Of course there are sometimes issues within the black community over skin color (and how individuals of the various hues relate both to the white culture as well as to their own), but – and maybe it’s just in California, and maybe it’s just in my little area of California – I’ve not known many to vote based on skin color, as opposed to other factors.

Between this theory and Booker Rising’s theory of Tennessee black women not voting for Ford because he may have had a white girlfriend… well, I’m seeing that the “dumb Southerner” stereotype is apparently applied to black and white Southerners alike by their various counterparts.

When Tagaris made his observation about Carter being the “white candidate”, I immediately knew what he was talking about (at least, I thought I did, before I read this), even before reading on to the fact that she had the support of the white people of that area and elsewhere … including the (mostly) white blogosphere which is sending money and helpers to her.

Considering Louisiana’s famous political machines, Katrina and its still very unsettled aftermath, the lack of help for the poorer (and blacker) homeowners and renters, and the developer vultures swirling around… I’d have to know way more about what actions each candidate was proposing, what they’ve proposed in the past (from what I understand, Carter is a DLC candidate – which organization has been far from friends to black people in the past), and so on before I could even begin to decide that people were voting on the slight difference in skin color between the two candidates instead of on the issues and their own interests.

Jefferson has many problems, not the least of which is that $90,000 but, … especially if one is living in as much uncertainty as the Katrina of some areas still are… sometimes “the devil you know” really does make more sense to people.

On the other side, light relatives are sometimes accused of looking down their noses at darker relatives.

Yes, well… the proof of the pudding, and all that.

All this lady has to do is hammer on the corruption issue, even paint Jefferson as part of the GOP’s culture of sleave and thus a liability for Democrats. Color, etc. should have nothing to do with this.

I am sorry to say it, but I think it’s important to look deeper for answers in the black psyche. Look at the history of Marion Barry in DC vs Tony Williams for mayor for another example. You can vote for a self-interested jerk as a “Screw You” to The Man if you want to. But then where does that leave you?

To win, Carter needs to come out as strong as her competitor and build trust with African-American constituents in a way that doesn’t alienate whites.

There have been battles – old and contemporary – within my own extended family. However, I have never known a black person to vote for or against a black candidate just because of amount of melanin in the skin was too little or too much. I certainly don’t vote that way. I’ve voted for every color of the rainbow, actually. Most Blacks I know vote on the issues. Sh*t look at widespread support for Clinton. We feel when a candidate has our best interests at heart.

With that said, I am fully aware that the color complex creeps its way into political campaigns where people like Obama and Cory Booker (mayor of Newark), who were both overwhelmingly supported by whites, felt the wrath of skeptical blacks. Even light-skinned blacks were skeptical of these brothas.

But after the brothas were able to do grassroots organizing and mobilize in Black communities to quell suspicions, they were elected to office with tremendous multi-hued black support. Color or hue didn’t matter.

In my opinion, Ray Nagin eventually appealed to many blacks because with his advocacy it demonstrated that he wasn’t trying to sell them down the river and relinquish New Orleans to the powerbrokers and elite (read=white)of that city. Blacks were skeptical of Ray because he was a party line flip-flopper with major ties to the corporate community (read=white). I think Ray could have been black-damn near blue- and the skepticism would have been the same.

There have been a many dark-skinned Blacks to run against them Fords in Tennessee, and that very Black district kept sending them, despite their hue, on back to Washington.

In this case, I think it might be about choosing the lesser of the two evils, and what is “more evil” depends on the voter. Trust me, Black folks know that Jefferson has a questionable character, but at least they know more about him than they do Carter.

Karen Carter is ‘light and bright’, and has the support of the White Establishment – those two things are toxic.

She’s lacking her ‘ Black Cred’.

You pointed out precisely when Nagin began to get some ‘Black Cred’, because he was elected by the White community both times.

There was a terrific article on BlackCommentator.com some months ago entitled ‘ How White People Elected Ray Nagin Mayor of New Orleans – TWICE’. The gist of the article was that Nagin was elected the first time by the White community. After all, he was even a registered REPUBLICAN (in the deep South, no less) before he decided to run for Mayor. He was elected with WHITE support, not Black support.

After Katrina, the former Black Majority saw ‘ The White Folks’ conspire to :a) take their land(despite what was reported, an overwheming majority of the land in the Lower 9th Ward and other heavily populated African American Wards was OWNED by those people. They may have been shacks, but people OWNED those shacks, and ‘The White Powers That Be’ couldn’t evict them from that prime land – Katrina has now made it possible for them to get their hands on it- the Black community believes),

b)deny them literally the right to vote(The Secretary of State of Lousiana and the manipulations in NOT allowing the candidates to have a list of addresses of the evacuees, so that they could campaign at them directly), and here was Nagin, who suddenly found his ‘Blackness.’

The Black community sees its land being taken away from them, not being able to vote, the absolute corruption in the post-Katrina government contracts, and the FLOODING OF NEW ORLEANS WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, all the while telling former ACTUAL New Orleans residents that there are no jobs for them…well, it adds up to a not-so-out-there ‘Conspiracy Theory’. Quite honestly, I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory – AT ALL. They’re seeing it as it really is.

So, don’t be too surprised if Jefferson is re-elected.

And, this is from someone who, though I live 1500 miles away, donated to Karen Carter’s campaign.

In fact, I have been waiting for your response to the White Candidate argument. I think that Tim needed to chat with just a coupla folks and they would have spared him the painful machinations.

I do think that it may be a little more than just the Paper Bag Test. It may be about representing (and not in the electoral sense). Given that folks talk about the Acting White Syndrome, I was thinking that this chatter may have a little something to do with this dynamic in Black Amerika.

Nonetheless, it seems that Karen Carter has more to offer the community and the District.