Conservatives need not apply to City of Seattle advisory board

The City of Seattle is looking for progressive activists committed to social justice to join the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board.

The mayor and city council appoint six members of the board, which is meant to advise the city on matters related to pedestrians. But if you care about the issue, are a conservative and/or represent the near 70 percent Caucasian population in Seattle, you may not be fully considered.

In a release announcing the board openings, the City indicated they’re particularly interested in applications from “Women, young persons, seniors, persons with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, persons of color, immigrants, and refugees…”

I reached out to Howard Wu via email for more information (he’s listed as the contact person); specifically, I wanted to know how the process works and how they go about ensuring they’re getting this in front of the communities they are most interested in receiving applications from.

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Wu thanked me for my interest, then passed me along to SDOT Senior Public Relations Specialist Norm Mah to screen my questions (and then ultimately deny me an interview; Wu, who returned my email in about 90 minutes, suddenly wasn’t available to speak over a four day period).

But Mah did explain the process fully (after about four days of trying to get full responses out of them).

The sitting members of the committee review applications and determine who they would like to interview.

“When reviewing the applications,” Mah said, “…some factors that the committee considers include: race and social justice equity, geographic equity, professional background, life experiences, physical abilities and existing board composition.”

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Social justice equity is a contrived way to say they would prefer fewer white people on the board. Mah explained “…the intent is to have a board that reflects the diverse demographics of Seattle.”

Diversity on boards like this are important, in my view, but Seattle is 69.5 percent white, so I’m not sure it’s wise to reflect the demographic of Seattle if you want a diverse group.

But, don’t worry: it’s not really about that kind of diversity.

“Also, as part of our interview process we vet applicants for experience with racial equity issues and interest in working with the City to achieve racial equity related to the topic areas they will be advising on,” Mah advises. “This factor is related to awareness, background and knowledge rather than identity.”

In other words, they’re screening for progressive activists that reflect their own ideological views. These are all keywords meant to attract progressive activists; people who speak in these contrived terms generally don’t believe conservatives care about “racial equity” (if you provide them a traditionally conservative perspective on how best to serve people of color, that probably won’t fly). Conservatives, in general, reject the social justice movement, not because conservatives don’t care about equity, but because it’s a term taken over by progressive activists who blame conservatives for all bigotry. It’s a movement that doesn’t allow for opinions and ideas that progressives don’t believe in. And that’s a shame, not just to the movement but to communities that could be helped if there wasn’t such closed-mindedness.

They don’t seem to be interested in actual diversity where people might have different perspectives and ideological viewpoints; they’re looking for like-minded individuals to take over yet another local committee.
They don’t really want anyone to speak up and offer alternatives that might actually accomplish some meaningful changes if they’re coming from people whom they disagree with ideologically.

But I guess with this kind of track record of proven results (worsening trafficking, higher rents, growing homeless population), they’ll hope at some point their progressive policies finally start working.

Interested progressives should submit a resume and cover letter via email by Jan. 25 to Howard Wu.