What Makes Your Collar Bluer Than Mine?

With much mass media discourse about Obama's capturing of the African-American base and his failure to make inroads with blue-collar workers, one would think that these groups were completely seperate and unrelated.  Such a notion implies some great economic chasm between African-Americans and blue-collar voters as if one group were more wealthier than the other.  It proves to be yet another imaginary narrative thought up by a press-core anemic in its ability to intertwine social realities with responsible journalism. I realize this may come as a surpise to many in the press, but African-Americans do actually work blue-collar jobs.  

Imagine that...

In New Orleans, the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Wards, for example, have for decades been home to a majority of the city's blue-collar African-Americans: waiters, construction workers and custodians.

My father worked as a press operator for the Washington Times making minimum wage, while my grandfather worked some 40 years driving buses for Metro in DC (luckily he was in a union).  They are both Obama supporters, and neither one of them would vote for an elitist.  I wonder how many African-American blue-collar voters were polled when the "bitter" controversy hit headlines?  From what I gathered, not very many. The assumption had already been made that African-American voters (whether blue-collar or not) would be for Obama just as the assumption was made that white blue-collar voters would be for Clinton.  Given this bias, the skewed narrative went on dominating the oral fixation of every television pundit with a cow's lick.

A big Clinton victory in Indiana on Tuesday and in West Virginia the next week could, combined with her victories in Pennsylvania and Ohio, give her ammunition to say that Mr. Obama would fail to draw blue-collar support against Mr. McCain in the fall.

Clinton May Be Hopeful, but Obama Rolls On

The notion that for African-Americans, the only criteria for choosing a black candidate is "if he's black enough" is not only untrue, but also racist.  Do white voters only make their decisions about presidential candidates based on if a white candidate "is white enough"?  It's interesting how the white support behind Clinton hasn't been scrutinized in the media in the same way that black support of Obama has.

Still, every Russert, Matthews, Blitzer, and Todd analyzes the polling data they have on white voters (particulary blue-collar workers) according to "bread & butter" issues, like the Economy, Job Security, Healthcare, Education, Social Security, etc.  These issues are discussed and analyzed in a way that implies that only white voters are concerned about them.  

BREAKING NEWS:  African-Americans care about these issues too!

Yet, whenever polling data on African-American voters comes up, the pundits only talk about race, and religion (i.e Rev. Wright).  And when it comes to the plight of the blue-collar worker, the face of such a worker resembles that of the sterotypical isolated, bigoted, hillbilly loading a shot-gun on the back of his 1984 Ford Pick-up truck. The more modern types sound like an episode of Roseanne. Never mind the smell of blue-collar latino-immigrant labor that lingers in the gentrification of every newly built condo, estate lawn and newly-paved parking lot.  What about the African-American janitors waxing the floors of the Smithsonian Museums, or serving lunch in the cafeteria of the Rayburn building? And I wonder what color is the collar of the workers who polish the congressional seats, desks, pews, and vacuum the carpet of the House and Senate chambers.  I dont ever see their faces on C-Span? Are they any less blue collar?

...the members of an extremely distressed inner-city neighborhood organization in Milwaukee were interested in gaining access to methods of spatial inquiry and technologies that would enable them to participate more effectively in the formal process of the City’s neighborhood revitalization program. The citizens represented traditionally marginalized sections of the American society as they were poor, blue collar, African Americans living in one of the worst neighborhoods of Milwaukee.

Access and Participatory Approaches

The socio-economic differences dividing much of America along lines of class has been more spatial than anything.  Just as white blue-collar workers are pushed into regions that are inaccessible to vital resources, so are blue-collar workers of color.  Notwithstanding the racial disparity that exists within this group, the media continues to have you believe that someone can't be African-American and blue-collar at the same time.

''And Obama and Clinton do fit in a jigsaw-puzzle way. She brings women, older voters, blue-collar workers, Hispanics, and he brings elites, liberals, the young and the crucially necessary black vote.''

NY Times

Exit polls explained the dynamics of Clinton’s win, showing her ahead among blue-collar voters, women and white men.

Politico

Not only is much of this presidential race divided by race, but also by commas, spaces, tabs, and conjunctions thanks to a relentless dichotomy in the press.  According to the mass media, no one can cross the demographic boundaries of the exit polls.  The truth is that we all live across these boundaries.  You can be black, woman, and blue-collar all at one time.  You can be hispanic, 60 and over, man, and blue-collar too.  You can be white, female, affluent, and 18-24.  Just as you can be white, male, 40-55, and blue-collar.  Aren't all of these groups important in winning an election?  If so, then why are certain groups favored over others?  

Pre-occupied with keeping Clinton's candidacy alive for a good story, the racial bias permeating much of the blue-collar/African-American pundit-discourse has emerged to undermine Obama's candidacy.  This unilateral discussion of Obama's problem with white, blue-collar voters, and no discussion about Clinton's problem with African-American voters implies that white, blue-collar voters are more important, when in fact, no candidate can win a general election without both voting groups.  Still, the media narrative perpetuates this 1-sided argument in favor of Clinton as if it were enough to sway superdelegates into not voting for the black guy.

One thing is for sure, no matter what happens, after all of this is over, I'll never forget every divisive strategy the media used to alter the course of the most historical election in American history.