"Who's Uppity?"
The recent Republican National Convention reflected the most blatant manifestation of de facto segregation seen in politics in decades. It was the whitest convention since Caesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were among the living. Of the convention’s 2,380 delegates, only 36 were black (less than 1 per state), a 78% drop from the GOP’s 2004 convention and the lowest number in 40 years, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Is this the party of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln? Democrats are not perfect; on the eve of the 2008 West Virginia primary, Hillary Clinton appealed to working-class white voters by labeling Barack Obama an “elitist.” This was a duplicitous way of saying he is “uppity”: a black person who doesn’t know his “place.” On September 4, Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia agreed but disposed of subterfuge, stating that Michelle and Barack Obama were “uppity.” Perhaps Westmoreland felt empowered by his party. At the convention, Republicans went “old-school” and took exclusion and black-man-bashing back to basics. Nary was a black or brown face seen, and Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin mocked Obama’s pedigree with delight. The party of meritocracy and “bootstrap” theory seems offended by Obama’s ascendency.
Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party has benchmarks for racial inclusion, and Black delegates comprised 24% of the total delegation, and Latinos 12%. These numbers are not an “Obama and Bill Richardson factor.” The Democratic superstructure is measurably committed to diversity. Notwithstanding the historical appointments of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Republicans have shifted into reverse on matters of racial diversity. Many Republicans claim colorblindness. After watching the convention, I believe them. There was little color to be seen in Xcel Energy Center. What statement is the Republican Party making about its position on racial diversity? How can such an overwhelmingly white convention take place in 2008? I expected Aunt Bee and Opie to take the convention’s stage. Do Republicans care how this looks to people of color and those who question homogeneity? Does this Leave-it-to-Beaver convention foreshadow a possible McCain administration?
Perhaps some Americans will vote for a candidate who has virtually no substantive relationships with communities of color and knows more about hockey and moose burgers than about the history and lives of some 100+ million Americans of color. Perhaps these voters don’t care about communities of color. Voters who are at all concerned about inclusion and racial equality will be hard-pressed to find sanctuary, voice, or power in the Republican camp. If the GOP does not publicly diversify, projected changes in racial demographics will soon compel it to take “affirmative action” to include more diverse groups of people, including “elite” and “uppity” black people.
Matthew C. Whitaker is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, and the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University in Tempe. He is also the CEO of The Whitaker Group, L.L.C., a consulting firm that specializes in diversity and human relations.
Arizona Informant
Wednesday, September 10, 2008