The use and abuse of racial identity in politics, Atlanta-style
Aaron Turpeau, an Atlanta political activist and strategist, has dropped a little bomb into the middle of the city’s mayoral race in the form of a memo to unknown black leaders in Atlanta. The document, intended to be private, calls on black Atlanta to unite behind a single black candidate to keep the mayor’s office in black hands, allowing the city to pursue what Turpeau calls a “black agenda.”
The memo, which came to light Thursday, makes at least two egregious, offensive and dangerous assumptions:
First, it treats the mayor’s office as a black possession, a trophy of sorts that could be surrendered to white Atlantans for the first time in 35 years. That is a cartoonish, archaic approach to politics that, among other things, ignores the humanity of individual mayoral candidates, with all their strengths and weaknesses, and tries to reduce them to mere representatives of their respective races.
That mindset has had its day, and that day is, or ought to be, over. But as the memo reminds us, it isn’t quite. There are those in the black and white communities who still see opportunity, profit and power in extending that day beyond its normal lifespan, and the Turpeau memo lays out one way it might be done.
In fact, the memo is valuable because it brings to the surface a sentiment that is more widely held among black voters than many local leaders, black and white, would care to publicly acknowledge. Many black voters — older voters in particular — take pride in the idea that Atlanta is a black-run city, and for some that sense of pride would be diminished if a white person were elected to lead it.
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The use and abuse of racial identity in politics, Atlanta-style
blogs.ajc.com/
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