The Democrats for Brighton multi-candidate committee is supporting 31 candidates for Brighton Democratic Committee (BDC), and all are white. A montage of some of their candidates makes for a visually compelling image:
For contrast, the Justice for Brighton slate is circulating a montage that looks like this:
It is an understatement to say that although Brighton is majority-white, a group of 31 white Brightonians is not representative of the Town’s demographics. According to datausa.io, Brighton is 75.3% white, which would translate to 23 of the 31 candidates. The balance of Brighton’s population is 9.45% Asian, 6.62% Black, 4.86% Hispanic, and 3.32% multiracial non-Hispanic, which would translate to 3 Asian members, 2 Black members, and 3 members to be drawn from the lowest-percentage demographics.
Although it is not realistic to expect the Brighton Democratic Committee’s demographics to perfectly reflect those of the Town, it took real effort to settle on a whites-only slate of 31 candidates. The presence of the Brighton Town Supervisor, Brighton Democratic Committee Town Leader (who is married to the Supervisor), and two Town Councilmembers on the slate would seem to contradict claims by Brighton’s political leadership that they value diversity, inclusion, and equity. As James Baldwin said: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.”
For years, progressives have been advocating for reforms to the candidate recruitment process and the hostile environment of the BDC that would address the Committee’s absence of diversity, but those concerns have gone unheeded. This year, the discussion was taken to the Democratic voters in fourteen (14) election districts across Brighton, who will have the opportunity to decide who should represent them on the Committee.