AOC, Father Damien, and Patriarchal White Supremacy

About the only Democrat making news these days is the ever-controversial Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). Joe Biden, following the advice of (at least one of) Sun Tzu, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Paul Begala, seems content to stay out of the spotlight and not interrupt as the Trump administration self-destructs (unfortunately, it’s taking the country with him, and Biden isn’t exactly the guy to reverse the trend). His potential running mates are similarly MIA, fearing, no doubt, a gaffe that would derail their candidacy. Biden’s own struggles with coherence are to be excused, of course: at least he’s better than the alternative, and “we’re idiots and charlatans, but we’re not as bad as those guys” seems to have become the rallying cry of the Democratic Party.

Best known of the members of “The Squad” of first-term liberal Democratic Congresswomen, AOC represents what Howard Dean used to call “the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.” She is an agitator, and as such has both more wins (her ritual disemboweling of Ted Yoho on the floor of the House, for example) and losses (describing the Pentagon’s budget total as the increase in that budget, for example). This week, Representative Ocasio-Cortez posted the following on her Instagram page:

Even when we select figures to tell the stories of colonized places, it is the colonizers and settlers whose stories are told – and virtually no one else. Check out Hawaii’s statue. It’s not Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii, the only Queen Regnant of Hawaii, who is immortalized and whose story is told. It is Father Damien. This isn’t to litigate each and every individual statue, but to point out the patterns that have emerged among the totality of them in who we are taught to deify in our nation’s Capitol: virtually all men, all white, and mostly both. This is what patriarchy and white supremacist culture looks like! It’s not radical or crazy to understand the influence white supremacist culture has historically had in our overall culture & how it impacts the present day.

I know, shocking, right? It’s obvious (well, it’s obvious to an objective observer) that she’s simply using an example to illustrate a larger point; she’s not attacking Father Damien’s worthiness, merely pointing out that given a choice between a white man (even a non-American!) and an indigenous woman, the powers-that-be opted for the former. It’s equally obvious that she could have picked a better illustration of her larger point. As Simcha Fisher writes, “As often happens with AOC, she wasn’t wrong, but she also managed to say something true in a way that you have to work to defend.”

On the one hand, there are 102 officially recognized sculptures in the National Statuary Hall Collection: two chosen by each state, one by the District of Columbia, and one (Rosa Parks) not linked to a particular location. If Curmie’s quick perusal is correct, 85 are of white men. The only state with two BIPOC representatives is New Mexico, which chose Popé, the leader of a 17th century Pueblo revolt against the Spanish, and Dennis Chávez, the nation’s first Hispanic to win a full term in the US Senate. So it’s pretty easy to make a case that the statues, taken in aggregate, suggest a disproportionate interest in the contributions of white men. The argument isn’t that these men aren’t worthy (although some aren’t), but that they are not more worthy than people with more melanin or fewer Y chromosomes. Unfortunately, of course, AOC’s initial post only hints at what subsequent statements from her office make clear, that she considers Father Damien an important figure and a great man, but that’s not what she’s talking about:

Fr. Damien conducted acts of great good, and his is a story worth telling. It is still worthy for us to examine from a US history perspective why a non-Hawaiian, non-American was chosen as the statue to represent Hawaii in the Capitol over other Hawaiian natives who conducted great acts of good, and why so few women and people of color are represented in Capitol statues at all.

Naturally, if even an active misreading of Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks could serve as red meat for the right-wing press, desperate for anything vaguely political that doesn’t demonstrate just how venal, incompetent, and mendacious the GOP has become in the days of Trump, they’re all over it. In this instance, they could also count on the righteous indignation of the Catholic Church, eager to make headlines for something other than diddling altar boys. It’s also interesting to note that whereas Joe Biden is the de facto leader of the Democratic Party right now, the attack dogs are focusing primarily on AOC, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and (still) Hillary Clinton. Gee, I wonder what those people have in common, and why would a bunch of beneficiaries of patriarchal white supremacy choose these folks in particular for derision?

Of course, AOC is a politician, and as such craves notoriety. She could have chosen a far less revered figure than Father Damien to serve as the example of patriarchy and white supremacy. In a way, her follow-up point is more thought-provoking this way, but that’s only for the people who didn’t tune her out after the original post. She has something legitimate to say, but the story became about her, not her message. That’s a tactic for the other guys.