By Charles O’Neal
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
I live in Dallas. I have watched Dallas for years. I have interacted with Dallas for years. I watched the municipal reluctance to include nonwhite people in directing the affairs of the city. I have watched the insistence of white folks – including puppet-string-pullers from the Park Cuties – that whatever they believe to be best for Dallas is more credible than whatever the rest of us need for our city to be.
What I know from my experience is there is NO credible way to excuse the racism that has shaped this city’s history. I also KNOW that gallons of ink and hours of recordings will spew forth from the defenders of that history, because – after all – they sincerely believe they know best.
Now, because of white folks’ dissatisfaction with the current council-manager city government there is a simmering clamor to change the city charter to a mayor-council structure because white folks have decided they now need someone that can declare “the buck stops here!”
What a crock of shit! What white folks believe they need is someone in the mayor’s seat who can ensure that the pesky needs of nonwhite citizens can be gavel-smashed by one of their own… rather than someone whose expertise in municipal government is vouch safed by professional credentials in public administration.
I can hear the howls of protest already… BUT I can also point to a diabolical history of shameful short-changing of municipal services to an ENTIRE HALF of this city.
Almost a hundred years ago, in 1931, the City of Dallas adopted the current council-manager form of government expressly to overcome years of corruption and inefficiency in city government. WHITE FOLKS MADE THAT DECISION. WHITE FOLKS WERE THE CORRUPT, INEFFICIENT VILLAINS IN THAT SAGA.
It took until 1967 for white folks to realize that their racist, diabolical treatment of nonwhite citizens was messing up their reputation, so they appointed Dallas realtor C.A. Galloway to the council and – voila! – provided themselves cover for all the dastardly deeds heaped on Black Dallas.
A couple years later Anita Martinez was elected to the council, thus clearing white folks’ conscience for their mistreatment of Mexican-American citizens.
None of this new-found commitment to “open government” could mask the lead infestation in west Dallas or the flooding in Rochester Park or the decimation of Little Mexico because white folks are not bothered by stuff that doesn’t affect them – EVEN THOUGH THEY CAUSED IT!
Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this. In 2026, white folks have decided they need a buck-breaker – oops! – I mean a “buck-stopper.” Mind you, this strong mayor thing has been on white folks’ wish list since federal judge Jerry Buchmeyer MADE THEM FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION.
Now they see a glimmer of hope… Now that the national sentiment proves following the constitution is optional… now that corruption is only corruption if you admit it… now that white nationalism has been re(re)branded as patriotism… now just might be their best chance to push the reset button and take our city back to yesteryear.
I point these facts out – not out of any animus toward white folks – rather to help them reconcile – and accept – their responsibility for the mess their ideas, their insistence on having their way, has plunged us ALL into.
I point this out not to absolve the corruption that ensnared Black council members but it must be acknowledged that most often those corrupt acts were committed out of the kind of stupidity/cupidity that is normally the exclusive province of white folks. The same racist history of Dallas is replete with proof that Black folks just cannot do – and get away with – the common, everyday corruption practiced by “good ol’ boys.”
I point these facts out because without someone speaking plainly, candidly, about this mad rush to change the city’s charter someone white will write glowingly that a groundswell of reverent, benign do-gooders – driven only by commitment to the municipal good – offered a solution only they could see.
Hmmpf- I see you!
Charles O Neal is the Chairman of the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce.
