…but it’s all right: she wasn’t being a proper Democrat, anyway.

CLEVELAND, OHIO — A controversial editorial cartoon in the Call & Post, a weekly Cleveland newspaper with a large black readership, has increased the racial and political tensions surrounding Cuyahoga County government reform and one of its key backers.

The cartoon, which appeared on the front page of Wednesday’s paper, depicts State. Sen. Nina Turner as Aunt Jemima, the much-maligned vaudeville character and food-company logo that has become a pejorative symbol of a black woman who aims to please whites in authority positions.

Turner, who represents Cleveland’s East Side, was the only black politician to endorse Issue 6, the reform proposal passed by voters last month.

Via Instapundit, and background here. Essentially, Issue 6 was a comprehensive reform bill that:

…gives [Cuyahoga County's] 1.3 million people their first singular leader by replacing three commissioners with an elected executive and 11-member council. The measure also eliminates many other elected offices — including auditor, recorder and sheriff — but retains an elected prosecutor.

In other words, it will have more or less the same effect on the county’s established power structure as a hand grenade’s. Which is precisely the intent of the reformers; and which is why the local Democratic power structure tried to push Issue 5, which would have called for ‘studying’ the problem. Issue 6 passed, Issue 5 failed… and State Senator Turner gets racially slurred for supporting a measure that passed everywhere. Note also that the original article includes quotes from people who are attempting to justify said slur, despite the fact that it frankly seems to be a bit of, well, projection on their parts.

But Senator Turner might as well get used to it. God knows that minority conservatives have had to.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.