Buttigieg Holds Rally In Black Neighborhood to Almost All White Crowd

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg held a self-described grassroots campaign rally in Bronzeville on Tuesday night, but the overwhelmingly white audience he drew to the event in a historic black neighborhood reinforced the difficulty the Democratic presidential hopeful has had in connecting with African American voters.

Buttigieg did not acknowledge the makeup of the audience in his remarks or in answering questions from the 1,000 people at the sold-out event, but did touch on it briefly as he closed the hourlong rally with a plea for his supporters.

“Find the people who don’t look like most of you in this room and let them know they have the chance, not just to support this campaign, but to shape it,” Buttigieg said.

Many of the supporters held “Chicago for Pete” signs, and wore bright yellow and blue “Mayor Pete” and “Boot Edge Edge” T-shirts (the campaign’s way of helping with pronunciation of the candidate’s last name).

“Whoa, where are they all coming from? I’ve been in this neighborhood for 20 years, and I ain’t never seen nothing like that before, all these white folks lined up over there. Never,” Ruby Laster said, pointing at the line of supporters as she waited for the bus across King Drive. “All I know about him is he’s a young man from Indiana. He should get some credit for coming down here, but you got to let the people know what’s going on. He needs to get some flyers in the businesses around here. I didn’t hear anything about it.”

Buttigieg has struggled to gain support from African Americans. A CNN survey last month found him polling at 0% nationally among black voters. A Monmouth University poll conducted last month in the key early voting state of South Carolina, where 61% of Democratic primary voters are black, found Buttigieg polling at just 1% among African Americans.

In an interview earlier Tuesday at the South Loop loft that houses his Chicago campaign office, the mayor said he’s found his Douglass Plan has been “extremely well-received,” but that getting it in front of more people is the challenge.

“It’s a matter of making sure we show we’re serious and introducing it to as many people as we can,” Buttigieg said, his voice echoing in a tiny conference room. “The number of voters who still say they haven’t really formed an opinion, it’s pretty large. The good news is it means we’ve got a high ceiling. But the challenge is we’ve got to get out there in a way that maybe would be different if I’d been a national figure for a couple of decades. We’re going to be doing it in a quick amount of time.”

Buttigieg’s efforts to reach out to black voters has been complicated bythe fallout from the fatal police shooting in South Bend of Eric Logan, a black robbery suspect who authorities say was armed with a knife. There was no police camera footage of the shooting, which remains under investigation. The mayor spent much of July back in his northern Indiana city of 100,000 holding meetings with community members, including an emotional town hall that placed a frayed relationship with some black residents on full display.

While Buttigieg has acknowledged the difficulty of navigating the issue, he also has noted that his role as mayor places him closer to the issues and challenges black residents face. He said what makes his Douglass Plan unique is its acknowledgment that so many of the challenges that face black Americans are interwoven.

 

Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-south-bend-mayor-pete-buttigieg-in-chicago-20190821-kovazqnny5esdhwbu25cwua2cm-story.html

 

Pete released a great plan that focuses on the black community but he’s still having having trouble connecting with them.

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

@Morphine Prince

@HorusRa2

@OG Gaga Stan

What are y’alls thoughts on this? Apparently nobody cares 

[Bonkers 30,860]

Bad optics, but at least he's trying to make himself accessible.  

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

7 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

Bad optics, but at least he's trying to make himself accessible.  

What do you think he could do to increase his support among the black community?

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

3 minutes ago, MorganMak said:

funny how noone wants to talk about how its a proven fact that African Americans are much more homophobic than whites lol

What does that have to do with this thread? If you want to talk about it then make a thread.

[MorganMak 158]

Huh? I'm offering an explanation for why only white people showed up when he was clearly trying to target the African American community. I'm very on topic. 

[AmericanxDream 2,049]

Well of course African Americans weren't going to attend his rally: we're notoriously homophobic. Plus the guy has no real charisma. I'd rather vote for Sanders.

[MorganMak 158]

Thanks for saying it Oshawott, when white people say it they get treated like  racists or the way MonHoe just talked to me 

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

1 minute ago, MorganMak said:

Huh? I'm offering an explanation for why only white people showed up when he was clearly trying to target the African American community. I'm very on topic. 

No your first post was not on topic. He drew an overwhelmingly white crowd in that neighborhood because almost everyone that lives there is homophobic? Lol right  

[MorganMak 158]

1 minute ago, Marilyn MonHoe said:

No your first post was not on topic. He drew an overwhelmingly white crowd in that neighborhood because almost everyone that lives there is homophobic? Lol right  

Sounds like you need to do a little research into how common it is for African Americans to be homophobic, better yet ask some black people what its like

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

5 minutes ago, Oshawott said:

Well of course African Americans weren't going to attend his rally: we're notoriously homophobic. Plus the guy has no real charisma. I'd rather vote for Sanders.

Yes it’s because they’re homophobic and not because of his troublesome past with race relations and the fact that he didn’t even advertise his appearance to the people that live there. Come on now.

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

3 minutes ago, MorganMak said:

Sounds like you need to do a little research into how common it is for African Americans to be homophobic, better yet ask some black people what its like

Sounds like you need to research specifically why Pete has trouble getting the votes of the black community.

[Bonkers 30,860]

17 minutes ago, Marilyn MonHoe said:

What do you think he could do to increase his support among the black community?

It's tough because "trying too hard" always looks lame and people tend to not respond to it.   I think he's doing the right thing by making it a priority, and speaking very clearly about the issues and what he thinks should be done. 

In my observations of black voters (and conversations) I find that they very much appreciate any candidate who can clearly explain, or even just say out loud what  the problems are in  accurate terms that aren't condescending or insincere.

[FATCAT 60,888]

Well people working multiple part-time jobs with sporadic hours might find it hard to go to a political event on a Tuesday night. Not to mention it's a school night, so if they've got kids it only complicates that situation. 

[Morphine Prince 109,651]

I mean... he was polling at 0% with AA’s. 

He’s gonna have to work overtime to attract these voters.