Black candidates were finding themselves being smeared in the 2017 political season.
The competition for two open seats on the Charlottesville City Council turned ugly when a local newspaper said Nikuyah Walker, an independent in a Democratic-dominated city council and the only Black female in the race, was called “unabashedly aggressive” in an article focused on shooting her down. Critics say it was done under the guise of analyzing all the candidates. The motive was to stop Walker, who’s seen as a progressive who wants to disrupt the Democrats’ stranger hold on political power.
In the Virginia gubernatorial race Democratic candidate Ralph Northam, who ironically needs the Black vote to win his tight race, omitted Justin Fairfax, the Black candidate for lieutenant governor, from a group of campaign fliers that lists Democrats running for statewide office.
Meanwhile, Fairfax, who dismissed Northam’s slight as a “mistake,” is also getting hit from the right. His Republican opponent, Jill Holtzman Vogel, raised a question during their last debate about whether Fairfax can “talk intelligently” about issues.
A Cincinnati Enquirer article about City Council members with tax problems showed “mug shots” of six incumbent Black City Council candidates on the front page and pictures of two white councilmembers on an inside page. Casual observers assumed that the Black candidates were found guilty of some crime.
The St. Paul Police Federation came under fire for suggesting in a political flier that St. Paul mayoral candidate Melvin Carter is somehow responsible for an increase in gun violence. According to the mailer, “Over 100 shots have been fired since August 15 when Melvin Carter’s guns went missing.” That’s a reference to the theft of two guns from the candidate’s house during a robbery over the summer.