Opinion

The Republican Recall? It’s The January Sixing of California; Census’ Diversity

Diversity means we need to coalesce even more for common goals. No one group is dominant.

Published

4 years ago

August 21, 2021

Isabelle Price

I Voted Sticker Reem, Photo courtesy of Element5 Digital via Unsplash

Larry Elder is an LA talk host who shows up as a guest on Fox News and has more money than most of the 47 candidates who want to steal Gavin Newsom’s job.

Now, we’ve all seen Black conservatives before. Armstrong Williams. Herman Caine. Clarence Thomas. What did you think of any of them? They all love Donald Trump. Elder is like Trump plus. He looks like us. But he goes beyond Trump, which makes him more dangerous. He doesn’t believe in a minimum wage, nor a women’s right to choose.

Elder’s ads call Gov. Gavin Newsom elitist. But the governor is not elite enough for the rich white establishment who voted more than 60% against him in 2018. Most of them like Elder. So, who’s the darling of the elite? They go after Newsom in this way as an emotional pitch to agitate you over all the problems in California. Then you can scapegoat and vote to recall Newsom.

But that would be a vote against your self-interest.

Three years ago, 62% of Californians elected Gavin Newsom. Even before the pandemic, the effort to “steal back” the election with a recall effort began. It’s the only way Republicans figure they can win California.

It’s the Jan. Sixing of California.

It could work if we’re asleep and let it happen.

Don’t. The recall ballots are coming in the mail. A No vote on question No. 1, the recall itself, means you don’t even have to pick a candidate in question No. 2. Just mail in the ballot. No stamp is necessary and do it ASAP.

If the Republican recall effort succeeds, a candidate among the 47 just needs a plurality to become governor. That means someone with less than 30% could become your governor.

That’s what makes the recall an attempted theft of the governorship of California.
It could happen if we’re not paying attention—the “January Sixing of California.”

The Census Mirror

It’s no mistake I find myself in the Oakland Post. I first met the Berkeley family, the founders of the paper more than 20 years ago when I did the New California Media-TV show, the first “Meet the Press” type talk show about ethnic media ever. The theme of NCM was that we were the voices of the “New California,” where the minorities are in the majority. NCM was a look into the future of America.

That was more than 20 years ago. The Census unveiling last week shows it’s happening eight years sooner than expected nationally, with the white population declining by 2.6% due to aging and low birthrates.

This is the U.S. now: 57.8% white, 18.7% Hispanic, 12.4%Black and 6% Asian.

That’s the broad picture of diversity.

The biggest gain came in the multi-race category, what I call “race plus-one.” That number grew to 33.8 million.

It’s the browning of America. Or the loving. I always said when we all showed a love interest in one another, as the song goes, we’d come together.

Diversity means we need to coalesce even more for common goals. No one group is dominant. But right-wing talk host Tucker Carlson was on air last week saying celebrants of diversity were extolling “white extinction.” No sirree. We are embracing what is: the evolving New America.

But Tucker C is now we part of the 3 C’s of denial: Climate, COVID, and now Census.

Census deniers are diversity deniers.

It’s also why the recall is happening.

And Newsom knows it.

“Why this recall is on the ballot is connected to this issue of diversity,” Newsom told a group of ethnic media reporters recently. “We’re the most diverse state in our world’s most diverse democracy. That’s our greatness, our strength. We celebrate, we (just) don’t tolerate diversity.”

Do your part. A ‘No’ vote on the recall is important. It stops the January Sixing of California.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and commentator. He vlogs at www.amok.com and on Facebook Watch.