Atlanta's racial majority up for grabs

Are the city's changing demographics opening the door for the next "Great White Hope"? That dated Sidney Marcus quip aside, the 2009 mayoral race may indeed yield the first white mayor after seven black administrations as white residents, who in 2000 made up only 39 percent of the population, are eight years later inching up to the 50 percent mark (link here). Of course, those are clumsy numbers, as our pal Barack Obama proved last night in Iowa. As Mr. Obama pointed out after winning handsomely in the near-white Hawkeye State, America's way forward is not as a gaggles of red and blue states, but as a set of united states on issues of race, class and politics. The big question locally, I guess, is whether a white mayor could do a better job in improving our schools, parks and police. Most of us know that, in the end, that will ultimately depend on the quality of the candidate, not the tone of their skin.

(Pix: A segregated Atlanta baseball team, 1900.)