Word: oaklanders
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Scheer's open appeal to Negroes and lower class whites probably alienated many Berkeley faculty members. "The Cal people didn't like me finding lawyers for Oakland winos and providing community services, like the old Tammany Hall," he says. "They said they couldn't vote for me because 'undesirables' were taking over my campaign. I figured my campaign wasn't enough of a glorious symbol for them...
...this mixed constituency was "through the war," he insists. "I convinced voters that at least three-quarters of their taxes was spent on defense appropriations. One of our most effective slogans was 'more is spent in one half hour in Vietnam than in an entire year fighting poverty in Oakland...
Announcements like these won Scheer a lot of free television coverage. Suddenly cameraman -- even from William Knowland's conservative Oakland Tribune -- were following him everywhere. "Some of my Ramparts friends told me to cool the 'Black Power' stuff if I wanted to win, but I insisted there really wasn't any white backlash in the District...
Instead, it seemed to Scheer that racists -- including Oakland's White Citizens Council -- thought their taxes were going to support Negroes on welware. When these voters were convinced that only two percent of their taxes were spent on welfare programs -- that it was the war that was putting the burden on them -- "racism disappeared." "I was frank with whites," he added. "I told them they had damn good reasons to build Negro schools and start other crash programs. I told them they were going to be the victims of Negro frustration...
...have this Golden Dream, you see. I want to lead 10,000 Oakland Negroes to the Capitol for a sit-in. Then I want to stand up as a member of the House of Representatives and throw a tomato at the Secretary of Defense...