Let me preface this entire post by saying I am aware that what I am about to write is going to come across to many as arrogant. I apologize in advance for that, and if it is any consolation, I went back and forth about writing it at all.
That said, I want to talk a bit about my own personal experience in trying to help Barack Obama with Latino - and specifically Latina - voters, the very voters many news stories lately have said made a big impact on helping Hillary Clinton win the California primary and other important Latino blocks.
After watching the Clinton campaign kick Obama's ass in outreach to Latinos in general - albeit misguidedly and almost entirely in Spanish, in spite of the fact that most Latino voters in the US speak only or mostly English - I decided to try to help Obama reach "us" too. (Did you notice that every six seconds Univision seemed to be airing that annoying "Estamos Con Hillary" commercial?)
I wrote an email to Obama's "people," the ones responsible for his Latino outreach, and told them about myself. That I'd sold more than half a million books, mostly to Latinas, and was a NY Times bestseller, USA Today bestseller, and BookSense pick. That I had an online reader "fan club" of more than 600 members, coast to coast, almost all Latinas, many of whom were willing to put their names on a national endorsement of Obama, from "the nation's largest Latina book and networking club." That I was named one of Time magazine's 25 "most influential Hispanics" in America. That I was the only writer to get an award from the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. That I was one of a small handful of Latina TV and movie producers on the rise. That I had name-recognition and influence in New Mexico and Arizona, two of the states where Latino votes really mattered. "Use me any way you can," I said.
The response was tepid, at best. The woman wrote back to ask me to volunteer at the local Phoenix office, doing phone banking. At first I thought it was a joke. After all, Toni Morrison's endorsement of Obama was being trumpeted far and wide in press releases by his team. Now, I am not - repeat NOT - comparing myself in quality or skill or fame to Toni Morrison. But I do think that among Latina writers in the United States, I am at the top of the short list of those of us who have any "fame" at all.
Funnily enough, the Clinton Latino outreach people contacted me earlier in the campaign, to ask if I'd endorse her. They invited me to events. They called just to chat. They flattered me and were very cool. That said, I could not endorse her. But the difference in approach between the two camps, toward me alone, was astonishing.
Time magazine did a list of the most influential Evangelicals in the country, round about the same time it did the influential Hispanics list. I had to wonder, if one of the evangelists from that list had reached out to, say, Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney, and said, "I've got followers, let me led them to you," whether their campaigns would have responded with a generic email suggesting the evangelist drive down to Nashville to volunteer in phone banks. Methinks not.
I have to wonder: Is Obama's campaign's apparent disinterest in Latinos accidental? An oversight? Is it part of the same lack of awareness of our numbers and importance that prompted progressive talk-show host Randi Rhodes yesterday to say something idiotic, like "the Latino vote? Who cares? Let's talk about the Eskimo vote. How 'bout that?" Do these people really not understand that 40 million is a large number of people?
Or is it worse than that? Is Obama's apparent lack of interest in us intentional? Is it part of a strategy to "unite" all of us, that whitewashes everyone? I tend to think that's it. That, in an effort to appear united as Americans only, in an effort to appear race-free, the Obama campaign has chosen NOT to highlight ethnicity or race in any way, for anyone, lest such actions make Obama seem "blacker" than he already is, to white voters on the fence.
While this strategy might make sense for reaching racist "white" voters, it is backfiring among some Latino voters, who simply don't know who this man is because he's not made any real effort to tell them.
I ask: Can only white candidates afford to be seen as reaching out to minorities? Is it too risky, politically, for a minority candidate to be seen as forging ties to minorities who are proud of being Americans, yes, but different kinds of Americans? The Obama campaign squandered a terrific opportunity not only to reach out to Latinos, but to educate and forge bridges between the African American and Latino communities that share so much (including DNA) but have been misled by the US media to think we have nothing in common.
I still think Obama would be a good president. And hundreds of my "fans" have written to say they'd join me in doing some kind of outreach.
It's just too damn bad the Obama camp could care less. And it's not just about me that they don't care. Time and again, from coast to coast, I've heard similar stories of prominent Latinos, be they politicians, artists or musicians, who have reached out to the Obama camp, only to be ignored, or slapped away.
Many of us noticed long ago that Oprah rarely had Latinos on her show. We wondered if there was a reason for that. If maybe the propaganda intended to divide and conquer had gotten to her, and she, like many other non-Latino blacks, had come to view "us" as a threat rather than as allies.
And now, I really want to ask Mr. Obama: Et tu, Brute?
What gives?
Thank you for your support of the Obama campaign. I attribute this to the Obama campaign's inexperience running a national campaign. They were so behind in the total vote at the beginning of the year, that they were focused on broad advertising instead of demographic specific advertising.
As an ardent Obama supporter, I wish you had received a prompt response. It is not the ignorance of Senator Obama himself, but maybe some of his volunteers.
I hope you will continue to support Obama and work on behalf of the Obama campaign