When Black Excellence Goes Wrong

I'll take quality over quantity

What’s good for her isn’t necessarily what’s good for us. Photo by: Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Apologies for the click-baity title. But, hear me out: It’s how I truly feel.

Earlier today, I was minding my own business scrolling through Instagram. I came across a photo of Symone Sanders posted by The Root. She was looking amazing, as always. And if you know who she is, (you really should) you’re likely well versed in her ability to take down a conservative with her quick thinking, extreme intelligence and fierce persona.

Coming off the realization that Biden will probably not appoint any progressives to any cabinet or senior-staff-level positions, I was annoyed at the celebration of a woman who symbolizes identity politics and nothing more.

You see, while you may be familiar with Sanders as a talking head on CNN, where she serves as an analyst and commentator, she also worked for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. And in this election cycle, she nabbed a top spot in the Biden camp.

If you read this profile conducted by the New York Times on Sanders, you’ll learn why she made a jump from the long-term democratic socialist Bernie Sanders to the Anita Hill-grilling, I-got-along-with-segregationists former Vice President Joe Biden.

You guessed it: She wanted to make a name for herself.

At face value, there’s nothing wrong with that. That is, if you only care about people of color being placed in positions of power to signal change without really creating any. I mean, that’s what Obama was for, right?

As part of Biden and Harris’ all-female communications team, what will one of Sanders’ first duties be?

Will she have to explain:

• Why they appointed a republican to Biden’s cabinet and not any progressives?

• Why they gave a tiny amount of student loan debt relief (or none at all) when Biden can grant up to $50K in amnesty through executive order?

• Why did Biden promise that “nothing would fundamentally change” to the wall street bigwigs?

Yeah, it’s a big deal that Symone Sanders is at such a high level. Just like it’s a big deal that we have our first Black, Asian and female vice president. But what will they do with that power?

Will they spend the next four years padding their resume? Or will they create real, lasting change for the working class?

It’s a rhetorical question. We already know the answer.

As for Black excellence, please view (& follow) the true visionaries below:

Cori Bush @CoriBush

More than 50% of people in this country live paycheck to paycheck. More than 50% of Congressmembers are millionaires. Why the mismatch? Could it be that big money interests have too much influence in our politics? 🤔

November 29th 2020

3,881 Retweets28,996 Likes

Nina Turner @ninaturner

This type of thinking and lack of imagination is in fact the problem. .@davidsirota the limiting nature of the premise presented in this article constricts opportunities for Black people and other communities of color. SMDH hard!🙄😳🤔🤬

David Sirota @davidsirota

The New York Times just published an article insinuating that the government can only find qualified people of color on Wall Street, but not elsewhere https://t.co/1wmeGX85yf

November 20th 2020

111 Retweets587 Likes

BJG 👑 @briebriejoy

Falling in line and voting for Democrats doesn't make them respect progressives. The largest protest movement in history didn't do it. Neither did a massive health & economic crisis. We spoke to Boots Riley on @BadFaithPod about what might work. patreon.com/posts/44454940

November 30th 2020

323 Retweets1,842 Likes

Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN

It’s a no-brainer: Cancel it. Joe Biden’s First Presidential Test: The Student Loan CrisisRoughly two months out from Inauguration Day, Joe Biden is already facing a brewing political storm among his ideologically-diverse base of supporters, who disagree over…time.com

December 1st 2020

910 Retweets12,732 Likes