black…MYstory

The one thing that I did credit Bush for was that, despite my disagreement with their policies, his cabinet did (at least in appearance) more reflect the various ethnicities of America. You saw the first African American Secretary of State (Colin Powell) and the first African American woman Secretary of State (Condoleeza Rice) and the first Latino Attorney General (Alberto Gonzales). He also had other minority advisors/cabinet members.

I think that this is a criterion that we should include in how we pick a President (however, I do think that we need to look at the character of the minority appointees, as well). We should expect any President to have people around him/her that reflect America’s diversity.

So, we see today that the top two Democratic contenders also have the most diverse staffs. Both the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have women and people of color in top key positions. These include positions as high as campaign manager, policy adviser, media adviser, field director, finance director, etc.

Conversely, when one looks at the top 3 Republican candidates, Rudy Guiliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney, have no key advisers who are black. Mitt Romney does have a media adviser of Cuban descent and John McCain’s deputy communications director is Hispanic . No, at least, they do have women who fill some of these top roles. But, overwhelmingly, these Republican candidates have white men running their campaigns. This may say a great deal about the value they place on reaching out to diverse populations.

I don’t have religious test for the candidates I support but, I do have cultural tests. In a country that is about 1/3 minority, the fact that candidate doesn’t seriously consider diversity in their staffing decisions tells me that they don’t seriously want my vote.

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