For the Media

Mark Sawyer is an associate professor of political science and director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. He is regularly cited as a political expert on variety of topics, including African American and ethnic politics, youth voters, political debates, and local and national elections in the U.S. In addition, Sawyer is an expert on post-revolutionary Cuban race relations and racial politics and on the societal barriers faced by Afro-Cubans. His research has also explored the intersection of race and gender throughout the Caribbean.

Sawyer can give interviews in both English and Spanish.

Bio and media contact

Introducing myself, unabashed Obama supporter

September 11, 2008

“Allow me to re-introduce myself my name is..." Jay-Z - Public Service Announcement So this is my Public...

Fear for American democracy

September 11, 2008

I may sound alarmist but this campaign makes me fear for American Democracy. My thesis: We are on the edge of becoming a one party state. Many one party states have some token opposition but there is no real serious challenge to the power of...

Racism, prejudice and the 2008 election

September 22, 2008

A recent AP-Yahoo poll was released that demonstrated that race may play a significant role in the upcoming Presidential election.

For those of us who are observers of racial politics this is not surprising. At the same time, there are a huge amount of general misunderstandings or questions that arise about the potential effect of race. So I will pose some questions that I get when I have either talked or written about race and the campaign and do my best to answer them in a thoughtful way. I will probably do a couple of rounds based upon some of the comments and questions that come in from this post.

Question 1: Are you saying if I am white and not voting for Obama does that make me automatically a racist?

[Read on...]

Obama not "experienced" but he is qualified

October 03, 2008

It is a testament to how impoverished the discussion in this political season is that we have spent so much time talking about the term "experience." The media led by the Republicans have continually conflated "experienced" with "qualified." They ...

Some random thoughts

October 20, 2008

The Debates: It seems clear that Obama’s style is more Akido than boxing. I would say Hillary Clinton is a kind of Mix Martial Artist of debates. She will throw elbows, knees and anything to win. Obama seems to have learned a style that w...