Racial politics in the U.S. suck. It does not matter if you are up North or down here in the South. It just sucks.

Here in my hometown we had a run off election for a seat on the City Commission. A black man has held the seat since 1975 when the Ward was created. Last year a Federal judge tossed out Georgia’s redistricting plan and had the districts drawn up by a panel of retired judges. The Ward in question changed from an overwhelmingly black Ward to one with a racial split of 62% Black and 38% White, which is very close to the racial makeup of the city. It is still majority black, but not as much as it had been.

This election was the first for the redrawn Ward. The incumbent had held the seat for 22 years and is black. The guy running against the incumbent is a political newcomer and he is white.

Before the election, most of the black leaders and churches held a rally and said on camera that it was important for blacks to vote for the incumbent because, “We need to keep the seat. This seat has historically been a black seat.”

Guess what? The black voters stayed away from the polls. Oh sure, the incumbent still got 43% of the vote, but in precincts where the incumbent should have gotten tons more vote, hardly anyone came to vote. My theory is that they were tired of the incumbent but could not bring themselves to vote for the challenger because he is white. As a result, the challenger won the race.

I bet you will be shocked to know that the NAACP held a news conference today. I bet you think they are mad at the white community or the challenger. I also bet you think they made some charge of racism.

You would be wrong on both accounts.

They lambasted the black voters in the Ward. They said things like:

Local NAACP chief William Wright said “Yesterday’s event was so catastrophic that we at the NAACP have to respond.”

Wright announced plans to make sure political upsets, like the election of Morris Gurr over 22-year incumbent Arthur Williams, don’t happen again. “People of color will easily gravitate and consider someone and turn back all that has worked for them without looking at any allegiance,” said Wright.
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And the report cards would show the track record of other candidates and what they’ve done for the black community. “If that person has not been in the community, he or she has no right to inherit the benefits that Martin Luther King, Junior and many others have put their life on the line for,” said Wright.
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When asked if he thought the black community let him down, Williams said, “I feel like the black community let themselves down because I was there, my candidacy was there. I struggled through it all to represent and be honorable.”

It has long been said in Conservative circles the leaders in the black community are not really interested in advancing their cause but rather in holding onto power. The first thing that happens when a black Conservative candidate or public person is “outed” is that the black establishment immediately labels them as “Uncle Toms” or sell outs or in the case of Condoleezza Rice – “House N-word”. How dare you try to go out on your own! Don’t you know that we need you to stay on the plantation where your good master, the Democratic Party, will toss you a bone every now and then?

Tonight, our town saw on camera proof that the black leaders in the town care nothing about the people they are supposed to represent. It was disgusting to see. The incumbent had developed a bad name for himself. People saw him as a race baiter who caused dissention on the Commission and who needed to go. The black candidates in the general election said the same thing. But when the run off came about and it was down to a white guy with good ideas on the future of the Ward, both white and black, and a black incumbent who had more than worn out his welcome, the leaders knee jerk reaction was to vote against the white guy. When the people failed to do that, they got pissed off and said “People of color will easily gravitate and consider someone and turn back all that has worked for them”. Can you get any more patronizing?

When will the black voters stand up for themselves and tell their “leaders” that they are free to vote for whomever they choose?

Full disclosure, the challenger and new Ward Commissioner is my father in-law.