TWISTING THE DREAM

Humor me for a minute. Imagine there is a Congressional district, somewhere in America, that is currently up for grabs. The ethnic make-up of the district is majority white, but a quarter of the seat is made up of African-American voters. Five candidates are running for the seat, all of whom have respectable resumes in government and public service. And while four of them are white, one is black.

Now, imagine the four white candidates and their supporters publicly complaining, over and over again that the black candidate has no business running for the seat, and in fact should not be allowed to do so. Let's even say they held a press conference on the steps of their government seat to blast the black candidate and his candidacy, entirely based on race. He's black, they say, and therefore has no business even running for the seat. He cannot represent the interests of white people.

If this were happening, the four white candidates would be swiftly branded as racists, and rightfully so. Singling out a candidate solely based on race is not generally accepted in public circles, and certainly would be looked down upon in a bastion of liberalism such as New York City. You'd think that, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. 

Right now, in Brooklyn, this exact situation is playing out for the entire public to see. Except the races are reversed, and what would have seemed racist has become legitimate political discourse.

In the 11th Congressional District, white City Councilman David Yassky is running to replace black Congressman Major Owens, who is retiring at the end of this year. The seat has a roughly 60 percent black population, and four other candidates, all black, have gotten into this year's race. Chris Owens, son of the retiring Congressman, City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke and State Senator Carl Andrews all remain in the race, while Assemblyman Nick Perry has since dropped out.

When Perry dropped out and endorsed Clarke, he accused Yassky of attempting to steal a Congressional seat from African Americans. Days later, black City Councilman Al Vann organized a press conference on the steps of City Hall demanding that Yassky leave the race. That night on NY1's "Inside City Hall," Vann continued to defend his position in the face of criticism of the race-based nature of his comments towards Yassky. Vann said that politics should not be based on race, but in this case he was more than happy to use race as the sole reason to keep Yassky off the ballot. Vann even implied that while African-American voters are willing to vote for candidates of any race, so long as their qualified, white voters would likely vote in lockstep for Yassky because he shared the same melanin levels as they do.

There is a historical point to Vann's rhetoric. The district has its roots in the Voting Rights Act, which eliminated racial barriers to elected representation, and was held by Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman ever elected to Congress. In light of all this history, said Vann, Yassky should leave the race and leave black voters to decide for themselves.

But the district is changing and does not look the same as it did when Chisholm was first elected in 1969. And there are black community leaders who are supporting Yassky, as well as plenty of whites who have lined up behind the younger Owens and Clarke. None of this seems to matter to Yassky's critics, who seem convinced that black voters will split evenly while whites stand with Yassky, and the only way to fix that is to force Yassky out of the race and force white voters to line up behind the black candidates.

Vann evoked the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as the rationale behind keeping Yassky out of the race. But Dr. King argued for a color blind society, not for one based on race-based electoral quotas. If Dr. King was alive today to hear Vann use his name to demand that a white candidate be kept off a ballot to favor black candidates, he'd probably be sick with embarrassment.

For his part, Yassky has done his best to highlight his own record and not directly respond to the racial calls for his exit.

"David is going to continue to reach out to every single part of this district, as he has been," said Yassky's communications director Evan Thies. "He hopes to convince voters one at a time of his record of accomplishment that would make him a great member of Congress." The high road suits Yassky, at least on this issue. But he must be fuming inside. Regardless of his qualifications and record, he is being entirely judged by his critics solely on his complexion. And those critics are allowed to get away with it.