Good for @newsbysamuels for taking on what may be the biggest question hanging over the Dem field right now. https://t.co/GPZuhile4I pic.twitter.com/Sy2UEObyTg
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) December 16, 2019
The Washington Post had a front-page story this week on Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s “long quest to bridge racial gap,” as the print headline put it.
The online title: “Inside Pete Buttigieg’s years-long, and often clumsy, quest to understand the black experience.”
You get the idea.
According to the Post article, the surprise 2020 contender’s struggle to connect with African Americans goes back to his college days.
Even though the piece tops 3,000 words — a novel in the world of newspapers — one crucial factor is hardly mentioned. Given that this is GetReligion, it probably won’t take you long to guess what.
If you’ll forgive me for sounding like a broken record, I’ll refer back to a post I wrote earlier this month asking, “Serious question: Is Buttigieg being gay a reason for his low support among black voters in the South?”
In that post, I noted:
The stories get into poverty and other crucial issues, but I’m going to focus on a specific point raised in all three articles: the connection, if any, between Buttigieg’s sexual orientation and his low support among black voters in the Bible Belt.
I keep waiting for a major newspaper reporter (perhaps a Godbeat pro is available?) to explore that question. So far, it hasn’t happened. Or if it has, I missed it (in which case I’d welcome a link).
As for the Post story, it offers some interesting anecdotes on Buttigieg’s life experiences with African Americans, opening with his time as an intern for a black reporter in Chicago:
Renee Ferguson, a prominent black television journalist in Chicago, arrived outside the swanky office building with a videographer and her intern — a Harvard sophomore named Peter Buttigieg.
In the summer of 2002, Ferguson had been reporting on an investigation about a sex offender working at a day care in the building’s basement. The three wanted to capture undercover footage of the man on the job.
But when Ferguson tried to get into the building, a security guard turned her away. The videographer, who was also black, tried next. The security guard turned her away, too.
Then, Buttigieg gave it a shot. When he approached the door, the security guard let him in. Buttigieg secured footage that would help Ferguson win one of her seven Emmys, but what stayed with her most was the prejudice that she figured led the young, white intern to acquire access that two black reporters could not.
“I think I understand what white privilege looks like,” Ferguson recalled telling Buttigieg.
“I don’t know if that’s what’s going on,” he said.
“Yes, you do know,” she said. “I couldn’t get in, but you could. Think about how many times in your life that you’ve just been able to walk through doors and the rest of us got turned away.”
Seventeen years later, Pete Buttigieg is still thinking. As a presidential candidate who has rocketed to the top tier of the Democratic primary field, he is scrambling to address what has emerged as a glaring deficiency: his inability to connect with black communities.
But the religion angle?
This Post story barely acknowledges it.
Yes, there’s a quick reference to Buttigieg’s recent “tour of black churches.” But there’s no elaboration or attempt to delve deeper into the significance of that.
And later, there’s a mention of religion — but simply as an aside — in recounting some miscues that Buttigieg made as mayor of South Bend, Ind.:
Within months, he fired the city’s first black police chief. He levied hefty fees on property owners of blighted homes in minority neighborhoods, threatening to knock them down to beautify the city.
He even had to be talked out of being inaugurated at noon on New Year’s Day, when many of his black residents would still be in church.
“Who doesn’t know that?” said Oliver Davis, a city council member.
The journalistic point?
Once again, it’s simple: To truly understand the black community that Buttigieg is trying to reach, churches and their political role must be explored, as must whether Buttigieg’s sexual orientation is a factor, and if so, how much, in the candidate’s problems with African American voters.
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