Inclusion Still a Challenge

The NAACP is suing a Florida county election supervisor to open another early voting site in the eastern part of Volusia County where more minorites reside. The election supervisor is refusing claiming that opening the additional site in Daytona Beach would require her to open two others to make the availability of sites more evenly distributed. Although, the even distribution of sites is not required under state election law, it is recommended when possible.

This case reminded me of the challenges facing the NAACP in my own state. The Aiken County branch of the NAACP is hosting the SC State NAACP Convention Oct. 7-10. For those of you who are not aware, the NAACP has had a tourism boycott in place in South Carolina since 2000 because of the Confederate flag issue. Although the Confederate flag was removed from atop the state house, it still flies over a confederate war memorial on the state house grounds. As a result, the NAACP continues the boycott, and the state convention is being held in Augusta, Georgia.

The sad part about this situation is that some residents (I can only assume that they are caucasian) have made many ugly remarks about the work of the NAACP basically suggesting that if they don't like the way things are done in SC, they should just leave. Further, these same malcontents have extended their dissatisfaction to the creation of an African-American cultural center in our community. The association of these two issues can only lead me to believe that their dissatisfaction extends to African-Americans in general and not specifically to the boycott issue.

I lifted this quote from the Aiken Standard newspaper on July 17, 2004:

"The NAACP has boycotted South Carolina and took their convention out of state. Before our county and city leaders even think about this (lodging) tax the boycott must be lifted. With this boycott now in place the black leaders are asking the white travelers to pay for their center. Why don't we put it on the ballot in November?"

"Their center?" That is the worst part of the quote. So, is the local county museum the "white" museum? It's hard to believe that people are so internally programmed to be bigots. They don't understand that an African-American cultural center is there to benefit all citizens and to share African-American history and culture in our county that they might not otherwise be exposed to. That reader's quote suggests to me that we are in great need of an African-American cultural center because we still have a long way to go in making our community more inclusive and acknowledging that we all make valuable contributions and deserve recognition for those contributions.


BellSouth