This past Monday, the Minority Rights’ Coalition (MRC) hosted their Diversity Discussion Panel regarding the 2012 Elections. The MRC, which represents seven minority umbrella organizations on Grounds, initially planned to have this event prior to the election with the intention of educating on issues important to their respective populations. Due to the hurricane, however, the event was moved to after the election with the goal of focusing on minority turnout in the election and possible next steps for these groups. Speaking on the panel were Tiffany Tsai, a fourth-year Foreign Affairs and Linguistics major who worked on the Barack Obama campaign here in Charlottesville, and Jeremy Moody, a second-year graduate student in Tibetan Studies who is also part of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. Questions ranged from expectations to realities of minority turnout, what candidates in the future will have to consider when running, and what minority students can do themselves to make their voice heard in the coming years.
Both panelists agreed that minorities and youth were crucial voting blocs in this election that were underestimated by more than a few pundits. As the Asian-American coordinator for the Obama field office on the Corner, Tsai herself was shocked at the turnout, especially because of attitudes of certain communities during voter registration drives. Tsai also stressed the importance of the Asian-American vote given the fact that although only 41 percent of Asians claim to be Democratic, more than 73 percent voted for Obama this past election.
A main theme that both panelists and the audience discussed was the alienation of minority groups by the Republican Party. Moody, who has autism, reflected on the dismay that much of the disabled community felt upon Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comment regarding freeloaders, covering those in their community. Many voters in a variety of minority populations remarked feeling isolated by the party, whether it was because of its attitudes regarding women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration or foreign policy. Both Tsai and Moody cautioned that if the Republican Party does not account for this demographic change affecting its policy platform, it could see not just losses in presidential elections, but congressional ones as well.
Since this panel occurred after the election, many in the audience questioned the role of the minority electorate in the off years. Both panelists stressed the importance of staying educated and voting in the congressional and primary elections, as well. While some of the changes from the political parties have to come from the national leadership, students questioned what could be done in the meantime to get the minority student voice out, specifically in Charlottesville. Moody suggested that student groups generate questionnaires on issues important to their communities to hand out to candidates to increase their voice on a local scale. Many of those in the audience wanted to continue this discussion and education of issues beyond just the election cycle.
“We can’t just be politically active every four years for this democracy to work. It’s about staying active and informed, and about educating yourself and others through discussions such as this….” Shaikh said. “The importance of this event is to start the conversation between different diverse communities and hopefully tonight’s discussion will be a great foundation for that,” Abdelrazaq said.
Zain Shaikh is the Chair of the MRC and Erin Abdelrazaq is the Vice-Chair of the MRC.
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