Sherry Chandler » The White Male Face of Frankfort, Kentucky
The White Male Face of Frankfort, Kentucky
According to a report by Linda Blackford of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Tracing the White Male Face of the Capitol, Kentucky doesn’t do all that well when it comes to racial and gender diversity amongst our elected officials:
Last week, Sen. Barack Obama made a nationally televised speech that put race at the center of American political discourse.
That’s not a place where Kentucky is entirely comfortable.
This is the state, after all, that waited until 1976 to ratify the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the laws that outlawed slavery and ensured blacks equal protection and the right to vote.
While certainly no trailblazer in women’s rights, Kentucky did elect the third female governor in the country. But the state has never elected a black to statewide office. There are now six blacks in the state House of Representatives and one in the state Senate. According to a study by the Secretary of State, there are five black mayors and two black circuit court justices in the entire state.
“What’s apparent is that, somehow, throughout the 20th century a message has been sent that African-Americans are not welcome to participate in the political process,” said University of Kentucky historian and author Gerald Smith.
But now into Kentucky’s 20th-century political scene comes the most cutting edge 21st-century presidential race anyone could imagine Ð a black man and a white woman vying for the top spot. Some believe the race might just be generating enough excitement — no matter who wins — to help lift Kentucky out of its somewhat hidebound political traditions.
For some reason that I’ve never quite understood, Kentucky, a state with severe problems with poverty and unemployment, persists in electing some of the most hidebound rightwing politicians in the country, even the ones that call themselves Democrats. This trend is especially true in Eastern Kentucky. I’ve never understood it. But then I don’t understand how the coal companies can bring a crowd of workers to the state capitol to protest in favor of mountaintop removal. I suppose, when jobs are so scarce, you’ll sell your birthright for the privilege of earning a little money.
But then you can’t trust women. They might do stuff like this.
But then again, I guess we could be Idaho.
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3 Comments
1. Tommy replies at 26th March 2008, 8:30 am :
Well, I am shocked, shocked, as to how anybody could view our history of lynchings, cross burnings and all-round discrimination and not understand that we just love the little darkies to pieces… just not anywhere near us nice lighties.
2. Tommy replies at 26th March 2008, 8:31 am :
Crud, that was supposed to repeat the paper’s quote of UK’s Gerald Smith, as vacuous and vague assessment as I’ve ever read.
3. sherry replies at 27th March 2008, 9:05 am :
I fixed it, Tom, and though I liked your second comment better than your first — “vacuous and vague” — and so would not have wanted to miss it, I’ll remind you that you can preview your comments and make sure the code is working.
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