BooK Project
Saving Ourselves: Saving Ourselves: Black Women’s Resistance Against the Police State
Saving Ourselves: How Black Women Resist the Police State is an interdisciplinary work that employs multiple methodologies to investigate how negative police encounters shape Black women’s political attitudes and community-oriented political action. The study documents and analyzes the ways Black women from diverse backgrounds navigate systems of domination and control embodied in law enforcement. I argue that negative interactions with police educate Black women about their societal roles in the U.S. and their capacity to impact political agendas. Through interviews, archival data analysis, and surveys, I explore the lived realities of Black women and the persistent legacy of policing in cities like Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. By broadening the scope of Black women’s ideologies and status, I capture their heterogeneous experiences, revealing the far-reaching consequences of state-sanctioned violence on their lives.
Saving Ourselves: How Black Women Resist the Police State is an interdisciplinary work that employs multiple methodologies to investigate how negative police encounters shape Black women’s political attitudes and community-oriented political action. The study documents and analyzes the ways Black women from diverse backgrounds navigate systems of domination and control embodied in law enforcement. I argue that negative interactions with police educate Black women about their societal roles in the U.S. and their capacity to impact political agendas. Through interviews, archival data analysis, and surveys, I explore the lived realities of Black women and the persistent legacy of policing in cities like Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. By broadening the scope of Black women’s ideologies and status, I capture their heterogeneous experiences, revealing the far-reaching consequences of state-sanctioned violence on their lives.
Peer Reviewed Journal Publications
Mothers and Monsters: How Black Mothers’ Encounters with Police Influence Their Community-Based Political Activity
Much of the existing behavioral political science literature ignores Black motherhood as a salient factor of political identity and mobilization. However, Black mothers are often at the forefront of numerous political movements, including ones to end police violence against Black Americans. Due to the disproportionality of police contact in Black communities, Black mothers have a personal stake in ending police abuse that is twofold. First, Black mothers are often victims of sexist and racist policing practices, facing verbal, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse at the hands of law enforcement. Second, while dealing with their own oppressive relationship with the police, they must simultaneously take action to protect their loved ones from potential violence and harm at the hands of the state. The goal of this research is to examine how community-based politics serve as an opportunity for Black maternal status to be manifested as a form of resistance. I focus on what I refer to as community-based political activity because it is deeply rooted in the fabric of Black women’s political activism and produces more immediate benefits than other forms of political engagement. To examine the effects of direct and indirect police encounters on Black mothers, I pose several questions: How does negative police contact affect Black mothers’ community-based political activity? Does this difference apply to Black women who are not mothers? Using data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Elections Survey, my analysis demonstrates that maternal status has a significant impact on Black mothers’ community-oriented political engagement, particularly for those affected by indirect police contact.
Best, A. (2025). Mothers and Monsters: How Black Mothers’ Encounters with Police Influence Their Community-Based Political Activity. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 1-20.
White Supremacist and Racist Opinion in America 1940s–2018: A New Look at the Data
Since the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama, the United States has seen a significant increase in white supremacist and overtly racist attitudes. The rise of the Tea Party in 2009 and numerous other Alt-right conservative movements seemed to foreshadow the election of a presidential candidate like Donald Trump. During his presidency, Donald Trump was arguably the first openly white supremacist and racist president since Woodrow Wilson. He referred to Black Americans as lazy and Mexicans as rapists and spewed anti-Asian rhetoric throughout his speeches. This paper examines how white supremacist and racist attitudes have changed over time. Using the American National Elections Survey (ANES) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey data from the 1940s through 2018, we descriptively show the salience of white racist attitudes and their effect on the 2016 presidential election.
Smith, R. C., Seltzer, R., & Best, A. (2023). White Supremacist and Racist Opinion in America 1940s–2018: A New Look at the Data. National Review of Black Politics, 4(3-4), 100-115.
Much of the existing behavioral political science literature ignores Black motherhood as a salient factor of political identity and mobilization. However, Black mothers are often at the forefront of numerous political movements, including ones to end police violence against Black Americans. Due to the disproportionality of police contact in Black communities, Black mothers have a personal stake in ending police abuse that is twofold. First, Black mothers are often victims of sexist and racist policing practices, facing verbal, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse at the hands of law enforcement. Second, while dealing with their own oppressive relationship with the police, they must simultaneously take action to protect their loved ones from potential violence and harm at the hands of the state. The goal of this research is to examine how community-based politics serve as an opportunity for Black maternal status to be manifested as a form of resistance. I focus on what I refer to as community-based political activity because it is deeply rooted in the fabric of Black women’s political activism and produces more immediate benefits than other forms of political engagement. To examine the effects of direct and indirect police encounters on Black mothers, I pose several questions: How does negative police contact affect Black mothers’ community-based political activity? Does this difference apply to Black women who are not mothers? Using data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Elections Survey, my analysis demonstrates that maternal status has a significant impact on Black mothers’ community-oriented political engagement, particularly for those affected by indirect police contact.
Best, A. (2025). Mothers and Monsters: How Black Mothers’ Encounters with Police Influence Their Community-Based Political Activity. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 1-20.
White Supremacist and Racist Opinion in America 1940s–2018: A New Look at the Data
Since the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama, the United States has seen a significant increase in white supremacist and overtly racist attitudes. The rise of the Tea Party in 2009 and numerous other Alt-right conservative movements seemed to foreshadow the election of a presidential candidate like Donald Trump. During his presidency, Donald Trump was arguably the first openly white supremacist and racist president since Woodrow Wilson. He referred to Black Americans as lazy and Mexicans as rapists and spewed anti-Asian rhetoric throughout his speeches. This paper examines how white supremacist and racist attitudes have changed over time. Using the American National Elections Survey (ANES) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey data from the 1940s through 2018, we descriptively show the salience of white racist attitudes and their effect on the 2016 presidential election.
Smith, R. C., Seltzer, R., & Best, A. (2023). White Supremacist and Racist Opinion in America 1940s–2018: A New Look at the Data. National Review of Black Politics, 4(3-4), 100-115.
WorkIng Papers
Best, Ayana. The Politics of Protection: The Effect of Parenthood on Black Mothers’ Political Behavior (Revise and Resubmit)
Focusing on Black mothers, I investigate how these women’s maternal status affects their political participation, and how this differs for Black non-mothers, Black fathers, and white mothers. While becoming a parent is life-changing for anyone, Black mothers face unique barriers in motherhood due to their positionality within American social hierarchies, coupled with racialized gender roles that place much of the responsibilities of raising children on them. This overexposes them to significant amounts of violence and oppression, as they are often penalized for deviating from social maternal norms. They also have a heightened sense of awareness of the potential systemic hurdles their children may face. To combat this, they engage in strategic practices of intensive political mothering. Using an intersectional and Black feminist framework, I argue that Black motherhood acts as a political socializing and mobilizing experience, increasing political activity for Black mothers, as they have a strong desire to improve the material condition of their families. To test this theory, I pose the question: How does maternal status affect the political activity of Black women? Using data from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Elections Survey (CMPS), my analysis demonstrates that maternal status has a significant impact on political behavior, particularly on Black mothers' non-electoral activity.
Best, Ayana. Protecting or Policing: Black Women’s Perceptions of Police on K-12 Campuses (Revise and Resubmit)
The complex relationship between Black citizens and law enforcement, coupled with the rise of violence in schools in recent decades, including school shootings and attacks on school faculty and staff, may cause varying perspectives of Black women on the issue of having school resource officers (SROs) on K-12 campuses. This article examines Black women’s perceptions of the presence of SROs on school grounds based on their own proximity to negative police interactions. I posit the question: How do negative police encounters influence Black women’s attitudes towards school resource officers (SROs)? I argue that Black women who experience personal and vicarious negative encounters with law enforcement are less likely to view SROs as a necessity of K-12 campuses.
Best, Ayana; Crawford, Claire, Robertson, Kendrick, and Babalola, Tolu. Rooting For Everybody Black: The Effects of Negative Public Discourse on the Black Defense (Revise and Resubmit)
There is extensive evidence arguing that racial discrimination affects access to governmental institutions and their responsiveness to Black Americans' needs. Yet, the research on how Blacks form their own understanding of their entitled rights and privileges of defense and protection is limited. We investigate whether certain patterns exist when Black Americans are exposed to negative news stories about Black women and men who are later proven to misuse both social (i.e., community support and protection) and governmental resources (i.e., police protection). We use self-collected data from various social media platforms of two recent viral cases that involve negative discourse around the misuse of social and governmental resources—the Carlee Russell kidnapping case. The data includes comments from Black people found on Instagram under prominent Black media outlets (i.e., The Shade Room, Baller Alert, Mediatakeout). We find evidence showing that Black people use social media as a political tool. Black public discourse on social media offers them independence from mainstream political institutions that are often rooted in white supremacy and patriarchy. This allows them to engage in self-help practices (i.e., community support and protection) while simultaneously defending Black Americans' worthiness of gaining and maintaining access to governmental institutions (i.e., police protection).
Focusing on Black mothers, I investigate how these women’s maternal status affects their political participation, and how this differs for Black non-mothers, Black fathers, and white mothers. While becoming a parent is life-changing for anyone, Black mothers face unique barriers in motherhood due to their positionality within American social hierarchies, coupled with racialized gender roles that place much of the responsibilities of raising children on them. This overexposes them to significant amounts of violence and oppression, as they are often penalized for deviating from social maternal norms. They also have a heightened sense of awareness of the potential systemic hurdles their children may face. To combat this, they engage in strategic practices of intensive political mothering. Using an intersectional and Black feminist framework, I argue that Black motherhood acts as a political socializing and mobilizing experience, increasing political activity for Black mothers, as they have a strong desire to improve the material condition of their families. To test this theory, I pose the question: How does maternal status affect the political activity of Black women? Using data from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Elections Survey (CMPS), my analysis demonstrates that maternal status has a significant impact on political behavior, particularly on Black mothers' non-electoral activity.
Best, Ayana. Protecting or Policing: Black Women’s Perceptions of Police on K-12 Campuses (Revise and Resubmit)
The complex relationship between Black citizens and law enforcement, coupled with the rise of violence in schools in recent decades, including school shootings and attacks on school faculty and staff, may cause varying perspectives of Black women on the issue of having school resource officers (SROs) on K-12 campuses. This article examines Black women’s perceptions of the presence of SROs on school grounds based on their own proximity to negative police interactions. I posit the question: How do negative police encounters influence Black women’s attitudes towards school resource officers (SROs)? I argue that Black women who experience personal and vicarious negative encounters with law enforcement are less likely to view SROs as a necessity of K-12 campuses.
Best, Ayana; Crawford, Claire, Robertson, Kendrick, and Babalola, Tolu. Rooting For Everybody Black: The Effects of Negative Public Discourse on the Black Defense (Revise and Resubmit)
There is extensive evidence arguing that racial discrimination affects access to governmental institutions and their responsiveness to Black Americans' needs. Yet, the research on how Blacks form their own understanding of their entitled rights and privileges of defense and protection is limited. We investigate whether certain patterns exist when Black Americans are exposed to negative news stories about Black women and men who are later proven to misuse both social (i.e., community support and protection) and governmental resources (i.e., police protection). We use self-collected data from various social media platforms of two recent viral cases that involve negative discourse around the misuse of social and governmental resources—the Carlee Russell kidnapping case. The data includes comments from Black people found on Instagram under prominent Black media outlets (i.e., The Shade Room, Baller Alert, Mediatakeout). We find evidence showing that Black people use social media as a political tool. Black public discourse on social media offers them independence from mainstream political institutions that are often rooted in white supremacy and patriarchy. This allows them to engage in self-help practices (i.e., community support and protection) while simultaneously defending Black Americans' worthiness of gaining and maintaining access to governmental institutions (i.e., police protection).