Op-Ed: I pushed my kids to succeed academically to escape racism. But it doesn’t work that way.
By The Editors
I don’t think people like me should be running for the city council in San Francisco. I mean, to be successful, you must be able to meet the challenges of being in a city where the rules and regulations and public schools are all made on purpose to limit the ability of anyone—a small business owner, a black man or a gay man—to succeed. You must know a whole bunch of people who you can’t help but talk to about how the rules, the regulations and the public schools are all set up to limit the ability of anyone to succeed. You have to have enough money to live in this city—and be able to pay your rent and your mortgage—so that you can live a life where you can be a successful black man or gay man or Jewish man.
But, I mean, I don’t think you should go on to become a member of San Francisco’s city council or even a city supervisor because you have a hard time getting people to agree with you. To be successful, you need to have a hard time getting people to agree with you. It’s a pretty safe assumption that if you are a successful city council candidate, you are a successful black man on the city council or a successful gay man on the city council or a successful Jewish man on the city council. You might as well start from the beginning by proving your worth and ability to create jobs, to bring development to the city, to attract businesses and help the citizens of San Francisco—by keeping those rules and regulations and public schools out of your hands.
I don’t think it makes any difference what you’re saying about racism. I just think it makes a lot of difference what you’re saying about the world after racism. And I think it makes a lot
