Race, Class, and Political Attitudes
Introduction
Political attitudes are the effect political socialization, religion and families’ roles; it can also be originated from political elites who have some share of political powers and even the views between genders and races. African-Americans do also have their political beliefs as what is shown in their current socioeconomic positions, which can be explained with their history. The matter also goes with Latinos, Asian-Americans, women and homosexuals.
Political Attitudes
Christopher Federico (2005) asserts that race plays much role in politics. They have much involvement to the point that their behavior is involved in a political party, which transcends their voting performance (Federico, 2005). The race that was written composes African Americans and other races such as Latinos and Asian Americans. Other races that belong to different types of class also influences their attitudes towards politics as they are being involved by new class group of people who have a different perception compared to the traditional middle class group of people (Federico, 2005).
African Americans tend to refer more about issues concerning civil rights and involvement of minority groups. On the other hand, they also into mentioning issues about drugs or crime and even youth’s education and needs (Schlozman, Page, Verba, & Fiorina, n.d.).
These claims can be explained based on African Americans’ experiences as a group; Federico (2005) argues that the strong linked fate within the group led them in accessing the resources and power in American Society, in fact, this principle is visible in the long-standing connection of this group to Democratic Party.
For Asian Americans and Latinos, their political attitude may also go the same as how other African Americans do. They have much percentage when it comes to involvement in politics, for example, Asian Americans and Latinos have much participation in election, when their votes had a big contribution in getting their politician win. In addition, large percentage of these groups led the winning of the current president as what the National Asian American Survey showed (berkeley.edu).
Women’s political attitudes are based on the past and current government’s platforms, which directly affects their concerns as a woman. They also belong to groups that are looking for a particular favorable advocacy. This group is also subdivided according to race and class that have a direct involvement and influence towards the government. For homosexuals, their political attitude seems to be a reflection of what has to be done and added as a policy against sexual preference discrimination.
Conclusion
Different groups of people have different attitudes towards the politics. They are mostly being influenced within the groups where they belong to, hence are also divided according to classes. The political attitude of each person, whether he or she belongs to a group or not, is an essential substance of our government’s decision making considerations. As long as democracy and freedom will not be aggravated, people can express their political attitude towards a favorable, thus constitutional governance.
References
Federico, C. M. (2005). The Political Psychology of Race. Political Psychology, 26(5), 661-667.
Schlozman, K. L., Page, B. I., Verba, S., & Fiorina, M. (n.d.). Inequalities of Political Voice. Retrieved July 28, 2013, from http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/voicememo.pdf
UC Berkeley (2012, September 25). New survey outlines political views of Asian Americans. Retrieved July 28, 2013, from http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/09/25/new-survey-outlines-political-views-of-asian-americans/
