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Foxx believes that his personal experience can matter. "I grew up in a very unique time in our city," with his grandparents and his mother, Foxx said. "The schools I went to were very diverse, economically diverse, racially diverse ... I gained a great appreciation for the ability of this community to find commonality and work across differences to solve problems."
"We've got to confront rather than avoid problems we're facing in this community," Foxx said. "There's a greater understanding that we've got to do that for the city to move forward."
"It doesn't mean that someone who is a white American couldn't lead," he said. A good leader has to listen to all the voices in the room. He acknowledged that while all Charlotteans want the same thing -- a home in a safe neighborhood, good schools and transportation, and "above all things" a job -- we get into "muddier waters" when we talk about the tactics used to achieve those goals.
"I think there are already differences of opinion out there in the community about things like student assignment and resource disparities." What people are in agreement on is that job creation is a priority. The day we spoke, Foxx had just met with Sen. Kay Hagan to talk about enabling job growth.
"People expect me to be practical, decisive and ultimately right," he said, about "moving this community to a place where there is as much consensus as we can build," while speaking honestly and authentically about the issues.
When he was campaigning, the question he repeatedly heard from African-Americans, he said, was, "Why should I vote for you?" That it wasn't about skin color, but his positions on the issues, was, he said, a positive development, evidence of an evolution. Many whites, he said, asked "a lot of questions about what I was going to do on taxes." He didn't take it as "mean-spirited," and he eventually convinced many of them. A vote along racial lines would not have elected Foxx. (In Charlotte, whites are 57 percent of voters; black voters are 35 percent.) "It's not like I was running in a city like Atlanta or Detroit," he said, where black voters make up a much larger percentage of the electorate.
Patrick Graham, president and CEO of Urban League of the Central Carolinas, is looking at other numbers. "The State of Ethnic Charlotte," a project of the Urban League, the Urban Institute and partner agencies, examines progress and disparities in five Equality Index areas -- economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice -- and throws a light on disparities among European-Americans, African-Americans, Latino-Americans and Asian-Americas. (On Feb. 23, a public meeting will be the first step in addressing the report's findings.)
The results show that the average median income for an African-American family was "$37,000 and change," said Graham, "and the average median income for a white family was $66,000, almost double." The national average is actually a little better than Charlotte's.
"It's difficult sometimes for black elected officials to call those kind of issues out on the carpet without feeling they will alienate the white base support that got them there," said Graham.
"Black folks in leadership are always held to a higher standard," he said. "The black tax is just a fact of life for us. I don't think there will be too many folks, at least privately, who will deny that. Look at the criticism Obama is receiving now even though he inherited a lot of things," said Graham. "I can't remember anyone who could stand up in a congressional meeting, call the president a liar, that would actually now be able to raise more money. A lot of black leadership who have now become the city's and county's leadership will always be held to those higher standards."
McCoy agreed: "Obviously, there's more pressure on black officeholders than white officeholders. There are questions about whether they are capable. We should be at the point that we don't think about that anymore -- but we do."
"Anthony will have a difficult task of having to navigate through that," Graham said. "But he won't have to walk it alone. A lot of us will support him, not because he's African-American but because I do believe he sees the larger picture for the community."
Graham is optimistic that this group of leaders can benefit the city, with help. "Leadership is not just the elected officials but people who are working in our neighborhoods for the benefit of them every day, and who are willing to be candid about how they feel."
He doesn't think the road ahead will be smooth. "Since the downturn, everyone's gotten sensitized to the problems of unemployment because it's happened to people who look like them," he said. "The moment things get better for that population, then everyone disappears and we're left with the same folks who are always struggling." Add in the fact that "a lot of the money that still comes through this town is not controlled by us."
