Race-based arguments escalate in San Jose: An updated timeline

Progressive Silicon Valley-based advocates and politicians are increasingly using racial categories to shut down debate and divide the community. Read below for a running timeline of this disturbing trend.

October 4, 2019: San Jose Downtown Association head Scott Knies expressed concern about the dangerous escalation of race-baiting and race-based rhetoric from progressive activists and politicians. Knies said:

“But most dismaying of all was having the issue of race invoked by some city council members on the losing side of two 6-5 votes earlier this year,” Knies added. “Is this the new pattern for San Jose with public discourse being made in anger and fear?” 

San Jose Inside talks to a San Jose City Councilmember about Knies' comments, and reports that the councilmember states that "Knies’ thoughts come from a place of privilege and act as the very wedge he says others have created." [Editor's note: this quote is a paraphrase by San Jose Inside, not a direct quote.]

October 1, 2019: During a City Hall symposium about displacement,  a nonprofit housing advocate accused local politicians of voting based on their race and ethnicity. “It’s not a surprise that the 6-5 votes everyone was talking about tonight that all the white councilmembers were on one side and the Latinos on the other,” the advocate said.

May 15, 2019: A San Jose Spotlight story reports that at a Silicon Valley Rising community meeting about the potential Diridon campus, community activists said that Google needed to "hire the children of the people here," and "We don't want 20,000 people coming in from overseas."

April 16, 2019: After a six to five vote at a San Jose City Council meeting on a motion to change the mayor's race to align with the presidential election cycle, a councilmember said: "The five, who lost the vote, were five people of color, represent five communities, who have historically been disenfranchised."

A Bay Area Rising community group member added: "Traditional voters tend to be homeowners, upper-middle class, white people. We are trying to shift that [voting patterns] so that they [presumably new voters] can actually elect people who look like them to office."

April 14, 2019: A San Jose Planning Commissioner demanded that white men not run for political positions, and if they're in a leadership position, to resign.

In a San Jose Spotlight op-ed, the Commissioner commands: "Step Aside White Men, It's Time for Women of Color to Take over." "It is time [for white men] to voluntarily vacate your seats, to suggest other candidates when approached for leadership roles, and make way for the voices that are most qualified to redress society’s ills."

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