With the recent discussion of Paula Dean’s abhorrent use of the n-word and the subsequent fallout as well as the Supreme Court’s ridiculously shallow decision on the Voting Rights Act based upon Chief Justice Roberts’ out-of-touch with reality majority decision I began thinking about racism seriously again. Much of the national media, tucked away in New York City, Los Angeles or Washington DC wants to pretend racism is a “southern” problem. They want to create a caricature of the south that is dated while pretending racism does not exist in the north, Midwest, interior of the country or pacific coast.

As a Floridian, I am accustomed to be mocked by the national media. Not that the state does not deserve it in many cases but it seems anything that happens in Florida is exaggerated and in many cases stories that would not be reported are made into big to-dos because they happen in Florida. Our state being “unsophisticated” and some sort of harbor for ponzi-schemers and tabloid trials fits the media narrative that has been created nationally.

It is important to note that in the American media we have long  witnessed constant mocking of the region’s culture and misunderstanding of racial relations in the region.  We’ve seen an effort to systematically marginalize all southern whites as “racists” “pecker-woods and “rednecks” when some of the most sophisticated and cultured people I know are Southern whites. Yes the region as a whole is more religious, more conservative and less tolerant of foreigners (but perhaps not African-Americans) than the Northeast. But exceptions are notable to this pattern about the south. Florida, being a microcosm of the nation is great place to look at this dichotomy.

Some of the most overtly racist and sexist people in Florida are not crackers in Arcadia or churchgoers in Chipley, but northeastern/Midwestern transplants in Delray Beach, Clearwater or Fort Lauderdale. Attempts to marginalize the African-American vote have been undertaken in all corners of this beautiful state by southerns, northerners, mid westerns and even foreign immigrants. No specific county, nor region of the state nor ethnic group has an exclusive patent on racism in this state.

Concerted efforts to minimize African-American turnout in local and state elections has been undertaken in the last two decades in just about every urban county in Florida. These urban counties with the exception of Duval and to a certain extent Hillsborough are largely non-southern demographically. In fact in southeast Florida the most “southern” residents are the African-Americans.

Some publications like the Atlantic, and Bloomberg Businessweek are more thoughtful in their approach to covering these matters but most TV news stations and political commentators seem to miss the point, perhaps consciously.

I have heard horror stories of how some of the most overtly and angry racial slurs towards African-American campaign workers have been uttered by ostensibly sophisticated northerners living in southeast Florida while things in North Florida are different.  It is worth noting both the volunteers and those uttering the slurs I refer to are Democrats not Republicans.  It goes along the lines of what I was told in the late 1990s as I was getting involved politically in managing campaigns- at the time I was told not to send African-American volunteers into certain white neighborhoods where perhaps 90% of the population was transplanted from New York. While honestly, my sample size is too small to draw a definitive  scientific conclusion other than to state racism is alive and well all over the state in certain quarters.

I will concede the racial backlash against Barack Obama’s nomination by the Democrats in 2008 and 2012 was most clearly demonstrated by voting trends in rural Panhandle counties West of Jacksonville but east of Crestview where Obama ran almost universally behind the numbers Alex Sink, Jim Davis, John Kerry and Bill McBride all losing statewide candidates had racked up in the area.

All of this adds up to the same thing. We need the Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court was wrong to strike down the most important provisions of the law. It is worth noting the concerted effort to disenfranchise of African-Americans in Florida took place under Republican Governors both transplanted from outside the state, Jeb Bush and Rick Scott. Perhaps if the GOP had nominated a native Floridian either in 1998 or 2010, the attitude towards race as a political tool might have been different?  I can unequivocally state native Ocalan Buddy MacKay has he been elected in 1998 instead of Bush would have been among the most progressive Governors on race relations in the entire nation.

We can only speculate on whether native Floridians would have been better than Bush or Scott of course, but this problem is not simply a Republican problem or a Democratic problem but one for all of Florida and all the nation. We must fight together to re-institute the Voting Rights Act  and tell the true story of racism in Florida.