Dean's blunt talk about race (1/2/04)

[Bucky]

My comment: Again, sadly, Dr Dean has bumbled while talking about race. It sounds okay enough in context, but oy, think of the sound bite. We're going to "educating white folks." This is the sort of thing that will kill us in "southern" swing states like West Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, Maryland. Don't get me wrong; I like this side of Dean, a lot more self effacing than how he seems chanting "You have the power. You have the power. You have the power..."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/01/02/deans_blunt_talk_about_race/

Boston Globe

Dean's blunt talk about race
CHARLESTON, S.C.

HOWARD DEAN SAID, "I'm trying to gently call out the white population." His genteel example was a story he tells to voters about how his chief of staff as governor of Vermont was always a woman. After two or three years, Dean noticed that she had a "matriarchy" in the office. When the chief of staff was going to hire a new person, Dean said, he told her, "`I notice we have a gender imbalance in the office, and I wonder if you could find a man.' She said it's really hard to find a qualified man. I got everybody laughing about that."

That is Dean's icebreaker to get audiences to understand institutional racism. "The punch line of the story that it's so hard to find a qualified man is everybody does it. Everybody tends to hire people like themselves. And I get them all nodding, including the African-Americans in the audience."

<snippage>

"Dealing with race is about educating white folks," Dean said in an interview Tuesday on a campaign swing through the first primary state where African-American voters will have a major impact. "Not because white people are worse than black people about race but because whites are in the majority, and therefore the behavior of whites has a much bigger influence on hiring practices and so forth and so on than the behavior of African-Americans." It is unknown whether Dean's style of education will have a big influence on either white or African-American primary voters at the expense of, say, Wesley Clark's experience with affirmative action in the military or John Edwards's Clintonesque folksiness. While the Republicans have baldly capitulated to racism in modern presidential campaigns, such as appearing at Bob Jones University and claiming we are so close to a "colorblind" society that affirmative action programs can be dismantled, the Democrats have struggled to find a message that attracts swing white voters and loyal voters of color at the same.


more fun

[boneygrey]

1. I like Dean

but damn he keeps saying things that the repugs will be all over, Especially in the south:wtf:

[papau]

3. In context - it is only truth telling - and gentle and kindly worded

But the GOP and media will try to pull it out of context - and it will be our job to stop them from doing that (not that I was that effective doing this for Gore! :-( )

[asjr]

9. This is indicative

of what I like most about Howard Dean. He is an outsider. He says what he thinks we need to hear. We have been putting up with insiders for years and years. Sure, the media and GOP will fall all over themselves trying to make Dean sound crazy. But that is what they do. It is in their genes. Dean speaks to me--a 71 yr. old woman who finally sees someone with integrity and honesty to take the reins away from the worst president in our history and keep us a whole country. I think that is one reason he appeals to the younger voter. He tells it like it is!

[Lugnut]

19. I'm with you, asjr

"Telling it like it is" is what initially grabbed my attention. It's also what keeps it. Dr. Dean's one small statement didn't hurt either.

"I'm from the Democratic wing of the Democrat party"....loosely quoted.

[dae]

10. I'm white and from the South and his statement is not offensive. Dean

just needs to keep on being Dean. It's about time the other candidates try to articulate their feelings and not those of their handlers.
:dem:

[many a good man]

4. What would the attacks sound like?

Seriously, can you give me some examples how the GOP will campaign on this? I'm not southern so I'm curious how Bush* or his minions will frame this. I can't see a Jesse Helms ad like the one on quotas. Maybe something more like Edwards "what we don't need is an outsider telling us what to think" or "what's best for us."

The Edwards approach seems to open them up to a counterattack showing how Republican policies have created the decline in living standards in the south and elsewhere. The real fight is against too-powerful corporations that don't pay their fair share and move jobs abroad.

[boneygrey]

7. One liners and sound bites

influence too much of the voting population. Quite simply, all Rove has to do is run the line about "educating white folks". I'm from the south and this could lose a lot of votes for Dean. Nobody likes the implication they are stupid-even if they are.

[schultzee]

17. Dean says the truth and that upsets the rePiglicans and others,

but he needs to continue saying the truth. Truth can hurt but it can cause a healing. We need to heal the rePiglican wounds. We are on the verge of dictatorship and people need to awaken. Patriot I and Patriot II and Fasism is on the way. DEAN IS TELLING THE TRUTh.

[madfloridian]

2. I thought that was a good article overall.

I like what he is doing in bringing it out. Give it a while, don't judge so harshly.

Your quote is NOT indicative of the article, BTW.
QUOTE:..."We're going to "educating white folks.""

He did not say it that way, and you are being misleading. You are a misleader.

[rico_suave]

5. Dean is absolutely correct....but

it could cost him votes, no doubt. Such unusual candor can be a major detriment in the general election. It is probably better politics to speak in vague generalities (and probably to do anything possible to avoid the issue of race at all). But his comments are also so damn refreshing. I guess I'm torn about what is the right choice. Is it better to lose honorably and truthfully or win by moving right and trying to woo conservative democrats?

[BeyondGeography]

6. It's better to win

losing means four more years of Chimpass, remember?

[Military Brat]

8. If you are going to criticize his "bumbling," offer your own speech

With Dean it's always damned if you do and damned if you don't. No matter what he says, someone doesn't like the way he says it and uses their interpretation to criticize him.

I just don't know how he could have said what he said without saying it the way he said it. And I don't have a problem with the phrase "educating white folks." Should he have said "educating Caucasians"?

Picking nits is not healthy for the Democratic body politic.

[Emillereid]

11. Pick a couple of winnable states like Florida and then just write off the

GD south -- we are not going to win in the south -- those people have their heads so far up Bush's ass they will never vote for their own self interests. We should do the electoral math and put energy into only those southern/western states that we need and realistically can get -- and not waste a molecule of energy or a dime on the rest. In effect the South is another country -- Bush country. We should NOT encourage our candidate to make the kind of compromises they would have to make to 'win over the south.' First of all if they compromised enough to win, they still wouldn't win, for why should the southern voters vote for a Bush clone when they can get the real mccoy and if our candidate compromised that much, he wouldn't get my vote. Let Dean tell the truth and not worry about winning over some neo-fascist-confederate!

[shoopnyc123]

12. As a black person...

I appreciate seeing the truth. Maybe our country is growing up finally. I would like tot see a Dem win next year, but, without this type of truthfulness, what's the point? I can get deception from the current situation. It's a shame that we even have to discuss this...

[Guaranteed]

14. That's right.

If you don't stand up for what's right, what difference does it make whether you win or not?

[schultzee]

18. I am from the South and I am a very liberal person and I like

Dean and I like his blunt honesty. Its time to tell it like it is. GW Bush is a racist elitist.

[KittyWampus]

13. Why Use An Ancedote About Sexism or Hiring A Man

to talk about Racism? That seems out of touch.

Doesn't Dean's Life Experience include any experience dealing in some way with racism (or it's effects) that would be pertinent?

Post Script: About the quote that was highlighted about "educating white People"... I think it's okay as is his overall message there... Dean just isn't a very good public speaker, IMO.

[stickdog]

15. Because it's innocuous, emotionally unladen and speaks directly to

it's intended audience -- "angry white males" who have been brainwashed into blaming their lot on their feelings that other folks are sometimes given a helping hand that they are not.

[Kat45]

16. Because it's an example the folks he's trying to reach will "get,"

it's familiar to them. And he's hoping that it will help them "get" it about institutional racism. He's trying to reach people who don't realize that racism is alive. I'm a Clark person, but I think this is a good approach by Dean. I do agree with those who said it will be spun against him, but just about anything any Democratic candidate says will somehow be spun against him.

[schultzee]

20. Dean is a good public speaker. He is saying things that the

cowards are afraid of saying, and he is collecting contributions because he is saying what people are feeling and thinking. Our country is being taken over by fascists and religious Zionists and the middle class is falling into the poor class. Why do you think only very expensive things very bought for Christmas? The middle class is not spending, but because of the tax cuts for the filthy rich expensive things were bought.

[AP]

21. Because his point is to make white people feel like victims. He's aiming

at the same demographic as Bush (people who blame blacks, women, and immigrants for their reduced opportunities), but he's coming at them from a different angle.

People say he's helping white people understand by putting them in the place of the black person and saying, 'how does it feel?'

I think it does somethign else. I think it scratches that itch of white victimhood. Why? Because of what Dean proposes as the solution: "change your subconscious feelings about racism."

That's basically asking white people to do nothing.

[Voltaire99]

22. Bravo, Dean

Of course white Americans need educating -- constant, endless educating -- about race. Racism hasn't vanished simply because Clarence Thomas is in a position to throw elections for rich Texans.

Now, whether speaking truth to power will yield Dean votes is another matter.

But it's not worth worrying about for even five seconds: what's needed at this hour of vicious social and economic inequality is that leaders renew a national conversation about our most dire problems. Not been much of that for a long time. We've had the Clinton era with its aw-shucks-aren't-stocks-fun giddiness and now the Bush era with its 911-means-we're-perfect-and-can-whup-anybody imbecility.

Now we need to face up to our failings and get to work.

[Moderator]

23. Not LBN... locking.

This article appears in the Op/Ed section of The Boston Globe, and thus does not meet the criteria for posting in the Latest Breaking News Forum.

Please feel free to repost this article in the General Discussion: 2004 Primary, Politics and Campaigns, or Editorials and Other Articles Forum(s).

Thanks!

DU Moderator