White Boy Wins!

by Clive Whistle/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

So my question is how did a white middle class man well-known for his extremely wealthy friends win this race - No, it wasn't because of Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi or even Mr. Bill ( Clinton, that is) . these roll-over democans only had a mild impact, mostly just insulting the intelligence of politically savy San Franciscans with their slavery to the Democratic party political machine over all other ethical considerations

No the secret weapon of this wealthy white boy was the Brown machine, and i do mean Brown, literally and figuratively, brown and black folk - several of them very low-income - living in neighborhoods predominantly filled with people of color, galvanized by Willie Brown's "machine" i.e., The A. Philip Randolph Institute, ( aka A.P.R.I.) and the fake race card- Gonzalez is a racist! and other claims by Willie and his right-hand man, the Rev Amos Brown.

I know all of this first-hand because as a previously homeless, very low-income Black man who has lived in the projects ( Sunnydale), in shelters, and works with mostly homeless San Franciscans of color, I have been courted by APRI in the projects and in the shelters. And the hilarious part of this "organizing effort" is not only that Newsom's power base is born from pillars of institutionalized racism and classism, but as well, the laws and legislations backed by Newsom, i.e, PRop N which is intentionally racist, as most of the people it targets are on welfare and/or homeless and also happen to be people of color, as well as the completely useless and superfluous Prop M - a legislation that had already been in place but just allowed people to hate on panhandlers a little more and then of course, Newsoms votes against public power, endless votes against renters and for property owners and on and on...

In previous elections APRI has been more flagrant with their persuasions about who or what to vote for, ( Willie, Amos, etc) this time around they were very circumspect, publicly saying that we should just vote! and privately saying Newsom is the man. But their cover was blown on the last Sunday before the election when APRI hosted the get out the vote "rally" at City Hall , pulling the heavy weights like Cecil Williams and even Jessie Jackson ( by phone), actually bringing up the history of the fight of black folks to win the vote in the 60's over a loud speaker, the wealthy white boy nowhere to be seen. and then the clincher of all this "brown- imaging" was the strong showing on camera of people of color at the Clinton PArty in the Newsom headquarters.

Now I know that people are afraid of Bush and therefore afraid of the democratic machine losing any power, but that's not what would have happened - I, would never have voted for a republicrat like Newsom and yet I do plan to vote for a democrat, any democrat, in the presidential election, not a green, just to get rid of the Bush-Terror. All I am saying is - some people are accusing the green party and Gonzalez of not doing enough organizing in communities of color and i would argue that no, they did organize in communities of color - the Bayview , The mission, Chinatown, Ingleside - the problem is they are fighting a well-oiled, high financed, "machine" - financed I might add, not by the people of color it is galvanizing, but by the rich white people who are behind Gavin and Willie.