By Mansfield Frazier
Everything. There stands a black man who looks to be of average intelligence, but, who, nonetheless, is wearing a baseball cap with the visage of the grinning buffoon Chief Wahoo that insults a whole nation of people. The man is grinning like a newborn fool while shaking the hand of Armond Budish, the front running candidate for the county executive’s seat.
While I’m willing to — at least to some degree — excuse the ignorance of the black man (he’s not the first black I know of that fails to stick up for someone of another race), I can’t extend that same excuse to Budish, who should know better. Is he so hungry for votes he would shake hands with the Devil if it helps him to win the election?
One can’t help but wonder … what if the man in the photo, instead of wearing a cap that insults Native Americans, was wearing a cap with a swastika on it? Would Budish still be so willing to shake his hand or would he admonish him to take it off, which is what he should had done in this case?
Budish used an endorsement by the Call & Post on the mailer (which is a sure indication that he’s playing racial politics since no way will this literature be mailed to Parma) and the editors there should demand that the candidate apologize … but don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
The civil rights movement sputtered and stalled because we blacks were not inclusive enough of others. In the ’60s we literally owned the franchise on bringing about positive change in America, but we didn’t care to address the suffering of women, gays or Native Americans. To our determent it was always only about “us.” And when Dr. King attempted to expand the vision he was killed.
The only exception was Jesse Jackson’s attempt — which largely never took off — at forming a Rainbow Coalition. Too many black preachers didn’t buy into the expanded vision.
If there were substantially more Native Americans voters on the rolls in Cuyahoga County, I guarantee you that Budish would apologize for sending out this insensitive mailer; but if there were more Native Americans around he would not have sent it out in the first place, nor would he have been photographed shaking the man’s hand.
Of course this political and racial tone deftness won’t derail Budish’s chances of becoming the next county executive, but it is a preview of what’s in store for minorities once he wins the office. The man is either incredibly insensitive or incredibly stupid … your choice.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: What’s Wrong With This Photo?”
John Ettorre
For many (dare I say most?) of us, there’s nothing at all wrong with that photo, Mansfield. And let me say this with all due respect: all the lefty PC carping from here to Juniper won’t ever change that.
Mansfield Frazier
John, “Most” people are not Native American, so their opinions really don’t count. “Most” Germans agreed with Hitler, but that didn’t make him right, did it?