As discussed in the lead story in TheRoanokeStar.com over the weekend, “VA Elections Send Shock Waves Across Country,” voting results out of the Old Dominion continue to garner lots of airtime and print in the media and among pundits.
Some TV news talkers were quick to try to frame the Virginia elections as “white supremacy.” Joy Reid at MSNBC said “Education (air quotes/scare quotes) is “code for White parents who don’t like the idea about teaching about race.” Meanwhile at CNN, Brian Stelter claimed that issues like “education” (also with air quotes/scare quotes) and “parents’ rights” are “cheap slogans.”
An MSNBC blog went so far as to claim “Glenn Youngkin’s victory proves white ignorance is a powerful weapon.”
I did not watch the whole episodes but only saw these snippets online. Their comments make me wonder how, if the Republican wins in Virginia on November 2 were fueled by “white supremacy” or people afraid of talking about race, why did a majority of voters, right after they voted for white male Glenn Youngkin for governor, also vote for black female Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor? Are we supposed to believe the white voters are so “ignorant” they did not realize they were voting for a black female who not only has guns but knows how to use them? Furthermore, if GOP voters are “xenophobes,” why did they vote for Sears who came to the US as an immigrant from Jamaica? By the way, Sears will be both the first black and the first woman to hold the office of lieutenant governor–quite a double-header! Quite a pioneer!
And while we are on the subject, why would those same votes also choose Virginia’s first Hispanic attorney general, Jason Miyares (R) over his lily-white opponent, Mark Herring (D)? (Mr. Herring, you may remember, admitted to appearing in a photo in blackface years ago. Somehow I do not think the commentators at MSNBC or CNN thought it worth mentioning that little fact.)
But speaking of race, and because we at TheRoanokeStar.com like to encourage broad thinking, this column will go even beyond our shores and invite the perspective a clergyman from Africa has about our recent elections.
Pastor Peter J. Wamono hails from the East African nation of Uganda and is currently living in the Roanoke Valley. He has a blog where he records his observations on a wide range of issues.
Therefore, in the spirit of global thinking and multicultural understanding, here is Pastor Wamono’s November 7 blog post about Virginia’s elections which he titled “Not too far gone…”
Take a mental step outside our “American bubble” for a moment and see for yourself how this Ugandan views our elections and what they mean. You owe it to yourself to get another, international perspective!
Source:
MSNBC and CNN dismiss parental concerns over education as “cheap slogans” etc.
MSNBC blog: “Glenn Youngkin’s victory proves white ignorance is a powerful weapon”
