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COMMENTARY: Durham’s racial divide didn’t
begin when Rodrigo Dorfman wrote an incendiary letter to members of Nuestra
Gente de PA, an action team created by Latinx activist. Dorfman, a documentary
filmmaker, didn’t start the fight, but his fiery three-page email from August
30, 2019 illustrates massive hostility that woefully defines local politics.
The email was triggered by an
intense confrontation between Dorfman and Nia Wilson, co-executive director of
SpiritHouse, during the August 21, 2019 People’s Alliance PAC meeting. Dorfman
endorsed Charlie Reece, Jillian Johnson and Javiera Caballero, the three incumbent
city council members. Wilson made her pitch for Joshua Gunn, a fourth
generation Durham born and raised hip-hop artist and businessman “who comes
from a legacy of slavery and black people whose blood is in this soil.”
Wilson, in an interview with IndyWeek reporter Thomasi McDonald, says Dorfman told the audience: “Brown people built Durham, and [my] blood is
in this soil, too.” Dorfman recalls it differently. He says his actual words
were, “Brown people helped to build Durham,
too.” Another Black woman bellowed at Dorfman not to support his candidate
on the backs of Black ancestors. A deputy from the Sheriff Department stepped between
the two during their confrontation.
What followed was Dorfman’s legendary email rant outlining his
views of Durham’s Black leadership. He labeled them anti-LGBTQIA. He called
Gunn a Black capitalist. He called Pierce Freelon, who lost elections for mayor
and state senate before being appointed by the city council to fill Vernetta Alston’s seat when she was elected to serve as a state senator, “an artist ,
with no clear useful ideology.” He said DeDreanna Freeman, a city council
member serving Ward I, is “failing miserably at being a positive force for the
council”. He called supporters of former school board and city council member
Jackie Wagstaff homophobic and anti-immigrant and questioned their
intelligence. He faulted Wilson for seizing the “blood and soil” battle cry of
white nationalist.
Dorfman’s email was resurrected during conversations regarding
the recommendation to add him to the Durham City Council Cultural Advisory
Board. A group of concerned Black and Brown residents believe it’s reasonable
to suggest Dorfman’s email is a treatise attacking the merits of Black
leadership in Durham. They believe the letter is part of a formalized effort to
divide Black and Brown citizens of Durham.
Dorfman claims he’s not a
racist. Wilson and others assert racism is based on what you say and do. If it
quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Dorfman and his supporters maintain enough
time has passed to move past the trauma created by his email. Critics maintain the
terms of forgiveness should be determined by the people offended.
Dorfman has his own explanation
regarding what happened after being forced to resign from the process to serve
on the City Council Cultural Arts Advisory Board.
“I
was recently publicly accused of being a racist, misogynist agent of the
patriarchy. I was accused of “talking over people”. This politically motivated
accusation was used against me in order to force me to withdraw my nomination
from a Durham City Board (more on that later) and help certain local
politicians to show how tough they are,” Dorfman posted on his Facebook page. “Let’s
throw the Latino immigrant under the bus and win an election.”
Dorfman shares the challenge of “talking over people”. He discusses the conditioning of patriarchy and the influence of learned behaviors, “being born out of trauma” and “being reduced to a simple negative stereotype.”
I can’t help but think there is a lesson for all of us. All of us are learning to be present in a world of diversity. I would like to think none of us are measured fully by our mistakes. This is the miscalculation of cancel culture. I pray we are all moving toward understanding a better way. Sadly, politics eliminates the possibility for change. In a world managed by winners and losers, there’s limited space for adjusting to create a better way.
Dorfman’s confession is a step in a different direction. Steps are limited by the aches of political expulsion. Being called a racist is a terrible thing. It’s made worse by the lack of forgiveness in a political world insensitive to the damage created by the perception of racist deeds.
Durham’s racial divide didn’t begin with Dorfman. My faith teaches me never to judge the heart of a person. I refrain from calling people racist, while noting actions perceived to be racist. Often, things get lost in the translation.
It helps to own the indiscretion. Personally, I’ve made comments perceived to be sexist. I’m certain I’ve made statements rooted in racism toward Brown people. In my lifetime, I can’t count homophobic comments made from ignorance. I’ve made stupid statements from pulpits. I’ve written things I wish I could make go away. I deserve to be chastised for uncountable cases of verbal malfeasance.
Hopefully, prayerfully, God isn’t done with me. I seek to continue to engage in conversations aimed at helping me become a better person and citizen of a diverse world. With that in mind, I’m present in a process of renewal. If people are willing, I’m present. If people can acknowledge how their words and deeds harm others, I’ll try. I’ll try the best I can.
With this as a foundational claim, I’m not throwing my friendships away as long as they continue to engage in helping me understand.
We can begin by you not telling me it’s all in my imagination. When I say ouch, stop. Stop and apologize. After apologizing, do better.
I will try to do the same.
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