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NAACP head blasts Connecticut Young Democrats for all-white leadership photo

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A photo that includes members of the newly-elected executive board of the Connecticut Young Democrats — showing an all-white slate with a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama — is angering minority community leaders in the state.

They say the conspicuous absence of people of color in the photo is an insult in a year when the first black woman from Connecticut was elected to Congress, the first Asian-American captured a statewide office and minority voters helped put Ned Lamont in the governor’s office.

The photo was taken Wednesday night at the party headquarters of the Connecticut Democrats in Hartford. It includes both current and former members of the group’s executive board.

“The only negro they could find was cardboard,” said Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP. “Everyone has been going to black churches throughout the campaign to try to get in front of our congregations. Now you can’t find any black people? It’s very hypocritical and it’s very arrogant. I’m disgusted with that picture. How could that picture be a reflection of the Young Democrats?”

Esdaile said he would be taking up the matter with state Democratic Chairman Nick Balletto.

Balletto was in Puerto Rico Thursday for a Democratic National Committee meeting and referred questions to a state party spokeswoman, who said the Connecticut Young Democrats is an independent organization.

The 10-member executive board of issued a statement Thursday that the photo was not representative of the group’s leadership, which includes three minority members who could not attend the meeting. Not all of the people in the photo are on the executive board, the group said.

“While our current executive board is diverse in race, ethnicity and geography, we know there is much more work to be done to ensure that [Connecticut Young Democrats] is a space where all young Democrats are represented,” the group said. “We invite those with concerns to join us to build [Connecticut Young Democrats] to best serve the next generation of Democratic leaders in Connecticut.”

Kenneth McClary, a Bloomfield town council member who serves on the executive board of the Young Democrats as vice president for political affairs, said he couldn’t attend the meeting because school budget meeting the same night.

“I don’t want people to look at a picture and try to ridicule an organization that is doing the work,” McClary, who is black, said. “Was it a poor choice of marketing? Yes, absolutely.”

McClary said the Young Democrats have put pressure on the state party to field more candidates of color and advocated for greater minority representation on state boards and commissions. The group has held several diversity round tables, he said, to discuss issues such as criminal justice reform, community policing, the DREAM Act and the need for affordable housing.

“We’re not saying we mastered it all,” McClary said. “Don’t make this a Connecticut Young Democrats issue. Make it a Democratic Party issue. Make it a Ned Lamont issue.”

Esdaile was not the only minority community leader taken aback by the image.

So was Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, who made a splash with her run for lieutenant governor against eventual winner and fellow Democrat Susan Bysiewicz.

The Hartford-raised union organizer and Sandy Hook resident was seeking to become the first Latina elected to statewide office in Connecticut.

“When I saw the picture I was surprised considering how many young people of color were active during this electoral season,” Bermudez Zimmerman said in a text message Thursday. “I did reach out to the prior president Kim Glassman about the new slate she took a picture with and she explained that it wasn’t a representation of the full [executive board].”

Aaron Turner, who lost his bid for state Senate in Bridgeport and founded the greater Bridgeport chapter of the Young Democrats, also could not attend the meeting. He lamented the optics of the photo.

“Folks have been calling for diversity in the Democratic Party for years, decades,” said Turner, who is black. “Young folks are supposed to exemplify what it means to be that big tent. It’s just unfortunate in the age where minority women are winning seats in Congress why there couldn’t be a woman of color.”

Earlier this month, Democrat Jahana Hayes, who grew up in public housing in Waterbury and went on to be recognized National Teacher of the Year in 2016 during a White House ceremony with Obama, became the first black woman elected to Congress from Connecticut.

State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, the son of Chinese immigrants and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, was elected state attorney general. He will become the first Asian-American to hold statewide office.

Former Hartford City Council President Shawn Wooden won the state treasurer’s race, making five of the last six people to hold the job came from the African-American community.