Uh, no, it’s reality. In 2003, in the Louisiana runoff, there were two candidates, Blanco and Jindal. Jindal’s parents immigrated to this country from India.
The turning factor in that election, alot of seemingly Republican parishes in protestant north Louisiana, parishes that voted for David Duke, suddenly decided they liked the catholic grandma from the cajun part of the state. Remember, these are parishes that Edwin Edwards actually lost in 1991, somehow Blanco carries them and by huge margins. Could it be.......that the fact that Jindal was of Indian descent played a factor.
Also note that Democratic officials in Louisiana often refer to Jindal by his Indian derived legal name rather than his nickname Bobby. It’s a truthful statement, race still matters in the South. 7 years ago, when this state voted to repeal the interracial marriage ban, 40% of the public voted to keep that ban in place, and in general, there was a rural/urban split. Urban and suburban areas voted to repeal, rural areas voted to keep. In the 1998 Republican runoff, when it was Fob vs Blount, several polls saw Fob losing that runoff, but what happened, Richard Arrington, the racist black Mayor of Birmingham, decided to endorse Blount. The James people immediately came up with some promo material calling Blount the “Arrington” candidate, seeded it in rural areas, got some statewide media play, and here’s a shocker, James ends up narrowly winning that runoff.
If nothing else proves race still matters down here, just look at the New Orleans runoff. In general, whites went for Landrieu and blacks for Nagin. Shocker isn’t it. It’s just a fact of life that alot of people in this country are racist, and it isn’t just the South. I don’t think Boston is far removed from 30 years ago when they were throwing rocks at school buses and firebombing various targets of interest.
Not to mention the fact that West Virginia continues to elect a man who was a Kleagle and who all signs point to being racist. In fact, people have campaigned against him highlighting his bigotry, and yet he seems to win in large margins in those elections. I live in a city that is half and half, and that’s likely to remain so for a long time, I understand what the tightrope and I know that even here, and we actually are seen as having a good record on the subject, we still have our problems.
In fact, going back to JC Watts, in his first election to Congress, he ran against a White Democrat, and as I remember it, his vote total ended up running under what he had been polling as. There are alot of kooks in the woodwork, and they come out to vote not normally, but when they feel they have to make a point, like when David Duke ran for governor, or when we were repealing our interracial marriage ban. If you think race is not imporant, then you clearly didn’t watch Super Tuesday 88.