Uncomfortable With Coalition
I came up politically following women like Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. She famously said, “Your coalition is not your home.” Dr. Reagon said, in the 1983 address, Coalition Politics: Turning the Century:
“You don’t go into coalition because you like it. The only reason you would consider trying to team up with somebody who could possibly kill you is, because that it is the only way you can figure that you can stay alive. “
“There is nowhere you can go and only be with people like you. It’s over. Give it up.”
Internalizing these lessons helped me accept a wide range of differences within my political coalitions. However, I draw the line at white supremacism groups and their flags. Public flying of the Confederate flag or the Third Reich Nazi flag is intentionally provocative.
Does your coalition speak for you?
This week, an ally of mine sent me a message about a local elected official posting a photograph of himself at a Pro-Palestinian rally. The goal of the rally: Call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Call for aid to civilians in Gaza.
My ally wrote:
“Did you see the image Councilor B__ posted on Twitter with a swastika in it?”
I took a look through the Councilor’s feed. Yes, there was a post where some other protestor had a placard featuring the Third Reich Nazi symbol. The sign was not held by the Councilor or anyone in his immediate group. (Side note. I have begun to refer to the Nazi Swastika as “Third Reich Nazi flag” or “Third Reich Nazi symbol” to distinguish it from the sacred Hindu symbol.)
Once I found comment on the Councilor’s post with the Third Reich Nazi symbol circled, I answered my ally:
“The sign is a half block away… [I] don’t hold him responsible for every yahoo at the rally with him.”
The Councilor is not responsible for everyone at the rally. They are in his coalition; they are not him. However, he failed to live up to the statement he was making on X that day. He wrote:
This weekend, I stood with hundreds of thousands of comrades for the largest pro-Palestine march in U.S. history! In doing so, I affirmed the eternal truths that bombs cannot make peace & that every life is sacred. I stand with…
If he affirms “eternal truths that bombs cannot make peace & that every life is sacred,” then he is responsible to call out the member of his coalition who is supporting a regime that killed 13 million civilians.
Instead of affirming that every life is sacred, the Councilor entirely ignored the comment showing the Third Reich Nazi symbol in the photo. That silence is complicity, just like the silence of anyone who stands by and does not condemn the flying of a Confederate flag.
Here are some better things he could have done, in order of moral fortitude, least first:
- Crop the photo to remove the symbol.
- Give the commenter the respect of an answer. Any answer.
- Give the commenter the respect of an answer. Reply with a comment denouncing white supremacist Nazi genocide.
- Crop the photo to remove the symbol and reply with a comment denouncing white supremacist Nazi genocide.
- Crop the photo to remove the symbol and reply with a comment denouncing white supremacist Nazi genocide. Acknowledge that Jews were specifically targeted in that genocide.
- Crop the photo to remove the symbol and reply with a comment denouncing white supremacist Nazi genocide. Acknowledge that Jews were specifically targeted in that genocide. Acknowledge that any ceasefire and peace agreement must support the sacred lives of Palestinians and of Israelis.
- Crop the photo to remove the symbol and reply with a comment denouncing white supremacist Nazi genocide. Acknowledge that Jews were specifically targeted in that genocide. Acknowledge that Hamas calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, with no regard for the lives of people who live there. Express concern for this barrier to a peaceful solution.
My City Councilor did none of these things (as of November 12, 2023).
I don’t fault him for attending the rally. I don’t fault him for posing for the picture. I don’t fault his statement about the need to respect life. As an elected official, however, he should send clearer messages about who he does and who he does not consider an ally whose goals he supports.