THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230287
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
After City Council members determined to challenge the Justice Department's ruling that an at-large voting system in school board elections would disenfranchise Chesapeake's minority voters, Mayor William E. Ward condemned the decision, saying it promotes ``political exclusion.''
The mayor's position would have more validity if he could explain how a system that has worked beautifully for 30 years - resulting in the election of many fine minority leaders, himself included - has suddenly become so unfair.
What has changed from just a year ago when the percentage of African-Americans on the council didn't just match the percentage of African-Americans in the city's population but exceeded it?
The mere fact that voters in last May's municipal election filled every available seat on the council with a white man is not, by itself, evidence of discrimination.
Analysis of the vote in that election shows clearly that the first choice of most of Chesapeake's black voters was elected. That their preference happened to be a white candidate, Councilman John W. Butt, does not change the fact that their opinion was reflected in the results.
While it is true that minority representation on the council is lower now than it has been in years - lower, perhaps, than it ought to be - it is wrong to assume that racial prejudice is the only possible explanation for why that is so. Yet that appears to be the assumption that the Justice Department has made.
Simple self-respect requires that Chesapeake voters defend themselves against the demeaning implication that they are incapable of judging candidates for public office on any basis other than the color of their skin. by CNB