San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Front-runner Elder uses anti-Blackness as weapon
If you’re Black in America, the chances of being elected president are about the same as being elected governor. Only two have ever been voted into a state’s highest office, and neither was in California. If Larry Elder wins California’s recall election, he would make history.
As a Black man, I’m filled with dread.
Elder is known for being the Black voice in conservative white spaces who advances racist tropes in America. His ability to otherize his own people is unique. He perpetuates the archaic absent Black father myth, despite evidence showing that Black men are a crucial part of America’s care economy. He says
systemic racism doesn’t exist while millions of his own people experience it every day. When we march against police brutality, Elder scoffs and victimblames.
He won’t bring California together. He profits from dividing it.
“The reason I think he has even reached this level in prominence is because there’s these deep racial tropes that white folks still hold and he validates them,” said Shawn Ginwright, a professor of education and African American studies at San Francisco State University. “To have a Black man say what he says is sort of a certification of white supremacy. It sort of solidifies it.”
But it isn’t just Elder’s problematic views or his political inexperience, domestic abuse allegations and penchant for spreading vaccine misinformation that worry me. It’s that electing him would mark the moment California turned its back on Black residents.
Maybe we should have seen this coming.
It didn’t take long for people to grow tired of hearing about Black equality after last summer’s George Floyd protests. By July, multiple Black Lives Matter murals in the Bay Area had been defaced, including one in Martinez, where the vandals were charged with a hate crime.
In the months that followed, voters rejected lifting the state’s 24-year ban on affirmative action, and slavery reparations cemented itself as one of the more divisive issues in America.
Mass incarceration also came into sharper focus after May 2020. San Francisco’s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, began facing a recall attempt in April as opponents said his attempts to redress the unevenly harsh sentencing of people of color meant he wasn’t tough enough on crime.
There’s a pervasive sentiment connecting the Boudin backlash and the rise of Elder: anti-Blackness.
“It’s obvious there is a strong conservative streak that’s always been around, but it’s making itself known more now,” said San Francisco resident Phillip Dupree, who in August posted on Twitter about Black signature-gatherers for the Boudin recall. “You can see it in the Newsom recall, the Boudin recall.”
Recent poll data from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California show Newsom isn’t as close to being recalled as he was a month ago. According to the poll, 58% of likely voters oppose removing Newsom from office while 39% want to see him gone.
Still, Elder is by far the most popular of the 46 recall candidates, with 26% support from likely voters. The next closest is Republican and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who’s polling at 5% likely support.
It’s here that Elder raises another alarm for me. He represents the political weaponization of brown skin by white powers. The result: social regression masquerading as racial progress.
I know how white conservatives see Elder. But I was curious about how a Black conservative views his campaign. So I reached out to Corrin Rankin, the vice chair of the Central Valley of the California Republican Party. Rankin told me she isn’t supporting any candidate in the recall, but when it comes to Elder, she did say seeing such a vocal, outspoken Black person in the race is a reminder that Black people are not a monolith.
“Most people when it comes to politics are moderate and think of things with common sense. They don’t want the pendulum to swing too far in either direction,” Rankin said. “At the same time, they want to see things get done so that we all live a better life in California.”
Rankin preaches the importance of dialogue and understanding differing perspectives. But it isn’t right-of-center Black people like her who usually gain national attention. It’s the more extreme voices like Larry Elder, Candace Owens and even Kanye West.
Elder’s most visible supporters aren’t Black. He’s celebrated by white people
Larry Elder in his S.F. hotel room. The conservative radio host is by far the most popular of the 46 recall candidates, with 26% support from likely voters.
The GOP front-runner represents the political weaponization of brown skin by white powers.
for his diversity, yet they don’t acknowledge how his views will only further marginalize folks that look like him. Post-George Floyd, Elder is a byproduct of California “whitelash.”
The term, coined by CNN’s Van Jones
in 2016, describes white America’s sometimes rapid pushback against social progress after it comes in waves. It’s how a country goes from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. Or how Elder gets so close to political power.
California voters must vote “no” on removing Newsom and reject Elder. This isn’t the Black voice we need leading our state. Not now. Not ever.