By ELINOR TATUM, Publisher and Editor in Chief
Black New Yorkers went to the polls on November 2 and helped give Andrew Cuomo a big electoral victory over Carl Paladino. Blacks represented 18 percent of the electorate, up from 10 percent in 2006.
And how is the governor-elect thanking Black New Yorkers?
He has appointed Rudy Giuliani to his transition team as co-chair of the public safety committee. There cannot be a greater slap in the face to Black New Yorkers than this appointment. (more…)
Ginni Thomas, the Tea Party activist and wife of Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, had the nerve to call Anita Hill and ask her for an apology over the weekend.
For those of you who don’t remember, Anita Hill was the woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991. African Americans had to watch as two Black people were on national display during Supreme Court confirmation hearings in front of the Senate. Thomas, famously claimed during his testimony that he was the victim of a “high tech lynching” – and an all white senate body squirmed as they tried to decide who was telling the truth-the Black man or the Black woman. After the bitter hearings, Thomas was named to the Supreme Court with one of the lowest margins of approval by any justice with a 52–48 vote. (more…)
On Friday October 1 Rick Sanchez was unceremoniously yanked from CNN’s airwaves, after he ranted about TV show host Jon Stewart, CNN management, and the media in general on a radio show. During this “rant” Sanchez said, “… He’s such a minority … Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah.’”
Sanchez was removed from the air so fast that it would make your head spin. CNN did not act the way it did with Lou Dobbs- who was allowed to spit out anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant rants for years – Sanchez’s firing was practically instantaneous. (more…)
Finally, it looks like there might actually be a real campaign.
It seems as though Andrew Cuomo has finally gotten the message that he has to actually engage the electorate and show us that he is actually worthy of our votes. We have been speaking loud and clear for some time now, and it looks like he has started to listen. We have been trying to tell him that we want someone to vote for, not simply someone to vote against.
And last week, Cuomo actually came to Harlem, took some time to shake hands and talk to our folks and open up a dialogue with our community. This is a good first step, but we can only hope this is just the first step in addressing the issues and concerns of Black people, who will be vital for either his electoral success or defeat. (more…)
The head of a black-owned weekly newspaper based in Harlem said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has “proved nothing” to African-American voters and takes their support for granted.
The publisher and editor-in-chief of the Amsterdam News, Elinor Tatum, vented her frustration with state’s the attorney general in a strongly worded open letter in the newspaper published on Thursday.
“You have remained silent. You have met with no one. And I mean no one. You have not spoken to us or any other media outlets, for that matter,” Ms. Tatum wrote. “You seem to think that you are the golden child who cannot be touched, but I am afraid, my friend, you may be sorely mistaken.” (more…)
Andrew M. Cuomo faces discontent among black elected officials and community leaders who say Mr. Cuomo has ignored them during his campaign for governor and is offering black New Yorkers little reason to rally to his cause, endangering his prospects for November.
In interviews, the officials raised numerous concerns about Mr. Cuomo, the state attorney general and a Democrat who has in the past had uneasy relations with New York’s black political establishment. He has done virtually no campaigning in predominantly black neighborhoods in New York or with black elected officials, they said, and has offered no major initiatives aimed at minority New Yorkers, spurring worries that black voters will stay home in November.
Some were rankled that Mr. Cuomo refused to take a stand on legislation enacted this summer that prohibits the New York Police Department from keeping records on people questioned during street stops but not arrested or fined. (more…)
Elinor Tatum is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the New York Amsterdam News.
Tatum published an open letter to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo questioning his campaign.
Tatum writes,” One thing I can assure you is that you cannot do this without the help of the Black community, and you will not get that help just for being a Cuomo. You need to earn our votes, our trust and our loyalty. At this point, you may be the lesser of two evils, but we do have other choices.”
Tatum joins Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly to discuss her open letter to Cuomo.
Original My Fox NY post and video: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/elinor-tatum-amsterdam-news-andrew-cuomo-20100927
Original AmNews Post: http://politicsnoir.com/2010/09/23/andy-are-you-gonna-to-run-a-campaign/
By Wayne Barrett, Fri., Sep. 24 2010 @ 4:21PM
Categories: Politics, Wayne Barrett
Having set the national stage for the Carl Paladino roll-out yesterday, with CNN citing the Times as their reason for interviewing him, the paper did a nosedive today on the Siena and Marist polls that rebut the Quinnipiac numbers that were featured in a front page story the day before.
The Times barely mentions Siena and ignores Marist, though Marist’s 19-point lead for Cuomo is based on likelies, just like Quinnipiac. Polls are snapshots, but how does the Times explain featuring the out-of-focus one on A-1, and then refusing to balance it out with a full slideshow today?
One photo the Times did get right was the one on its inside page yesterday, an artful portrait of Cuomo addressing fenced-in reporters near City Hall. All we see are the outstretched hands of reporters bearing mikes, separated by iron links from the gesturing candidate. It captures the essence of the Cuomo error so far — too much staging and manipulation, too much calculation and distance.
Elinor Tatum captured a bit of the gap in an eloquent open letter in the Amsterdam Newstoday. (more…)
