The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
It’s 2018 and in November more than a few men and women of color will be seeking election to many national and many statewide political positions.
There will be Black candidates, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian Americans and other men and women of non-European ancestry running for political offices in United States elections.
Black candidates are getting significant public recognition, publicity and exposure in their efforts to make political history by becoming African American Governors in Florida, Georgia and Maryland, for instance.
In many ways, Ben Jealous in Maryland, Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Andrew Gillum in Florida, who won Democratic Primary elections earlier this year are somewhat different in their ideas, philosophies, strategies and political techniques.
However, they are similar in their political affiliations and perhaps their campaign staffing and purchasing transactions.
Also, if you look hard enough, in all the African American candidate campaigns, you will almost undoubtedly discover that each campaign has one, two, three or more young white boys in important decision-making campaign positions!
For at least 25 or 30 years, I have been writing about the need for all candidates, especially the Black candidates, to consider increased utilization of Black political vendors and Black political professionals.
Why? Because I truly believe that there are people that look like the Black candidates that are just as qualified as the Black candidates that you love and desire to participate in the paid political process.
I also know that political history is the best teacher and history suggests that no matter how much you volunteer and no matter how much money you contribute and no matter how much or how many times you put Black candidates first, when it comes to patronage and spending money with the so-called “Black base”, Black candidates oftentimes put Black professionals last!
Well, who are these young white boys that hold such high and decision-making positions in the campaigns of Black candidates?
They are primarily the friends, relatives, classmates and cohorts of Democratic Party leaders, campaign contributors, lobbyists or leaders of organizations, like labor unions, that support the candidacy of Black candidates.
OK, since you don’t know these young white boys, where do they come from? They don’t come from your community, your neighborhood, your city, your county or your state.
Some young white boys working in Southern states for Black candidates come from Iowa, they come from Illinois, they come from Washington, D.C. and they come from other faraway lands!
They don’t know Southern voters, they don’t know Black voters, they can’t turn out Black voters and they won’t even go to sleep and dream about hiring Black political subcontractors because their message to Black candidates is basically, “Don’t spend money with Blacks because N-words will vote for you anyway”!
Good luck to all African Americans and other candidates of color in your bids to become public servants.
But don’t think that your white boy campaign managers, campaign communications directors, campaign media producers and other campaign consultants are your friends for life.
After the 2018 elections, the young white boys you engaged or hired on your campaigns will not hang around and be buddies with you. They will go “ghost” and disappear from you just as quickly as they appeared with their talk about how much better they would be than any Black political professionals.
How long will the politicians that claim to represent us, support us and help us continue to believe that white political ice is colder than black political ice?
Black voters not only get what they vote for, they get what young white boys tell Black candidates to give you, little or nothing!
Don’t take my word for it, contact the candidate of your job and ask if you can be considered for a decision making or a purchasing transaction position on their campaigns! The answer is, not in this life!
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