Obama's Race

Barack Obama's presidential victory naturally led people to believe that the United States might finally be moving into a post-racial era.Obama's Raceand its eye-opening account of the role played by race in the electionpaints a dramatically different picture. The authors argue that the 2008 election was more polarized by racial attitudes than any other presidential election on recordand perhaps more significantly, that there were two sides to this racialization: resentful oppositiontoand racially liberal supportforObama. As Obama's campaign was given a boost in the primaries from racial liberals that extended well beyond that usually offered to ideologically similar white candidates, Hillary Clinton lost much of her longstanding support and instead became the preferred candidate of Democratic racial conservatives. Time and again, voters' racial predispositions trumped their ideological preferences as John McCainseldom described as conservative in matters of racebecame the darling of racial conservatives from both parties. Hard-hitting and sure to be controversial,Obama's Racewill be both praised and criticizedbut certainly not ignored.

Michael Tesler is a graduate student in political science at UCLA. David O. Sears is distinguished professor of psychology and political science at UCLA and the author of numerous books.