McCrory Charged With "Racebaiting" in Post-Primary Remarks
By CASH MICHAELS
A prominent Republican former governor has sent what some are saying is a “racist sounding” “dog whistle” about mounting black political power in North Carolina, and at least one Democratic member of Congress has called it “appalling.”
Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12), who represents the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area in her congressional district, was among several public officials last week outraged by former Gov. Pat McCrory’s remarks, chiding the election of so many black-elected officials to government leadership there.
“I’m worried about the segregated aspects of Charlotte-Mecklenburg politics, and lack of diversity we might have,” the Republican former governor, who many recall enthusiastically signed the 2013 law restricting early voting and instituting voter ID before it was eventually struck down, told his listeners the morning after the May 8th primary.
McCrory has since claimed that he was acting as a “political analyst,” and not a partisan when he expressed dismay last week on his daily WBT-AM radio show about the successful influence of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Political Caucus, and the fact that so many of the candidates it endorsed won their primaries, including candidates for sheriff and district attorney.
“We see now that the Black Political Caucus is the major influencer in who wins the Democratic primary,” McCrory warned.
Arthur Griffin, chair of the Black Political Caucus, reacted by not only noting that the caucus is nonpartisan, and has endorsed many white candidates in the past. In his view, he thought McCrory’s remarks are a “…political dog whistle to say, let’s engage in this racial politics thing.”
McCrory, who served as Charlotte’s mayor for 12 years before he was elected governor, also openly lamented that the Queen City’s current black mayor, Vy Lyles, said nothing in support of the white Democratic incumbents, like the sheriff, during the primary.
“McCrory’s comments are appalling but not very surprising,” Rep. Adams said in a statement.
“I wonder if the former Governor will speak up about the gerrymandering that has led to a majority Republican North Carolina General Assembly and Congressional delegation?” she asked rhetorically.
Irving Joyner, law professor at North Carolina Central University in Durham, and one of the lead attorneys who battled McCrory’s voter ID law, slammed the Republican, saying that his “feigned alarmed” was very similar to white warnings of black political progress after the Wilmington election of 1898, which resulted, then, in bloodshed against blacks.
“[His words are…] seemingly designed to arouse the attention, emotion and opposition of his extreme conservative base around the State,” Joyner said in a statement.
“We need to be wary of similar comments by McCrory and others which have the perceived intent of polarizing political participation on the basis of race. We must be vigilant to resist a return to the "race baiting" which spearheaded political participation in 1898. and resulted in the institution of almost 90 years of "Jim Crow" politics in North Carolina and the South.”