Joint Center Study on Political Opinions of African Americans to Be Unveiled

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will unveil a Joint Center study led by senior analyst Dr. David Bositis at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, November 27^th, 2007. On the stated date, the meeting will take place in the Edward R. Murrow Room of the National Press Club between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. EST, according to the press release.

Besides Dr. Bositis, Ralph B. Everett, the president and chief executive officer of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Nancy LeaMond, Group Executive Officer of Social Impact for the American Association of Retired People (AARP) will participate in the ensuing discussion.

Topics to be discussed include the current voting choices of black voters who are likely to vote in the 2008 presidential elections, what issues black voters think are the most urgent, how black voters consider the relative importance of experience and change in the upcoming elections, and presidential and Congress ratings by black voters.

The Joint Center press release stated that the organization is one of the first research and public policy institutions and the only such organization to focus on the opinions of African Americans and other peoples of color. The press release referred interested persons to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies website for further information about the study.

On the Joint Center website there is a link to an interesting article by Anne Davies about Barack Obama and how he is responding to front running candidate Hillary Clinton. The article is titled "The Big Question: Black or Woman," and features some comments by Dr. Bositis. Another interesting link on the Joint Center website is to a ninety page pdf file on the Pew Research Center's Pew Race Report.

The report which was released on November 13th indicates that poor blacks and middle class blacks are moving apart in values. It also states that only twenty percent of African Americans think the group is better off than it was five years ago, and that in fact African Americans believe that they can no longer be viewed as a single group.