I was reading Caribbean Matters today and the picture made me have a breakthrough. People who deny we no longer need affirmative action are lying, not only to themselves but to everyone else.
The argument is staring us right in the face.
Sen. Tim Scott and Justice Thomas decry the need for affirmative action programs, saying they made it, anyone else can too.
It’s not the people who “defied the odds” to succeed. It’s the paucity of people who have defied the odds and succeeded .
This is where I’m going to piss some people off.
I was born and raised in Northern California but, I have lived in Oregon since 2003. I’m about to tell you why California needs to send Representative Barbara Lee to the Senate.
Full disclosure: I’ve never been to Representative Schiff’s or Porter’s districts. I volunteered for Congresswoman Lee’s campaign in the 90’s when she was running for the state house.
Recently, I read “Palo Alto: A History Of California, Capitalism and The World” by Malcolm Harris and he talked about how California colonialism begat white supremacy and the systemic racist policies that we are still fighting today. He touches on how white settlers raised generations to accept the status quo and not to question it, for fear of losing everything they had gained.
“The Malcolm X quotation about the white man’s vulnerability on the ground comes from a 1964 speech titled “The Ballot or the Bullet”. It’s a landmark work of political rhetoric, and in it he makes the explicit case for understanding the United States in colonial terms: “America is just as much a colonial power as England (or France) ever was. In fact, America is more so a colonial power than they, because she is a hypocritical colonial power behind it…..What do you call second-class citizenship? Why, that’s colonization” Black people were a domestic colony , he said.” (italics, author’s)
page 309 “Palo Alto: A History Of California, Capitalism and the World” by Malcolm Harris
Little Brown, and Company 2023
On the next pages, he goes into how, in 1964, The Democratic party dropped the ball and marginalized civil rights activists rather than embracing them and allowing them a seat at the table. An oversight they still fall into today.
Can you imagine what our country would be like if our party had consciously begun to dismantle white supremacy way back in 1964? I don’t want to push fair use so I won’t quote any more of the book.
I can already hear southern Californians griping, “you northerners always take the senate seats, it’s our turn” Senator Padilla notwithstanding, sure, you’re right. But, there’s a reason for that.
When we’ve sent a northern congressperson to the senate, we’re assured of a Democrat holding the house seat. It’s gotten better in recent years but, are you really willing to risk it?
Think about it: 2024 is going to be the year of the referendum on reproductive rights.
Representative Lee is an authoritative voice on the matter, where the others are not. She has also been a vocal check on military overreach. We will retain the house seat if she’s sent to the Senate.
I understand why Representative Katie Porter is so popular, she’s a former banker, taking on the bankers. In our increasing reality of income inequality, that’s a powerful siren song to resist.
Remember how we all celebrated the milestone Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s admission to the court represented? When is our country going to get to the place where that becomes commonplace, instead of milestone inducing? The Civil rights movement began in 1954, 10 years before I was born. The only thing that’s stopping us from getting to that place, is us.
It’s not the few who have made it, it’s the paucity of how many have made it.
And, WYFP?
Sorry, no poll this week.
