Oh yeah the first official post of 2011 :P
Why is that, because she is the only other well-known Black candidate in the race for mayor next month. The other high profile black in this race was west-side Congressman Danny Davis, but last night he dropped out of the race. This is after some feeling that he wasn't very serious in the first place.
What is this consensus candidate thing about? Insuring that a Black could waltz into the Mayor's office at City Hall's 5th Floor. It was important back in the 1983 election to insure the election of a Black as Mayor of Chicago. Besides there were a lot of people who had a vested interest in keeping a Black out of the Mayor's office. Harold Washington had to contend with two whites in that election incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne and wait the current Mayor himself.
When Washington came out of the Mayoral primary back then a lot of ethnic white Democrats shifted parties to keep Washington out. Washington won although he needed a lot of help out of the jump. Yeah a Republican wasn't likely to be elected Mayor in Chicago back then, and it helped that amongst other groups that supported him he had a Black base behind him.
Fast forward to the current situation, close to 30 years later. There isn't racial strife in our city. Yeah some of our neighborhoods aren't in the best shape and some of those neighborhoods are black and outside of the trendiest areas of our city. Still there isn't a big sense that race is a cause for a lot of this.
At that, today's Harold Washington doesn't exist. Washington was a likeable guy it seems and if people got past the color of his skin who knows he could've had the whole city in his hand had he not passed away in 1987.
All the same Carol Moseley Braun isn't going to be today's Harold Washington. Not even close. Danny Davis wasn't going to cut the mustard in the role. Not even James Meeks, who I believe could be that guy may have fallen short this time around.
Who can be that black person who could attract so many people in this city to their campaign and be taken serious?
Isiah 1:17- Learn to do well. Seek justice, Relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
2 comments:
Jess Jackson II, where are you?
He had his chance and he blew it. He could've ran against Daley four years ago and he wouldn't do it. Then thought he'd be senator when Obama got elected and blew that. Then we find out that he cheated on his wife and he was willing to raise money for Blago to get that Senate seat. He's too wounded to go for it right now, if ever.
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