Word: blackness
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...post-racial" politics, the current Atlanta mayor's race is resisting attempts to paint it in crude black-and-white. For one, the cliche of black political organizers facing off against white corporate elites doesn't fit. The black candidates include a former real estate corporate vice president, a state senator, and a corporate-law attorney who was a Rhodes Scholar. The white candidate, re-elected city-wide four years ago, is a longtime community activist and the candidate most likely to be photographed with a bullhorn in her hand. This all comes at a time when Atlanta is struggling...
...four candidates have loudly rejected a call for black Atlantans - who make up 57% of the city's population - to rally around a single black candidate in order to defeat Mary Norwood, the white city council member. "Mary's not focused on [the race angle]," says Norwood campaign manager Roman Levit. "She's focused on two things: making the city safe, and bringing accountability to the city government." (From TIME's Archives: What makes a city great...
Lisa Borders, the candidate second to Norwood in most polls, complains that attempts to inject race into the campaign obscures her claim that Norwood is the least-qualified candidate. Borders heads the city council, and was also elected citywide. State Sen. Kasim Reed told a breakfast meeting of black ministers, "One Atlanta is a strong Atlanta. Two Atlantas is not Atlanta at all." Attorney Jesse Spikes also deplored the injection of race into the campaign. A second white candidate, political novice Kyle Keyser, has not shown up in polling...
...Clark-Atlanta University professors recently defended a memo they had written for the Atlanta Black Leadership Forum, which caused a media ruckus when it was leaked. Their memo collected a number of statements supposedly circulating in the black community, including a call to rally around Borders in order to avoid a head-to-head runoff election with Norwood. "We have said very clearly that African-American concerns should be considered by all of the candidates," says Clark-Atlanta professor Keith Boone. "It's no more racist for the African-American community to have an agenda than...
Race, if not racism, has long tinged politics in Atlanta. The city saw a dynamic population shift in the 1960s, from a heavily white population to a majority-black makeup that neared 70% in the 1980s. But while the legacy of the segregationist past caused strains, the city never fractured along racial lines. "Atlanta is a city that has been built on black hope and white pragmatism," says Gary Pomerantz, who wrote the Atlanta history Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. "Race isn't everything in Atlanta, but it is in everything...