Results from AAPI, African American and Latinx Respondents (2020)

In the Midwest and beyond, political forces resistant to racial and economic justice have long relied upon stoking racial resentment in order to court white voters and inflict harms on Black people, new immigrants and other communities of color. Meanwhile, many organizers and organizations have too long relied upon colorblind, economic-only approaches that fail to rebut the opposition’s claims and relegate racial justice issues to “special interests,” offering people of color little reason to want to engage politically. In response, organizations in MI, MN, MO, OH, PA and WI came together to apply and extend the original Race Class Narrative (RCN) project in order to uncover effective ways of persuading the middle and mobilizing a justifiably disenchanted base with a narrative rooted in race, class and gender tailored to each particular state context. 

This brief provides key insights and messaging recommendations based on research done across these states and, in particular, in our deeper explorations with African American voters, Latinx voters, and Asian American and Pacific Islander adults.