(ThyBlackMan.com) If you have been following the New York City Council primary races in this campaign season (as I have), then by now you have likely balked (as I did) at the perplexing plight of 1st city council district incumbent Margaret Chin. In what should be a “no-brainer” choice for Lower Manhattan voters between a progressive icon and a virtual unknown, Chin has found herself in a pitched battle with her dark horse opponent, Jenifer Rajkumar. Rajkumar is seeking to unseat the beloved first-term councilwoman in the Democratic primary on September 10.
Who the hell is Jenifer Rajkumar?
According to her campaign website, Jenifer Rajkumar has been the Democratic District Leader for New York’s 65th Assembly District, the Legal Director of the New York State Young Democrats, a University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Law grad, and an attorney at civil rights law firm
Sanford Heisler, LLP, among other things.
What does all that have to do with helping the people of Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown, the East Village, the West Village, and the Financial District, you ask?
Good question.
Several publications quote Rajkumar touting her civil rights credentials in her own words. She reportedly said, “As a civil rights lawyer I’ve had to sit across from corporate executives and fight for the little people.”
Little people? Really? Did a New York politician use the phrase “little people” post-2008 financial meltdown? If that phrase didn’t work for New York’s infamous “Queen of Mean” real estate tax cheat Leona Helmsley in the 1980’s, it certainly isn’t going to work for an ambitious Ivy League upstart city council candidate claiming to be a woman of the people three decades later. Whether or not Rajkumar intended the words “little people” to be interpreted as derisive, her choice of words, as a public figure, should give voters pause.
Margaret Chin is the obvious choice for progressives who want a better future for Lower Manhattan. Accordingly, she is endorsed by New York City’s public employee union District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), United Healthcare Workers East 1199, and the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, among others.
Her challenger, Jenifer Rajkumar, on the other hand, has less public progressive support but has cloaked herself in Benazir Bhutto-meets-JFK-esque sound bites that belie her elitist resume.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I met Ms. Rajkumar, many years ago, during my university days in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We shared a brilliant professor of literature, a woman with a love of 16th century English poetry and Welsh corgis. I recall being impressed by Rajkumar’s intelligence in that class. She had an extensive knowledge of the work of Walter Raleigh. She had mild charm. But I do not recall being impressed by her deep liberal convictions or bold progressive political stances.
And as Shakespeare would say, there’s the rub.
I spent my time in college working and campaigning for Democratic politicians and teaching children living in the inner city how to read, among other things.
Then again, Rajkumar and I didn’t speak often. I could be wrong. Or perhaps Stanford Law School changes a person. Perhaps?
I do not know Jenifer Rajkumar. We attended a single class together, in college. But I do know that one does not develop empathy for “little people” in courtrooms or oak-panelled boardrooms; one finds it in the classrooms of New York City’s underfunded public schools, in the picket lines of underpaid teachers and transit workers, in homeless shelters among the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and in the streets.
I don’t think anyone at Sanford Heisler has gotten their hands quite so dirty as to wade into such places in their fine Italian leather shoes (except perhaps Rajkumar herself for a photo opportunity).
And thus Rajkumar’s bizarre remark about “little people” may make more sense to some. Lower Manhattan voters will have to ask themselves if Attorney Rajkumar considers herself to be among them. Lower Manhattan faces difficult challenges in the years ahead – natural disaster preparedness for individuals and small business owners, financial security for working families, police/community relationships, etc. As a Black man in New York City I would want to know that the candidate I chose to represent me in the City Council has deep ties to my neighborhood and deep sympathy for my everyday concerns.
In this election, that candidate has to be Margaret Chin.
Staff Writer; David Christopher Steele, M.A.
Official website; http://facebook.com/thesecondaryeducationcritic