Diane Benson and Civil Rights - Part One

I've been contemplating writing about Diane Benson's longtime role in the continuing battle for civil rights in Alaska for a while. I was first drawn to helping this charismatic candidate because of her stances on other issues. But it has been obvious to me since the late summer of 2006 that many are drawn toward Diane because she is an icon to them on civil rights, for one reason or another.

In October 2006, I was trying to write an article about Don Young for the blog Down With Tyranny. I was hashing out with her 2006 campaign manager, Kris Pierce, how to describe Young's enabling of Jack Abramoff's lobbying efforts to exempt workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, imported there from China and the Philippines, from being paid minimum wages or having access to the rights preferred to American workers, while they labored to make goods labeled "Made in the USA."

Diane walked into the office. She sat down and listened to us argue how to frame Young's and Abramoff's acts. Eventually, she jumped in. Diane asked, "Would Don have let this happen to people who weren't dark-skinned?"

Kris said, "Duh?"

We sat there for almost a half minute. Diane broke the silence. "I've seen this my entire life."

If you look at Diane Benson's biography, you'll see a person not regarded as "white" overcoming the obstacles confronted every day in America by people of color. Raised as an Alaska Native, often in foster homes, she was assaulted in many ways not mentioned in the biographies or wikipedia entries. Like many women of color, the long list of insults, assaults and crimes thrown at her were as much problematically generic as they certainly were personal. The lack of interest in the media and in the political establishment in these aspects of her past don't bother Benson to distraction, because she's focused and turned that rage into working efforts that improve the lot, the status, and - most importantly - the future - of people of color into a much better place.

I keep on hoping that issues of racism in Alaska will somehow recede into our past. But they aren't, are they? Look at the new push by Anchorage Assemblyman Paul Bauer to have an advisory initiative, generally perceived to be race baiting, placed on the April ballot there. The legislature is putting new legislation designed to help alleviate the extremely high costs of largely Native communities on the back burners, preferring to take up bills that will get urban Alaskans to buy more junk from Wal Mart. The only person seemingly interested in helping offset these costs for our largely Native communities in bush Alaska is another Native American - Hugo Chavez.

I've mentioned here before that I'm a volunteer for Diane Benson. I worked on her 2006 campaign. As much regard as I have for Jake Metcalfe and Ethan Berkowitz, a respectable portion of my willingness, my passion, to keep fighting for Benson in the face of Ethan's perceived "electability" is the central importance of her place in this continuing battle for complete civil rights for all Alaskans. I'm sure they would fight for these issues, but Benson has an intrinsic understanding of them neither of those coddled white male attorneys could hope for.

I'll be taking this up again soon.