Congress gathers for the 2018 State of the Union Address. Picture courtesy of D. Myles Cullen.
by Angel John, COLUMNIST
5 November 2018
The 115th Congress. The most diverse Congress yet, but its diversity is really nothing to applaud. The vast majority of our representatives in Congress are white males, and although the amount of minority representatives is gradually increasing year after year, it is still nowhere near to how diverse our nation as a whole is.
Our representatives are meant to represent us, the people, but Congress demographics seem to say otherwise. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, females constitute about 51 percent of the overall American population and ethnic minorities are almost 40 percent of the population.
However, the “most diverse” Congress in the history of our nation 79.3 percent male and 78.7 percent white.
Clearly, our current Congress does not look like the American people, and the answer to that may just simply be that there are not enough minorities running for any federal office.
According to a 2014 article by Pew Research Center about a quarter of those who have ever run for office were women and only 18 percent of those who have run were ethnic minorities.
Or maybe it is because they are hindered by society to run.
In an interview with Time Magazine, Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Julia Swetnick, said that a white man must run for the Democratic Party in order to beat Trump. He added that the reason he is successful as a lawyer, specifically for women, is because he carries more weight as a white man.
Even though Avenatti’s comment refers to the Presidential election, it is because of comments like this, and many others, women and minorities feel discouraged to run.
But tomorrow’s election is different, because even in the Trump era, a wave of women and ethnic minorities is coming to Capitol Hill.
According to an article published by CNN, 234 women for the House and 22 for the Senate have won the primaries for their districts, a record high for America. That is a 60 percent increase from the number of women who ran in 1992, ‘The Year of the Woman,” and many of the women running are also women of color.
It has only taken us 242 years to even get to this point, but for the first time ever, it is white men who are the minorities of tomorrow’s election, with women and people of color being the forefront, specifically among the Democratic party.
The rise of women and ethnic minorities seems to be an effect of their disapproval of our current administration.
Now, more than ever, they have an urge to run. Even though the economy may be strong, there are so many issues dividing the nation and are the core of the elections. Issues like health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, immigration, birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, voter suppression, and the list goes on.
These issues are what motivates these women and ethnic minorities to run.
It has only taken us 242 years to even get to this point, but for the first time ever, it is white men who are the minorities of tomorrow’s election, with women and people of color being the forefront, specifically among the Democratic party.
All this time it was white men who have been making decisions concerning women’s rights and women’s health. It was white men who have been making decisions concerning civil rights and affirmative action. However, in 2018, minority groups are no longer hiding in the shadows, or letting the white man make these crucial decisions for their communities, and we should help by continuing to encourage and empower these minorities to run for office and to lead our nation on behalf of the people.
In the early days of our country only land owning, white males were allowed to vote, so only land owning, white males were elected; over time that changed from the 15th amendment, allowing men of color to vote to the 19th, allowing women to vote to the 24th, which abolished poll taxes, making it easier for people of color to vote.
Consequently, we do not have to live under the rule of rich, white men any longer. We are legally provided a choice. It is important that we choose a more diverse array of voices to make decisions on behalf of the diverse American people.
With the movements like Time’s Up gaining popularity, not only in Hollywood, but in politics as well, with women and men expressing their disapproval of the inequality between the sexes, we should also take the initiative to use these movements such as this as a motivation to do more than just talk about change. We need to actually make a change.
We should start by filling up the polls tomorrow.
Angel John is a columnist for Oswego East High School’s online news magazine the Howl.