Karlton Laster. Contributed photo.
I’m a lifelong resident, community leader, and engaged voter in Northeast Ohio. I’ve been involved, behind the scenes, in local politics and public policy for several years by supporting the Ohio Environmental Council and promoting collaboration across Cuyahoga County through committee and board service.
Given this background, I cannot sit back and silently tolerate the racist, xenophobic, and classist messaging from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.
Locally, Moreno is known as the owner of a luxury automobile dealership and leader of the blockchain technology company Ownum – a problematic name in its own right. The name Ownum (pronounced Own-em), as a Black person, doesn’t always harken to the ideas of cryptocurrency and entrepreneurship; but, instead it conjures up imagery of slavery and oppression. Similarly, the same emotions are conjured up for the Asian and Latino communities through historical contexts such as internment camps and detention centers. That type of name, while steeped in the obliviousness of white privilege, subconsciously signals racial exclusion in a historical sense, while also being socioeconomically exclusive to those same communities today.
Moreno is also active in Cleveland’s philanthropic community, supporting or serving on the boards of several prominent institutions, currently including Cuyahoga Community College and the Bernie Moreno Center for Sales Excellence at Cleveland State University. All this to say Moreno is a prominent influence, both directly and indirectly, on local policy and politics.
This is what makes his actions and messaging since announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate in April so dangerous. In recent campaign ads, Moreno manages to offend on multiple fronts simultaneously, aligning himself with disgraced former president Donald Trump, referring to undocumented migrants as “illegals,” and describing Democrats as socialists. At best, these amount to misinformation. At worst, they’re racist and xenophobic dog-whistles.
This rhetoric is also surprising, not to mention hypocritical, coming from Moreno, whose parents are Colombian immigrants. By making these self-hating comments, Moreno is opportunistically currying favor with Trump supporters in an unseemly effort to secure the Republican nomination.
Pinned Tweet at twitter.com/berniemoreno
The thought of Mr. Moreno’s policies and rhetoric being in line with the people, communities, and organizations of Cleveland, let alone Ohio, is wrong. Cleveland has a robust and engaged civic and philanthropic ecosystem, of which Mr. Moreno has been a part; and it has tirelessly served Black & minority, immigrant, and low-income communities through social programs. Mr. Moreno is now campaigning to disenfranchise and disinvest in all those communities and programs. There is a clear misalignment in where Mr. Moreno’s policies and rhetoric is and those whom he seeks to serve as a U.S. Senator.
That is why we must hold our political systems and politicians accountable for presenting truths, details, and equity within campaigns, rhetoric, and policies. We must hold ourselves accountable in calling out the hypocrisies and voting for those who are doing the right thing and are truly representative of the community and its ideals.
Like you, I am exhausted with politics being an omnipresent factor of our daily life; and, in ways that it never has been before. However, to change that, we must be vigilant in promoting, advocating, and voting for the right candidates in office. And, the local foundations and community organizations must be willing to hold candidates — who may be former board members or donors — accountable for problematic policies and messaging as well as be lead advocates for Black & minority, immigrant, and low-income communities.
To that end, what is needed most is truth and accountability, and they both start with us, individually and collectively.
Recent campaign ads / social media posts from Bernie Moreno:
https://mobile.twitter.com/berniemoreno?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Karlton A. Laster has over 8 years of professional experience as a skilled advocate and policy analyst with a diversity, equity, and inclusion mindset. Previously, he served as the Director of the Equity Initiative for the NewDEAL, Cleveland Metro Director of the Ohio Environmental Council, Assistant Director of Government & Community Relations for Case Western Reserve University, and Special Assistant for Regional Collaboration for Cuyahoga County.
