A Gut Punch for Diversity
Without question, California is hailed as the most diverse state in the nation — its nationalities, its languages spoken, even its political diversity. Yet the foothill county of Placer made headlines this week as two political entities each took shots at two important California groups — the LGBTQ+ community and African-Americans.
The first shot was fired by the Roseville City Council, which, after hearing impassioned presentations from several LGBTQ+ speakers in support of flying commemorative flags on city government properties, voted against this measure for entirely nonsensical reasons. One member wondered if she could fly her Italian flag along side the stars and bars. Another said the American flag should be enough. These are common dismissive reasons that expose a basic lack of history and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in this country and abroad.
Not to be outdone, the second volley came from the House vote to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday, the day slavery in this country finally ended with the freeing of the last slaves in Texas. Only 14 House Republicans voted against the bill, and one of them was Tom McClintock, who represents Roseville and the surrounding foothill region. His reason was just as misguided as the Roseville Council’s against the commemorative Pride flag: “I voted against the ‘Juneteenth National Independence Day Act’ because I don’t believe it’s healthy to reach into the dead past, revive its most malevolent conflicts and reintroduce them into our age.” In other words, let’s not recognize the ending of one of the most heinous acts we have done as a country and recognize our whole history. It should come to no one’s surprise that Representative McClintock often cherry picks his history, lacing his misguided reasoning with quotes from our founding fathers — white slaveholders.
In both instances, the council and Representative McClintock have the same problem. They have wrapped the American flag so tight around their eyes that it blinds them to the people who fought, died, and scarified so much for this country — our people who are not asking for very much but to be seen, to be recognized. But that is too much for some — a state home to nearly 2 million LGBTQ+ citizens and over 3 million African-Americans.
History will not look kindly on these actions and statements as this state continues to diversify. It is up to us in our communities to continue to educate our children and anyone who would like to learn of our full history — the good and the bad — so we can have full knowledge of this country and our people and dismiss the flawed single story espoused by the city council and Representative McClintock.
