The Black, White, And Bluegrass State

John Cheves's Sunday piece in the Lexington Herald-Courier is a good read if you haven't caught it, as he explores the reasons behind why Kentucky remains one of the only states to never have elected a minority to any statewide or federal office.

This is where black visitors aren't welcome in all private establishments. For example, the Kentucky Human Rights Commission in 2008 settled a complaint with an American Legion post in Franklin after it refused to allow a black television repairman onto the premises. Under the terms of the settlement, the post paid the repairman $6,500 and agreed to civil-rights compliance training.

Kentucky politicians don't address race because they don't think they need to, said University of Kentucky historian Gerald Smith, who writes and teaches about black life in the state.

Ninety percent of Kentucky is white, and especially in rural areas, whites tend to have limited contact with people of other races, Smith said. Kentuckians often aren't so much racist as racially oblivious, Smith said.

"There are many places in Kentucky where you can live and work and not ever see black people at all. The closest to black people they're going to get is watching UK basketball on television," Smith said.

Smith said he wasn't surprised that Paul's criticism of the Civil Rights Act did him little harm in Kentucky. A Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll in May found that one-third of Kentucky voters agreed with Paul, that businesses should get to decide whether to serve customers of different races.

"There are things that political candidates can say and do here in Kentucky that just wouldn't fly in other parts of the country," Smith said. "And at the same time, there are things they don't have to say or do."

Having lived here for several years just across the river from Cincy,  I can tell you that NKY and the I 64-71-75 triangle is pretty normal as far as minorities go in an increasingly urban setting.  But if you stray too far from the Louisville-Lexington-Florence area by even a county or two, you're going to find yourself back a couple of decades.  The high counties along the river stretching down the West Virginia border to the northeast and along the Indiana border to the northwest are scenic and beautiful, but you want to be real damn careful before stopping at say, the local Legion post for a beer.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's in the foothills of North Carolina and I'm used to operating in that kind of environment, but even I was a little taken aback.  It's the 21st century and this kind of thing still goes on here.  Watching African-Americans on the SEC Network playing UK basketball and football really is the closest some people will get to seeing any minorities, and not just African-American.

Racially oblivious is a good term.  Even in 2010, if everyone you see, work with, play with, and know is white, race isn't an issue.  And that's a reality in several parts of Kentucky as well as several places in the United States.

Hillary Clinton would have beaten John McCain by double digits if she was running for President in 2008.  I can assure you of that.