SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU
From Page One race from A1
and blue-collar neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.
Study in black and white A Washington Post analysis of
Tuesday’s primary shows the ex- tent of that disaffection. Fenty won 53 of the city’s majority- white census tracts but only 10 of those that are predominantly black. Gray, in contrast, captured 108 majority-black census tracts and just five that are majority- white. Kelvin Carvana, 42, a black
resident of Shepherd Park, in Northwest, who works in con- struction finance, said he was struck by the dearth of black appointees in the mayor’s Cabi- net. And he walked away from Fenty. “Inthis area, you have themost
educated, affluent collection of people of color in the entire coun- try,” Carvana said. “We’re all artic- ulate, we’re all perceptive, and he didn’t realize that that was his market. He thought he could just run roughshod and cater to whomever he wanted to cater to and leave people disenfran- chised. He just thought we were going to sit there and take it.” Although blacks and whites recognize the importance of the public schools as a vehicle for educating their children, blacks also see the school system as a primary employer, providing jobs to thousands of teachers, school bus drivers, administrators and secretaries. When ChancellorMi- chelle A. Rhee laid off hundreds of teachers, many blacks saw something more than a simple purge of poorly performing edu- cators. They saw an assault on economic opportunity. “He fired those teachers, that
did it for me,” said Wilson Givens, a retired, black equipment opera- tor who lives in Anacostia, in Southeast, and voted for Fenty in 2006. “Does he understand that a job is a family’s livelihood? I didn’t know anybody who was fired personally, but I can relate. I know how it feels, and I felt for those teachers and their families. That was it for me. Would never trust him again.” At its core, the divide between
how whites and African Ameri- cans viewed the election was
sized competency rather than race. This group included former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and Fenty’s predecessor, Anthony A. Williams. Although many black Wash-
ingtonians dismissed Williams as aloof and disengaged, the criti- cism did not define him as it has Fenty. Williams took office after serving as the city’s chief finan- cial officer and often joked about having the charisma of an ac- countant. He also followed Barry at a moment when black and white voters seemed united in wanting a calming mayor, who would restore fiscal order to a city that had suffered the embarrass- ment of a federal takeover in the form of an emergency control board. Fenty, by contrast, drew atten-
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST
Vincent C. Gray, reveling on primary night, won more than 80 percent of the vote in predominantly black wards 7 and 8. In mostly whiteWard 3,Mayor Adrian M. Fenty won nearly 80 percent of the vote.
“Fenty was elected by us, and Fenty forgot about us.” —D.C. resident Audrey Dixon
rooted not so much in black- white tensions as in the percep- tion among black residents that Fenty had disengaged from their communities.
trator, police chief, fire chief, at- torney general and schools chan- cellor, not one of them black. Michael Fauntroy, a public pol-
Frustration
mounted as the Fenty adminis- tration added dog parks and miles of bike lanes while unem- ployment inWard 8, home to the city’s poorest neighborhoods, reached 30 percent. It hardly mattered that the
city’s most prominent cyclist — the mayor himself — was black. The symbolism of putting city resources into amenities that seemed aimed at the District’s gentrifying neighborhoods spoke powerfully to many African Americans, as did the mayor’s selection of his first city adminis-
icy professor at George Mason University, said Fenty’s defeat sent a “message” that he hopes is being noticed in theWhiteHouse. “If you’re winning coalition in- cludes significant numbers of Af- rican American voters, you better not run away from them,” Faun- troy said. “You don’t have to do everything they want, but you can’t run away from them. And while I’m not saying this is what Adrian did, that is the perception in much of the city.” Many black voters said they
were attracted by Gray’s evident commitment to the public schools and alienated by what they sawas Fenty’s bashing of the system and the people who worked in it. White voters often had a differ-
ent attitude toward education reform, in part because they lacked the emotional ties to city schools common among the many black families that have lived in the District for genera-
tions. Allison Tierney, 45, mother of
three and a white resident of Tenleytown, in Northwest, said she voted for Fenty exactly be- cause he was shaking up the school system. “Most of them, probably all of them, needed to be let go,” she said of the fired teachers. “They were there too long, and they needed a change.”
Styles of leadership Fenty’s diminished standing
among black voters may be trace- able in part to generational changes in black leadership. The civil rights movement of
the 1950s and ’60s gave rise to a generation of black politicians that included the Rev. Jesse Jack- son, five-term Detroit mayor Coleman Young and the District’s own Marion Barry, a four-term mayor who now representsWard 8 on theD.C. Council. They cham- pioned racial justice, and their appeal was rooted in racial iden- tity and pride. They were followed by a wave
of black politicians who adopted an executive tone and empha-
tion during his 2006 campaign by knocking on thousands of doors across the city. His message was not overtly racial, but he connect- ed with many black voters by emphasizing his roots as a life- longWashingtonian and son of a prominent small businessman — and by leaving no doubt that he was hungry for the job and would devote superhuman energy to it. If his policy decisions asmayor
provoked criticism, he also hurt himself by missing opportunities to connect with black residents through symbolic gestures: He failed to meet with civil rights leader Dorothy Height, and he raced in a triathlon instead of going to church on the Sunday before the primary election. Eddie Glaude, a professor of
religion and African American studies at Princeton University, said Fenty’s defeat “suggests that the model of deracialization might not be sustainable” and presents an opportunity “for us to think about the direction of Afri- can American politics. What are we to make of this new class of post-racial black leaders? What challenges will they face,andwho will follow in their wake?” Glaude continued: “On the one
hand,wecould sayFenty engaged in bad politics, and on the other, we could say that some of the expectations of the African Amer- ican community were unfair. He had to govern D.C. within con- straints, and given his accom- plishments, this outcome can
A7 How Fenty lost the support of black voters — and then his job
seem dangerously punitive and may suggest that there is a desire to go back to a form of politics that I find troublesome, which is the kind of cronyism and patron- age that defined theMarion Barry years. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on.” Andra Gillespie, a professor of
African American politics at Em- ory University, said even candi- dates who position themselves as post-racial must find ways to “be real and human. It’s not about learning to speak a certain way or telling stories or playing go-go music. It’s being sensitive to your community. If you know that older black voters expect church visits and for you to go to funerals and you don’t do that, you should expect some criticism.” The breakdown of Tuesday’s
vote tells the story. Gray won more than 80 percent of the vote in wards 7 and 8, the most pre- dominantly black wards, where turnout rose more than 20 per- cent from 2006. In predominant- ly whiteWard 3, Fentywonnearly 80 percent of the vote. In Ward 4, Fenty’s home base,
the mayor won by 9,000 votes in 2006. This time, he lost by 4,000 votes. In Precinct 62, the area along 16th Street NW known as the “Gold Coast,” where affluent blacks have lived for decades, the mayor suffered a dramatic rever- sal from four years ago. Then, Fenty won 63 percent. This time, Gray won 63 percent. “Fenty was elected by us, and
Fenty forgot about us,” said Au- drey Dixon, 63, a black school bus driver who lives in Petworth, in Northwest. She understands that the mayor has built recreation centers and that her neighbor- hood has gained housing and restaurants in recent years. But she also knows that she struggles to get by. “I’m sure people will say we’re
ungrateful,” she said. “People say, ‘Look at those playgrounds.’Well, I’m too old for playgrounds. I’m one paycheck from losing my home. I’m supposed to be retir- ing.”
schwartzman@washpost.com jenkinsc@washpost.com
Staff writers Henri E. Cauvin, Mike DeBonis and Nathan Rott and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
1,000,000 don’t count?
students
Put the brakes on the Department of Education’s “Gainful Employment” rule.
www.mycareercounts.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192