Robert Ford: A Warning to Black Elected Officials
Blacks don't have to be like Allen West or Clarence Thomas to win in majority white districts
— by Sen. Robert Ford
Lillian McBride should not be persecuted or fired. Every South Carolina County experienced long lines which is a good thing particular for people of color.
I’ve notice a strange type of attitude from Black elected officials who represent districts that are majority white. They believe they were elected because they were different from other Blacks. They honestly believe that their White electorate voted for them because of this imaginary difference. As a result of this misinterpretation they develop the distorted opinion they have to represent the district differently than any other elected official.
An elected public servant is just that – they are elected to serve. If you really serve, it doesn’t make any difference what constituency you represent. Let me restate that statement, if you serve your constituents they will support and respect you. A good example of what I’m talking about in 1996, now Congressman Tim Scott was my opponent for the South Carolina Senate District 42 race. I defeated my opponent Tim Scott in the General Election with 63% of the White vote in the most conservative Senate District 42 precincts. The White precincts in that district have the same economic and educational status as the majority of White precincts across South Carolina.
I would like to respectfully warn my young Black colleagues who are elected in these type of districts, you don’t have to be like Clarence Thomas or Allen West to be accepted by White voters in your district.
- If you do your job and represent your people – they will vote for you.
- To you young Black elected officials who feel you have to be different to represent a district with multiple ethnic groups and diverse cultural differences that is hogwash and garbage.
- Do your job, be fair to everybody and please develop a love for yourself. By developing a love for yourself, you will simply treat everyone accordingly.
- Young Black people under the age of 50 do not have this love for themselves. The reason is simple; they don’t know who they are as a people. They don’t know nor do they have an appreciation of their history.
Please, stop this hatred and bitterness of people in your quest to be like Clarence Thomas and Allen West. If you are willing to learn from the dream of Selma, Alabama, and find out what the demonstrators that lead to the 1965 Voters Right’s Bill that gave you the ability to get elected in the first place really accomplished; I will be glad to show you what a dream can accomplish.
Even Tim Scott in a district that is less than 18% Black has more love and respect for people than the majority of Black elected officials.
To represent all of your constituents to the best of your ability is the best testament to being a public servant.
Jay Bennett
4:46 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Is this guy for real; you need to check out what century we are in; just because a black politician is acting reasonably and rationally they aren't, as you think, Uncle Tom's. Your comments and Jim Clyburn's only continue the divide being exacerbated by our current President. Pathetic little people.
JoSCh
9:23 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
Your comments and Jim Clyburn's only continue the divide being exacerbated by our current President. Pathetic little people.
Lol. There are no mirrors in Jay Bennetts house.
Ken
4:46 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
"Lillian McBride should not be persecuted or fired."
Sorry to disagree, but YES SHE SHOULD BE FIRED. She is either so incompetent that she cannot run an election properly or she purposefully rigged the election by holding out machines from some precincts where they were needed and put them in precincts where they were not needed. Either way the constitutional rights of the voters were shat on by her, she needs to go, no severance pay and certainly no pension.
Ann
4:46 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
One of the most poorly written articles I have ever read!
stanley seigler
9:09 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
re: 'the most poorly written article...'
indeed poorly written...but there are many poorly written articles (i write quite a few)...it's unfortunate 'we the people' elect those who have problems with critical thinking/writing...
sen ford conflates apple pie and motherhood statements (eg, elected to serve) with the quality of a person's work (mcbride's performance was unacceptable)...she should be replaced.
bet mcbride and ford are buddies...
JoSCh
9:24 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
Truly awful. I know less now than I did before having read it. Jesus wept.
stanley seigler
1:47 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
is weeping...
Trinity
4:46 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
When will we stop fighting each other?
pokerbully
4:46 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
no one gives a shit about black and white , except racists who have to blow it up in everyone face. no one cares....
Kevin Hall
5:39 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Lillian McBride not only needs to be fired, she needs to be prosecuted for infringing on peoples right to vote.
Kevin Hall
5:52 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
A state law was broken. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, especially for a person in McBrides position
avasmom
8:38 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
No one wants Lillian McBride fired because of what color she is - she needs to be fired because she had no idea what she was doing, did not seek guidance from those who did and ultimately violated state law. And any elected official who recognizes that - or refuses to - will be judged on THAT, not the color of their skin. Why is it that those who keep bringing up "race" aren't the real racists here??
Tom Utley
10:11 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
This article doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's full of racism and ad hominem attacks, and gives no reasons why Allen West, Clarence Thomas, or Tim Scott are "good" or "bad" elected officials.
Our society will never move forward as long as we have this racist mentality.
JoSCh
10:35 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
Our society will never move forward as long as we have this racist mentality.
Something we can agree on. On a positive note, most of the racists in America are dying off.
Shawn Drury
12:47 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
@JoSCh - Really? The 18-24 demographic seems well-represented here: http://deadspin.com/5968935/take-that-nigger-off-the-tv-we-wanna-watch-football-idiots-respond-to-nbc-pre+empting-sunday-night-football?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
stanley seigler
1:45 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
re: The 18-24 demographic seems well-represented here...
this is so very shocking...unbelievable...was reasonably aware racism was alive and well...but had no idea it was SO alive and well in our 'yutes'...
tho have no wish to put head in the sand, almost wish SD hadn't posted that link...truly thought overt racism (except among skin heads and hitler yugen, etal) was a past stupidity...
OTOH perhaps SD's link will be a wake up call to those who believe racism doesnt exit in our society...
JoSCh
1:58 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
The 18-24 demo is well represented where? On Deadspin? If so, the comments I read were overwhelmingly against racism, and the rest were dick jokes which is what Deadspin is really all about. Maybe the earlier ones weren't, they're up to 450+ when I read it.
I won't get an update that you posted a reply because your patch software is broken. Stan, can you please page me if Shawn says something ;)
Tom Utley
2:26 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
I love how, in that link, blatantly racist comments are juxtaposed with comments that aren't racist at all. If someone says " F you Obama I want to watch football" that doesn't make them a racist, it just makes them a red-blooded American who doesn't care about politicians.
I don't particularly care for the NFL but I understand where the non-racist fans are coming from, and if any politician (black or white or whatever) interrupted a Clemson game for some blowhard speech then I'd feel the same way toward them.
JoSCh
3:00 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
For whatever reason all those twitter feeds didn't load the first time I tried to view it. Now I see them. I don't think that the 50 or whatever twitter accounts (many of which are closed, one can assume they were shamed into closing them) means anything against my statement that most of the racists are dying out.
Tom Utley, you are truly a broken and pathetic person. A football game is more important than the US president acknowledging a national tragedy? Why don't you just admit it and say you also know where the racist fans are coming from? I bet you'll feel better.
Jeff Davis
9:24 am on Friday, January 11, 2013
JoSCh, I agree with you, I think the real racism of the 50's/60's that my family tells me stories about died out a long time ago. Yes, out of 330 million people in this country you are going to get all kinds, but the pervasive and institutional racism is gone.
Tom Utley, you are correct as well. Many of those twitter post had nothing racist to say (not to mention at least one with the "N" word was posted by an African American). If that's the "worst" posts the author could come up with after a "key word search" of millions af twitter posts, it appears to me the article was more of a fabrication than reality.
Tom Utley
9:40 am on Friday, January 11, 2013
What's pathetic is politicians who use tragedies to self-aggrandize.