Appearance of minority groups in 2012 elections shatters traditional boundaries
Kermit the Frog, of both “The Muppet Show” and “Sesame Street,” once wisely sang, “It’s not that easy being green.” And he’s right. When it comes to our everyday lives, being “green,” or different, isn’t always so easy, especially when it involves standing out as a minority or trying to blend in with the majority.
In politics, there’s no difference. While as individuals we each possess the ability to think and reason on our own, we unfortunately often see stark divisions in the voting habits between different groups of people. Until recently, an overwhelming majority of Americans have unfortunately learned and grown in segregated and nondiverse communities. From these neighborhoods, we may then typically go out into the world, unaware of the many biases in our upbringing. It helps to explain why, according to the Pew Research Center, that in the 2008 election, about 95 percent of African-Americans supported Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for election, along with 67 percent of Hispanic voters, 62 percent of Asians and 43 percent of Caucasian voters.
This is not to say African-Americans, along with Hispanics and Asians, are monolithic block of people. Each member of each community has had unique, yet also common, experiences that have led to such noticeable group solidarity. These voting patterns are not concrete, nor are they reflective of all members of a community. There will always be those who stray from their group’s “norm,” and across the country, they’re making their voices heard. In this upcoming election, we have the special opportunity to vote for candidates we’ve never seen before in the political sphere.
On a national level, there’s Mia Love, a black Mormon, who is running for a newly formed Utah congressional district as a Republican. Joe Donnelly, a conservative by most standards, is running as an incumbent Democratic senator in Indiana. Even on a smaller scale, there’s Carl DeMaio out in San Diego, who is running as a gay Republican for mayor. People who are politically “atypical” are now coming out of the woodwork and shattering stereotypes of what it means to be a Republican, a Democrat or anything in between.
As the election season draws down to a close, rather than dismissing candidates simply because they’re not what we’re used to, we should strive to take a closer look at them. When we go to the polling booths Tuesday we should, as always, focus on a candidates’ policies and prior actions first and foremost, while we leave their personality and personal traits or habits at the back of our minds. We should also, however, celebrate the large and diverse candidate pool we get to chose from. No matter what the election outcome, this year will hopefully mark the year of increased progress as well as the year it became acceptable for people to be a little green.