Tricks Are For Kids
Gen-Y voters get serious about answers
2008-01-30
By Danielle Douglas

With a skepticism often mistaken for apathy, Generation Y—those 18 to 29—has been largely dismissed as too self-involved to care about politics. But their tremendous turnout in the recent primaries may give their critics pause.

Youth turnout in New Hampshire’s primary, for example, soared to 43% of eligible voters, compared with 18% in 2004 and 28% in 2000, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In South Carolina, the turnout tripled, with an estimated 120,000 voters under the age of 30 participating.

Beyond the polls, young activists and voters are driving campaigns across the political spectrum, building support for Ron Paul, packing in rallies for Mike Huckabee and soliciting donations for Barack Obama. But with all of the attention now showered on this valued voting bloc, where are young African Americans fitting into this story? How involved are they in a youth movement some compare to that of the John F. Kennedy era?

"I’m sensing an excitement and a sense of ownership that whoever is elected president has to speak to what young people feel," says Stephanie Brown, the 27-year-old national director of NAACP’s Youth & College Division. "Candidates can no longer pay lip service, which my generation is tired of, but have to speak to the issues in the context of how they impact us."

Brown is involved in the NAACP’s Vote Hard campaign, a national drive to register 50,000 voters under the age of 35. Indeed, voter participation among young African Americans has been on a steady growth trajectory, with nearly 75% having voted in the 2004 presidential election, up from 68% in 2000, according to CIRCLE.

"From the 2000 elections on, we’ve seen the impact of the youth vote, and the number of young black people who are engaged in the political process continues to rise," says Brown, who also notes an increase of young black campaign workers.

But as with the general participation of older African-Americans voters, some observers note that this mobilization has been divided along class lines.

Thenjiwe McHarris, a 22-year-old member of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, who works with black youth in the inner cities of New York, is well aware of the split. "Although young, lower-income black people know what’s happening and some are engaged, candidates are speaking specifically to the middle class. There is not a focus on making sure that low-income communities are involved in the process because it’s believed that they don’t vote."

Professor of political science at the University of Chicago, Cathy Cohen concurs. "As we pull young people in are we pulling young black people who have college degrees, who are middle class? Or are we also pulling in poor and working class young black people and speaking to their conditions and their lives?"

Cohen heads the Black Youth Project, a research initiative exploring the social and political attitudes of 15- to 25-year-old African Americans. In her findings, released last winter, the majority of youth surveyed believe their political participation could make a difference. This despite an increased alienation experienced after the 2000 and 2004 elections, which many felt were stolen.

"After the last two botched elections, I would not be surprised if we end up with another Republican president, even if we don’t vote him in," says 27-year-old educator Keeley M. Powell, adding, "but still, I vote."

In the upcoming contest, Cohen notes a definite air of excitement among young black men and women surrounding Barack Obama, who has aggressively targeted the youth vote. However, she is concerned that Obama, along with all the other candidates, has not explicitly addressed the concerns of many young black constituents.

"We need to begin talking about the prison industrial complex that really ravishes black communities, injustice with regards to sentencing or the lack of funding for public schools," she says. "While I think people are inspired by the words of, for example Obama, increasingly young black people in particular will want to hear the specifics of what he and other candidates are going to do to address their equitably dire conditions."

Some young black voters assert that Obama has already offered a platform that resonates with them. Qaisia M. Ali, a 29-year-old graduate student at New York University, praises what she calls "pragmatic solutions to tax fairness for the middle class, universal healthcare and fighting global poverty." Ali, who has contributed to Illinois senator’s campaign, prides herself on being knowledgeable on various positions of the candidates.

But NAACP’s Brown questions just how many young voters can say the same. "I think we all need to do a better job on educating ourselves on the specifics of an issue. I wouldn’t say that if somebody were to ask what are the fundamental differences between Obama and Clinton or between Huckabee and Romney that most people could articulate that."

She suggests that some of the youth fervor surrounding the election has been rather superficial. "You have people putting Obama pictures on their Facebook profiles. We have to be careful not to celebritize politics." Earlier this month a Pew Research Center survey, revealed that 42% of young voters rely on the Internet for their campaign news, with networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook playing a significant role.

McHarris calls on her generation to look beyond the dazzle towards the substance. "We need to push people like Obama, who says he represents a change we can believe in, but when you look at his platform in comparison to Clinton’s or Edwards’ they share status quo opinions on immigration, healthcare and cost control measures," she says. "We need to focus our energy not necessarily on the campaigns, but on the long-term goals of liberating oppressed people throughout the world."

Danielle Douglas is a freelance writer in New York. She covers finance, health and politics.