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.@GloriaBorger I’m watching @CNN’s panel on delay and was quite shocked just now to hear you assert that @PeteButtigieg has no plans! Several of the policies on his website are the most sweeping & comprehensive in the field. Please see this chat I just had with @JenGranholm! 🙏
Misconceptions also persist about @PeteButtigieg’s record in S. Bend. It’s not true that he hasn’t been dealing well with race issues. His efforts have been extensive & successful, despite being hindered by red state laws & policies. A list with footnotes:
medium.com/@JS_M/a-compre…
medium.com/@JS_M/a-compre…
The conflict-oriented national reporting on the recent shooting in South Bend has contributed to the ongoing frustration many Black South Bend residents feel about how Mayor Pete is being portrayed.
I have written some threads about the media’s egregious mischaracterization of the Eric Logan protest & the South Bend town hall that followed, especially about the failure to report that many of the loudest voices were brought in from out of town by national protest groups.
I’ll spare you all those details right now, but I want to emphasize how harmful the persistent “Mayor Pete’s Black problem” narrative has been, especially for Black residents who dispute it & black voters who feel erased. See #VoicesOfSouthBend
Of course I’m aware that Mayor Pete’s poll numbers have shown varying levels of low support among Black voters, but commentators mentioning this every time his name is uttered has surely exacerbated the problem, like a feedback loop. That + this ⤵️.
I’m also disturbed that @CNN commentators have continued to repeat the “0%!” line (I heard it over a dozen times today alone) even though Pete’s numbers have been rising for weeks. The racial disparity in his support (acc to polls) now equals Warren’s.
From the outside, it seems that @CNN is determined to brand @PeteButtigieg as racially “clumsy” at best. @BrookeBCNN even opined that he lacks connections with Black leaders but omitted the info that Rev. Michael Patton (SB NAACP chapter prez) endorsed Pete ON HER SHOW on 6/21!
Here is that June 21st Interview that @BrookeBCNN did with Pastor Michael Patton. His praise for @PeteButtigieg is unequivocal. I’ve only seen this mentioned once on @CNN since then (on @donlemon’s show). I watch every day.
A few days after that interview, @BrookeBCNN interviewed a local SB activist who is well known as a Buttigieg critic. She seemed surprised when he referred to himself as a revolutionary on her show. I don’t think he had been vetted at all. That interview angered many locals.
.@CNN & other outlets have also repeatedly interviewed a SB Common Council member who has at least 3 major conflicts of interest, including that she’s a Berniecrat/former delegate who lost a mayoral bid. Her mayoral campaign worker: “If it comes down to Pete vs. Bernie...” ⤵️ 
You may recognize her from the SB town hall clip that @CNN played at least a few dozen times, in which she claims Pete hasn’t connected to the SB Black community & says “You can’t just talk to the same few people every time!” She didn’t attend the next 2 meetings on these issues.
There are Twitter threads & public Facebook groups full of members of the SB Black community who feel that her criticisms are unwarranted, and who are frustrated that her perspective (and that of a few close allies) is consistently reported, but no one seems interested in theirs.
A frequent target of RWP’s criticism (though also sometimes mixed with praise, seemingly dependent on the situation) is Pete’s 1000 Houses program. I don’t believe she can be considered an objective source on this. She owned 9 of the dilapidated houses. ⤵️
That tweet is the first of 4, and I hope you’ll read them all, particularly the last one. The most disappointing failure of the coverage of these issues, IMO, is that the program led to other initiatives that have been incredible successes, but entirely ignored by national media.
For example, Stacey Odom is another Black resident of South Bend who came to Buttigieg early in his first term with criticisms. He listened, worked with her & others, and developed programs that benefit minority communities to this day.
Stacey Odom: “I trust [Pete]. I asked him for five different things, and he gave them all to me.”
These programs & others are cited in that footnoted list I shared (way upthread). Here are 4 tweets with more information about a few of them. Please read!
These programs & others are cited in that footnoted list I shared (way upthread). Here are 4 tweets with more information about a few of them. Please read!
This thread has gotten longer than I intended and has strayed into topics I didn’t intend to address, so I’ll try to wind down. I just want to mention a few of Mayor Pete’s efforts towards diversity in South Bend’s city government, particularly the SB Police Department.
First is this Executive Order that Mayor @PeteButtigieg released on January 15, 2016, Rev. Martin Luther King’s 87th birthday: “Establishing a City-Wide Diversity & Inclusion Initiative.”
scribd.com/book/295881408
scribd.com/book/295881408
Following that Executive Order, Mayor @PeteButtigieg created South Bend’s first Office of Diversity & Inclusion and appointed Christina Brooks as its head. She still holds this job today.
Ms. Brooks recently sent an email to a reporter after the much-publicized town hall. @CNN had re-played clips many times of a resident requesting a specific test to measure if police officers are racist. Ms. Brooks explained the many efforts already made:
As you can see, her list is extensive. @CNN reported none of these things. Instead, the clips of one resident’s demand for something that has essentially already been done multiple times were repeated ad nauseum. Most viewers would surely assume Buttigieg had as yet done nothing.
Such lazy reporting does a disservice to many people, not just Pete Buttigieg. For instance, I can only imagine how Christina Brooks, who has been working hard on these issues for years, must have felt under the spotlight of harsh national criticism, even if she wasn’t named.
Since some people like videos more than reading, here’s Mayor Pete in August 2016, talking about his efforts to diversify the South Bend Police Dept. I’ve been doing some research on these extensive efforts, but I’ll save most of it for a separate thread.
A little history: when Pete first took office, a Chicago-based consultant was overseeing diversity compliance for South Bend on a part-time, contractual basis. When that contract expired in 2013, he created a proper diversity compliance job and appointed his respected HR officer.
So, under Mayor Pete, the city of South Bend went from having a contracted, out-of-town, part-time diversity compliance consultant to having a full Office of Diversity & Inclusion that includes a Human Rights Commission. Here’s the Office of DI website:
southbendin.gov/department/may…
southbendin.gov/department/may…
This is one of many reasons that, under Mayor Pete, S. Bend was named one of 7 High-Performing “Race-Informed” American cities in 2018, for
“foster[ing] supportive environments for collective, community-wide racial healing & systemic, structural equity.”
southbendin.gov/2018/04/26/sou…
“foster[ing] supportive environments for collective, community-wide racial healing & systemic, structural equity.”
southbendin.gov/2018/04/26/sou…
More history:
In February 2014, under Mayor Pete, police officer Mattie Taylor became the first Black woman to become a Captain in the South Bend police force. She was appointed Officer in charge of Training & Recruitment.
In February 2014, under Mayor Pete, police officer Mattie Taylor became the first Black woman to become a Captain in the South Bend police force. She was appointed Officer in charge of Training & Recruitment.
Capt. Taylor worked hard for years to diversify the SBPD, but the problem proved intractable. This issue was (& is) such a difficult problem nationally & regionally that @WNDU published a lengthy 3-part series of articles about it in April 2015. Part 1:
wndu.com/home/headlines…
wndu.com/home/headlines…
These articles are *essential* reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenge Mayor Pete & Captain Mattie Taylor were facing with their recruitment efforts. Part 2 includes many quotes from Capt. Taylor.
wndu.com/home/headlines…
wndu.com/home/headlines…
Part 3 of @WNDU’s April 2015 Series “Race and the Badge” focuses on the hiring process. Then-Chief of the South Bend PD, Ron Teachman, is quoted at length. This is a must-read, IMO.
wndu.com/home/headlines…
wndu.com/home/headlines…
Here’s another article, this time from April 2007, about police staffing struggles. Mattie Taylor, already a recruitment officer at that time (but not the OIC) say the SBPD has only 13% minority officers. This problem was entrenched long before Mayor Pete.
wndu.com/home/headlines…
wndu.com/home/headlines…
Mayor Pete & his recruitment officers have been working hard to diversify the SBPD & improve its relationship with the Black community throughout his 2 terms. In many ways they’ve been hindered by state law. Ex: He can’t require that officers live in the communities they police.
The list of their efforts is long & impressive. But the results are well-known: diversity went down; friction persists. And Mayor Pete, on the national stage, accepted full responsibility. No finger-pointing, no excuses, no ifs, ands or buts. Just “I couldn’t get it done.”
I’m 47 years old, and I pay attention. I’ve never seen another leader, at any level of government, who has inherited an entrenched national problem, and has tried that hard to solve it, simply shoulder the full blame of falling short as willingly and absolutely as Mayor Pete.
I don’t even know what such an act must require of a person, because I’ve never done anything close to it. Imagine how hard a person must work on an issue when they feel that level of commitment to taking responsibility for its success or failure!
I’ve spent a lot of time researching Pete Buttigieg. I’ve read his writings as far back as high school. I’ve watched many hours of speeches, interviews, town halls, book-tour chats, even his wedding.
I see a sensitive, brilliant servant-leader with an exceptionally brave heart.
I see a sensitive, brilliant servant-leader with an exceptionally brave heart.
My hope is that political commentators whose job it is to describe Pete Buttigieg (potentially to viewers/readers who may never have heard of him) will take time to learn more about his record & policies beyond the few lines that have formed the media’s version of him thus far.
My other hope is that media professionals will, in general, stop choosing to elevate conflict after conflict with no stories of resolution. @CNN showed scenes of grief from the Eric Logan protest over & over, but they never showed this moving moment of resolution towards the end.
How is that not a story worth telling? Is the problem only that ratings will be higher if you opt instead to repeatedly display a grieving mother’s anger & pain? Isn’t it worth finding out how the explosive situation we all witnessed morphed into a peaceful plan to move forward?
All day I hear @CNN pundits talk about how divided we are, how the project of healing our divisions may have become impossible. It hasn’t. We heal divisions every day. It happens in moments just like the one you ignored so you could tell a “Mayor Pete has a Black problem” story.
I think this is the perfect place to end with a quote from Pete Buttigieg himself:
“Being attentive to the things that add meaning to our lives alongside politics will help us inform our politics with the values that really do make America great.”
I hear you, Pete. I hear you.
💙
“Being attentive to the things that add meaning to our lives alongside politics will help us inform our politics with the values that really do make America great.”
I hear you, Pete. I hear you.
💙
(That “you” a couple tweets up was not aimed at @GloriaBorger! I was referring to the media in general. This thread shifted from its original brief message to something more general ages ago.)
PS. See what I mean?
Btw here’s a screenshot of white, masked Antifa protestors who are not from S Bend, who attended the Eric Logan protest & yelled over Logan family members & local Black leaders. They were included in clips “showing local Black opposition to Mayor Pete.”
Another #VoicesOfSouthBend report:
And apparently, more media poll-spinning:
I have to keep adding important, relevant new things. This thread will remain a work in progress. Vital context about the handling of the tragic #EricLogan case here.
