Politics Based on Skin Color? The Case of U.S. Congressman Joseph Anh Cao (2009-2011).

This article focuses on the political dimension of U.S. elections and uses anthropological methods to analyze racial politics in New Orleans and Louisiana. Situating the research within the color-blindness ideology in the Post-civil Rights Era, the article discusses the continuity of racial inequality in the United States. By presenting the case of U.S. Congressman Joseph Anh Cao (2009-2011), the article argues that although the colorblindness ideology has been deployed since the 1960s, skin color continues to be a variable for redistricting practice in the United States. The successful U.S. Congress run of Mr. Cao in the 2008 election should not be considered that American society has become nonbiased. Instead, his defeat in 2010 is an evidence that the United States has not yet been color-blind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]