Race Matters Less in Politics of South

[jackson_dem]

-snip-



CULLMAN, Ala. — The racial breakthroughs have come gingerly in Alabama over the years: a black mayor there, an old Klansman put on trial here, a civil rights memorial there.

And a few weeks ago, voters in a county that is more than 96 percent white chose a genial black man, James Fields, to represent them in the State House of Representatives. It is a historic first, but the moment is full of awkwardness.

-snip

“It strikes me as a real watershed event,” said Samuel L. Webb, a historian at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Last fall, another black man, Eric Powell, was elected to the Mississippi State Senate from a district that is more than 92 percent white, and no one could find a modern precedent for that, either. Mr. Fields and Mr. Powell are Democrats who decisively beat white candidates in districts that traditionally support Republican presidential candidates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21race.html?em&ex=1203742800&en=d560233b237b6ca3&ei=5087%0A

[Canuckistanian]

1. I'm not altogether surprised by this

However, if you ask anyone in those regions what they think of Jesse Jackson, you might get a different view of the standard "black politician".

But it's interesting that the hatemongering of Rush Limbaugh et al mean nothing when people actually ENCOUNTER intelligent and charismatic people who just HAPPEN to be black as well.

It's encouraging.

[July]

2. I was sickened by the comments of a Mr. Rice in this article.

He claimed that there were "two races" within the black races, only one of which wanted "to help."

[catzies]

3. Question: if race now matters LESS, now what matters MORE?

Not necessarily a query of you, as you merely posted the link and didn't write it.

Maybe, in other words: if race for them is no longer something to vote against, what are they voting for?

[Dob Bole]

4. My Congressman is black, in a majority-white rural district...

My district is mostly agricultural, too. But then again, Jimmy Carter lives in it.