Bottom line problem: No black or brown person will be on any primary ballot [View all]

[StarfishSaver]

because the media and polls - not voters - determined, before a single primary took place, whom voters should and shouldn't have a choice to vote for. And race plays a role in this, whether people want to admit it or not.

That is a serious issue that we can't ignore.

Early in my career, I worked for a large, all-white law firm. I was literally the only person of color in the entire office. Other than me, every single person in the office - lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, etc. - was white.

I knew why there weren't any black lawyers - The firm had a long history of never hiring minority attorneys and I was their "experiment" (no pressure, or anything). But I hoped that they would hire some secretaries of color. So I asked the secretarial coordinator why we had no black secretaries. She looked surprised and said, "I don't know. I guess because no one ever applied." With some more digging, she and I discovered that the agency they used to screen applicants never sent any black applicants to them because, given the firm's history, they assumed they wouldn't hire any black secretaries. And the firm never noticed and never asked about it - because white secretaries seemed normal to them.

The agency wasn't being racist. They often placed black secretaries throughout the city. They just didn't send black secretaries to my firm because they thought it was a waste of time. They thought they were protecting black applicants from bring discriminated against.

This is how institutional racism works. Individuals don't have to harbor racist feelings or intentionally discriminate against anyone. But history and practice create systems that perpetuate discrimination and exclusion without anyone having two take a particular discriminatory action.

That's what's at play here. Most people aren't intentionally discriminating against candidates of color. But the systems, often unintentionally, perpetuate exclusion while on the surface appearing to be innocuous.

Giving certain candidates more airtime because the reporters have come to know them over the years or passes because "they've been around" or "yes, he misspoke, but that's just how he is" advantages people who had the benefit and privilege of getting into the system and building a reputation and relationships when the circle was largely closed to women and people of color.

Constantly asking "can a black candidate win over working class voters (i.e., white)" plants doubts that find their way into polling numbers that eventually determine who can get onto a ballot even before the candidate has a chance to convince voters they should support them.

And while this type of discrimination is not the sole reason minority candidates didn't get to the primaries - there are complex combinations of reasons that various candidates stumble - it is an additional obstacle thrown in their way that white candidates just don't face. And ignoring or dismissing it because other factors are at play, too, only makes it worse.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed and telling people who are concerned about it to be quiet or "stop whining ... your candidate just didn't catch on" compounds and exacerbates the problem.