Will we all just fiddle as West Memphis burns?

Will we all just fiddle as West Memphis burns?

By Ralph Hardin

As much as I love the connectivity and community that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have given us, the one thing that comes with that is the revelation that the ugly side of humanity is still alive and well.

Everything from racism to sexism to just plain stupidity are on display every day on Facebook. Everyone has an opinion, and while everyone is certainly entitled to think how they think, it’s never been easier to spread ignorance than here in the information age.

So once the election results began rolling in, I was in no way surprised when it became clear that the black people in West Memphis wanted a black mayor and the white people in West Memphis wanted a white mayor. And no, I don’t think it was 100 percent blacks voting for black candidates and whites voting for white candidates, but one need only to look at the breakdown by voting precincts and have a basic understanding of the city’s demographics to see that is exactly what happened.

It wasn’t a matter of which candidate was the most qualified or had the best plan for the city or was the most upstanding citizen or had the best record of community service. You could make arguments for all six of the original candidates in any of those categories, but it didn’t matter.

The results spoke for themselves. There was really only one question that mattered.

Which candidate matches my skin color?

And so, on Nov. 6, the original election day, the black candidates did well in the majority black neighborhoods and the white candidates did well in the majority white neighborhoods.

And that’s when the real hullabaloo started.

Wayne Croom and Marco McClendon were the top two vote-getters on election night and so they were going to a runoff to see who the new mayor would be.

Again, for most folks there was, again, only one question… Which candidate matches my skin color?

And so, on Dec. 4, when the results came in, guess what?

The black candidate did well in the majority black neighborhoods and the white candidate did well in the majority white neighborhoods.

So, with all that said, Michael, I will agree with you that it’s important to agree and admit (and most importantly, accept) that come January 1, 2019, West Memphis will have a new mayor, and his name will be Marco McClendon.

I’m glad you brought up the fact that McClendon will be only the second black to serve in this position in the history of this county’s largest municipality. To give you an idea of the racial divide that exists in West Memphis and has existed in West Memphis, let me give you a little background on the last time the city elected a black mayor. It was in 1980, and there was a six-candidate field (sound familiar?).

Candidate Leo Chitman, who is black, received 16 percent of the vote. At the time, there was no provision in state or municipal code requiring a candidate receiving a majority, so Chitman was elected. The protests were so great by an outraged (white) citizenry that in 1981, the Arkansas legislature crafted a law that required a majority and runoffs for elections in all county and local races.

Michael, you talk about “assumptions that McClendon will play the race card,” but the “race card” has already been played, my friend. The voters played it. Well, some of them played it. About 30 percent, to be exact.

That is correct. As you rightly pointed out, in what was being considered one of the most important elections in local politics in recent memory, 70 percent of the eligible voters looked at what was going on and thought, “Nah.”

The final tally in the runoff was 2,471 to 2,145. That’s a margin of 326 votes in a city of more than 25,000 people.

So McClendon is going to fill the ranks of the city’s leadership positions with black folks? Are we supposed to be surprised? Are we supposed to be outraged? Anyone who is shocked that a political candidate, upon taking office, would appoint people who supported him or her during the campaign to important positions hasn’t been paying attention to American politics for the past, oh 300 years. That’s just what is done. The fact that these appointees would be black can’t possibly be a surprise 99 percent of McClendon’s support came from the black community. For him to suddenly feel the need to seek out white candidates for these positions would actually be pretty strange. Imagine if Donald Trump had won the election and then immediately began appointing Democrats to high-ranking cabinet positions.