On Donna Brazile: I Think I Get It...

While the timing is undoubtedly horrible in light of pending elections on Tuesday and on the heels of long awaited indictments in the trump/Russia fiasco, I think I get why Donna Brazile penned her memoir. There is something to be said about Blacks in power, especially Black Women. No matter how fancy our title, whatever our pedigree, abundance of degrees, experience or our position of authority, one is left to question is our power as Black executives real or imagined, respected or tolerated, legitimate or for show and if we exert our authority, are there consequences?

I am guessing that a party which has documented complaints of feeling taken for granted and disrespected from what is likely their largest constituent base, Black voters, specifically Black Women, without whom no Democrat can win a national election, that a Black woman at the top of that party might have caught hell along the way, even while at the top. It is also quite likely that Ms. Brazile may just have had her fill and took to the keyboard out of despair or frustration. I'm Just Guessing...

Donna Brazile is a well known and respected Black woman political strategist who has been an active and loyal Democrat for decades. She is celebrated as a woman who has worked her way up the ladder and held some very prestigious positions along the way. She is noted for having worked on every presidential campaign between 1976 and 2000 when she became the first Black American woman to manage a presidential campaign for a major political party. Who will ever forget Al Gore and the infamous hanging chads (2000)? So it seems fair to assume that she knows her stuff, who are the key players and how the Democratic game of politics is played. It seems safe to assume too that she knows where the proverbial bodies lie and that she has paid her dues.

There are two things however, that I know for sure; (1) the Democratic party is under fire by Black [women] voters and (2) it ain't no bed of roses for most Black folks in the work place, especially Black women but specifically, Blacks in leadership positions. Given that Ms. Brazile meets both of these parameters, it seems pretty credible that her experience as a Black Woman In Charge (BWIC) was not much different than that of other Blacks who similarly hold positions of authority in their place of employment where they too are a minority in charge. Ms. Brazile faced the double whammy in that she is Black and female.

While nothing about Ms. Brazile suggests that she can't handle herself, I imagine that she, like other BWIC's in the workplace, over the years, has probably seen or questioned seemingly unfair practices that happened to other minorities and women in the work place. Sometimes she might have held her tongue, at least publicly, for the sake of the party, so not to be labeled [an angry Black woman], to get along, because..., because..., because..., that's what we do. We take the high road, vent amongst ourselves and usually internalize our displeasure for what might be a variety of reasons, mostly to keep our positions or at least a steady pay check, sometimes to avoid the assignment of a stereotype or simply to be seen as a team player. There are a myriad of reasons but working while Black can be a tightrope walk for sure.

In May 2017 Black women penned an open letter to the head of the DNC, Tom Perez,  offering
specifics to support being neglected and/or unappreciated by a party to which we are staunchly loyal. Black women overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party for  both elections of President Obama, and again we showed up for the 2016 presidential election voting for Hillary Clinton to the tune of 94%; a margin greater than any other constituent group. It does not seem therefore, such a leap to surmise that if Black female voters are having these feelings of rejection and despair from the Democrats as an organization, then it is likely that the BWIC is also feeling or being similarly disrespected or marginalized, despite her position of power at the top. Democrats as an employer are part of the larger society, therefore plagued with systemic issues indistinguishable from that of the larger society and/or other employers. Donna was not immune.

I have not yet read the soon to be released book, Hacks, The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House, but I have pre-ordered a copy and have read excerpts from various sources on the internet. From reading the excerpts, I suspect that Ms. Brazile in her most recent position with the DNC did not feel respected as a woman of authority, a woman of color, nor perhaps as a woman of age or maybe just as a woman. She describes a situation in which she proclaims to three senior male staffers, that she is not "Patsey the Slave", a voiceless, brutally tortured female character in the hit movie, 12 Years a Slave. She speaks of a young man of 30 seemingly tolerating, disrespecting and dismissing her as a "senile old auntie" interested only in his rise to the top. Sadly, this was true too of and maybe reinforced during the Obama campaigns. Ms. Brazile offers descriptive narrative of how she felt when a White female subordinate, who took to Twitter to defend herself, openly challenged her authority. She tells her reader that it was not until February, four months after close of the election, when she finally heard from Hillary Clinton, the woman for whom she has presumably just worked to get elected.This is akin to the boss who needed to have called the employee long before then to say something...

Often when I see Blacks in positions where they can effectuate change yet I fail to see change, I ponder what is the problem. Is it is because when we [Blacks] have these positions of "power" we are mere figureheads or window dressings of diversity, expected to tow the line, know "our place" and who in actuality have no real power? Or is the problem that often we aren't comfortable or don't feel supported enough in our position of power to confidently exert our newfound authority to effectuate change and if so, why is that? What is the message that has been sent to those who drink the Kool-aid and who take their right to assume and exert authority seriously? How many are driven, as I suspect was Ms. Brazile when this time she stepped up to save the party and fill the shoes of her failed White female predecessor, to step outside the box and make their displeasure heard, much less memorialize it?

Ms. Brazile has been a party loyalist and for that she is due our consideration. If my theory is correct, and like, Fannie Lou Hamer, she just got 'sick and tired of being sick tired', who among us does not recall a time when we have felt disrespected and dis-empowered in the work place? She is catching hell right now in the sphere of public opinion, largely because of the timing of her release. I get that too. She, however, can handle it and will soon be on tour promoting her book and making her case. I support and will tune in to hear because she has earned and deserves as much. I will not join ranks and simply on queue and without question, throw her under the bus at the beckoning of those who prefer that she not speak her truth, air our dirty laundry, or tell our secrets; not now or ever. Nor will I respond to the beckoning of those who prefer that she not hold a mirror to the face of the "liberal and progressive" party that seemingly does not hear Black women nor want to see it's own reflection. If the Dems need to do some soul searching or housecleaning, now is as good a time as any. Can they hear us now? I'm Just Wonderin'... 

Ms. Brazile has been in the game and respected for far too long to be so easily dismissed. Nothing about her record suggests that she would do anything deliberate to derail or harm the party and certainly nothing to prolong trump's occupation of the white house. I plan to listen to what she has to say because I think I get it. I urge those who share any part of her experience or who know what I presume to be her truth, to hear her out because you too, just might get it...