Stu Bykofsky: Race is only one of America's tribes
I HEARD the tribal drums beating Tuesday, from the Delaware to the Monongahela. I don't mean the Lenni Lenape, Iroquois or Susquehannock tribes.
I HEARD the tribal drums beating Tuesday, from the Delaware to the Monongahela. I don't mean the Lenni Lenape, Iroquois or Susquehannock tribes.
The tribes - as defined by political scientists and pollsters - were Unionists, Students, White Women, African-Americans, Seniors, Urban, Suburban, Soccer Moms, NASCAR Dads, Low-Income, High-Income, No College, Post-College . . . seems like a tribe for everyone except left-handed, near-sighted, twice-married, red-haired Pacific Islanders.
Up until 1948, election analysis was pretty much who won and who lost. After Truman beat Dewey in a major surprise, pollsters started digging like badgers, speculates La Salle political scientist Ed Turzan-ski.
Tuesday, the major tribes looked like they were defined by Race and Gender, but so what? The details in this primary were unusually devilish because Hillary's and Barack's positions are as close as the DoubleMint Twins.
For insight into the Gender and Race tribes, I turned to a member of both - West Philadelphia Ward Leader Carol Ann Campbell, a Democratic Party secretary who was quoted this way as to why she supported Barack Obama: "I was born black. I wasn't born a Democrat."
But she was also born a woman. I asked her yesterday how she resolved the dilemma.
It was less Obama's race than his inspirational impact on black children, Campbell said. His very candidacy said that "if they live clean, work hard and get an education," they can succeed. That message has been received whether or not he is elected president.
His race was an element, but not the element, she said, adding that some blacks didn't trust Obama because "he's half-white."
OK, African-Americans aren't a monolith, but 92 percent of them voting Tuesday gave it up for Obama.
The other 8 percent still think Bill Clinton is black.
Not so fast. Among that 8 percent was Philadelphia Mayor Nutter, whooping and hollering for Hillary. Suggesting that all blacks would vote for Obama, Nutter said, was like suggesting all blacks like fried chicken and watermelon.
I wouldn't touch that line on a dare.
I would have been stunned if African-Americans, 10 percent of the Pennsylvania population, had not unified behind the first black man with a real shot at becoming president.
Blacks are not unique in this. In America, we retain tribal loyalties - sometimes ethnic, sometimes religious, sometimes geographic. Maybe we shouldn't, but we do, as do most pluralistic societies. At their best, tribes encourage group solidarity. At their worst, they spread fear or hate. This is what Gov. Rendell had in mind when he admitted that some white Pennsylvanians won't vote for a black man.
When the differences between two candidates, like Barack and Hillary, seem negligible, some of us switch to our default position - the reptilian brain that makes us more comfortable with those who "look like us."
So race did play a role.
So did gender, with white women giving Clinton two-thirds of their vote. So did age, with Obama getting about two-thirds of the 30-and-unders.
Education, religion, income, gun ownership all played a role, and each is a tribe.
There are many tribes in America. If we've gotten to where race is only one of them, that's progress. *
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns: