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07/09/2004:

"Kerry and Edwards: White America's Dream Team"

by Justin Felux zmag.org
In a move that didn't surprise many, John Kerry selected Senator John Edwards to be his running mate. Kerry announced his choice after returning from a bus tour of the Midwest which he labeled the "Spirit of America" tour. And just what kind of people embody the "Spirit of America," according to Kerry? Well, white people, of course! The photos of the trip indicate as much. Analysts are predicting the addition of Edwards will increase the ticket's appeal to rural, middle class, Midwestern, and Southern voters (white voters, in other words). The recruitment of Edwards is simply the next major step in the Democratic Party's epic struggle for the hearts and minds of white America.

At first, Kerry seemed to be interested in the plight of African Americans. He even said he wanted to be America's second "black President." A former (black) Clinton official responded by saying, "That ain't gonna happen. He's not going to out-Clinton Clinton, and if he tried, he would look phony." Kerry seems to agree, and has all but abandoned his black constituency. In a speech to the National Conference of Black Mayors in April, Kerry spent his time talking about how to secure U.S. chemical plants rather than the concerns of the audience. He has virtually excluded black people from prominent positions in his campaign, angering many black activists.

This isn't the first time Kerry has had trouble with black folks. His Senate campaign in 1996 raised similar doubts about his appeal. According to a Boston Globe story from that year, "Black voters, a traditional bastion of support for Democratic candidates, appear to be keeping their options open in the race between Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry and Republican Gov. William F. Weld. In sharp contrast to the fervent loyalty Sen. Edward M. Kennedy inspires in the black community, interviews with black leaders and analysts revealed a decided coolness toward Kerry's candidacy." The reasons will be obvious in a moment, but for now let's examine how the Kerry/Edwards campaign will reach out to white America.

One of the most touted themes that John Edwards brings to the ticket is the theme of bridging the gap between the "two Americas"--one for the rich and one for the poor. Edwards played on this theme of class divisions many times during the primaries. However, the concept of there being "two Americas" originally referred to America's racial divide. The 1968 Kerner Report famously stated, "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." The Kerner Commission prepared the report in response to a series of ghetto uprisings ("riots") that spread throughout the country during the 1960s. It laid the blame for the violence squarely on white racism. "White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II," it said.

It will probably be a cold day in hell before John Edwards speaks about America's racial divide in such candid terms. Instead, he opts for the class-based and more white-friendly "two Americas." Kerry has hummed a similar tune over the years. In 2000 he signed a manifesto saying we should "shift the emphasis of affirmative action strategies from group preferences to economic empowerment of all disadvantaged citizens." Such an approach ignores the uniquely disadvantaged position of people of color in America, who face obstacles over and above ordinary class exclusion. For example, whites with only $13,000 in annual income are still more likely to own their own home than blacks with income of $48,000. White males with a high school diploma are as likely to have a job and earn as much as black males with college degrees. Black unemployment is consistently twice as high as white unemployment. These are divides that Kerry and Edwards don't seem as willing to address.full article