Democrats--the new White Wing?

I often find that small local issues can teach a lot about larger societal decisions, like voting in Tuesday’s primary. Case in point, the local school principal (I live in Westborough) with the most tenure and working with the youngest children has never hired a person of color, to my knowledge, and most definitely no Asian teacher. I live in a district in which more one third of the students are of color, most are Asian. Yet, 99% of the teachers are White and 85% are White females. At this small elementary school, there is one male teacher of 52 and all of the teachers (100%) are White. It is not as though this principal has not had an opportunity to embrace the diversity of her students, she has had several hiring opportunities over the last several years. She would likely say, ‘they don’t apply,’ to which I would reply, she does not have the right networks for the job.

However, this principal (in a school in which nearly 30% of the students are of color and 20% are Asian) has an all White female support base. The local parent group is White female headed, all female in the leadership group and only one Asian mother there. When they collect parent information it is in English only and they list mother first and foremost and father’s information is optional. As the parent group now collects information via the official district web site, the principal’s typical, oh, but that is a parent organization no longer holds. Other parent groups in the district refer to parent 1 and parent 2 and have no sexual preference in order or reporting. I am truly surprised the district has managed, regarding this particular school, to avoid a GLAD or a sex discrimination suit. Further, this school was the last to institute a diversity group and it meets in the morning, basically ruling out working dads—whom the principal is eager to keep out of the school. She does all she can to keep her council all white and female.

So what does this have to do with politics? This principal is not going to change; she has no reason to as long as her White female fan club continues to support her. As I see it, the same is true of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. The Democrats rely heavily on White women voters. The fact that there was only one candidate of color does not seem to bother any of them. Leland Cheung, a father and a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, was the only candidate of color in the primaries and a very rare Asian candidate in general—yet no one covered this aspect of the elections. The Democrats appear hell bent on running an all White ticket. Well, I for one will not continue as a Democratic delegate nor supporter if this continues. Further, the Democratic candidate for Governor in the Democratic primary has a lot in common with the principal I mentioned. Her election team, and her rhetoric is pretty White female focused. Remember when Martha Coakley did not do her homework regarding the gas tax (the Baker commercial)? Well she has not done her homework on families either. When asked about supporting fathers—by making custody and child support awards more gender balanced (a valid question of an attorney general) she repeatedly states that awarding custody to fathers would result in more domestic violence. Her comment is based on NO evidence. In fact, had she done her homework she would know that 70% of domestic violence incidents are instigated by women (surprise, surprise) and that her march for single mothers as the norm in family households has lead to increases in teen pregnancy, court adjudicated youth, and lower educational completion rates—all factors that an involved father improves for children.

What is the answer, you may ask. In my opinion it is simple and complex. Simple because it will require White females to change their voting habits and to begin supporting candidates (and supporting principals) who support diversity and father involvement in children’s lives; complex because getting White females to consider families and individuals other than their own can be daunting, but not impossible. I have spoken with Coakley personally on several occasions and I can vouch for her visceral hatred of even the idea of giving fathers custody—shared or full. I was hopeful that Grossman or Berwick might have won--and together they beat Coakley. Time and again she has garnered far fewer votes than the polls predicted, suggesting a flaw in the methods of statistically collecting relevant voter data. I was hoping I would not have to cross lines and join the Baker campaign but this looks like the ONLY option for those who care about dads and who want to push Democrats to represent people of color.

Daniela Carrigo-Das

Westborough, MA