Is Victoria Sullivan a Hypocrite for Criticizing Democrat for Racial Slur After Ignoring Republican Ally’s Alleged Racism?
Candidate Failed to Take Joe Kelly Levasseur to Task After He Insulted Black Activist — OPINION
MANCHESTER, NH — Ward 9 Alderman candidate Victoria Wojdylak Sullivan would like to portray herself as an opponent of racism, recently posting an attack on State Rep. Nicole Klein Knight on Facebook.
At the request of the New Hampshire House Democratic leadership, Klein Knight was removed from the New Hampshire House Justice Committee for allegedly using the most offensive slur in the English language multiple times in the presence of an African American activist.
However, when it comes to Victoria Sullivan’s stand against racial invective, the former assistant House Majority Leader was noticeably absent when people in Manchester were criticizing her ally, Alderman at Large Joseph Kelly Levasseur, a Republican, for calling a young Black Lives Matter activist a “zipperhead” and telling him to get a job.
Mayor Joyce Craig and a group of aldermen called on Joe Kelly Levasseur and fellow Republican Alderman Mike Porter to resign for making what they considered inflammatory remarks that could have led to violence, as Black Lives Matter was organizing marches and vigils during 2020.
Racist Rhetoric
“Zipperhead” is considered a racist term when used when speaking of or to people of East Asian origin. The word originated among American military personnel during the Korean War, and was used in that conflict and in the Vietnam War as a derogatory, racist put-down of Koreans, Vietnamese and other East Asians.
As regards its use towards an African American, “Zipperhead” was a part of drug slang during the crack cocaine epidemic, which was marked by high levels of violence.
Someone slain dealing or buying crack — or fighting over territory — was called a zipperhead as their corpse was put in a body bag by police, that was zipped up and over their head (the zipper starting at the feet and terminating over the head).
Crack cocaine and the violence that ensued in marginalized communities during that plague was associated with African Americans by the media and most white people. Black neighborhoods were ravaged, but the media coverage and white sentiment towards the black victims of crack cocaine was cynical and unsympathetic.
As for the “get a job” remark, that was a standard racist put down of black folk. Republican Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan won power by demonizing the “welfare queen.”
According to a New Republic article on The Welfare Queen myth,
“…[T]he welfare queen stood in for the idea that black people were too lazy to work, instead relying on public benefits to get by, paid for by the rest of us upstanding citizens.”
So prevalent in North American culture was the racist trope that blacks were lazy welfare cheats, Bruce Hornsby and the Range referenced it in their song, “The Way it Is.”
Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
’Cause they can’t buy a job.The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies’ eyes,
Just for fun he says, “get a job”
This was the racist idea that Joe Kelly Levasseur was playing on when he told a young black man he has insulted as a zipperhead to “get a job.”
And Victoria Wojdylak Sullivan was silent then.
Sullivan and accused racist Joe Kelly Levasseur are so close, he has handed over his public access TV show to Sullivan every other week.
And in 2021, Victoria Sullivan as a candidate for mayor said nothing about the race baiting that was part of her ally Jon DiPietro’s article on public school spending in the New Hampshire Republicans’ municipal voters guide, nor did she put a stop to it.
The VERDICT
Victoria Sullivan is a hypocrite.
