Letter from the Editor
I called my brother-in-law today to wish him a happy birthday. He talked about his excitement for the possibility that a “black” man may become America’s next president. He also mentioned that he was so shocked by the remarks Bill Clinton made in reference to racial politics that he had to call up a few friends for validation. But, his reaction to my comment about Barack Obama not being black left an impression on me. It was as though it was the first time he had heard that Barack is multi-racial. Our conversation quickly moved to a more comfortable racial politics topic. My in-law is like many African Americans who believe that American society is so race conscious that your skin color, rather than your genes define the group you belong to. If a black person doesn’t get that, from their perspective, she or he is being foolish and ignorant of the ways in which racism creates problems for us. This is a debatable perspective, but it does remind us that we have a ways to go as a society. Fortunately the youth do not appear to have as much racial baggage most boomers have a difficult time shaking loose.We need a United States leader who avoids playing politics with race. A president who works towards understanding the problem of social divisions in the United States and programmatically addressing them in the service of building a more innovative and productive society will lead us out of the present economic slump and our international relations quagmire.
The diversity lesson in this newsletter. Many of you know that DTUI.com conducted a poll to determine which candidate you think will best promote better racial and ethnic relations. You may be surprised about the results on both the Republican and Democratic sides. So, check it out.
Diversity Lesson
Cultural Diversity Poll: Republicans Needed Romney; McCain is a No Show
A recent poll indicates that the Republican party no longer has a candidate who can lead Americans toward embracing the cultural and racial differences in their increasingly diverse society. About one in three or 29% of the respondents in the Diversity Training University International (DTUI.com) poll selected Mitt Romney as the candidate that would most likely improve racial and ethnic relations. McCain and Giuliani did not receive a single vote. Barack Obama received the most votes with 46%. Hillary Clinton received 21% of the votes, which roughly translates into about one in five respondents. John Edwards, another Super Tuesday casualty, did not receive a single vote. What’s the story with Mitt Romney? It is no doubt that his pro gay civil union stance while he was the governor of Massachusetts has a lot to do with it. It also helps that the state passed the civil union law. While Mitt has tried to retract his pro-civil union stance during the short run for Republican party presidency nomination, he still has an equality record that the Democratic race front runners cannot easily match.
Americans are, in part, basking in the glory of having a woman and person of color as serious contenders for the presidency. They like witnessing the social progress that has been made. This is one more reason the Republicans are in trouble. The economy is certainly a huge concern, but don’t discount the power of a candidate’s social capital in this election.
Respondents had an opportunity to vote against all of the listed candidates or to indicate that the best candidate was not in the list. However, less than 6% of the votes went to these choices combined. Visitors to the DTUI.com website had opportunities to respond to the poll from January 27, 2008 to June 17, 2008 resulting in sample of 325 respondents. The margin of error is 4.5. DTUI.com site visitors and newsletter subscribers tend to be highly educated (78% college educated), represented slightly more by women, at least 45 years old, and financially well off (i.e., about one in three visitors earn more than $100K annually). The results have a seven-point error margin. Notice that Senator Obama remains the leader by 10 points over Romney even when the error margin is considered. Data were analyzed by the DTUI.com research division.
