Putting Minorities Onstage: In Politics, Diversity is a Winning Message

The latest grievance from the Tea Party nation is how the mostly white mainstream media projects its own flaws onto mainstream America when they report that most of the attendees at Glenn Beck's rally on Saturday were white. The allegation triggers memories of another big event, the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, where there were more minorities onstage performing and being honored than there were in the audience. That was the convention that nominated George W. Bush, running as a compassionate conservative and trying to convince voters that he had moved beyond the divisive rhetoric that dominated his father's convention in Houston eight years earlier. That was the one where Pat Buchanan delivered his famous culture-war speech, vowing to take back the streets of America one by one, with guns if necessary, and Marilyn Quayle, wife of the vice president, lectured working mothers about neglecting their families.

The Republican delegates cheered the red-meat rhetoric, but the audience at home was horrified, and I believe it was Newsweek that dubbed the gathering "The Hate Fest in Houston." President Bush went on to lose in November to Bill Clinton, a shocker for those who couldn't imagine a draft-dodger unseating a veteran of the Greatest Generation. Bush Sr. had alienated suburban white moderates along with minorities by indulging in such an open courtship of the right at his convention. George W. Bush wouldn't make the same mistake, showcasing so many minorities in Philadelphia that Jon Stewart said that the GOP was "back in black."

Colin Powell, who went on to become Bush's secretary of state, delivered a prime-time address, gently chiding Republicans for not living up to their legacy as the party of Lincoln. Football star J.C. Watts, an African-American elected to Congress as a Republican from Oklahoma, got star billing and, until he retired in 2004, stood out as an example of the GOP's diversity. But Watts became disappointed with the GOP's lackluster efforts at outreach and let his dissatisfaction show too much for him to get along for long in the party.

The change in tone that bordered on caricature was most visible in the entertainment the GOP mounted in Philadelphia. There was an R&B singer, a rap artist and a Latin ensemble, not the type of music associated with white conservatives. In stark contrast to Houston, Philadelphia was dubbed the "Republican Woodstock." Comedian Lewis Black joked that "the convention was the first time that Republicans heard Jon Secada's music when it wasn't blaring from their gardener's truck."

At every Republican Convention, reporters survey the audience and conclude that there aren't many minorities. It's a fact that is obvious to those watching on television even though TV producers search for minority faces to put on the screen. Glenn Beck did the same thing in putting together his rally, wanting to send the message that the movement he is building welcomes people of different ethnic backgrounds. As long as they can tolerate his policies, he can tolerate them. That's the tradeoff. Reflecting on these past conventions and the message they sent, one nominee got elected and the other didn't, which says something about what people want to see even when the visuals aren't telling the real story.