Monday, July 25, 2011

SF Black's political clout imperiled

From SFGate,
Malia Cohen, as the lone African American on the 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors, always keeps in the back of her mind that she could be the last.

The black population in San Francisco, which gained steam in the 1940s with the draw of war-related jobs in the shipbuilding industry, peaked in 1970, when 13.4 percent of the city's residents were African American. Since then, there has been a steady decline. The 2010 U.S. Census tallied the black population at 6.1 percent, and demographic projections by the California Department of Finance have that percentage shrinking to 4.6 percent by 2050.

And as long as identity politics, such as race and sexual orientation, continue to play a role in how some people vote, the dwindling number of African Americans living in San Francisco puts black representation on the Board of Supervisors at risk.
Read more at SFGate

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