A Taste of Power: Oakland Women’s Politics Have Been a Long Time Coming
My turn of the century interview with Elaine Brown offers insight into Kamala Harris’ generation.
A classic GOP talking point to smear presidential candidate Kamala Harris is that she “slept her way to the top.” A jezebel, right?
One early sweetheart of Harris’, Willie Brown, mocked the theory, and Kamala herself joined women everywhere by having a hearty laugh.
It’s a misogynist trope, sure, but the Puritanism also betrays a lack of insight into how people really get to know each other, especially in political hotbeds.
I was reminded of another black superstar femme politico from Oakland, whom I interviewed years ago, upon the launch of her memoir, A Taste of Power. Elaine Brown, the last chairman of the Black Panther Party, whose activism and continues in Oakland to this day.
