Walter Myers III: Davenport should be afforded a measure of grace



Walter Myers, III


Here we go again. Republican Party Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport, of the 72nd Assembly District, recently sent an email to a select group of people with an image depicting President Obama’s face superimposed on a child ape in a “family portrait,” consisting of father, mother, and son apes. The caption underneath reads: “Now you know why -- No birth certificate!” Party Chairman Scott Baugh rightly and firmly spoke out against this email in an article published in the Orange County Register. The story itself includes a screenshot from Channel 2 News coverage, and the O.C. Weekly ran the story as well. So there is much wrangling over this incident, and in my capacity as the incoming Chairman of the OC Republican Party American Dream Outreach Committee (pending official committee approval), I would like to speak out on this matter. But first let’s put some context around this incident.
In the Register article, there was mention that this was the “third charge of racism among Orange County's conservative-leaning political class in recent history.” The first was in 2003, and the second in 2009. So this is hardly a regular occurrence, and in each case the offender, who acted alone and on their own accord, either resigned or was voted out of office. The 2009 case was regarding then Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose. Grose sent an email from his personal account, with an image depicting a watermelon patch in front of the White House, to some family members as well as a black woman, Keyanus Price, with whom Dean had worked on a committee. After talking with Dean about this a few months back, it became clear to me that Dean meant no harm in sending what was intended to be a bit of good-natured ethnic humor, which he deeply regretted later. If his intent was to send a racist message, then it would make absolutely no sense to send this to a black woman. Yet Price demonstrated a complete lack of grace and goodwill towards someone who obviously held her in high regard and simply wanted to share a laugh. Was this an appropriate action for an elected official? It was not well-advised, but any construal of racist intent in this case, in my view, is tenuous at best, and wholly cynical at worst. We have come too far in race relations to have an image such as this divide us.

Now the picture that Davenport sent, I think, is of a completely different kind, because there is a clear historical view of blacks being seen as little more than apes who were less evolved than whites. It was the naturalist Charles Darwin, author of the iconic book The Origin of Species that established the concept of the evolution of species, who later hypothesized in his book The Descent of Man (published in 1871) that the “civilized races” would one day exterminate and replace the savage races of the world (and yes, I suffered through read both books). In this book he ascribed the same evolutionary status to Negroes, Australians (Aborigines), and gorillas. This book was cited for many years as providing the scientific basis for racism, culminating in the eugenics movement, which was highly popular in the early decades of the 20th century. Notable eugenicists include Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, and the most extreme of them all, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. So hopefully this provides clear context as to why the image Davenport sent might be considered highly offensive.

It is not my belief that Davenport’s intention was to make a racist statement, as I know some of the people she sent the email very well, and none have given me any reason to believe they are racists. Moreover, I am not the type of person who is always on the watch for racists because I look at overall character, and if someone is indeed a racist or has some other undesirable trait, it will eventually display itself in their actions in some manner. However, I do believe that Davenport demonstrated an incredible lapse in judgment by forwarding an email with such a disrespectful and hurtful image, and it is simply inexcusable that she would not know how incredibly offensive that image was. If I were in the same position, not only would I have deleted it immediately, but I would have also become suspect of the person who sent it and asked them explicitly to never send an email of that type to me again, lest our friendship end at that moment. There is simply no place for this type of image (particularly for conservatives), whether in private or public, regardless of what one believes about Obama’s place of birth or policies (and I say this as someone who abhors most of his policies). There was a line that Davenport crossed, and as an elected official there is no defense for her crossing this line, even if unintentional. Nonetheless, whereas Dean Grose was afforded no measure of grace and forgiveness, my suggestion is that since Davenport has apologized for sending this email, which was sent in a private capacity with no party involvement, she be afforded a measure of grace that was unfortunately denied to Dean.