OAKLAND – When Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential Search Committee met with a California Democrat on a Zoom call last month, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf used every second of her turn to create an urgent scene for Kamala Harris, a even proudly described “Daughter of Oakland, California.”
Schaaf has known the U.S. senator since they were both barely 30 years old and expanded their virtues as a fierce advocate for the progressive values of Oakland.
But Oaklanders know Harris will not be the only one in the spotlight if she chooses Biden to run for the Democratic ticket to the White House. The city of Oakland itself, which was devastated by President Donald Trump as a miasma of urban horrors, will surely be in the crosshairs as well.
The reaction in Oakland? Bring it with you.
“We have a strong history in Oakland of stopping being bullied,” said Tracy Rosenberg, an Oakland activist and executive director of Media Alliance, a social justice organization. “That will continue.”
Fall in point: When Trump said in a Fox News interview in June that cities like Oakland and Detroit “are like living in hell,” Schaaf quickly told Twitter, “Hell is still four years of this racist in the White House. “
Alrighty dan! Is Oakland ready for another three months of this?
Harris emerged as a presumptive finalist with Biden forced to nominate his running mate every day now ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 17 in Milwaukee.
The latest U.S. senator and former presidential candidate appeared to be briefly condemned when Politico reported July 27 that former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, a key member of Biden’s search committee, was concerned that Harris “had no remorse” for the attack. of Biden during a controversial debate in June 2019.. “I know you’re not a racist,” Harris said at the start of the exciting exchange, before defeating him in the 1970s for his opposition to a federal school bus program and for giving a pass to segregationist senators.
But Biden said this week that he has no resentment and Harris is “very much in controversy.” Fellow Californian Karen Bass, a Los Angeles congresswoman, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice are also in the mix.
Harris, 55, was born at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland to single parents – an Indian mother and Jamaican father – who met at grad school at UC Berkeley.
She spent most of her young years in Berkeley, earning her law degree at Hastings and beginning her legal career at the Oakland courthouse as a substitute attorney for Alameda County.
Because she gained political prominence in San Francisco as a district attorney, was twice elected attorney general in California in Sacramento and moved to Los Angeles when she married businessman Douglas Emhoff in 2014, some ask her Oakland bonafides.
Despite that, Oakland is important to Harris. In January 2019, she set up her presidential campaign on the steps of City Hall and opened her birthplace campaign office on Grand Avenue.
“What’s up with Oakland!” she exclaimed to a crowd of 20,000 people packed into Frank Ogawa Plaza for her opening announcement. After waiting for the singing of “Kamala! Kamala! “To be quiet,” she said, “let me tell you, I’m so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California.”
Trump does not need much encouragement to direct this East Bay city of 433,000. Since presiding over the cabinet in 2016, marking it as one of the ‘most dangerous’ cities in the world, Mayor Schaaf has porcelain to warn undocumented immigrants of impending ICE raids and threaten federal troops to send violence into a number of cities to plague during protests of this summer’s Black Lives Matter.
Margaret Gordon, an environmental activist in West Oakland, says she is not a fan of Donald Trump. ‘But some of the things he says are true. We have a lot of problems here in Oakland, ”she said. Instead of city leaders solving problems of crime, homelessness and gentrification that are forcing Black residents out of the city, “let’s Trump continually find fault in this community.”
Despite his problems, however, Rosenberg of Media Alliance says that “Trump’s thug is basically a stereotype.”
Although the influx of mostly white tech workers to Oakland has caused skyrocketing rents and forced Black residents to pay no housing, Oakland’s clear desirability is “just the opposite of Trump’s characterizations.”
However, she sees Trump’s attacks as much more sensual, and is likely to gain steam when Harris is nominated.
“What this could mean for Oakland is not only a high position in its tweet arsenal,” she said, “but it could potentially lead to more attention being paid to federal legislation in Oakland, which could be dire.”
However, Oakland-based political adviser Jim Ross is of the opinion that extra attention may be paid to Oakland’s benefits. Although Trump’s characterization of Oakland as a bastion of violence and urban decay “may yield red meat at its base,” he said, American voters show sympathy for protests by Black Lives Matter and the cities most affected by widespread racial inequalities, such as Oakland.
Besides, he said, for a city that just lost the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco, renewed attention through a Harris nomination “will certainly increase Oakland’s profile at a time when it could really use it. . “
Just because Harris was born here does not mean she’s everyone’s favorite daughter. While she may be considered a progressive Democrat in other parts of the country, some locals do not look kindly on her stints as a prosecutor and attorney general – especially Bernie Sanders supporters like Alan Michaan.
Michaan has owned or operated the Grand Lake Theater for 40 years and has posted the last 20 political messages on his marquee. His last? “Coming Soon Double Bill: The Death of Coronavirus Plus the End of Donald Trump.” He hopes Harris’ controversy over the vice-presidential nomination could come to an end as well.
Not Mayor Schaaf, who could not contain himself about Harry during the Zoom call with the search committee in late July.
“Her public persona is such a fighter, her ability to investigate anyone, to dig for the truth and to uplift it in the public eye,” Schaaf said. ‘That’s her signature. But people do not see how incredibly friendly she is as a human being. That was the story I wanted to tell. ”
Harris was one of the first people Schaaf recently called “to see how me and my family were doing,” after Protestants vandalized their home and sprinkled messages to detect police.
The vandalism does not help Oakland’s reputation very much. But as Schaaf puts it: “I do not think it is possible to abuse Oakland’s reputation more than the Conservative press and the president already have.”
She is ready for a new administration.
“There are a lot of things I find disgusting about how this president speaks about Oakland in general and specifically,” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s designed to divide our country and I believe a Biden-Harris ticket has the best chance of being fierce and aggressive about change in a way that will get us started. unite. “
