How does Trayon White still have a job?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-DCer here. Seriously, how is this guy still in office?

Oh, you're new here! We have a long history of being ok with local politicians being completely ape shit criminals, but as long as they're from the neighborhood, it's fine, and in fact a point of pride. We love Marion Berry but kicked out Adrian Fenty, our first white mayor.

In broad strokes, chocolate city is run by locals (read: black). The transient rich people (read: white) end up moving back to Ohio or to Bethesda, Silver Spring, etc. So politicans like Trayon don't get pushed out.

This is changing. I think my kids' generation will have a more diverse city council, since there are many types of kids growing up in DC now-- white, black, rich, poor. In my generation anyone who had any means (no matter your race) fled bc of the crack epedemic and riots. Now there are lots of reasons to stay in DC so people with choice stay here. But these changes are fraught around race, gentrification, education, all those fun things with no good answers. My family came over in the late 1800s and every generation since has lived in the DC border except my generation, the siblings and cousins born between 1975-1990 or so, due to what DC was going through. However, now we're back on this side of Western Ave w our kids and thriving. My parents neighborhood was Petworth.

I do not seen Trayon losing his spot on the DC Council. Maybe if kojo nnamdi starts calling for it-- he seems to be a good source of shaming that folks will listen to.

Do you know that the DC Council has a majority of white members (and that excludes the two Council Members named "White"). So much for the "locals" running the city being black. I have known Adrian Fenty for a long time and never once heard him describe himself as white. Kojo Nnamdi has little influence in Ward 8. If anything, being attacked by Kojo would make White more popular to his constituents.

Adrian Fenty is not white. Adrian Fenty did some good things but he hired an inept education chancellor and he deserved to be voted out. He was a tone deaf mayor.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:To Jeff's post above: Two wrongs don't make a right. As someone belonging to a minority community, I am appalled at White's behavior, when you fight for rights and equality you are fighting for all minorities not just some cherry picked ones. The message he is sending is that racism is okay if it's done by black people but the other way around is unacceptable. Can you get more hypocritical than that?

That is neither my point nor White's message. I was responding to someone suggesting that if a white person acted in a manner similar to White, there would be millions of people protesting. I provided an example in which a white mayor acted like Council Member White and there are no such protests.

Second, White has not been claiming that his anti-Semitism was acceptable. To the contrary, he first pled ignorance that his remarks were anti-Semitic, apologized repeatedly, and took steps to educate himself and built bridges to the Jewish community.

For the record, I have advocated for White's resignation from the minute I first heard that he believed in a conspiracy to control the weather. But, he should be opposed on factual grounds, not misstated ones as you are doing.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-DCer here. Seriously, how is this guy still in office?

Because he's an elected official, and can't simply be fired. He either has to resign, which he's not going to do, or be removed from office, which isn't easily accomplished.

Did I really need to explain that?

Non-DCer here. No, you don’t. That said, if a white politician suggested a photo depicting african-Americans picking cotton demonstrates happy, rural life, there’d be a million people on the mall demanding his/her ouster. Just wondering why the rules seem different here ...

Not necessarily true. Take this recent example of a less-than-astute public official:

http://www.wbbjtv.com/2018/04/18/investigators-look-racial-slurs-spray-painted-familys-home/http://www.wbbjtv.com/2018/04/18/investigators-look-racial-slurs-spray-painted-familys-home/

After experiencing many acts of discrimination culminating in racial slurs being painted on their house, a family moved out. They town mayor's reaction?

"That’s a pretty building, and it’s right on the corner there in the downtown area, and I was just more concerned with getting the paint off the building than I was anything else," said Mayor Casey Burnett of Friendship.

Mayor Burnett says he was one of the first people to see the graffiti, but he says he doesn’t consider it to be a hate crime.

"It did have a little bit of a racial slur to it, but we’re not a racial community at all," said the mayor...

I haven't been down to the Mall today, but I haven't heard any reports of a million people gathering there. So, I think your analysis is a bit off.

So what's your point? That there are stupid, insensitive local officials in small towns and other places? Of course, there are. But we don't live in Bumblestuck, TN, but rather the Nation's Capital, one of the largest, most diverse cities in the U.S. where I think we have the right to expect more and better from our officials than in Bumblestuck. I'd rather that DC aspire to be like Portland rather than Bumblestuck or Bamaville.

I agree with you, but you missed my actual point. There are stupid officials everywhere. Not everyone of their stupid actions gets protested. The poster to whom I was replied stated that a white politician acting like Trayon White would provoke millions of people to protest. My example was to show that that poster was wrong. I fully agree that DC residents can and should protest White. I don't agree that he needs to be a national issue. He is a marginal DC Council Member, less powerful than a small-town mayor. We should keep perspective.

[Anonymous]

I think Trayon White is really, really stupid and I've said that publicly. But the reality is that Ward 8 can choose whomever they want to represent them and the more that middle and upper class residents from other wards condemn him, the more likely it is that Ward 8 voters will support him. We've seen this before.

And it's their right to do that. Stop getting so bent out of shape and playing the victim because the guy's in office. Or move to Ward 8 and vote against him. But seriously stop hyperventilating.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations, Trayon. Your field trip made the international press. Granted, the Daily Mail isn't the Guardian, but it probably gets a lot more eyeballs. Now it's not just DC, but rather the world which knows that you're a bigoted fool!

One of the better lines, quoting New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait tweet about the visit: 'Free advice for any pol who has to visit the Holocaust Museum to prove he's not anti-Semitic: Just assume the Nazis are the bad guys in all the exhibits.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5639079/Councilman-defends-Nazis-Holocaust-Museum-outrage-Jews-control-weather-conspiracy.html#ixzz5DERQPR9v

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Trayon White is really, really stupid and I've said that publicly. But the reality is that Ward 8 can choose whomever they want to represent them and the more that middle and upper class residents from other wards condemn him, the more likely it is that Ward 8 voters will support him. We've seen this before.

And it's their right to do that. Stop getting so bent out of shape and playing the victim because the guy's in office. Or move to Ward 8 and vote against him. But seriously stop hyperventilating.

That's so true. Ward 8 kept re-electing another bigoted fool for years and years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Adrian Fenty is not white.

Geneologically, Adrian Fenty has as much claim to being white as black since his mother is white. You could even say that Fenty is likely more white than black because his father probably had some white ancestors like most blacks in the Americas. It is only the weirdness of the one drop rule, that makes him black. Race is a social construct and not a matter of lineage.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately Trayon White and his aids appear to be completely in the dark about the Holocaust or are just too dim to understand that such an atrocity occurred to a group of people that White appears to detest. The questions that were asked during the tour demonstrate the idiocy of White and his staff. He ought to be embarassed. You would think that he would have read up on the Holocaust to educate himself a bit after his last debacle. Obviously that would be asking too much and, quite honestly, maybe the guy doesn't know how to read. He seems to get his education from YouTube videos.
This is disgusting beyond words. This guy is beyond hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Trayon White is really, really stupid and I've said that publicly. But the reality is that Ward 8 can choose whomever they want to represent them and the more that middle and upper class residents from other wards condemn him, the more likely it is that Ward 8 voters will support him. We've seen this before.

And it's their right to do that. Stop getting so bent out of shape and playing the victim because the guy's in office. Or move to Ward 8 and vote against him. But seriously stop hyperventilating.

That's so true. Ward 8 kept re-electing another bigoted fool for years and years.

And?

[Anonymous]

Very sad, he is dumb as rocks. Are his parents still living? Wonder what they think of him.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To Jeff's post above: Two wrongs don't make a right. As someone belonging to a minority community, I am appalled at White's behavior, when you fight for rights and equality you are fighting for all minorities not just some cherry picked ones. The message he is sending is that racism is okay if it's done by black people but the other way around is unacceptable. Can you get more hypocritical than that?

That is neither my point nor White's message. I was responding to someone suggesting that if a white person acted in a manner similar to White, there would be millions of people protesting. I provided an example in which a white mayor acted like Council Member White and there are no such protests.

Second, White has not been claiming that his anti-Semitism was acceptable. To the contrary, he first pled ignorance that his remarks were anti-Semitic, apologized repeatedly, and took steps to educate himself and built bridges to the Jewish community.

For the record, I have advocated for White's resignation from the minute I first heard that he believed in a conspiracy to control the weather. But, he should be opposed on factual grounds, not misstated ones as you are doing.

But these comments were equally ignorant, he doubled down on them after the docent replied, and then he walked out of the event designed to educate him on why his interpretation was wrong.

Do you really think it would be OK for a Jewish politician to say anything similar about exhibits about the conditions of slavery in the new African-American Smithsonian Museum and then walk out midway through the tour? Or would we all be pretty clear there was racism behind the refusal to understand what the person was looking at, and the refusal to stay long enough to confront any discomfort the exhibit might be causing?

Attending a seder is like attending a black church service; there's nothing uncomfortable there. It's just a big hug and thank-you-for-coming.

[Anonymous]

Aside from White not knowing Jewish history, he must not know his own. The Jewish community has been deeply embedded in civil rights IN DC since the start. SNCC under Marion Barry was headquartered at a synagogue! To pretend like all minority groups aren't responsible for our mutual progress - and frankly safety in the day and age of Charlottesvill - is also ignorant, and I hope his constituents elect someone who can better serve them.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To Jeff's post above: Two wrongs don't make a right. As someone belonging to a minority community, I am appalled at White's behavior, when you fight for rights and equality you are fighting for all minorities not just some cherry picked ones. The message he is sending is that racism is okay if it's done by black people but the other way around is unacceptable. Can you get more hypocritical than that?

That is neither my point nor White's message. I was responding to someone suggesting that if a white person acted in a manner similar to White, there would be millions of people protesting. I provided an example in which a white mayor acted like Council Member White and there are no such protests.

Second, White has not been claiming that his anti-Semitism was acceptable. To the contrary, he first pled ignorance that his remarks were anti-Semitic, apologized repeatedly, and took steps to educate himself and built bridges to the Jewish community.

For the record, I have advocated for White's resignation from the minute I first heard that he believed in a conspiracy to control the weather. But, he should be opposed on factual grounds, not misstated ones as you are doing.

But these comments were equally ignorant, he doubled down on them after the docent replied, and then he walked out of the event designed to educate him on why his interpretation was wrong.

Do you really think it would be OK for a Jewish politician to say anything similar about exhibits about the conditions of slavery in the new African-American Smithsonian Museum and then walk out midway through the tour? Or would we all be pretty clear there was racism behind the refusal to understand what the person was looking at, and the refusal to stay long enough to confront any discomfort the exhibit might be causing?

Attending a seder is like attending a black church service; there's nothing uncomfortable there. It's just a big hug and thank-you-for-coming.

I was responding to the allegation that White was saying that "racism is okay if it's done by black people". Someone sending that message would not apologize for his remarks, would not attend seders, would not visit the Holocaust Museum, etc. Your argument is that his response has not been satisfactory or sufficient or, perhaps, is not heart-felt. That is a different discussion.

You and other posters seem hung up on White being treated with some sort of double standard. I have a hard time seeing how that is the case. Politicians take anti-black actions every day of the week and don't suffer any consequences. I provided one example earlier in this thread. That is not to mention the anti-Muslim activities that many politicians not only don't get punished for, but are rewarded.

I never said it was okay for White to walk out of his tour. I'm not sure why you think I believe such a thing. I also wouldn't think that it would be okay for a Jewish politician to walk out of a tour of the National Museum of African American History & Culture. But, if that Jewish politician represented a district that was almost entirely Jewish, I don't think he would suffer any consequences either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of you know anything about Ward 8. If you did, you'd know Trayon has been a community activist and organizer for almost 20 years.

That's why he was elected, that's why he'll be reelected, and that's why he deserves to be a councilman. Because he's been busting his hump for his neighbors to try and make Ward 8 a better place for the people who live there since he was 20.


I've been familiar with and watched Trayon White from a modest distance for my entire career as a journalist in DC. There are very few people his age who have given more of themselves to DC. He reminds me very much of the young, idealistic Marion Barry of the late 70's.

The fact that he doesn't conform to your white-biased standards of opinion, manner and conduct with regards to topics relevant to white people, is meaningless.

So what if he's less than informed about or even casually indifferent to the Holocaust? That's not his struggle. Black people endured their own holocaust, and some still are enduring it in many ways. That's what Trayon White cares about.

Seeking your approval is pointless to him. As it should be.

What you just said is horribly racist. Would you be OK with white people saying, "so what if we're indifferent to slavery? It's wasn't our struggle. As long as we have people in office who care about white people, that's all that matters."

[Anonymous]

But black folks outside his district would *rightly* call for that Jewish politician's ouster.

That's what's happening here. White is likely to suffer no professional consequences, but other people are saying he ought to go.

I don't care if he goes or stays. I have lost faith in politics over the last year or so, and presume that people elect the people that make them feel the best, not the people who will actually do good work in the world.

I also think he is an indicator of high levels of anti-semitism in the black community. This has been a discouraging couple of years to be Jewish in the US, and this is just more of the same. I get it; Jews are privileged. Anti-semitism in the US is no big deal, especially when embraced by underprivileged groups. Only, I don't really believe that.