Ouch. The temperature on an already-hot municipal election just got hotter-- on social media, that is. The public may not be paying attention, but Hoboken political warriors-- including an array of fake Twitter accounts, are abuzz.
It started on Twitter page of Audrey Truschke, a scholar, historian, author of books on Indian culture and history and a Rutgers University assistant professor.
The exchange started when Truschke took Hoboken Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher to task for a Tweet to Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, which Truschke called "sexist."
Of course, this is all opinion: that of a highly educated, accomplished scholar on Indian culture and that of a Hoboken Councilwoman who ran a whisper campaign in 2017 that the Sikh candidate for mayor was "unelectable."
Fisher has never apologized for how that word "unelectable" was received by many- including me. Instead, she's explained it, over and over and over again.
"When your'e explaining, your're losing."-Ronald Reagan
You know, when a person says or does something unintentionally hurtful, the appropriate response is to apologize. Been there done that, no one is perfect and we all make mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes we make are public. But you know, admitting a mistake takes courage and humility. Saying that you are sorry for causing hurt is a sign of strength, not weakness.
What's different here?
Fisher has never seen fit to own up to her role in disseminating a talking point that offended many people, who heard a dog-whistle. It is always somebody else's fault for addressing it, for saying that they heard it differently than what she allegedly meant. Fisher has never has explained actually WHAT she meant by calling a candidate who had won two citywide elections in 2009 and 2013 "unelectable." It didn't make sense to the many folks who had voted for Bhalla twice, and elected him. It didn't make sense to me. Of course, folks received that "unelectable" talking point as a dog-whistle.
Hey, it's never too late. Instead of playing victim of a massive political conspiracy, the Council woman can just say what "unelectable" meant, which so many people found hurtful and offensive.
But you know, she has done nothing to dissuade the public opinion, as evident by her patronage of an Alt-Right extremist blog that is unapologetic for offending millions of Sikhs worldwide.
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| "RACIAL SLUR": the image depicting Hoboken's Sikh mayor as a mock-Arab (Muslim). No apologies from the blogger nor his "photoshopper" and Fisher continues to patronize this blog. |
Further, unwittingly or not, after the County allowed Fisher to put some of her candidates for Dem Committee on "Column A" Fisher chose to kick the Mayor's brother off-the-line. She replaced him with a political crony. The County put the Mayor's brother back on the line, but are we seeing a theme here? In fact, by removing the Mayor's brother from the line, Fisher did make him virtually "unelectable."
Well, those are my two cents.
Hope springs eternal.
The most charitable interpretation of Fisher's "unelectable" whisper campaign is that, while she was not personally racist, she genuinely believed that Hoboken was not ready to elect a Sikh man of Indian descent who wore a turban as it's Mayor.
ReplyDeleteIf that, rather than her personal bias, was what she meant, then she ought to be gratified to have learned that she was wrong, that the town she serves is not the racist place she thought it was, but rather a diverse and welcoming City.
Sadly, Fisher, rather than being gratified, is still angry about having been proven wrong. That has made me wonder whether the charitable interpretation of her use of the term "unelectable" was too charitable. Either Fisher is indeed a racist herself or she cynically tried to exploit what she perceived to be the racism of others to promote Giattino (and by extension herself).
I personally think it's the latter, but I don't think cynically exploiting racism is any better than being a racist.
The most charitable thing I can say now is that Fisher is so completely incapable of self awareness that she genuinely didn't, and still doesn't, understand the implications of her own words.
Narcissism as a defense.
Wouldn't be the first time a 2nd ward city councilperson was oblivious to reality.
DeleteI'll offer a corollary to Reagan's aphorism.
ReplyDeleteIf you're talking about Mason and Hoboken 411, you're not even playing.
I mention that since it appears to be the major fetish of the GiaFishCo commenters heading into the 2019 campaign season.
People who like Jen, Tiffanie, Mike will continue to do so. People who don't trust them, likewise. That leaves the undecideds. And your appeal to them is inside baseball about old grudges of zero current relevance. Even shrieking about "Russo cooties" is getting tired . Just old men on park benches muttering about the last war and bitching about these "youngsters on their damn scooters." You've written yourself out of the script. No one will tell you because no one will listen to you long enough to mention it. Have fun though.