I'm guessing it's more an issue of the letters in parentheses after the names "Lott" and "Byrd".
What Rangel said was expected from a Northeast liberal - it was Gene Taylor's (D-MS) pathetic response or lack thereof that has me steaming...
Taylor's district is as conservative as one can get but they keep sending the jerk back to Washington.
Black political power in the city has always been divided into two very seperate and highly competetive camps, Harlem and Brooklyn.
Harlem is "light, bright and damn near White", led by the the likes of Percy Sutton (the real power in Black NYC politics) and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., both of whom are what used to be called octaroons by the general society and 'high yellow' by Black society. The Harlem cadre came mostly from the northern tier of southern states (Va, NC, SC). They were better educated, upwardly mobile, invested in the arts and had an understanding of politics that evolved as the times did, both locally and nationally. This is the group that installed 'gentlemanly' David Dinkins in City Hall. You will see their tuxedoed pictures on Page Six.
Brooklyn is the polar opposite, darker, far less polished, far less sophisticated in every way, from the 'deep' south. They are not visible beyond local borders and with the exception of Al Sharpton, unknown by the greater population. The Brooklyn style of Black politics is akin to open thuggery rather than palace intrigue.
This class-war seperation grew out of the northern migration of the mid-twentieth century. Just like any immigrant population the second wave followed the path taken by the first wave. In this particular migration the first wave to hit Harlem had its roots in those northern tier states while the first wave to hit Brooklyn hails from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia.
Rangel was insulting Black Brooklynites as much as he was those who live in Mississippi.
On the positive side, it is this inter-Nicene warfare among Black NY politicians that has kept Black politicians from running the city.