Speaking of the black-brown coalition . . .
Tuesday morning, on the west side of Civic Center. The Rev. Leon Emerson, president of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, takes the microphone: “We come this morning to show the unity of our community with our Hispanic, as well as our black clergy and . . .”
“And one Jew,” says Rabbi Steven Foster, peering out from behind Emerson.
The ministers and rabbi break into laughter. More than 20 ministers gather to endorse Michael Hancock for mayor. They are here as faith leaders, a reconvening of the interfaith alliance that marked the civil-rights era. But, make no mistake, they also are reminding voters of the coalition that helped elect the city’s first Latino and black mayors.
As pastor Patrick Demmer puts it during the news conference: “This really is a going back, a reaffirming of days gone by, days when Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez worked together, days when — even right here in our city of Denver — we had Wellington Webb and Corky Gonzales working together.”
Pastor Butch Montoya, former Denver manager of safety, adds: “We feel the importance of the old-time coalition needs to come back into reality and be the new coalition of the 21st century.”
This fits so neatly with Sunday’s column about patterns in ethnic voting, I can’t ignore it. That column raised the question of whether voters and elected leaders, particularly young minorities, still see a need for political coordination and collaboration among blacks and Latinos.
I find the true believers in that coalition here. “It’s extremely necessary,” Demmer says after the news conference. “We share a common struggle and a common cause.”
Montoya put it bluntly when we spoke last week: “Together, Latino and African-Americans make up almost half the city, and we can direct our own path. The other side of the city will have to work with us for once because we own the keys to the future.”
Which is a reminder that all coalitions are about power — how to amass it, how to wield it. This makes Tuesday’s news conference not simply a kumbaya moment in support of a mayoral candidate but old-fashioned political theater. Like city columns, political theater tends to render a complicated history in simplified terms. The fact remains that the other side of this city may be white, but it’s also largely liberal, and, without it, Federico Peña would never have become the city’s first Latino mayor 28 years ago.
So it’s not surprising that when Hancock takes the microphone, he deftly sidesteps racial politics and presents the group as faith leaders who are offering the city and future mayor an opportunity to work together on social issues such as homelessness and juvenile justice.
The risk of overt racial politics is that they polarize. They are, by definition, exclusive, and nothing plays worse in a city and a society that a) likes to see itself as inclusive and b) loathes talking about race.
But race cannot be entirely negated, Terrance Carroll says. Carroll is a minister and former state House speaker. He’s also 42 and the youngest in the gathering of ministers.
“A lot of folks think that with the election of Barack Obama, we live in a post-race-conscious era, and, to a certain degree, that’s true,” he says. “But look at Denver alone. Look at the dropout rate. Who is it the highest amongst? Black and brown children. Who does poverty impact the most per capita? Black and brown families. If you look at seniors who fail to get health care, it disproportionately affects black and brown seniors. We have a lot of issues impacting both communities that we are not going to address unless we work together.”
These are facts that cannot be ignored but have long existed in the face of one other reality. Take a map of the city and overlay it with the precincts that have the lowest voter turnout. Things line up pretty neatly. Turnout is lowest in impoverished neighborhoods, which tend to be black and Latino. A coalition is only as powerful as the base upon which it is built. And every one of the ministers will tell you, out there, west and north and east of Civic Center, is where the work lies.
Tina Griego writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-2699 or tgriego@denverpost.com.
