Does his behavior really come as any surprise whatsoever, now?
This is what Jeb Bush has done for black people. Some examples:
1. Disenfranchised tens of thousands of black voters in Florida ahead of the 2000 election, the effects of which bled into the 2002 and 2004 elections.
From January 11, 2001:
On Wednesday campaigners began a legal action against state officials for institutionalised racism.
Mr Bush told the eight commissioner: "I am delighted that you are here to sort out any discrepancies that might exist (in the election process)."
As he did during the controversial recounting of votes, he tried to distance himself from the proceedings, saying he had no "direct responsibility" for state elections.
But campaigners in Florida accused him of turning a blind eye to the real issues with his "politic" appearance before the commission. .....
That aristocratic Bush arrogance is unmistakable.
Crucial to his motives were his notorious
bogus felon lists.
Bush's anti-democratic actions paved the way for Governor (sic) Rick Scott to
continue the brazen electoral theft even today. Nothing has changed in Florida to restore voting rights to people who were
robbed of them.
2. Jeb pushed through his notorious plan,
One Florida, (scroll down at link)
.....which would end affirmative-action preferences for minorities in university admissions and state contracting. It sparked a sit-in by two black legislators in the governor's executive suite -- and hundreds of black college students in the hallway outside his office -- and the largest ever protest-march, led by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, on the state Capitol in 2000.
3. Jeb Bush's callous indifference to the plight of more than one poor black child in Florida.
But his administration -- the Department of Children and Families, in particular --
was vilified for losing track of 500 youngsters under state care and for failing to prevent the deaths of several others. A smiling Rilya Wilson became the poster child for all that was wrong with the agency and, by extension, the Bush administration's failure to serve Floridians in need. Although her body was never found, it is believed the 5-year-old Miami girl was killed in December 2000, 15 months before the state realized she was missing.
From
2002, about this child's situation at the time:
Bush’s latest gaffe comes on the heels of the first arrests in the tragic Rilya Wilson case. The child, who turned 6 last month, has been missing from state custody for more than a year, having last been seen at the home of her guardian Geralyn Graham. Graham, who has a long rap sheet for fraud and more than 40 aliases, says a worker from the state’s Department of Children and Families picked up the little girl from her home and never returned with her. She and her sister Pamela Graham claimed to be the child’s maternal grandmother and grand-aunt, respectively, but turned out to be acquaintances of Rilya’s mother. They’re now under arrest, along with two of Geralyn Graham’s grown children, for allegedly obtaining more than $14,000 worth of state assistance for the girl after she went missing.
News of their arrest prompted Bush to tantalize GOP lawmakers at a Wednesday meeting with what he called “juicy details” about the women — who he implied were not sisters at all, but rather a lesbian couple.
“As (Geralyn Graham) was being arrested,” Bush told the Panhandle lawmakers, “she told her co-workers, ‘Tell my wife I’ve been arrested.’ The wife is the grandmother, and the aunt is the husband.” Bush added gestures, using his fingers to make quotation marks as he emphasized the word “grandmother.”
“Bet you don’t get that in Pensacola,” Bush added for flourish, apparently not realizing that a reporter with Gannett Regional Newspapers of Florida was in the room. His comments were first reported in Wednesday’s editions of the Pensacola News-Journal, and soon made the rounds of media across the state.
On Thursday, Joshua Fisher, Pamela Graham’s attorney, called the governor’s comments “outrageous” and “disgusting.”
“He’s making jokes when there is still a missing baby here, or doesn’t he care?” Fisher said.
How is
THAT for a heartless, soulless, bigoted aristocrat?
4. And then, there was
Martin Lee Anderson, the young black boy who was beaten and suffocated to death in a state-run north Florida boot camp for juveniles. Jeb showed his cowardly streak when he refused to meet with Martin's parents for months, about why the "investigation" into their son's murder was taking so long.
So, Jeb Bush
cancels a veterans town hall event in Charleston, SC, the day after the brutal killings of 9 people at an historic black church.
....."Our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and families affected by the tragic events in Charleston," Bush, the GOP presidential candidate, wrote on Twitter, following a campaign announcement.
Bush was scheduled to hold the event 10:15 a.m. Thursday at Charleston Martitime Center and would have likely noted that his mother graduated from Ashley Hall School in Charleston.
.....
After midnight, a prayer circle gathered about three blocks from the church where the shooting took place, at 110 Calhoun St. in the downtown historic district. The congregation goes by "Mother Emanuel" and bills itself as one of the oldest and largest black congregations south of Baltimore.
"Where do we go from here?" asked the Rev. Thomas Ravenell of Empowerment Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, who led the prayer. "How do I look at heaven when hell is always on my back?"
Later, he added: "Jeb Bush, I don't care who it is -- you want my vote, you tell me how you're going to stop these shootings."
We must not look to Jeb Bush for anything resembling respect for civil rights, dignity or human rights, most especially for black people.
He has proven it time and again.
And his fear of being questioned about his historical views about minorities, now in the context of this unfolding tragedy, is the reason he canceled his trip to Charleston.
Jeb Bush, you may
claim you 'don't know what was on the shooter's mind or heart', but we, the people, know what is in yours.
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