Comments

1

Another opportunity to remind everyone that my friend just wants tickets for the domain.

2

Agreed, Seattle and WA still have affordable housing problems because the city council is still not progressive enough and large progressive majorities including the governors office is not enough. Maybe a progressive benevolent dictator is the answer.

3

The policies of Bruce Harrell and Eric Pettigrew that encouraged or ignored widespread displacement have all but ensured the end of African-American representation in government for Seattle's South End. Bruce and Eric don't seem to notice or care.

4

@3 D2 could of voted Mark Solomon (African American and got my vote) to the city council moderate than Tammy Morales (a wealthy person). If it's racial balance we are looking for then the council needs three more white people.

5

There is a tendency among progressives to view Black people as mere tokens, symbols rather than individual people. Identity politics is borne out of this: so too is the confusion generated among Leftists when they meet a Black conservative. Clarence Thomas isn’t supposed to exist.

This same tendency causes Progressives to elevate people to their boards or high visibility positions simply because they have more melanin, and the photos taken of the public faces of their organizations will look more diverse.

I remember at Occupy Olympia, a meeting one night taken place inside Traditions Cafe after the business had closed and the owner ad allowed us to use the space. An older hippie who ran the sound system presided as a young Black man went on to tell the group (my gay ass included) that “faggots made (him) feel uncomfortable. (He) don’t like em”. The older hippie and other baby boomers just responded with that same ooooh used when redirecting an errant child. I silently thought to myself, had this been a white redneck who had used the n word instead of the f word, they’d be throwing him out the door. But this guy, this homophobic bigot, is treated instead with a gentle head shake, finger wag, and “now now, young man”. Both he and I were demeaned that night; he, because he wasn’t treated as the fully grown adult man he is, just as capable as any other human being of hate speech, and I, because nobody was willing to defend me against homophobia so long as it was a Black guy doing it.

Pettigrew is a “progressive” simply because the white liberals of Seattle wanted to show their friends how anti-racist they are by grabbing any Black elected man they could find to become a symbol of how not racist those white liberals are. In the way, they do a disservice both to him-he is denied the self agency of being whoever the fuck he wants to be, even a conservative, simply because to white liberals there are no Black conservatives- and to those these white liberals claim to protect from conservatism, as whatever Pettigrew says will get their ok so long as he agrees to be their token.

This is why identity politics is such bullshit. There are transgendered conservatives, Caitlin isn’t the only one. Matt Shea’s Marble Community Church has Black members. One of Martin Luther King, Jr’s daughters runs around the country calling for the death penalty for gay people. And for all you Gil Scott Heron fans out there, his first album has a song called “The Subject Was Faggots”. Have you ever heard the slur fans of the Mexican national soccer team use during a goal kick? It’s “Puto”, which means, well....... and you know who the biggest opponents of Referendum 88 were? Not whites. Asians. Israel recognizes equal marriage for same gender couples. You know who doesn’t? Palestine.

Here’s a problematic idea: the amount of melanin in your skin does not strip your capacity to be an asshole. It doesn’t make you an automatic saint, or a symbol, or a photo op for whites to trot out to impress their friends.

Goodbye, Pettigrew. I hope whoever replaces you is elected for having good progressive ideas, and not just because of their melanin or lack thereof.

6

The above post will most likely result in my account being blocked again, like last time. I’ll be back, and I’ll try to find another name that’s similar enough to be recognized.

7

I might venture you could see Stephan Blanford, formerly on the Seattle School Board or Brandon Hersey, currently on the Seattle School Board, or Emijah Smith, who applied to fill the seat that Hersey got appointed to run for this office.

8

Five bucks says Zachary DeWolf bails on his school board gig to run for this seat.

9

@6, you may or may not get blocked, but no matter: your posts are so long, nobody wants to read them anyway.

10

@7 The first question to be asked of Hersey and DeWolf: did you finish eating what is on your plate at Seattle Schools? It would be a relief to have them gone on one hand, and a travesty to have them in Olympia. As for Smith, well, she isn't very good at owning her past.

11

9,

If reading more than one paragraph is too much a challenge for you, you might want to switch to Dr Seuss books. Illiteracy is a challenge many Americans face, so don’t be ashamed to admit you need help. I know it’s not your fault. Brain damage is a bitch.


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