I met Daraka Larimore-Hall in 2005. Das Williams, actually, gave me his phone number and told me to talk to Larimore-Hall because he was a progressive, an advocate for unions and working people.
At the time I was writing about Santa Barbara’s living wage ordinance, and Larimore-Hall was pushing the city to approve higher wages for city workers.
Even back then, 20 years ago, Larimore-Hall was controversial.
“A lot of people try to exoticize me as much as possible,” Larimore-Hall told me for the daily paper in 2005. “I seem to always end up being the bad cop. I don’t think of these things personally, so I am willing to be critical.”
Not much has changed since then. Larimore-Hall is still a lightning rod for controversy, with strong views on politics, the media and the Democratic Party.
In that first interview Daraka was a rising star activist. Today, he’s a new father, a former vice-chair of the California Democratic Party, a member of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee — and still incredibly polarizing.
In the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina, Larimore-Hall, whose name Daraka means “responsibility, duty, and obligation” in Swahili, doesn’t disappoint.
Larimore-Hall offers his views on the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County, the reasons why Das Williams lost his seat on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, and local and national media coverage.
Larimore-Hall, in particular, criticized the Democratic Women organization for not endorsing Williams. Williams was considered a lock for re-election but lost to Roy Lee, a Carpinteria City Councilman, in the March election.
The reasons for Williams’ loss were many, including a lackluster campaign, backlash from Carpinteria residents over his promotion of a controversial cannabis ordinance, and surprising amount of supporters who grew tired of his attitude and demeanor.
“When it comes to Dem Women, or other liberal groups, or progressive organizations, I would just throw back the question you are asking me about what can be learned,” Larimore-Hall said. “If you are needling and undermining an incumbent, but not actually articulating public politics that they can change, maybe you are just handing the seat to the other side.”
Larimore-Hall said the Democratic Women have positioned themselves as opposites to the official Santa Barbara County Democratic Party.
“But one thing you will just never get is a policy argument,” Larimore-Hall said. “It’s never about policy. If they thought Das’s policies were not as good as (Roy) Lee’s then what they did would make sense, but I have never heard that.”
In this podcast, Larimore Hall also talks about the state of the media and his belief that the media gives conservative and liberal viewpoints equal weight in stories, when he believes one side is clearly worse than the other.
“Sometimes, one side is wrong,” Larimore-Hall said. “And right now, at this point in history, the right wing in the United States is very, very wrong about a great many things.”
He said journalists have “habits of mind,” that lean toward giving both sides equal weight.
Larimore-Hall also says in the podcast that “fascism on the rise,” that “climate change is destroying the planet” and “every, every marker of social inequality is increasing.”
Larimore-Hall also talks about being a new dad, how it has changed his life and weighs in on the state of child-care and support for working parents in this country.
Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.