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According to Business Insider, Mayor “Saint Pete” Buttigieg is currently in fourth place, polling at nine percent among the candidates for the 2020 Democrat Presidential nomination. A recent article about his attempts to understand the black experience makes him come off as an oblivious dilettante. Yet, he remains a media darling.
The Washington Post has posted an article, “Inside Pete Buttigieg’s years-long, and often clumsy, quest to understand the black experience”. Although the article, is certainly sympathetic to Buttigieg, it does him no favors. For those who are part of the coastal elites, the article may produce knowing nods that say, “Yes. That is how we behave.” For those of us in flyover country, Mayor Pete comes off as someone who actually thinks he CAN understand the “black experience”.
The WaPo article begins with recounting the experience that Renee Ferguson, a prominent Chicago journalist, had with the then Harvard sophomore Buttigieg, as her intern. She didn’t want Pete; she was committed to diversity. Although if I was looking for something other than an over-eager Alfred E. Neuman, Harvard wouldn’t be my first choice. Because Pete’s housing fell through, he ended up living with Ferguson’s family.
There is an apocryphal story from Ferguson about her and a black cameraman not being able to get into a building, but Buttigieg could. Mayor Pete is “fuzzy” on the details himself. But, the story proves “white privilege”. From the article:
“I think I understand what white privilege looks like,” Ferguson recalled telling Buttigieg.
“I don’t know if that’s what’s going on,” he said.
“Yes, you do know,” she said. “I couldn’t get in, but you could. Think about how many times in your life that you’ve just been able to walk through doors and the rest of us got turned away.”
Buttigieg had a black roommate in college, of course. The story of their lives together is right out of the Omega Theta Pi fraternity from Animal House:
Buttigieg and Iweala agreed that bridging differences would be a matter of listening, asking good questions and having a welcoming attitude.
In the efforts to create those experiences, Buttigieg tried to make their dorm rooms feel homey over their years living together. They christened their place “The Chateau.” Buttigieg would order smoked salmon for his roommates, put up a Christmas tree and make eggnog, with Buttigieg occasionally holding a pipe akin to the host of “Masterpiece Theater.”
Mayor Pete has problems at home in South Bend, Indiana (population 102,000) with the African-Americans. He didn’t know that the South Bend schools weren’t fully integrated. There was also the firing of the first black Police Chief and an officer-involved shooting.
He hasn’t had much success with anything in South Bend, but in this interview with CBS This Morning, two days ago, Buttigieg touts his accomplishments to Gayle King at about 1:41 in:
There is something about Mayor Pete that screams, “I am smarter and better than you.” And, then he mentions his faith and Saint Pete shows up.
At one point in the WaPo article, journalist Ferguson calls the 20 year-old Pete “oblivious”. That is normal in a young man, but Buttigieg still comes off oblivious. I acknowledge that Buttigieg has a large intellectual capacity. He is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar. But, he also comes off as a bit of a dabbler. When speaking of the South Bend schools, a former mayoral candidate said this:
“It sounded like he wasn’t even from here,” said Henry Davis, Jr., a city council member who ran against Buttigieg for mayor in 2015. Davis wondered how a man who was so intellectually curious that he learned Norwegian to better understand a novel, who went out of his way to learn an Aboriginal wooden instrument called the didgeridoo, could be so unaware about segregation patterns in his own city.
Unaware or oblivious? Intellectually curious or a dilettante? Mayor “Saint Pete” Buttigieg is an oblivious dilettante. Too young, too bold and to unaware to be President. Make a success in the small town of South Bend before you try out for the big job.
And, one more thing. The black experience is like the white or Asian or any other experience. Unless you meet every single person in that community, you don’t know the whole experience. Each experience is individual to that person.
Photo Credit: Donkey Hotey/Flickr.com/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Charles N. Steele says: Toni, you write: “ And, one more thing. The black experience is like the white or Asian or any other experience. Unless you meet every single person in that community, you don’t know the whole experience. Each experience is individual to that person.”
Apparently that’s not even enough. You could even BE someone and still not understand yourself. As one of the ethnic studies occupiers at Harvard puts it:
“I am tired of Harvard using my story without giving me ethnic studies so I can fully understand what my story even means.”
It’s important to remember the left has embraced irrationality, and has no real values or sense of purpose to life. They are truly mad and need to be quarantined from power and influence.
Keep at it.
Skillyboo says: Seems to me Petey becomes who he thinks they want him to be but, instead, comes off as patronizing and phony. Reminds me of Hillary and her southern Black dialect.
GWB says: Yet, he remains a media darling.
Of course. Gay. Having a gay president would be such a victory for those whose desire is to tear down what has been. They don’t care how good he is. (He doesn’t have to be good – the Deep State will handle all the important stuff. He just has to be a figurehead – like 0bama, imo – for the real people who run the show.)
There is something about Mayor Pete that screams, “I know I am smarter and better than you.”
FIFY. Also, more righteous.
He is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar.
Don’t believe the hype. Those things don’t mean nearly as much as they did 30 years ago.
Anchovy says: Few things give a man more creditability than speaking about the black experience with the faint odor of seaman on his breath.
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