Sunday, August 30, 2015

Playing the race card in San Francisco #2

From Randy Shaw in Beyond Chron:

Despite battling kidney problems, Rose Pak has achieved a career first: she has won popularity among segments of the white left and media that have long criticized her. How did Pak do this? She told SF Magazine’s Joe Eskenazi that Mayor Lee “had no balls” and that his election as the city’s first Chinese-American mayor was “the biggest disappointment” of her life. Pak’s words elevated her status among Lee-haters overnight.

So much is wrong with this it's hard to know where to start. Now that the Bay Guardian is gone, what does "left" mean in San Francisco and who specifically is Shaw referring to? Who are the "Lee-haters" in the city and how do they differ from his political opponents who don't hate him?

But the worst term is "the white left and media." Is there a non-white media in San Francisco? Maybe Shaw thinks Beyond Chron qualifies, since years ago he appointed himself as the scourge of racism in city politics even though he is white. 

Reading Shaw over the years, you get the impression that only he is free of racism and that the rest of us whiteys can be regularly branded as racists on the flimsiest evidence (See  this and this).

More from Shaw:

If Pak were really so dissatisfied with Lee’s treatment of Chinatown and his closeness with tech folks, why raise $220,000 for his re-election? Why hold a fundraiser for him at all? The answer is that Pak’s current disappointment with Lee has nothing to do with his policies. Rather, Pak and others in Chinatown feel betrayed by Mayor Lee’s appointment of Julie Christensen instead of Cindy Wu as the new D3 supervisor. I was with Rose in that fight (emphasis added).

I strongly urged the mayor to appoint Wu. Soon after his Christensen appointment I joined Pak in a small meeting with the mayor where we both strongly criticized his action (emphasis added).

Yes, of course. Pak is still furious that Mayor Lee appointed the white Christensen instead of Cindy Wu. 

So who are the racists here? Those who insist that only someone who is ethnically Chinese can represent Chinatown or Mayor Lee who obviously thinks otherwise? And who is indulging in "Lee-hatred" now if not Rose Pak and those in Chinatown who agree with her about Christensen's appointment? 

Would white people---a majority in District 3---have raised similar objections if the mayor had appointed Cindy Wu?

Rose Pak played the race card against Aaron Peskin and Dennis Herrera after they criticized the Central Subway project.

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