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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The idea that Fenty wasn't black enough is absurd.  He won Ward 8 with 56% of the primary vote.  Linda Cropp got 35% and the others were in the single digits.

It is his tenure, his policies, that caused him to lose blacks supporters.  Conservatives are stirring the pot on this one.  The vote against Fenty wasn't racial.[/quote]

Of course, the first time Fenty ran, no one thought he was not Black enough.  But if you don't think that idea may have been in the minds of many Blacks by the end of his first term, I would suggest that your logical trajectory is fairly short.

It was not doubt his policies that caused Black people to lose enthusiasm for him:  Fenty's appointment of non-blacks to major cabinet positions, terminations of longtime black government workers and teachers, and a failure to meet with civil rights icon Dorothy Height and poet Maya Angelou are among the slights that have turned off a majority of African-American voters."

But if you don't think that, in the face of all of this, Black people may have thought something along the lines of, "Well, he [i]is[/i] half White.  Maybe that's the half that's pushing his policies" then you are spending most of your time on another planet.

If that inference was not drawn, why was newspaper after blog saying that Fenty is biracial, whereas Gray is Black, and lives in a Black neighborhood?  In 2010 did newpapers and blogs mention that Fenty was biracial, whereas Linda Cropp was Black?  No, they didn't.  Because at the time, Blacks trusted Fenty to represent their interests.  After Fenty was perceived to have abandoned them, all of a sudden we're hearing about the racial makeup of the two candidates:

From the Huffington Post:  [i][b]Results from the election showed that Fenty, who is biracial, did particularly poorly in areas of the city that have a majority of black residents and did better in parts of the city that have more white residents. Black voters in particular accused Fenty of being out of touch with their community. Gray, who is black and lives in a heavily black part of the city, repeated his slogan of "One City" on Wednesday. He said he would reach out to Fenty voters and hold a series of town hall meetings with all residents.[/b][/i]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/dc-election-results_n_715617.html.

Many, many publications also make this comparison.  Do you think it was gratuitous?  They were just giving us some biographical information?  Filler?  I don't think so.  If that were true, it would have been mentioned in 2010.

It seems to me pretty obvious that, inasmuch as Blacks perceived Fenty to have abandoned their interests, he was not Black enough on the issues.  Which, in turn, probably prompted many to think, "Well, you know, he never identified as Black anyway."

Can I prove to you that this is the case?  No.  I can only point to article after article that wanted to make sure we knew that Fenty is biracial and Gray is Black.  I can only reflect on what I've observed in the human condition, and how one inference tends to draw others.

Disagreeing with what I've said is fine.  But calling me a racist because of what I've said only shows that [i]you[/i] are the bigot.
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