You read that headline right. Mayor Pete Buttigieg wants to make sure urban voters walk away from last night’s debate knowing he understands them. Even more than understanding, he said, “as an urban mayor serving a diverse community, the racial divide lives within me.”
Response from diverse communities should be interesting. Immediately after Buttigieg’s comment the twitterverse was aflutter making fun of the mayor. While some predicted it marks the end of his 2020 run, others suggested it’s just gas. On night one of two presidential primary debates held in Detroit, Buttigieg was joined by Steve Bullock, John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Marianna Williamson, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
One of the highlights of the evening may be a close second to Bill Clinton having been the “first Black President.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked how he would convince African Americans that he should be the Democratic nominee.
His response, in essence, seems that his tactic is to trick people into thinking that he himself is black. “As an urban mayor serving a diverse community, the racial divide lives within me.” He also appealed to the anti-law enforcement movement that seems to be growing in inner cities, evidenced by this past week’s videos of citizens and even children dumping buckets of water on local police. Buttigieg said “in the wake of a police involved shooting, our community is moving from hurting to healing by making sure that the community can participate in things like revising the use of force policy, and making sure there are community voices on the board of safety that handles police matters.”
Instead of providing a direct plan of how he will help African American communities, he described what it’s like to be African American. He concluded, “systemic racism has hit every part of American life, from housing to health to home ownership. If you walk into an emergency room and you are black, your reports of pain will be taken less seriously. If you apply for a job and you are black, you are less likely to be called just because of the name on the resume.”
Only time, polls and eventually the ballot will determine if he was successful in convincing African American citizens and voters that he should in deed be the Democratic nominee.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/democratic-debate-july-30-2019/h_b3d1736dad65c503f9d4e51a0582b8e3
Pete Buttigieg on how he’d convince African Americans that he should be the Democratic nominee: “As an urban mayor serving a diverse community, the racial divide lives within me.” https://t.co/OLqaiAbThb #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/JLrOjukcYA
— CNN (@CNN) July 31, 2019
