Stop doing the blacks 'favors'

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There used to be a saying Black people employed to sarcastically acknowledge underwhelming acts of generosity:

"That's mighty white of you."

America, meet Gavin Newsom.

It was mighty white of Newsom, the governor of California, to appoint a Black woman to finish the term of the Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last month at the age of 90.

Feinstein, a pioneering political figure who paved the way for generations of women during her 30-plus years in the U.S. Senate, was laid to rest last week at a San Francisco funeral that featured a host of women who had followed in her footsteps.

"I was born in the early '70s, so as a kid as far as I could remember Dianne Feinstein was the mayor," said the city's current mayor, London Breed. "And for kids my age, we just always accepted that a woman could be in charge. That a woman could do whatever a man could do. We considered it normal. Millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes our grandmothers wore because Dianne Feinstein wrestled them off."

Newsom had promised to appoint a Black woman to the seat, and he made good on his promise, but there was still something wrong about the process.

The promise had conditions, and the conditions were unreasonable.

Feinstein was planning to retire when her term ended in 2025, and the race was already on to replace her. After she died on Sept. 29, Newsom said he would not appoint a candidate whose hat was already in the ring. He said he didn't want to tip the scales

That ruled out Rep. Barbara Lee, 71, the only Black woman in the race.

Newsom instead appointed Laphonza Butler, a relatively unknown Democratic strategist and union leader. Butler made her own history as the first openly lesbian Black senator.

Lee and her supporters said they felt betrayed.

"The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election," Lee had said in a statement before the appointment.

The brouhaha began in 2020, when Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, was elected as the first Black vice president in U.S. history.

Instead of appointing a Black woman to replace her, Newsom selected Alex Padilla as California's first Latino U.S. senator.

Blacks in California were disappointed.

"This is our seat," said Shirley Weber, a California assemblywoman at the time. "We have fought to get the seat, and there was a reason why we fought for the seat. And we should not have to justify it."

First of all, they need to stop it with this "our seat" nonsense.

California, like every other state in the nation, has two Senate seats. Until Butler's appointment, Harris was, sadly, only the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

But if we start — or continue to maintain — racial claims to U.S. Senate seats, we will find ourselves on dangerous political ground.

Newsom, who is seen in some circles as a viable alternative to President Joe Biden in 2024, should never have excluded candidates for the seat from the appointment.

He also should have never promised to appoint a Black woman to the post.

It's not rocket science. It's not even regular science. If Newsom wanted to appoint a Black woman, then he should have just appointed a Black woman. No questions. No conditions.

But since Newsom is dishing out favors, here's one more we should ask of him.

Don't do us any more favors.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Leonard Greene
New York Daily News/(TNS)

Previously:
• 10/11/23 Suited for the job --- if you want to be a US senator, dress the part
• 03/15/23 A front-row seat to racism and antisemitism
• 02/01/23 Add stupid to the list of charges against the Memphis cops who beat Tyre Nichols to death
• 01/25/23 If Congressman Pants on Fire can get elected, then so can I
• 01/11/23 Damar Hamlin making remarkable progress after on-field collapse, if only we could say the same about the NFL
• 01/05/23 Good riddance to 2022 and all its zany characters

Leonard Greene is a reporter and Staff Writer at the New York Daily News.