Ramblings' Journal

The Kerry camp's continued pandering to black audiences: "We got you Al Sharpton!"

John Kerry was on his way through Ohio recently, particularly headed toward Xenia, OH (an area where I spent my summers growing up, and where my mother grew up).

At nearby Wilberforce and Central State Universities (they are about five or six miles east of Xenia; my grandparents' house was actually in the village of Wilberforce), supporters were led to believe that Kerry would stop if they could get 100 people to see him.

Eventually 150 students and supporters — including congressional candidate Kara Anastasio — gathered for four hours on a cold (rainy and snowy) Ohio day.

And the Kerry caravan drove right on by. All the long-suffering got from the candidate was a clenched "victory" fist out the window.

According to Shavon Ray, president of Wilberforce's NAACP, the students were devastated — with comments such as "This is why I don't vote."

Ray told the local NAACP chapter the affair was a "slap in the face."

After the incident — and Ray's criticism — made the local paper, the Democratic Party sent one Ken Miller to Wilberforce to meet with Ray. He offered 50 tickets — and 8 VIP tickets — to a Kerry event in Dayton.

Ray declined what she saw as "hush tickets." Taking seriously the idea that the NAACP is supposed to be non-partisan, Ray turned the tickets over to Wilberforce's student government.

Next, Miller offered to have Rev. Al Sharpton stop by as a speaker. That annoyed Ray even more: "We don't want a black face to speak to black students."

The final straw was when Miller said Sharpton would be sent to speak to Central State University — along with X-rated rapper Foxy Brown.

When Ray reminded Miller that they didn't want anything to do with Sharpton, Miller allegedly responded, "What do you want — Kerry to lose the f---ing race? We got you Al Sharpton. What more do you want?"

For Shavon Ray, it was simple: "The [campaign] could have just offered an apology and shared their sympathy to our school."

Perhaps Kerry shouldn't be held responsible for mistakes and intemperate behavior of the local Democratic organization. But Ray, fairly enough, says, "If you can't handle this situation — which is minor — how are you going to handle the type of situations a president faces?"

She adds: "This is not acceptable. You can't bypass us like we don't even matter, like you have our vote pocketed and you don't."

Ah, but there's the rub. Kerry and the Democrats figure they do have the black vote sewn up.

And they figure they can treat blacks like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel.

The sad part is that there are many blacks who take that kind of treatment from Democrats, when they wouldn't take it from anyone else. Why? Because they are afraid to leave the "liberal plantation."

Posted by mhking at October 29, 2004 11:09 PM