Walter: Don't Inject Race Into Mayoral Contest
The race for mayor is running in a wrong direction. It is for me, anyway.
All that blabbering about a "consensus" African-American candidate. That's not how to run for mayor, asking blacks to vote for a black, or whites to vote for a white, a race about race. That's racism.
A unified attempt to put a black American in the mayor's office, like a unified attempt to put a white American in the mayor's office -- that's nuts, all black leaders getting behind one black candidate, like all white leaders getting together behind one white candidate. That's what happened when Harold Washington ran for mayor, remember?
The slogan of the white candidate, Bernard Epton, was "Vote for me, before it's too late." He lost, as he darn well should have lost, running a race about race. So this time, stop it, before it's too late to stop polarizing the races.
Cut the garbage about running a consensus candidate. Try running a qualified candidate.
