The socio-political landscape of race has changed greatly as institutionalized racist structures have been challenged, dismantled, and reimagined according to more equitable and restorative values. These changes have extended into the government, with an increase in the election and reelection of legislators of diverse racial and ethnic identities, including the historic election of Barack Obama as president. In his book Congress in Black and White, Christian Grose presents his unified theory of African American representation in Congress. In his work, he explores ethnic politics, and the multidimensional factors that influence representational decision making in Congress. He examines how representation has changed with the ascension of politicians and legislators who belong to historically marginalized communities, some of whom represent majority-white districts. Ultimately, he seeks to examine how black representation in Congress affects minority communities. In order to gain a complete view of representation, Grose employs a multifaceted strategy that involves analyzing and comparing legislators from various types of districts. For example, he takes a special look at the historically new phenomenon of black legislators representing majority-white districts in order to better understand whether black legislators’ interests in pushing for black interests are because of their own race or because of the race of the constituency which they represent. His strategy allows him to analyze the influence of both the racial makeup of the constituency and the racial identity of legislators. Upon using this strategy, Grose finds that “the race of the legislator is not as substantively important as the underlying racial makeup of the constituency,” and that in turn “legislators representing black-majority districts will vote in favor of legislation substantively in the interest of black Americans much more than legislators representing districts without a black majority” (16). He looks beyond descriptive representation by “analyzing recent Congresses with black legislators from both black-majority and black-minority districts” to gain a more holistic and complete understanding of black Congressional representation” (Grose 17). Thus, when it comes to representation, it is important to look at the racia>