RWB ~ Running While Black

-by Tracy B Ann

Isn’t easy. There is colour in politics-- green and white. Green is the colour of money and white is the colour of skin, the preferred colour of the skin of the recipients of the green. The people giving the money like to give to people who look like them, and white men have most of the money here in the U.S.

If you’re Black and running for political office you're going to have difficulty getting money from those donors. You’ll have to be twice as good and work twice as hard to get the same money a white candidate would have offered to them.

Entitled pseudo-pundits like @ChazNuttycombe don’t help. Let me spell it out...

Here he is calling Willie Randall a "garbage candidate."

Willie Randall is a Persian Gulf war veteran, Army Major, and a Bronze Star recipient. Willie Randall was twice elected Chair for the county Board of Supervisors and a two time candidate for HD 100. Willie Randall is a Black man.

For a 19 year old wannabe know-it-all to call him garbage and not get any push back for it is the epitome of white privilege in action, and is shameful, absolutely shameful.

The opponent referenced in this tweet is Jaime Harrison, Associate Chair and Counsel to the DNC. The past chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party and past Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn. Yale undergrad, Georgetown Law. Jaime Harrison is one of the most connected people in the National Democratic Party, and it would be” foolish” to donate to him? Jaime Harrison is a Black man.

How many different ways are there to say 19 year ill-mannered brat? If you didn't think he was immature and careless before, if you put some stock into what he said, check out this poll that says over 52% of the people in South Carolina would like the choice of someone other than Lindsey Graham. Anyone other than Lindsey Graham.

It’s hard to keep track of all this guys misstatements because he deletes his tweets. (Who deletes their tweets?) A pattern seems to be emerging here and his deletions may be an attempt to hide it. An ugly racist pattern.

He shortchanges and dismisses Black candidates out of hand, as a matter of routine, ingrained white privilege. He’s trash talked Sheila Bynum-Coleman, Len Meyers, Clint Jenkins, etc. and no one calls him on it. I’d provide screen shots but they've been deleted.

A perfect example is in side by side analysis of 2 different races of 2 different candidates who share the same geography. Check out the different treatment people get in the way he writes them up.

In the SD7 primary Cheryl Turpin is white, Kim Howard is white, and Susan Hippen is black.

In the HD85 general Rocky Holcomb the R, is white and Alex Askew the D, is black.

In his description of Susan Hippen (the black D candidate) he leaves out all the good stuff about her. In his description of the white R candidate he leaves out all the bad stuff and there is a whole lot of bad stuff, including white supremacy, and petition gate. Yet our beloved 19 year old soothsayer seems to be blissfully unaware of that.

Now look at the way he describes the money in the SD7 primary, failing to mention Cheryl Turpin got most of her money from several of the biggest donors in the state. Kim Howard got most of her money from one guy.

@ChazNuttycombe devalues Susan Hippen as an afterthought with her $10,000 which came from small donors. When you do the math though, without the multi-thousand dollar big donor contributions, there is reasonable parity. They all have $10,000 in small dollar donations.

The big donors see “White” as right; “White” as winnable.

Never does this guy mention Susan Hippen’s resume, and it’s a pretty impressive resume.

Susan served in the Navy for 26 years and is a veteran Master Chief Petty officer.

She was the Vice Chair of the VB Democratic Party. As a two time candidate for HD21 she paved the way for a Democratic win in 2017. Her citywide run for treasurer helped whip votes for HD85 and HD21.

Susan Hippen is fighting her way through, without billionaire donors, or any one person giving her 30k, 40k, 50k in one fell swoop, (which is legal in Virginia).

@ChazNuttycombe is incompetent but is failing upwards (white privilege at it’s finest) while Susan is getting the cold shoulder. She’s not white, she’s not rich, she's just incredibly well qualified. Here are four urls you might find useful:

• Hippen for Va State Senate 7
• Hippen for Va State Senate 7 Facebook
• Hippen for Va. State Senate 7 Twitter
• Hippen for Va. State Senate 7 Donate