‘Race’ Relations 101:   For Those Who Missed the Reckoning 

By Paul Lee

Dear Friends,

Neglected Voices

As you know, I was asked to submit a statement on behalf of the Friends of Adeline (FOA) for last nite’s closed Berkeley City Council meeting, which would address the pending vote for a new police chief.  

I agreed to do so because I’d hoped, as always, to broadly represent my understanding of the experiences and views of everyday “black” and “brown” Berkeleyans, whose voices have always been muted in the city’s halls of power.

I wasn’t asked to deliver it, which was fine with me because, as you know, I’ve recently felt compelled for personal reasons to step back from my community involvements.  

However, I was pleased to learn that Negeene Mosaed would read it because, as a “brown” person, she has personal experience with being profiled due to her Iranian ancestry (not to mention being prejudged because of her Muslim religion, which Islamophobes associate with “terrorism”).

Brouhaha

However, I was surprised to later learn that some members of the council felt personally indicted by the following passage from the statement, for which Negeene was loudly denounced, even though she didn’t write it: 

“…’black’ and ‘brown’ Berkeleyans are keenly watching this vote.   They expect the persons of color in the administration to be more than the lawn jockeys or cardboard cutouts that White Power wants them to be (and, in some cases, has paid for them to be).”

Indictment v. History

Frankly, I’m rather astonished that anyone would feel personally attacked by this statement.   After the supposed “racial” reckoning following the police murder of George Floyd, I should think that the foregoing statement was “Race” Relations 101, an elementary fact of this country’s frayed and fraying social fabric, that is known to most Americans, and certainly those of color.

Rather than being a personal indictment, it was instead a historical description by a scholar of how White Power operates.

It is well established that White Power shrewdly seeks to promote and protect its interests by supporting people of color in positions of power or authority because they look representative of these constituencies without actually being representative of them.

Exhibit A

The classic example of this increasingly fashionable tactic is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who replaced Thurgood Marshall.  

While Marshall’s elevation to the high court expressed how the Black Power movement of the 1960s created an opportunity for him to represent the interests of “black” people, it was White Power that picked and continues to back Thomas (to the tune of millions of dollars, it was recently reported), who slavishly works to secure its interests, not “black” people’s.   White Power does not respect him; it merely uses him.

While Marshall was famously bold, independent and outspoken, Thomas, like a lawn jockey or cardboard cutout, is no more than a “racial” ornament, who, until recently, has mostly remained mute.  

It would be foolish not to expect that some of the backers of people of color in Berkeley’s administration support them because they hope that these members will behave like Thomas rather than like Marshall or, more relevantly, like former council member Cheryl Davila.

The Choice

“Black” and “brown” Berkeleyans are expecting the people of color in the administration to be like Marshall or Davila rather than like Thomas, particularly when it comes to picking the next police chief, who will literally hold the power of life and death over them.  

By contrast, “white” Berkeleyans have never had to worry who the chief of police is for the simple reason that the department’s historic “racial” hierarchy privileges the protection of their lives and property over any- and everyone else’s. 

If “white” Berkelyans are not aware of this, “black” and “brown” Berkelayans are never allowed to forget it.

The statement in question invited all members of the administration, excluding no one, to become “champions” of “black” and “brown” Berkeleyans by voting against Jen Louis, whose tenure and position of leadership fundamentally implicates her in the Berkeley Police Department’s (BPD) historic racism, brutality and corruption, which are the root of the recently revealed texts.

The Politics of Deflection?

Since the foregoing is so patently obvious, one is left to wonder if, in fact, those who objected to the cited passage were not, in fact, triggered, but were merely engaging in the well-worn politics of deflection.  

From what I’m told, no member of the administration expressed outrage over the historic and current wrongs against “black” and “brown” Berkeleyans that the statement detailed, nor could they muster the pique to denounce Louis for her objective complicity in what the statement described as this “insidious culture,” which “has nurtured and protected these attitudes and actions for as long as there has been a BPD.”

By attacking the messenger, these administration members neatly avoided confronting the statement’s message.   Because of this, I simply can’t take their objections seriously and would be surprised if any intelligent person could.

Too Grave to Play

Finally, when I wrote the statement (or, more accurately, followed the directions of the Muse), I prayed, as I always do, that it would be a sober, historically grounded reflection of my understanding of the broad views of “black” and “brown” Berkeleyans.  

I had no thought of engaging in a cheap exercise of childish name-calling, particularly not when it was meant to address a situation that is so grave (pun intended) to “black” and “brown” Berkeleyans.   I have no time for those who choose to chase shadows or play games of deflection, particularly not given the hell that our people continue to face in Berkeley.   Thank you.

I have the honor to remain

Loyal-Lee yours,

Paul