ate (Tate 1994: 24-25, 45-49). A growing number of blacks are again focussing their concerns not on civil rights issues, but issues of economics, the problems of poverty and unemployment, education and crime, although a large minority still feel that adequate progress in race relations has not been achieved (Tate 1994: 46). But they are leaving civil rights alone, and focussing more on immediate issues at hand, that they have disassociated from race. This growing number of blacks that do not identify with race are more conservative, and less likely to vote liberal, and Tate also notes that race identification is becoming a strong rival of party and ideological identifications as a source of black policy positions (Tate 1994: 46).With a divide such as this within the African-American community, it is difficult for blacks to capitalize on their voting potential. On the one hand, they have all the loyal followers of the Democratic Party that gave them their rights, and on the other there is a growing number of people that do not identify with being black as being affected in the same way by policy as all other blacks, and so tend to be more conservative. ConclusionThe problems that the Black American faces today with government, almost mirror exactly the problems he faced in the 1920’s. Today, the vote is again taken for granted due to years of blind, unfailing party loyalty, and still he is being ignored. Race is again being delegated to the peripheral, while more serious economic problems again rise to the fore; blacks, along with other minorities, still bear the brunt of this country’s economic failings. Both parties are again moving toward the center; Democrats are becoming more conservative, meaning that the radicalism that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Movement no longer exists. Social justice and equality are again secondary in the face of economic problems.Blacks must look to a common ground upon which to base t...
