I went to a Hillary Clinton rally in a black neighborhood. Everyone was white

Hillary Clinton spoke early afternoon Sunday at the Douglass Park Gymnasium in a neighborhood called Oakhill near the heart of Indianapolis.

The Democratic front-runner took to the stage after introductions from an array of celebrated Indiana democrats including former US Senator Evan Bayh, current US Senator Joe Donnelly, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, and Congressman André Carson.

Campaign staffers determined an audience of about 750 people according to the fire marshal who closed the doors to would-be-attendees at noon.

Almost immediately after taking the mic, Clinton mentioned that the speech was being played on speakers outdoors to those who didn’t get to make it inside. She joked that those outside were at least safe from the stifling humidity of the gymnasium.

As well as being hot, another thing most of the people inside had in common was whiteness.

There were a lot of white people there.

I cannot speak with regards to those assembled outside, but I can say the audience inside was really quite noticeably un-diverse considering we were in the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood.

Don’t get me wrong — there was plenty of diversity within the white people there. I saw all sorts of white people.

There were exuberantly cheering white people.

There were waves-in-the-sea-of-smart-phones white people.

There were we’re-tired-of-standing-and-Ready-For-Hillary-to-get-this-rally-started white people.

It may sound cynical, but you know how the crowd of attendees selected to stand on the raised platform behind candidates at rallies tend to also be more colorful than usual for when the footage airs on television?

Honestly, they didn’t do too bad. Well played, team.

At a more all-encompassing angle, however:

It’s a different picture.

It may seem like I am expressing some rage against the beige. But as an Indianapolis native, I can say with confidence that the people within that gymnasium plain and simple were not reflective of the immediate area. Someone could look at this crowd and mistake it for a rally for 2008 Hillary or 2016 Hillary but in the upper-middle class and — you guessed it — so incredibly white suburbs north of Indianapolis where I grew up.

And based on Clinton’s speech, it seemed she was also anticipating a different audience.

Early on she addressed core issues of her campaign, like helping women as a simple matter of economics and increasing taxes on the wealthy. She also gave emphasis to her stance on a woman’s right to choose and criticized Governor Mike Pence’s recently signed legislation against Planned Parenthood and other clinics which practice abortions among their health services.

But — and I could be wrong on this — Clinton seemed to give noticeable emphasis to passages about gun regulation, combatting the intolerance of the political right, healthcare access, and treating drug addiction — which sounded like the kinds of messages that have served her particularly well with black voters in Southern states.

Whoever prepared her speech also seems to have been expecting a crowd with an emotional connection to Bill Clinton. References to the former president came thick and fast.

To be clear, the whiteness of the crowd isn’t Hillary’s fault, or the fault of the many white people who turned up. And no one is wagging a finger at the local black population for choosing to spend their Sunday elsewhere rather than seeing Hillary Clinton.

It was just an impression that struck me. Given where we were, it was impossible not to notice.

Does it indicate that the black vote isn’t going to be as strong for Clinton in Indianapolis as it has been in many states? It’s not a great sample size, but let’s see.

Does it mean that Bernie is about to pull off a Michigan-style upset in the Midwest? The pollsters have them even.

Let’s not wildly extrapolate from the turnout at this event here in Connecticut. Oh, did I say “Connecticut?” I meant to say “Douglass Park, Indianapolis.” I must’ve been thrown off by all of the white people.