Column: Lessons of the audio leak: Solidarity is dead. Let’s ditch the label ‘people of color’
On July 22, 2016, I was on the phone with a friend in the news media who wanted to talk about the audio leak of a speech given by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to the Urban League on the evening of June 24, 2014. The talk was part of his campaign to win the Democratic mayoral race that was just two months in the future at the time of the speech.
I told my friend of the time I was out of town. He asked me where I was staying and asked my friend to call me when we got to my hotel, which turned out to be at almost midnight. That phone call came less than an hour after the phone call with the news media, but we talked about the speech. I’ve never talked to anyone about my friend’s phone call again, including in person and on the phone. I feel safe with this because on the phone we talked about it and I knew he would be as transparent and as respectful as possible. I am comfortable with my friends, but I still worry about what comes next.
I’m not sure why the conversation went in a direction it did. It’s hard to know what makes a white person’s mind go in a certain direction. There are always times when something seems like good sense or seems insane only to end up being the best decision. In this case, my friend asked me if I was upset about the audio leak, and I said I was.
My friend listened. He offered me his view on how this leak would impact his friend in the media. They are friends. He’s a friend of my friend’s friend. He’s a friend of a friend of a friend. He knows my friend. He knows how my friend does his interviews. He knows what my friend’s friends tell him to say. He’s my friend, and we are friends, so he
