Recently there was an election for a ward city council seat which made a run off necessary. Not being from that ward, but interested in city politics, I, like most people in the wider city and, sadly, in the ward itself, did pay some attention to the two candidates and saw that, other than a few differences it seemed six of one half a dozen of the other so, either way, neither would be all that bad for the ward in which I do not live.
After what could be seen as an average campaign during which both candidates dealt with issues important to their ward, during the last week or two before the run-off election it was found that between 2019-2021, one candidate had shared memes and tweets that were offensive to women and the GLBT community with one specifically being immaturely anti-Trans and showed a middle school understanding of what Transgender is and an accompanying, giddy approach to all things gender and sex related.
These went against the image he had been presenting as an open minded and inclusive candidate.
The information was released by a political activist organization that had publicly endorsed the other candidate.
I have seen this before, an organization using a group of people to promote their agenda, in this case a candidate, so a serious concern for a group is merely a means to an end that can be mislabelled as political, thus reducing the importance of the actual issue and replacing it with a distraction.
The candidate with bad judgment won, and using the Gay Community as a tool peaked.
For their part, using social media and word of mouth, students spread the plan for students to leave their classes after fourth period on a given day to protest against the newly elected city councilor.
The high school is in his ward.
Toward the end of the protest, the councilor eventually came to talk to the students, and when they met, he explained his actions in the blind way dismissive and uninformed people often do. The memes and jokes were okay to pass on because even though he knows Trans and other non-heterosexual students are under attack, either directly by laws or indirectly by having sources of information denied in schools, he did not see them as anything more than funny, even stating he was unsure of the joke in one and, without taking that into consideration and seeing how marginalized these students are treated by people who should be more understanding, he posted not sure of what message he was sending and chose to not err on the side of caution, I a sure accompanied by when sending and being read after receiving a middle school grade level of maturity Ga-snort. His posts and tweets may be three years old, but even in 2019 before the ant-Trans obsession began to peak with MAGA and the GOP’s desperate attempt to appear to have solutions for the country’s ills and have what is best for the people at heart, his passing these on was was disrespectfully dismissive of some of his constituents and shows extremely poor judgment for someone seeking a position based on the requirement for good judgment..
When I draw cartoons I am careful to make sure something I might see as a funny characterization, though neutral to me, does not include something that is not so for any group of people.
His simple explanation that the posts “weren’t anything meant to be hurtful” and a promise to release a statement, that I assume will be an apology, fell flat.
The mayor released a statement the morning of the walk out stating,
“I have reviewed the crude images posted on Facebook by City Councillor-elect Shawn Oliver that purport to comment on transgender rights. I want to make clear that I categorically condemn the postings. Coming from an individual who is about to assume public office, they are especially abhorrent.”
And further,
“New Bedford has long distinguished itself as a city that honors and protects the rights of all of its residents, and the messages conveyed by the postings are antithetical to our core values. No matter how long ago the postings appeared, it is imperative that the councilor-elect repudiate them. The residents of the city and particularly Ward 3 need to be confident that he is committed to serving everyone.”
Some local politicians showed their support by attending the protest.
That evening at the City Council chamber where he was sworn in with some student protesters standing silently in the room while others gathered noisily outside, the new City Councilor commended the students on a peaceful protest, and said he hopes his term will bring “bring back a sense of community” to New Bedford, and “combat division of all types.”
And that is what the students should hold him to.
Although the protest was student initiated and run, there were media comments made that the students did not know or even perceive they were being marginalized, because it does not happen, until adults connected to politically motivated organizations told them they were and only then acted because the adults goaded them on.
This is based on the assumptions that either Gay students are somehow comatose and are unaware of their realities or do not think as individuals but, like MAGA Republicans, will only act when told to. And how.
Rev. Donnie Anderson, minister of the Pilgrim United Church in New Bedford, also present at the swearing in, told the council member that he needed to apologize to the students and,
“Tell them they are worthy and they are legitimate.”
This was not some giddy gathering that was the excuse for students to leave class in droves and then go off to do their thing, as the students not only protested, but had a list of demands.
1. The New Bedford Public School administrators and the New Bedford Police Department must not impede on our right to peacefully protest. Keep your distance from protesters.
2. Every elected official in our city must individually explain why they chose silence over hate.
3. Every elected official must individually condemn Shawn Oliver’s social media posts.
4. Every elected official must condemn hate and violence towards women, LGBTQ, and BIPOC communities.
5. As a leader of our schools, Superintendent Thomas Anderson must adhere to:
- He also must condemn Shawn Oliver’s social media posts and explain why he was silent when the New Bedford Police Union supported hate which trickles down to students.
- Remove SROs (Student Resource Officers. Police on campus) out of our schools. If the New Bedford Police Union and police officers can endorse hate, are LGBTQ students and girls/women safe?
- The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network must make a public statement and explain why they were silent.”
They called out the silence, and in the History of what the students might call the Queer Community, we saw that, indeed, Silence=Death.
Although the explanation to the last is that tax status prohibits political comment, there could have been a condemnation of the memes’ content without addressing anything political especially in my years of activism even Gay students and their existence and needs was considered a political issue.
It is good to see that students are demanding that the remarginalizing stop as should the erasure of past progress for the sake of political and religious agendas.
My fear, however, and one based on experience big time, is that those who thrive on political issues, while claiming to be allies, will attempt to tell these young members of our community what they want and need, and how best to get it, ignoring realities in order to win political points while the students want to live their lives safely and freely.
Allies must remember they are there to help, not direct.
And, as there is an election winner/loser dynamic with the organization who revealed the offending posts having also endorsed the other candidate, while the students are fighting for what should already be theirs as they have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, there will be the temptation to use this as a way to protest the election with false equivalencies being made to the removal of George Santos from Congress. However, in this case , unlike in George’s where the hidden offenses only came out after the election, the councilman was elected after the memes were made public.
It would be using the GLBT Community, and abusing the students using them as the thugs rushing the capital to demand “the steal” be stopped, confusing what the students want with some call to negate a legitimate election because the winner wasn’t your choice.
Rather, with the guidance given by whoever it might be that the students trust enough to want their guidance, the students should now monitor this city council member to hold him to whatever in his follow up statement might be an attempt at a non-apology, and hold all those they included in their demands to act properly in the future, calling any on their failure to do so whenever they fail.
Most importantly as the students recognized the low voter turnout, they also need to question family and friends if they did not vote and ask why they didn’t, especially when they knew about the posts of the guy who won and how their posting can sour the students’ school experience. This, of course, will call on getting people to register to vote and then getting to the polls after ongoing voter registration and issue coverage and will be on-going, not just a high adrenaline one time exciting moment.
The students saw what happens if you assume people will vote the right way only to find the assumption was wrong and education must replace it.
Students now know the councilman can be held to his word that he intends to “bring back a sense of community” to New Bedford, and “combat division of all types” and should be.
And, the students should loudly call out any failures to do so or attempts to avoid doing as so publicly promised.
Allies need to know their role.
There will be no plaques.
Just results.
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