Benson Walks Selma Amid Lawsuit Alleging Hostility Toward Black Employees

Jocelyn Benson presents herself as a grandchild of the Civil Rights Movement. But her record with the actual black community, in positions where she holds actual power, is much more complicated.

Last year, Secretary of State Benson was sued for creating a “racially hostile” environment at the Department of State. The department settled for $775,000.

Benson’s office didn’t admit wrongdoing, but it didn’t need to.

Either Benson had done wrong and settled for three-quarters of $1 million, or Benson’s white guilt led to the inflated settlement, funded by taxpayer money.

Neither scenario recommends Benson for the promotion to governor she is now seeking.

Earlier this year, Benson was hit with a second such lawsuit, alleging a racially hostile environment and retaliation against the black employees who made the claim.

Only now, with the governor’s race on, did Benson choose to fight back, calling the allegations “absolutely false.”

That denial is what a true nonadmission of guilt would look like. The lawsuit is ongoing; we’ll see what happens.

As a young college graduate, Benson moved to Alabama and rebranded herself as a neo-freedom fighter. She waited tables and attended Bible study. She wormed her way into the trust of a Neo-Nazi as an undercover journalist, and wrote stories that did not carry her byline.

She went to Alabama to harvest the stories of the Civil Rights Movement, and believed herself to be writing a new chapter.

Later, as an associate professor and dean at Wayne Law School in Detroit, Benson took law students down to Selma to walk in the steps of John Lewis and fancy themselves as getting into “good trouble.”

Last weekend, Benson continued the LARPing. This time she brought Michigan lawmakers down to Alabama with her, including my state senator, Jason Hoskins, a Southfield Democrat.

“Today in Selma I joined Michigan lawmakers and thousands more to honor those who came before us to fight for a more just and fair world,” Benson posted on X.

“Together we will continue their unfinished work, to build a democracy—and an economy—where all can truly thrive and prosper,” Benson added.

Unlike Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Benson wrote her own memoir and personally authored this tweet. Benson’s style is easy to spot. She stacks adjectives and writes like it’s a Wellesley term paper.

In Selma, Benson claimed to be standing on the shoulders of giants. But in her memoir, Benson touts the value of being “the hero of your own story.” The latter is how she lives her life.

Then, in the shadow of Edmund Pettis Bridge, where Lewis’s head was cracked open by Alabama state troopers 61 years ago on “Bloody Sunday,” Benson busted out the proverbial selfie stick.

After all, what’s the value of Good Trouble if nobody ever sees you get in it?

Where John Lewis once bled, Benson and her colleagues smiled. The 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday wasn’t a chance to atone and apply the lessons of old to the struggles of today. It was a forum to assert herself, and her friends, as the descendants of a movement.

They see themselves as Barack Obama once described his voters, as “the change we have been looking for.”

As a statewide elected official, Benson does not have to protest for power.

She holds the levers of power now, and pulls them on a daily basis. It’s been this way for years.

And as we near the end of Benson’s two terms, she is hit with two lawsuits in as many years alleging racial discrimination. One was settled in lucrative fashion, the other is ongoing.

If he were still with us, John Lewis might call this Bad Trouble. Racially hostile environments are exactly what he marched against. How would he feel about a self-styled acolyte all but admitting to creating one?

If Jocelyn Benson wants to get in good with black people, she should start with the ones under her power.

Skip Selma, leave the selfie stick at home, and judge employees only by the content of their work product.