Editor, Daily Nexus,

When I read Henry Sarria’s article (“Racism Saturates Our Politics,” Daily Nexus, March 2), arguing that ethnic minorities could be just as racist as whites, well, I agreed. When he justified this with the fact that black people vote for black people, I couldn’t help but think: What would you do?

Voting isn’t always informed, and the bombardment of information can sometimes be overwhelming, making it difficult to decide. Samuel Popkin argues that voters use “information shortcuts” when voting, and race is a good shortcut to predicting the behavior of a candidate.

So, yes, perhaps ethnic minorities do vote based on race – but is this racism or just common sense? The last time I voted, I voted for Tony Blair. Not that I agreed with everything Blair said or did, but the alternative was the Tories – the Conservative Party – who have consistently screwed over my region time and time again. Given their track record in my region, it was logical to vote for the Labour Party candidate – Blair. So, given the fact that the black community and other ethnic minorities have being consistently screwed over by white candidates, isn’t it just logical that they would vote for the other?

A problem with Sarria’s argument is his claim that because white voters vote for all ethnic groups, race doesn’t factor in to their voting decision. Perhaps this is true, but you have to acknowledge that whites are generally more advantaged. I tried to recall when whites have been screwed over by politicians because of their race. Maybe you can think of one, but frankly, I’m stumped.

Whites have the luxury not to be concerned about the race of their candidates, history has shown that the chances of them getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop are almost non-existent. So, it’s just logical that race doesn’t factor into their voting decision. Yes, ethnic minorities judging a candidates’ future behavior by their race is racism. But, unlike racism towards ethnic minorities, this voting behavior is based on a long history of facts. The fact that politicians have persistently made promises to ethnic groups, and persistently broken them, makes voting for the “other” the logical vote.

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