Did you miss the exciting phenomena that was #JennGate? Worry not for you can still re-live all the straw-people, red herrings, reductio ad absurdums, and ad hominems that transpired:
- Intro: i. Honey, we need to talk about DSA…
- Part 1: I. Honey, we need to talk about DSA…
- Part 2: II. Honey, we need to talk about DSA…
- Part 3: III. Honey, we need to talk about DSA…
- My Measured Response
[Full disclosure: I am a member of the Bloomington-Normal Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. I am the chair of their Solidarity Research Working Group, a group dedicated to doing activist research behind the scenes to assist the working class and all oppressed peoples. The following is my own personal statement and not the statement of DSA BloNo. They have someone for that; a person who was elected by the membership overwhelmingly, twice.]
5/6/2021
Love: an Identitarian Story in 3 ½ Acts
Ward 6 Alderperson Jenn Carrillo wrote a series of (allegedly) “loving agitations” about DSA BloNo on the blog JustBloNo.net. An agitation is “strategic conversation, based in a relationship of mutual self-interest, aimed at helping someone identify and address an attitude, belief, or behavior that is preventing them from being more powerful and make a choice about how they want to think and act going forward.”
Little did people know, apparently Alderperson Carrillo has experienced some tension with the local DSA chapter.
“I have been sitting with lots of tension around DSA for some time now,” she says, “and have opted, largely, not to speak publicly about it, believing that keeping it on the down-low was the best way to preserve some sense of unity on the left.”
The City Council member’s prolegomenon was a critique of even using the word socialist. She begins by talking about a hypothetical socialist organization, not a specific one (wink, wink). Why should we avoid saying such a salacious signal as socialist? Because it doesn’t have the right complexion, you see, it’s far too bright, beige, or alabaster; it is of a colonial complexion.
“That’s because most people who would join an organization that wears its political ideology on its sleeve in such an inelegant way, are people who have already drank the flavor-aid. In the case of DSA, these are largely white, well-read, middle-income, college-educated folks with the ability and privilege to engage in social justice work as a hobby.”
DSA’s primary problem is not just that they use the word socialism, but that this word is inseparable from whiteness itself (which means, obviously, any socialist organization is inherently trapped in a mode of action that reinforces white supremacy).
Even if an organization primarily made up of a majority of people of a Caucasion persuasion tries to earnestly stand in solidarity with people of color, they are doomed fatalistically to perpetuate the entire white supremacist culture.
“If the organization understands power, it will want to grow. Members will talk to people in their social circles and invite them to join the ranks. Unfortunately, this usually means more folks in the mix who are more similar than not to the original cast of characters.”
She then offers a statistic with no citation cleverly quoted to make it seem more authoritative
“because remember that in a scenario in which all people have 100 friends ‘the average white person has 91 white friends; one each of black, Latino, Asian, mixed race, and other races; and three friends of unknown race’.”
The Alderperson then brings in some anecdotes about a black neighbor of her’s who (she assumes) would never go to a DSA meeting, and if this neighbor ever did stumble into a DSA meeting (in some purely theoretical bizarro world, no doubt) they would be instantly uncomfortable.
“Because stumbling upon an organization full of white people sends a clear message to non-white folks that it is not our space, that it was not created with us in mind, and that it will in all likelihood not address our needs. Personally, anytime I walk into a place like this, I am immediately exhausted by all the explaining and fighting I know I will have to do.”
Carrillo does admit later that “stepping into a meeting where I am the only non-anglo person is not itself an incident of racism or even a microagression,” yet she is perpetually exhausted.
Alderperson Carrillo also spoke about some of her own experiences from DSA BloNo meetings she had attended.
“I have sat through those meetings as both participant and observer over the past several years and I can tell you that even when I was an active member in good standing, I would have NEVER in a million years invited my neighbor, or my undocumented brown companeros, or my mom to a DSA meeting. It would be about the cringiest thing I could think to do to them. Two Black women (who were members when I was) and I actually giggled about this once, after a particularly excruciating general meeting.”
(She seems to have a habit of speaking for black women—frequently mentioning all of her black friends—despite herself not being a black woman; I’m not saying it’s problematic, but I am thinking it loudly.)
(Also, maybe if she truly wanted to help DSA and wanted to see them do better, she could have talked about these things in any of these terrible meetings she sat through, she could have filed an official grievance– they have that process for a reason–or she could have ran for co chair herself especially since she has a problem with there being no BIPOC people in our leadership. Bringing up these problems THEN would have been an agitation, what she is doing now is NOT an agitation)
Yet, fear not faithful readers, the Alderperson has the solution. She astutely points out,
“Fun fact: Did you know that there have been ZERO PEOPLE OF COLOR IN LEADERSHIP in the ENTIRE ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY of the local DSA chapter? Yes, you read that correctly. Zilch. Goose Egg. Nada. DSA has not had one single non-white/anglo serve on their DSA leadership team/exec committee since the group was founded at least 4 years ago. This is alarming, though not surprising, given how few BIPOC folk are involved.
Honestly, I’m a little mad that I should even have to explain that this is a MAJOR problem. No, not a back-burner, at-our-retreat-next-year, when-we-have-space, problem. It’s an I-can’t-believe-we-let-another-day-of-this-shit-go-by problem.”
Apparently, if DSA BloNo found a person of color for leadership this could at least start the process of ending the white supremacy inherent in the local DSA BloNo chapter. Let’s follow this thread to its logical conclusion. What if DSA BloNo nominated Mayor Mwilambwe to be its PR officer, a black, immigrant who is fairly conservative? What about if the local chapter elected Adolph Reed Jr. a black, Leftist professor in political science who frequently criticizes identity politics as their secretary? Here is the difference between a multicultural intersectionality and identitarianism. Reed says:
What Alderperson Carrillo is doing is speaking for these groups as if they themselves are monolithic, despite all evidence to the contrary. Social structures like white supremacy, sexism, hetero- & cis-normativity, etc. are pernicious precisely because they segregate, oppress, exploit, and exterminate difference. Like these other structures, identitarianism also negates difference. For example, in this year’s primary race for the Ward 7 Alderperson seat, among the many candidates were local, beige American and socialist Kelby Cumpston and local educator Coretta Jackson, a black woman I had little familiarity with. One black supporter of Jackson made a similar argument to Alderperson Carrillo by saying
“If you live in Bloomington, IL and you consider yourself a socialist but you vote for a white male in the primaries instead of a Black Woman then you are part of the problem. I said what I said.”
However, in the comments, a black supporter of Cumpston offered a dissenting opinion saying,
“You apparently speak for me saying I’m part of the problem since I’ve marched beside Kelby for Ward 7 and argued with council members for the benefit of the West Side alongside him… no shade to @Coretta but I haven’t seen her on the front lines in the same way.”
Following Alderperson Carrillo’s logic, we would have to agree with the Coretta fan otherwise we’d be contributing to white supremacy. (Alderperson Carrillo actually supported the male socialist of a Caucasion persuasion, though I’m not quite sure if the rules Alderperson Carrillo prescribes also apply to her.)
The Alderperson even admits the shortcomings of this logic by saying,
“I’m not saying racial representation is everything. As we have learned through a previous chief of police and will surely learn from our incoming mayor—just cause you’re brown doesn’t mean you’re down. So, no, it’s not everything… but it is something.”
Is it though? She doesn’t show any evidence that simply adding a person of color would actually start to dismantle this pyramid of white supremacy that (allegedly) is the metaphysical foundation of our local DSA chapter. In fact, she does the opposite, pointing out former BPD black police chief Brendan Heffner who frequently clashed with Black Liberation activists over policing in communities of color. Many years ago, Peoria’s police chief was Jerry Mitchell, a man of color. There’s no evidence that the policing during this time was any less discriminatory towards people of color than now in Peoria or BloNo. Evidence throughout America shows little difference in stops of people of color when the officers are black. That’s not to say representation doesn’t matter. What specifically matters is no marginalized person is being discriminated against because of their identity in employment. However, we should not assume this will reduce the systemic inequalities at the institutional level by itself.
Finally, the Alderperson says she is exhausted merely by the presence of a majority white group. How can we be sure that the person of color that is appointed (she literally suggests at one point that the local DSA BloNo pay a person of color to advise them) won’t also be exhausted by the mere presence of those of colonial complexion? Should they all wear costumes, only speak virtually with video off? I’m honestly asking.
The Alderperson continues by comparing the local chapter of DSA to such massively influential institutions like government, education, and criminal justice.
“Honestly, I find it profoundly puzzling [almost gaslight-y] that when similar statistics on racial demographics and power dynamics are exposed in other institutions [government, education, criminal justice], the DSA crowd is first in-line as “white allies” to assert the existence of and name the costs of systemic racism… but are somehow unable or bitterly unwilling to see these same exact things playing out in their midst.”
I don’t remember the last time DSA BloNo created a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects students of color. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see anything about forced segregation, redlining, or gentrification in the DSA BloNo manifesto. I’m almost positive that DSA BloNo does not regularly harass poor people of color, criminalize them, incarcerate them, profit off of human misery, nor do I think DSA BloNo is actively encouraging the racist war on drugs by using pretext stops. Again, I can’t speak for DSA BloNo, someone should ask them if they are doing these things. Alderperson Carrillo is insistent that DSA BloNo’s refusal to see itself as an analogue of these hegemonic institutions is obviously because they’re hopelessly blinded by white supremacy.
That is clearly the only and simplest solution. Occam’s razor yall.
Identitarianism is using the tools of the master, but forgetting those tools do one thing specifically: negate difference. Alderperson Carrillo painted BloNo DSA membership as “largely white, well-read, middle-income, college-educated folks with the ability and privilege to engage in social justice work as a hobby.” I can only speak anecdotally but I have been to DSA BloNo meetings where homeless people were present. I myself am disabled and make less than minimum wage annually. Chances are if you are college-educated (as I am) you have what is scientifically referred to as a fuckton of student debt which often causes one to be precluded from the class benefits historically associated with higher education. Even DSA BloNo members of color have challenged this gross erasure of singularities that actually make up the chapter.
Alderperson Carrillo also wants to bring to our attention that DSA BloNo is creating nefarious front groups to deceive unsuspecting people of color to participate in the chapters various machinations:
“One way that organizations explicitly tied to a specific political ideology get around the baggage that such an identity [Editor’s note: this being the white and socialist identity] carries is to establish (for lack of better word) ‘front’ organizations like unions, worker centers, legal aid clinics, etc. Some criticize the practice as being a little deceptive, but honestly, I don’t think I have a problem with it. If the only hold-up for people is the name, then so be it. Work around that shit.
So, DSA should remain as it is, and just start a “funnel” group called something innocuous and non-socialisty-sounding to get people in the door! Problem solved, right?
Not so fast.
While I can’t say with any certainty whether or not this was an intentional move on the part of DSA organizers, I can say that DSA has successfully (at least for the time being) co-opted organizations like One People’s Campaign (OPC) and used them as a funnel to grow their own group. I’m not married to the co-opting language… call it what you want.”
Despite not being married to the word co-opting, Alderperson Carrillo is certainly engaged in a very close relationship with it here. Her claim is that One People’s Campaign is now a front group for DSA BloNo. Which to me is odd, because OPC is already a front group for Illinois People’s Action (IPA). OPC is the 501c(3) arm of IPA that explicitly gets involved in electoral campaigns, while IPA does issue-based campaigns. (Alderperson Carrillo and I agree there is nothing inherently wrong with doing this.)
Alderperson Carrillo made her bones in activism as an IPA member. I believe she was on the board at some point. (It’s odd that she doesn’t mention IPA.) Most activists in BloNo have had some sort of relationship with IPA, including many members of BloNo DSA. Now, I personally don’t have a problem with IPA. I’ve never been a member, but I’ve been to their events and support the same issues they do.
So, how did DSA BloNo perform this miraculous coup (which, I certainly don’t remember voting on)?
“In the past electoral cycle, where OPC ran the field operation for the People First Coalition, every downstate staff person/contractor paid by OPC was in DSA’s executive committee, among its most active members, or promptly recruited into DSA [with few exceptions, if any].”
Because DSA BloNo got paid for their labor (what a crazy notion) and many DSA BloNo members campaigned for the People First Coalition, there must be something sinister afoot. In fact, the Alderperson blames DSA’s labor for PFC as necessitating this loving agitation (remember, this is the love right here).
I have to be honest here.
I did in fact see every member of DSA BloNo’s exec team work to get PFC candidates elected. It’s true. I personally witnessed all of them knock on hundreds of doors for months, sometimes in freezing or raining weather. Collectively they probably knocked on over a thousand doors, having one-on-one conversations with their neighbors. What I did not witness, and have no evidence to support, is Alderperson Carrillo knocking on a single door for the PFC candidates. I’m not wedded to this idea that the Alderperson did not put in nearly as much effort as DSA BloNo members on the PFC campaign, but I am in a very close relationship with this idea.
She goes on, and she does make an interesting critique.
“There is nothing wrong with wanting power. As a young organizer, I was taught to be unabashedly power-hungry and have taught my mentees the same. Because the only way we can ever hope to contend with the power-structures that oppress us, is by building our own and knowing how to wield it.”
So, Alderperson Carrillo is talking about her own training under IPA, which again, many activists in the area have experienced. There’s a subtle critique that only those steeped in IPA background will notice. The Alderperson doesn’t mention it but is (I think) implicitly talking about the Saul Alinsky-style of organizing. There has been a critique of Alinskyism for a while involving both DSA BloNo members and non-members. Unfortunately, I simply do not know enough about Alinskyism to offer an substantive analysis (maybe the Alderperson can write a follow-up article about it).
Alderperson Carrillo brings up this critique of Alinskyism because she fears “the fact that power has become concentrated in the hand of a small, tight-knit cast of characters.” She’s talking about the DSA BloNo Exec committee.
The Alderperson pontificates:
“for all the talk about ‘democratic’ socialism, there is shockingly little democratic decision-making happening at DSA. The folks who are part of the aforementioned in-group have usually already decided what they want to have happen, and they know how to work the system to make it so. Rarely will a contentious issue be put to a vote in front of the entire membership without that core team having a really good sense of how that vote will go. [Editor’s note: I believe this is called organizing.]
I personally don’t think it’s inherently shitty to organize with limited democracy [for lack of a better term]. In fact, most professional organizing (at least that I have witnessed or participated in) goes down like this. What is a problem is this small core group’s insistence that every DSA member has equal voice and power, when they know full well that this is just not the case.”
Now, I may be wrong, but the last time Alderperson Carrillo was at a DSA BloNo business meeting was May 2020. She must have access to a crystal ball to know what’s been going on since then. The “folks” are duly-elected officers. They each received an overwhelming vote in their elections. However, I can think of at least a half dozen times in the past year when myself and other members have supported motions that the Exec Team was opposed to. Most of these times we pushed for a vote at the meeting and the body overruled the exec team. The exec team accepted the overrule graciously and still did the duties tasked of them, regardless of whether they agreed with the tasks, BECAUSE it is what the body wanted.
So yes, not every member is 100% equal in all things (remember, we are not identitarians that attempt to negate difference), but they have a hell of a lot more power than Alderperson Carrillo hypothesizes. The Alderperson also mentions vote whipping as if it is somehow a bad thing. This is fascinating to me because the Alderperson has done this before. At that same fateful May 2020 meeting, DSA BloNo was in the midst of elections for the exec board. During one candidate’s speech, the Alderperson privately messaged me imploring me not to vote for this individual (I voted for them anyway). It seemed a little uncomfortable, but vote whipping is a part of politics. If the Alderperson was more effective at it, maybe she’d get more done on City Council.
The Alderperson finishes her homily by confirming she does not think DSA BloNo exec team are bad people or irredeemable. She says,
“there are behaviors we should absolutely and unequivocally cancel, but I personally believe that people are almost always redeemable”
“If I considered DSA irredeemable or its members lacking in integrity, I wouldn’t waste my time thinking or writing about it.”
So, these people aren’t irredeemable but they are distrustful, betrayers, who spread hurt and resentment wherever they roam, and she is 99% sure she would never, ever be friends with them again. With love like this, am I right?
(“as I write this, those folks are none of those things to me anymore. There is a deep sense of distrust, betrayal, hurt and resentment among us. People I once considered my comrades are now hardly in my life at all.”
“I don’t have any expectations that those personal relationships can or should be restored back to a place of friendship”)
On the Record
Now, some in the Leftist community have asked, “Why hasn’t DSA BloNo responded to these shocking allegations?”Again, I can’t speak for DSA BloNo; but, if I was a gambling man, I’d say they’re fucking busy working in the community. In the past few months, DSA BloNo distributed important renters rights information to renters in the community. They are in the process of helping homeowners, landlords, and renters get access to federal aid for rent in a manner that will prevent evictions. They held two massive events, one on May Day eve in Normal and brought together over a 100 comrades and provided mutual aid. On May Day, they collaborated with the ISU Graduate Workers Union canvassing & rallying support.
What did Alderperson Carrillo do? Posted on Facebook about BloNo DSA.
Well, thank the almighty Holy Buddha for that nuanced hot take, am I right?
DSA BloNo has been working on creating better support for workers, specifically offering advice to workers facing hostile working conditions. I personally wrote several articles about one such labor dispute. I sent it to all the Bloomington City Council members. Alderperson Carrillo never responded, nor did I see her share the stories or offer any advice for workers.
This not the first time the Alderperson has gotten in trouble for her identitarianism or her habit of speaking on behalf of black people. Local activist Chris Haines (who happens to be of a colonial complexion) organized a Black Lives Matter rally in the Stevenson School neighborhood where he lives in June/July 2020. Alderperson Carrillo released a video on social media doing another “loving agitation.” Her main points were: 1) should people of no color be more explicit that they are the ones organizing these black liberation events so as not to deceive people of color; and, 2) is this specific type of activism, street or neighborhood public protests, the best way of utilizing the post-George Floyd moment to bring about racial equity? (There may be more points but it was a long time ago.)
Her second point is actually a good one. Unlike her, I was at most of the Black Liberation protests in BloNo last summer. There were a few weeks where we were doing 2-4 big public protests a week. It was a lot for everyone. The Alderperson’s question is could we be doing these types of demonstrations in a way that has a clearer link causally to policy changes? She’s asking the question of whether this is the best use of power.
However, this question was eclipsed by the first one: should people of no color be more explicit that they are the ones organizing these black liberation events so as not to deceive people of color?
In her defense, she did explicitly say in her video that she was not talking about the Stevenson march. But, for many people, it felt like if she wasn’t saying it, she was certainly thinking it loudly.
To her actual question: I have been told for years not to protest against white supremacy and for black liberation in black neighborhoods or black churches; but, instead we, as white people, need to be protesting against white supremacy and for Black Liberation in white neighborhoods and white churches. I assume Mr. Haines has been told similar things, and that this was a deciding factor in his impetus to organize the event.
But, little did Alderperson Carrillo know, there were a plethora of black individuals present who performed, spoke, and marched during the event. It felt like the Alderperson was saying the white organizers were using the black people at the event as tokens (I don’t think she intentionally meant this, and she said so in a later video). Obviously, the black individuals present were understandably pissed off by this implication (even I as a white person could see this). Local Civil rights activist Robert Garcia, who helped organize that event, was incensed, and released his own Facebook video criticizing Alderperson Carrillo, which he later deleted. The Alderperson later made a post on JustBlono.net addressing the whole incident.
When Alderperson Carrillo ran for election, she promised to have monthly community meetings for her constituents. She hasn’t done one since at least October of last year.
DSA BloNo was also involved in the SAFE-T Act, HB 3653, the landmark Criminal Justice Reform that includes abolishing money bail. I didn’t see the Alderperson put any effort in the past year to get this passed, nor did I see her at any of the bailouts DSA BloNo was involved in.
DSA BloNo started the discussion again last October for a Welcoming Ordinance in Bloomington when news reports showed that some ICE detainees were being forcibly sterilized without their knowledge. DSA was effectively mobilizing on this issue and had over 70 volunteers contacting city council, giving public comments, writing letters-to-the-editor, and ready to start canvassing on the issue. However, Alderperson Carrillo, who was involved in the prior organizing on the Welcoming Ordinance and ran on supporting this issue in her city council race, intervened in December. It was her opinion that supporting a compromise ordinance (which would have still allowed some ICE communication in very specific conditions regarding terrorism or human trafficking) was a bad idea. Instead, she believed DSA organizers and volunteers should stop trying to get this passed prior to the local election and should focus their efforts on getting the People First Coalition into office. Then, the Welcoming Ordinance could be made as strong as possible.
To counter immigrant justice support, the insufferable Ward 2 Alderperson Donna Boelen introduced the Welcoming America initiative, a nonprofit private organization that provides guidance to municipalities to become more inclusive toward immigrants and all residents. Boelen said she introduced this initiative as an alternative to further restricting contact between ICE and law enforcement. She maintained she still opposed the Welcoming Ordinance advocated by immigrant justice advocates despite the fact Welcoming Americas supports limits between law enforcement & ICE. The name familiarity between the two policies has successfully caused a great deal of confusion. Carrillo quickly posted on Facebook her own Welcoming Ordinance which does limit interactions with police. It was even placed on the city council agenda for discussion, but Carrillo pulled it until after the election. Even if activists can find 5 votes in favor of restrictions on communications with ICE, Mayor-elect Mwilambwe can still veto it, meaning they’d need at least 6 votes.
Alderperson Carrillo chastised me during this Welcoming Resurgence. I personally didn’t care whether we passed an ordinance prior or after the local election. I wanted to be involved to help educate people about immigrant justice issues. One night in December, during one of the Alderperson’s late-night rants on Facebook, she complained she hadn’t even seen the language DSA BloNo was using. I posted in her comments, “If you’d been at the meetings, you would know”. In response, she direct messaged me saying the following:
I can tell you from personal experience, I am not the only one to receive these kinds of messages from the Alderperson. I’ve personally seen the messages she’s sent to people who thought she was their friend. In one instance, the Alderperson explicitly told individuals “I don’t need you; you need me. I’m the one with all the power.” Individuals both inside and outside DSA have experienced this behavior from the elected official.
I told the Alderperson that I’m extremely upset not necessarily with her critiques or animosity towards DSA BloNo, but regarding specific direct behavior by the Alderperson against people I’ve grown very close to. I told her that this behavior was literally causing people to engage in substance abuse and self-harm to cope specifically with her. I’m not surprised she shared my private messages with everyone. But to hear leftists, who would normally scream at the top of their lungs #BelieveSurvivors, demand instant access to extremely private, painful, and traumatic experiences, meanwhile Alderperson Carrillo can throw around vague accusations that require the mental gymnastics skills of a Cirque d’soliel performer to justify, and it is taken as irrevocable gospel; it sickens me. It sickens me that the identitarian Left demands it’s Maoist self-critique. While Alderperson Carrillo, who in case you haven’t noticed, is an elected official who literally works for us, can say DSA BloNo is overwhelmingly middle-class whites with zero receipts, I have to come on here and expose to you that I’m disabled, I get disability from the government, I make less than $10,000 annually, all which are very vulnerable things for me to disclose that the identitarian (neo-fascist) right will happily use against me. I have received direct-aid that helped me afford my food for the month from DSA BloNo.
The idea that Alderperson Carrillo somehow has less power than myself or the DSA exec team and is being oppressed by us is a truly ridiculous sophistry.
I’m sorry you were attacked last year. I’m sorry that neo-fascists like Diane Benjamin, Cities 92.9, and Jon Reed made a public campaign to try to get your personal information like social security info for the explicit purpose of trying to delegitimize your citizenship and have you deported. I don’t know what that is like and never will. I can’t imagine what it was like to feel that isolation during the pandemic. To be clear to everyone, the goal of the neo-fascists was for the Federal government to break down Jen’s door, imprison her in a detention hellhole, isolate her from friends, family, and lawyers by moving her from to detention center to detention center across the country for months, possibly years before being deported to another country. That scenario is what the neo-fascists salivate over. I’m sorry Jenn, I didn’t do more to try and make sure you felt safe. Alderperson Carrillo has worked harder throughout her life just to survive in America than any of the nativists combined could even imagine (and honestly, more than most of us).
I’m saying I know you are hurting, for that and much more; but, I need you to stop hurting the people I care about. Please, as a constituent, stop.
Just Blono: Civil War
Just BloNo was created by anarchist Corey Mattson back in 2011 to follow the Left in Blono. It became largely defunct in 2015 as Mateson moved on to other projects. But, last year’s uprisings sparked a resurrection. I was personally not involved in the creation of the new Just Blono page. My understanding is that it began as a project between Mattson, Alderperson Carrillo, and another activist. Mattson is the official owner of the page and pays to maintain it. The goal was to create a space on the Left–Left here being defined as anti-capitalist pro-liberation politics–where different people could spread information, opinions, and resources.
In case you’re unfamiliar, I’ve had my own blog since 2018 (Please subscribe & follow me on Patreon!). Both Mattson & Alderperson Carrillo reached out to me asking me to be a contributor. My first post was in August regarding McLean County Boards attempt to regulate protesting.
Since Just BloNo was created by an anarchist, it was extremely decentralized. Contributors were allowed to post basically whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Back in December, Alderperson Carrillo performed a MIGHTY purge of her contacts on Facebook which included myself and a very long list of other activists. (In case you didn’t notice, when the Alderperson began publishing her DSA series, she had to unblock an enormous amount of people just to get the reaction she wanted from them).
She left the informal Facebook chat that Just Blono contributors used. To be honest, we hadn’t heard from her in awhile. But, nevertheless, she remained able to post on the site at her leisure.
In the last month, Mr. Mattson and I had been having discussions around increased centralization of the blog, and more importantly, getting new contributors that could post regularly. One thing we kept running into is people (both within & without DSA BloNo) we would ask to join would tell us they want absolutely nothing to do with Just Blono if Alderperson Carrillo was involved in the decision making process. Still she remained a contributor.
Earlier this week, Alderperson Carrillo began posting her series critiquing DSA BloNo. Other contributors had no knowledge of this, but again, that wasn’t out of the ordinary. I certainly disagreed with the criticisms she was offering, but I discouraged removing them. That would only feed into her messaging. Far better, to allow her to post, and just write a strongly worded response.
That is how I thought Tuesday night would end.
And then…
Mr. Mattson read some of the Alderperson’s drafts for future posts. He was already dealing with a close cancer-ridden family member in the hospital (which again, I shouldn’t have to disclose, but here we are). Mr. Mattson made the hasty decision to delete the Alderperson’s DSA BloNo critique series and remove her permissions to post on the site because he believed these were causing direct harm to people. Again, this was not my decision though I didn’t disagree with the harm part. Mr. Mattson decided to wash his hands of the whole thing (because again, he’s already dealing with another crisis), and give me admin access to the page. I did not want this; I already have my own blog and was already wary of posting too much to Just BloNo and taking up space for other writers.
I restored the Alderperson’s deleted posts. I gave her permissions to post. Somehow, she lost those permissions again. I do not know how this occurred. I pondered what I should do. I tried to ask other members who had contributed in the past, but none wanted anything to do with the situation. One contributor, Zach Carlson, a DSA BloNo member, wanted the posts restored and the Alderperson given permissions back. I agreed the posts should be restored. However, one of her future posts (now posted) contained a section containing inappropriate descriptions of DSA BloNo exec members’ private relationships and living situations. This to me constitutes something that should be implicitly understood as off limits and beyond the pale of comradely behavior. If the Alderperson were a contributor at any local news outlet, this would not be tolerated and she would have been terminated for harrassment.
For these reasons, I have made the following choices:
- It was wrong of Alderperson’s Carrillo’s posts to be removed. This was an act of silencing her. This must not stand! I will not allow Alderperson Carrillo to be silenced! She must be heard! Including the unpublished posts! I asked Alderperson Carrillo to give me any changes she wanted to be made before I published them. Alderperson Carrillo did not respond. Therefore, they will remain as is for proper edification.
- Alderperson Carrillo may still express herself on Just Blono. However, future posts will have to be reviewed to prevent any other inappropriate content that provides no positive value to the conversation and is only meant to cause pain.
- I do not know if the Just BloNo blog will continue. But I am adamantly opposed to deleting it and allowing all the work that went into it (including Alderperson Carrillo’s work) to go up in smoke. I also oppose erasing history that would allow perfidious actors to reinvent themselves with no accountability.
- I do encourage others who are critical of my decisions or of the whole situation to speak up.
I have personally encouraged Alderperson Carrillo to be well.
To end this, I will quote the Alderperson herself,
Love & Liberation.
