Reply #73: I can't even assume all liberal Democrats I meet get it. [View All]

[jobycom]

I see stereotyping and profiling attitudes amongst some Dems and liberals. It's not always negative stereotyping, just stereotyping. I've met liberals who want to campaign in black neighborhoods for votes by targeting black or Hispanic churches with flyers promoting liberal candidates who will protect abortion rights and work for a "living wage" amendment. I've watched them paper Hispanic Catholic churches with these flyers, assuming that since the Hispanics in this area voted Democrat, they must be liberals who support abortion rights. At Catholic Churches.

I helped promote a political event once with some very well-meaning leftists. This event was going to have one black speaker, a lot of white liberal speakers (jim Hightower, Michael Moore type people) and some musicians, one of whom was a Tejano star. So to promote the event, these guys went to the east side of Austin (the colorful side, with a history of voting Democrat) and again targeted churches. I realized as we began that they had three different sets of flyer: for blacks, whites, and Hispanics. The white flyers highlighted the biggest names. The black flyers highlighted the one black speaker, and the Hispanic flyers highlighted the musician (for a political event!). Segregated flyers--can't tell your whole audience the same thing, mght confuse them. I kept thinking of the scenes in movies where a white guy tries to be hip by speaking "jive" to black people he happens to meet, hoping that will impress them. ("I feel you, my brother!" and stuff like that).

At the event these other volunteers were surprised that the turnout was almost exclusively white. It was just too hard to explain to them.

So I see that type of racism, too, where even liberals assume that since black voters go 90% or more Democrat, they must all be leftist liberals. While that's not as immediately harmful as the racist attitudes in these new emails, it is still a damaging racial assumption that prevents Democrats from understanding much of the problem.