Prometheus 6

THERE ARE A LOT of reasons why: lack of a coherent agenda to measure officials against, a romantic belief that black politicians always have the interests of black people at heart, fear of jeopardizing the increasingly tenuous state of black representation by complaining about it and — this is particularly acute in L.A. — a tendency to see politicians as celebrities. There's also the practical impossibility of figuring out exactly who's responsible for what hasn't been done — the old conundrum of proving a negative.

Black isn't enough
Issues, not just a politician's skin color, should matter to African American voters.
Erin Aubry Kaplan
June 30, 2007

THE SENSE OF triumph was almost audible in the giant banner headline that ran in last week's Los Angeles Sentinel, the city's oldest black newspaper: "Laura Richardson Wins".