Will Greens continue to struggle in chasing black members?

I referred to this issue in passing in a blog post in July, in talking about the Green Party's public pants-crappings leading up to, and during, the 2017 national convention.

That's the issue of race and the party.

As both the Texas state and the national conventions showed, there is racism in at least a few pockets of the party. Maybe more than a few.

Is it endemic, though?

I don't think so.

And, I definitely don't think that evidence of absence is proof of that.

Neither does Bruce Dixon, as referenced there and noted here.

Bruce, the editor of the Black Agenda Report, has a few problems with this spin.

First, he sees at least a small degree of tokenism in a fixation, or at least an overfixation, on black party members qua black party members.

Then, he notes that Greens need to reach outside traditional black bases where most black Democrats come from. He rightly, as Greens are generally more "frou-frou" religiously (setting aside the secularists) than Democrats, let alone black Americans of any party, notes that the black church is definitely NOT a place to look.

And, as proof of that? This Pew survey, looking at Democrats in general, then doing some breakouts.

Some 48 percent of all registered voters who identified as Democrat or Democrat-leaning said they were "liberal." Another 36 percent said "moderate."

First, although not all registered voters vote, you have to be registered in order to vote legally, of course, so this is an important subset within "all voting age adults."

Now, the ethnic breakout.

A full 30 percent of black voters called themselves "conservative," (versus 16 percent for the full party) 40 percent "moderate" and only 28 percent "liberal." Hispanics about split the difference, with 41L 36M 22C.

Now remember, that's versus the whole set of Democrats and Democrat-leaners. We haven't extracted out whites.

Pew goes on with that. Whites were 55L 35M 8C. See how HUGE that difference is?

The divergence in percentage of "liberals" started between whites and blacks in 2000, Pew shows, and about 2006 between whites and Hispanics.

Why?

The black church, per Dixon. Per myself and Brains, regionally as well as nationally.

We've seen, in cases such as Houston's HERO, black Democrats' generally tepid support for gay rights. Certainly transgender issues now only increase that.

And, African-Americans are the most religious American ethnic group. They're certainly, if one restricts to Western monotheisms, the most religious American ethnic group. Within the Democratic party, the division between blacks and whites is much greater than between black and white Republicans.

And, the black-white, and somewhat black-Hispanic, divisions may go beyond one or two hot-button social issues.

That said, younger voters of all ethnicities who lean Dem are more likely to identify as "liberal." And, they're more likely to be secular, too.

So, there you go, state and national Green leaders. Don't look to take blacks "captive," but do look to recruit. Focus on the under-40 crowd, though.

None of this is meant to say that the national party, and Texas and other state parties, shouldn't address racism where it exists within the party. It should be addressed, of course.

But, failure to get more black members as quickly as some people would hope shouldn't be considered as "proof" of party-wide systemic racism, either.