My Stupidest Blog Post Ever

At around six thirty this morning I posted the following piece. Approximately thirty second later a friend reach out to me with this message:

Gubernatorial candidates Rushern Baker and Ben Jealous are black men.

I knew that. Of course I knew that, but why—

I have to take the blog post down immediately!

Friends, I can’t explain why I made this error. Was it a result of seeing and hearing more coverage of the white candidates? Was it due to my current state of exasperation with white male privilege? Was it because somehow, in my own little white woman mindset, I had tuned out the two candidates of color?

I don’t know. But I am owning my error, and apologizing.

Here is what I posted. This time, with corrections. - - jam

*****

Most Unpopular Benign Opinion

All the candidates for governor are white guys, save one, who may not actually be eligible to run. Can we not do any better than this, Maryland? Actually, yes, we can. Candidates Rushern Baker and Ben Jealous are black men. What was I thinking? Yes, I know that some white guys are perfectly okay but I think we can agree that they’ve had more than their share of positions of power in this country.

Oh, sure, tell me how I should evaluate each of them on his merits. Don’t get hung up on gender and race, you say. Yes, yes. I read and I listen and I analyze and yet...somehow it hasn’t penetrated my consciousness that Rushern Baker and Ben Jealous are running? Sheesh.

Enough the white guys running everything, people! It’s just not healthy. While white guys have brought us the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence, they also bring us systemic racism, sexual harassment, rabid gun culture, and more that I’m not thinking of at the moment. Am I saying that white men are, by definition, unqualified to serve in elected leadership positions? No.

I’m saying, why the heck do we keep letting them off the hook and letting them go to the front of the line? It is beyond me that we can’t do better than this in 2018. Give me some more diverse choices! Give me someone who doesn’t look at the world through the lens of a White Guy.

Apparently that’s actually a possibility.

Everyone loses when leadership is not more diverse. Systemic problems go unaddressed when the same old people are at the table. Please, Maryland. Give me no more than the same old bros.

I don’t know why the messages of the white male candidates has been strong enough to completely blow the memory of these two other candidates out of my consciousness. But I assure you I intend to do something about it.

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