Reverse Color Arousal In The Atlanta Mayors Race?

We'll it looks like the black folks in Atlanta are caught between a rock and a hard place. VOTE Black and get What? Vote WHITE and get What?

As reported by Richard Fausset at the LA Times in frank language, a memo published online urges black voters to unite behind one black candidate to defeat a white contender. It has raised hackles among residents who take pride in the city. This even got some ignorant angry White people pissed off. But who really cares abot some angry white folks?

Get this, as reported by Richard Fausset at the LA Times - The memo emerged early this week on an African American news website, then spread via e-mail, finally landing on the front page of the local paper. Bloggers like Peach Pundit, A Race Against Time and bloggers from the black conservative right have their own view on the issue and memo.

The message from the memo: Atlanta is a majority-black city whose 35-year string of black mayors "has represented the breakthrough for black political empowerment in the South." And therefore, the white candidate running for mayor this year must be defeated.

Reportedly disseminated by a local group called the Black Leadership Forum, it was the kind of idea guaranteed to raise hackles in Atlanta, a city that has worked hard to live up to native son Martin Luther King Jr.'s dictum about judging by character rather than skin color.

In the current mayor's race, a number of candidates are running to replace second-term Mayor Shirley Franklin. They include a handful of African American candidates, and one high-profile white hopeful, City Councilwoman Mary Norwood.

Observers of local politics believe that Norwood could emerge triumphant if black votes are spread among the various black candidates in November. In language that is remarkably frank, the memo urges black voters to rally around candidate Lisa Borders, the City Council president: "Time is of the essence because in order to defeat a Norwood (white) mayoral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff."

Seemingly overnight, a rather low-key election centered on everyday municipal concerns -- crime, jobs, taxes -- has prompted grander questions, from the definition of reverse racism to the legacy of the civil rights movement. Is it wrong, in the age of Obama, for black Atlantans to wish for a black mayor? And how comfortable should they feel ceding some of their famously hard-won political gains? More HERE

AAPP: Ponder this, Was the displacement of close to 100,000 black residents over the past few years out of Atlanta, and into the suburbs a conspiracy to take Atlanta back politically? Is this something new? Has this not happened in cities like Washington, DC that has a majority white city council and a black mayor who acts like he is whiter than white? So should black folks in Atlanta vote black? Is that not what we did in other cities, and got nothing back in return. Didn't we do that in the last Presidential race? Vote black? Is it not true that our president didn't name but two black to his cabinet, and won't appoint any cabinet members who graduate from state universities or comminity college, and you must be a Harvard grad to even qualify for an interview. What measurable amount of dollars have black folks received from the trillions of dollars spent in Federal Taxes on Stimulating the economy? Will voting black mean anything truly for black American voters? You tell me?