GOP Is The New Black?

I have to be honest, law school has been kicking my butt this semester. I am working on two real life cases and once I finally drag myself out of clinic, all I have time to do is come home, eat, and go to bed. So unfortunately, I have not been following the news as much as I usually do. However recently this story caught my eye.

I read an article posted by Mary Benton describing her reaction when she first saw the "GOP is the New Black" billboard in Texas (you can read it here). She says that she was lucky that the billboard didn't cause her to have a fender bender. To be honest, her post really didn't alarm me, but I was surprised by many of the comments left on her blog. It wasn't until then that I realized that a lot of African Americans were personally offended by this billboard. One of my friends on her facebook page even stated how disgusted she was that this billboard was going up in her home town. Disgusted? Really?

I am really confused as to why everyone is up in arms about this. I admit, I do consider myself to be a moderate conservative but that DOES NOT mean that I vote on solely partisan grounds in elections. Surprisingly, I actually take the time to read about the candidates before I vote. But I guess that's just too much work for some people...

Anyway, back to the topic. It's a campaign season. Both parties are interested in getting their people elected. How many political commercials have you had to sit through prior to this most recent election? So if we know that politicians are willing to put in a lot of extra work to get another vote, why is this so shocking?

Was it shocking that the GOP was actually going after the "black vote"? Or was it offensive to people that there are African American people who consider themselves to be part of the GOP? This is an honest question because I really don't know.

I have often been the victim of eye rolling, disrespect, rude comments, and exclusion whenever I mention my support for a GOP politician. I'm black, I'm from the South, I grew up in a single parent home, how can I support a party that has done nothing for me? Well if you feel the GOP can and has done nothing for you, then you are right to vote for someone else. However I take the time to read and educate myself prior to casting a vote. And I'm sorry, it's going to take a lot more than a politician identifying him or herself as a Democrat for them to get my vote!

Did you guys see this billboard? Have you heard others talking about it? What is the big deal?