A self-described "very liberal" former student observed the following about the upcoming election. Of McCain, she remarked "I could never vote for someone that old." She said this in the same faux circumspect manner that someone of my parents' generation would say they wouldn't vote for someone black. Hearing this, Kate and I looked at one another. True, our country hasn't exactly discriminated against old white farts running for President, but still, the parallel tone made the the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Hers too.
This led to an exercise. "Stack-rank the following demographics in terms of most likely to be elected President to least likely," Kate said later. The candidates:
a woman, a Jew, a Muslim, an Asian, a Hispanic, a gay man, a lesbian, and an atheist."It sounds like a setup for a really ambitious joke," I said. "A woman, Jew, Muslim, Asian, Hispanic, gay guy, lesbian, and atheist walk into a bar..."
We assumed mutual exclusivity. That is, the "woman" is straight and white and walks with Jesus. I made my list.
AsianKate, a white 39 year old woman, made hers.
Jew
Hispanic
Woman
Athiest
Gay man
Lesbian
Muslim
HispanicA lively discussion ensued. Hispanics will be a huge voting bloc. There aren't that many Asian politicians. Why the gap between gay man and lesbian? Lesbians have two demographic strikes against them (woman and gay), but a lesbian will be considered a stronger leader than a "pansy" gay man. A year ago, I would have ranked "black man" about sixth.
Woman
Asian
Jew
Lesbian (if she was quiet about it)
atheist
gay man
Muslim
And then I sent the question on to Mark, a 40ish white gay man. His list was identical to mine. "Where would you put handicapped?" he asked. "FDR didn't have to deal with TV." Okay, um, I'll put paraplegic after "woman." One thing all three of us agreed upon: there's an invisible line bisecting this list. The line divides "could happen" to "not if I lived to be 200 would I ever see this." And all three of us place the line after the top 4 (5 if you count handicapped).
Then I sent the list on to the 22 year old white girl who started this all. Her response:
womanShe shatters the imaginary line. And clearly, she's smoking crack about Hispanics. And I wonder if any demographic would put Muslims anywhere but dead last? Like Mark, she wanted to add one: "Where would you put really ugly person?"
Jew
atheist
Asian
lesbian
gay man
Hispanic
Muslim
Sigh. Goddammit. Okay, my final list:
Asianwith a "never in my lifetime" line after "ugly." To my mind, the order of the things above the line is pretty pointless. All a group needs is its own Obama, and it has its candidate, but who saw him coming, really?
Jew
Hispanic
Woman
paraplegic
Atheist
really ugly person
-----------------
Gay man
Lesbian
Muslim
I'm especially interested in the opinions of folks not represented by our pasty white panel of four. Any ugly lesbian Muslim Asians out there? Shoot me your list.