Dear Fellow White Men:
C'mon guys, I keep thinking that you're going to get it. You can't still be holding on to that nostalgia for the 1950s when separate was equal, everyone was heterosexual and nice girls didn't work. I'm not talking to all of you. Just the ones in the party that runs the House of Representatives. Looking at the newly-announced Republican House committee chairs -- all of them very, very white men -- I'm wondering why this hasn't sunk in at all?
I hoped the sea of white faces at the Republican convention was something maybe out of your control. I mean you didn't pick all the delegates yourselves... you didn't, right?
I wanted to believe it when you said that Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin was just one bad apple. OK, well Richard "Something That God Intended" Mourdock made it just two very bad apples. All right, then Paul Ryan became a silent bad apple since he agreed with Akin and Mourdock on policy. But still...
When you held a Congressional hearing on women's health and there were no women on the panel, it seemed that some junior staffer must have made a mistake in scheduling. Only men on a panel regarding women's health? -- I know that at least a few of you must have said: "There's something missing here, but I just can't put my finger on it."
With all your hand-wringing and analysis after an election where women and people of color decisively rejected you , it started to sound like the you got it. But then I took a look at these committee chairs.
Now, I know you didn't have too many choices for leadership. Out of 234 of you, there are only 19 women, five Latinos and one African American. And none of you is (at least openly) gay. But you didn't think that even one of those members of Congress was qualified to run something? Anything?
Take a look around you. There are more women in the country than men. White people make up 97 percent of your caucus, but only 78 percent of the country. We have an African American president, who was reelected by a coalition in which white men were a minority. And, thanks to his nominees, there are more women and people of color on the Supreme Court and federal courts around the country than ever before. The other side of the aisle looks more like America.
Just give it a shot.
Or at least, try.