HOW INSENSITIVE CAN THEY BE?

By T. L. Wyatt – The Villager

As the community celebrated Juneteenth by attending the parade on Saturday (June 21), there were the usual floats, marchers, revelers and other activities during the parade. But one thing stood out very vividly. The two people who are running for the highest offices in the State had marchers in the parade, but neither had an African American carrying their banner.

While it was admirable that Wendy Davis and Leticia VanDePutte, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor respectively, both had banners in the parade, neither had a Black person carrying them. Can they be that clueless? Or is it that they really do not know how to relate to this community.

One of the big issues in the African American community is that of unemployment. It is the highest of any other community. Having at least one member of that community as a representative of your commitment to the community would go a long ways towards building support. Could it be that neither of these candidates have Black employees among their staffs? Or is it that they expect Black voters to vote for them because they do not have another alternative?

While it may be true that 90% + of African Americans will probably vote for the Democratic ticket, the question is “how many of them will vote?” The problem is that the traditional voters have stopped voting because neither party seems to be asking for their votes. While spending millions of dollars trying to get every other community to vote for them, there is currently no budget set aside to attract the African American voters to go to the polls.

Texas has been a “Red” (Republican) state for the last 20 years, because the Democratic leadership has gone away from their traditional voters. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It appears that the Democrats are living up to this definition.