People of color won for Democratic candidates last night. We need to remember that
This is from a Facebook post in an Indivisible group:
“I feel I need to say something, after “moderating” on a different FB page a difficult conversation over the weekend that went into the topic of racism and privilege within Indivisible groups. During this conversation, I mostly tried to keep my opinions to myself. I figured, this was my job as a moderator, to do what I could to keep the conversation moving forward, and to intervene only as an absolute last resort.
Tonight, progressives are celebrating an overwhelming off-year electoral victory, highlighted by the win of Ralph Northam over Ed Gillespie for the position of Governor of Virginia. There are dozens and dozens of similar victories to celebrate tonight. But I want to focus us on one salient fact. Tonight was a victory for voters who are people of color, who were able to vote in sufficient numbers to blunt the force of the white vote.
White men voted for Gillespie over Northam by 63% to 36%. White women voted for Gillespie by 51% to 48%. Please keep in mind, Gillespie ran as filthy and racist a campaign as Virginia has seen in many years, and whites supported him, 57% to 42%.
There is nothing new in these numbers. This is the single most important driving factor in today’s American politics, that our politics rely on people of color to prevent the white electorate from electing racist moral monsters intent on savaging every value and principle I hold dear. This would have been obvious to us had Northam lost, and other Democrats lost, and we’d have heard the cable news pundits talk about how Trumpism (which I know to be just plain racism) had once again won the day. Instead, I heard about how the voters in Virginia and elsewhere rejected Trumpism. No, they didn’t. Voters of color rejected Trumpism, as they always have. White voters did not reject Trumpism.
There’s more to say. A lot more, I think. I don’t like the sense of triumph I’m hearing expressed from my white liberal friends, a sense that I think should be replaced with gratitude (or something close to gratitude) for our neighbors who are people of color, who are the ones who won this election night over the opposition of white voters. I think a better white response is one of deep introspection and determination to address the racism that is so obvious in our politics, even on a night like this. “
To dismiss the issues facing people of color as mere "identity politics" is not only immoral, it's political suicide.
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