Nonprofit VOTE blog: "Young Black Voters: The Future of American Politics"

"Last month the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) hosted a webinar featuring Dr. Cathy Cohen--a political science professor at the University of Chicago--who addressed [her book] "Young Black Voters 2008 to 2012: The Future of American Politics."
The 2008 presidential election saw an increase of 3.4 million young voters, when youth turnout rose to 53% (an 11% increase over 2000). Black and Latino youth fueled the gains, and in fact, 53% of black youth voted in 2008, 4% more than white youth.
One of Dr. Cohen’s major arguments was that there is no homogeneous "youth vote" and lumping younger voters together under that heading does a major disservice to all young people. ...
Dr. Cohen said that the key to organizing young black voters in 2012 will be to reach first time voters and non-college young people through innovative and non-traditional strategies, with messaging on issues that are important to them. Through this work, we can counter the conventional wisdom that black youth are not interested in politics."

The entire article, with commenting, is at http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2011/02/young-black-voters-future-of-american.html