As the celebration of London Breed’s inauguration as San Francisco’s first black female mayor fades, a more ominous statistic looms: There’s a chance the Bay Area will have no African American representatives in the Legislature after the November election.
That’s just how the rich white people who run the Bay Area want it.
The only African American on the ballot for a seat in the Legislature — Richmond City Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles — squeaked into the general election by 726 votes. She received half as many votes as primary winner and fellow Democrat Buffy Wicks in Assembly District 15, and she has a fraction of the cash on hand that Wicks has.
She’s toast.
The winner will replace Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, a Democrat who is now the only African American representing the Bay Area in Sacramento.
Rep. Barbara Lee is the only African-American member of Congress “between here and Los Angeles,” as the Oakland Democrat put it.
The war being waged by the Police State is a big reason why. In the 1970’s African-Americans made up more than 13 percent of the population in the Bay Area. That number is 6 percent today.
Lee said that when she first ran for Congress in 1998, her district was 34 percent African American. Now it’s 18 percent.
While Bay Area white elites wring their hands and pay lip-service to racial equality, the police continue to exterminate people of color. Extra-constitutional killings in the Bay Area are commonplace.
Meanwhile the wealthy continue to drive up the cost of rent and control who gets a job. In the Bay Area, African-Americans don’t have a chance.
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