The Black-Brown Divide. Remember that?

Yesterday I played the opposite of hookie, but for some reason, it felt a little illicit. A good friend invited me to Amherst in SF, a yearly alumni event where top Amherst faculty hold “classes” for former alumni. It was great. Being out of school for so long, it was nice to soak up the intellectual vibe that is Amherst (as I pretended to be an Amherst alum).

The first lecture that I attended was The Hispanic Vote: did anything change in 2008? As it turns out, the Hispanic electorate voted 2 to 1 in favor of Obama over McCain and was the deciding factor in several key battleground states.  In Florida, white voters voted in the same proportion for McCain in 2008 as they did for Bush in 2004, and the difference maker was the overwhelming support by Black and Hispanic voters. Some of the key factors that contributed to the swing in votes came from some obvious Republican blunders in strategy.  Since the early 2000′s Republicans had been making inroads in courting Hispanic votes due to the social conservative affinity between the two groups (and the fact that the GOP out spent Democrats 4:1 on spanish speaking media in earlier elections).  In 2006, the Bush administration enacted the New Cuban policy that restricted family trips back to Cuba from 3 times in a year to 1 time in 3 years.  Needless to say, Cuban Americans, a vocal group in Florida, were pissed.  Factors like these along with others helped Obama win in Florida.

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Although this wasn’t the main premise of the speech, I’d like to just take a mere moment to reflect on the black-brown divide that was coined in the aftermath of the California and Nevada primary elections in which Hispanic voters voted 2 to 1 in favor of Hillary.  Ya know, the black-brown divide that never was.

I feel much more connected to my government.  Both Obama and Hillary inspired me to care and participate in our civic institutions in way that I never had before.  But as connected as I now feel to our government, I feel as equally disconnected to my citizenry.  In the second lecture I attended, Professor Danielle Allen posed the question What is citizenship in the 21st century? Being a more “practical” person, I have to admit that I thought the lecture would be too esoteric to be useful, but many things she said resonated with me.

Professor Allen set up the construct of “political friendship.”  Borrowing from Aristotle’s idea that every virtue is the mean between two extremes, Professor Allen put forth that political friendship sits in the middle of domineering and acquiescence as illustrated by the image below of Central High’s integration after the advent of Brown vs. the Board of Education.

The meeting in the middle of the two women…that ideal is the very essence of political friendship. Friendship without the emotional aspect. Respect in spite of differences.

For me, as the primary season dragged on, our political friendship diminished and no where was it more evident than in the accusations of prejudice and racism thrown around by our more enlightened left.  It was sad for me to witness how quickly we used race to justify Hispanic and other minority voting patterns.  We Obama-voters make individualized and nuanced decisions around our presidential choice, but Hispanics and other minorities who don’t vote for Obama are doing so out of their inability to stomach the idea of black president. The irony of it all…

Political Friendship.  It’s a nice thought. Prof. Allen also emphasized the idea of loss and repair given that we live in society where majoritism creates winners and losers.  I wish that I could say it’s all in past.  That the election is over, a candidate won and that’s all folks. And while all those things are true, my trust as a citizen among other citizens has diminished and wonder if it will ever be fully repaired.

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