What are your opinions on this?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

I am a little insulted that some of these posts are lumping minorities in with poor uneducated whites. Actually, I'm very insulted.

IMHO, people who have worked so hard to secure even the meager traces of the rights whites have taken for granted for centuries are NOT about to willingly give them away to the Republicans.

How stupid do some of these posters think minorities are? I have not met one, not ONE that has thought Condi or Gonzales were qualified or that their appointments meant that Republicans were all of a sudden respecting minorities. In fact, every minority with which I have spoken is disgusted with Republicans for hiding behind those two.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3009128&mesg_id=3009128&page=

[qanda]

1. I started that thread...

And for the sake of discussion I will repost it here:

What is happening with Democrats and people of color?

They are about the only "groups" left on the Democrat's bandwagon and I don't think they are being taken seriously enough. I notice that the Republicans are putting the few black and Hispanic people in their camp out in the forefront. While the Democrats relegate them to the Congressional Black Caucus (the ignored wing of the Democratic Party). It took John Kerry months to understand that his campaign was not diverse enough. WHY?

I have told this story a number of times on DU, but you guys still don't seem to get it. When I worked the polls on Election Day, I had an extraordinary number of black men coming in as registered Republicans. I started thinking then that something is going on that somebody in the Democratic Party isn't quite getting.

The stand that the Democrats are taking on Condi Rice and Alberto Gonzales looks terrible to many people of color (myself excluded). But, all of a sudden the Democrats are principled and oppositional when the nominees are black and Hispanic. You guys don't seem to get how this looks to some people and I know that many of you don't even care, but it's not a winning strategy.

Now, Obama is the target and I bid you all good luck in making him the figure of your derision. Not everyone is going to do every single thing that you want them to do. Obama has every right to vote how he wants and him being black doesn't mean he owes the Democratic Party lockstep support on every issue.

If the nominations are going through anyway, what is the benefit in making a point at the expense of the groups that are most solid in their support of Democrats?

_______________________________________

I don't think most people got my point and just went straight to telling me that my motive was to insinuate that Condi and Gonzales deserved to be confirmed just because they are minorities. In fact, that is not what I said at all. My points have more to do with the position the Democrats are now in having to oppose minority candidates when they don't seem to do much for minorities and these same bold Democrats have rarely shown any backbone in opposing the Bush administration.

There was one response in particular that said it better than I did and here it is so that perhaps you can better understand where I was coming from:

Something Republicans get and Democrats don't seem to is the old adage about actions speaking louder than words. Republicans seek out educated people of color who see the world as they do and make it a point to put them front-and-center in positions of visibility and power. If a Democrat was doing that, all here would be hailing it as diversity. How well have the Democrats done in that respect? How many high-profile cabinet and federal court nominees did Clinton put on the table in eight years so that people of color would SEE that we mean what we say and that our commitment to diversity isn't just words? Can anyone here name a single high-level judicial or cabinet appointment of a minority made by a Democrat that has been as vociferously opposed by the Republicans?

It should come as no great surprise that many people of color see the very vocal, very conspicuous opposition to Clarence Thomas and Dr. Rice and Alberto Gonzales and Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown and wonder how much of the liberal commitment to diversity is just lip service, even if the objections are completely legitimate. Where are the appointments on an equal level on the Democratic side of the coin that the Republicans have as opposed at a headline-getting volume? And now that Barak Obama is voting according to his own convictions, whatever they may be in this instance, is he going to be chastised for not 'getting with the program' or, in the view of some, being the house..........well..........you get the drift?

It's all about perceptions, folks. Obviously the Republicans understand that. They seek out and nominate people from the minority communities who actually do agree with them and whom they actually can wholeheartedly support who they also know the Democrats will have to object to strenuously and they let the chips of perception fall where they may. It's really a very smart strategy and it's how politics is done. When is the Democratic Party going to figure that out?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. I personally don't see it...

I think the democrats growing a backbone has nothing to do with race and is about their qualifications. What the republicans are doing is hiding behind race. There is no way in HELL that Condi or Gonzales would have got through so easily if they were white men. But to avoid being seen as racist, most democrats tip toed around Condi at the hearing and let her get away with bloody murder.

I wasn't posting about your OP, rather some of the responses you got. IE, the "are you saying minorities deserve blah blah blah" almost anti-affirmative action response you got. I understand where you are coming from, but I have to give the black community credit here. They are organized around strong leaders and I don't seem them being led around by religion as easily as some would think.

[qanda]

3. Actually, the thread has become unrecognizable to me

Very few posters have addressed the points I'm trying make and instead have gone off the deep end. Most think I'm implying that Condi and Gonzales deserve to get through just because they are minorities and it's very frustrating to try to defend myself against something that I don't think.