If Niki Ashton is to lead the federal NDP, she will need to tiptoe through a minefield of extreme political correctness like no politician before her.
Exhibit A was her decision to use pop lyrics to promote her campaign, and to then backtrack the moment her supposed political kin expressed disapproval.
In March, the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP tweeted a graphic with the words “To the left, to the left” from the Beyoncé song “Irreplaceable.”
“Like Beyoncé says, to the left. Time for an unapologetic left turn for the #NDP, for social, racial, enviro, and economic justice,” Ashton wrote in an accompanying post.
This was an innocent, media-savvy attempt at reaching the young, progressive demographic Ashton must capture to assume the reigns of the country’s third-largest political party.
But it also offended a group with a Twitter account.
Black Lives Matter Vancouver, an activist group, replied by accusing Ashton of “appropriating Black culture” – Beyoncé is African-American, Ashton is Caucasian – and asking her to remove the tweet.
Ashton promptly complied and assured us all in another tweet, “Not our intention to appropriate. We’re committed to a platform of racial justice+would appreciate ur feedback.”
There is an obvious sensitivity around racial issues following a series of police shootings of unarmed African-American men in the US, not to mention many other racial injustices in America and Canada.
But what barrier of decency did Ashton cross by quoting one of the world’s most successful women?
Our MP was not “appropriating” anything other than six benign words from a tune that came out 11 years ago. The song is about a break-up, not minority struggles. In no way was Ashton pretending to be something she’s not.
The “controversy” over Ashton’s tweet illustrates that hypersensitivity among her coveted demographic is an obstacle in getting her message out. Every time people talk about a hullabaloo such as this, they’re not talking about her actual policies.
A silencing effect may also crop up. If a leadership candidate cannot quote song lyrics because she is of a different skin colour than the singer, what else is off bounds? What meaningful ideas will never be expressed so as to avoid tripping the indignation alarm?
What if Ashton wants to co-opt a policy devised by Barack Obama? Is that wrongly appropriating from someone of another race? Or is it okay to borrow ideas, just not song lyrics? This game is so new, its rules so vague, that no one can say for sure.
The situation is reminiscent of comedian Bill Maher’s rant about progressives in the US who pounced on Steve Martin for a tweet in which he called the late Carrie Fisher a “beautiful creature” who “turned out to be witty and bright as well.”
Martin, who seems about as affable as they come, was chastised for referring to Fisher’s physical appearance in positive terms before referring to her personal virtues in positive terms. Because, really, who will stand for such a clumsy chronology of lavish compliments?
Maher noted that while progressives were occupying themselves with these contrived tiffs, their political opponents were winning elections and gaining far more than the power to tweet about how offended they are (though one of those opponents certainly takes advantage of that opportunity as well).
It’s unfortunate for our MP that her leadership campaign fishes from a pond populated, at least in part, by those who cannot see past their own gratuitous outrage and recognize that Ashton is probably the only political figure promising them the type of change they want.
