Jemele Hill is an outspoken progressive liberal who has a tendency to look at life through a racial lens. In other words, she’s a typical progressive liberal.
So when she found out that Shri Thanedar, an Indian-American man, won the Democratic primary race for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District:
Detroit will not have a Black representative in Congress for the first time in 70 years, with Wayne County reporting full results: Shri Thanedar wins by 4 percentage points over Adam Hollier, Portia Roberson, John Conyers.
— Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) August 3, 2022
Thanedar wins with 28% of the vote, Hollier trailed with 24% and Roberson with 17%. Thanedar also won in the city of Detroit, where voters were split between him and eight Black Democrats.
— Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) August 3, 2022
Thanedar outperformed the other candidates inside and outside Detroit. If we remove the city's results from the equation, Thanedar wins by 5 points.
— Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) August 3, 2022
She seemed, well, annoyed:
The third-Blackest city in America doesn’t have a Black representative in Congress 🤦🏾♀️ https://t.co/vo9pAEhTQU
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 3, 2022
Is it written somewhere that Detroit must only be represented by a person of one particular race? Is there something inherently wrong with an Indian-American man having the opportunity to try to make Detroit and everyone represented in the 13th District a better place? It’s not as if Detroit’s been doing awesome and getting better over the past several decades. Maybe race shouldn’t be a factor in deciding who gets to go to Washington. Maybe Jemele Hill should back off a little and find out what Shri Thanedar actually stands for before she dismisses him for not being black.
Maybe there are some voters in Det that can see beyond skin color. I know thats a wild concept for you….
— Steve (@SteveOB05) August 3, 2022
We’re not all that familiar with Shri Thanedar, but as far as we can tell, his progressive cred is pretty solid (his position on Israel notwithstanding). Does Jemele think that his race would somehow preclude him from doing what he’d get elected to do?
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