Writer Adam Lioz says there is racial bias in our political system because it depends on big-money donations. And this undermines America’s economy and democracy. In a study he did that was published in Demos.org, he laid out just how people of color and the poor are locked out of really being represented in the political sphere because of the influence of the wealthy.
“The undemocratic role of big money is especially exclusionary for people of color, who are severely underrepresented in the ‘donor class’ whose large contributions fuel campaigns and therefore set the agendas in Washington and state capitals across the country,” Lioz noted.
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According to Lioz, because donor and corporate interests are often significantly different from those of working families on economic policies such as the issues of minimum wage and paid sick leave, people of color are disproportionately affected negatively.
“The dominance of big money in our politics makes it far harder for people of color to exert political power and effectively advocate for their interests as both wealth and power are consolidated by a small, very white, share of the population,” he wrote.
The reason big money creates racial bias is because “the donor class as a whole and campaign contributors specifically are overwhelmingly white; and because the policy preferences of people of color are much more similar to those of the rest of the general public than to those of the rich.”
“The top 10 percent of wealth holders are more than 90 percent white, whereas the rest of the country is less than 70 percent white…More than 90 percent of $200+ federal contributions in the 2012 election cycle came from majority white neighborhoods,” Lioz reported.
And since elections are funded primarily by wealthy, white donors candidates will probably be less apt to prioritize the needs of people of color.
