KINDRED POLITICAL RHETORIC: BLACK MAYORS,PRESIDENT OBAMA,AND THE UNIVERSALIZING OF BLACK INTERESTS

ABSTRACT: This article examines the rhetorical strategies of black mayors Jack Ford and Rhine McLin and their efforts to represent black interests in majority‐white cities and compares the strategies to those of President Obama. Using polling data, speech content analysis, and census data, the article identifies that all three black politicians were able to rhetorically advance policies and programs designed to represent black interests with majority‐white constituencies. The results indicate that when black interest policy actions are framed utilizing a targeted universalistic rhetorical strategy, mayors Ford and McLin and President Obama each advanced black interests as they detailed how their proposed initiatives benefited all citizens. At the local and federal levels, the finding exposes the limits of the deracialization perspective and indicates how the advance of black interests can be achieved while maintaining significant white electoral and governing support.