Post-Racial America? Not So Much For DC Voters…[Reader Post]

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With the election of Barack Obama as President the United States was supposed to be transitioning to the post racial America. Unfortunately for the children attending the public schools of the District of Columbia, someone forgot to tell their parents.

Earlier this month the voters of the nation’s capital threw out Adrian Fenty, perhaps the best mayor they have ever had. Why? Because of soaring crime rates, plummeting school test scores or a surging unemployment rate? No. Rather, Adrian Fenty, a black mayor, was fired from his job because he hired the best people possible for the jobs in his administration and many of them happened not to be black.

Like presidents, mayors are political animals. While the stakes they deal with may not be as global in scale the President’s, for their constituents, a mayor’s decisions are often more tangible and immediate. Presidents deal with federal tax policy, national defense and state dinners. Their actions affect 300 million Americans and billions more around the world. A mayor on the other hand deals with neighborhood crime, Rotary Club meetings and the local zoning disputes. Presidents rarely have to respond to anything immediately while a mayor’s immediate response or lack thereof (either good or bad) is usually chronicled in the local paper or leads the local news.

Because the mayor is so critical to the lives of the people in the community it is that much more perplexing that the people of Washington decided to vote according to race rather than success. Breaking with the past, Adrian Fenty decided that his measure of performance would be one thing: success.

And succeed he did. Washington DC has historically had some of the worst schools in the country despite spending more per pupil than most jurisdictions – this year they will spend almost $30,000 per pupil. During the 2002-2003 school year the city’s graduation rate was an abysmal 58%. Last year, after 4 years of Adrian Fenty the rate was 72% and heading higher. Not only are graduation rates increasing but test scores as well.

Rather than be hailed by the black citizens of Washington, who make up 57% of the city’s population and 82% of the student body, Fenty was shown the door to the tune of 80% of the voters. This is particularly disturbing because as the single biggest beneficiaries of an improving school system, blacks were benefiting the most from Fenty’s leadership. Whites on the other hand, who make up 35% of the city’s population but only 7% of the student body, gave him much support, well in excess of 80%.

This is not a liberal or conservative issue. Washington DC is a city full of liberals where Barack Obama received 92% of the vote while John McCain received just 7%. No, at the end of the day the Washington DC mayor’s race was about race rather than success, education, crime or otherwise.

Much of the black population in the city was angry that Fenty threw out the color bar when he decided to populate his cabinet. In choosing to fill his cabinet he chose the people who he thought could best serve the citizens of the District of Columbia. His resulting cabinet included 5 whites, 3 Asians, 1 Hispanic and 1 black. That was a problem for many in the city – particularly those in Ward 8, who are currently represented by convicted ex-mayor Marion Barry. The criticism started early in Fenty’s administration and to his credit he did not cave. He was called arrogant, uncommunicative and was frequently accused of turning his back on black Washingtonians.

For the most part Fenty brushed off such objections believing that voters would instead look at the tangible benefits he was bringing to the city and its citizens. At the end of the day, Fenty did what mayors are supposed to do… tackle crime, improve schools and generally try and create an environment for success for the city’s citizens and his single biggest impact was felt in schools. They were where he shined. Fenty brought in Michelle Rhee as Schools Chancellor and she immediately went to work. She closed underperforming schools, she fired 241 teachers for poor performance and she forced the corrupt Washington’s Teachers Union to accept weaker tenure rules and even allow some performance based flexibility in compensation. Her results speak for themselves and Adrian Fenty believed, for him.

Not so much. Despite his success, 80% of the black population of DC decided Fenty had to go for the crime of being post racial. Inexplicably, rather than focus on what was actually making their lives better, from better educated children to safer streets, black voters in Washington DC decided to focus on the pigment in the cabinet. Unfortunately it’s likely to be their children who suffer as the unions and the old guard seek to roll back many of the advances that Fenty and Rhee put in place.

Crossposted from Imperfect America

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I could be mis-remembering, but I recall that Obama, himself, had seriously considered Michelle Rhee for his Cabinet level Sec of Ed.
He went with a man (albeit a white man) he could play basketball with, instead, Arnie Duncan.

So sad to see the people of Washington DC voting, not for the content of a man’s character, but for the color of his skin.

No progress has been made there on that front in all these years.

I noted that white voters showed no racism.
They supported Mayor Fenty at the 80% level!

And, of course, blacks CANNOT be racists.
(The old reason for that was they they had no power, but that seems horribly illogical these days. So, what’s their new rationale?)

Maybe we might want to look at what the students are being taught in those public schools.
I’m sure there’s plenty of Lefty propaganda that helped tip the city away from Fenty at every grade.

This is a shame. It seems like the voters have become comfortable with their slum and they like it!! There is no other explanation!

Electing or appointing a Black based on skin color will insure only one thing, that a Black occupies the position. America has been learning this lesson well for two years.

The people in DC are racist blacks. These are the same people that voted in Marion Barry, Twice, even after he was convicted of smoking crack and serving time for it, not to mention the other problems in his administration. Basically when you put the criminals in charge of the prison they sure as hell arent going to bring in someone that will hamper thier lifestyle of collecting governement funds and living off welfare.

Should people who are taking government money and benefits, without working for them, be allowed to vote?

It’s a valid question. What can be the result of that, other than that the party who gives out the most freebies to people who want something for nothing get all their votes?

I’ve long had that same question, or a similar one: should public employees belonging to unions (nevermind the question ‘Should they have been allowed to exist in the first place?’) be allowed to vote?

Both are a perpetual Dem-electing machine, growing and self-feeding. And both are feeding on our blood and sweat and tears. The State is it’s workers and it’s parasites. The workers actively help the parasites to defraud the nation, and convince the parasites that they must vote for ONE party or it will ALL be cut off.

On one side of the desk we have: “Don’t worry honey, we don’t even have to list your Escalade on this application….and I didn’t hear you say anything about a big-screen plasma TV. All we gotta do is fill out the form juuust right.”

On the other side of the desk we have agreement. Collusion. The state and it’s parasitical nation-destoyers, colluding, both really on the same side of the desk, both their hands in my f8888ing wallet.

And that’s just in the Welfare offices. Nevermind the same exact scenario playing out everywhere there are forms to be filled out for the purpose of extracting money from the producing to the non-producing.

e.g. “Don’t worry honey, we don’t even have to tell them that you don’t have a job and don’t even want to work. All we gotta do is fill out the form juuust right….and you’ll get your housing loan.”

Should EITHER of these people be allowed to vote? They should both be IN JAIL.

“Don’t worry, honey, we don’t have to tell them that you are not, nor have you even ever considered being a farmer….all we gotta do is fill out the form juuuust right, and you’ll get your PIGFORD SETTLEMENT.”

Like that. All over the nation, times a few million. Just effing like that.

I’ve seen it and heard it.

Half a nation of thieves.

He sounds like an outstanding individual. Let’s hope that with a performance record like that someone will tap him for a position higher up somewhere else.

@Tammy: #2 You jumped on my idea. How many of the voters are getting a Federal check of some kind and want to keep getting them?

You miss the point. A job in the District working for the District Government makes you immune from firing, contract negotiations, a cut in pay, or a requirement that you actually work. And a Federally guaranteed pension.
[I taught in DC for eleven years.]
The voters in the District all have relatives, and they perceived the opportunities for their relatives to be set for life as threatened by Mayor Fenty. So Fenty had to go.
It was not a question of competence. It was a question of patronage.
To the District voter, the issue was only skin color; only a person of the appropriate skin color would provide a patronage job.
The new Mayor will return to an all-black administration. They will turn the dream of Dr King on its head; folk will be judged, not by the quality of their character, but by the color of their skin.
Nothing else explains the presence of a convicted felon on the City Council.
And the District will return to its customary ineptitude (I remember when there were over 600 murders per year). I guess we need a black Police Commissioner, and need to get rid of the white Commissioner who has things under control. I remember when the D C Police paid a million dollars for gasoline, and got none. Police had to pay to fuel their own cars.

Alas for our Nation’s Capitol!

Well as to that welfare mentality. It has gone amok here in Michigan. In order to avoid the stigma associated with food stamps, the states department of human services came up with a “brilliant” idea. How about issuing them a credit card with the set amount but no limit as to where and how they use their cards? Brilliant, right. These dimwits couldn’t see that the same welfare recipients who used to stand outside DHS and sell their food stamps for 70 cents on the dollar for cash to buy alcohol or drugs or go to the casino will now be spared the indignity of selling their food stamps in front of DHS. They can now get full value for their benefits and spend it as they see fit. Now that the dimwits who had this brilliant idea saw that the “imbeciles” who needed state aid and can’t take care of themselves are in fact making a profit or losing a windfall at the casino while their kids still go hungry are indignant!!! How can that be? How can they be so clever and devious they are thinking. However to save face, they still maintain that this card is still a good idea and it is better for a thief to have dignity at the taxpayers expense than for them to be so belittled by selling their food stamps.

The end result. The Dimwits are fighting the return of the old system of food stamps. I am left shaking my head.

To those of you who haven’t lived or worked in the Distrct for close to 20 years, following politics very closely as I have here, I can understand how you can be so erroneous in your views and opinions about this subject. Especially with the images provided by the media you listen to. The author has no clue what he is talking about. Fenty has been a terrible mayor, with many ethical issues. He claimed basically to be the emperor (remind you of Obama?) and was not going to be accountable to anyone, the City Council or the citizens. His “social” personality as a politiican absolutely sucks..in fact, again like Obama, you might say he has no personality.

He was soundly rejected for these reasons. And if you think he was “improving” DC you know very little of how the local government works here. Though I do not work for DC Gov, I heard from many white DC employees (you know the ones the author thinks was “saving” the City) how much they disliked Fenty and his regime.

The City remains for the most part in free fall, with courts having to run agencies in receivership, crime and shootings as rampant as ever, and for all the hoopla, no real improvements in schools. Rhee, like Fenty was far to full of herself to really understand the life of the kids here. Rhee/Fenty/Obama were in lockstep attacking charter schools and eliminating the voucher program that was the only way out for many of the kids. It wasn’t about “reform” or improvement” but about their aggrandizing power for their own narcistic needs.

Don’t let your distorted view of this very local situation rush you into a judgement that the poor blacks were out to get the “more” white Fenty… Fact is Fenty was an imperious, failure who didn’t know how to govern and get the job done…He needs to go back to selling shoes and earn an honest living. Everything you can say about Obama you can say about Fenty at the local level. That’s why he lost.

@Tammy: #10 The libs gave the victims of Katrina the same type of card and found they spent millions of dollars on luxury items.