From the moment that Maine oysterman Graham Platner announced his bid to unseat Republican Susan Collins from her U.S. Senate seat, the political world and Maine have been on fire.
Within hours of dropping his first video announcing his run, people were intrigued and, I dare say, smitten. With his gravelly and commanding voice, rugged outdoorsman look, windblown hair, and two earrings, his looks alone got people’s attention.
But it was the substance of his words that really drew people in. He spoke of the oligarchy and fighting them, of feeling that our current politicians have forgotten the working class, and of hard it can be to live in Maine. He talked about how people have been priced out of buying homes or even having kids. In the 21 years since I bought a home in Southern Maine in a popular area for $200,000, there are now hardly any homes in Southern Maine for anywhere near that price—or in a good part of the state. Along with the stagnation of wages, home ownership is out of reach for many in a state where people used to be able to afford homes not that long ago. Platner spoke to a majority of Mainers who do feel forgotten. Who are struggling to survive.
In recent years, Maine has become a playground for the well-heeled thanks our foodie scene (particularly in Portland) and luxury hotels galore (apparently, one of the best hotels in the world is in Kennebunk, Maine). Throw in the natural beauty that abounds all over the state and it’s not hard to understand why influencers travel from all over to eat overpriced biscuits and butter. But there is a dark side: As more people travel here, areas have been gobbled up by folks looking for their second and third homes or investors turning properties into short-term rentals.
The Maine that outsiders see and the one that the vast majority of Mainers experience are not the same place. Platner spoke to that anger and anguish, and being backed by the likes of Bernie Sanders didn’t hurt. Also, as a veteran and oysterman, he brought a realness that speaks to Mainers, which the last Democratic candidate who tried to oust Collins did not.
In many ways, Platner seemed to be perfect: a working-class white man from Downeast Maine with progressive politics and who spoke to a large swath of people and who electrified the masses. I mean, this dude has held town halls and rallies across the state and people have stood out in the rain to hear him speak. Having briefly dabbled in politics myself, many of my closest friends are political types and all the feedback that I have heard was that Platner is the real deal—a little rough around the edges but sincere. And while he has no direct political experience in the traditional sense, he serves as harbormaster in his community, a position that—unless you live on the water as I do—doesn’t make sense to most folks, but it is a position with a lot of different administrative, management, regulatory, and public safety responsibilities.
I have spoken with several people about him, including people I trust, and the consensus was that he is that guy.
That said, there has been a small contingent who were quietly suspicious of him ever since he kicked off his campaign, and they wondered if he really was “all that.” Especially because of a pesky little detail that he had done contract consulting work for Constellis, the private military company formerly known as Blackwater, though it seems to have only lasted a few months and resulted in the military veteran returning home even more disillusioned with American foreign policy and its wars. In recent days in various online spaces, chatter was starting to pick up that maybe he was just the next John Fetterman, that U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who started off representing the people and became known for his inability to dress like the grown-ups, who has just gone all wrong and is now just a DINO—Democrat in name only.
Then the story broke that Platner had posted some questionable things on Reddit starting in 2012, including that he wondered why Black people didn’t tip well, he thought white rural folks are racist, and then comments on violence and sexual assault in the military, amongst others.
Suddenly, the golden boy was revealed to be another white guy, and the gnashing of teeth started: “Are we being hustled by a media-savvy white dude who is another Fetterman or is he just a garden-variety white man asshole?”
Or was this just a snapshot in time of a guy blowing off steam online?
Truthfully, we don’t know. I spoke to someone this week who is friends with him who said they truly don’t believe him to be a racist or sexist prick, but that still doesn’t excuse what he said. I agree.
People do change and do grow though, this was over a dozen years ago, and if you click on the story links a few paragraphs back, Platner himself has addressed the online posts.
I don’t know, but I know people who do know him and I also know that in these Divided States of America, I think it’s rare to find a white person who hasn’t said or done something that is racist. Even the nice white people who believe themselves to be anti-racist have done and said racist things.
I think that too many people who clutch their pearls over racism are unable to accept or acknowledge that uncomfortable truth.
I am a Black woman who has spent more than two decades living in Maine (literally the whitest state in the country) and the last 11 years running an anti-racism organization, and I have witnessed more times than I care to recall well-intentioned white people who loudly proclaim themselves to be anti-racist who have absolutely done racist things. Two of the instances that I have shared over the years involved people who absolutely should have known better but racial insensitivity happened. In one instance, I was in Seattle in 2019, speaking at the Seattle Equity Conference with a colleague (author Debby Irving) who minutes before we were set to go one stage innocently knocked over a glass of water and didn’t clean it up because we were about to go on stage to speak. Unfortunately, the water spilled over onto a Black woman’s things and well, when we opened the question-and-answer section of the conversation, the Black woman called her out and all hell broke out at that conference. The other instance was when a now-former board chair at my anti-racism organization sent me an email that I read as racist that led to an eight-month stalemate when neither I nor the board met and prompted us to bring in outside consultants to deal with our internal race issue.
My point in sharing these two instances is that if the white people who are doing anti-racism work at the professional level and are known for it can sometimes engage in racist behavior, anyone can.
The thing about Graham’s remarks and the response is that while his remarks weren’t cool, sometimes we get too into the weeds about interpersonal racism and want to hang people out to dry for it, but we don’t do enough about structural, institutional, and cultural racism.
While people left of center are deciding if Graham should live another day politically, our country is currently being held hostage by people with power to inflict a lot more harm than Graham’s words, who are taking institutions and systems that already had racist policies in place and making them even more racist.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that prominent members of the Young Republicans organization had been engaging in vile and racist chats, chats that the sitting vice president of the United States has dismissed as simple “kid talk.” Hold up! First off, some of these “kids” are damn near middle-aged and all of them were adults regardless. Second off, these “kids” are damn close to the levers of power, so their simple chatter—given the current administration and trajectory of this country around race and gender—are not harmless.
In today’s world where “gotcha moments” of people engaging in racism, sexism, xenophobic, and other forms of bigotry can be recorded and shared and we can publicly shame folks, it is easy to forget that while these instances are bad, racism is ultimately about power and privilege that favors white people and exploits and oppresses Black folks and other people of color. One of the reasons that long-term change has been elusive on racism and other ‘isms is that we have not amassed the power and will and patience to ensure that change truly happens and is cemented before we declare “mission accomplished.”
Sure, we elected a Black president (and started calling the country “post-racial”) but even as president over two terms, was his power enough to change the systems? Nope. Meanwhile, Trump gets elected a second time and in less than a year, he has amassed the power to solidify that power to protect and elevate white people. He has the Supreme Court at his beck and call and essentially turned Congress into his pack of bitches. He has the power to make corporations do what he wants to do, and we are watching it play out as companies and organizations disband the DEI initiatives and any other efforts that don’t align with Trump’s vision, which is essentially the vision that was laid out via Project 2025.
That’s how power moves and consolidates itself.
Meanwhile, am I really supposed to be mad because a white man made a few bigoted comments online more than a decade ago? I could do that, but I think we have bigger fish to fry, especially when one of Graham’s competitors in the Democratic primary is the current governor of Maine—a woman who, while she attracted national attention for telling Trump she would see him in court, has an actual track record when it comes to communities of color and marginalized folks (including youth who are being incarcerated) that is far less than stellar. Janet Mills hasn’t been a friend to Maine’s tribal communities, and I will just leave it at that. The thing is, Mills talks a good game, shows up and lived in the world prior to social media. She doesn’t have old Reddit gotcha moments. Her racist and bigoted thoughts are reflected in the policies she champions and supports—or doesn’t.
Racism and racist people show up in many forms. When it comes to many liberal and progressive types, and particularly northerners, they look down on the racist South when the reality is that the racism in the North can be far more deadly and virulent because it hides behind a façade. It shows up at the Black History Month celebration with kind words and smiles but vetoes legislation that would actually help Black people. It goes out of its way to uphold the status quo of white folks in power while shitting on folks of color unless it’s a photo op.
Part of why those of us left of center are mired in our unhealthy allegiance to losing is because we never stay on task as far as building the power needed for concrete and sustainable change. To do that requires building deep and abiding relationships that extend grace and allow for fuck-ups. We also need more broad-based organizing that brings in different people. I daresay that one of the reasons the GOP has amassed the power they have is because in many ways they organize better than us and they don’t throw people out lightly or get caught up in the optics. They use any tool, including flawed people that they might not all agree with, to achieve their overall mission.
I think Graham’s comments sucked, sure. I saw his response to the controversy just as I sat down to write this piece and, on the one hand, it probably wasn’t the best apology because it didn’t exactly acknowledge the harm done or offer amends for harm caused. But it struck me in its sincerity. He touched upon being in a bad place after leaving the military and the disillusionment and loneliness he felt, which is part of why he was posting. As a white man, he touched upon an issue not just for white men but men in general. That’s a piece for another day, but when you look at who is in the GOP/MAGA tent, there are a lot of men searching for community and connection and where they land matters, as we are seeing.
Right now, we are in a battle for the survival of our country, and we need people who are willing to call shit out and do the hard work, even if they are rough around the edges. For that reason alone, I believe grace matters and that we are more than our lowest moments when we are engaging on social media seeking connection.
Only time will tell if Platner is the real deal despite his faults. But I can already tell that a lot of the huffing over his past posts is revealing a lot about how much work we need to do on ourselves as liberals, leftists, progressives and anyone else left of center—individually and as a collective.
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Image by Vitaly Gariev via Unsplash
