Every local election cycle, well-heeled Citizens Council types pay Black political consultants and encourage Black political players, who are dependent on the largess of the city’s big business community, to entice a financially strapped Black community to vote for one of their big business projects that offer little on no economic development for the Black community.  Now, they will come asking us to support their latest big business project, a $1.35 billion school bond package, in a May election.  But this time things are a bit different. Hispanic leader, Adelfa Callejo, has garnered national attention by highlighting the tensions between African-Americans and Latinos here.  Unfortunately for bond proponents, they need Black voters to support a bond for a school district that is predominately Latino. And Black political leaders are on notice like never before that there will be political consequences for supporting the business community’s issues while the Black community never gets anything from that community for our vote.

Let me be clear about something:  I have no “beef” with political consultants who get paid selling issues and/or politicians to the Black electorate.  What I do object to is any attempt by “said” consultants to characterize their efforts, such as the school bond case, as anything more then their attempts to make an honest living.  To suggest that this $1.35 billion bond election is all about the kids is dubious at best.  The fact is there is no proof that the May school bond will enhance the educational achievement of DISD students.  The only thing that is certain about the school bond is that it will be a boon for local construction companies.  The Black community, before we vote for a bond that is considered an economic engine more then an education booster, should demand to know how Black engineering, architectural, and construction firms are going to benefit from the May bond.

Hispanic leader, Adelfa Callejo, publicly proclaimed during the heat of the Texas presidential primary something I have been writing about in this blog for months. Large factions of the Latino political community do not like Black folks. That fact is no secret to anybody involved in ethnic politics here.  But I am puzzled by Mrs. Callejo’s contention that African-Americans have somehow used Hispanics in the past to get our own fragile political power.  In almost 4 decades of covering Black politics in Dallas, I have never participated in a Black political strategy session or a conversation where the objective was to take unfair advantage of the Hispanic community for the benefit of the Black community. It will be interesting to see what the political fallout is for Mrs. Callejo and that section of the Latino community who support her views.  I do believe that had one of the city’s white Republican leaders been captured publicly making the same statements about Sen. Obama that Mrs. Callejo uttered, that individual would have been called out as a racist, run off of every committee in town, and relegated to political pariah status.    

The question for the Black electorate and our Black political leadership is when do we say enough is enough?  I cannot in good conscience continue to blame white racism or the Citizens Council types for the continued pitiful plight of southern Dallas when every time we have an opportunity to vote for what is in our best interest we choose instead to vote for issues where we get nothing in return. To vote for this school bond while there is nothing in it for us, is one example.  Here is an example of something we should be supporting: as the city deliberates on a site for a new convention hotel, as of this writing, only one developer has the land and a plan to use a new convention center hotel as an economic magnet to jump start Southern Dallas development.  Developer Jack Matthews and his Matthews Southwest Company will come before city officials seeking a chance to develop a new convention center hotel. According to media accounts and my own analysis of the project, Matthews’ plan not only gives us a convention center hotel but it is also the only plan that has a secondary objective to spur Southern Dallas development.  Given those facts, one would think that all of those folks at city hall who proclaim their desire to develop the southern sector would jump on the Matthews bandwagon.  We will see what city hall officials, the Mayor who campaigned on delivering Southern Dallas development, and the Black City Council members will do when faced with this obvious choice. 

If Black consultants want or need to take these “pro school bond” folks money in order to survive, I understand.  But they should at least be honest with the Black electorate in explaining to us the truth about the May school bond election.  The truth is this bond election is about construction money for certain major white construction companies and not about the kids or Southern Dallas development. The truth is Black businesses probably will not benefit much from this $1.35 billion business opportunity.  The truth is many of the students and their families who make it necessary to build new schools have questionable immigration status.  The truth is there is too much “I don’t like Black folks” rhetoric coming out of the Latino community especially since they need our vote if this bond is going to pass.  The truth is the Black political community and the Black electorate had better start voting for what is in our best interest or we will soon have no interests at all.  At least that is how I see it from South of the Trinity.

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