Citizens push back on wild, bogus race-baiting in D3 race
Overheated and unsubstantiated racializing of issues is nothing new in SJ politics. What's new in 2022 is how everyday citizens are finding the verve to challenge unhinged accusations and baseless allegations. Nancy DeMattei chimes in on the Northside Neighborhood email list and demolishes claims that D3 candidate Irene Smith's flyer is racist.
The poorly argued critique of Irene Smith's flyer is Trump-like: full of wild name-calling and accusations with zero facts.
First, it's the Torres campaign that's got the race problem, not the Smith campaign.
It is hilarious that its author tries, feebly, to throw the race card at Irene Smith when Team Torres are the ones cozied up with disgraced racist trash talker Kevin de Leon in Los Angeles.
de Leon is a longtime Torres supporter, fundraiser, and endorser for Torres, and Omar has said zip about Leon's outrageous comments. Both Irene Smith and President Joe Biden have called for de Leon's resignation for his racist comments, and Team Torres is silent. For Glennon to ignore this elephant in the room while constructing a fake charge against Smith is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Second, the author's critique reeks of misogyny and anti-women dogwhistles.
Torres supporters' attempts to silence and bully Smith with fake charges of racism is consistent with a pattern of misogynistic rhetoric that follows Torres around. He verbally abuses women who disagree with him by using unfair, overheated language--and Smith is just the latest recipient of Torres' anti-women posture. It seems like Torres' supporters are trying to build a world where a white woman is not allowed to speak her mind, criticize a man, or exert power and persuasion. Women in Iran and around the world know this story all too well, and we should not stand for it in San Jose.
Third--and most important, all these charges of racism are made up out of thin air.
Read closely: there's never a single fact associated with them, just bizarre, twisted interpretations of photo placement or tone or comments misquoted or taken out of context. The author has never come up with an explicit image or word of reference to prove the racism point--never-- it's all just weird formulations she makes in her head. It's either very bad faith or simply the author seeing what she wants to see--either way, it's not the stuff of serious political discourse and should and will be dismissed out of hand by thoughtful readers.
The whole thread is on the Northside Neighborhood email list (membership required).
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Image by Jasper Rietman