Racial Re-Segregation Means the End of Democratic Politics

Town Hall ^ | May 27, 2009 | Ben Shapiro

[GOPGuide]

snip

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Over the past decade, racial groups have become more polarized, not less. A simple example will suffice. A personal friend, a white man who teaches at an inner-city school in Los Angeles County with an almost entirely Hispanic population, polled his students shortly before the 2008 election regarding their parents' presidential preferences. Every hand in the classroom went up for Obama. After class, my friend approached one of the students. "Why are your parents voting for Obama?” he asked a 10-year-old Hispanic girl. She answered him in four words: "Because he's not white.”

"Because he's not white” has become the rallying cry for racial minorities all across the country. There are 24 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Twenty-three are Democrats, and one is an independent. Leaving aside U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and two members of Congress who represent no district, the Hispanic population in the districts they represent averages 59.23 percent. That means that concentrated pockets of Hispanics elect Hispanics.

The same is true for the Congressional Black Caucus. There are currently 44 members of the Congressional Black Caucus; all are Democrats. Leaving aside Senator Roland Burris, D-Ill., and two nonvoting, at-large members of Congress, the black population in the districts they represent averages 48.47 percent. That means concentrated pockets of blacks elect blacks.

The same is largely true of whites, of course. The difference is that whites elect members of both parties -- racial identity is not bound up in political identity. For the Hispanic and black communities, however, racial and socioeconomic identity increasingly mean allegiance to one party: the Democratic Party. Thus, when Miguel Estrada is grilled by Democrats, no one worries about the electoral ramifications for the Democrats among Hispanics, yet when Sotomayor is nominated, critics worry that Republican criticism will drive away Hispanics. The same holds true for the black community: When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is raked over the coals by Democrats, no one worries that blacks will run from the Democratic Party; when Barack Obama is criticized by Republicans, however, the press declares that Republicans will lose the black vote forever.

The implications of the racial separation of our republic are supremely dangerous. It seems that racial groups more and more often vote along tribal lines; multiethnic democracy now means racial re-segregation, at least in terms of electoral politics. Small-R republicanism relies on the willingness of individuals to discern and vote for the politicians with whom they agree, not the politicians with whom they share a skin color, racial heritage, and economic background.

Barack Obama's candidacy was supposed to usher us into a post-racial America. It seems that his election, and his continuing exploitation of racial differences through nominations like Sotomayor's, has only deepened the racial divides.

[ansel12]

It may be because so many Catholic Hispanic clerics are liberation theologists if not outright Marxists.

In America, even before the Hispanics that Kennedy brought in since 1965, the Catholics (white) have been the heart of the liberal vote, things are actually better now than they used to be.

[wardaddy]

I grew up when there was social racial segregation.

Then we had forced desegregation in society.

Now we are fairly balkanized except in some well off couplings and in lower class white areas where mixed race illegitimacy is endemic between white women and serial black sires.

Are we better off now than then?

IS society as a rule better off?

IS black culture and the black family better off?

these are legitimate questions....the issue with blacks in the early 60s should have begun and ended simply with voting rights...zip, not a step further.

the redress issue and forced desegregation have borne their own fruit

personally I think our culture across the board is Godawful and far far far worse than when I was a boy

but so many brainwashed kids today will reply in unison “but ya’ll were racist than yo”...like the total collpase today pales in comparison to the racism bogeyman.

we are living what the more moderate civil rights players warned about.

[wardaddy]

excellent chart

[John Will]

I see Asians and Whites Mixing in the upper classes but that’s about it.

[wardaddy]

yeah me too...often educated white males with Asian women...who are educated too..they may make good wives...I know a few, the women are traditional...can't say I blame the guys

the only high end black white mix is usually white guy ...often Jewish ..with nice looking well bred black gal

like Spike Lee sez...the brothers get the fat white girls crackers don't want and the white man gets the choice light skinned black goddess

life ain't fair for gazillionaire Spike who's still seething that daddy took up with a peckerwoodess

my first wife was a Brasilian megababe of Lebanese Maronite heritage who was nutty as hell.

my second wife who I've been with 12 years now is Southern Belle...

I know which I prefer...it's just so much easier in my experience to marry my own kind...but i understand passion for what it is..illogical