African-Americans Increasingly Identiify as Independents

From Black America Web:

With more than one third of the country self-identifying as independent, the balance of political power is falling increasingly to whichever way this group swings. Since the presidential run of Ross Perot, those the use of “independent” has often been shorthand for “disaffected white voter.” Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find more people like Gravely a part of this paradigm shift.

“As an African-American, people just assume you’re a Democrat,” Gravely told BlackAmericaWeb.com. The 30-something works in business operations at Deloitte and now lives in Atlanta. “When I talk to people, I sort of preface it by saying I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. I choose who I vote for based on the merit of their platform and what they can do for us, rather than what party they’re with.”

She was among the hundreds of others that gathered in New York last weekend to assess the 2012 landscape as part of the National Conference of Independents. Participants discussing how they could reform America’s political system came from as far west as Oakland to as nearby as Queens . . .