Six African-American staffers from Elizabeth Warren’s Nevada campaign have resigned. They accused the campaign of “tokenism” and racial insensitivity, and claimed that their work environment was “toxic.”
There are two possibilities here. The first is that the allegations are true. Warren wouldn’t be the first liberal to treat African-Americans as tokens or, indeed, affirmatively to mistreat them. And even if Warren herself doesn’t discriminate against African-American staff members, it’s certainly possible that those who help run her campaign do.
The second possibility is that the allegations are BS. These six staffers wouldn’t be the first employees to play the race card without justification.
Naturally, I don’t know which scenario is accurate. However, the allegations set forth in this Politico article are unimpressive. They leave me leaning towards the BS scenario.
There is this from a field organizer:
During the time I was employed with Nevada for Warren, there was definitely something wrong with the culture. I filed a complaint with HR, but the follow-up I received left me feeling as though I needed to make myself smaller or change who I was to fit into the office culture.
The subjective feeling by an African-American that she doesn’t fit into an office culture doesn’t mean the culture is racist.
Another field organizer said:
I felt like a problem — like I was there to literally bring color into the space but not the knowledge and voice that comes with it. We all were routinely silenced and not given a meaningful chance on the campaign.
Not being treated as having as much knowledge or importance as one thinks one possesses isn’t necessarily racist. Many employees of all races think they are smarter and more important than their bosses do.
A third employee echoed the second. The other three did not respond when Politico asked them to comment.
What I find significant about this story is Warren’s reaction to the allegations. She stated:
You know, I believe these women without any equivocation, and I apologize personally that they had a bad experience on the campaign.
Note that the six women aren’t just saying that they had a bad experience working for Warren’s campaign. They are saying they had a bad experience because they are black. They are accusing the campaign of racism. And Warren says she believes this “without any equivocation.”
Why does Warren believe that her Nevada campaign mistreated the women because of their race? Did she investigate? Is she adopting a variation of the “always believe the women” mantra that infects feminists’ responses to claims of male sexual misconduct? Or is she simply throwing the leadership of her Nevada campaign under the bus as a matter of political expediency?
I think it’s the mantra in service of expediency. Pathetic.
But Warren wasn’t done:
I really work hard to try to build a campaign and a work environment where it’s diverse and open and everyone is welcomed and celebrated and gets to bring their whole self to work every day.
But I’m also very aware that racism and oppression in this country have left a long legacy, and it creates the kind of toxicity where people, power structures, people take advantage of other people, it’s something for which we have to be constantly vigilant and constantly determined to do better.
“I take responsibility for this,” Warren added, as she shifted responsibility to our country’s “long legacy” of “racism and oppression.”
Warren isn’t just a slave of political correctness, she’s also a weasel. Fortunately, her prospects for the nomination are fading and may fade more quickly in the aftermath of the Nevada resignations.
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