This past week was Indiana’s annual ‘Black Expo’ in downtown Indy, where African-American history and African culture were celebrated, and the event was widely and commendably covered by the local media. Unfortunately, I had to work (grr), so I was unable to attend. The media coverage of the event was excellent, and I kept up with the daily happenings of the expo via the news and my car’s radio. There were only two negatives (for me at least) with the whole event. Number one; one of the sponsors of this splendid celebration of African-American history and African culture was the Indiana chapter of the ‘Right to Life Foundation,’ an anti-choice organization. Number two; Bush made a visit to the expo along with GOP leader Ken Mehlman–bringing their new strategy to “recruit” African-American voters. Needless to say I wasn’t all that thrilled to hear of his visit and was actually thankful that I had to work and miss it. Marian of Marian’s Blog, wasn’t too thrilled either, especially concerning the insidious tactics used by the Bush-Mehlman Pact to woo the African-American attendees of the expo.
[…]The Bush-Mehlman junket was part of what I’m naming the New Republican Southern Strategy. The ‘strategy’ seems pretty much to be an attempt to dilute or neutralise the Black vote while organising dissatisfied Whites. Those too are my own words. The tantalising question of what some White Americans may be or ought to be upset about – and at whom – will be subjects for future posts on this blog. The New Republican Southern Strategy extends well beyond the US South, though Indiana, which borders the state of Kentucky, culturally is not completely “Northern.” The Bush-Mehlman Hoosier trip was arrogant and anti-historical in the way it targeted Black Americans. These are the same people who violated the voting rights of thousands of Black Americans before and on Election Day 2000. Now George Bush and Ken Mehlman have the gall to stand before Black Indianans asking for a political blank check.[…]
Yes, the man has gall alright. Bush is using his “capital” and “mandate” to buy more and then spend it. Probably *not* in a way that would be beneficial to the voters who handed him that ‘political blank check.’
As a fellow Hoosier, I watched with interest some of the media’s coverage of “Dubya’s” visit to the Black Expo. Knowing the national media has pretty much given our “Fearless Leader” a pass on just about everything, I was wondering how the local media would react.
It was pretty much 50-50. They showed and talked to a lot of happy people, honored to have the prez visit. Thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly), they also talked to a few who were not so happy about the visit and gladly pointed out the hypocrisy of this Administration when it comes to race relations.
I wish they would have gone into more detail, of course. Butit was local news and sometimes you just can’t expect that much from them!
Thanks for mentioning this blog entry of mine; come back and visit any time! Ciao! – Marian