Sea of white faces at Republican convention

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080905164053.kt1koqqw&show_article=1

Sea of white faces at Republican convention
Sep 5, 2008

There is such a thing as a black Republican, but they have been all but invisible at the party's national convention which is hardly representative of America's diverse population.
Among the party's 2,380 delegates gathered in St. Paul only 36 are African Americans and very few other visible minorities were to be found on the convention floor.

This is the first time in 40 years that there has been such a weak representation of minorities at a major political party convention, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who did not appear at the convention, is like a tree hiding in the forest of the Republican landscape.

For the past six years there has not been a single black Republican governor, senator or representative in the US Congress.

Blacks comprise 12.4 percent of the US population while 14.8 percent are Hispanics, according to the most recent census data.

By comparison, nearly a quarter of Democratic delegates at the party's convention in Denver last month -- some 1,087 -- were black.

Democrats have one black senator -- presidential nominee Barack Obama -- and 42 representatives in Congress.

The party is heavily favored by African Americans: polls show that nine in ten support Obama's bid to become the nation's first black president.

Deborah Honeycutt, a doctor from Georgia who is running for a seat in the house of representatives in the November 4 elections, hopes to be the first black Republican woman elected to Congress.

But it's a nearly impossible proposition: her district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

"We've given 90 percent of our vote to one party basically since the 60s and are we where we thought we would be by doing that?" Honeycutt told AFP, adding that as a private doctor she had become angered by all the red tape, rules and regulations she felt were holding back small businesses.

"Are our children better educated? Are our neighborhoods safer? Are we economically better off? The answer is a resounding No!"

"The reasons I chose the Republican party is because the values and principles of the Republican are similar to mine."

Only one African American was given the opportunity to address the convention during prime time -- former Maryland governor Michael Steele.

He spoke for about 10 minutes Wednesday ahead of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudolph Giuliani, who all lost out to John McCain in the party's primary, and briefly touched upon the color of his skin.

"The ideal of a colorblind society is worth fighting for because each man, woman, and child is an individual and not a member of some hyphenated class or group," he told the convention.

But when asked about the lack of black representation, Steele admitted to the Washington Post: "It's hard to look around and not get frustrated."

The Maryland delegation, a state whose population is 29 percent black, did not have any other African American in attendance.

Other visible minorities, most notably Hispanics, were given the chance to address the convention, but not during the time when it was being broadcast live on local television.

The Republicans were the first party, however, to elect a governor of Indian heritage.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, the son of Punjabi immigrants, is a rising star in the Republican party, but was forced to miss the convention in order to coordinate the state's response to Hurricane Gustav.