Pete Buttigieg phoned a black critic to 'listen'. Is this the best we can hope for?
Though he probably never had a chance, Pete Buttigieg’s standing among black voters just got even lower. On Monday, the Root writer Michael Harriot penned a piece calling Buttigieg out after a video resurfaced from 2011, in which Buttigieg says that a lack of positive role models – not structural racism – is the reason kids from lowincome, minority neighborhoods fare worse at school.
In Harriot’s blistering piece, he deploys a metaphor from his own life to illustrate how ignorant Buttigieg’s assumption was. When Harriot was growing up, there was a ditch separating the wealthy neighborhood from the poor one, and he had to jump over it to get to school. If people didn’t make it across the ditch, it wasn’t because they hadn’t seen someone do it carefully enough before – it was because the ditch became slippery when it rained.
As Harriot put it: sure, Mayor Pete seems like a smart guy. But he didn’t have to jump over a ditch to get to school. Is he the right person to be pontificating on why poor minority kids weren’t motivated enough to make it to class?
After the piece went viral, Buttigieg
called Harriot to “listen”. Is that enough? Should we be grateful?
Buttigieg did listen, for 18 minutes and 45 seconds. Only, that wasn’t all he intended to do. He also tried to “explain” the context of his comments. He explained that the comments were made before he took office – as if we shouldn’t judge politicians by what they say when no one’s watching.
He also justified himself in the way that someone who doesn’t really think they made a mistake does. “Do you disagree with the point I was making?” Buttigieg asks Harriot, before he reiterates the same point: “Sometimes, the lack of positive examples of educational success can lead to mistrust and a lack of confidence.”
It’s almost as if positive examples of educational success are the only thing that put black and brown people in the poorest towns, with the worst schools. As if a lack of confidence is what stops us from getting a call back at the same rate as white people, even with the same degrees. As if we are the ones excluding ourselves at a higher rate than white kids from schools; as if we’re the ones ensuring we don’t get paid an equal wage.
Some might say that Buttigieg calling a critic to explain himself is a good start. That, of course, Buttigieg should get to explain himself.
But did he say anything new?
It is true that many politicians might not have called at all. Trump certainly wouldn’t have. It is even more true that many other presidential candidates would not have the guts to call someone and listen.
But isn’t this an awfully low bar to set? It is telling that we are so grateful for the scraps thrown our way by powerful white men after they mess up. Why is merely being listened to the bar? Isn’t that the bare minimum?
What about using your amazing education to become educated on the issues facing black voters, so you don’t make those mistakes next time? What about taking responsibility? What about not blaming racism on people of color? What about, well, just not being racist?