The draft 2020 Democratic National Committee platform being circulated in Washington aims to reinforce the view that liberals are best situated to battle for minorities seeking higher wages, better housing and jobs, and more money for schools.
With the August convention coming on the heels of the Black Lives Matter protests, it features support for the movement and an expanded pledge to root out racism.
The preamble says, “We will give hate no safe harbor. We will never amplify or legitimize the voices of bigotry, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or white supremacy.”
In promising change, it sets up one group that has it too good and is holding minorities back: whites.
In more than 80 pages in the draft platform published by Politico, whites are mentioned 15 times, all critical, including three references to white supremacy or supremacists and one to white nationalists. The document doesn’t capitalize white as it does Black, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
In most mentions, the reference is to how whites are better off at the expense of others. And the promise often is to “close the gap” between minorities and whites, though no solutions are offered.
While the nation elected its first black president in 2008, racial issues still rage, and that is a huge factor in former Vice President Joe Biden's consideration of a running mate in time for the Democratic National Convention, where the platform will be confirmed.
Typical in it is the reference to the wage gap between whites and minorities, which the party document said “is hurting our working class and holding our country back.” The theme in much of the document is that America is divided between whites and minorities, the situation is unfair and needs to be remedied, and that most issues, even military court-martials, are a racial crisis.
Below are the 15 references to whites:
1.We will never amplify or legitimize the voices of bigotry, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or white supremacy.
2.Median incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher for Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, compared to median white households.
3.And there is a persistent, pernicious racial wealth gap that holds millions of Americans back, with the typical white household holding six times more wealth than the typical Latino family and 10 times more wealth than the typical Black family.
4.The wage gap between Black workers and white workers is higher today than it was 20 years ago.
5.It takes a typical Black woman 19 months to earn what a typical white man earns in 12 months — and for typical Latinas and Native American women, it takes almost two years.
6.Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the uninsured rate was nearly three times higher for Latinos and nearly twice as high for Black Americans as it was for whites.
7.Black children are far more likely than white children to suffer from asthma.
8.Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Black Americans are diagnosed with diabetes at higher rates than whites.
9.Black women are more than three times as likely to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth compared to white women.
10.President Trump’s words and actions have given safe harbor and encouragement to bigots, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, and white supremacists.
11.The extreme gap in household wealth and income between people of color — especially Black Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans — and white families is hurting our working class and holding our country back.
12.We will confront white nationalist terrorism and combat hate crimes perpetrated against religious minorities.
13.Each year, the United States spends $23 billion more on schools in predominantly white districts than in non-white districts.
14.We will root out systemic racism from our military justice system, where black service members are twice as likely as white ones to face court-martial.
15.Our counterterrorism priorities, footprint, and tools should shift accordingly, including to respond to the growing threat from white supremacist and other right-wing terrorist groups.
