Hello Meltingpot Readers,
I think it’s safe to say here, that I am so happy that Barack Obama won the 2012 presidential election. I was sitting on pins and needles last night and if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I was pretty much losing my mind watching the election results come in. Lord have mercy, my nerves were shot by the end of the night. If I were the drinking type, I probably would have sucked down an entire bottle of something strong. Instead, I just screamed and cursed a lot, and probably raised my blood pressure a few points.
But it ended well, and for that I am extremely grateful. I honestly did not believe that Mitt Romney was well suited for the job of commander-in-chief of this nation at this time in history. For so many different reasons, but not one of those reasons was because Mittens is White. People, I am so irritated that both Republican strategists and the mainstream media wants to credit Obama’s success to the fact that there is a shrinking pool of White voters or that Obama simply ‘got’ the colored votes, ie the Blacks, the Latinos and the rest of them, without having to work for them. (As an aside, apparently Asian-American voters out paced Latino voters in their support for Obama but they received little attention.) As if all of the Black and brown people choose who they want to lead this country by a simple color test.
The Republicans and the media have it twisted. Mitt Romney didn’t lose because he was the wrong color, he lost because he has the wrong ideas about what’s wrong with America and the wrong strategies to fix it. And because he is shameless in his disregard of people of color. He mocks them and insults them. That’s not exactly what one would call leadership qualities. And for the record, people of color aren’t just going to swarm all over a candidate simply because he or she is colored too. Do you see anybody rooting for Herman Cain or Condi Rice in 2016? Not so much.
I am deeply insulted by this patronizing, undervaluing of my intelligence as a woman, as a Black person, as a member of the community of color in the United States. But at the end of the day, my irritation dissipates because, hey, we won. Take that, out-of-touch Republicans who want to make it all about race. You’ve got four more years to try to figure it out. And please note, I’m not speaking to all Republicans. Many members of my family are Republicans. I’m specifically speaking to the aforementioned, ‘out-of-touch’ Republicans. Just so we’re clear.
I’m not the only who feels this way, am I? Let me know if you do too. In the meantime, here are some recent news stories that explore the same topic.
First, check out this Colorlines.com story on how the two campaigns used signage to reach ‘ethnic’ America.
Then check Policy Mic.com for his summary of what the GOP did wrong.
Then, if you can stomach it, The Raw Story shows us just how delusional and degrading certain Republican pundits are in their assessment of women and ethnic communities.
Send me any links you find on the ethnic voter and the Republicans. I’d appreciate it.
Peace!
