The case against Yassky

I don't live in the NY 11th -- the central Brooklyn congressional district, represented by the retiring Major Owens and the site of a close primary battle. But the race is in the news a lot.

Part of the reason is that one of the four candidates, David Yassky, is white, and this is a black district (58.5%, by the latest census figures). Whatever happens, it's a shame that so much of the race has become about *him*.

Should he be running in the district? Al Sharpton puts it well:

...our problem with his running in the 11th is that he made an opportunistic political calculation to move out of his own district and move into a district with four black candidates under the assumption that they'd split the vote, providing him with an inroad to victory.

That's a clear undermining of the spirit of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Further, population estimates from the Census Bureau reveal that blacks still don't have equal representation in New York City's congressional delegation.

I firmly believe that in a supposedly progressive state like New York, that's a problem that must be remedied, not further exacerbated.

Here's Yassky's attitude, from the NYT in June:

It's a district that needs Congress to pay attention and care and do what it's supposed to do. And I just felt increasingly strongly that I could do something.

To which Sharpton responds:

"The issue is, why would you think there's not a black as qualified and who could do just as good a job in Washington? So the inference is when someone moves into our district, they're telling us, 'Well, ain't nobody in the district who can do what I do.'

Do you really want to vote for the white savior?