Divergent Realities: New Insights on Race and Polarization in America – Knight Foundation

Divergent Realities: New Insights on Race and Polarization in America

Divergent Realities: New Insights on Race and Polarization in America

Recent research finds that Americans have greatly different perceptions of the discrimination and racism that Black Americans experience. It also shows that the composition of our social networks matter. What factors drive these differences in perception? How do these divergent and increasingly polarized realities play out in American communities? How can we work to bridge these divides? 

Hosted by Evette Alexander, Director/Learning and Impact, Knight Foundation. Presented in partnership with More in Common and American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life 

Panel

Ted Johnson

Ted Johnson

Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program, Brennan Center for Justice

Theodore “Ted” R. Johnson is a senior fellow and Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. In this role, he explores the intersection of race, politics, and public policy outcomes as they relate to the systems of democracy and justice. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other national and niche publications. He is the author of the forthcoming book When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America (Spring 2021). Johnson is also a retired Navy Commander, whose service included time as a White House Fellow during the Obama administration and as a speechwriter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dr. Johnson holds a B.S. in mathematics from Hampton University, an A.L.M. with a concentration in International Relations from Harvard University, and a Doctorate of Law and Policy from Northeastern University.

Anthea Butler

Anthea Butler

Chair of Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Anthea Butler is Chair of Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of African American and American religion, Professor Butler’s forthcoming book, White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America will be out on Ferris and Ferris March 2021. She is President elect of the American Society of Church history, and most recently was awarded a Luce/ACLS Fellowship for the Religion, Journalism and International Affairs grant for 2018-2019 academic and Presidential fellow at Yale Divinity School for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Emily Ekins

Emily Ekins

Research fellow and director of polling, Cato Institute

Emily Ekins is a research fellow and director of polling at the Cato Institute. Her research focuses on public opinion, American politics, political psychology, and social movements. She leads the Cato Institute project on public opinion in which she designs and conducts national public opinion surveys and experiments. She is the author several in‐​depth survey reports including, “The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America: Attitudes about Free Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Liberty, and Tolerance of Political Expression,” “Wall Street vs. The Regulators: Public Attitudes on Banks, Financial Regulation, Consumer Finance, and the Federal Reserve,” and “Policing in America: Understanding Public Attitudes Toward the Police.” Emily’s other publications include “The Five Types of Trump Voters”, and “Religious Trump Voters: How Faith Moderates Attitudes about Immigration, Race, and Identity”.

Ravi K Perry

Ravi K Perry

Chair of Political Science, Howard University

Dr. Ravi K. Perry joined the Department of Political Science at Howard University in August 2019 as Chair and Professor. Previously, Dr. Perry was Chair of the Department of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and was a member of the faculty at Mississippi State University and Clark University (Worcester, MA). Dr. Perry holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, each in political science. An expert on Black politics, minority representation, urban politics, American public policy, and LGBT candidates of color, Dr. Perry is the editor of 21st Century Urban Race Politics: Representing Minorities as Universal Interests, a book that discusses the efforts of African American, Latino and Asian mayors to represent the interests of minorities in historically White cities in the United States. His second book, entitled Black Mayors, White Majorities: The Balancing Act of Racial Politics, focuses on the challenges Black mayors face in representing Black interests in majority White, medium‐sized cities in the state of Ohio. His third book, published with his mother, is The Little Rock Crisis: What Desegregation Politics Says About Us.

With research from

Daniel A. Cox

Daniel A. Cox

Director, Survey Center on American Life

Daniel Cox is the Director of the Survey Center on American Life and a research fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he specializes in survey research, politics, youth culture and identity, and religion. Before joining AEI, he was the research director at PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute), which he cofounded and where he led the organization’s qualitative and quantitative research program. He is also the coauthor of numerous academic book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers on topics relating to religious polarization, anti-Muslim attitudes in the US, religious tolerance of atheists, and new methods for measuring social class and religious belief. Dr. Cox’s work is frequently featured in the popular press, including in The Atlantic, CNN, and The Washington Post. He is a contributor at FiveThirtyEight and Business Insider. Dr. Cox holds an MA and a PhD in American government from Georgetown University, where he focused on public opinion, political behavior, and religion and politics.

Stephen Hawkins

Stephen Hawkins

Director of Research, More in Common

Stephen leads More in Common’s studies to understand and address political polarization in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. His reports with More in Common have been referenced in over 700 media articles, including in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, CNN, Fox News, and The Atlantic. Stephen has appeared on NPR, The Ben Shapiro Show, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and has spoken at the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to More in Common, Stephen advised on public opinion strategies for Fortune 100 companies such as Microsoft and Ford, and public sector organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN Refugee Agency. He received his Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is curious about how beliefs define people’s experiences of the world. Stephen lives in Denver with his fiancée. He enjoys snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains and performing impersonations of American political figures.