Opinion: As a county supervisor, I wasnt going to sit silently and listen to a racist attack – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Vargas represents District 1 on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. She serves as vice chair and lives in the South Bay.

As a young girl in Mexico, I could never have imagined I would go on to graduate college with a degree in politics, or that I would be privileged enough to become an American citizen and have a career that has given me the opportunity to fight for the rights of my communities the rights to pursue their own iterations of the American dream, with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Having worked at different levels of government and as an executive in the nonprofit sector, I would often find myself as the sole woman or person of color in a room. It is a responsibility that I had no choice but to embrace having to be the person who speaks out to ensure we are not ignoring or erasing voices that deserve to be heard in the halls of power.

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I ran for supervisor, acutely aware of the climate in which I was doing so. Politics of fear, hate and division have run rampant and spared no level of government. In the face of this, I vowed that I would continue to fight for what is right and advocate as I always have, as a voice to the voiceless. As the first Latina and immigrant elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in its more than 170-year history, I am once again embracing the responsibility I have to represent the people and communities that molded me. The weight of that responsibility can often become heavy.

When I was sworn into office, I swore an oath to uphold our Constitution, which includes the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of speech. I have always believed that our Constitution is a living and breathing document that has and must adapt to be reflective of the diversity and divergence of opinions in our great republic. I am also aware that at the time it was brought to life, African Americans had been, and still were, under the binds of slavery, and women had not yet won the right to vote, both of which took hundreds of years to reverse. I will always work to uphold the Constitution, but I also have a lived experience as a woman, and as a person of color, and I know the damage of hate speech. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from accountability, and I will always hold hate speech accountable for the damage that it causes.

My mother always taught me to stand up for what is right, and to speak out against hate. It is an uncomfortable reality for many of our allies to reckon with. That any person of color can tell you. We endure microaggressions daily, from being asked if I would like documents translated into Mexican for me to understand to being spoken at in half speed presumably so that I can keep up with someones English. Or having to sit quietly as colleagues speak and make decisions on behalf of people whose lived experience they could never understand. Women of color endure double the responsibility to represent two marginalized identities. Women of color have been at the forefront of so many of our social movements in this country that have sought to bring equity to the systems and governments that were not created for people like us. We have often done so in the shadow of male counterparts, asked to help carry the water for movements but denied seats at tables of power.

On Nov. 2, an individual, as he had done repeatedly on record, once again proudly read off his premeditated, prewritten and rehearsed insults to members of the board, and ultimately directed despicably racist comments at the countys public health officer, a respected and dedicated public servant. I have no doubt she is capable of defending herself and remaining composed in the face of a blatantly racist aggression. But that is the very issue, women of color are asked to endure these aggressions quietly and respectfully. I do not regret my response, and I would do it again. I could not in good conscience permit such an attack to stand not on my watch.

I ask our allies to step up and help shoulder this responsibility. Speak out against hate speech and help us create spaces where women and people of color are not left to carry the burdens of racism. So that we too can access our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, free from hate.

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Opinion: As a county supervisor, I wasnt going to sit silently and listen to a racist attack - The San Diego Union-Tribune