I love this stuff! Political campaign stops are about optics. The cameras that point at the podium will have the most diverse arrangement of people possible, to give the impression the candidate is of the people. With a Democratic rally you will see blacks, Hispanics, Asians and any other diverse group you can think of. If it’s a constituency that is hard to distinguish, for example the LGBT community, some campaigns will have someone wear a T-shirt or wave a sign distinguishing themselves. Off to the side, there will be a person doing sign language. For the Democrats is all about showing how inclusive they are of all people.

Republicans have had a tougher time in making up a rainbow coalition. Their rhetoric has put off many ethnic groups. When they have a candidate running for President such as Ben Carson or Herman Cain running, it’s an oddity on a number of levels. There aren’t many blacks, especially black conservatives that are part of the party. Furthermore, it can be safely said a good deal of the Republican electorate are steeped in very traditional ways of thinking; traditional being defined by attitudes stuck in a 1940s and 1950s nostalgia vision. Something I wish could be studied is how candidates like Cain and Carson can become so popular with the conservative base of the party. Ben Carson is running second or third in many national polls and in some of the early voting states, which have a high level of conservative voters, he has been running a strong second for months. Even after what some would consider a lackluster performance at the Fox News debate, he was one of the few, along with Trump and Carly Fiorina, whose poll numbers went up. That seems at odds with the general thinking conservatives have about minorities. It can be guessed that Cain and Carson reflect the ‘correct’ way minorities should act in the minds of many conservatives.

Looking at the platform shots of many conservative rallies becomes a game of Where’s Waldo when looking for diversity. In watching the Donald Trump rally in Mobile Alabama on August 21, the platform shot was incredibly monochrome. There was one black person in the crowd from what I could see from the shot. On MSNBC, they did have a reports from the stadium before the rally, where they used a wider shot. With the wider view five black people could be seen behind the podium. There have been some conservative outlets that claim the close up shot was used to show less black people in the crowd, thus giving the impression not a lot of black people support Trump when that isn’t the case.

OK, when I hear an argument like that it illustrates for me how weak the rhetoric is. From a production point of view, the wide shot was great when the candidate wasn’t there but to use the same shot when Trump was on stage you would have lost him in the crowd optically. Putting that aside, the wide background shot had at least 100 and maybe close to 200 people. There were five black people in the shot at most. Any way you look at it the number is anemic. I’m honestly surprised that in Mobile Alabama, of all places, you could find five black people to attend a rally like that. There were two other people I saw in the wide shot that might be Hispanic or Asian. It was difficult to be completely sure. If you want to see a larger image of the freeze frame you can click here.