#11 steadiness | 2012-11-07 15:16
In Mississippi, 37% Black, Romney won with 55%. In Iowa, 93% White, Obama won with 52%
This electorate was something like 75% White. 99% of Blacks vote for Obama, the best the Republicans have ever done with Hispanics was 40%, and Jews always vote for Democrats by two thirds.
If 66% of us had voted for Romney, then even if 100% of everyone else voted for Obama, Romney would have won.
What do the Blacks, Hispanics, and Jews have that we don't have in Iowa, but do have in Mississippi?
Racial consciousness.
Why don't we have racial consciousness in Iowa? Because in a 93% White state, people rely on stereotypes of others that they get from the media. But in Mississippi, we have personal contact with Blacks and through this diverse cultural enrichment stereotypes like the magic negro and that only a few evil-minded Whites care about their own kind are dispelled.
That is the goal of BUGS: to establish racial consciousness. It was never going to happen overnight, even if we controlled the traditional media. However, racial consciousness is starting to show like the first shoots in a newly ploughed field.
Last decade, if you were trying to describe a Black to another White, you were expected to mention his hair color and eye color and hair type and height and body shape - the first three variables only being variable among Whites - and studiously ignore his race if mentioning race would help the description. If you asked about ethnicity, you would get answers like Irish, Scottish, Spanish, Polish, or Italian from Whites, and Black, Hispanic, or Jewish from Blacks, Hispanics, or Jews.
In this decade, we're allowed to describe Blacks as Blacks and ourselves as White. This is progress.