appealing to poc voters
SUMMARY
VALUES: Pete believes in equality for all regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual identity. When he took office in South Bend at the age of 29, he admits he had a lot to learn about the issues important to all his constituents. (South Bend stats: 60.5% of the population is white, 26.6% is black, 1.3% is Asian, 4.2% are mixed, and 13% are Hispanic or Latino ). He listened and worked hard to do solve the issues important to SB’s minority populations. As a result, he was re-elected for a second term with 80% of the vote—just after coming out as gay. He knows that a huge challenge for his campaign is to reach out to AA, Latino and other minority voters who don’t know him, and his team has a strategy for doing that. He supports measures to not only end discrimination but policies that will “reverse” damage that occurred in the past. See the end of this page for Pete’s official policy ideas.
BEST VIDS/ARTICLES of PETES VALUES & POLICIES RELATED TO PoC:
Pete marching for Trevor Martin (article)
BEST OVERALL REBUTTAL:
SOUTH BEND NAMED HIGH-PERFORMING “RACE-INFORMED” CITY by Governing magazine in 2018 for going above and beyond in having inclusive local government and policies. “The “race-informed” designation covers cities that foster supportive environments for collective, community-wide racial healing and systemic, structural equity.”
PETE’S OFFICIAL ISSUE PAGE: Click Here and go to “Democracy->Racial Justice”
SPECIFIC TOPICS
Pete’s history as mayor of South bend
1000 Homes in 1000 Days project
SUMMARY: South Bend’s population shrank by 30,000 when it lost the Studebaker plant in 1963. The city was blighted by many abandoned and decrepit buildings. South Bender’s number one ask of the city gov’t was to do something about it. It was eroding property values and creating havens for drugs and crime. To get a handle on the problem, Pete had a campaign promise to deal with 1000 of these abandoned properties in 1000 days and he followed through. This was not “gentrification” because no one was living in the houses and the communities in which they were located retained the same minorities as before. Not all of these abandoned properties were torn down. A good percentage were fixed up with private and/or city funds. Most SB’ers are happy with the results, but like any ambitious project, there were some complaints which received a lot of air time. Check the the sources below for a balanced look at the pros and cons.
SOURCES:
“How the Media Is Getting Mayor Pete’s Gentrification Story Wrong” - Washington Monthly in depth article which interviewed SB residents
A good thread by a resident of South Bend Joseph Molnar on why the program was successful and helped increase property values for Poc in SB. (with price value comparisons)
HUD article about the technicalities of the municipal project
Fairly even-handed article, interviewing residents, from The Root
Listen to actual South Bend natives: The media likes to spin outrage headlines. But what’s the truth? There are a number of South Bender PoC on Twitter who are Pete supporters and who talk about what’s real in their city. You can follow @AJ_Indiana, @AnnalknikkiMicou, @sbxennial
2. firing black police chief
prominent poc supporters
REV AL SHARPTON - post pic of tweet or link to video
VAN JONES - post link to video
etc
etc
the challenge of homophobiA among black voters
One issue Pete has with AA voters is an ingrained homophobia within that community. Can he overcome it? He believes he can. He did in South Bend, where he won his second term with 80% of the vote (pop stats: South Bend stats: 60.5% of the population is white, 26.6% is black, 1.3% is Asian, 4.2% are mixed, and 13% are Hispanic or Latino). He’s also been enlisting the help of the AA gay community leaders and faith leaders like Al Sharpten.
LINK TO ARTICLE ABOUT PETE AND AA FAITH HOMOPHOBIA
PETE’S OFFICIAL ISSUE PAGE: Click Here and go to “Democracy->Racial Justice” (note: the page may be updated since I took the screenshot below)
