Democrats’ Racial Reckoning: What To Do About (Nearly) All-White Debates?
The Democratic National Committee faces a moment of truth as it grapples with the unintended consequences of debate qualification rules that have left the African American and Latino candidates off the stage (Andrew Yang was the sole person of color to qualify for the December debate). Underlying the reluctance to make changes in the qualification criteria is an unstated sentiment that it is inappropriate to explicitly take racial issues into account. The realities of racial fears and prejudices loom so large over this election, however, that it is impossible to not factor in race. While the DNC faces a difficult choice, whatever decision it makes — and making no changes is also a decision — will speak volumes about its values, savvy and strategy.
The very defensiveness many exhibit about considering the ramifications of the application of selection criteria is itself a reaction to decades of attacks from conservatives on affirmative action programs and policies. The belief that measures designed to correct for centuries of officially-sanctioned white supremacy are now offering unfair preferences to people of color seeking jobs, promotions, or admissions has seeped into the American mindset and taken hold, affecting even many liberals.
The very premise of this critique, however, is laughable. The fact that the United States restricted citizenship from its founding to “free white persons,” held Black people in chattel slavery while reaping the financial rewards of their free labor, excluded people of color from the bounty of much of the New Deal and GI Bill largesse that created the modern American white middle class, and openly and legally discriminated in housing and employment all the way up until 1964 has resulted in a gargantuan contemporary racial wealth gap where the average white family has ten times the net worth of the average Black or Latino family.
And if there has been a pattern and practice of racial preference for people of color, it has been woefully ineffective. In a country where people of color now comprise 40% of the population, 96% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 87% of venture capital recipients, and 90% of elected officials are white. If anything, the data shows that there are still racial preferences for white people.
Applying a race-conscious lens is particularly pertinent in preparing for the 2020 election. Democrats seek to oust an Oval Office incumbent whose entire presidency and reelection is premised on the audacious gamble that he can win a majority of the electoral college by whipping up white racial resentment towards people of color, especially immigrants of color.
The trauma of seeing the success of such racist appeals in 2016 is the dominant reality of this election contest. Fearful Democratic voters believe that in order to defeat the white man in the White House, the party must itself field a white man. A a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus goers laid bare that lurking suspicion. When asked, “Do you think a candidate with these characteristics would have an easier or harder time beating President Trump?” just 1% of those surveyed thought that a white male would have a harder time against Trump, while 48% thought a woman would face significant electoral obstacles, and 40% thought an African American would encounter a tougher path.
In an election contest dominated by these concerns, is it any wonder, then, that the candidates leading in the polls are all white? And these are the polls that the DNC is using to determine eligibility for the debate stage. Given the widespread belief that racism is so pervasive in the electorate that only a white candidate can prevail, it is actually the Caucasian candidates who benefit from racial preferences.
The question, then, is what, if anything, is the DNC going to do about it? That is why the next few weeks present a moment of truth about the party’s moral values and strategic sophistication. In any difficult decision, one has to balance competing priorities and pressures. For the debate decision, the party must determine whether holding the debate on one night is more important than the stage being too white. If they return to the criteria used for the November debate — attracting 200,000 donors or hitting certain polling thresholds (instead of requiring both criteria as became the case for the December debate) — then they run the risk of more candidates qualifying than can be accommodated in a single night. Spreading the debates over two nights is not an ideal outcome, but is it worse than eliminating the black and Latino candidates? That’s simply a question of values.
The more fundamental moment of truth relates to the party’s understanding of what it will take to win back the White House. African American and Latino voters comprise the cornerstones of the Obama coalition, accounting for 37% of all Democratic voters in 2012, according to the exit polls. After trending upwards for twelve years, Black voter participation plummeted in 2016, leading to the collapse of the Democrats’ “Blue wall” in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, the states that tipped the outcome in the Electoral College.
What is the party’s prescription for re-assembling and re-inspiring the Obama coalition in 2020? Are multiple hours of nationally-televised debates of white people answering policy questions really the most effective way to generate the kinds of enthusiasm among voters of color that will be necessary to win the White House?
The DNC is definitely faced with a difficult decision, but it is also an excellent opportunity. Racial issues have historically been seen as the third rail of American politics, leading most politicians to shy away from the topic, but the current president has ripped that rail from the tracks and is waving it all over the country, causing massive destruction to our democracy, institutions, and societal norms. It is not only appropriate for Democrats to factor racial realities into its criteria for the process for determining who will be the Democratic nominee, it is essential if the party is going to find and field a ticket that can compete against and defeat Donald Trump.
