Businessman Andrew Yang asked at the Democratic primary debate, “Why am I the lone candidate of color on this stage?”
Yang was the only racial minority onstage Thursday night because he was the only one who got enough support in polls from Democratic primary voters. Kamala Harris dropped out already. Cory Booker didn’t meet the requirements. Neither did Julian Castro.
None of that is because the deck was stacked against them for racial reasons. It’s because even black and Latino Democratic voters didn’t support the minority candidates in the field. They were demonstrably and overwhelmingly for the old white guys, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Yang might even know that. As detailed in my forthcoming book, Privileged Victims: How America’s Culture Fascists Hijacked the Country and Elevated Its Worst People, accusations of racism, genderism, and any other -ism are how you fight in politics today.
It’s not obvious to me why black voters don’t back Booker over Biden or why Latino voters don’t back Castro over Sanders, but that’s the math. Yang made the case that it had something to do with “disposable income” and how much those particular voters have to contribute to political action committees, but that’s not it.
The other minority candidates can’t get sufficient support to win, and that’s it.
