Local NAACP Chief Joins GOP

Though they all seem the same to me ..Democrats, Republicans, Independents….. I find it comical (somewhat) that this is newsworthy. I wonder if Mr. Wallace would feel the same way if he was in a Democratic Town. I mean I’m not condoning nor condemning his actions or motives, but…its like …..ok, whatever, do what you like. All 3 parties have their good and bad points….why not focus on the good and use that. I’m sure there are those who will say you have to chose 1 and I have, and it is just do what’s right. That may seem corny to most but it’s a very east way to live, not alot of stress…”It is, what it is!!” But in a way it may do the NAACP some good to mix it up a little. They have been kinda stagnant…..

This will leave JESSIE JACKASSON and AL SHARPTON tossin and turnin in bed all night

Lt. Gov. Steele is on Hannity - I can’t believe some of the tortue the ‘open minded’ fighters of civil rights have put this poor man through.

Stealing his social security card, calling him ‘not like us …?’

Having the blessing of growing up in a racially diverse middle-middle class neighbhood in the ‘burbs of MD … this mindless devotion to the democratic party at the expense of talented and capable of color who aren’t of the same political persuasion.

Makes me glad I’ve moved out of the state.

Antonio: Awwwww! Jeez!!!! You state: “I, however, don’t think the Republican party is currently offering a viable alternative.”

Are you shopping for the best “black man” deal? Sort of like whoring, isn’t it?

Can’t you just put the past behind you and get in the race for the future? If not, for what price are your holding out?

I can understand (but not respect) that some may not want to give up advantaged access to the welfare teat. But I do not understand how you can get ahead of the game on that plan.

Suppose you had children and wanted the best for them. Would you sign them on to the Democrat welfare plantation where they might become “house blacks” or would you encourage them to rise to the top on merit and skill?

Just asking.

Even if he’s a Brino, it’s still very surprising. NAACP + Republican doesn’t equal status quo.

It’s not whether a party “cares” about blacks, anonymous commenter. It’s whether they respect them enough to treat them as accountable human beings undeserving of victimhood. I’d rather be hated by a man and left alone than pitied and subjected to his brand of “help.”- Admin

This really is an interesting story. Mr. Wallace’s insight is shrewd, I think. By identifying itself unquestioningly with the Democratic Party, the NAACP can be taken for granted by the Dems. His becoming a Republican may begin to change that in his community and perhaps, become a model for other local NAACP leaders around the country to take.

Mark Daniels

helio….What was that mess in posts #9!?! You mean to tell me that you don’t want the best deal for you? Aren’t you white? Then that would make your deal the best deal for the white man!! That’s part of the problem, people like you want everyone to see things the way you do. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!! Open your eyes more, the world is made up of different people with differnt ideas. It doesn’t matter wether you like it or not, that is the way it is. I understand where Antonio is coming from. So what he doesn’t agree w/you! That’s exactly why the republicans and the democrats have the problems they have…both have die-hard 1 way or the highway followers, and most people are getting fed up with that grade-school mentality.

>>”I wonder if Mr. Wallace would feel the same way if he was in a Democratic Town.”
I’m not sure about the rest of Orange County, but Orlando is a Dem. city so he Wallace is probably not making his decision in a cozy Rep. enclave.

Sharpshooter — I was equally disgusted by Shea’s dunderheaded statement. It spoke volumes about his attitude.

Hey sharpshooter, Stop with the the overly sensitive PC crap! You sound like a sissy little girl!

Tim Shea is not being a racist, he’s just pointing out Wallace’s conflict of interest. He is chair of the NAACP, but then he switched parties, not because it was political or because it would help black people. He only switched parties in order to appease his business partners. Talk about a coward.

But since Wallace is into appeasement, then he is right to become a Republican. Appeasement is the way of the GOP. Let’s remember Ronald Reagan running away from Beirut when terrorists killed 241 of our brave marines. Run Ronnie Run!!!! If memory is correct, I believe that Reagan wore a pink jogging suit that day as he ran away from the fight, and he screamed like a girl.

Then George W. Bush decided to ignore Clinton’s warnings and Bush instead chose to appease the terrorists during his early months in the White House. Then on 9/11, we learned what Bush’s legacy will be. Now Bush continues to appease al Qaeda and Osama bin Ladin by giving them a free pass.

Then when faced with the most dangerous man in the world - you know who I’m talking about - the guy that Republicans are scared to even discuss - Kim Jong Il. Remember when Bush retreated from South Korea last year just after Kim Jong Il got tough. That really made Bush look like a p**sy!

But back to Wallace, good luck to ya. You made your choice. You decided to abandon your race and put your business first. That’s fair enough. I wish you the best in your business, and even more, I wish you the best when you look at yourself in the mirror every morning.

I actually think this was a smart move, for two reasons.

First, by being interested in business issues, he moves his little corner of the world into the bigger world of ‘real results’. I truly believe that one reason there is such dismal failure to better bring more blacks out of poverty for example is because nobody is comparing results to the real world; it’s all just numbers on paper and in political speeches and nobody is saying–like happens in the business world–you make this % of measurable improvement or we fire your ass and hire someone competent to make it happen! There is no better way to refocus your personal and group goals toward accomplishment, than to be focused on real-world results, not just speeches.

Second, the democrats have failed the blacks abysmally as leaders. It’s been decades and the situation in numbers is far worse than it began (although I grant there’s been improvement in the middle class). They have no right to ‘automatically’ get the black vote. They don’t deserve it. The blacks as a group have tremendous voting power and I’d actually like to see them use it to demand something more than pity and platitudes and the same rich (and usually white) people telling them how republicans are “not their friend” because they are often rich and white. As if the leading Dems aren’t!

I guess the problem is, every time I think of practical application, that nothing can happen without the black community itself having the gumption to demand what is good and right, not what is handout. In other words, it is not enough to demand more money for schools, if the NAACP is going to kill any bill that requires a 12th grader demonstrate a 3rd grade education prior to getting a diploma (under the assumption that the people hurt by it will be blacks. Like, “We know they won’t be competent! Then they wouldn’t have diplomas! We should give everybody a paper so they feel better.” OK. Now they get a job and they can’t do it. Who did that help again??) The diploma is still worthless and kids still can’t read or do basic math. Until actual education is seen as more relevent than ’schooling’, change is going to be tough and I’m not sure that even the best government intentions can help until enough people will stand up, be honest, speak out, and say hey, these peoples’ lives are more important than hurt feelings and politics.

Anyway, at least if the democrats felt they had to WORK for the black vote, maybe they would put a little more effort in, since right now they basically get it free by default, simply because in my view they via media have so helped convince blacks that “they are the only friend.”

This is somewhat off topic but it relates to the ‘real world’ result, and business and jobs, and also to another commentary thread in this blog so I’m going to go ahead and post it. The full page is a chapter in John Taylor Gatto’s book on the history of education in America, a section titled ‘intellectual espionage’, http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3b.htm

Those interested in the issues of education, crime, and business accomplishment for blacks might find these excerpts thought provoking:

By 1940, the literacy figure for all states stood at … 80 percent for blacks. Notice that for all the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were nevertheless literate. Six decades later, at the end of the twentieth century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks … can’t read at all. … black illiteracy doubled … we spend three to four times as much real money on schooling as we did sixty years ago, but sixty years ago virtually everyone, black or white, could read. [...] … according to the Justice Department, 80 percent of the incarcerated violent criminal population is illiterate or nearly so (and 67 percent of all criminals locked up). [...] When literacy was first abandoned as a primary goal by schools, white people were in a better position than black people because they inherited a three-hundred-year-old American tradition of learning to read at home by matching spoken sound with letters, thus home assistance was able to correct the deficiencies of dumbed-down schools for whites. But black people had been forbidden to learn to read under slavery, and as late as 1930 only averaged three to four years of schooling, so they were helpless when teachers suddenly stopped teaching children to read, since they had no fall-back position. [from footnote] A growing body of documentation ties illiteracy causally to violent crime. A study by Dennis Hogenson titled “Reading Failure and Juvenile Delinquency” (Reading Reform Foundation) attempted to correlate teenage aggression with age, family size, number of parents present in home, rural versus urban environment, socio-economic status, minority group membership, and religious preference. None of these factors produced a significant correlation. But one did. As the author reports, “Only reading failure was found to correlate with aggression in both populations of delinquent boys.” An organization of ex-prisoners testified before the Sub-Committee on Education of the U.S. Congress that in its opinion illiteracy was an important causative factor in crime “for the illiterate have very few honest ways to make a living.” In 1994 the U.S. Department of Education acknowledged that two-thirds of all incarcerated criminals have poor literacy.