshape the way citizens perceive them. 

Paper: 978-0-472-06967-5, $23.95   INFO

PRAISE for Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party of Lincoln:

"This book is a well-conceived, well-organized and highly persuasive work that is both timely and topical. In an age of Republican Party triumph and ascendancy in national politics, here is a marvelous piece of scholarship, that is both innovative and informative on the Party's effort to craft a new "party image" to conform with its presidential campaign rhetoric of "compassionate conservatism" and "kinder, gentler" public policies for racial and ethnic minorities and the dispossessed in America. It is a party image that seeks to not only attract more minority members, but to hold and expand its current base simultaneous."
---Hanes Walton, Jr., University of Michigan, co-author upcoming UMP title: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, 1789-2008

"Philpot has produced a timely, provocative, and nuanced analysis of political party image change, using the Republican Party's attempts to recast itself as a party sensitive to issues of race with its 2000, and later 2004 national conventions as case examples. Using a mixture of experiments, focus groups, national surveys, and analyses of major national and black newspaper articles, Philpot finds that if race-related issues are important to individuals, such as blacks, the ability of the party to change its image without changing its political positions is far more difficult than it is among individuals who do not consider race-related issues important, e.g. whites. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of party image in general, and political parties' use of race in particular. Bravo!"
---Paula D. McClain, Duke University

"This book does an excellent job of illuminating the linkages between racial images and partisan support. By highlighting Republican efforts to "play against type" Philpot emphasizes the limits of successfully altering partisan images. That she accomplishes this in the controversial, yet salient, domain of race is no small feat. In short, by focusing on a topical issue, and by adopting a novel theoretical approach, Philpot is poised to make a significant contribution to the literatures on race and party images."
---Vincent Hutchings, University of Michigan

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Also recommended: Politics in the Pews: The Political Mobilization of  Black Churches, by Eric L. McDaniel.

Paper: 978-0-472-05046-8, $24.95,   INFO