Let’s say you invite me into your home.
But then, I do. I show up the next day on your stoop, knock on your door and act like nothing happened. Like that broken trust was merely bruised.
Like you need me.
The arrogance that Jack Evans showed Monday by filing to run for the same D.C. Council seat he vacated less than two weeks earlier — to avoid being expelled by his colleagues for ethics violations — is no less absurd than that scenario. His decision is more than just an insult to the city’s residents. It is a bewildering knock on the District’s door by a man who is either out of touch with reality or believes he is above it.
“Ridiculous.” “Beyond arrogant.” “F-ING OUTRAGEOUS.” Those are just some of the phrases his former colleagues on the council have chosen to respond to his political play.
The public’s reaction has been less measured. Among some of the printable words they have used: “Shameless.” “Preposterous.” “Chutzpah.”
And this one: “Privilege.”
That last word is loaded with racial and economic daggers, so it would be easier to toss it into the larger pile of insults than to pause and consider it. But it deserves some consideration, because it stands out from the other responses for several reasons.
That word captures why some people, for no other reason than who they are, get to take for granted things others can’t.
They expect doors to open for them because doors always have.
The choice of that word, and who is lobbing it at Evans, also shows that support for him could have ramifications for the city that go beyond Ward 2. For residents who already feel neglected by the city’s leaders, it could further erode trust.
“Privilege” is often presented as the flip side of “oppression.” And the D.C. residents who have seen up close what oppression looks like in a city deeply divided along racial and economic lines — black children scared to walk to school, or forced to pack up their lives, yet again, because of rising rents — are the ones who are now pinning that “privilege” label on Evans.
“White Privilege continues to astound,” Tony Lewis Jr. tweeted after the news broke about Evans’s possible return.
Lewis has spent his career helping formerly incarcerated D.C. residents find their footing. He also coined #DCOrNothing and is one of the organizers of D.C. Natives Day.
While some have been quick to draw lines between Evans and former D.C. mayor Marion Barry to show the city’s tolerance of disgraced politicians, regardless of race or ethnicity, those lines are at best jagged. It was a different city that saw Barry return to politics in the early 1990s after serving time in jail on a drug charge. Since then, the city’s demographics have vastly changed, along with its priorities.
But if Barry is to be a barometer, then it’s also worth noting that he, too, split sentiments across a segregated city.
Jeremiah Lowery, chair of DC for Democracy, referenced that in a question addressed to those who will have to decide whether Evans deserves redemption.
“To the Ward 2 residents who have called Marion Barry every name under the sun, & continue to make Barry the talk of your dinner parties . . . what are you going to do now?” Lowery tweeted. “Will you step up and prevent one of your own (Evans) from being re elected because of his blatant corruption?”
Evans has denied any wrongdoing, despite being the subject of investigations by federal authorities, the council and the Metro transit system. He has not been charged with a crime, but the council and Metro probes determined that he abused his political power and position as Metro board chairman to benefit clients who paid his private consulting firm. He resigned from the council on Jan. 17, just before his fellow council members could remove him from office.
Evans had held that seat for 29 years, and in a final newsletter to constituents he appeared to offer an apology of sorts: “I know I have made some mistakes during my service to the city and I’m leaving the Council having learned important lessons that I will carry with me into the next chapter of my life.”
That next chapter, apparently, looks a lot like the previous ones.
He plans to run in the Democratic primary and a special election being held to fill his vacant seat for the remainder of his unfinished term. That means he will be a candidate in a special election that his resignation is forcing the city to hold.
A special election that will cost the city money. A lot of money. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) has cited a price tag of $1 million.
“This is unbelievable,” Allen tweeted. “DC deserves better than this.”
It does. It deserves someone who cares more about the city than his own legacy. It deserves someone who doesn’t just admit making “some mistakes” but also owns up to them.
The other notable thing about the word “privilege” is that it is a gift. It has to be given. Doors don’t open by themselves.
Just because Evans is knocking doesn’t mean District residents have to let him in. They can choose to keep that door shut.
Read more from Theresa Vargas: