Happier days from Capitol Hill Pride in 2015
Two former Capitol Hill business owners who have continued to organize events through the years during the neighborhood’s annual Pride celebrations are scrambling this week to apologize over their complaints to the city about a competing Taking B(l)ack Pride event.
Dozens of scheduled participants including mayoral candidates, community groups, and entertainers for the planned festival in Cal Anderson Park have announced they will now not take part in the organizers’ Capitol Hill Pride in-person events this weekend.
“I will no longer be attending Capitol Hill Pride after reading their letter to the Seattle Human Rights Commission,” Seattle City Council president and mayoral candidate M. Lorena González said Friday joining a long string of cancellations. “After a year that has taken an unbelievable toll on all of our communities, I was looking forward to this opportunity to celebrate Pride in person. However, I simply cannot support an organization that is trying to stop Black people in the LGBTQ+ community from celebrating Pride in the manner that they choose.”
Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson, who once ran the Museum of the Mysteries on north Broadway, are facing an ongoing wave of condemnation and cancellations after the Seattle Human Rights Commission posted the letter from the Capitol Hill Pride organizers criticizing the Black Pride event hosted by groups including the Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network for its plans to charge white attendees a “reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY.”
“We will never charge admission over the color of a person’s skin and we resent being attacked for standing in those values,” the complaint to the city from LeFevre and Lipson reads.
In its response to the complaint, the Seattle commission shared the letter and publicly admonished the event organizers:
While organizers of the official Seattle Pride downtown parade and celebrations have opted for virtual events this June and will hold off on in-person festivals and events until late this summer and fall, the small Capitol Hill Pride group led by LeFevre and Lipson that was denied five years ago as the permit holder for the annual LGBTQ street fair on Broadway has been moving forward with growing plans for a 2021 Pride weekend festival, rally, and march in the neighborhood as COVID-19 concerns are finally being lifted.
An Office of Economic Development spokesperson told CHS earlier this month that permits requested by Capitol Hill Pride remain under review.
Since losing the Broadway street festival, recent events from the Capitol Hill Pride organizers have been lightly attended including marches of only five or six people.
But with the much larger Seattle Pride opting to hold off for in-person events until later this year and amid ongoing desires by some for a less corporate, less commercial Pride, the 2021 events seemed lined up to be an enthusiastic if not crowded celebration.
Credit where credit is do. Capitol Hill Pride invented the doggie drag contest
Capitol Hill Pride also won a wave of support for announcing “a ban of police at the event” as many media outlets failed to clarify that the organizers were a smaller group not part of Seattle Pride or PrideFest, the organizer of the city’s largest events.
Capitol Hill Pride’s 20201 planned speaker list included state “Sen. Jamie Pederson” (sic) and Manny Santiago, executive director of the Washington State LGBTQ Commission. Meanwhile, many of the candidates vying to be the city’s next mayor including González, Colleen Echohawk, and Andrew Grant Houston were lined up to be part of the events. Each has publicly canceled those plans. Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill Pride roster of participants like Fred Hutch and vendors like BB Toys and Go Puff must decide if they’ll stick with their announced attendance. Some, meanwhile, appear to be sticking it out. UPDATE: A spokesperson says the Hutch is no longer participating.
UPDATE: Sen. Pedersen, who is scheduled to speak Saturday morning, says, if he participates, he is planning to take the opportunity to speak at Capitol Hill Pride to address the “need for the community to embrace diversity.”
While other politicians quickly distanced themselves from the event, Pedersen said he hopes to encourage attendees to “show up to be anti-racists and allies” for Black communities and People of Color. “I would say yes to the Black Pride event if they asked me, too,” Pedersen said.
While saying he disagrees with the complaint against Taking B(l)ack Pride from the Capitol Hill Pride organizers, the Capitol Hill resident said he appreciates LeFevre and Lipson’s early efforts to create the annual Broadway street fair that is typically part of Pride and is also appreciative of their efforts as the pandemic crisis has lifted.
“I’m glad there are some in-person Pride events this year,” Pedersen said. “I miss having Pride on Capitol Hill.”
In addition to Seattle’s virtual Pride 2021 events, many will now be placing their energy in the Taking B(l)ack Pride event or smaller Pride weekend events at local businesses and bars. There will also be marches and rallies including community groups and activists.
On Capitol Hill, the uncertainty around Capitol Hill Pride will mean a greater focus on Saturday’s dedication of the AIDS Memorial Pathway:
Join us on Saturday, June 26 to celebrate the completion of The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway.
The AMP DEDICATION
Saturday, June 26
Noon – 3pm
On the plaza at the Capitol Hill Light Rail StationWe invite the public to drop by during these hours to visit and experience this unique place of remembrance and reflection in Seattle.
See the artwork, talk with the artists, and learn about The AMP!
This event will have ASL interpreters available.
The Seattle Gay News announced over the weekend it was moving its booth from the Capitol Hill Pride event in Cal Anderson to the pathway dedication. Others are likely to join.
Looking ahead, there will be more opportunities for in-person Pride celebration on Capitol Hill — you’ll just have to wait a month or two. Capitol Hill’s PrideFest, organizer of the annual Broadway street fair and Pride festival activities in Cal Anderson Park, is planning a two-day, in-person event on Capitol Hill later this summer once it is safe to fully gather again. “If it can be done safely, we will be doing it,” PrideFest head Egan Orion told CHS. The dates for the PrideFest events will be announced soon. October will also bring an “All Together Now” event from Seattle Pride.
Meanwhile, organizers LeFevre and Lipson are doing what they can to apologize and keep their in-person Capitol Hill Pride efforts alive.
“We apologize for the inquiry to the City of Seattle regarding Take B(l)ack Pride, it was not meant to be an attack or divide but to ensure equality for all,” a statement from organizers reads. “Capitol Hill Pride encourages community events and our mission is to recognize the LGBTQ+ community and all spectrums.”
For many, it will be too little, too late.
As you are considering what events to attend and support this Pride season, please educate yourself about who is running those events. The in-person "Capitol Hill Pride" event is being run by people with a long history of inserting themselves and attempting to displace
1/2— Seattle Dyke March (@DykeMarchSea) June 20, 2021
community events and center themselves. Their attack on Taking B(l)ack Pride is the latest example. The Seattle Dyke March fully supports Taking B(l)ack Pride, the Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network, and the charging admission to non-Black people who want to attend 2/2
— Seattle Dyke March (@DykeMarchSea) June 20, 2021
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Where has sen pedersen been ? He lives near the Safeway on 15th. His church vandalized during Chop/Protests? Homes less mess? Where’s he been all this time? Pride is valuable. The community has needed him to speak up and out on a lot of important issues for a year now. Where ya been Jamie?/
Wokefest 2021 is upon us. Who will win this year?
Your guess is good as mine for the winner, but I can tell you who already lost.
Your snippy, self righteous response to 2Woke is exactly why the right hates us. Cool it please and think about the long range consequence of your words…
Is Taking B(l)ack Pride the sole public Seattle Pride event that is free for all races except whites, or are there others?
Reverse racism isn’t a thing, and Pride was started by Black people and PoC and we’ve pushed them out of it
Isn’t it illegal to charge a different admissions fee based solely on the color of a person’s skin?
If you read the response from Seattle’sHRC, you will see that they have already explained why it’s not illegal.
No, they indicate it doesn’t violate the UN declaration of human rights.
They don’t know dick about what’s legal.
“Free for everyone” is only free for attendees. The fees Capitol Hill Pride has for booths is ridiculous. A few years ago they were asking for as much as $10,000 in “sponsorship” and registration fees, this year it’s $100-200 plus 10% of sales.
Capitol Hill Pride continues to be an embarrassment to Seattle’s diverse and welcoming LGBTQ+ communities. At a time when our rights are under attack everywhere we look, we don’t need egomaniacs like LeFevre claiming to be representatives of our community. She seemingly runs this organization as an ego-boosting project feeding her non-stop need to be in the center of the spotlight she creates. When it comes to the real work his community is doing to solve the biggest issues we face, she’s never around. She’s only there to grab headlines and create controversy. When will the City learn? When will community leaders get it? The only way we can end the courage is by suffocating her event by never attending and never giving her a dime. She shouldn’t be permitted by the City ever again. Not because of her politics, because she can’t manage events without causing harm and creating dangerous situations. That’s why she was denied permits before, and she should be denied a permit now. Her latest racist rant is unforgivable. Don’t believe her crocodile tears.
So “Taking Black Pride” event is planning to charge white (and only white) people a fee based on the color of their skin?
Just wanna double confirm because it sounds totally ridiculous… not to mention probably illegal.
I thought any diversity event and celebration, you wanna aim for more attendance.
Perhaps you should consult the Seattle Human Rights Commission response letter – they helpfully clarify that if you don’t believe only one race should have to pay to enter a public park, you are racist.
Human Rights Commission is just a bunch of volunteers. They don’t know the law.
Yes they can. Pay or go somewhere else. Fake ass republicans passing as liberal under the the flag. Outed.
Are you guys really that dense? Technically yes illegal. take it court and what precedent is there? In what cases in history have white people been treated differently for the color of their skin? I’m so sorry this event hurt your feelings though.
I know, right? I mean, do people get this incensed over ladies’ nights, where women get in for free and men have to pay a cover charge? I don’t think this is a hill anyone really needs to die on. The outrage is pretty ridiculous.
In California, ladies’ nights are an illegal violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Just saying. Washington, however, has upheld ladies’ night.
Either way, private groups are free to discriminate and this is a private group
I don’t quite understand, or at least I hope I don’t. Your answer to historical unfair, racist treatment is simply to change the color of those being treating unfairly as “revenge”?
To all yt people – pay the fee, or be on the wrong side of history! If you don’t, you are perpetuating racist violence against Black, Disabled Trans Womxn.
This has to be a parody account right?
I continue to be unsure if this account is some Poe’s law joke.
Asking for donations is one thing. Forcing people to pay because of the color of their skin is another.
This is liberalism gone too far.
Shouldn’t wealthy blacks pay and wealthy whites pay but poor youth of any color supporting black communities be free?
I’m actually getting sick of the craziness of the far left politics and the reverse racism and fascism that the far left brings.
I was liberal but I’m becoming a moderate as I see more and more craziness.
How do you engage communities? Not ostracize them and tell them they are not welcome unless they have money.
You embrace and ask for help.
That’s how it always has worked.
We can’t have freedoms restricted and speech restricted just because you don’t like what a person has to say or what color a person skin is.
Fascism on the left is just as dangerous as fascism on the right.
Is this really liberalism tho? Not sure what to call it. I guess just identify politics? As a Bernie/Warren guy I’d like to know more broadly what is their goal and what is they’re theory of change. I can’t imaging any way that racial discrimination will advance righteous goals.
Agree completely.
Not “reverse racism”, just racism.
There is no such thing as reverse racism.
Jesus fucking Christ, from calling Black people”blacks” to saying paying reparations is fascism, you are showing yourself to be as racist as you are long winded
The group of activists calling themselves the “Seattle Human Rights Commission” are really no different from every other activist group in this city. A bunch of losers whose main purpose in our city discourse is to acquire power and attention by bullying other noteworthy individuals/groups and performing publicity stunts.
Unfortunately in this case it will probably work as the activists are incredibly loud and suffer no consequences when they blatantly lie and misinform people about the nature of this event. If any mayoral candidate refuses to submit to their bullying, they will be labeled as “anti-black” and “telling black and brown people what to do.” It doesn’t matter that this is an outrageous falsehood. It will get repeated until it becomes the truth. Everyone will be bullied into submission. Such is life in activist-dominated Seattle.
Can someone please explain the image of a gas-masked horse on the Capitol Hill Pride poster? What does that have to do with “pride”?
It has nothing to do with Pride. Pride has been co-opt’ed by others and is losing its point. I know the majority of the LGBTQ community doesn’t identify with it at all.
Pride celebrates diversity but I don’t support co-opted by others that want to use pride as a tool for their own agenda.
I think it’s supposed to be a reference to the CHOP protests last summer. Many of the protesters came out wearing gas masks because they were expecting to be tear gassed. Unicorns are gay symbolism so they are aligning the gay movement with the CHOP protesters.
I’m sure that I am not the only gay person who is unaware that the unicorn is “gay symbolism.”
Doesn’t anyone find it strange…? Instead of this article addressing what an incredibly clueless and insane idea it is to stage an event that charges entry based on skin color, this article now attacks two planners of another event who complained to this (so-called) Human Rights Commission? So people pointing out what a horrible racist looking idea that is, are called racist themselves. They scramble to apologize for their reasonable objection while everyone can’t run away from them fast enough- but still no coverage of what an extreme idea it is to charge only white people entry to the first event? Nobody thinks that’s awful? That’s the real sorry here, but yeah— it DOES require looking beyond the borders of Capitol Hill, so maybe that’s too much work?
Is the original (unspoken) idea to keep the first event overwhelmingly people of color, because you know it’ll alienate many otherwise supportive white people, who then won’t come? Because that’s most certainly what will happen. With the downtown Pride event not happening and replaced by a virtual event, the Black Pride event stands (or stood) to have huge showing. But now? Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I don’t find it strange because this blog has a consistent point of view that does not waver.
I’m sure there are plenty of supportive white people who are still willing to pay. That’s why they’re considered “supportive”, they’re willing to pay and don’t see it as an attack on their skin color.
For all the people complaining about Taking (B)lack Pride “charging” a fee for white to attend, you should read more about the event’s actual plans. It was a suggested donation and not mandatory. This is a common practice at community events of all kinds where one group is asked to contribute more and another is given a sliding scale option. This is what true equity looks like in action in a capitalist country.
We do this in my family for vacations so everyone in our very large family can attend and share rest together. Those that have more economic means pay a higher share of the cost and those who have less, pay less. Everyone participates equally but the financial burden is distributed in an equitable manner.
That’s fine if its a suggested donation. But that suggestion should be open to everyone. Not just whites.
I’m sorry, I love the vibrance and life that communities of color bring to our community. I am so sad for the struggles they have had. I want to empower them to live their best lives and live in happiness, safety and peace while experiencing the successes they deserve in life. BUT I don’t want them to backlash against the communities that are trying to support them as they are bearing themselves out of these situations.
They should be embracing other communities support. Not pushing away that support through reverse racism tactics.
I’m sorry but treat others how you want to be treated.
I’m sorry but the event was not organized for people like me and obviously you. Not for your entertainment or education. It is organized by and for the Black Trans folk.
You want to attend? STFU, listen and hear, pay the fee and be an ally. That is all.
Actually, there has been an educational element to any Pride event I’ve ever been to, with many booths from organizations handing out information to anyone who is interested. There is also an element of entertainment, and on the flyer for this event that’s made abundantly clear (live performances, Hoevid 19 Ball, dancing).
In the name of clarity, the event is for Black and brown trans folks, and I’d also make the leap that it’s really for trans folks of any marginalized color.
If it’s helpful at all, I usually find that having a meaningful conversation is the way to exchange ideas and thoughts with other people. Denigration and dismissal usually just ends up closing people’s hearts and ears.
Part of being a progressive is to not STFU when you encounter regressive ideas in your own neighborhood.
If they ever thought I’d be an “ally,” their racism killed that possibility.
Nah, I’m good. I don’t need to be where I’m not wanted.
No, that’s not how public discourse works. When you tell people they don’t have a voice you are practicing fascism.
ignorant racist is all you are
Why are you assuming that all white people have more money than all black and brown people? What if a low-income white trans person wants to attend?
Racist stereo types about POCs. I hate how fox news and right-wing media has been so successful at dividing us among racial lines it has infected regressive parts of the left. I wish we’d stop helping Tucker et. al. tear our communities apart.
They will have to pay the fee because they are white.
You’ve confused class with race. It’s amazing how effective Nixon’s Southern Strategy was and continues to be.
Please take a moment to read the events website: https://www.seattlepride.org/events/taking-black-pride it specifically states
“****All are free to attend HOWEVER this is a BLACK AND BROWN QUEER TRANS CENTERED, PRIORITIZED, VALUED, EVENT.
White allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY. ****
A few questions:
I’m confused as to why the word accomplices was used. Do they mean the friends I’d bring?
What if I’m from a mixed race family and look white? Do I need to bring some kind of proof I’m half black? No one is talking about how they would actually implement this.
How will the “sliding scale” be determined? By the clothes I wear? How I look, etc. etc.
What if I’m visiting from another country (like Canada) and am white am I still responsible for “reparations”?
Where did it say anything about income level? It says race and reparations so that black and brown people can attend.
You are being terribly disingenuous and excusing gross behavior.
The Whiteous Indignation in the comments is a whole parade of privilege. Go back to Puyallup or somewhere equally Red where you can be racists in peace.
Your comment is insensitive to members of the Puyallup tribe an indigenous community who live in the community you just trashed.
Ah, the siren call of the extreme leftists: “if you don’t discriminate against people based on skin color, you’re racist!” It’s a shame this isn’t actually a parody.
“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”
Maxims for Revolutions, G.B. Shaw (supplementary material in his play “Man and Superman”)
I needed pride this year, not for being white but for being gay. I also need representation as someone whose been spat on or beaten up or called a Faggot. I get told I’m a mistake or that I’d be better 6ft below. It’s just a race war at this point no one wants to love each other.
It’s heartbreaking that you’ve been made to feel that way. I’ve been in your shoes. Stay strong and rise above the hate as best you can.
Avoid these comments sections. They are toxic and not worth the negative energy.
Stay strong. You are loved and your life has value.
This is why the Left loses elections. We spend all of our time excessively moralizing, or forming firing squads to punish anyone who doesn’t meet an absurd standard of ideological purity. If the Republicans take back the House/Senate in 2022, despite having no agenda whatsoever, and despite having given us the 2 worst presidents in modern history, it’ll be because the Left is working tirelessly to be its own worst enemy.
If Republicans take back the House/Senate in 2022, it’s not going to be because of a POC/LGBT event on Capitol Hill. It’ll be because enough people in our country choose to support a political party, despite that party openly and blatantly demonstrating complete disregard for our county and its people.
Oh and voter suppression, mostly voter suppression.
I’m 63 years old and have been gay forever. Same-sex married since 2015, when the Supremes legalized us in every state. Plenty of Prides and marches, and a lot more at the individual level. Was a Seattle resident for two decades until 2017, when we moved to the WA State countryside after reading the handwriting on the wall in Seattle. I doubt I’ll ever attend a Pride again. We’ve been hijacked by far left-wingers who have grafted their causes onto our tribe. Racism against whites, anti-police. No thanks, kids.
When I first heard of the Black Pride and its ball which I could potentially experience, I was excited. FX’s Pose and HBO’s Legendary have exposed for me a unique, vibrant part of the queer community I didn’t know existed. I personally think the more exposure people have with each other, the better understanding can be created.
However, the organizers of Taking B(l)ack Pride chose to create an environment and situation where “whites and their accomplices” aren’t welcome unless they contribute to the $400 ball prizes. It’s unfortunate. On that alone I won’t be attending.
Had the organizers asked for donations I would have been more than willing to contribute but being labeled a criminal for simply being white or yellow since they emphasized the event “is a BLACK AND BROWN QUEER TRANS CENTERED, PRIORITIZED, VALUED, EVENT.” (That’s their capitalization not mine.)
The flack LeFevre and Lipson have received is disturbing as well. I admit I have no idea what their history is with Seattle Pride. Let’s just put it this way since I came home from abroad I haven’t been part of the scene because of the Seattle Freeze and not living on Capitol Hill. But to boycott something you committed to just because someone called out the hypocrisy and illegality of others actions is wrong. And yes, demanding an entrance fee to an event in a public park is illegal under Seattle law.
The Seattle HRC was ridiculous in its response in that it did not acknowledge the fact that the organizers of this event specifically called out “White allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY.” Those italiziced words along are incendiary cause it blankets several racial groups.
At the end of the day, when demanding that yourself and your community be acknowledged and included while at the same time specifically demanding something of others to the point of excluding them is not what the LGBTQ+ community needs. All you have to do is look at the present the organizers gave right wing media this week. I first heard of the reparations side of the event from a right wing news outlet on Facebook.
Circular firing squad? Go team!!
Every person using the phrase “reverse racism” in the comments is telling on themselves.
Oh good god. Seattle is so liberal that its divided liberals against liberals. And I’m saying that as a liberal. But I guess since I’m a white cis gay, I supposedly watch Fox News and have Tucker Carlson as my iPhone wallpaper. And apparently I only care about partying on a float with my shirt off and ignoring the foundational purpose and origins of pride celebrations, right? This city is so ridiculous. We have the woke army doing everything they can to excise anyone with less than socialist political views while our inept city council does nothing about pressing local issues like homelessness. I am all for safe community spaces and events for groups that have not been represented in past pride events, keep them coming. But if the community-at-large continues to divide itself with all this hostility, don’t we end up losing whatever power to impact change we might have otherwise had if we stuck together? FFS.
That the city chose to double down and wholeheartedly throw their support behind the Taking B(l)ack Pride event after the “white reparations fee” was publicized (Lorena Gonzalez, Brianna Thomas, Colleen Echohawk, et al.) is especially strange and incredibly curious. I feel like there was certainly a way to politic this that didn’t alienate either Pride event. This will undoubtedly be a watershed moment for the city when considering the upcoming election, for better or for worse.
I am no longer participating in Cap Hill Pride. Please update the map featured.
I find a lot of these comments downright horrifying. Are Capitol Hill’s supposed progressive whites really that dense? Look, if you don’t understand the concept of reparations and why they’re an essential part of true racial reconciliation then this event clearly isn’t for you. Just do something else. Why spend all this energy complaining? Even the top of the admission scale for Take B(l)ack Pride is less than one day’s admission to the so-called Capitol Hill Block Party, and no one I know of has ever gone running to right-wing media to scream about the injustice of that event (though maybe someone should).
If the concert lineup appeals to you and you want to attend, then why on earth would you not WANT to help support the musicians and other artists? Pay and be grateful that as a white person, you won the lottery — even if you consider yourself poor. Shame, shame, shame on Capitol Hill Pride and all their defenders here. Their clumsy attempt at damage control (“ensure equality for all”) demonstrates they still don’t get it –we whites have to start letting people of color tell us what THEY need to “ensure equality” and stop trying to decide it on our own. If this complaint is the consensus attitude of the white lesbian and gay community, I’m disappointed beyond words. PLEASE at least read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay “The Case for Reparations” (just google it). Thank you.
It’s way more horrifying to see people defending this. Discriminating based on race is wrong, period. And it will never lead to racial reconciliation, period. Because people not paralyzed by white guilt don’t like double standards, and it’s not wrong for them to feel that way.
Do something else? I will thanks. I don’t feel like being treated poorly at an event that they emphasize is not for me because of my skin color. You go along and have fun being told what a horrible person you are for having the wrong skin color. What they’re doing is not “equality,” it’s revenge. And revenge just begets more revenge, just like racism begets more racism.
Oh, and no, we are not supposed to just stand there dumbly and let any person with the right skin color tell us what to do. If you do that, then grifteers like Ta-nehisi Coates will manipulate you like puppets, and you’ll be too scared and submissive to say “No, you’re wrong.” Use your critical faculties and your thinking parts, and figure out which POCs should be listened to because they are good people, and don’t just listen to the ones that are loudest and nastiest, like you advocate. Just because someone is more offended than others doesn’t make them the voice of an entire race.
Utter nonsense, start to finish. I don’t feel one ounce of “white guilt” and no one else needs to either. What I feel (and you should too) is white gratitude — and a sense of responsibility to use the privileges and advantages my skin color affords me in ways that lift up other races and further the cause of equality, of which material reparations (on both the individual and governmental level) are an essential element in a country where the Black-white wealth gap is roughly 20 to one. If the legal equality achieved in the 1960s was going to fix that all by itself, surely it would have happened by now. By some measures inequality has actually gotten worse since then. We as white people have the economic, political and social power to fix this. People of color by themselves do not.
No one has ever once told me I’m a horrible person for being white. That’s a right-wing projection that bears no resemblance to any real-world dynamic. While I am unable to attend the Taking B(l)ack Pride event for health reasons, I have no doubt whatsoever that I would be welcome there. As would you, if you just pay the requested donation, act respectfully and not try to center your own resentments and grievances. They’d be happy to have you as an ally.
As for “discrimination,” I plead guilty and so should everyone. While race itself is a cultural construct, racial injustice is real and can’t be rectified without taking account of race in one’s dealings with others — meaning yes to reparations, yes to affirmative action, yes to set-asides in some cases, and, yes, understanding why it’s not always appropriate to complain to public authorities whenever people of color do something that makes you uncomfortable. People who react in the way Capitol Hill Pride has done are going to have a rough time indeed in the white-minority America of the very near future.
It’s odd that terms like “grifter” and “race hustler” are never used to describe white supremacists (or those Black pundits and politicians who really do get rich by absolving whites of all responsibility for racism or inequality). Those epithets only ever seem to apply to people like Coates (surely one of the most polite, measured and gracious advocates for justice today) who ask for means of racial redress that whites find inconvenient or expensive. Anyone else notice how strange that is?
Reparations is done through government. it has to be vetted and deliberate with clear guidelines of who qualify and the reparation process transparent.
You can’t just declare I’m going to charge everyone who is not BIOPIC by X amount today and call that reparations. First off who decides who qualifies as BIOPIC? And who doesn’t? Appearance alone doesn’t cut it. Does a new arrived BIOPIC immigrant qualifiers over an indigenous but white looking person? These aren’t silly questions or scenarios. These are things programs verifying who qualifies or not must wrestle with all the time.
This whole thing appears rushed and by design controversial.
I don’t doubt this will get picked up by news outlets and the usual suspects will be out spouting off one thing or the other. For the local community, what should be a joyful celebration has descended into division and righteousness.
Who decides who qualifies as “BIOPIC”? Well, in this case (and most others), presumably each individual does. But such self-identification has to be done in good faith, otherwise you’re just being a white supremacist troll no matter what you call yourself.
What a delusional take you have. You will lose this one in the end, but go on…
I am horrified at this Orwellian logic. Ta-Nehisi Coates makes thoughtful, cogent arguments for enacting a government policy of reparations at the federal level.
I missed the passage where he said that it’s OK to demand $50 payments from people in a public park because they’re not “brown enough.”
I won’t presume to put words into his mouth. Has anyone actually asked for his opinion on this matter?
Don’t even try to tell me you’ve never paid admission to a concert where certain people (children, seniors, vets, VIPs, friends of the band, etc.) didn’t get in for free or at a reduced price. Why is race any different?
Because of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It bars discrimination such as charging people a different price based on race.
I think you are confusing pricing for children, seniors and vets. When you use race or religious affiliation for example to differentiate pricing, it becomes discriminatory. Just as it would be against the law if a concert promoter decides to charge any non-white person more to attend the same venue than a white person.
You can ask for VOLUNTARY donation. But this isn’t reparation.
Yes, I’m well aware of what the law says and I realize that I could have asked that question with more context and finesse. If this forum allowed editing after posting I would have done so. But Rob said up front that they understood the need for reparations, so my intention was to ask them to consider why in their mind race was different from these other discriminatory categories that most of us seldom give a second thought to, let alone object to. Yes, what this group is doing is arguably illegal by a strict, literal reading of the law (if the donation isn’t actually voluntary in practice, the answer to which I don’t know). I’ll grant that. But for heaven’s sake, what Black people are owed amounts most likely to trillions of dollars in stolen wealth, the bulk of which still resides in the bank accounts and investment portfolios of white people who pass it down to their heirs with no moral qualms whatsoever. Whites who recognize this reality and yet defensively invoke black-letter law when asked to be good allies and kick in a lousy $20 strike me as remarkably un-self-aware and empathy-deficient, to say the least.
They literally say they’re charging people. On their own website. How do you not know whether charging is an appropriate way to describe… charging?
These comments make me question why I still live in Seattle, I can’t believe how many ignorant, white supremacist supporting assholes there are here. How does any white person have the gaul to even mildly claim discrimination. Please. You all are not better than the MAGA crowd.
When they’re discriminated against it’s probably pretty easy to muster up the Gaul to claim discrimination. That was pretty easy to imagine. Also, where do you suppose will be better than Seattle in that respect? There are many more points of view out there than your own, my friend. Maybe someday you’ll meet someone who disagrees with you, in some environment where you’re forced to talk to them like a fellow human being, and even you can admit that people are people. Fingers crossed.