We already know the elections happening right now in Pennsylvania
hold some real significance across every level of politics, but one of the lesser-known local races may be the source of some of the most intrigue. In West Mifflin, a borough of about 20,000 people outside of Pittsburgh, local school board candidate Janice Gladden is accusing an anonymous third party of sending mailers to white voters in order to scare them away from voting for her. The mailer is purportedly from a local Black Lives Matters chapter and calls Gladden the "only candidate for Duquesne and West Mifflin schools endorsed by the western [Pennsylvania] #blacklivesmatter leadership."
According to CBS-affiliate KDKA:
The one-page flyer purports to be aimed at African-American voters and falsely claims Gladden will “lead the change against white privilege” and redistribute tax dollars from whites to blacks.
But, so far, only white voters are getting the flyer.
“They’ve pulled out all the stops. And every dog whistle they could blow, they’ve combined them into that letter,” she says.
Gladden says it’s a racist effort to inflame white voters against her.
“I consider it a hate crime. I consider that it came out of hate and that they are trying to inflame hatred in this community, and I take that seriously.”
She doesn’t know who wrote this except the letters are postmarked from Michigan. She’s turning it over to local police and the Human Relations Commission.
Gladden is black, and is the only black candidate running for a school board that has been all-white for at least two election cycles. West Mifflin is 90 percent white, and no official information for any recognized chapter of the Black Lives Matter organization has been found. We Change Pittsburgh, a local affiliate and participant in the Black Lives Matter movement, has not responded to a request for comment and has never posted public comment about or been in contact with Gladden's campaign.
Some of the claims in the letter, like increasing the diversity of the school board and "banning the box" in job applications, are not far off from some policies supported elsewhere by activists. However, given vehement knee-jerk reactions across the country to even low-impact Black Lives Matter-based platforms, it is very possible that the dogwhistle is in play. The letter has inflamed local conversations and chat rooms and has further divided a school district already involved in controversy, after two directors wrote a letter encouraging officials to investigate some administrative practices, in what some residents called a political play.