06 September 2005

Racists Try to Salt Pepper

Those who followed the 2000 election know about dirty tricks. Just before the Iowa caucus, a robocaller called homes in the middle of the night and asked them to vote for Howard Dean (then the front runner). In South Carolina, a robocaller asked voters what they thought about John McCain's black child (McCain had just won the NH primary).

Now, here in Cincinnati, the ugly menace of the robocaller has once again reared its ugly head. According to an email sent out by the Pepper campaign, people have received phone calls asking them to vote for Pepper because "he is the only white candidate."

The Pepper campaign does not yet know from where the calls have been originating, but is asking those who received such calls to contact the campaign (I assume contact info is on the website).

Given the racist theme of the message, is it fair to assume the calls originate from Reece supporters? Mallory wouldn't sink this low, and Winburn would lose more than he would gain by playing the race card. He's also not that stupid. Crazy, maybe, but not stupid.

Also, Reece's base is fairly racist, something that is illustrated every day on WDBZ (1230 AM). She also has a record of questionable actions and behavior, so something like this is not exactly a stretch of imagination.

Given that the perpetrators are not high-level Republican operatives, my hunch is that they will be easy to catch. And I will also predict that they will be "stand alone" operatives with no apparent connection to any campaign.

The solution? How about banning robocalling? I know campaign professionals would have a heart attack, but come on, seriously, is there anyone besides campaign staff that actually thinks calling voters is a good idea? Not voters.

UPDATE: The Who-Dey Hotel blog reports that "At events all across the city, African-American individuals have been handing out anti-Pepper materials. I have personally received 2 of these (at Blues Fest and at the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic)."

The blatant racism of Cincinnati's black community cannot be questioned. The fact that nobody except this blog speaks out about it is absurd. There is no way such behavior would be tolerated from whites, and there is no reason it should be tolerated from blacks. Those who think Cincinnati's race problem is because of white Cincinnatians should think again. Everything I see and hear points to racist blacks as the overwhelming reason for racial tension in this city.

This blog credits Mr. Pepper for staying above the fray and conducting his campaign with class and integrity. He has set a fine example for public officials.

Hopefully the actions of a few bad apples won't hurt the image of Mark Mallory, who is also a class act.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Pepper above the fray. He is so straightforward and honest. He is a fighter for all us little people. Leave him alone and stop picking on him.

WestEnder said...

From RealFactual (who, in the spirit of disclosure, has supported Reece on other blogs):

"Mallory is working with the boycotters and livingston"

In what way is Mallory "working" with them? Do you regard any of his actions as being questionable or below the fray?

You also stated "Then you've got Winburn, as soon as he got in the race things were flying..."

Can you be specific as to what actions you are referring to? Do you have reason (or even better, evidence) that Winburn operatives removed the opposition's signs? That's a serious charge.

And finally, you wrote "Blacks are treated the worst in Cincinnati and live far worse than others."

Neither of these things, by the way, proves racism. To prove racism, you would have to demonstrate that blacks are denied economic and educational opportunities for no other reason than their skin color.

One reason blacks fare worse than whites is the incidence of unwed mothers. In the black community it is several times that of the white community. Were they all impregnated by racist, white corporate executives after they left work dowtown?

Another reason blacks fare worse is that they don't care about education. Who teaches black children that being educated is bad because it is "acting white"? Do whites secretly go into OTR and hypnotize blacks into believing that?

By the way, it is David Pepper who has consistently mentioned providing a "path of opportunity" for Cincinnati blacks, and a key part of that is education. This is why non-whites from every other country in the world can come to America and succeed MORE than whites.

Anonymous said...

WOW! This is why race is always the elephant in the middle room that no one wants to talk about...it replaces the race elephant with the ignorant elephant...front and center!

It's amazing to see the perceptions among and between Blacks and whites...as simply that...black and white, when there are plenty of shades of gray in between.

I could easily rip WestEnder's comments to shreds, but what I have learned about race relations and dialogue is that it is useless and turns into a battle. Its simply that, dialogue and no action. People have different experiences and therefore see things differently.

So unless we have had the opportunity to walk in each others shoes, we can rant and rave and speculate until the end of time.

But I will comment on David Pepper since this is the subject of this blog entry:
"By the way, it is David Pepper
who has consistently mentioned
providing a "path of
opportunity" for Cincinnati
blacks, and a key part of that
is education."

I highly doubt that David Pepper will be the Great White Hope for Black Cincinnatians. His interests lies elswhere, which is in stark contrast to the plight of Blacks. Mayors have very little, if any, control over the school system.

By the way, how do we know that David Pepper is not doing these robocalls himself for sympathy?? Those software programs are not cheap. Hasn't he raised the most money of all of the candidates? He can afford to throw away a couple of thousand dollars for dirty politics.

WestEnder said...

"I highly doubt that David Pepper will be the Great White Hope for Black Cincinnatians"

Who said that he would?

"His interests lies elswhere"

Where, specifically?

"Mayors have very little, if any, control over the school system."

Focus on education is not limited to control over the school system. Changing CPS does not mean education will be valued more in America. It starts with the political will to emphasize education as a critical component of a person's character.

"how do we know that David Pepper is not doing these robocalls himself for sympathy??"

Because the phone calls were made by (white) aliens who just landed on earth, that's what I heard.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I don't think it was Reece. I think it may well have been from someone associated with a campaign who thought that they were doing Mallory or Winburn a favor. It's obvious now that the calls were a pretty big mistake and you have to think that eventually the Pepper people will figure out who made the calls. And if that person or the person the call makers support makes it past tuesday they will have hell to pay once the culpret is revealed.