Ellington

Alice Margolis wrote a letter to the Ledge complaining about the lack of diversity in the big national concert from Oxford last week. Any thoughts?

Glaring in their absences were representatives of our black and Democratic leadership: Where were 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, 4th District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, House Ways and Means Chairman Percy Watson of Hattiesburg and former Gov. William Winter? At the very least, these leaders or their counterparts should have been prominently seated alongside Gov. Haley Barbour and U.S. Sen. Trent Lott.

Although the stage was filled with black performers, where were the black members of the audience? Were they out of camera range? There should have been a concerted effort to ensure that the diverse racial groups of this state were in evident attendance.

Was this appalling deficit motivated by "politics as usual," or merely a stupendously dunderheaded oversight?

Previous Comments

ID

171859

Comment

Yeah, this is pretty troubling. Here's another writeup on the event, listing performers and such. The absence of Bennie Thompson is particularly bizarre. Next to Lott, he's our most prominent national politician. Way more influential than Barbour, despite belonging to the minority party (in more ways than one, I guess). Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-10-09T22:04:54-06:00