Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 2009
Those are some of the reactions from Atlanta mayoral candidates to a “hijacked” secret memo forwarding a “black mayor first” strategy for Martin Luther King Jr.’s old hometown.
But in a press conference Tuesday, the authors of the memo said that, politically speaking, Atlanta’s blacks would be well served by uniting behind one black candidate to defeat white frontrunner, Mary Norwood. They added that the uproar over the memo highlights how race discussions “put politicians in a straitjacket,” and how the realities of the Atlanta mayoral election are similar to changing demographics and election dynamics in cities all across the US.
{snip}
On Tuesday, the professors said media coverage had been incendiary and misleading and called claims of racism “a red herring.”
“We stand by our belief that a black agenda would enable African-American interests to be respected by any administration,” they said. “The interests of African-American voters are just as legitimate as other Atlanta voters, and the notion that we must apologize for highlighting those interests is absurd.”
{snip}
But that’s not how many of Atlanta’s black and white leaders saw it. Mayor Shirley Franklin bluntly called the memo “bigoted” and hardly in the spirit of former Mayor Jackson, who ran on a platform of racial inclusion to win in 1973. Top mayoral contenders Jesse Spikes, Kasim Reed, Lisa Borders, and Mary Norwood, the sole white candidate and front-runner, all distanced themselves from the memo, calling it, among other things, racist and divisive. [Editor’s note: The original version gave an incorrect last name for Atlanta’s current mayor.]
Jennings said the dustup shows that “people don’t have the language to talk about race.” Professor Boone added: “Race has been turned on its head and is now seen as a pejorative. Race has been turned into racist.”
But the authors said their observations are grounded in fact. They pointed to a Pew Study that lists Atlanta as one of the most segregated cities in the country, and noted that 60 percent of Atlanta’s young blacks grow up in poverty.
{snip}
Arguments can also be made that black mayors haven’t been able to make significant gains for the black community, and that race has moved from a primary to secondary qualification among the city’s voters. There’s also the question of whether black voters want to be seen as members of a special interest group—or individual voters looking for the best candidate
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: More details about the Atlanta “black mayor first” memo can be read here.
Original article
(Posted on September 2, 2009)
Comments
“We stand by our belief that a black agenda would enable African-American interests to be respected by any administration,” they said. “The interests of African-American voters are just as legitimate as other Atlanta voters, and the notion that we must apologize for highlighting those interests is absurd.”
Except if you’re white, then you don’t get to rally around a candidate for racial reasons. The reason I (and most ARers) is so upset with what the memo says is that we’re denied the same kind of solidarity.
‘Once you go black, you’re not allowed to go back’.
Black leaders should try to advance the interests of Blacks.
It’s clear black leaders and blacks as a group believe they are different than whites, that they have different agendas and goal and needs is proof. So why can’t whites accept that they are different than blacks? why the insistence that we’re all the same?
“Was Atlanta’s ‘Black Mayor First’ Memo Racist—Or Just Blunt?”
With US blacks everything first, last and always has a racial component, because, as the most racist people on earth, they can think of nothing else by itself without including race.
Blacks, and their white radical supporters, are the curse of mankind.
But we owe blacks a tiny bit of gratitude, however, because without them we wouldn’t know how low some of the people among whites can sink, and it tells us we desperately need somehow to cull our own race of flakes, oddballs, and misfits.
If we don’t do that, and finally gain homogenity again, we won’t want people among us who are so susceptible to mind control and programming. It’s a concept that everyone should think of constantly. It’s called culling the fools.
Jennings said the dustup shows that “people don’t have the language to talk about race.” Professor Boone added: “Race has been turned on its head and is now seen as a pejorative. Race has been turned into racist.”
Well, race has been turned into “racist” for white people for a long, long time. If a memo had gone out among whites about the necessity of electing a white mayor, you’d never hear the end of it in any of the major media. What I’ve noticed is that no matter how long a black majority city has a black mayor and a black power structure the ordinary black citizens face as much or more crime and poverty as ever before. Black politicians are no more able to fix the culture that black people create than are white politicians.
With US blacks everything first, last and always has a racial component, because, as the most racist people on earth, they can think of nothing else by itself without including race.
I believe the same point is made in “A Certain Trumpet,” which
As Native Born White Americans are reduced to an even smaller percentage of the US population,blacks,asians,muslims and hispanics we be much more publicly open in their hostility towards Native Born White Americans. There will be massive discrimination-and later on,violence- against Native Born White Americans. And when non-whites become a majority in the US military,police departments,DA offices and federal prosecutors…there will be nothing Native Born White Americans can do to stop the inevitable discrimination and violence that will be directed towards them.
On a fundamental level, Ted Kennedy is not the real reason for the race-replacement of Native Born White Americans..Native Born White Americans have their destiny in their own hand. They are repsonsible for their own race-replacement at the hands of post-1965 non-whites.
If only treasonous White politicians thought the same way.
Blacks are all about advancing the interests of blacks only making them the alltime #1 biggest racist on the planet and all their organizations are racist for black only and not inclusive. A few of them are NAACP, BET, Miss Black America, National Black Theater, National Black Golfers Hall of Fame, National Black Farmers Association, National Black MBA Association, NATIONAL BLACK ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, National Black Book Festival, National Black Yellow Pages, National Black Catholic Congress, National Black Parents Association, National Black Child Development Institute, National Black Justice Coalition, National Black Deaf Advocates, National Black Contractors Association, National Black Police Association, National Black Marathoners’ Association , National Black Pro-Life Union , National Black Republican Association, National Black Prosecutors Association , National Black Presbyterian Caucus, National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees, National Conference of Black Mayors’ National Black Reparations Alliance, National Society of Black Engineers, National Black Chamber of Commerce , etc, etc, etc, etc,etc.
Funny how there is no black players union in the NBA or NFL though since its all black anyway. We know they are dying to get black racers in nascar to have their own black drivers union.We suspect the next will be the Republican party where they have the Steele racist in charge who will probably organize a black GOP subgroup within the Republican party.
We suspect the next will be the Republican party where they have the Steele racist in charge who will probably organize a black GOP subgroup within the Republican party.
with Sttele in charge, the whites will have to leave andstart their own party, Steele will be the death of the Republicns as we know them now…..
Name one major US city with a black mayor that is not dysfunctional, corrupt, inefficient, crime-ridden, and rife with discriminationan lawsuits. As soon as a black administration takes over a city, that city be run into the ground. Facts don’t lie.
So, a majority-black city needs a black mayor. What does that say about a majority-white country?
“We stand by our belief that a black agenda would enable African-American interests to be respected by any administration,” they said. “The interests of African-American voters are just as legitimate as other Atlanta voters, and the notion that we must apologize for highlighting those interests is absurd.”
Depends on who says it. If blacks say it, it’s blunt. If whites say it, it’s racist. The blatant double standard, and the conspicuous concealment of this double standard is what gets whites fighting mad.
Anonymous, let’s not forget about…are you ready for this?…the Association of Black Scuba Divers…I kid you not…what do they do, blow ebonic bubbles underwater? Can they not stand being around white scuba divers so much they have to start their own exclusive club??? Are they sure the fish don’t hate them too? If I wanted to start a whites-only scuba club, there would be howls of racism, etc. Frankly, I’d rather dive with my own kind, but this is getting ridiculous…
In “equal opportunity” the only “equal” people are blacks. Whites are somehow less-than. The thing is, I do remember what it was like to live under segregation in the South. It was a very scary place to be, for both races. Unquestionably it was unjust to blacks. However, that got cleaned up, and blacks got the equality they were after. That part was fine, but blacks could not handle the CONSEQUENCES of equality — that they themselves were now responsible for their own positions in life, and sometimes the results of decisions go against the decider. Then they DECIDED that having to deal with the consequences of their own actions was RACISM - and they went back to blaming all their difficulties on the white folks, instead of taking a look at the drug culture that became rampant in the black communities, and at welfare stopping blacks from developing good careers and middle-class values. They are still there - still blaming the white folks, still refusing to stay in school, still bringing kids into the world at age 14, still doing alcohol and drugs every chance they get, and STILL on welfare, generation after generation. Until the ghetto blacks grow up and take responsibility for their own lives, they will stay in the hellholes that they themselves have created. Ain’t no white or black, mayor or otherwise, who can stop that!!
WE ALLOW IT - WE PROMOTE IT - WE CONDONE IT - That’s right WE DO we keep electing these same criminals to public office time and time again hoping they might brush some crumbs off their banquet table of perks and benefits so we the fool will have something to scramble for. Wake up Vote These Thieves and Liars Out Of Office while you still can..
