How to destroy a Black politician: The LeVon Barnes decision

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“carl, if you are in town this week, I would love to have a sit down with you and learn about the history of Durham politics,” the request was sent on September 5, 2017, by LeVon Barnes at 9:34 a.m. It was the beginning of an ongoing conversation involving politics in Durham.

We met the following day at Coco Cinnamon. It was a pleasant day. He found me outside as I was sipping a glass of yerba mate. We discussed Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, the Black Baptist pastor who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barnes called Walker his mentor, a point that made it easier for me to understand his passion for politics. My previous conversations with Dr. Walker were a journey into a period of American history when Black men and women did more than stand on the sideline while others fought for their rights.

Dr. Walker was dying. The sadness in the air connected the two of us beyond the galling drama of Durham politics.

The details matter when you’re discussing the political death of a Black man.

Barnes placed his name in the hat as a candidate for the Ward 2 city council seat. Two other Black men, Mark-Anthony Middleton and John Rooks, were also running. Rooks received the endorsement of People’s Alliance’s (PA) Political Action Committee. Rooks was under attack for comments on his questionnaire perceived as homophobic.

Rooks responded with a rebuttal that blamed a staff volunteer for filling out the questionnaire. Barnes attributed the rebuttal as the work of Tom Miller, a PA board member.

PA’s General Body reversed the PAC’s recommendation after Charlie Reece made an impassioned appeal for the group to endorse Mark-Anthony Middleton. It was a contentious meeting with supporters from McDougald Terrance vying for Rooks with members of Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (CAN) supporting Middleton. Barnes was left on the outside in a battle between two other Black men lobbying for the support of the powerful, mostly white PAC.

“Off the bat, you need to have a huge, volunteer base. Organizations matter. The best candidate sometimes doesn’t win,” Barnes stated in a message sent to me on October 11, 2017. “Are we really progressive, or do we just talk progressive. A lot of the voting base is not informed, it doesn’t matter what you say, as long as the People Alliance backs you.

It was a precursor of things to come. Barnes ran without the support of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People (DCABP). He met with Omar Beasley, who served as the chair at the time, and Keith Bishop, a member of DCABP’s executive committee. They advised Barnes not to run. They felt more time was needed to build relationships.

I gave the same advice. Barnes was sprinting in a race that required the endurance of a long-distance runner. He was determined not to give up.

“Meaning I would love to be someone who is remembered for being a culture changer here,” he wrote on October 24, 2017. “Whose leadership transcends all people, because it was pure, and it was about people. I guess like a Wyatt Tee Walker or Dr. King.”

The Decision

Fast forward to “The Decision”.

That’s the title Barnes gave to episode #26 on his "Unapologetic Podcast". “The Decision” was to endorse Charlie Reece, Jillian Johnson and Javiera Cabellero for city council rather than Joshua Gunn, his fraternity brother. The trio branded themselves as Bull City Together and hoped their experience as incumbents on the city council would be enough to defeat Gunn, a popular Durham native.

Barnes filed as a candidate in a crowded field for the Durham Board of County Commissioners. The word circulating was Barnes endorsed the Bull City Together slate in exchange for their promised endorsement.

“Man, it’s getting harder to defend you,” I stated in a message sent to Barnes on December 30, 2019. “Tell me it all isn’t true. A fundraiser for you being planned by Charlie, Jillian, and Javier. The promise of a PA endorsement.”

“Anything to take me out. I’m sorry, but my level of disgust is real. Somebody is going to believe it,” Barnes responded. “Plus, you know when something like that is said it runs deeper than just an election.”

On Thursday, October 21, Barnes bared his soul on his podcast. He took every question and criticism I launched to get at the truth. We talked about his tarnished reputation. We discussed his being called a sellout by some people in the Black community. He also shared the burden of it all – the loss of a girlfriend and contemplating suicide.

The exchange was part confessional coupled with the offering of redemption. A big mistake was made. Barnes talked about the mistakes.

He agreed to work on Reece’s campaign due to their relationship. Barnes, a physical education teacher and basketball coach, received funding from Reece and his wife for Young Male Achievers, his nonprofit organization.

Barnes was serving as Co-Chair of the DCABP Education Committee with Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock when he agreed to work with Reece. He failed to divulge his involvement with members of the DCABP. Working on a political campaign was a violation of the organization’s bylaws.

Barnes says he felt justified after the DCABP endorsed Reece for city council. The moment of his critical decision came when he was told Reece would campaign with Cabellero and Johnson. He continued to work on the campaign after learning of Gunn’s candidacy.

He told members of the Bull City Together team he wouldn’t engage in supporting negative statements made about his fraternity brother. The promise was challenged after a heated exchange at the August 21, 2019, PA endorsement meeting. Rodrigo Dorfman was concerned that an endorsement of Gunn would leave Cabellero without the support she needed to continue as the first Latina to serve on the council.

Barnes says he heard the exchange between Dorfman and Nia Wilson, co-director of SpiritHouse, and Michelle Cotton Laws, who challenged David Price for U.S. Congress. During a meeting a few days later called to address concerns related to the exchange, Barnes says he fought for some form of censure due to the attack on two Black women.

He continued to serve on the Bull City Together campaign. There was an opportunity to bow out. He was being compensated for his work. He honored his promise to Reece.

What followed was a rapid regression that placed him on the outside of Durham’s Black politically engaged community. He made a decision that hampered his relationships with members of Alpha Phi Alpha, the fraternity he shares with Gunn and a pack of local Black pastors. His role with the DCABP was over.

He lost his bid to join the Durham Board of County Commissioners. He fought for Reece, his friend who convinced him to work on his campaign. Reece didn’t fight on behalf of Barnes when he needed endorsements. Cabellero and Johnson left him to contend on his own.

The price he paid was isolation and rejection.

Barnes says he doesn’t feel used. It sounds like he was played like keys on a piano. The music is a broken record of another Black man sacrificed for promoting the wishes of others not willing to repay the favor.

Is it worth it?

Barnes played a game like the one played by Pierce Freelon. The puzzle involving how Freelon won a seat on the city council has pieces that fit a narrative of gains made after walking away from the Black community. Freelon may point to policies aimed at abolishing the police. Black leaders point to crafty maneuvering after failing to endorse Farad Ali for Mayor and Gunn, another homegrown Black man who, like Freelon, is a hip-hop recording artist.

Barnes says he considered suicide after his friends walked away – his girlfriend, members of the DCABP, and the Bull City Together team. He took a bullet for their political cause. When he suffered from the wound, they weren’t there to offer CPR.

I saw Barnes walking, alone, at the Black Farmers Market on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was months after he lost the election and word of his perceived treason flooded conversations in the Black community. He was wearing an Alpha Phi Alpha jacket – alone. In that moment, I thought of Gunn, who, at the time, was a partner of Provident1898, the co-working space in the North Carolina Mutual building. The farmer’s market was held in the NC Mutual parking lot. It was hard not to make the connection.

There was a sadness on his face. It was the look of dejection that comes with attempts to overcome a bad decision. I thought of stopping. I didn’t. Maybe, it was too soon. Maybe, it was too late.

What’s next?

I believe in redemption stories. Barnes isn’t 40, yet. There’s time to overcome the misfortune of a bad decision. I’m reminded we all make mistakes. It’s much harder when mistakes are made in public view. There was a moment in the podcast. It was a constant thread of moments, like a great chain of consciousness beckoning a pain deeper than things imagined finding peace. I felt the call of ancestors commissioning the burning of white sage and a bawl of deep unto deep.

I felt the presence of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, like a descending angel, reminding me of a greater calling. The work of wounded spirits and souls harmed by bad decisions caught me in the middle of Barnes’ confession. I’m reminded that my work with Black men and women rebuffs the urge to throw the gifts of life away. There was merit in Barnes’ confession beyond the work of a political office. I heard every word as a symbol of grace. Each word. Like moans in search of redemption.

The lesson

It pains me that Barnes was treated like disposable goods. His yearning to make a difference was used to manipulate him into serving members of the Bull City Together team. There complicity may not be intentional, but the outcome is irrevocable – like the last rights before the last breath.

These are lessons on how to destroy a Black politician. You cover him with promises. You surround him with perceived validation. You seduce him with promises of a better way on the other side of political visions. You suck the life from those dreams after a perpetual season of disappointment - no endorsements to match the passion.

It looks like gold on the other side of those hills. It’s fools’ gold. Don’t go there, because it gets lonely after the promise fades into the truth of being manipulated into carrying the heavy load of their tainted victory.

I welcomed Barnes back home.

Join me in the reunion.

 

 

OneKMB: "We will not stand by and watch the slaughter of our children"

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Twenty-five students from the African American Male Initiative at North Carolina Central University made their way up the steps at the Hayti Heritage Center. Their marron jackets and prideful strut illustrated why the more than fifty people gathered waited for their arrival.

They represented the core of Black people’s dreams.

Founders of OneKMB (One Thousand Black Men) called a meeting to discuss the future of Durham. It was a blending of eulogy and revival with an action plan targeting increased gun violence.

“When we have kids using bathtubs for shields in Durham, we can do better than that,” Antonio Jones, chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and one of the founders of OneKMB, said.

Black men stood in an area above the crowd – like a commissioned army taking an oath of service. They wore the pride of a common bond, a commitment stirred by memories of scuffling in a world conditioned to discount Black men.

“We’re brothers. We’re fathers. We’re sons, uncles, and in some capacity, we’re mentors and coaches,” Omar Beasley, past chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and co-founder of OneKMB, said. “We, as a community of Black men, have been working together to galvanize our efforts, but now is the time that we can not allow Covid to be the reason for us to not put our plans and programs in action.”

A year has passed since OneKMB organized as a challenge to Black men. When the city was shut down due to Covid-19, crime didn’t take time off. In Durham, and in places across America, gun violence has escalated during Covid-19.

“We are here because there is no species on the planet that will stand by and watch you slaughter their offspring,” city council member Mark-Anthony Middleton said. “From the smallest turtle to the fiercest lion, there is no species on the plant that will just idly stand by and watch their children killed. Whether they wear feathers or talons, we will not stand by and watch the slaughter of our children as a spectator sport.”

Middleton, another co-founder of OneKMB with Leonardo Williams, a candidate for the city council, says he’s issuing a clarion call to every Black man in Durham.

“Whether you are in the board room, or on the corner. Whether you’ve been to college or not. No matter what area you participate in life, we need every Black man in this city to stand up, unite and say it’s up to us,” Middleton said. “We are not here to exempt the government, or to relieve them of their responsibilities. But we are here to say we are going to be perpetual, persistent partners in saving our children because we do not need permission to save our lives.”

Middleton announced the four pillars of OneKMB. The group will advocate for policies and programs already formed to address the needs of Black people.

“So, I’m saying to our local and state officials, adequately fund programs that are for us and by us,” Beasley said. “We have existing programs, existing plans, that don’t have adequate funding.”

Middleton says OneMKB will be a support system for existing programs.

“We will now have a virtual army, a data base of 1,000 plus men that are willing to come in and buttress up your program,” Middleton said.

OneKMB will also build an economic development strategy that utilizes resources among Black men to create pathways to opportunities. Middleton says some Black men have special access due to experience and relationships to offer direct intervention.

“Some can pull up and speak to brothers directly,” Middleton said. “They can go into situations and pull people out.”

Williams says his work with OneKMB is personal.

“I’ve lost count personally of how many students I’ve lost. Whether they were the killer or the one who was killed,” Williams, a two-time Durham Teacher of the Year, said. “What I can say consistently is they are all victims, and that is what we have to stop.”

Williams acknowledged that people are doing the work to curtail gun violence without adequate resources, while far too many people are left wondering what to do.

“I think we have been waiting for permission, but also we have been audience participants for too long,” Williams said. “Now, we’re sitting back eating popcorn watching news stories.”

Leonardo Williams and Mark-Anthony Middleton join a group of Black men in calling for remedies to mounting gun violence

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Leonardo Williams is joining forces with Mark-Anthony Middleton in a challenge for Black men to help curb gun violence in Durham.

It’s been a year since Williams and Middleton co-founded OneKMB (One Thousand Black Men). Both are busy campaigning for Durham’s city council. Middleton is the incumbent in Ward 2. Williams is running against A.J. Williams to replace Pierce Freelon as the Ward 3 representative.

Williams and Middleton are pausing their campaigns because they’ve seen too much to wait.

“Public safety is not a binary issue with one answer. It’s ensuring that we can live and prosper without fear of losing lives,” Williams wrote in a statement released to the press. “I have a son, I hire young men, I’m a Black man; so, it’s personal for me. I’m committed to hiring, mentoring, and growing young men of color, yet I’m in direct competition with forces that do not have our best interest at heart. I refuse to sit idly and watch another young man’s life end senselessly.

Omar Beasley, past president of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, John Rooks, Jr., former candidate for Durham city council, and Antonio Jones, president of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, are also co-founders of OneKBM.

Middleton says Covid-19 would not allow the group to meet and organize like they needed to last year. OneKMB plans to generate and facilitate resources for mentoring groups, organization, and economic ecosystems throughout Durham. They are challenging local governments and concerned citizens to devise an action plan to address gun violence.

“This call for 1000 Black Men to assemble is not meant to excuse nor exempt the government from its responsibilities; it is rather meant to augment and complement the efforts to literally preserve Durham’s future,” Middleton said. “We do not need permission to save our own lives.”

The press release notes recent police data that has Durham on pace to surpass 2016 as the deadliest year on record.

“To counter the uptick in gun violence, Black men of several organization and ministries are asked to join a mass action movement in order to keep our communities accountable and change the trajectory of young men of color who are committing crimes and are the victims of crime, enhance their engagement in the community, and provide access to stable jobs and workforce development,” the OneKBM press release states. On Friday, OneKBM will begin a movement that will directly impact how Black men are involved in Durham’s public safety.”

Black men are asked to meet on Friday, September 24, at noon on the steps of the Hayti Heritage Center.

What Happened to Omar Beasley in the race for Board of County Commissioners?

Now that the dust has settled on the Presidential election, let’s talk about what happened in the race for the five seats on the Durham Board of County Commissioners. 

The traditional rule for those who run for office is to secure as many political endorsements as possible.  Victory is correlated to those endorsements.  That, combined with voter turnout, determines who wins.

This election reflects an interesting shift.  A close examination uncovers voter patterns that prove voters opted to decide based on another reason.

The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People endorsed Michael Page, Brenda Howerton and Omar Beasley.  Howerton and Page won, with Howerton receiving the most votes (18.9%).  Page placed third with 18.66% of the votes.

Both seemed to be vulnerable entering the election.  Their victory can be attributed to the Durham Committee’s endorsement, but how do you explain Beasley placing last with only 6.89% of the votes?  If the success of Howerton and Page is the result of the Durham Committee endorsement, those same voters decided not to vote for Beasley.

Beasley’s exposes a potential break among those who followed the Durham Committee endorsement.  Many of those who voted for Howerton and Page decided to go against the Durham Committees recommendation by voting in another way.

Also telling is the performance of Wendy Jacobs.  Jacobs placed second with 18.84% of the votes.  Could it be that black voters supported Jacobs?  It’s a critical question due to the performance of Ellen Reckhow and Fred Foster.  Jacobs, Reckhow and Foster all received the endorsement of the People’s Alliance.  The PA, like the Durham Committee, only endorsed three candidates.  Jacobs’ strong performance, combined with comparative poor numbers from Reckhow and Foster, raises questions regarding the force of the PA endorsement.

The endorsements of both the Durham Committee and the Pa were compromised during this election.  The election was won due to strong black turnout, but in this election many of those voters followed the recommendation of the Democratic Party, versus that of the Durham Committee.

The Democratic Party pressed people to vote a straight Democratic ticket.  Beasley entered the race after securing 7,000 signatures during a petition drive to be placed on the ballot.  A glitch in timing forced Beasley to run as an independent, versus being allowed to run during the Democratic primary.

My own voting experience confirms this strategy.  I was approached twice by people who encouraged me to vote straight Democrat.  Most voters failed to understand that doing so would leave Beasley on the short end.

The strategy of the Democratic Party compromised the efforts of both the Durham Committee and the People’s Alliance.  If the Democratic Party’s agenda was to prevent an Independent from winning a seat on the Board of County Commissioners, they were successful.  If that was their objective it’s noteworthy to mention that Beasley is a registered Democrat.

A side note to this past election is the incestuous relationship between the head of Durham’s Democratic Party and the Political Committee Chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.  Tracey Burns-Vann, head of the Democratic Party, is the wife of Andre Vann, Chair of the Durham Committee’s Political Committee.  Their relationship did not compromise the way both groups functioned.  Tracey’s push for a straight Democratic slate went against the Durham Committee desire for voters to vote for three.

It’s a complicated game. At the end of the day, what this election exposes is the complexity of Durham’s political machinery.  I’m not sure the end result offers Durham what it deserves in leadership.  It’s more about group think and less about real issues that impact all of us.

Someday a candidate will show up who will run without the blessing of the political powerhouses.  When that happens, things will change in Durham.  As it stands today, voters are manipulated by a process.

This too will pass.

Don't make me run for office!

The video of the four-year old crying conveyed how I feel.  “I’m tired of all the fighting between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney,” the precious girl stated on CNN.  The tears forced many to ask why a four-year old would be so emotional about an election.

It’s enough to make all of us cry.  This election has unveiled a pitiful display of conduct that forfeits the things we try to teach our children.  We forget the babies are watching.  Young folks have sense enough to know when we’re not practicing what we preach.

Civility has been thrown out the window.  Forget about being honest.  In the game of politics we are teaching our children lessons that contradict everything we claim as central in defining strong character.  We are teaching them how important it is to win.  We are teaching them to win at all cost, and that lesson will come back and bite us in the rear end.

Children are listening as their parents relate their hate for a candidate.  Yes, they are listening to racist garbage related to immigration, stereotypes involving people who receive food stamps, and assumptions regarding women who need an abortion.  Our children sit in church as ministers spew homophobic hate. Yes, the babies are listening.

They watch attack ads aimed at convincing voters the opposition has an evil agenda.  We teach our children to honor sportsmanship, to respect others and to do onto others as you would have others do onto you.  What happened to all that teaching? 

What are we teaching our children?  Does anyone care?  Is the war more important than the children God has given us to teach? 

Where are the politicians who care about the children?  Is it more important to prove you are right by revealing the wrong in others?  Where is the compromise?  Where is the respect for alternative views?  Where are the people who care more about what we leave behind than their getting elected to office?

This is not a boxing match.  So, I’m calling for a cease fire among those running for local office.  This war has to stop.  The children are watching.  Your behavior is juvenile. Stop it NOW!

Are you listening?

For those who missed it, the Herald-Sun reported that officials from the County Board of Elections were forced to call a meeting to warn local political leaders to put a stop to recent instances of disorder among campaign workers at Durham early voting cites.

Carol Anderson, board chairwoman, was forced to tell those present to “remember the golden rule and remember what your mother taught you.”  Help me understand why voters should trust this group of politicians to do the right thing when they can’t abide by the lessons they should have learned before they entered the first grade.

The fighting is reflected in the back and forth bickering that shows up in the newspaper almost every day.  These tattle tales have spent too much time consumed with their competitions campaign spending and who gets paid to work the polls.  I’m tired of the fighting.  It says something about the character of those running when they are overly consumed with things other than the strategy of their enemy. 

According to the report in the Herald-Sun, competing campaigners got into a fight that required police intervention.  Another incident was reported regarding the harassment of patrons of a county library by poll workers in the parking lot.

Those called in for the meeting included the heads of the county Democratic and Republican parties, Milo Pyne and Tom Miller of The People’s Alliance and Keith Bishop of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.  Omar Beasley, Brenda Howerton, Wendy Jacobs and Ellen Reckhow – County Commissioners contenders – attended the meeting.  State Rep. Larry Hall, County Library board Chairman Allan Lang, Jacobs campaign manager Jackie Brown, T.E. Austin and Lorisa Seibel also attended the meeting.

Most troubling is what is fueling the fight.  It isn’t the clash between Obama and Romney that has campaign workers going after one another and those who vote for someone else.  The fight is over the Board of County Commissioners.  This election has exposed what we can look forward to after all the smoke settles.  We can expect a fight, and Durham deserve much better than this!

So, this I my warning to all of you – Reckow, Page, Howerton, Jacobs, Foster and Beasley –stop fighting and start serving.  Get it together fast.

Don’t make the Rev-elution mad! If you do, I may trade my pen for my name on a campaign sign. God knows I’m trying to find a home in another state, but I love Durham too much to watch people fight like children on a playground.

Voters deserve better than your childish ways.

Fix it!

Steve Bocckino's unfair assumption about Omar Beasley

Am I the only person fed up with the rhetoric surrounding the 751 South project? Proponents of the controversial project have made it the litmus test in qualifying those willing to serve on the Durham Board of County Commissioners.  The most recent attack proves that they are willing to win by any means necessary.

Who made them Malcolm X?

Steve Bocckino recently questioned the motives of Omar Beasley after the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black people received an $8,000 donation to help the group push their slate of candidates.  The gift came from Neal and Janet Hunter, backers of the 751 South project.  Boockino claims the gift raises a red flag related to Beasley’s position on development.

“I believe Mr. Beasley would like to keep his support of 751 South  – and vice versa – a secret, but no one is buying it,” Bocckino told the Herald-Sun. 

Bocckino’s attack of Beasley is based on the presence of paid poll workers distributing copies of the Durham Committee slate.  In response, Beasley told the Herald-Sun he is using a combination of paid and volunteer poll workers.

The use of paid poll workers is a common practice.  The People Alliance and white candidates have employed black poll workers to distribute literature to give the impression of black support.  It’s common for candidates to pass out literature with an endorsement.  Bocckino’s comments regarding Beasley are speculative. 

It’s the type of low blow political maneuvering that has plagued this election.  Sadly, the war between the local political action committees is a distraction from the most important election – the Presidency.

Bocckino and members of the People’s Alliance are unfair to expect Beasley to respond to a decision he did not make.  He has promised to review what is placed before him, and to respond in a way that is best for the citizens of Durham.  That’s all that can be expected.  No candidate should be forced to have a platform based on a decision they are not forced to make.

What Bocckino fails to respect is the power of the Durham Committee during a presidential election.  Beasley didn’t need the endorsement of the People’s Alliance.  He gains nothing in hiding a pro-growth agenda.  There are enough votes to win without the blessing of the People’s Alliance.

To imply that Hunter’s contribution to the Durham Committee proves the theory that Beasley is in the pocket of developers is unfounded.  It’s unfair, malicious and has no place in this election.  It’s rooted in speculation and is designed to prevent Beasley from taking additional votes away from Fred Foster.

No laws have been broken.  A donation was made to support the slate of the Durham Committee.  Would the conversation be shifted if Foster was on the Durham Committee slate?  A more important question involves the validity of engaging in a deeper discussion about how growth can be done in Durham.

What is the relationship between developers and government?  Do we want to become like Chapel Hill, and reject any movement toward development? Or, do we assume that developers are the anti-Christ and reject any thought of compromise.

If Beasley decides to have that discussion, does that make him wrong?  Or, does that make him open to new possibilities.  Bocckino and his anti-development thugs should back off the negative rhetoric long enough to give the process a chance to play out. 

With that being said, I am opposed to 751 South.  More conversation needs to be had.  I think that will happen, but it can’t when people are holding a pistol at your head while forcing you to state your claim devoid of any conversation.

Go vote.

Durham's People Alliance fails the fact check

We come to expect negative messages during campaign season.  Those who vote can’t assume everything they hear is true.  The truth is twisted in a way that makes it seem plausible.  We’ve come to expect this from candidates, but not from political action committees.

Durham’s People’s Alliance is tragically misinforming local voters on the position of two candidates for the Board of County Commissioners. Their endorsement sheet and website indicates that Michael Page, Brenda Howerton and Omar Beasley can’t be trusted in protecting the rights of gays and lesbians.  The attack against Beasley lacks any clear evidence to support the PA’s view, and their stance on Howerton fails to consider what she has stated.

Beasley was a strong opponent of Amendment One, and supports his sister who is a lesbian involved in a domestic partnership.  “How could I do anything that would go against my own sister,” Beasley says.

Beasley’s sister is Melody Wilkerson. She and her partner Kifu Faruq co-founded Greenspace Initiatives.  Faruq is known around Durham as the owner of Kukia’s Cookies, those wonderful vegan/organic treats, and recently became a columnist for The Durham News.  Wilkerson and Faruq are strong supporters of Beasley and are leading the charge for gay rights awareness in the black community. 

The PA has unfairly lumped Beasley in the same camp as Page and Howerton.  They assume a pro-751 agenda, something that Beasley has not stated, and his being weak in supporting gay rights.  Beasley’s position on 751 is to give him the chance to do what those on the commission were granted, a chance to explore all angles.  Beasley shouldn’t be blamed for a project he didn’t create.  His role, if elected, will be to maneuver around what has been decided.  He shouldn’t be expected to campaign on a record that isn’t his to own; thi]us, the PA is unfair in forcing candidate to take that position.

Taking a position against Beasely based on 751 is one thing, making assumptions on his stance on gay rights is offensive. It’s simply a lie

The same can be said about Howerton.  The truth is Howerton took a strong position against Amendment One.  “It hits too close to home when you start discriminating against any people,” Howerton was quoted in the Herald-Sun.

The PA’s attack against Michael Page may be warranted, but should be understood within the complex context Page brings to the Board of County Commissioners.  As a pastor, Amendment One presented Page a dilemma that is hard for those standing on the outside of the black church to understand. 

Page never supported the amendment to define marriage as a bond between a man and a woman, but he didn’t stand in opposition.  To his credit, Page did bring a symbolic resolution before the board to reflect the group’s opposition.  That resolution was strapped when GOP activist Dick Ford challenged the legality of the resolution.

The antics displayed by the PA have caused significant damage to race relations in Durham, NC.  At the heart of the matter are assumptions made devoid of clear dialogue with those who seek public office.  The recent actions of the PA are insulting to those running for the Board of County Commissioners.  It’s the type of maneuvering one can expect among candidates, but political action committees should avoid comments rooted in assumptions.

Omar Beasley deserves an apology for being labeled one who can’t be trusted for protecting gay rights.  It’s a lie that must be corrected.

If you don’t believe me, ask his sister.