Davis finds friends on Hilliard's D.C. turf

After being called essentially an Uncle Tom and a white person in disguise during his successful campaign for the Democratic nomination (meaning the general election, since no Republican is running) for the Alabama 7th District congressional seat, Artur Davis is in Washington to visit with some members of the Congressional Black Caucus and take part in a forum. They seem to like him, probably because (unlike Earl Hilliard and his campaign staff) they don't see intelligence and a Harvard education as betraying their people and are willing to work with someone even if he's not on the far left.

Davis, who was criticized by Hilliard supporters for having worked as a prosecutor, a job in which he sent blacks to prison, urged the standing-room-only crowd to resist ranking black candidates on some artificial scale of blackness based on their education, manner of speech or profession.

"If whites did that, they would be appropriately criticized," Davis said. "We can't promote inclusiveness if we use divisive language."