On Tuesday the race for mayor of Milwaukee came to an end. Former U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, D-Milwaukee, defeated acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, a fellow Democrat, in the runoff by 54 to 46 percent. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a volunteer for Barrett's failed campaign for governor in 2002. I think he's a fine progressive and if I lived in Milwaukee I would have voted for him for mayor. That said, the campaigning on both sides showed a disturbing social trend.
Since our country's very beginning, race has been a complication in how we live out our founding ideals of equality. After the abolition of slavery, no efforts were made toward racial reconciliation or social welfare, allowing our differences and animosities to galvanize. The struggles for civil rights in the last 50 years may have materially improved the legal and economic status of our minorities, but still our distrusts have remained at some level. We tend to live apart from each other, to not interact with one another.
A recent study showed that in last year's election for governor of Louisiana, some conservative voters may have abandoned the Republican nominee for governor, Indian-American Bobby Jindal, in favor of white Democrat Kathleen Blanco on the basis of race. Jindal, who had run a strong campaign on a conservative message, lost the votes of people who agreed with his agenda but could not stand the color of his skin. The Milwaukee election had its own racial trend. Over 80 percent of whites voted for Barrett and over 90 percent of blacks voted for Pratt, showing just how separated this state's most diverse city remains.
There were, in fact, some real issues to discuss in the election. Barrett wanted City Hall to have more direct control over the Milwaukee public school system. Pratt, while campaigning within the usually progressive black community, tried to cast Barrett as too liberal a candidate over his votes in Congress for Bill Clinton's tax increases. Each candidate argued over how the city's budget would be balanced and had various plans on different aspects of city infrastructure.
Barrett had been an early frontrunner but was thrown from that perch when Pratt came in first place in the primary. Pratt then lost his own luster when various campaign finance irregularities were discovered, resulting in charges being filed by the district attorney and his paying a $2,500 fine. He was even remiss on his water bill. Pratt began his campaign with the bright claim that he was the first black person to occupy the mayor's office and that his mission to reach out to the disenfranchised should continue. By the time it was over it was clear that he was such an entrenched figure that Barrett was a political outsider by comparison.
Pratt's scandals may have dissuaded some white and Hispanic voters who were on the fence from voting for him, but it's hard to believe that being white or black would have such a clear relationship when it comes to favoring different plans for managing sewage or which administrators run the school district. Black voters voted for Pratt as the black candidate and likewise for Barrett's white voters. At most, the scandals helped to increase the racial polarization that was already there.
The candidates did not, by any stretch of the imagination, run racist campaigns. Barrett briefly campaigned with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights legend. Pratt made a decided effort to reach white liberals who might like the idea of the city having its first black mayor. In Louisiana, Jindal did not run as an identity candidate but as a straightforward candidate for governor, and likewise for now-Gov. Blanco. However, no such efforts from Barrett, Pratt, Jindal and Blanco actually mattered. The idea that the voters, black and white, would put race as a prime consideration in the election without prodding from the candidates is actually more frightening than if they had been spurred on by direct political demagoguery.
Race should not matter in how we evaluate people. However, the fact is that race does matter in how we interact with each other from day to day. As the minority populations of our country continue to increase, we can't allow these divisions to keep ruling our lives. We have to relate to each other as individuals, not as members of this race or that religion. Despite our great pretense of equality under the law, we remain separate as a people within one nation.
