This guy might be looking for a job, and would be a FAR better choice:
Whitfield probably saw his absurd dismissal coming... a school district a couple years ago had asked him to remove a post from his social media array of family photos that included one of his wife and him on a beach, kissing. His wife is white. Some parent who saw it objected and eventually the district asked him to remove the photo "to avoid conflict"... wow.
As for Whitefield's chances here, that would be a dice roll for sure. There are a number of SUNY colleges in the area, with a pretty diverse student body from downstate or the northwestern upstate areas, as well as more diversity recently among faculty and admin, but the electoral districts in the area are purple or red and the counties tend to be mostly white. That has changed somewhat in the past few decades, as more downstaters have found the area scenic and very suitable for artists, writers, remote tech working and retirement. The kids of locals do tend to be somewhat less conservative in their outlook, but there aren't many jobs past retail or light industry up here, so they tend to leave after (or for) their college years, and then not return, at least during their working lives.
Anyway there's still a town-gown divide in the area on some potentially race-related issues for sure, including policing, display of the confederate flag and etc. Confederate flag stencils abound on some barns around here and the prelude to the annual county fair still involves vocal disagreements over display or sale of flags and trinkets related to the Confederacy, Only thing gonna fix that is the slow ageing out of the good ol' boys, I guess.
I used to think that young women would make more of a difference here as time went on. But, a lot of them stayed here rather than left to seek work downstate, so a preponderance may remain old school religious and so still take all their cues for social and political interaction from their husband. The belonging of this area to the Appalachian chain's culture does extend to it still having aspects of the south's Bible Belt. My township only a decade ago finally permitted any remaining local stores to sell beer and bars are still prohibited. Still, and possibly because of those restrictions, an attitude lingers that driving drunk is at the very least a rite of passage for the young. A guy who for awhile was the county DA used to brag while he was a town justice that he'd sooner spit on the sidewalk than write a kid up for a DWI. Breathing while black in a few of the cities might be something else but when he was wearing the hat of the law, the county was probably 99% white anyway. I conclude that I live in a county of largely unexamined inconsistencies, but some would insist it's just the clash of bibles v criminal code. I'd also say the application of scripture is pretty selective sometimes.