Those in, “The other Pittsburgh”, you know the one that’s not so livable, can no longer sit around and wait on the democratic establishment led, status quo Pittsburgh to acknowledged, recognize, and take tangible action to address the intentional oppression and needless suffering that’s been inflicted on the region’s Black residents and their communities for decades.
And while they say they’re the ones who can get things done in Washington D.C., all one must do here in the other Pittsburgh, which includes most of the region’s majority Black communities, is look out our windows or take a drive around the community to see what 25 years of getting things done here in the 12th district has produced or accomplished for those who have been thirsting for a sliver of the American dream for centuries only to be drowned in prolonged and intentional socioeconomic deprivation.
In the good old boys, status quo Pittsburgh, politics can be best defined as a process that decides who gets what tangible BENEFITS out of life. It decides who controls the land, economic opportunities, access to resources, access to legal protection, access to Human rights, income, education, who has food, shelter, heat and health care among other basic civil liberties.
Furthermore, standard status quo politics on a larger scale allows the nation’s political elite and overclass, on both sides of the ale, to play gatekeeper of a system that was created and designed to exclusively benefit and protect them. Therefore, someone like Summer Lee, who has the courage and guts to stand up, take on powerful special interest and fight for working families, deeply threatens and terrifies ALL the gatekeepers.
If nothing is done, the gatekeepers of the established Democratic wing here in Pittsburgh will continue to dispense controlled resources on a trickle-down basis. Those who are the closest to them at the top of the food chain will get the lion’s share first, while those on the bottom will be pitted against one another as entertainment, to see who gets the least and last crumbs. Crumbs that were intentionally spit out of the mouths of the gatekeepers and brushed from the pristine table to the filthy floor.
Make no mistake, in a globally connected, expanding, competitive automated society, depending less and less on a Black labor workforce as it directly pertains to their dominance, there is little, if any, incentive to look out for the bottom caste group in the other Pittsburgh.
In the other Pittsburgh, Black residents and the working-class poor are the bottom caste group, and they can rest assured that the status quo Pittsburgh will make all the political decisions in their own best interests rather than the interest of those who are most in need, marginalized and redlined to third world quality of life living conditions.
Marginalized Black residents in the other Pittsburgh are leaving their long-time, historic neighborhoods in droves because they can no longer afford to live there due to Pittsburgh’s ongoing “Great Gentrification Renaissance”. And while many in the status quo nationally call Pittsburgh the most livable city in the United States every other year, it is also the place where Black people rank dead last for economic opportunity and upward mobility.
Indeed, a world class, most livable city for a select few, yet one that has some of the most impoverished Black American communities in the entire country. And still for them, the established democratic gatekeepers who’s been in control for nearly 100 years in the region, that’s the gold standard definition of “Getting things done”. Something they take deep pride in and stand by as gospel.
For decades now we have watched our local elected government officials fail to adequately care for, protect and address the general interest of this regions disadvantaged Black residents and working class. Paternalistic and racist, self-serving ideologies and attitudes by local elected legislative leaders towards Black and working-class residents have resulted in the creation of this other Pittsburgh that the gatekeepers seem to never acknowledge or mention.
Most established, middle of the road Democratic gatekeepers fear they are losing white swing voters over racial politics, and many avoid the subject all together in fear of losing these types of votes. Except when they are seeking the Black vote of course. As a result, self-preservation can be an act of political warfare, leaving many casualties along its brutal path.
Unfortunately, the same resistance against Summer Lee and the coded language that we see being used by many elected officials and their surrogates in the media also helps to influence and fuel the growing national threat of White supremacy terrorism that the nation is experiencing.
The barbaric atrocities associated with the threat of white supremacy, like the one we just witness in Buffalo, can be seen as a microcosm to leaderships resistance to movements like the one Summer Lee has created and their unwillingness to address the root causes of why places like the other Pittsburgh exists and their direct role in its creation. The sexist and racist ad’s being used to smear Summer Lee is indicitive of this coded language.
And while it may be good enough and even admirable for those in the most livable Pittsburgh, the arrogance and paternalism that underlies cradle-to-grave poverty, massive inequality, racial injustice and third world quality of life living conditions that comes from status quo, establishment Democratic leadership is no longer sustainable and unacceptable for those trying to survive in the other Pittsburgh.
Summer lee is the only experienced elected official among the candidates as a state representative. Summer Lee understands the real issues and root causes of what the Black community needs from a unique lived experience. Summer Lee is the only candidate who has build a city and county wide coalition that identifies with and is sincerely dedicated to addressing the root causes of oppression and social injustice in this region.
Summer Lee is the only candidate who has personally stood with and fought alongside frontline workers and working-class citizens fighting for tangible racial justice, a living wage, voting rights, clean air and water, the right to unionize, healthcare for all, police accountability, reform, and a host of other issues for years now.
Most importantly Summer Lee is the only candidate in this race who has gain the support from those who sincerely realize the urgency and dire situation that Black and poor residents are facing in our region. National leaders who are closest and connected to the Power and influence that it will take to redirect critical and vital federal resources to the communities that need it the most.
And while many in the status quo Pittsburgh will tout the great investments and resources that they have brought back to the region over 25 years, there is very little evidence of this in the other Pittsburgh. One of the most sacred priorities of any elected official is to secure resources for the most underserved communities that you represent.
If what has taken place over the past 25 years, or nearly 100, in the most impoverished communities in the 12th district is what they call getting things done, then it should be clear that NOW is the time for real change.
Black politics and activism without Black ownership of and control over primary forms and bases of power such as property, wealth, organization, etc., is the recipe for Black political and non-political powerlessness.
The recent pursuit of political office by Black Americans and the ballot box as primary sources of power by the Black Community and its politicians without its concomitant ownership of and control over important resources, has impeded the development of tangible, authentic Black Power in America.
More ominously, there seems to be a paradoxical and positive correlation between the number of Blacks elected and appointed to high office and retrogressions in the civil and human rights extended to Black Americans since 2016.
Increases in homelessness, poverty, unemployment, criminality, and gun violence in the Black community; disorganization of the traditional Black family, inadequacies in education, increases in health problems of all types, police killings of unarmed Black citizens and host of other social and political ills have all taken place during increases in the number of Black elected and appointed officials.
The more elected and appointed Black politicians, the more socio-economic problems the Black community has suffered since. So, while on the surface there appears to be some meaningful progress being made, the increase in elected Black officials obscures those things which are responsible for and do little to ameliorate or uproot the increasing prevalence of social and economic problems in the Black community.
Economic justice, control, ownership of resources, land and political power go hand in hand. It’s not about just getting Black people, or anyone elected for the sake of getting them elected in the other Pittsburgh. It’s about electing the most qualified and capable person who’s in position to secure the critical resources needed to revitalize and uplift those communities in the 12th district that’s representative of the other Pittsburgh. At this particular time in history, Summer lee, is the person most capable of doing exactly that.
We’re in a breakthrough moment in the fight to preserve what’s left of our democracy, what’s left of our communities, to protect our planet, uplift the poor and working class, to slow the massive hemorrhaging of racial injustice and a host of other issues.
Our democracy shouldn’t be bought and paid for by the wealthy and powerful. And Whatever issue brings you to politics – whether it’s climate change or gun violence, student loans or prescription drug prices, reparations, or racial justice – there is a reason why the other Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to make progress when it comes to the uplifting of it’s Black underclass and the working poor: Corruption.
So even if you don’t agree with summer on all the issues, please considered and just at least ask yourself, why would out of town Billionaires spend millions and millions of dollars to defeat Summer and support her opponent. It’s Because Summer Lee is a threat to their business-as-usual agenda, to their hold on absolute power and the distribution of critical resources throughout this region.
Dark money slithers through every part of our political system, corrupting democracy and taking power away from the ordinary people. It reveals itself for what it is, the ROOT OF ALL EVIL and the main tool in protecting the status quo.
So, if you’re tired of state and federal resources being spent on golf course upkeep or to turn the basement of a politician’s home into an exclusive, $100 a plate, high end restaurant. If you’re tired of your hard earn taxpayer dollars going to building new developments in some of the wealthiest parts of the region instead of repairing our bridges, roads, and human infrastructure.
If you’re tired of reading reports, decade after decade, on how bad it is for Black residents and the working class in the Pittsburgh region. If your tired of hearing about how things are getting done, when Pittsburgh has some of the most impoverished Black communities in the nation. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, then now is the time to send a little bit of Summer to a year-round, dark and gloomy Washington D.C. On May 17th Vote Summer Lee for congress.
