Sally Boynton Brown, a white woman running for chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday that if she is chosen to lead the party her job will be to “shut other white people down.”
“My job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt,” Brown said during a DNC candidate forum.
Brown, the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Committee, is running for the chair position against six other candidates, including three African-American candidates and one Hispanic, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
“My job is to shut other white people down when they want to say, ‘oh, no, I’m not prejudice; I’m a Democrat; I’m accepting,'” Brown bellowed during the forum, which was hosted by MSNBC’s Joy Reid.
Brown began her three minute pitch by chiding white Democratic leaders over what she said is the party’s failure to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Black lives matter and it makes me sad that we’re even having that conversation, and that tells me that white leaders in our party have failed,” she lamented.
Among other jobs she said she will undertake as DNC chair is “[making] sure that [white people] get that they have privilege.”
“Until we shut our mouths and we listen to those people who don’t and lift our people up so that we all have equity in this country, so that we’re all fighting alongside each other, so that we are all on the same page and we clearly get where we’re going, we’re not going to break through this.”
She went on to say that she has been soliciting insight and advice from people of color “because you have the answers.”
“I need schooling, and I depend on you and the other people around our community to do that, so I can go school the other white people. We need it,” she pleaded.
Brown did not respond to an emailed request for comment on why, if she feels so strongly that white people should be shut down, she is running against four minority candidates for the chair position.
Update: On Tuesday, Brown posted a response on Facebook to coverage of her remarks.
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