People are individuals, not colors.

“…among self-identified Democrats, blacks and Latinos are less likely to describe themselves as liberal than whites. Data from this AP/NORC poll comports with Pew’s findings: The majority of blacks say they are moderate (44 percent) or conservative (27 percent), while just 26 percent said that they are liberal.”

By Perry Bacon Jr. and Dhrumil Mehta

Five Thirty Eight

We in the press often write and talk about African-Americans and their political perspectives through a single, simple frame: Blacks overwhelmingly vote for Democratic candidates. As a result, the only real question about them politically tends to be how enthusiastic they are about whichever Democrat is on the ballot (and therefore how likely they are to vote). And it’s true: Exit polls suggest that in the past 12 presidential elections (so 1972 and every one since), the Republican candidate won only about 10 percent of the black vote, on average; the Democrat averaged 87 percent.

But two polls released over the last week by The Associated Press and CBS News — conducted as part of news coverage around the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. — show that there is considerable diversity in black political opinion outside of the often-binary question of voting.

READ MORE