Let’s talk about the whitewashing of Louisville elections. From Rickey L. Jones in the CJ:

There will be increasing chatter about candidates for myriad political offices as we draw closer to election 2026. The outcome of one race is already clear. This will be difficult for some to hear or accept but there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Louisville, Kentucky will elect a Black mayor — no matter who runs.

In this latest moment of periodic vicious white racial backlash across the nation where “cruelty is the point,” besieged Black citizens are once again asking what is their path forward? In the anti-Black Bluegrass state of Kentucky, white hegemony is victorious and Black hope for political power sharing and humanization is all but lost. This is even the case in Louisville, thought to be the backwards state’s most forward-looking city. Everything is relative, of course. While Louisville may be further along than the likes of Pikeville or Waddy, it doesn’t mean it’s meaningfully moving down the path to true racial equality.

Louisville fancies itself as “different” from the rest of the state … but is it? The largest city in Kentucky sits in the 8th whitest state in the country which has never elected a Black governor, U.S. senator or congressperson. Louisville has the state’s largest Black population but is one of only two of the 50 largest cities in the country to have never elected a Black, female or Hispanic mayor. And that won’t change in 2026. Why? Because the city’s white overlords ensured Black political disempowerment over 20 years ago … and a few key Black people helped them.

The greatest single blow to Black people in Louisville gaining the self-determination to decide who gets what, when, where and how was the merger of the city and Jefferson County in 2003. In recent years, there have been a number of reflections on the benefits and failures of merger. Decades after its enactment, even merger’s supporters have problems clearly pointing out demonstrable gains. The greatest loss (depending on one’s perspective), however, is clear — the evisceration of Louisville’s Black voting strength. …

Prior to merger, Black people held just over a third of Louisville’s voting strength. After merger, their percentage sank to less than 19%.

Jones’s main criticism is of the Black Louisvillians who allowed … in fact, encouraged … this to happen.

To be honest, in many ways Black Louisvillians have brought this on themselves. They’re excuse-makers, too. In a town still ruled by “polite racism,” they have worried far too much about being polite rather than garnering power. And now they must deal with the mounting indignities resulting from that powerlessness.

This is something I’ve noticed in public events. There’s an announcement involving something positive happening in the community, and one White speaker is followed by another. No one of color speaks, but the subsequent photo op always has a person of color smiling with the White speakers. Like a child, they are supposed to be seen but not heard.

Or as the sign in the photo says: First rate taxpayers. Second class citizens.