why were so few people of color there?

[grasswire]

One questioner was African American, out of twenty. And the audience was nearly all white.

How did that happen, in St. Louis?

[undergroundrailroad]

1. I agree. (n/t)

[Droopy]

12. Hi, undergroundrailroad!

Where ya been? I miss your posts in the lounge.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. I saw only 3 myself .

[umtalal]

5. Is it a white only state?

[JohnKleeb]

6. no Missouri is quite diverse

[umtalal]

11. good thing to know. why do they call it : the show me state?

[JohnKleeb]

20. I really do not know

My grandparents and aunts and uncles lived in St. Louis for a little while before my dad was born but other than that I know very little about Missouri.

[Sandpiper]

13. St. Louis has a very large African American population

If there weren't many there, it's because a certain candidate didn't want many of them there.

[w13rd0]

25. No, Saint Louis, where the event was held...

...is actually only about 40% white. Why so few? Um, Gallup did the selection. They oversampled republicans and fundies probably.

[TrueAmerican]

33. Watch the movie "Vacation"

Chevy Chase makes a wrong turn in St Louis

[LaPera]

3. You tell us your thoughts...I mean to say, who's keeping anyone away?

[teach1st]

4. How many people of color...

...are still undecided?

[umtalal]

7. good question and answer.

[grasswire]

8. well, that's a good point

However, these were supposed to be "soft supporters."

You may be right, though.

[JohnKleeb]

9. that makes sense honestly

I had forgotten that it was undecideds.

[Terran]

10. Exactly.

They know the score.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. That was MY thought on it. People of color have decided.

I'm not believing many people haven't; I'd bet they were all leaning toward one or the other before the debate.

[Alenne]

14. Most blacks have an opinion about Bush

and it usually isn't good. I'm sure in one state it is hard to find a lot of blacks who are still undecided about Bush.

[atre]

21. Is that good enough reason to exclude? Certainly the rabid pro-lifers

had already made up their minds.

[Alenne]

28. The audience was handpicked

and had to be undecided or soft supporters of one of the candidates. For the people handpicking that was a good enough reason to exclude black people.

[Touchdown]

15. Looks to me like people of color pay attention...

...and thus have already made up their minds about who the liar really is. I guess only the white people in Mo. can't figure it out.:P

[goclark]

17. That was my question

It reminded me of the book, "The Invisible Man."
You would think that the organizers would look at that and see that
something needed to give.

They were so busy seeing themselves that they could not see the make up of the group.

It was an insult to the many minorities in the State.

[Sandpiper]

18. It's especially egregious considering the fact

That the city of St. Louis is 51.2% African American.

[Dan]

19. As a VERY PROUD PARENT of a student at WaU

WaU=Washington University in St. Louis,...I asked my son about having an opportunity to sit in on the debates (And as a proud parent, I should mention my son is African-American (cross your fingers for him, if he continues his 4.0 average this semester, he will also be the Valedictorian of his Engineering Class - 2005))..and he shared there was only 12 tickets provided to the students and it was a Lottery system. He indicated to me, that seating opportunities were pretty much already provided to the media, etc.

Hope that helps...seating opportunities had nothing to do with racial politics.

[goclark]

29. What a son!

You should be busting the buttons on your shirt!

Congratulations on your STAR of a son.

Thanks for filling us in on the lottery system for the tickets.
This Sister was ready to throw a chair threw the television when I saw the mix of students.

[JI7]

22. most African Americans are not undecided

remember, they got people based on whether they responded they were undecided, decided, soft supporter of a candidate.

even that one black lady who was the only black person to ask a question seemed like she was probably not and undecided. at least not undecided between kerry and bush. she might have been undecided between voting kerry and some other third party. but based on the question she asked i don't think she was undecided on bush.

[KharmaTrain]

24. Bingo

Well at least there's some progress. I hear the Black Repugnican Caucus this year will be permitted to hold their meeting in the master's quarters.

A recent report summed it up...Blacks see Bunnypants as the epitome of white man's arrogance and injustice. What's telling is the rising black upper middle class that still doesn't embrace that money over principle game that so many middle class whites (who later become Repugnicans) succumb to.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

23. I live in St. Louis, and the only still-undecided people I know are white.

plus, outside of KC, St. Louis, and Columbia, we're a pretty white state, and they might have gotten questioners from all over Missouri and not just St. Louis.

[Droopy]

26. Did you notice that the only African American to ask a question

asked Bush a very tough question about the Patriot Act which Bush then proceeded to skirt around? That's probably why there weren't more people of color there. African Americans are somewhere around 90% Democrat.

[goclark]

31. Was that the lovely lady with the shawl?

When they showed her in the audience when Bush was answering she was steaming!

You could tell that she was not naive.

[napi21]

27. I think it's becuase Mo is mostly white.

heck out the link. Don't get so upset because this is just the majority of this state!

http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/regional_profiles/mopop_chg_race_1990_2000.html

[beaconess]

30. Because hardly any self-respecting black person is undecided at this point

in a race of such importance.

[OverThere]

32. huh??

People of what color?

Does anyine ever think that even referring to folks as a group, as "people of color" is itself insulting?

As in, "Oh, I'm so glad you're here with us. We do need some more 'people of color' here."

Anyway, what 'colors' ya lookin' for?