Identity politics

[Diable Rouge]

One topic noted in this country ahead of Thursday's local elections is the comparative scarcity of candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, with much discussion as to the best approach to change the political culture. One suggestion has been to set a quota for parties to reach, similar to the current strategy in relation to gender quotas, but, of course, the profile of migrants is considerably more variegated, and it would surely do them a disservice to be added on to party tickets as the "token" Pole or Nigerian. Rather, it would seem preferable for individual parties to be pro-active, looking to the demographics of communities, and targeting individuals already active in local organisations.

https://adriankavanaghelections.org/...cal-elections/

[Lang Spoon]

Well, with no quotas, those numbers seem pretty fuckin pitiful. Balbriggan has 2 candidates for 5 seats that are "new Irish" and its the most diverse place in Ireland outside of the urban core. But most of the posters are showing overweight white small businessmen or fragrant photogenic white schoolteacher types (as if every voter was living in Skerries). I'm not sure you'll see real change without quotas, as (as with gender quotas previous) there will be structural bias and prejudice and also fear of alienating "core" voters (esp from FG/FF) that will discourage parties from doing other than running Proper Irish clientelist wanks.