Ohio cabinet all-white for the first time since 1962!

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

A representative sample would have had 3 non-whites. Taking into account that whites are better educated and connected and so on, maybe 2 is more realistic. So it's not as if 0 is extremely shocking. Ohio isn't actually that diverse.

Not to mention that Kasich would specifically be looking for cabinet members who share his agenda and would promote it. There aren't going to be bevies of African-American, Azn or Hispanic bureaucrats and intelligentsia to chose from that come from the types of spheres that Kasich likes. It's pretty difficult for Republicans to form cabinets with lots of diversity. This is why minority conservative ideologues are adored, they give the GOP the face of a diverse party but in reality its tokenism.

I actually prefer that Republicans avoid seeking out minorities with like minded views to put in cabinets, positions of power etc. If they did this, there would always be a noticeable lack of diversity in GOP administrations but at least it would be representative of their ideological views and there wouldn't be affirmative action for the two or three Republican Blacks/non-Cuban Hispanics.

[minionofmidas]

I honestly have to wonder: would a black governor be criticized for hiring all-black people for his or her cabinet?

Any Black Governor capable of such a choice would have been asssassinated by the FBI decades ago during the heyday of the anti-Panther campaign. Idiot.

[minionofmidas]

Also, of course, this:

Ohio isn't actually that diverse.

[Insula Dei]

I don't think it's racist per se, it just goes to show Kasich's insensitive to the whole race issue.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Of course Ohio isn't California or New York. But it isn't Vermont or Nebraska either.

If you read the article, all previous Republican governors had no problem finding some non-white or female members for their cabinet, which is why Kasich's selections raised an eyebrow or two.

[Franzl]

I don't think it's racist per se, it just goes to show Kasich's insensitive to the whole race issue.

In other words, he isn't trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

[Brittain33]

I don't think it's racist per se, it just goes to show Kasich's insensitive to the whole race issue.

In other words, he isn't trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

How many African-Americans serve in the U.S. Senate right now, Franzl?

[Franzl]

I don't think it's racist per se, it just goes to show Kasich's insensitive to the whole race issue.

In other words, he isn't trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

How many African-Americans serve in the U.S. Senate right now, Franzl?

Zero. What's your point? Want to establish quotas? African-Americans have proven that they are capable of being elected to anything, including the Presidency....I don't see what the problem is.

[DrScholl]

It does seem suspect, but there is really no way of telling if it was on purpose.

[CatoMinor]

This reminds me of Lief posting that thread "NC Teabaggers re-segregate schools"

you guys seem to love to make something out of nothing.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

It does seem suspect, but there is really no way of telling if it was on purpose.

He doesn't have anything in his past to suggest it was.  

[Torie]

Perhaps the threshold question is whether there were any reasonable choices out there for positions in Kasich's cabinet who happen to be black whom Kasich passed over. If not, then I suggest that this is one of those there is nothing really there stories - sort of like the vicious right wing with its angry rhetoric pushed the psychotic nutter over the edge Tuscon.

[angus]

Ohio cabinet all-white for the first time since 1962!

Hey, maybe we're making a comeback.  Go, whitey!




Actually, it would be refreshing if we lived in a society wherein appointments could be made to deserving and honorable people without regard to their race or ethnic background.  I suppose it has never been like that in the USA.  If a governor's cabinet in a state as large as Ohio is all white, I'd say it may be a good sign that meritocracy has actually been achieved.  On the other hand, it may be a sign that the governor is a raging bigot who does not want to work with those savage, inferior beings from non-European stock.  Neither of those possibilities seems particularly likely, though.  I'd say this governor, like all governors, probably gives jobs to his friends.  In this case, they just happen to all be white.  Nothing particularly newsworthy about that, but I suppose you could spin it any way you want.

[minionofmidas]

Perhaps the threshold question is whether there were any reasonable choices out there for positions in Kasich's cabinet who happen to be black whom Kasich passed over.

There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of "reasonable" choices for such positions, so Kasich fails your test but only because you're setting the bar ridiculously high.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Ohio cabinet all-white for the first time since 1962!

Hey, maybe we're making a comeback.  Go, whitey!




Actually, it would be refreshing if we lived in a society wherein appointments could be made to deserving and honorable people without regard to their race or ethnic background.  I suppose it has never been like that in the USA.  If a governor's cabinet in a state as large as Ohio is all white, I'd say it may be a good sign that meritocracy has actually been achieved.  On the other hand, it may be a sign that the governor is a raging bigot who does not want to work with those savage, inferior beings from non-European stock.  Neither of those possibilities seems particularly likely, though.  I'd say this governor, like all governors, probably gives jobs to his friends.  In this case, they just happen to all be white.  Nothing particularly newsworthy about that, but I suppose you could spin it any way you want.

That's the best analysis I read today.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I honestly don't know what to think about this. Accusing Kasich to be racist is totally silly of course, but it still seems pretty astonishing. I think Angus probably has the right explanation there.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Who cares?  He should pick the best people who can do the job... whether or not they're white, men, women, black, Hispanic, Asian, whatever... that doesn't matter.  People pay WAY too much attention to this kind of stuff.

[Brittain33]

Who cares?  He should pick the best people who can do the job...

Why should we presume he has picked the best people who can do the job, though?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

the only interesting thing about this is that Ohio has had non-whites in cabinet positions since 1962.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Who cares?  He should pick the best people who can do the job...

Why should we presume he has picked the best people who can do the job, though?

Because that's his job.  What evidence is there that he hasn't?

[minionofmidas]

His partisan affiliation.

[Brittain33]

Who cares?  He should pick the best people who can do the job...

Why should we presume he has picked the best people who can do the job, though?

Because that's his job.  What evidence is there that he hasn't?

I'm prodding on this because I think it's too easy to take a marketing line like "I picked the best people possible" as truth, and that's dangerous, because it implies that having a diverse Cabinet would have meant that more qualified white people would have been excluded and the quality of administration would have suffered. I am not insulting Kasich, but I doubt any executive at a state level truly finds the best possible people for all positions. Instead, they look to people they are friends with, people they're comfortable with, and leaders within their party, most of whom can do their jobs well enough. The "best possible people" is a piece of propaganda that people say to sound good, it's not accurate. I don't think it's a crime not to have any minorities in his Cabinet, but I very strongly push back at the implication that this is what results if you pick the best possible people and push all that affirmative action stuff aside. That's incorrect and unfair.

I don't doubt his people will be competent enough, with the usual rotten eggs that always slip through, but that's not the point. What this shows is that the circles he works in, are almost entirely white. No, I'm not calling him a racist, I don't think that's what this shows or that it's a fruitful discussion to have. But I do think that having a Cabinet that inadvertently excludes people who were excluded from government until recently and still have to leap higher hurdles than comparable white men to get elected shows less of a meritocracy than an old boys' club. And that is not a good thing for the country, and certainly shouldn't be praised.

Is Ken Blackwell the only African-American in the Republican Party in Ohio?

[minionofmidas]

No.

[Brittain33]

No.

Someone should have sent that link to Kasich.

[cinyc]

I don't think it's racist per se, it just goes to show Kasich's insensitive to the whole race issue.

In other words, he isn't trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

How many African-Americans serve in the U.S. Senate right now, Franzl?

How many African-Americans serve as President right now, brittain33?

Diversity for diversity's sake is highly overrated.  Ohio's not a state where a black Republican can't get elected or appointed to statewide office.