Indefatigible reader Fred Ray sends word of two articles that don’t seem as though they should be about race but are.
The first reports what usually would be good news in liberal circles, that a coalition of slow growth advocates won control of the Chatham County (North Carolina) commission. Instead, the Raleigh News and Observer’s article stresses that “All White Men Will Sit On Board.”
Although slow-growth advocates won a decisive victory in the Chatham County Commission Democratic primary this week, one casualty is the racial diversity of the board itself.
Regardless of who wins in the general election in November, all five Chatham commissioners will be white men — for the first time since before the 1980s election of African-American Carl Thompson.
And then, I suppose inevitably, the front page story in today’s Washington Post about teenage motocross champion James “Bubba” Stewart, who, by the way, is black, is all about race, little about motocross.
Now, the Tiger Woods of motocross racing is trying to remember when he first met the Tiger Woods of golf, when they hung out on Tiger’s practice range and got to be friends, talking about everything except racing and golf and leaping over racial barriers.
Isn’t it possible they didn’t discuss “leaping over racial barriers” because Stewart isn’t aware that he leapt over any? Indeed, even this article reports that “Stewart said that his skin color has never been an issue.” All this emphasis on race, in fact, “is somewhat amusing to Stewart, who said he’d merely like to be known as “the first James Stewart of motocross/supercross” and isn’t exactly sure whether he’s trying to change the face of motorsports.”
So, no. It isn’t possible, at least not in today’s race-saturated media.
That first article is different in that it seems usually these discussions of diversity focus on the policies of small committees such as admissions offices and hiring managers. The decisions of individuals are perhaps worth examining for divergence with public opinion. But it’s strange to see the argument that an election did not represent “what the county as a whole wants.”