The second round of the Democratic 2020 primary debates will be again broken up into two nights, both of which will be hosted by CNN. And already, some people are getting anxious about the supposed lack of diversity on one of the two evenings.
The first night will feature candidates who all happen to be white: new age guru Marianne Williamson, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney. All of the nonwhite candidates (Julián Castro, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard) are in the second night lineup.
Some have noted with hints of disapproval and even concern that the first night is not “diverse” enough — and when they say “diverse,” they aren’t using the normal definition, i.e. different from one another in any number of ways. What they mean is that the night one candidates are all white.
“It’s also worth noting in this, the most diverse field the Democratic Party has ever had, all the first night are white candidates,” CNN political director David Chalian said Thursday evening. “The racial diversity is entirely in the second night.”
This “changes the dynamic, especially because obviously race has been a front and center issue in America this week,” he added. “It’s just interesting … that it ended up that way with all white candidates on one night.”
CNN ended up with an all white Democratic debate night and a diverse one. pic.twitter.com/HSG7Ffo6mu
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 19, 2019
Ethnicity is prominent in the second night of @cnn debates July 31st. @CoryBooker @KamalaHarris @JulianCastro @AndrewYang First night of the debates, all white candidates.
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) July 19, 2019
Are you kidding me with this?
The first night features three women and a married gay man — something that would have been unthinkable even in 2016, let alone 2012. They’re going to grumble because it does not feature candidates from specific minority groups? Have those in the intersectional crowd become so obsessed with their notions of diversity that they are now yawning at the prospect of female and gay presidential candidates? (Also, claiming that the first night is “white only” is a major insult to the only Native American running in the Democratic primary. Sen. Warren should be livid.)
It seems absurd to ding the first evening as lacking “diversity” considering it features not only three women and the only gay man seeking the party’s nomination, but that it also features two Jews (Williamson and Sanders), a woman of Slovene and Swiss decent (Klobuchar), a man of Maltese descent (Buttigieg again) as well as candidates claiming Dutch (Hickenlooper) and Irish heritage (Ryan, O’Rourke, and Delaney).
Maybe I should also mention that we’ve elected a black president, and we still haven’t elected a woman of any color. Just putting that out there.
Still, some in the press have become so wrapped up in grievance studies theories that they are now saying: Sure, it is neat that so many women and even a gay man are running in 2020, but are they women and gay men of color?
It will never be good enough for the intersectionally obsessed.
