Toward a Theory of Black Politics-The Black and Ethnic Models Revisited: A Research Note

It is stressed that the very foundation of black pol rests on the clear understanding that Afro-Amer's are a racial group, & not an ethnic group. A reading of history clearly points out that black people as a legal & theoretical component of the Amer system of gov have been left out of its pol'al life. Therefore any theory or frame of reference dealing with black pol must take into account the heretofore systematic & studied exclusion of blacks from the Amer pol'al system. Pol'al sci'ts should look to the black experience & how blacks have redefined pol'al participation through their efforts in the civil rights & black movements for any frame of reference dealing with black pol. Also, pol'al sci'ts should not use Northern ethnic groups as models of pol'al astuteness; for their pol is a reincarnation of the pol that has deprived blacks since Reconstructio n. E. Weiman.