But the dichotomy he was trying to get at was "traditional" vs. blacks/hispanics. Traditionally, there has been a large black population in the state.
Yes, like most Southern states, North Carolina has a sizeable black population, but I'd venture to say that the state has been majority-white since at least some time during the antebellum. If we accepted that Tillis considered "traditional" to mean majority, then his remarks become even less controversial than they already were. I honestly have my doubts that Tillis intended to spark a whites-versus-minorites divide, especially when he argued that the Republican party should work harder to appeal to blacks and Hispanics.
I'm going to try to give the blue avatars some advice: please don't use the word "traditional." Just don't use it. Because for whatever reason, you guys have this pathological need to use it to juxtapose against things and groups and concepts that you don't like.
"I support 'traditional marriage'" = I hate gays and don't want to let them get married
"I will protect our traditional values" = I don't view non-Eurocentric Protestant-influenced cultures as legitimate
This comment simply implies what he and so many Republicans believe: that somehow white people and the particular brand of white culture that Republicans so fervently booster is somehow more legitimate than other groups.
Does it matter to you at all that there are Hispanic people in Texas whose families have lived there for hundreds of years longer than many of the "traditional" white people?
Do we need to address Native Americans? Or the fact that black people have been living here (not by choice) since colonial times?
Tillis could easily have said "Population growth rates among non-Hispanic whites are projected to be stagnant in the coming decades." That would have been the right thing to say. He didn't. He had to dog whistle and embark on the sort of pathetic self-congratulation that he and other Republicans feel like they deserve for being white and bestow the "traditional" title upon "our kind of people."
