The term "cracker" is generally used in the black community as a reference to white people in general. Historically the term is alleged to have arisen from the improper pronunciation of the name Caulker and/or a reference to those overseers who "cracked the whip" to keep enslaved Africans in line. In this blog post I'll be using the term in the last form.
Last week Vernon Jones, a representative out of Georgia endorsed Donald Trump's bid for re-election. It is a pretty historical thing to occur. First, generally speaking it is pretty much unheard of for a black Democrat to endorse any Republican for national office. Secondly; given the widespread hate of Trump among Democrats, this public endorsement (believe me, there are a lot of non-public support for Trump among African-Americans, particularly AA men) also stood out as a particularly bold, if not career terminating, move.
Vernon explained that his support was due to the material benefits that Trump brought to his community. Record employment levels, support for HBCUs, were two items he pointed to. It is the job of a representative to not only be the voice of his constituents, but also to make sure that his constituents are looked after (aka: get benefits). Clearly Vernon was in between a rock and hard place. If he simply represented his constituents, he could not deliver benefits. Conversely he could deliver benefits but not represent the voices of his community. Bad spot.
Personally I have had the political opinion that Black people in America should not wed themselves to any political party at all. That they should support any candidate of any party who advances their [valid] political interests. I inserted valid, because there are of course invalid political interests. In this way black people would force all political parties to not only court their votes but also to deliver the goods when in office. Of course, the actual practice here is that Black people are "on the Democratic plantation" and have no desire to leave, even when the policies on that plantation are not doing them any good.
Since the Democrats need to keep a coalition of non-whites, non-straights and non-Christians together in order to keep and expand power, black people who do not stay in line, get cracked on. Vernon therefore got cracked on. I thought it wrong for him to have resigned but then he turned around and stayed in office. That is better, let his opponent (who will be wellllllllll funded) explain why high employment numbers (pre-Wuhan) is a bad thing for Black people. Let them explain how open borders and increased labor competition helps Black people.
In the end it's likely Vernon will be voted out of office. Similar to what happened with Cynthia McKinney who also refused to toe the DNC line.
The DNC crackering continued when they
planned to censure Detroit State Rep. Karen Whitsett who had contracted the Wuhan virus and was having a tough time. She remembered that Hydroxychlorquine was mentioned by Trump and requested the treatment. It apparently worked and she recovered. Whitsett publicly thanked Trump for having mentioned the treatment.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, broke protocol by meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during an April 14 meeting of COVID-19 survivors, during which she credited hydroxychloroquine for saving her life, a Democratic district leader said.
“Thank you for everything that you have done,” Whitsett told Trump at the meeting. “I did not know that saying thank you had a political line. … I’m telling my story and my truth, and this how I feel and these are my words.”
And this gem:
“At the end of the day, we have political systems,” said Jonathan Kinloch, chairman of the organization. “We have political parties, and political parties exist for a reason.
“They do not belong to themselves,” Kinloch said of endorsed candidates and elected officials. “They belong to the members and precinct delegates of the Democratic Party.”
Yo have to a special kind of low down [multiple cuss words] to talk about your political party in reference to someone who survived a likely brush with death. But that's what the DNC has become over the years.
Like Vernon, Whitsett has vowed to keep acting in the best interests of her constituents:
Whitsett, meanwhile, said she plans to continue working for the district, adding she has been delivering food and cleaning products to those in need throughout the pandemic.
"I will continue to fight for the city of Detroit and the people in Detroit who need it the most, and that is the black community," Whitsett said. "We’re the voiceless, and I don’t care who I got to go up against to do that.
"I’m a Democrat, and I plan on continuing to be a Democrat, but they will change their ways. I have my First Amendment right, and no one will take that away from me.”
While I'm not going to bash on her or others for continuing to be Democrats, sooner or later large swaths of the AA community are going to realize that the Democratic party is not what they think it is or what it once was. When a party is censuring people for saying thank you to someone who gave them
life saving advice, that party is broken.
