Someone grab Laura Moser's silver spoon! Thats what I keep thinking about when she comes to mind, grab that damn spoon of privilege and send her on her way back to Washington D.C.! I dont write this with spite, I write this as I hear echos of her voice in my head as I read through a couple of her very white articles that celebrate gentrification and take digs at the Black church goers. Moser reminds me of the character Rose Armitage from the movie "Get Out" preying on Black and Brown people for votes in a district that she has only recently returned to. Lets start with her first article:
Washington D.C. is a lot like New Orleans in so far that they are historically very Black cities that have and are experiencing a loss of identity and GENTRIFICATION. Let me tell you that reading this article was like being smothered in a bath of white privilege as the words leaped off of the screen. Moser scolding her fellow colonizers for their disdain at paying top dollar for homes that most likely belonged to displaced Black families, not to speak out against gentrification... but to spout trash about her affordable privilege.
"Oh, wow, your house cost five times what your childhood BFF paid for hers in exurban Dallas and it’s half the size? You pay more taxes than most residents of Mississippi earn in a year and you don’t get a vote in Congress? What’s that you say—child care is eye-poppingly expensive and the public schools hit-or-miss at best? Well, news flash: There’s a term for this tragic phenomenon. It’s called LIVING IN A CITY." Must be nice to to be able to AFFORD property taxes, child care, and have enough money left over to avoid placing your kids in "hit or miss" public schools. Welcome back to Texas, Moser, to be more specific Houston, and you can take that damn silver spoon of yours and put it away! You moved back to Texas to run for Congress in a county AND a city where most people who will be voting for you are the very people who cant afford to pay for child care, property taxes, and lack acces in many cases to good schools. The elitism that Moser represents is something that Ive noticed throught the primary season as we approach the March 6th Election to decide many races. "Do you know what you get for the premium you pay for living here in our nation’s capital? Access to an unparalleled array of (mostly free) cultural attractions, the company of interesting multilingual neighbors, walkable public transportation, the luxury of browsing the Bill of Rights during your lunch break, and excellent restaurants. That’s not good enough for you? Then move. On my pathetic writer’s salary, I could live large in Paris, Texas, where my grandparents’ plantation-style house recently sold for $129,000. Oh, but wait—my income would be a fraction of what it is here and I’d have very few opportunities to increase it. (Plus I’d sooner have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia, but that’s a story for another day.) Living in a city, especially one with as many big-money job possibilities as this one, comes with a heavy surcharge—that’s just the way it goes." Pathetic writer's salary? Do you know how many Black women get overlooked for mediocre white women who complain about their friends ability to overlook the costs of living? Speaking of big money job possibilites, I have yet to hear you talk about employment disparities in the Black community. I have yet to hear about how you would handle low income housing in the district you wish to be seated in. How much do you actually know about this district where a large chunk of the constituents are much like the people in this greasy article you wrote, and an even larger chunk looks like me? I mean this is serious. Moser is running in a district governed by a man who has made the expansion of public transit for Houston very hard. Much of what Moser mentions is tailor made for the folks who live in the Heights and other gentrified parts of Houston. We live in a time where more Black and Brown people should be running for office, especially women. I do not believe Laura embodies the skills and knowledge needed to serve people who do not look like her. I mean "...And the other thing: DC just isn’t that pricey compared with other big cities like, say, New York or San Francisco. Tried to buy a condo in the “gritty” Mission lately? The median cost of a house in the District is $475,000; in Manhattan it’s $972,000, and in San Francisco it’s $1 million. And again, as in all things, you get what you pay for. There are still vast swaths of Washington where you can get a decent-size house for less than the cost of a one-bedroom in the West Village or Pacific Heights. Maybe you won’t live within walking distance of any embassies, but I assure you that’s a survivable fate." this is not the Laura Moser I met. How can you talk about living in a city and not mention the issues that Black and non Black POC face? This is a very white person in it for themselves. I didnt question why she moved to Houston to run, but I do now and I believe that you should too. Just look at this casual racism: True, I’d rather not raise my children directly next door to a deaf-mute drug addict who openly smokes crack in the back yard and throws beer cans over our fence and regularly passes me notes reading “NEED 1$ [sic],” but we all make choices in life. At least I’m not hauling up five flights of stairs to a railroad walkup or trudging nine blocks to the nearest laundromat. (After spending my twenties in London and then New York, I’ve enjoyed those privileges plenty.) And at least, even on my family’s unspectacular household income, I can afford to have kids in the first place! We might not have much socked away for college, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, our lives are challenging and full and seldom boring, and I wouldn’t trade our shabby rowhouse on four major bus routes for a stately manor just outside of Tulsa—not for any price. WHAT BLACK OR BROWN PERSON WANTS TO VOTE FOR ANOTHER MEDIOCRE WHITE PERSON??? I dont know one damn person who looks like me that will vote for someone who speaks like this. Black folks would you vote for someone who disparages your church experience???
Going to "black churches and gospel concerts throughout the South (to hear stirring renditions of "This Little Light of Mine" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and to reflect on the comparative dead-dullness of the thousands of bar mitzvahs I've dozed through)..." does not give you permission to talk down on Black folks like this. white lady what is your testimony? Do you know what it means to be Black and testify about the small wins, regardless of venue? Unlike you and your charming silver spoon life, when black folks testify it is because we work hard for all that we have. We have to work THREE TIMES as hard as you do Moser.
"...but yesterday's service was of an entirely different caliber. It was by far the most overwhelming revival experience I've ever witnessed, straight out of Levi-Strauss or something: just five minutes into the service and everyone was howling and shaking and praising the Lord at all volumes. Then all these women offered "testimonies" that were considerably juicier than any AA sob story I've ever heard: I used to hit my kids and yell at my husband until Jesus, you let me in; now I'm not angry about anything. Jesus cured my lower back pain and now I run marathons. My son was so shy he wouldn't speak until he learned how to pray." Howling and shaking?! Are Black church goers fucking dogs? Was the friend who invited you to visit her church unkowingly the "Black friend" you invoked when called on your racism? From the beginning to the end, descriptions of "Salem witch trial moments", people appearing to be "possessed.....flailing", and being held down with "400 pounds of soul" reek of racism. Conscious or not, this is unacceptable, you needed an ambulance when one call from you can decide the fate of an unsuspecting Black person on a very real and mortal level. Dragging along to claim that "we never actually got to the second verse of any song" while never actually knowing the songs you speak of. How would you know, colonizer? "I was proud to be her guest" Moser said, as she in the same breath, claimed to want to call an ambulance for members of her host's congregation. Proud of this mess you wrote Moser? I am serious, ARE YOU PROUD?! Was your former co-worker and "friend" a zoo exhibit? "What a magnificent voice Theo has, though. I was proud to be her guest. I kept watching her shaking, her lips vibrating in silent prayer, and I finally figured out what happens to all those maple-pecan danishes she inhales twice an hour at the caf (I'd been irritated that a 40-year-old could have three kids, five pastries a morning and a significantly better body than I did at age 16): she was just self-incinerating up there. It was amazing to watch." Sure the hell sounds like it to me! Regardless of your religious experience, there should be a level of respect and cultural competence that one must possess. It is very clear that Moser is the white person I always warn people about, the level of privilege here is astounding. Dont vote for Laura Moser and remember to vote for people who give a damn about you and your needs, not just the needs of white colonizers. |
