NYT: A New Kind Of Minority Is Challenging Louisiana's Racial Conventions

[CShine]

The election-night blowout at the Astor Crowne Plaza in the French Quarter last weekend was something rare in Republican politics: a truly biracial event. But even though 33 percent of Louisiana — and 67 percent of New Orleans — is black, there was scarcely a black reveler there. The mix of people celebrating Bobby Jindal's first-round win in this year's governor's race was an unusual one: whites and Indian-Americans.

California's new governor has been grabbing all the headlines, but Mr. Jindal's odyssey has been nearly as remarkable. At the age of 32, he has an almost freakishly impressive résumé: at 24, he was running Louisiana's hospital system. But perhaps more notable, in a state where an ex-Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, David Duke, made a real run for the governor's office, Mr. Jindal is the dark-skinned son of immigrants from India.

As Mr. Jindal moves on to a Nov. 15 runoff against Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, he has a chance to make history. He would be the nation's first Indian-American governor, and one of the few elected officials from an ethnic group that now numbers nearly two million. And he would be Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since P. B. S. Pinchback served for 35 days during Reconstruction. But if Mr. Jindal's success is a sign of racial progress, and it is, it also has elements that suggest how far we still have to go.

One black legislator dismissed Mr. Jindal's candidacy early on, calling him, according to The Associated Press, "too dark for the white folks, and not dark enough for the blacks." But that was wrong. It certainly seemed possible Mr. Jindal would be "too dark" for Louisiana whites, a majority of whom backed Mr. Duke in his runs for senator and governor in the early 1990's. But Mr. Jindal, who has been embraced by the religious right, apparently won upward of 40 percent of the white vote last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/opinion/12SUN3.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Finally! Democrats may benefit from racism and bigotry

White, redneck racists with Confederate flags on thier pickups will not vote for an "In-dee-in" candidate, especially one who is young and very educated. The good old boys just don't indentify with that. Jindal will do well with educated, Republican suburbanites, but good ole' boys will either stay home or vote for Blanco.

[rfranklin]

2. The Republicans can't even get a real black person...

They have to get an imitation.

And they're hoping the black people in LA won't notice.

[burythehatchet]

4. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt

but FYI that comment could be taken kind of poorly by an Indian

[juajen]

3. Either way, we win

However, B. Jindel, though smart, is too radical for LA, IMO. Of course, I have always supported Blanco in any election. I like that lady. She is soft on the outside, but hard on the inside where it counts. Some on DU have said she was "dumb". Not so, just cajun. I've lived here for over 20 years in the middle of the "great cajun" dynamic. While not appearing so, they have tremendous savvy, heart and intellect. Just takes a while to get to know them. Kathleen Blanco sat down in my living room once and we discussed abortion rights. She is catholic, of course, and anti-abortion, as are most cajuns in S. Louisiana; however, she is warm and caring and would not, IMO, force that belief on pro-choicers. I believe she did very well as a dem Lt. Governor under the pug Governor Foster.