Minorities and the Presidency: Who's Got Next?
a ranking of identity politics
2008-11-10
By Eric Easter

On CNN last week, Jack Cafferty posed an open question to viewers :“What does it say about America that a Black man was elected president before a woman.” Predictably, all of the respondents pooh-poohed the notion that sex or race factored at all in their decision.

Nonsense. They may not have been barriers, but they mattered.

Technically, the question has never really been tested. Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, not the presidency. Democrats, almost by definition, are more liberal and thus not really reflective of how a national election with conservatives and liberals would have borne out. Would Clinton have beaten Obama if she were a Republican? Who knows. Would conservative women have embraced Clinton had she run against McCain? Maybe, maybe not.

If we are honest with ourselves, America (and the world) is almost certainly more sexist than racist. The manifestations of racism have perhaps been more upfront, publicly violent and written into law, but the second class citizenship of women has been ingrained in cultures and institutions for the entirety of the history of man. If you doubt America’s sexism, just witness the savaging of Sarah Palin in the last few days. Diva ? Came out in a towel?  Seriously?

I am not one of those who never thought the election of a Black president would happen in my lifetime. Maybe I’m just optimistic, but politically it is an easier route to the presidency for a Black guy than say, becoming governor of Idaho, or Florida, or Alabama, or California for that matter. There is no electoral college at the state level.

But more to the point, I always assumed that it would be a Black guy before a woman. The American people already have a history of saluting and rooting for individual Black men as national heroes, albeit in sports and entertainment. But at least a foundation had been laid. The same can’t be said of a lot of other minorities.

Film, television, propaganda and hearsay have formed unique stereotypes and prejudices about every group. There may be a lack of respect for Blacks, but other minorities face issues of trust or lack of cultural awareness that may prove to be higher hurdles for a job like the presidency. Given Obama’s need to repeatedly identify as a Christian, what does that say about the chances for a Jewish candidate, for example?  And while America has spent 400 years in a cultural relationship with Blacks, how much does the general public know about, say, the East Asian community? And how would that manifest itself in a run for president?

Given that history and how our culture has regarded certain groups, there is probably a hierarchy of presidential firsts based on current  attitudes about race, gender, religion and ethnicity. People will disagree, but based on my understanding of American cultural prejudices, biases and preferences my assumption – at least prior to Obama’s election - was this:

A black before a woman.
A woman before an Italian-American.
An Italian-American before a Jew.
A Jew before a Mormon.
A Mormon before a Latino with a Latin surname.
A Latino before an Asian.
An Asian before a constitutional amendment allowing a naturalized citizen to run.
A European naturalized citizen before a Muslim.
A Muslim before a candidate who is openly gay.

You can play that parlor game all day, but if Obama’s election is indeed the beginning of the end of cultural intolerance and identity politics, then the lesson of last week’s victory is that this nation changes. It’s what makes this country so wonderful.

But for feminists who are still harboring resentment that a Black man got there first, Obama’s precedent should be seen as a victory for women , not a defeat. History shows that when Blacks break down doors, other groups always step through as a result.  Obama’s win, in fact, makes it much more likely that a woman could win in 2012 or 2016 – assuming he does well, of course. 

Eric Easter is Chief of Digital Strategy for Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. He writes about politics, culture and technology for EbonyJet.com.