On Tuesday, the Executive Director of the Missouri repugican cabal, Matt Wills, ranted on Breitbart regarding reports that voter registration booths
had been set up in Ferguson. Apparently, civil rights activists, led by
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have used the protests in Ferguson over
the death of Mike Brown to convince local residents to register to vote.
This doesn’t sit well with Wills and the state’s repugican cabal. When contacted by
Breitbart to give an opinion on this, Wills said the following:
“If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is. I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.”
Nope. Nothing racist about that at all.
One of the main complaints from black Ferguson
residents in the aftermath of Brown’s shooting is that they feel shutout
of the political process and major decisions affecting them. Despite
African-Americans making up 67% of the town’s population, the mayor is
white, six out of seven members of the school board are white (the other
one is Hispanic) and nearly every other elected official in the town is
white. The school system’s superintendent, a black man, was summarily
suspended without explanation by the school board. He later resigned.
The police department has only 3 black officers out of a force of 53.
Sharpton told the black people of Ferguson that if they want to affect change, they need to get to the polls and votes. He loudly condemned the 12 percent voter turnout
by black residents during his speech at a rally Sunday. If they want
more African-Americans in positions of political power they need to
register to vote and get involved. Sharpton put his money where his
mouth is and, along with others, set up the voter registration booths in
and around the major protest areas. Basically, if young black people
are going to come out and demonstrate, then they should also be given
the tools to affect real change.
However, Wills, obviously speaking on behalf of many repugicans, not only in Missouri but this country, feel that this is
awful and “disgusting.” I am shocked I didn’t see him quoted as calling
Jackson and Sharpton ‘race hustlers.’ In his mind, civil rights
activists shouldn’t use an event that is largely happening due to the
long-standing racial and political issues affecting a specific area to
raise awareness with the people who are most affected. They need to be
solemn and respectful and not try to incite young black people to take
any action towards their future. In other words, do what white repugicans want them to do — nothing.
Also, per Wills, he doesn’t think the Mike Brown
tragedy has anything to do with race, and he wishes people would stop
bringing it up.
“This is not just a tragedy for the African American community this is a tragedy for the Missouri community as well as the community of what we call America. Injecting race into this conversation and into this tragedy, not only is not helpful, but it doesn’t help a continued conversation of justice and peace.”
Ummm, OK. Sure. Race has nothing to do with what
happened in Ferguson. Also, Wills doesn’t think it’s helpful to discuss
race when talking about this awful tragedy. However, he also thinks it
is “completely inappropriate” for black people to get registered to vote
at this time in Ferguson.
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