Posted on 11/11/2004 5:16:51 AM PST by truthandlife
So much for polls that had President Bush getting twice as many black votes as he did in 2000. In 2000 he got 8 percent of the black vote. This time, he got only 11 percent. Eighty-eight percent of the black vote went to John Kerry.
What's interesting is that no other racial group in America has a vote-skew anything like that. Latinos voted 53 percent for Mr. Kerry and 44 percent for Mr. Bush. Asians were 56 percent for Mr. Kerry and 44 percent for Mr. Bush.
Blacks get insulted when people say we all think alike. But then why don't we take our individuality to the voting booth?
For one thing, a great many black people associate the Republican Party with racism. This means that voting Democratic is often less about making a personal choice than voting on the basis of a group concern.
This is understandable. But it's also obsolete. It's time for the black community to start spreading its vote across the two main parties.
The Democrats have no reason to address our concerns in any real way, because we're a slam-dunk.
And that leaves black America powerless. Help comes only when someone decides to try something out of the goodness of their hearts, and then there is always the question of follow-through.
This is why groups with pull make the parties court their vote.
Not that all of us should start voting Republican -- that would just leave us with the same problem. We just need to reconsider the idea that voting Republican is automatically disloyal.
For the record, President Bush did not get my vote. I voted for John Kerry because that's what my personal take on issues and priorities led me to do. But a lot more than 11 percent of us might find that Republicans have important things to offer us as well. Faith-based initiatives come to mind, as does education reform.
About racism: Our progress will have more to do with a party's policies than how some of its members might feel about their kids marrying ours. In 1912, W.E.B. Du Bois endorsed Woodrow Wilson over Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Wilson was a bigot, as was President Roosevelt. But Du Bois was interested in whose policies would allow blacks to make the best of the worst in the real world.
The civil rights revolution was four decades ago. Even President Clinton's Dialogue on Race is a fading memory. Soon Latinos will outnumber blacks. We're in a war in Iraq. The days when helping blacks was front and center on the government's agenda are gone. We have to start playing ball the old-fashioned way.
I know some think racism is the defining experience of being black, and that this means that our voting must reflect that. But must it, if this leaves us with no purchase upon national resources for our betterment? Must it, when Latinos are no strangers to racism, and yet they split their votes?
In that light, we have to ask: Does our voting pattern really represent the diversity among us in experiences, aspirations, values? Do we really want to give in to allowing racism to define us?
Because today, if we do -- if we vote as victims rather than as individuals -- we only perpetuate our victimhood. We become the Democrats' mascots, instead of a force to be grappled with.
You're preaching to the choir here. But there are those here who do not have honest change in mind for a number of reasons - chief among them is a lack of desire for change or the work necessary for that change.
Go read McWhorter's books; they are on par with Sowell and Steele in terms of the depth of his insight.
That is vile!
You're right. It is peer pressure.
We'd (not me of course) rally behind that P*sser Robert Kelly than all of the educated and highly influential blacks in the President's cabinet. Something is very wrong with that...
The same board I mentioned threw a fit over what Cosby said. Check this out, in the end, all they could do was call me a Valley GIrl. Ha
I'm not telling you it isn't "enough" -- I'm telling you it's nothing.
George Bush saw a 3% increase across the board. Blacks needed that 3% just to stay even with the rest of the voting population.
And lose that whiny racist attitude. I slap blacks in the face? I'm just telling it like it is. Blacks have been slapping the face of the Republican Party for 40 years.
"If you were running the GOP, you'd give the soul patrol enough ammunition with your attitude to keep blacks away from the GOP for generations."
First of all, that's probably why I'm not running it. Second, 90% of the blacks are already "away from the GOP". Just how much damage could I do?
Did you read any of McWhorter's pieces in the links provided?
He's out there tryting to make a difference, rather than just writing about it.
Which makes it OK to say the heck with it and screw all blacks? Spare me. Go iron your sheets elsewhere.
Ed Gillespie said Bush got 14% of the "black vote".
Our pal rp is down here making friends with the black folks.
rp, Dale Carnegie was never your sort of thinker, I'll bet!
Precisely, which is exactly what the GOP had been doing. Republican's are way ahead in all facets of the game of politics, and it is showing up at the polls.
Furthermore, to the naysayers, blacks didn't become the Rat's most dependable voting block overnight and they won't start voting Republican overnight either. It's going to be a slow erosion. From 8 to 11% is a 25% increase in one Presidental election cycle is pretty good. Next election cycle you try to get that number up to 15%.
There is a lot of peer pressure in the black community, but the more blacks that vote Republican the more other blacks will consider it.
I thought this was a thread about the 2004 black vote. You want to turn this into a McWhorter thread? Fine.
Did I read any? No. I read them all. I've already given my opinion on the Salon interview.
Hip-hop: He's against it. Cool. Who's for it, besides white suburban kids who are the major buyers? (which seems to bother him).
Cosby: McWhorter's quote, "... Bill Cosby is a traitor for implying that black people have power to help themselves." Ah yes, spoken like a true consevative.
Mau-mauing: He supports Summers' berating of Cornell West ... as long as Summers continues to apply the standard to other professors. Why not call for West's firing? Moot point. He left on his own.
What’s Holding Blacks Back: Nothing, he admits. But here's a long list of what blacks think is the reason. Soution #1: Whites need to hold blacks to a higher standard and stop "understanding" their behavior. I tried that in this thread and was told that I don't give a sh*t about the blacks. Oh well.
Why Blacks Don’t Need Leaders: Finally, a conservative article. What other minority in the U.S has "leaders"? Oops, no, the article says the blacks don't need leaders like Jackson and Sharpton, but leaders like Parker and Rivers would be just fine. Confusing title, yes?
Campus Diversity: He's against affirmative action. Given that he's an associate professor, he comes across as credible. Actually, a good article.
Did you read his articles? He's an apologist. He spends 2% talking about why blacks should do something, and the other 98% explaining why blacks haven't.
Flip the percentage around, and I'd be interested. As it is, it comes across as whining.
Bush almost lost this election, as you well know. But he won and we feel good.
I'm sorry if it offends some people when I say that Bush won despite their best efforts to defeat him. The thought of a Kerry presidency scares the crap out of me.
bump
Okay, McWhorter's no Frederick Douglass. Point taken - still, considering the general state of the Academy, he's a breath of fresh air.
The fact that the Republican share of black votes is increasing, even if only marginally, has to be heartening since about 88% is still available!
Expansion of the pubby share to the 30% range would be transformational in American politics, imo.
For a group to come forward and say their group gave Bush 3% more of their vote says nothing. The fact that 89% of that group almost put Kerry into office says much more.
That's my point.
Half-full vs. half-empty placemarker.
;^)
McWhorter did not call Bill Cosby a traitor.
(I read it as, "But for the grace of God, go I". Not what he meant. He meant, "According to assorted black ...".)
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