Why do people keep showing up for a democracy that has failed them again and again? Existing theories can tell us whether Black Americans participate in politics. They have far less to say about why participation continues to feel worth it when the system keeps coming up short.
Red, White, and Black answers that question through the political lives of Black Americans, who have faced some of the deepest and most persistent exclusion in the country's history, and who have, time and again, chosen to fight for democracy rather than walk away from it. Drawing on original interviews, a nationally representative three-wave survey, and a newly developed measure called the Democratic Stewardship Scale, I show that Democratic Stewardship isn't blind faith or resignation. It's a worldview that captures how people diagnose exclusion, understand obligation across generations, and come to see their own participation as essential to democracy's survival.
At a moment of rising authoritarianism, shrinking legal protections, and declining trust in nearly every American institution, this book makes the case that the people with the most reason to give up on democracy may have the most to teach us about how to save it.
