Sherman R. Frederick
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff’s the kind of pandering politician no one needs. She battles racism where none exists.
It’s dangerous behavior because racism does exist. Sometimes it’s in plain sight — ala George Floyd. Most of the time it is embedded in our life together in sneaky ways. If we’re to make this a better place, we must tackle it when and where we find it. Spending time fighting concocted racism does humanity no good.
For example, five ropes were found hanging from trees in an Oakland park. The ends were looped and two of them had hand grips. Some wondered if maybe … possibly … they were some sort of rudimentary noose. (A reasonable line of inquiry in these troubled times.)
Then enters Mayor Schaff. She ballyhoo’s the discovery as a bonofide hate-crime, inserting herself as the great race warrior who will get to the bottom of it all.
Only it wasn’t a noose, and she’s not likely to get to the bottom of anything in her troubled city.
Victor Sengbe, who is black, told KGO-TV that the ropes were a rigging that he and his friends used as part of a larger swing system. He shared a video with the TV station showing how they used it.
Schaaf persisted. The swings put up by a black man for exercise must be further investigated as a hate crime, she said, because (and I’m not making this up) why the ropes were originally put up didn’t matter.
“Intentions don’t matter when it comes to terrorizing the public,” Schaaf said. “It is incumbent on all of us to know the actual history of racial violence, of terrorism, that a noose represents and that we as a city must remove these terrorizing symbols from the public view.”
What nonsense.
These were not nooses. We know that now. Refusing to move on makes this pure grandstanding and elevates the mayor to a high level of political nincompoopery.
These were two of the “nooses” found in an Oakland park.
HOW WEIRD IS IT OUT THERE?
So, this happened. A college math teacher in Oakland asked a student to “anglicize” her name because he found her name disturbing to say out loud in class.
She reported him to the college and the college suspended the professor saying “We do not tolerate racism, discrimination or oppression of any kind.”
Her name: Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen.
It’s weird out there, ladies and germs, and it’s getting weirder all the time.
DEFUND THE POLICE?
Give credit where credit is due: The Black Lives Matter crowd showed up in force to the Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting last week. It was impressive.
But, the “big idea” put forward by the group of defunding the police in Marin is still a horrifically bad idea. Plus, the unchallenged assertion that police here are “harmful and unwanted” isn’t remotely true.
Instead of cutting police funding, the better argument would be to spend more money so as to recruit and train better. Police have to get better at defusing situations without killing people, black, white or otherwise.
This is the truth. Someone has to say it.
TOO PROGRESSIVE FOR HIMSELF
The whole reason we test and trace COVID-19 infections is to gain solid, scientific information on the spread of the virus. But New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has prohibited tracers in his city from asking questions about whether the infected person attended any George Floyd related protests.
No wonder de Blasio has become the poster child for bad city government. He’s the mayor America loves to hate. Once again, he shows signs that he really doesn’t understand the seriousness of the coronavirus.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Isn’t it time to get back to in-person public meetings? Sooner the better if you ask me. This Zoom stuff is better than nothing, I suppose. But it still sucks hind teat in the greatest democracy the world has ever known. We have critical issues to discuss and holding those discussions in person is best.
JOURNALISM GREATS
Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill roamed the journalistic landscape a good decade before I arrived on the scene as a cub reporter on the night cops beat in Las Vegas. (I gotta write a book about those days sometime.) Anyway, I highly recommend the documentary “Breslin and Hamill — Deadline Artists.” Can you imagine Breslin writing about the COVID-19 debacle in New York City? I think it would have been gritty … and glorious.
ONE MORE THING
— We may as well go ahead and start pronouncing the “l” in salmon. Nothing matters anymore.
— Adulting: (v.) Putting back a pack of chicken for $11.58 because you see one for $11.17.
— Please be chicken, please be chicken.
Sherman R. Frederick is the founder of Battle Born Media, publisher of intensely local community newspapers, including the Novato Advance, the San Rafael News Pointer, the Mill Valley Herald, the Sausalito Marin Scope, the Twin Cities Times, the Ross Valley Reporter and the Pacifica Tribune. He may be reached at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Leave a Reply