At a Black church, there were not more than a dozen or so Black faces.
Last night we went to the Mt. Zion Baptist Church to hear the “debate” between candidates for Seattle City Council from this District.
The event struck me as a tribute to Apartheid and Demagoguery.
Seattle’s apartheid is well advanced. Most of the Black community is gone … many as far as Tacoma. Some of the upwardly mobile Black community have even moved across the lake to newly diverse Bellevue. Despite talk of “Africatown” development in the Central District, any development now will have to celebrate what once was.
For those who have never been to Mt. Zion, this beautiful church was built in tribute to West African village themes and recognizes the acme of African American culture here in Seattle. Sadly there were at best a dozen or so Black faces in the crowd. The “debate” seemed to me to demonstrate the success of apartheid in Seattle.
The lack of black faces and lack of representation from the leadership of the Black community did not only reflect gentrification. At least half of the audience was packed with an out of district mob that reminded me of Seattle’s Maoist rallies from the Vietnam war days. Kshma Sawant, the only candidate who brought her own cheering squad, had a literal horde who crowded out people from the District and yelled over them during the Q and A.
Kshma is justly famous for her successful advocacy of Seattle’s new minimum wage law. That effort got her elected to the City Council. I voted for her with much hope. Sadly, she has has long passed over the precipice of demagoguery. Her behavior reminds me more of the radical rioters of the Vietnam era, than it does of the effective demonstrations that led to the Civil Rights Revolution.
Given the dangers of demagoguery, the meeting was amazingly well run. It was moderated by Erica Barnett and Josh Feit. Not an easy job for these veteran Seattle journalists, clearly they had to prevent Sawant’s crowd from obstructing any real speech. Questions were all presubmitted, vetted, and reasonable. This was followed by round robin answers with no chances for follow up from the audience or the moderators. Even polite requests from Ms. Barnett or Mr. Feit to keep focus were met by scattered Sawantian calls “get a new moderator!” and “free speech.” This really upset me because both Josh and Erica are very smart people, I would have loved to hear answers to their follow ups.
Morgan Beach
Rod Hearne
Of course Sawant’s answer to every question was … “I Am The People.” She made no effort to consider WHO lives in her District. Of course very few people from the District showed up, certainly I saw none of my neighbors from the newly rich home owners north of Aloha. I did recognize a small cadre from the gay community, largely supporters of Rod Hearne. (Full disclosure, my wife and I have a yard sign supporting Rod.)
The problem for Rod and the other non-Sawants was fire. How do you talk about District issues when the audience is there to cheer for the People’s Candidate? I felt especially sad when Morgan Beach, a feminist activist, got scattered applause when she thanked the moderators for avoiding “Mr. and Ms.” because these are, apparently, sexist terms. Erica and Josh had referred to the candidates all by their first names. With apologies to Comrade Sawant and to Morgan I still need a term to show respect for other citizens … whether that is Mr. Obama or Councilwoman Sawant.
Beach was also booed by Sawant’s fans for supporting “density.” Pam Banks’ comments on rent control drew hisses when she pointed out that rent control was a horrible failure in New York.
One candidate told me that there was a fear than any opposition to Sawant would result in screams. I believe that.
The result was that discussions of most issues. especially issues of importance to Seattle’s diminishing Black community, were treated only in a superficial manner. The person who likely represents that community was Pam Banks (left). I say likely because although she is the current CEO of the Urban League, Ms. Banks seemed to me to give the most thoughtful answers to questions. I was especially impressed that she had thought out answers to the huge issue of affordable housing .. emphasizing the need for such housing to build on community cultural resources and existing institutions. A theme echoed by Rod Hearne who talked about how the Capitol Hill Arts scene might contribute to housing efforts here. The contrast with Sawant and her horde’s support for rent control and fifties-style housing projects would have been worth a lot of discussion … if the Sawantistas had permitted any discussion.
Josh Feit has written an excellent review of the meeting on Publicola.