Two days ago an article appeared on TheHill.com that discussed how members of the Congressional Black Caucus are being “targeted” by the Justice Democrats (JD) to get them out of their comfortable and well paid seats. JD was successful in getting Rep. Alexandria Ocascio-Cortez elected over the long time incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley, the powerful Democratic caucus chairman, in a New York primary.
Related: CBC lawmakers rip Justice Democrats for targeting black lawmakers for primaries
2UrbanGirls pondered if the sentiment of the Justice Democrats is also true in the great state of California. Many are growing dissatisfied with voting records of our Black elected officials as it relates to healthcare, housing and jobs, yet Black are EXPECTED to support them because they are BLACK. NOT because they are effective, but because we share the same skin color and if we don’t we’ll end up with Trump.
We received this letter to the editor on this same subject. Warning, the author, who shall remain anonymous, may be talking about your favorite local democrat.
Dear 2UrbanGirls,
I am a community activist and advocate from South Central Los Angeles, who has experienced many trials and tribulations like many others from my community. There are very few who seldom and successfully break down the barriers put in place to keep us down. I am eternally grateful to be of those very few and back to restore justice in the South LA communities, especially in the Black community.
David Cunningham, candidate for the 64th Assembly District
I am not writing to you to dive into details about my struggles but the aftermath of breaking down barriers that are put in our communities which continue to oppress and making us statistics.
After graduating from a Historically Black University in the south and coming back to LA, seeking mentorship from black elected officials and people in leadership roles, I was stunned at how many disregarded my interest in having them as a mentor and how elite the African American political scene is. Many ignored my request, some met with me and denied my request, and some gave me the run-around, all while staying persistent. That is until I took the hint and went about things the best way, I saw fit. Now many are coming to me telling me that I am doing things wrong and judging for mistakes that I have made.
The African American leadership across Los Angeles is distasteful, uncommitted, unreliable and selfish when it comes to grooming others, especially millennials from the African American community to run for public office. Let me assure you that if Black elected officials continue to treat the black community and more specifically Black Millennials, who have no ties to the political scene this way, there will be no Blacks in leadership roles in Los Angeles unless you are a relative or a friend of an elected. The current way things are done is very bias and detrimental to our community.
There is a huge problem in our community, with many ‘blacks’ who feel they’ve “made it” somehow often forgetting how they’ve gotten there – more often, off the backs of other black people who had humility enough to understand how hard it was for them to elevate themselves and propel their own careers, businesses or aspirations.
A couple of weeks back I met with a well-respected friend from the Latino community after we started texting about the Supervisorial race with one black millennial and 3 black career politicians. The last text that I received from her before she called me in to meet was “Holly will take it. I told Sharis (Sharis Rhodes; Millennial Candidate for Supervisorial District 2) a long time ago they want a Latina, apparently grooming one and prepping for endorsements.”. No person from any other ethnicity has filed to run for that seat and I don’t believe that there will be. We spoke about the Latino community having a list of people who they were prepping with endorsements and money to challenge all African American incumbents in upcoming elections, many of the replacements being “progressive” non-black candidates. That list is below:
CD (Council) 8: Incumbent, Marqueece Harris- Dawson – Replacement, Name not released
CD (Council) 9: Incumbent, Curren Price – Replacement, Jorge Nuño
CD (Council) 10: Incumbent, Herb Wesson – Replacement, Aura Vasquez
SD (Supervisor) 2: Incumbent, Mark Ridley Thomas – Replacement, Name not released
CD (Congressional) 37: Incumbent, Karen Bass – Replacement, Phillip Crabbe
CD (Congressional) 43: Incumbent, Maxine Waters – Replacement, Miguel Zuniga
SD (State Senate) 30: Incumbent, Holly Mitchell – Replacement, Name not released
SD (State Senate) 35: Incumbent, Steve Bradford – Replacement, Name not released
AD (Assembly) 54: Incumbent, Sydney Kamlager Dove – Replacement, Evan Geary
AD (Assembly) 59: Incumbent, Reggie Jones Sawyer– Replacement, Wendy Fagioli Ruiz or EFREN MARTINEZ
AD (Assembly) 62: Incumbent, Autumn Burke – Replacement, Greg Dina
AD (Assembly): 64: Incumbent, Mike Gipson – Replacement, Isaac Galvan
2 Comments
Sadly this TRUE. But when you stand alone, you will FALL.
I see this happening time and time again. Greed and the thought mentality of those in office, “I am going to be around forever.” Everyone’s time runs out. Our black leaders in office need to mentor hard and dilligently. Once we loose a seat to our brown brother and sisters we can kiss it gone for good. The black politicians needs to wake up & stay woke.