Racial Diversity in the House
Critical Analysis
How many Black U.S. House representatives are there today?
Describe one trend you see in the data in the chart above.
Why do you think this is?
The percent of the U.S. Congress that is Black has risen dramatically over the past 50 years. Explain how rising Black political power has influenced the rise of White Nationalism, the election of Trump, and the Capitol Coup of January 6?
55 out of 57 Black members of the U.S. House are Democrats, 2 are Republican. Why do you think that is?
At the inauguration on Wednesday, when Kamala Harris became vice president — the nation’s first Black person, the first Asian person and the first woman to do so — President Biden spoke of “a cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making,” adding that “the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.” Do you agree with Biden’s claim that racial justice will be deferred (put on hold)no longer?
What is one presidential power President Biden could use to increase racial equality?
Vice-President Kamala Harris is a woman of mixed race: Black and Asian-American. Do you think her gender or her race will have a bigger impact on her legacy as Vice-President?
Given the fact that the Vice-President is the only person in two branches of government and that with a 50-50 tie in the Senate, VP Harris will have to cast many Senate votes. Make a claim about how important the office of vice-president is.
How would you rank the power of the following positions: U.S. House Member, Senator, Cabinet Member, Vice-President.
Joe Biden has laid out an ambitious agenda to confront the “cascading crises” our nation faces. One of the crises he identifies is racial justice, saying: The promise of our nation is that every American has an equal chance to get ahead, yet persistent systemic racism and barriers to opportunity have denied this promise for so many. Do you agree with Biden’s claim that systemic racism and barriers to opportunity have denied an equal chance for all?
How does the percentage of Black members of Biden’s Cabinet compare to that of the U.S. House.
How does the percentage of Black members of Biden’s Cabinet compare to his recent predecessors?
There are no Black governors in office today, and there have been none since Deval Patrick retired in 2015. In fact, there have been only four in U.S. history. Pinckney Pinchback served as a governor of Louisiana for 35 days in the 1870s following Henry Clay Warmoth’s impeachment. Virginia, Massachusetts and New York each had a Black governor during the 1990s and 2000s – Douglas Wilder, Deval Patrick and David Paterson, respectively. Why do you think leadership in American federal government is more diverse than in state government?
Visual Extension
Learning Extension
Despite Joe Biden’s dream of racial justice, Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian, claims that change may not come so easily. Her reporting reveals that the systems of power in America are deeply defined by caste. Listen to this episode of “Sway,” where she explains how she saw an invisible ranking system play out in the raid at the U.S. Capitol, and argues that rushing to move on would be a mistake.
Action Extension
Contact the Biden White House and tell them what you think they should do regarding racial justice.
