Candidate Maria Estrada Doubles Down on Hate

I am a progressive. I support single-payer health care and free public college tuition. I want to see an end to the era of unchecked corporate greed and its outsized influence on government policy.

Progressives should be able to agree that hatred and bigotry are unacceptable from any candidate.

Maria Estrada’s hateful words spread fast on social media, in multiple print and online media from the local to national, and international levels.

Her anti-Semitism — hostility to or prejudice against Jews — extends from calling out a Jewish Democratic Party leader for not keeping his “party, his religion, and his people in check” or her remarking,

Anyone who believes that they are one of ‘God’s chosen people’ automatically feels superior and justified in all they do.

Imagine if she were scolding a black political leader telling him to keep his “party and people in check”? Or harshly admonishing an observant Muslim saying that because of their religion they feel “superior and justified in all they do”?

You can read the original press release about Maria Estrada on the Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party (PZCDP) Facebook page. I am a founding member of PZCDP.

Having come in second in the primary, Maria Estrada is running as a Democrat for Assembly Member in District 63 in Southern California against Speaker Anthony Rendon, also a Democrat.

I need to make clear something not yet public. Estrada’s statement on October 6, 2017 saying, “I, for one, enjoy listening to Farrakhan’s sermons” in this discussion had nothing at all to do with a “60 Minutes” interview, or the “American media,” “imperialism” or any other excuses Estrada gave.

I know because I posted Farrakhan’s words in the Facebook conversation in which Maria Estrada praised him, and I quickly conveyed my shock to Estrada when she did. But rather than walking back her words, she responded, “And do be clear, no one who supports Zionism wants peace or justice.”

Even after our story broke, Maria Estrada again chose to double down on PZCDP’s Facebook thread where the story appeared, commenting,

What’s most obvious to me in all of this is Zionists and their supporters justify the murder of women and children and actually think it’s okay.

The majority of Jews in Israel and many in the US are Zionists who want lasting peace and security in Israel and Palestine.

Farrakhan’s words — and I saved the screenshots — came verbatim from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL’s) composite of Farrakhan’s own words, including:

In Part 2 of his Saviours’ Day address at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Farrakhan received a standing ovation after telling his audience that

“The Satanic Jews that control everything and mostly everybody, if they are your enemy, then you must be somebody.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) long ago designated Farrakhan’s organization a hate group. Later, the ADL also reported on Maria Estrada’s antisemitism.

We too must reject hate. Wherever you live, I urge you to join me in condemning Maria Estrada’s hate speech and asking her to step down.