Saturday, November 9, 2013

Blackface in American Politics

White guy wins after leading voters to believe he’s black
HOUSTON -- Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign. "I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win." Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him. Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he's black. And it apparently worked. In one of the biggest political upsets in Houston politics this election season, Wilson -- an anti-gay activist and former fringe candidate for mayor -- emerged as the surprise winner over 24-year incumbent Bruce Austin. His razor thin margin of victory, only 26 votes, was almost certainly influenced by his racially tinged campaign. "Every time a politician talks, he's out there deceiving voters," he says. Wilson, a gleeful political troublemaker, printed direct mail pieces strongly implying that he's black. His fliers were decorated with photographs of smiling African-American faces -- which he readily admits he just lifted off websites -- and captioned with the words "Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson."

We don't have this problem in California because when a minority race is elected by a different race, the voters can go to court and reverse the election based on the California Apartheid concept of 'not enough racism' Nancy Pelosi is the biggest fan of government imposed racism by a minority, sort of the modern day Jefferson Davis. The real message to Blacks, if you want to vote by race, checking the skin color before the election is a good idea.

No comments: