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Remember former Republican Governor George Ryan? He looked at the criminal justice system and saw its injustices and stayed all executions after 13 convicted men were shown to be innocent. Just before leaving office he commuted all death row inmates' sentences. During these times of Presidential Campaigning, Blacks may want to extract concrete campaign promises from candidates as a cost of their votes. Ryan is no liberal, instead he is a Republican and a liberal among them is a rare bird. He honestly saw what African American scholars and fair minded whites have seen for hundreds of years: The American system of justice is an American system of injustice for African Americans and other ethnic minorities. Seeing that reality, he did more than any liberal governor or white liberal politician has done. He commuted death sentences that he feared were all tainted by the injustice he proved was a part of the Illinois system of justice. The naive seek to prove that this American system is fair to all. Those whites who would venture to be honest know this nation's institutions are poised to dole out special favors, breaks, and special privileges to whites. Whether they, or anyone, deserve them, whites have received them and few complain about the unfairness to others, as they are showered with white blessings of privilege. In spite of this condition that is widely known by most thinking African Americans (Ward Connerly excepted) we have repeatedly and consistently sued, marched, boycotted, and voted to change this condition of white favoritism. Our voting is particularly disturbing as an effort to rectify white institutionalized abuse. African Americans have seemingly voted for liberals as the best hope to change past and present conditions. And usually, white liberals have courted the black vote and received it quite easily. But when we look at what we have received in return for our vote, we see little that would merit the consistency with which we have handed them our vote. As a case in point, California has Gray Davis as Governor of the largest state in the Union. He got a large percentage of black votes. It is true that California does not have a large black population, but he got the majority of our votes in both campaigns. And what have we gotten in return? The answer is quick and simple: Nothing. It is true, Gray Davis appears to be a plastic politician. He smiles a fake smile and he came up under Jerry Brown when he was Governor of California. Brown was long on rhetoric and short on affirmative policies that would help ethnic minorities in that state. He has continued his long on rhetoric and short on action in Oakland, where, strangely, he was voted Mayor and that city has a large black voting population. But both Gray (a name that is characteristic of his tenure as Governor) and Brown are considered liberals, and both Gray and Brown got a large percentage of the black vote. Both Gray and Brown have done nothing for African Americans in return for that vote. We have had a tendency to vote for liberal politicians, but now that California is in a budget crunch, as are almost all other states, and Gray Davis has cut back on all services and agencies, even schools, the state's prisons, with so many young black and brown males, he allowed to go almost untouched by any cuts. The prison unions, we know, donated large sums to the Davis campaign chest. Is this not his payback to them? Maybe, the strategy African American voters should use is not to deliver our votes, but deliver sizable contributions to these candidates and dictate the terms we desire. Money seems to be the end all and be all of power politics, not votes. Most candidates assume if they have the money, they can buy the votes they need. After all, Bloomberg bought New York's mayoral position with $85 million of his own money. In the light of the above realities, the Black Community may want to reexamine its penchant for liberals; they are not delivering for us. Maybe we should just donate large sums of money and buy favor, not vote favor in. This seems to work, and it seems to be the way of the world in politics. [] Simond Griote
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