Alabama Senate Race: Moore's positions on race is so, so, 1850s

Roy Moore

ALLEGATIONS of sexual misconduct by Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore has grabbed all the headlines leading up to special election this Tuesday, Dec. 12 but don't forget  his positions on race.

Almost lost in all the furor from the women who claim Moore had acted inappropriately towards them when they were minors and his was a District Attorney in his 30s, is his attitudes towards race.

Based on his public statements, he is firmly entrenched in the mid-1800s who believes the last time America was "great" was during the Civil War and that the Civil Rights Act was the reason we have the racial problems of today.

Last September, in response to a question from one of the only African Americans in the audience — who asked when Moore thought America was last “great” -- Moore acknowledged the nation’s history of racial divisions, but said: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”

Later, he seemed to contradict himself when he said,  “We were torn apart in the Civil War — brother against brother, North against South, party against party,” he said. “What changed?"

He answered himself,  “Now we have blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting,” Moore added. “What’s going to unite us? What’s going to bring us back together? A president? A Congress? No. It’s going to be God.”

In case you're a new immigrant and not familiar with the term, the "yellows" he was talking about were people descended from Asia. The "reds" is a derogatory term describing Native Americans.

I hate to use a stereotype to argue against the use of stereotypes, but Moore does little to counter the negative stereotype of a culture that is often referred to as "Southern." Not the genteel, southern charm that former Confederate states like to describe themselves, but the racist, red-neck, good-old-boy, pick-up-driving, gun-toting stereotype that southerners hate. In Moore's case, add dating and molesting under-age girls to that.

This is the man Donald Trump and the Republican leadership has endorsed to become the next U.S. Senator for Alabama. 

With only 54,000 AAPIs in the entire state, and with only .6 percent of the registered voters, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders might have little impact on the outcome of Tuesday's election, but as we've seen in recent elections. Every single vote counts. A vote here and there could turn districts around in a close election. If enough districts turn ... well, it helps to be hopeful.

The key will be the white suburban voters, those who are better educated and little more moderate in their political and social positions and those most likely to have AAPI friends, co-workers or classmates.

Here's the racial breakdown of registered voters in Alabama:

• 2,332,607 white voters, 70.2 percent of the total.
• 883,736 black voters, 26.6 percent.
• 29,869 Hispanic voters, 0.9 percent.
• 20,225 Asian voters, 0.6 percent.
• 11,344 American Indians, 0.3 percent.

If you're a registered voter in Alabama, go out and vote. Vote for Doug Jones for U.S. Senate.

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