African-American actress and conservative political commentator, Stacey Dash, has formally declared her candidacy for the state of California’s 44th District for the House of Representatives.   

In what was arguably a highly-influential cultic American pop-culture film that fully satirized and celebrated its romantic-comedy genre and 90’s adolescent culture, including its fashion, language, and obsessions, as Davenport, Dash played a supporting role as “Cher” Horowitz’s (Alicia Silverstone) best friend, coming from the same socioeconomic background and sharing similarities in personality and status.  

While Dash is commonly associated with her role as Dionne Davenport in the American film, Clueless (1995), she was more recently criticized for her statements regarding African-American cultural institutions and practices, most regarding the way in which black people recognize the talents and accomplishments of their community.

On Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Dash stated her disapproval of Black History Month , equating the month-long period of recognition to the segregative practices that once openly and devastatingly isolated black people from much of American public life for nearly a century.

“We have to make up our minds,” Dash said. “Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard.”

But it’s not.

Such an equivalence is ahistorical, factually inaccurate, and simply offensive.

It doesn’t really need explaining that American segregation left irreparable and long-lasting harm on entire communities of color throughout this country and that organizations, such as the NAACP, emerged to actively work towards a state of racial equality, one that has not yet fully been achieved for all people of color.

The one thing that is most troubling about her argument is that it’s aimed exclusively at black people and erases entire non-black communities of color that are often lost in larger discussions of stratification, discrimination, and inequality in American society. Her argument is selective and is poorly-constructed, as seen by applying her argument to a discussion of whether there should be a  month dedicated to anything, especially when what is dedicated is only one type or portion of something greater than itself.

Since her role in Clueless, Dash is most infamously known for her public statements regarding changes in her political affiliation and support of former 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

She tweeted:

The district most famously includes the city of Compton in Los Angeles, among the cities and communities of Carson, East and West Rancho Dominguez, Lynwood, and Long Beach.