“But since John L. Perry’s historic win, Virginia Beach voters have elected only one other black person to the City Council.” (Virginian-Pilot)
Wrong!!!!!! What the sentence should read is..”only one other black person has won an election to VB City Council.”
It’s not the voters’ fault that they aren’t as racist as those who think voters have a problem when they don’t have racial quotas in mind when they vote. But then again, that’s the logic that leads the NAACP in asserting that a Filipino Councilman’s appointed replacement shouldn’t be Filipino.
And it’s not City Council’s fault when the Virginia Beach African-American Political Action Council’s favored candidate to replace Ron Villanueva was merely months before protesting down at City Hall ranting “each vote matters” for the cameras, trying to turn a fair and honest process into a political football and protesting honest electoral board members who never did anything wrong.
Does anyone with a brain think that’s behavior ANY city council would see as a plus?
Here’s a hint. Protesting a Councilman’s win in a Delegate race makes you look silly when you offer to take his Council seat afterward.
The same candidate was one of two African Americans who both ran against an incumbent who is white, split the vote, and both lost.
Are the voters racists? Or are the candidates shooting themselves in the foot?
Editorial Board member Roger Chesley (whose columns are not online) quotes Georgia Allen, NAACP President, who called the recent appointment of Rita Sweet Belitto “discrimination” without mentioning Allen’s repeated failed runs for office. Georgia failed. Georgia lost twice. Chesley leaves that out, while not failing to mention that Belitto ran and lost in 2002. Wanna play the race card? The Pilot has a long way to go before it strikes “balance.”
If a lack of minorities on VB City Council is “discrimination,” guess what that makes the Pilot’s endorsements? In 2008, the Pilot endorsed two white incumbents for Council who both had African-American challengers. Is the editorial board racist, too? Roger? Hello?
Rogers opines that Virginia Beach should be more like Chesapeake and Norfolk (honestly, that’s what he wrote) even though Chesapeake is completely at-large and Norfolk is a ward system. Maybe someone will explain that to him before he writes that again. With all due respect to our neighbor cities, I don’t know anyone in Virginia Beach who wishes we were either of them. For those who do, it’s not a long drive.
If elections are so tough, Roger, maybe the Pilot can write about local campaigns a little more frequently than once or twice a year. Want to balance the field for candidates with less campaign dollars? Write a story once in a while. Cover a debate. Do something more than send ad reps.
The NAACP should learn what the VBTA should learn. Failure in campaigns actually comes down to the candidates, and voters vote for the best person. Virginia Beach has a 20% African-American population. If the NAACP wants to turn elections solely into race battles, they’ve just written off 80%.
