No One Gets The Prize
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
So, Gov. Newsom of California has decided to replace outgoing Senator and now Vice President-elect Kamala Harris with California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Many watching and waiting for this moment were simply basking in the fact that California state and U.S. Senate history was being made by now even MORE history-making VP-Elect Harris. Many had speculated that Rep. Barbara Lee was in high favor for the seat. Sadly, it seems that other eligible women of color, along with Rep. Lee, ended up like a classic Diana Ross lyric: NO ONE GETS THE PRIZE.
In strange solidarity of a political bromance, Alex Padilla was chosen as the next big moment in California history as its first Latinx U.S. Senator. I guess when Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio actually OWN their ethnic identity, they can sort themselves out with Bob Menedez as to which one is an actual U.S. Latinx Senator, but I digress.
Being California’s first African-American female Attorney General and U.S. Senator EVER are huge accomplishments. She is now the first African-American, West Indian, Asian American to win an election to the second-highest office in this nation. That’s a whole lot of “firsts” for one woman to carry to do a job previously filled by many less accomplished men. Again, as my parents and many of their generational peers used to say to us, “We can’t just be like everybody else. We always gotta do more and be more just to be seen like everybody else.”
The short-lived and changing historic nature of this senate seat really disturbs me. It bothers me because I bet the blood, sweat, and tears that VP-elect Harris put into getting that seat must have been fierce. I have said it before that we need to make sure that we support women in these offices as a society, especially as men. It is a challenge for any woman seeking a career in politics, even more so for women of color. Alex Padilla’s selection to replace the vacant seat feels like a slap in the face to her legacy. I understand trading a minority for another minority in these high powered positions. That is how we got Justices Thomas and Barrett. The country got a crap deal in that exchange.
Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Padilla, currently serving as California’s Secretary of State, is quite accomplished. His backstory is compelling. His decision to enter into public service was fueled by the burning desire to do the right thing like many have, with an extra nod to his voice and what it represents when it actually gets to be heard and participates in crafting national policy.
However, Gov. Newsom and Sec. Padilla shares a long history of political support to each other. Not to be circumspect, but this appointment feels more like a patriarchal political throwback to the good old boys’ network and giving a friend the hookup. Also, this means that Newsom has an ACTUAL ally and possible friend of sorts in higher places. Too late now for Rep. Lee, but I am sure that she has probably moved on from all of this, even if she might be a baseball fan. Maybe the thought process is that VP-elect Harris is also the President of the Senate, so technically, she is still a part of it, thereby making room for yet one more oppressed group to wedge itself into the room, like one of those people on a rush-hour train in Japan.
Perhaps Gov. Newsom is simply not as “progressive” as he might want some of us to believe? Deep down, he is a cis-gender, heterosexual white man. He got a big boost from the LGBT+ population because of his efforts in the early days of the same-sex marriage debate. ( Ok, and because he is kind of hot.) I’m now wondering if, like most men, when they are in charge, Gov. Newsom does not like to be told what to do? Hence, being told that he SHOULD replace the seat with another accomplished black woman results in nothing that resembles one. He zigged instead of zagged.
Rewarding friends and supporters with political favors of this magnitude really are not that uncommon. Unfortunately, the soon to be evicted Donald Trump has made an entire administration the beneficiaries of those favors. I am almost certain that most of the professional, probably overqualified, women of color who could have been considered are commissioning voodoo dolls and staring at pictures of Gov. Newsom, chanting Miss Celie’s curse from THE COLOR PURPLE.
Not for nothing, but Black women have proven time and again that they are truly the backbone of the Democratic party. I may be going out on a limb, but I am sure that many of those particular Black women feel very slighted by his choice to play a political card cloaked in a great Affirmative Action loophole.
We see you, Governor. If you think those women are mad now, then you let your 2022 re-election campaign come asking for money when you have not found a way to fix this bad energy. The breeze from the side-eye that will be sent your way might replace a few of those windmills. As for appointed Senator Padilla, good luck to you on your next adventure. Your entry into the history books might have an asterisk next to your name. Because the people of California are expecting you to do a job that they did not elect you to do, you better make it pop. Remember that you have 2 years to make Black women in the electorate not make that face when your name is mentioned.
WEAR A MASK. WASH YOUR HANDS. SOCIALLY DISTANCE YOURSELVES.
