Wow, I’m Impressed. Well Said.
Stephanopoulos, offering up a question from a viewer named “Myron” via his blog, asked, “Do you feel that, as an African-American, you have a slimmer margin for error than another chairman would?”
“The honest answer is yes,” said Steele responded. “Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play and that’s just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it.”
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It’s typically career / political suicide for a minority to make this acknowledgement. I’ve served in the GOP. I know what Steele is talking about. He answered the question with candor without delving too deeply into it. Just a beautiful response. Any further and there would be hell to pay. But letting the cat out of the bag, it is something that’s open to debate and others can deliberate it further outside of its application to merely Steele.
Let me share my own story along these lines. I served as Campaign Strategist for a candidate for US Congress in 2002. I reported to the Campaign Manager and there was a fair amount of responsibility involved. I worked overtime to make up for a lack of funding, but I won’t forget one meeting where we met with the largest county GOP organization in our congressional district. The man we met with, Gordon, was white. I am not white. The first thing this person did was tell me, “In my day, assistants used to carry the candidate’s belongings.” He then proceeded to put the candidate’s purse in my hands. By the way, there was one other “assistant” there who was white but he was addressing me directly. It was one of those moments where one is so taken aback wondering whether this is done because the guy happened to be older- in his 60s- or whether race played a role. I didn’t want to make an akward situation any more awkward and I didn’t say anything at the time.
When Michael Steele says being chairman is a “different role for me to play” - I know exactly what he means. People want to call him a Uncle Tom or a Useful Idiot but he is right in saying that Obama also is bound by similar conditions. When you are a leader who’s a minority, despite your de jure position of power, one must be even more sensitive to de facto power and move forward in a way that is more consensus-oriented. Your margin of error is slim, you’re on a short leash, or whatever cliche you’d like to use - you are not accorded the same latitude to act decisively in some cases as would otherwise be the case. I’m sure there’s a more intellectual way of describing the psychological underpinnings of the response towards minority leaders (including women), but it manifests itself as “Who does he think he is?”. It has to do with role confusion.
I do hope this gets discussed further- but as is often the case with race, it will likely be swept under the rug to put consciences at ease, or will be shot down with the kind of vitriol and incomprehension whenever unpleasant facts are brought to light.
