Sonoma County leaders of color say they’ve shared Natalie Rogers’ experience of racism

When Rohnert Park Council member Jackie Elward first ran for office in 2020 against a longtime incumbent, she was told she wasn’t smart enough and lacked the leadership skills to win.

Former Cloverdale Council member Marta Cruz said subtle forms of racial bias were one reason she chose not to seek another term.

And Windsor Mayor Rosa Reynoza said during a trip last month to a local classroom, a student told her she didn’t look like the mayor. She wondered if it was her tattoo, her height or because she was a woman.

Public remarks Saturday by Santa Rosa Mayor Natalie Rogers, who said she has been “undermined, disrespected, not allowed the opportunity to speak until decisions have been made” on the City Council because of her race, struck a familiar chord for numerous women of color who are current or former elected officials in Sonoma County.

The women said Rogers’ experience is not unique in Sonoma County.

Her comments reflect some of what they’ve endured in office, from having racial slurs hurled at them to more subtle verbal attacks and actions, known as microaggressions.

“How much more do we have to do to prove that we can do the job?” asked Elward. “We are done pleasing. We are here to work like everybody else and our leadership is as powerful as other people’s leadership so it must be respected.”

She was selected as Rohnert Park’s first Black woman mayor in 2021. She said Rogers’ experience “absolutely” reflects her own.

In interviews with The Press Democrat Monday, Elward and four other current or former elected officials of color said despite a concerted push in recent years to make leadership in local government more diverse, much more work needs to be done to create a more inclusive and accepting community.

Rogers’ comments point to that need, they said.

“We talk about change, we want change, but when it comes to putting a person of color as a leader, then you have a problem,” Elward said. “This is the reality and shame on us for it.”

Rogers, who was elected to the City Council in 2020 and selected as mayor in a contentious Dec. 13 vote over two front-runners, said her leadership as the city's first Black mayor has been undermined and she has been disrespected.

She said she has been ignored by colleagues at events and told her directives wouldn’t be followed “because I, myself, am the mayor.” She’s had to rein in how she expresses herself to not be labeled “the angry Black woman,” she said.

Her comments came during a 20-minute keynote speech at the 45th annual Black History Month event organized by Petaluma Blacks for Community Development.

“I don't have the luxury of my counterparts to talk with my hands, or raise my voice or simply stray from the expected behaviors,” she said during the speech. “These luxuries are given to others. They're just not given to me.”

Rogers didn’t specify in her speech who had wronged her and she didn’t detail other instances where council colleagues, staff or community leaders mistreated or sidelined her. Rogers was unavailable for an on-the-record interview with The Press Democrat on Monday.

Saturday was not the first time Rogers has spoken publicly about her experience with racism in the workplace. But in her speech, she leveled raw accusations at her colleagues and shared new claims about her experience in the community.

Her comments were part of broader remarks about being Black in the U.S.

Rogers said Black people still face racism in employment and housing and have been taught that they have to put in extra work to achieve the same outcomes as white counterparts, and she said Sonoma County wasn’t immune to discrimination.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion are words that are flying all over Sonoma County. But I want to let you know that no matter your title or privilege you believe you have, it only takes minutes to be reminded that you are Black in America. It does not matter how many letters I have behind my name, that madam mayor is in front of my name, because to many, I am just another Black woman,” she said.

She said she decided to speak out because remaining silent wouldn’t lead to change. She ended her speech with a call to action, encouraging Black people to unify and support each other, speak out when someone has wronged them, and to become more civically engaged.

Council member Eddie Alvarez, who has been a close ally of Rogers’ on the council, told The Press Democrat on Monday he had witnessed difficult moments for his colleague but that it was not his place to describe her struggles.

“She spoke with her truths,” he said. “As a brown man I cannot speak for the experiences of a Black woman.

“I see both pain and courage,” he said, and described her remarks as a “teachable moment” for the city.

Council member Chris Rogers, who passed the gavel to Natalie Rogers in December, declined to comment until he had a chance to speak with her about her experience and how to support her in her role.

“These conversations are too important and complex to do by exchanging quotes in the paper and I look forward to talking to her in person about it,” he said.

Calls seeking comment from the other four Santa Rosa council members were not returned Monday.

Elward said she was undermined and dismissed by Rohnert Park leaders, leaders across the region and city residents who said she wasn’t educated enough to do the job of mayor and would “destroy Rohnert Park.”

People have described her as “angry,” she said, a trope often used to undermine women, particularly women of color, who speak out, and said she was told she needed to speak and look a certain way to fit in.

Persistent racial discrimination has discouraged Black people from running for office and when they do it puts a target on them, she said.

Rogers’ remarks also struck home for new Healdsburg City Council member Ron Edwards, who is Black.

Edwards said he hasn’t confronted the same level of discrimination described by Rogers, but he believes that’s because he’s a man.

Black women in American politics face “a common theme of (being dismissed as) angry, not being taken seriously, being ignored,” he said. That experience extends from Vice President Kamala Harris to what he absorbed from his mother, an administrator in a Sausalito school district, he said.

“They’ve always faced this difficulty of being looked at differently or being put down as angry,” he said. “They can’t voice a strong opinion because its ‘oh, you’re an angry Black woman,’ and that’s a stereotype they have not been able to shake throughout history.”

Rogers’ remarks came three days after former Healdsburg Council member Skylaer Palacios, speaking at a Healdsburg public conversation on the city’s forthcoming diversity, equity and inclusion plan, shared her own account of discrimination while she was in office.

Palacios, who is of Latino, Black and Indigenous descent, described her ideas being passed over and facing hostility and discomfort in town.

She resigned from council in May 2022, citing rising housing costs and concerns over her safety and mental health stemming from the controversy that followed her public announcement that she did not intend to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and her subsequent leading of a protest against vaccine mandates.

But at the meeting last week, Palacios attributed a long-held feeling of not belonging to Sonoma County’s racial dynamics, as well.

“Dear Healdsburg,” Palacios said at the meeting, “I do not belong here. I never felt like I belonged here.”

Other leaders of color applauded Rogers for speaking out and said officials could no longer be quiet.

Cruz, a former Cloverdale mayor and council member, said both overt and subtle microaggressions from colleagues played a role in her decision not to run for a full term as mayor after serving eight months following another council member’s resignation.

“I didn’t need any further overt microaggressions against me,” she said, “people ignored my voice.”

Cruz speaks impeccable English, but colleagues and others she dealt with in office acted like her accent interfered with understanding her, she said.

“What I continue to see in the community is what I saw when I was serving,” she said. “(Rogers) is a Black woman and she is qualified and experienced with a heart and commitment to serve and she has experienced all this rejection because that is what it is. Rejection.”

People of color in elected office, countywide, stay in touch with each other, she said, and those message threads lit up following news of Rogers’ speech.

“But the negative has to be brought out,” Cruz added. “We cannot continue to act as if we’re in a joyful, cooperative place.”

Esther Lemus, who recently left the Windsor Town Council after four years in office, said Rogers’ remarks should be taken as a warning sign and a wake-up call, noting they come after several top Black leaders have departed the county in recent years and another backed out of a job offer, citing concerns about how minority department heads are treated.

“We talk about these issues and things don’t change,” Lemus said. “I hope this is an opportunity for people to correct their behavior.”

In her own career, Lemus saw a bid to be the first Latina mayor of Windsor was shot down by her colleagues in 2019, who instead chose Dominic Foppoli, who eventually resigned in disgrace, for his second rotation in the chair despite her outrunning him in the general election.

“I was passed up,” Lemus said, “my perception was qualifications did not matter. There was something bigger at play.”

Reynoza, who became Windsor’s first Latina mayor after defeating Lemus last November, also commended Rogers for speaking up.

“If we’re going to make changes, we have to acknowledge there is an issue, there is a problem,” she said. “We have to value and hear the people who are treated this way or made to feel that they’re not being heard because of their race and we have to accept their feelings.”

Reynoza said while her own colleagues and staff have been welcoming in Windsor, the recent school trip showed the importance of having more diverse leadership.

“It does matter,” she said. “It does matter to our youth that there is a wide representation.”

Former Healdsburg Council member Ozzy Jimenez, who left office last year after serving as mayor, thanked Rogers in a Facebook post for her remarks and said he too “suffered discrimination and microaggressions as the youngest, first queer Latinx individual” to serve in the position.

While Healdsburg city staff and council colleagues were supportive, he said in an interview Monday, he “did uncover many hard truths within my broader community in Healdsburg and also regionally and countywide.”

As an LGBTQ+ person, Jimenez said, he is grateful to Black women in American politics and outside it who have always been at the forefront of civil rights struggles.

“Here’s a person that is in her own struggle and I know my history as an LGBTQ person and I know that Black individuals at the forefront have been the people making waves,” he said.

Staff Writer Colin Atagi contributed to this report.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88