By Rann Miller New Jersey
Urban News
https://njurbannews.com/
Earlier this year, Malcolm Jamal Warner became an ancestor. While we’ll miss his brilliance and brightness, his art remains, particularly that of Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
One of my favorite episodes was when he had the Huxtable brownstone to himself for a weekend; he and his friends had the bright idea to host a colloquy of six individuals for the evening. That colloquy turned into a full-blown party. Theo made allowances for people to stop by, and it snowballed into folks all over the house… furniture was broken, the walls were damaged, and personal items were harmed.
Theo kept asking himself how the small soiree had turned into an all-out house party, as if he was unaware of what allowing more people to gather at his home could become. Donkey’s Place is wondering the same thing.
Last month, the Republican candidate for Governor, Jack Ciattarelli, visited Donkey’s Place, a well-known Camden eatery known for its cheesesteaks on a poppy-seeded Kaiser roll and for having been featured in a visit by the late food critic Anthony Bourdain.
Some Camden residents, particularly African American residents, took to social media to voice their displeasure and frustration over Donkey’s, where Black people have spent their money, and the apparent hosting of the Ciattarelli campaign, a candidate who’ll do real harm to Black Jerseyans if elected.
In a powerful op-ed, Antionette Miles explained why Ciattarelli is a disaster for Black folks, saying that the once “never Trumper” has turned into a carbon copy of Donald Trump. One only needs to visit Ciattarelli’s campaign website, and they’ll see the extent to which the Republican candidate is more MAGA than anything else.
According to the website, Ciattarelli, if elected, intends on reducing corporate taxes, create a DOGE for the state, institute voter ID laws, end sanctuary cities, eliminate civilian review boards, eliminate use of force reporting for police, protect police qualified immunity, stop building affordable housing in suburban communities, change the per-pupil spending formula (offering no details), expand charter schools, expand school choice, exert greater control over “under-performing” districts, privatize Medicaid, ease gun laws, and attack anti-Zionists advocacy.
All that to say, that if you know Trump, you know Jack.
Now, I don’t personally know the staff or owners of Donkey’s Place. What little I do know about Donkey’s is that it’s located across from Ms. Corinne, whose restaurant I often frequent. But here’s what I know for sure: they could shut the Ciattarelli campaign down once they caught wind of what was happening… and they didn’t.
According to Donkey’s, as per their Facebook reply, Ciattarelli’s camp placed an order and stated they were stopping by for a short time, and that they had no idea the visit would turn out to be what it was. They also said that they would similarly welcome Mikie Sherrill. That all may very well be true. So why not put a stop to their canvassing of your establishment, unless you were okay with it? I mean, if the campaign or someone representing the campaign said they were staying for a short time, did anyone reasonably think they were coming for just a cheesesteak and thank you?
Jack Ciattarelli came to Camden for a photo op, and he needed a “safe” space among the “people” to do so. Based on the pictures, Donkey’s folks didn’t seem to have any issue with him being there. Neither did the “Blacks back Jack” crowd, with the handful of whites and Latinos boldly wearing Make Camden Great Again hats. Donkey’s went on to say that they weren’t MAGA, but sadly, the damage is done.
With all of that said, I find the whole situation frustrating because it’s tough for me to believe that Donkey’s didn’t want the Ciattarelli campaign there. No group, political campaign, or otherwise, can set up on the property of a private establishment without the establishment’s prior approval. If Donkey’s disapproved of their presence, the Ciattarelli campaign wouldn’t have been there.
It all speaks to a broader issue of concern (and point of absolute frustration) for me: the cognitive dissonance of white people who willingly work in communities of systemically underserved and oppressed Black and brown people while voting for (white nationalist) candidates whose policy platforms are diametrically opposed to the humanity of Black and brown people.
You’ll find plenty of folks who fit the profile across the urban centers of America, big and small. I know this because of my experience. I work in education, and in urban schools, there is a sizable population of white educators who support the Donald Trumps and Jack Ciattarellis of the world, while believing that they’re doing a service to Black and brown children and families by their mere presence in the classroom, or in the principal’s office.
I’ve heard these educators spew racist rhetoric about Camden parents not caring about education and transferring that lack of care to their children. I’ve listened to these educators offer their paternalistic views about how Camden students lack positive role models and that they [these educators] need to show students something different. I’ve heard these educators co-opt and appropriate the African American vernacular, dapping norms, and use hip hop music as though it were code to “reach” Black and brown students academically and otherwise. And if none of that worked, they’d either find or “anoint” a negro whisperer to interpret on their behalf.
All of that is rooted in the belief that Black and brown culture is flawed when compared to whiteness, because whiteness—as culture and identity—is rooted in dominance and privilege, not ancestral traditions. Thus, there’s no appreciation of the humanity of Black and brown people because their being oppressed is seen as a flaw of culture and identity, versus being a result of white supremacy, capitalism, and anti-Black racism.
Trust, these white people don’t only exist in schools. They’re everywhere… in hospitals, law enforcement, government, and local businesses… and they’re throughout Camden City. Maybe it’s the educator who came to “save” Camden students, or the corporate CEO who thinks Camden residents should be grateful for low-wage hourly employment, or the doctor, lawyer, or police officer who believes that the violence and crime in the city are attributable to a lack of belief in hard work and accountability.
… because systemic racism, imperialism, superexploitation, and the precarity amongst the labor class as a result aren’t to blame at all.
Again, I don’t know Donkey’s ownership or their staff. Maybe they genuinely didn’t expect a food order to turn into the spectacle that it did. Maybe they’re only doing damage control because of the backlash versus being genuinely upset with being misrepresented as supporters of Ciattarelli and MAGA. Maybe they’ve commented on social media to avoid losing customers. Maybe the folks there operate with the same cognitive dissonance that I’ve seen throughout my life with some white people growing up and working in Camden.
Only they know the answers to these questions. However, those answers need to be shared with the community.
Whether they realize it or not, and this is true for any business in Camden, Donkey’s is accountable to the community. Sadly, Camden has a host of companies that make their money off the residents and take their money out of the city to their communities that look nothing like Camden. It’s been a problem for decades.
People are entitled to their political views. However, if the politics of business owners who run their establishments in a municipality whose residents are harmed by those politics—while simultaneously refusing to reinvest the dollars they make from the community back into the community—those business owners should strongly consider setting up shop elsewhere.
As for the residents, when we discover that these businesses don’t care about us, it is up to us to make them uncomfortable until they either start caring about the community or leave it.
At the very least, Donkey’s owes Camden City a candid and clarifying conversation about their politics and what happened that day so that residents understand where they stand. They and others may argue that politics don’t matter, as long as they serve the community well. However, you can’t serve the community well without your politics aligning with the humanity of your neighbors and customers.
Keeping politics out of serving cheesesteaks… It’s too late for that. If Donkey’s knows about Trump to reject MAGA, they should have known about Jack.
