The results also showed how black people often don't vote in a bloc, despite what white people apparently think. Black voters in Tampa had more faith in Freedman than whites ever did, and certainly more than black voters in St. Petersburg have in Yeshitela. He scares a lot of them, too. I point these things out to try to put a dent in the myth of the black monolith, that holds that all black people think the same, behave the same, vote the same. Not that I'll have much luck.
White minds resist change on the subject of all things racial.
Black people sometimes act in ways that don't help. Last week, Gov. Jeb Bush broke down in front of a group of black pastors and teachers when he talked about the abuse some of his black staff members have taken, from other blacks, because they work for him. A woman who works in the governor's communications office said her son used to go a mostly black school where his teacher gave the child grief because his mother worked for Bush. The sad vignette is not, though, a surprise. I think of black friends and colleagues who don't think the way they're expected to.