Why leftists don't trust Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Deval Patrick

[prehnite]

The contest for control of the Democratic Party between left and center is continuing apace. The latest battleground is over a handful of minority Democrats being groomed by the centrist establishment to run for office: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

If the center wants to win

Comments

[lightframes]

Within communities of women or people of color, of course we can talk about criticism that comes from the heart and how the person being a woman or minority doesn't invalidate that. But the author of this article isn't going to tell me that's a "tactic" used to avoid criticism. The amount of times it's used as a "tactic" is probably about 10% compared to the 90% someone is actually being subjected to racism or sexism, so I just find it hard to spend that much time worrying about it. I think something people (not you) tend to forget is that a woman's criticism of a woman can still be sexist and a black person's criticism of a black person can still be racist, so that's not a total defense, either.

It's just strikes me as a little "calling me racist is as bad as the thing itself" - if this guy isn't racist, why does he care so much? Being called racist is way easier to ignore than dealing with racism. (I'm just addressing the author of this article - obviously you are not a white man and have a different relationship with being called racist or sexist when that's not what you're doing.)

Basically that was my long roundabout way of saying being called racist inaccurately is not nearly as bad as being accused of playing the race card as a defense.

[natyanayaki]

i don't think that being called a racist inaccurately is as bad as being accused of playing the race card, and i agree that one can be a woman/minority and still say sexist/racist things (and in terms of racial minorities it's super complicated -- indians can be super anti-black for example).

i understand your criticism of the author, and agree to an extent, but i also think that as a citizen and a journalist it's fair for him to point out that tactic because a lot of the people who are being silenced don't have the platform he has, or the platform that these politicians or some of their supporters.

i do think it's more damaging than you're crediting because it's not just certain politicians who use it, or their higher profile supporters, but also many random supporters who (are often racist/sexist themselves) use it to shut down critics regardless of their gender/race.

it just feels as though establishment, centrist democrats have begun male-washing and white-washing leftists and all that has done is turn me off of the party and that's the impression i'm getting from many leftists who are also minority women because depending on what we say we either deal with racist, sexist attacks or we're silenced for being "racist, white men" and it's tedious. i think people have to remember that some of us get both.

[natyanayaki]

this thread (the original and the responses) illustrate how i and many other non-white, non-male leftists feel. being blocked/ignored after we mention that we're not white/male isn't atypical. i know people who have gotten responses similar to "why do you hate your own race so much," so it's not just about if it's worse to be called a racist/sexist or to deal with racism/sexism (the latter is worse) because some people deal with both (all three). https://twitter.com/sirjamesa12/status/869329413430792192

i also have to wonder why centrists antisemitic attacks on bernie (during the primaries), and islamophobic attacks on ellison are ignored? why is it ok for centrists to erase nina turner (who along with rho khanna is probably my favorite of the "major" leftists, though i feel as though i don't know enough about either of them)?

i don't know, i think centrist, establishment dems get away with quite a lot, use whatever method they can to avoid scrutiny, vilify leftist politicians (who might have better track records overall), and it seems like minorities, and non-(cis)men are often pushed into supporting them.

i'm not really anti-harris (or even booker, though i'm prolly more anti-booker than harris), i want to see more from her and i would like for her to address people's concerns as opposed to behaving as though they're invalid, or as though they don't exist (most of the people i have talked to who are leftist/most of the conversations i've seen among leftists indicated that they don't feel as though harris is an enemy or the worst of the worst, they'd like for her to discuss these criticisms openly and show some sign of change).

sorry to reply again, i saw that twitter conversation and thought it was relevant.

[lightframes]

I agree that the party itself is guilty of "you can't be mad at me, I have a black friend" - like having a lot of black and female supporters doesn't mean the party itself can't do racist things (like the attacks on Ellison). Definitely guilty of using us as tokens and then acting like that means there is no racism in the party. We know there's racism there. If black women could only interact with completely non-racist institutions we couldn't leave the house (not sure whether to insert crying or laughing here)

I didn't mean to imply black and women leftist feelings aren't important, so sorry for that. I guess I might be projecting, because during the primary when people said women who supported Sanders were just doing it to impress guys or implied we were self-hating I kind of shrugged it off even though I should have been insulted because it was nonsense. But not everyone can do that or should have to do that, and no one was trying to block me or shut me down really.

[natyanayaki]

ohh, no need to apologize, i didn't mean to imply you were implying that! :)

it is nonsense, i don't know if i really get insulted by comments like that so much as i get frustrated because it makes conversations so much harder to have and it turns people away and i don't enjoy being in the position placating people when it comes to the questionable aspects of politicians i don't like because i'm afraid of what'll happen if they lose? it also makes a difference depending on who is saying that kind of stuff, the handmaiden tweet is frustrating but *shrugs* but gloria steinen saying it has more of an impact (and people will use it as "steinem one of THE feminists said that so how can you disagree)...and that's just tedious ah.

" If black women could only interact with completely non-racist institutions we couldn't leave the house (not sure whether to insert crying or laughing here"

:/