Posts Tagged ‘race’

The mayoral race is starting to heat up, kinda-it’s gone from cold to tepid, but there’s nobody out there galvanizing anybody. So far there are a few people I really don’t like, but none that get me fired up.

I think the overall feeling is: “Meh. Anybody’s better than Nagin.” Mayor Nagin who, it should be noted, is about to take yet another publicly funded trip with his wife, this one to the Mexican Yucatan. In the last few months he’s been to China, Australia and Cuba, but I guess the man’s got to get as much as he can in, ’cause soon he’ll have to reach into his own pocket for these things. (Or, even better- in jail, which tends to curb your itinerary.)

So, yeah, people are stepping up to run against him, and inevitably some candidates fall to the back of the pack. In trying to break out of the herd James Perry has decided to take the road less traveled, though I’m not sure I would call it the high road:

Wow.

Couple that with this morning’s NPR promo for an afternoon story on Jefferson Parish trying to keep out black low income residents (complete with a local sound bite: “It’s not about race! It’s about stable neighborhoods!”) and boy howdy, aren’t we just an interesting bunch of people today.

At least the moron justice of the peace who wouldn’t marry interracial couples (for the sake of the children. He was driven by boundless altruism, y’all) was forced to step down. My favorite part of that was that his wife said they were shocked at all the attention it had gotten, they just didn’t understand it. They didn’t do anything wrong, they say, what’s all this fuss? And you look at them on the teevee and realize that by god, they mean it.

But. Let’s keep an eye on progress. The yokels didn’t know what they’d done wrong, but others did, and took action. I’m sure the Jeff Parish good-ol-boys’ way of thinking is under pressure, too, and NPR’s attention will keep the light shined on them as they scurry around.

As for James? Well, I’m not sure if that ad represents evolution or devolution, but I have to say that cussing old people are pretty funny. And I’m sure it really pisses off the bigots, too, so that’s got to count for something, right?

It was a quiet week around here, blog-wise, because it was anything but quiet, life-wise. I’ll catch up on all that later, because it deserves its own entry, but the runoff election was on Saturday, and I’ve gotten really disgusted with the coverage, so I’m gonna rant about that first.

First off, I want to say that, generally speaking, the good guys won. These are people who are trying to reform, and seem genuinely interested in change. Just to clarify: this is why I consider them “good guys.”

So it’s infuriating that all the local media is focusing on is race. The whites have “taken control” of the City Council with a 4-3 majority. They’ve “seized” several positions around the city. It’s absurd.

The Council race pitted one (white) ex-council member against a current (black) council member who represents the East.

Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with either candidate, but had to grimace and vote for the white chick. Despite what the media will tell you, it wasn’t because Cynthia’s black, but because she’s so busy trying to cover her own ass that I just can’t trust her judgement. Her constituency in the East is an obvious candidate for redistricting and she’s doing anything she can to keep her hand in the pot, including encouraging people to move into unsafe areas.

I also voted for the white chick for judge. No big mystery: the black chick simply had about 1/3 the experience.

There, that’s my little confession.

The thing that baffles me, though- and is driving Charlie bats, btw- is that there hasn’t been a big piece about Jalila Jefferson-Bullock’s defeat by Cheryl Grey. Maybe because they’re both black so it doesn’t fit the theme?

Jalila doesn’t seem a bad person, really. But she does come with a complete set of luggage, plus a refrigerator or two. She’s Dollar Bill’s daughter, and despite having his enormous political machine behind her she lost by a 2-1 margin.

This is huge. Nearly unimaginable- and yet there hasn’t been a single big story focusing on this, and it really is a ‘big picture’ issue.

Is it actually possible that the voters are getting beyond race- beyond legacy, even- and voting with their heads? Well, I don’t want to get my hopes too high, but there’s always hope, no?