There is much media hand-wringing about "all the white men" Obama is nominating for open cabinet and other positions. There are suggestions he needs his own "binders full of women." Please.
So far there has been one white woman Secretary replaced by a white man. That's outgoing Secretary Clinton and incoming John Kerry. That's it. No, really. That's it.
A (fierce) black man is staying on as Attorney General.
Susan Rice (I know, I know), she's still at the UN.
Janet Napolitano is still at Homeland Security.
Hilda Solis will likely be replaced by a woman since women have held that Department since I think Reagan, it's just likely.
There is yet:
Commerce,
Energy,
Transportation.
There may be:
Interior,
Agriculture,
Health & Human Services,
Education,
HUD.
There is:
Chief of Staff,
EPA,
OMB,
Trade Rep,
SBA
SEC.............
And there could be and most likely will be:
THE SUPREME FUCKING COURT.
I'm not just saying there's yet plenty of opportunity for more diversity, I'm also pointing out that so far, only one white female Secretary is being replaced by a white man.
And I'm pointing to the fact that white people and white men, electorally speaking, also aren't all that bad. Democrats won the White House with overwhelming advantages among minorities -- but let's face it, we also won while losing white voters terribly, most among them, white men. I don't expect a Democrat to win a majority of white voters or white men in 2016. But margins matter. We can't take for granted that in 2016 African Americans, Asians, Latinos and women will vote the same way with a different Republican nominee. And we need to recognize that among Democratic voters, white men are a minority. We can't let up on any constituency except the haters of any color. So white should be a color in our rainbow too.
I'm not arguing that we should go "full on white guys" in the administration: diversity is crucial among gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, geography. And there is plenty of time yet to make progress on that. But a) let's push back on "oh noez teh white guyz" since only one has been added and b) there is still ample room for diversity among appointments yet, and c) while we desperately need diversity in all levels of government and especially at the highest, Obama is not creating a problem right now.