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As we prepare for Black
History Month it is useful to note that, at very select times and
under narrow circumstances, pervasive white racism actually worked
to the perverse benefit of at least some African Americans. For example,
a host of Black service businesses profited from the captive market
provided them by Jim Crow – although the same cannot necessarily
be said for their consumers. However, since segregation also proscribed
the possibilities of Black business growth, the net effect on Black
enterprise was negative.
In hindsight, there was
one stubborn legacy of white racism that redounded, ironically, to
the general benefit of African Americans as a whole. During the 35-year
interval between the signing of the Voting Rights Act and the dawning
of the 21st Century, African Americans enjoyed a kind of
grace period, during which the institutional Right largely abstained
from interference in the internal workings of Black electoral politics. This
was fortunate. The rich dominate the political conversation of the
nation through their think tanks and interlocking networks of propagandizing
organizations, the structures through which they promote the public
policies and political personalities that the corporate media ultimately
present as the only “rational” choices for the electorate. During
the post-civil rights period, Blacks were spared deep political penetration
by the Hard Right. Bluntly put, the racist fat cats could not tolerate
Black company long enough to create effective mechanisms of political
subversion.
Until the mid to late Nineties,
rich rightwing foundations spent relatively little time or money
to exert influence among masses of African Americans. They virtually
ignored the Black electoral arena – a thoroughly Democratic landscape – largely
confining their activities to ineffectual sponsorship of a few hand-picked
Black academics such as Thomas
Sowell and Glenn
Loury.
In the middle of the last
decade the Bradley Foundation, a hyper-aggressive den of rich conspirators
based in Milwaukee, took the lead in creating Black front organizations
whose mission is to endorse the public policy pronouncements of the
foundations’ think tank networks. A number of phony Black groups
joined the likes of Ward
Connerly and Robert
Woodson in the parrots’ cage.
These token corporate forays
into Black America allowed the Right to present its case in blackface
at university forums and on TV talk shows. However, the right wing’s
colored menagerie had little impact on the Black body politic, which
has long been centered on indigenous personalities and organizations
associated with the Democratic Party. Black Republicanism is moribund – the
last time a Black Republican represented a majority Black district
in Congress was 1935. The Right found it extremely difficult to
gain traction among African Americans. Some of
their Black Frankensteins have turned out to be hugely unpopular. Ward
Connerly is second only to Clarence Thomas as the most hated Black
man in American. A different approach was necessary: slick, clandestine,
and definitely minus the GOP label.
For the Right to achieve
effective penetration of Black America, it would have to take the
Democratic Party route. In 1992 Bill Clinton’s corporate Democratic
Leadership Council (DLC) took firm hold of the national party machinery.
Black Democrats were invited to plug into the DLC’s boardroom networks – connections
that also led directly to the money men of the Republican Right.
The stage was set for the emergence of the Black Democratic Trojan
Horse politician.
Racing for dollars
The Trojan Horse offensive
was launched in 2002. Backed by unlimited rightwing dollars and the
massed power of the national corporate media, Denise Majette and
Artur Davis defeated Representatives Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard
in Georgia and Alabama, respectively. Both outcomes were heralded
in advance as proof of the emergence of a new, conservative trend
among young and “middle class” Black voters – precisely the impression
the Right was spending tens of millions of dollars to create. The
facts proved no such thing: Majette garnered only 16
percent of the Black vote in McKinney’s Atlanta-area district, and won by
the same percentage. It cannot be assumed that even this fraction
of Black Georgia voters was motivated by conservative ideology. Earl
Hilliard was supported by more than two-thirds of African American
voters in his 58 percent Black Alabama district, but lost to Artur
Davis 54 to 46 percent. Both contests were open primaries in which
white Republicans crossed over to join white Democrats in electing
Black Trojan Horses. Yet corporate media framed both races as referendums
in which Blacks rejected “outdated,” “civil rights style” politics – reasoning
that is so transparently illogical, it can only be sustained by constant
repetition.
That same year, the Right
came close to putting its Black candidate in the mayor’s chair in
Newark, New Jersey. Cory Booker, a one-term city councilman who tapped
into the Bradley Foundation’s network of corporate wealth and media
clout via the school vouchers racket, nearly unseated Mayor Sharpe
James. is
proud to have played a role in unmasking Booker, who tried mightily
to conceal his Hard
Right ties.
Booker remains a darling
of the DLC. Majette and Davis are newly-minted members. Tennessee
Black Congressman Harold Ford sought but did not get the support
of fellow DLCers in his bid to become Democratic Leader of the House,
in November 2002.
Overall, however, 2002 was
a good year for the Black Trojan Horses and their DLC and Republican
paymasters. The historical respite from rightwing interference in
Black electoral affairs was over. Fat checkbooks and the lure of
contracts and consultancies now threaten to overwhelm authentic Black
political structures. Deep pockets buy a small army of Black sycophants
and wannabes in politics and media, eagerly available to peddle the
Right’s message that African Americans are becoming more conservative.
Which brings us to Jonetta
Rose Barras, the subject of our January 8 Cover Story, “The
Serpent in the Garden: Spreading Lies About Black Voters.”
Printer friendly version
of Serpent in the Carden cartoon
[T]he Sunday,
January 4 edition of the Washington Post exhibited a political
fantasy so bizarre and without foundation, that it carried a disclaimer
in
the title. “Black
Votes – No GOP Fantasy,” announced the headline
to Jonetta Rose Barras’ opinion piece, which attempted to lend credibility
to “the GOP's announced goal of winning 25 percent of the African
American vote in 2004.” Barras then strung together the same flimsy
set of false assumptions and contorted logic employed by other
corporate hirelings to prove the absurd proposition that in order
to retain
Black loyalties Democrats must turn to the right.
Barras
is, to put it bluntly, a hack for the bipartisan businessmen’s project to create the impression
that political conservatism is on the rise among a “new” and “emerging” class
of educated, upwardly mobile African Americans. It does not matter
to corporate media – and certainly not to hustlers like Barras – that
there is no evidence of such a phenomenon among the Black voting
public. Big media’s mission is to create their own set of facts,
treat them as if they are true, and convince the rest of us to act
accordingly….
If she
is in her right mind, Barras doesn’t believe the GOP’s grand projections either.
Her mission is to sow confusion among Blacks in order to create space
for an alternative, corporate-friendly African American leadership within
the Democratic Party. That’s where the action is. Barras invokes
the Republican threat in order to portray Black Democratic conservatives
as the wave of the future, as opposed to the ”outdated” voices of
the “far left wing of the party.”
The heroes and heroines
of Barras’ story are – no surprise – Representatives Artur Davis,
Harold Ford, and the Bush-kissing, voucher-loving, Black DLC Mayor
of Washington DC, Anthony Williams.
Ms. Barras asked to respond
to our piece. Here’s what she wrote:
I recently
read your article that attempts to analyze the op-ed I wrote in the
Washington Post.
First, thanks for reading the article. Initially I was excited
when a friend told me you had published an opposing view. But while
I
had hoped for a debate, I was treated to a series of ad hominems.
Further, you did not even provide a link for your readers
so that they may judge for themselves the value of the piece I wrote.
I would like to respond specifically to a couple of charges you made:
1. The statistics I quote are not mine; they are not those of the
Democratic Leadership Council; nor are they those of Republicans. Rather
they are from
the nonpartisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
You took exception to my statement that there has been a measurable
rightward shift
among black voters. But the Joint Center study notes that "There
has been a noteworthy change in black partisan identification (away
from the
Democrats)." Further, if you review the survey carefully
yourself, you will discern that there is a direct correlation between
the drop in those
blacks not identifying themselves as Democrats and those identifying
themselves as either independents or
Republicans. One last thing on the numbers: What is interesting about
this movement away from Democrats is that it is charted in the two years
after George W. Bush basically stole the presidency and thousands of voters,
many of whom were black, were disenfranchised in the process. It is stunning
(and maybe even scary) that the number of blacks who identify themselves
as Democrats would drop between 2000 and 2002 and not increase, given the
underhanded tactics used by the Republicans during the 2000 election in Florida.
2. I am not a member of the Democratic Leadership Council. Since the
early 1990s, I have been tracking changes in the black electorate and
have written
extensively in several publications about this. I even wrote a book
that includes an analysis of this trend.
3. If you admit that black political leadership is trending toward
Rep. Artur Davis and Rep. Harold Ford as I suggest, then aren't you
also agreeing
that the black electorate is moving to the right of the far left
wing of the Democratic Party. You can't have it both ways. You can't
say African
Americans are voting for candidates like Davis and Ford, who clearly
are centrists, but assert that blacks are deep in the left, liberal
pocket of
the party.
4. I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I am a registered Independent.
I suggest you interview Dr. Lenora Fulani to ascertain the real independent
movement that is sweeping through America, and how important this
population has become in national elections.
Finally, what I found most troubling about your essay and analysis
is that it did not critically examine the Democratic Party. What is
it doing that
is causing the disaffection among blacks, particularly young blacks?
What should it do or what can it do to become more attractive to this
segment
of our community? Rather than stoop to a snake's level, you may have
better served your reader by delving into the issues of why blacks
would want to
join the Republican Party or why they would want to opt out of partisan
politics all together.
Maybe next time you won't be a victim of your emotions.
Barras must have herself
been overcome by emotion (shame would be appropriate, but unlikely),
since she failed to see that her Washington Post story was prominently
displayed and linked on the 8th line of our piece. Having
dedicated so much space to denouncing her, we are disappointed that
she was incapable of the simple act of reading. We do not enjoy beating
up on unconscious people, no matter how loathsome.
Barras says, “You took exception
to my statement that there has been a measurable rightward shift
among black voters.” Of course we did. The drop in African American
personal identification with the Democratic Party, as recorded
by the Joint
Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES)
in 2002, does not translate into a “measurable rightward shift.” The
JCPES makes no such claim. Instead, the Joint Center concludes, “Among
African Americans over the past five years, there have been small
shifts away from and back toward identifying with the Democratic
Party. However, African Americans have been voting Democratic at
their usual high levels.”
Barras fails or refuses
to comprehend the difference between voter identification and behavior.
For example, three out of ten self-identified Black Republicans fail
to vote for the party. Whatever their subjective idea of what a Republican
might be, these voters do not find actual GOP candidates to be a
palatable on Election Day. The shift to the Republican identification
column from 1999 to 2002 is simply a doubling of relatively small,
extremely subjective numbers – from 5 to 10 percent, very close to
what JCPES scholar David Bositis considers the statistical margin
of error. The GOP identification phenomenon, if it exists,
benefited the Republicans not one bit in November 2002, just weeks
after the survey was completed. Indeed, as we reported, “The two
party black vote for the House went from 89 percent Democrat/11 percent
Republican in both 1998 and 2000 to a 91 percent/9 percent split
in 2002” – a two percent net gain for Democrats among African American
voters.
Repetitive illogic
There is nothing happening
in Black America, or in the JCPES study, that bodes well for Republicans.
The most significant subjective movement noted by the survey was
from Democratic to Independent self-identification – the category
that is least likely to vote, according to Dr. Bositis. As any social
science student could explain to Barras, the figures are telling
us that Blacks are increasingly alienated from the Democratic Party,
but the numbers do not indicate that this dissatisfaction
is rooted in Black conservatism. Barras and her guiding lights on
the Right eagerly jump to the conclusion that African Americans are
dropping the Democratic ID because they perceive the party as too
liberal or, as she puts it, “left-wing.” If that were true, then
we should observe at least a modest upsurge in Republican voting
behavior among African Americans – but we don’t; the movement at
the polls is in the opposite direction. Viewed in the context of
both the historical and most recent voting behavior of African Americans,
it is far more likely that Black dissatisfaction comes from the Left;
folks feel alienated from the Democratic Party because it is not
sufficiently activist and “pro-Black.”
Barras is attempting to
transform a negative for Democrats into a positive for the Right – somewhat
like assuming that because a spouse has become weary of a marriage,
he or she will automatically sleep with the neighbor next door. In
this case, the spouse has shown repeatedly that he/she despises the
neighbor. Barras and her mentors shamelessly disrespect the Joint
Center by forming conclusions that are not justified by the numbers – and,
by implication, ascribing those conclusions to the Center.
Barras’ colleagues on the
Right perform the same exercise in purposeful illogic when citing
the survey’s findings on Black support for vouchers. Although a majority
of young voters responded positively to the JCPES question on vouchers – a
question we believe was seriously flawed in its construction – Dr.
Bositis concluded, "they don't feel that the Republican Party
is an alternative." Thankfully, Barras did not revisit that
canard.
Barras tears into George
Bush for stealing the 2000 election and “disenfranchising” thousands
of Blacks, then calls it “stunning” that the JCPES survey finds
fewer African Americans identifying themselves as Democrats.
The source
of Barras’ confusion lies in her false premise that African
Americans are moving to the Right. Black anti-Republicanism
was confirmed in
2000 and expressed even more strongly in November 2002. Yes,
it would be “stunning” if Blacks had become more conservative
in the interim. But they didn’t. Instead, logic tells us that
significant numbers of African Americans are profoundly disappointed
with Democrats
for failing to fight hard enough against Bush. Barras looks
at reality
upside-down all day and wonders why she gets dizzy. (For an
in-depth examination of the JCPES study, see “Poll
Shows Black Political Consensus Strong,” November 21, 2002.)
We don’t care about Barras’ nominal
party affiliation, or whether she pays dues to the DLC. She
serves their interests; that’s why they featured an article of hers
in the March-April 2003 issue of Blueprint,
the DLC house organ. It’s
a PR piece for “new black leaders” Ford, Majette, New Orleans
Mayor Ray Nagin (who endorsed the Republican
candidate for Louisiana
governor, last year, but swayed very few Black voters),
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (DLC), and Cory Booker – who
is still earning his money from the Right as a school vouchers
activist
while he prepares
for another run for Mayor of Newark. (See "The
Wal-Martization of Education,” in this issue.)
Barras is a freelance propagandist
in the Right’s campaign to establish an “alternative,” corporate-friendly
Black leadership. Whether she believes what she writes or not
is of no concern to us, although readers may find it interesting
that
Barras is an acolyte of Lenora
Fulani.
Finally, Barras challenges
us to “critically examine the Democratic Party.” does
that all the time – in fact, that’s we’re doing right now. The DLC is the
corporate wing of the Democratic Party, created to diminish the influence
of Blacks and labor. Through its “me too” Republicanism, the DLC
discourages large numbers of African Americans from identifying with
the party. Instead, it makes common cause with the GOP project to
unseat authentic Black leadership by force of money and media.
Part of our job at is
to expose the Trojan Horse politicians’ ties to the enemy. This is
uncharted territory for Black America – after all, the Right’s surrogate
electoral offensive in the Black political heartland is less than
three years old. It took decades following the Civil Rights Movement
before the racist rich could bring themselves to mingle with more
than a few Blacks at a sitting. Now they are deploying puppets in
our midst with a vengeance. But give us time. African Americans are
the most sophisticated voters in the nation. We will not be fooled
for long.
“Aunts” and “Uncles”
A reader named Phil regards
Barras with contempt:
I read
your article entitled "The
Serpent in the Garden" and found myself filled with disdain
and disgust for this "Jonetta Rose Barras" person. Evidently,
she and others of her ilk seem to think that the only way to fit
into the political climate these days is to present a rosy picture
to those of the Anglo persuasion, while portraying African Americans
as not worth anything if they aren't believing in the lie that is
the Republican/Conservative party. I guess we must have the
burgeoning Uncle Toms (and Tomissinas) to go along with whatever
is most profitable and agreeable toward these racist beliefs. She
expounds on how the Democratic party is playing "plantation
politics," that the new Black voter will need to forget the
lessons learned from past struggles, that the present administrative
climate is good for everyone, ad nauseam. In reality, it is nothing
more than a attempt from the right of nullifying any possibility
of cohesiveness and solidarity from the Black voter against the present
political climate. I find it extremely sad that
there are young voters who don't understand that these
individuals are more dangerous
to them and their future than anything that has been
in our history.
B. Gittens is in the business of creating fair and democratic
elections – the
one business that should not revolve around money.
My organization
coordinates, manages, supervises and conducts elections for private
organizations
and hopefully, in the near future, for municipalities.
We supply the machinery as well as the manpower and expertise to
run a non-partisan,
totally transparent election. We regularly deal with
voting equipment, proxies, ballots, candidates and election rules and regulations
as they pertain to federal law. As far as I know we are the
only African-American company in New York that does this (there are
only 2 other companies in this city that are in the same field).
So I have a unique view of our electoral system and how it is failing
the people and how it can be fixed. (We were not offered the contract
for the overseas votes of our military personnel nor were we told
that it existed. It was a no bid contract given to Halliburton – Dick
Cheney’s old company).
I bring
this up because of the recent article of yours that describes certain
people and
their paymasters (Barras). It seems that the majority
of the problems we
face from candidates or anyone in politics (pundits) usually involves
money in some form or another.
We have these problems
because our politicians and other spokespeople are not obligated
to the people of this country. If you can get anyone to say anything
you want because you are paying them, then that is a problem.
The current
system is set up to allow candidates to accept money from big business
so therefore
they are obligated to big business. This process
should be stopped. In every election that my organization supervises,
whether it is
for a union, cooperative apartment, condominium,
college or corporate board of directors, each candidates' campaign
is paid for by the
sponsoring organization (the client) so each candidate has the
same access to advertisement. In other words it does not depend on
the amount of money the candidate has in their pocket or the amount
they can raise (where is it stated in the constitution that only
rich folks can run this country). Each candidate’s picture, biography
and campaign message is distributed equally and it is not paid for
by the candidate – it is paid for by the people that want this election
to take place.
So with that in mind
shouldn't the American people pay for American election campaigns? This
would eliminate big business from the equation,
it would give each candidate the same amount of money to campaign
and access to the
same forms of advertisement for the same amount
of time. If one candidate has a 30 minute spot on channel 2 all
candidates should have a 30
minute spot on channel 2.
It makes
candidates obligated to no one person or organization (non-partisan).
It makes them obligated
to the people of this country.
The world’s elites are
seeking to position their institutions and nations as far from the
American axis as is feasible, while carefully avoiding economic catastrophe
in the process. It is like planning a divorce from an insane, violent
spouse who also has a key to the safety deposit box. The divorce
will unfold in stages – or, under further provocation from the U.S.,
in earth-shaking spasms. But there is now no doubt that the U.S.
is fated to shrink as the world withdraws from successive layers
of entanglements with the madman. Black America must therefore prepare
to marshal its collective assets for a long period of retrenchment.
Gene Marner writes with
recommendations for additional reading.
A powerful
and insightful piece. The news is bad enough but there's worse to come: the
peak of oil and gas production. The long, deep slide is longer
and deeper than any of us can imagine. Sometime this decade – sooner,
rather than later, I believe – supplies of both natural gas and oil
will reach their production peaks and start irrevocably and forever
to decline. That will put a permanent end to economic growth
and a hundred thousand other things. Please don't think that
I'm trying to be the more dire Cassandra but I do think that those
who face the future with neither optimism nor pessimism but with
realism have the best chance to survive the new low-energy world. Anyway,
Cassandra was right.
A new British website, Wolf
at the Door, offers a good introduction
to this grim but essential subject. An article
of my own dealing with the subject is in the Online
Journal Archive.
Black Labor in a Wal-Mart world
Printer friendly version of The Wal-Mart Monster Cartoon
There
are super-stores, and then there’s Wal-Mart,
the Arkansas family business that has
become “so
big and so furtively powerful as to have
become an entirely different order of
corporate being.” Wal-Mart’s
presence was almost palpable as Black
labor leaders gathered in Orlando, Florida
earlier this
month to map election strategies (“Black
Labor Seeks ‘Game
Plan’ for Victory,” January 22).
Tens of thousands of southern California
union
workers are on strike against Safeway
and Kroeger,
but labor’s grievances lead directly to the Big Box:
Everybody
knows where the anti-union pressures are coming from. “This strike is a Wal-Mart
strike,” said Willie L. Baker, Jr., UFCW International Vice President
and field operations chief, addressing fellow CBTU leaders in Orlando. “It’s
really about how Americans finance health care. Will it be every
man for himself…?
Wal-Mart is George Bush’s
kind of company, the behemoth at the import end of
the domestic disinvestment loop that begins with the export of
U.S. jobs to the low wage world.
From points south and west across
the Pacific the retail monster
sucks up merchandise for sale to
families
that formerly made such goods.
Ultimately, the abominable engine
wipes the landscape
clean of all competitors and impoverishes
its
own customers. While Wal-Mart and
its corporate protégés lock their
employees (literally) into abject
impotence, the Bush regime seals
the door shut through its war on
the public safety net. The Bush/Wal-Mart
vision of America is labor locked in a box.
The Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists has been on the scene since 1972, the year AFL-CIO President
George Meany declared labor “neutral” in the race between Richard
Nixon and George McGovern – without even consulting Black labor.
Peg Glasser writes:
Your commentary
on the Black labor movement is breathtaking in its depth of information
and willingness to draw a bright
line in the sand. Black labor will
play an important role in saving the nation.
Freedom Rider vs.
Wal-Mart
Margaret Kimberley’s January
8 Freedom Rider column, “Wal-Mart
and the Economic Destruction of Black
Communities” was republished at sites
all across the Internet. The Walton
family business is now the largest
corporation in the
world, accounting for 10 percent
of China’s total apparel production.
The mega-company’s virulent anti-union
policies depress employment standards
throughout the United States. Yet
some Black “leaders” insist
that Wal-Mart is “better than nothing,” writes
Ms. Kimberley. Folks need to look
at the big picture.
Unfortunately,
even some of Wal-Mart’s detractors miss the significance of its growth and
paint it as some sort of aberration in the history of American capitalism.
In fact Wal-Mart has perfected this system and the result is the
logical conclusion of capitalism unrestrained. One can argue that
it all works out. The Wal-Martization of America provides us with
the lower cost goods we will all need when our wages are lowered
by the Wal-Marts of the world.
Black leadership should
not give into the argument
that our communities are in such need that Wal-Mart and its acts
of harassment can be considered an asset.
Wal-Mart employees are punished for involvement in union activity and are encouraged
to spy on one another. Is it asking too much for
these leaders to think of
other ways to bring new employment
opportunities or respond
to redlining and other factors that keep businesses out of our
neighborhoods?
Apparently it is, and not just
in Crenshaw.
It appears that Ken Huston
never saw a job he didn’t like – for someone else to do, that is.
He wrote Ms. Kimberley a nasty little note:
I'm not
a big fan of Wal-Mart but I am a big advocate for needed jobs in
our black communities.
Additionally, I'm very familiar
with the Wal-Mart dispute in the City of Oakland because I have lived
and worked there for many years.
I can tell you without equivocation
that the City leaders in Oakland have come under great criticism
for their foolish decision aimed
at Wal-Mart to prevent competition with other large grocery
store chains. Oakland, as you may know, does not have the
most intellectually enlightened leadership. Remember, Ebonics
was the language of choice of its teachers a short while ago. Moreover, the
City just approved a new Wal-Mart that does not include the
selling of groceries. Apparently, Wal-Mart is okay but not discounted
cans of pork and beans. I mention that fact just to illustrate the
hypocrisy of elected officials in the City of Oakland. You might
want to do a bit more research before badmouthing a corporation that
provides jobs, albeit low paid, to minorities, teenagers and
seniors who the city has ignored for years.
It is
difficult to
vouch for the people who
gave us Ebonics, but I stand by my assessment of Wal-Mart. According
to the New York Times, a Wal-Mart internal audit
showed 1,371 child
labor law violations, 15,705
instances of employees
working through meals and over
60,767 instances of workers
not taking breaks. Wal-Mart
workers on night shifts
are
literally locked inside
the stores. They are allowed
to exit via fire doors,
but only in case of fire.
Workers have been ill,
injured,
and on the verge of giving
birth but if they leave
before a manager arrives
to unlock the jail, I mean
store, they risk being
terminated.
Oakland and other cities
are making a grave mistake
if they accept the twenty-first
century version of a plantation
in exchange for a few low
wage jobs.
Wal-Mart management insists
on calling the people who work for the them “associates” rather than
employees. These “associates” earn less than $10 an hour, with few
benefits. The company encourages its workers to seek public assistance,
while the Walton family’s foundation rants relentlessly against “welfare
dependence.” It’s crazy in The Box.
Organizer Al Norman, author
of "Slam
Dunking Wal-Mart," writes:
Thanks
for your piece on Wal-Mart in the black community. I have been working
with grassroots
citizens groups against
Wal-Mart for the past ten years, and I can tell you many blacks think
wonderful things about the company that
feeds them slave-labor
jobs. In my own community, a black woman is leading the effort to
bring in more and more big box retailers, arguing
that poor people need the jobs.
Al Norman operates the anti-Big
Box website, Sprawl-Busters.
Wal-Mart’s propaganda is
as pervasive as it’s stores:
it’s a sponsor of Tavis
Smiley’s public broadcasting programs.
Evelyn Robinson spends a
chunk of each week inside the Big Box.
I am a
part-time employees at Wal-Mart and I agree with the article. I chose
to be part-time because I would like to run my own nonprofit. Working
there in the evenings I see
most of the slave mentality going on. Just last
night I had to work the whole
softlines department alone due to lack of staffing. Their response
was, when we can we will try to send someone over to help
you. I live a small town
Rhode Island town called Woonsocket and Wal-Mart just bought out
the land of a roller skating ring to add a superstore. The
local supermarkets like Shaws
or Price Rite were not pleased because this will hurt local union
stores.
I am also one who is
on Public Assistance
and Section-8 and making only $138 a week at Wal-Mart, so I really
understand. My goal is to continue to build
my nonprofit called
The Extra Mile which is an information referral service for low
and moderate income working individuals offering
case management
and life assessment skills. We also have a program on low self-esteem
called Sister2Sister for women and teen girls
and our final program
RI Double Dutch league just began to teach the young kids double
Dutch. So thru the grace of God my eye is on
God's prize. But
I really agree
with your article.
People
in this town are
believing in the
mentality that
something is better
than
nothing.
Men and boys in
the choir
Freedom
Rider’s January 22
exploration of “Sex
Abuse, Corruption,
and the Boys Choir
of Harlem” struck
deep moral chords
among the readership.
Ms. Kimberley denounced
choir founder and
executive
director Dr. Walter
Turnbull for suppressing
complaints of sexual
abuse, and castigated
community leaders
who failed to hold
Turnbull to account.
Ms. Kimberley sees
a pattern:
I give
Turnbull credit for confessing, albeit lamely. Another revered Harlem
institution,
Hale House, was
not so lucky. In 2001 it was revealed that its president, Dr. Lorraine
Hale, had charged market rents in an apartment building
given to her by
the City of New York to house low-income residents. As the charges
of malfeasance multiplied prominent leaders such as
Rev. Al Sharpton
and Congressman Charles Rangel very publicly leapt to Dr. Hale’s defense. Of course, every day another sordid shoe dropped.
It turned out that the person listed as the Hale House Treasurer
was deceased, and had been deceased for several years. Dr. Hale had
borrowed money from the organization both to renovate her suburban
home and to finance her husband’s theatrical production. I often
wanted to be a fly on Sharpton’s and Rangel’s walls when those stories
broke….
Once again we see the
Black community
beset by a lack of imagination when faced with a crisis that should
be confronted. There
is little doubt
that the Choir
would suffer
a difficult
transition
with new leadership,
but it could
survive if
those
who circle
the wagons
were instead
motivated to
bring new ideas
to a challenging
situation.
Turnbull
is obviously
a very gifted
man, but he
can’t
be the only
Black person
in America
who can teach
children to
sing. Instead
of defending
the
disgraced Director,
the Board should
have begun
searching
for a replacement
to undo the damage that has been done.
B.J. White wrote Ms. Kimberley,
worried that her contributions to Hale House might be misused. Kimberley
replied that the New York Attorney General ended his investigation
two years ago when Dr. Hale and the old board resigned.
Gwen Barbour thanks Freedom
Rider for taking on the “icons” of Black society.
Once again
Margaret Kimberly shows the integrity and hard hitting reporting
that is missing far
too often when
the focus is on those in positions of prestige.
These "icons" are routinely pampered, protected and
pardoned for behavior that would result in serious repercussions
for us ordinary folk.
Ms. Kimberly lets the chips fall where they may in calling Turnbull
to task for his
willingness to do that
which was self-serving
and expedient rather
than that which was
right. Black
leaders need to know
that they carry a heavy
burden of trust placed
in them by the communities/constituencies they
serve. Fairly
or not, they are also
subject to more intense
scrutiny than others. When
they fail to live up
to expectations for
honor, decency and
ethical behavior it
is good to know that
Ms. Kimberly or
someone like her will
be there to speak
with clarity and
truth about it.
Problems in the pulpit
As a religious person, Margaret
Kimberley holds
ministers to high standards. In her December 25 column, she
questioned whether
disgraced former
National Baptist
Convention USA
president Rev.
Henry Lyons is
“Repentant
or Still Scheming?” Kimberley
has no vendetta
for Lyons – she’s
concerned about
the “calling” in
general:
Until
very recently the clergy was one of the few avenues to civic and
political authority
open to black
Americans. As a result some of the greatest minds in our community
became religious leaders. Unfortunately it also meant
that some
of the less gifted among us also heard the call to preach. The time
has long passed when the pulpit should be the last refuge
of a scoundrel.
Excellent
article!! Remember the membership is either uncomfortable
having this type of frank conversation with preachers
or has the mindset of "it's a sin to confront the Preacher
no matter what." Leadership and lay people
alike should read this article.
Reverend Jeanette Pollard
is a newcomer to and
Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column. She welcomes
scrutiny of the ministry.
I should
be out trying to clear the snow that fell last night from my front
porch. Instead,
I am
reading (for the first time), the articles on your web site. I
just learned of it a couple of days ago from a friend. I am so glad
there is a place for true defenders of the Black community to let
others know about what is happening in the Black community.
One of the most important and not reported (or under reported) incidents
that will surely
further weaken the minds of our young Black people, is the sexual abuse
they continue to suffer at the hands of Black ministers. I'm
not talking about
just in the Catholic Church. I'm talking about in
Black Pentecostal,
Baptist, etc. churches. This is a travesty of the true
mission of the universal church. Parents of these
victims are afraid
to speak up, lest they be viewed as "attacking" the "mand
of God." This
is nonsense!! The "mand" or "womand" of
God is supposed
to protect the
flock, not prey
and devour the
flock which they
oversee.
Again, your web site is marvelous!
Interpreting MLK
We’re pleased that our MLK
Week Cover
Story, “Dr. King’s Global Vision – Today’s Missing
Ingredient,” was
widely
circulated
on the
Internet
and for
print publication,
along with
the fantastic
work of
our cartoonist, “Twenty-Nine.”
Printer friendly version
of MLK tribute cartoon
We featured an especially
appropriate passage from King’s “World House” chapter of his book, “Where
Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community,” published in 1967: “[T]oday
our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust
to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.
The large house in which we live demands that we transform this world-wide
neighborhood into a world-wide brotherhood.”
It is woefully apparent
that many of Dr. King’s purported admirers do not share his global
perspective, or possess any sense of historical mission beyond their
own immediate life circumstances. As we wrote:
They cannot
find themselves or their fellow African Americans on the sweeping
map of history,
and
so have no idea what direction to take. They are only vaguely aware
that the “triple evils” King spoke of 37 years ago – racism,
economic exploitation, and war – are now infinitely more dangerous
to world survival than while King lived. Consequently, these “leaders” possess
only the narrowest understanding of the threat that the Bush Pirates'
global offensive poses to African Americans, specifically.
Erroneously
assuming that personal wealth equals group leadership, too many
beneficiaries of
the great leap out of Jim Crow use their influence to lull the
rest
of the Race to sleep. Like an adolescent class, they believe
they have achieved their present status in life independent of historical
Black struggle – or worse, that Dr. King, Malcolm and countless others
were sacrificed for the purpose of their own eventual affluence.
On King’s
birthday, they
celebrate themselves, oblivious
to the
blasphemy they
are committing. These “distracting classes” – in
that they purposely present distracting stories of anomalous Black
successes to counter the facts of massive social disintegration – have
always been
with us.
However, with
each ratcheting
up of
the global
and domestic crisis, we can afford them less.
James H. Henderson, like
many
of us, has firm views on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr.
Henderson
wrote
us
this
letter,
after
reviewing
our
January
15
Cover
Story.
This article is right on
time. Dr. King would die from depression and hurt to see the state
of Black America. African Americans have been lulled into a sense
of prosperity by being able to purchase things that have little to
no real long term value: cars, clothes, electronics, car accessories,
and jewelry. The ancestors of African Americans that came out of
slavery had the intelligence, even though they were grossly illiterate
by our standards, to understand that the ownership of real property,
knowledge, education, and faith and belief in the Great Yahweh would
open doors that the institution of slavery and hatred could not close.
From 1865 to 1968, Blacks had the greatest period of productivity
and growth. People then sought uplift and progress of the race. Now
we search for another Dr. King, and God only sends one deliverer
to an oppressed group of people, and it is their task to correct
the wrongs that have been fraught against them.
The problem with African
Americans today is apathy. I teach at an HBCU and at a majority
university, and the attitudes of the students are like night
and day. The black students at the majority university see education
as the key, while many at an HBCU do not view college as the
opportunity
to open one's mind to succeed.
Dr. King was not about status
quo, cliques, Greek Worship, bourgie mentalities, and other superficial
perks that many African Americans demean others and themselves with.
The solution is right in front of our faces, but we choose not to
take the right approach. First we must empower those of us
that are less fortunate, instead of disempowering and lauding over
them with more severe repercussions than the most racist bigot on
the face of the earth. Secondly, we must take our neighborhoods back
and stop coddling psychopathic social parasites that only seek to
destroy instead of build. Thirdly, we must once again educate our
children at home prior to public school matriculation. Many
of our grandparents and parents did it for us, and that is why many
of the Baby Boom Generation are able to enjoy the levels of success
that they have today. Fourthly, we must become a village again and
help raise those who have parents or significant others that are
incapable of parenthood. Fifthly, we must turn off the television
and turn on the faucets of knowledge. We must be willing to read
and learn and not be programmed and brainwashed by the media. Sixthly,
we must be role models in our community, and stop looking to entertainers
and athletes to complete our children's self worth and esteem. Seventh,
we must learn to use our financial resources in a progressive manner
to stimulate the growth of the group and the start of business enterprises.
.Eight, we must stop looking for a system that never included us
in its development to correct all of our problems. Nine: We
must teach our children of their history and heritage. For when a
man does not know his history or heritage, he is doomed to repeat
it.
Haiti coverage
Our
Associate Editor in Port-au-Prince, Kevin Pina has filed a series
of compelling reports from Haiti, documenting and interpreting
the current crisis. Pina’s latest article, “Haiti’s
Cracked Screen: Lavalas Under Siege While the Poor Get Poorer,” appeared
on January 15. Last week, was
proud to republish Jamaican activist and
educator John Maxwell’s
fine commentary, “The
Racist Antecedents
of US
Haiti Policy: ‘Imagine!
Niggers speaking
French!!!” We
have also
been privileged
to publish
recent articles
by TransAfrica founder
Randall Robinson,
now living
and writing
in the
Caribbean, most
recently, “Honor
Haiti, Honor
Ourselves – Forget
Haiti, Forget Ourselves,” January 1.
Derrick Gibson writes from
New York. He appreciates the coverage.
should
be commended solely on your coverage of the nations of the Caribbean – particularly
the recent series on Haiti. While I became acquainted with
the Jacob Lawrence series on Toussaint and the Haitian revolution
a few years ago, these articles have filled in the back-story, including
the inevitable US involvement in placing the world's first Black
Republic in the dire straits it still inhabits today. These
communiqués give me the history I was never taught in school, regardless
of how well I did on the Regents exams, but they still leave me with
questions.
Why do we – Black people – continue to give credence to nonsense terms
like West
Indies? How is it that for over several hundred centuries
we continue
to reinforce the inane notion that a lost Italian navigator "discovered" a
westerly
passage to India? What rationality states that an African – once
transported
across the Atlantic Ocean in chains – transmutes into a West
Indian?
Only once we – Black people – learn to recognize ourselves, learn
to realize that the face we see in the mirror, whether in the US or
the Caribbean and
South America,
is all part of the same family tree (albeit on different branches)
will we ever be able
to break
through all of the madness that exists around us.
How is it possible that with the collective economic power of what
has to be over $2 trillion from just the Africans in the Western Hemisphere
alone,
we fail
to be able to organize ourselves to prevent those who wish to do us
harm from doing so?
Propaganda or predisposition
Events of the past year
leave no doubt that white America can be oh so easily brought to
a state of mass, murderous dementia. The question much of the world
asks is: are these people predisposed to commit atrocities against
the rights and bodies of people of color? Or are they innocent dupes
of the War Party’s propaganda?
Johnnie Quezada wrote us
a letter on the subject.
As I’ve read much on the
material on blackcommentator.com I’ve been impressed with the focus
and dead-on analysis of U. S. society. Specifically, on the
current misadventure in Iraq, much of the commentary focused on the
enabling character of the white U. S. population. Although there
is some truth to Noam Chomsky’s assertion that the high levels of
support for the war is a result of the massive and unprecedented
propaganda campaign unleashed on the North American populace, I have
always maintained that the strength of the propaganda campaign is
not solely based on its intensity and pervasiveness but on the receptiveness
of the white American audience that it is directed at. It does not
take much to convince a population who are inured to violence (witness
the popularity of professional wrestling and reality TV), mesmerized
by popular media that consistently and unabashedly define democracy
and freedom as uniquely American values and finally, are heirs to
three plus centuries of fashioning a national identity based
on white superiority and privilege.
What
is disturbing is that much of the rag tag left in this country
continue to insist
that if only the American public were better informed by the media
then a movement would arise to challenge the neo-con’s plans specifically
and all injustices generally. But the truth does not get through
the filters of the corporately controlled media and naturally, the
color red or orange or any other color can mean something only to
someone who can see to begin with. Clearly, the white U. S. population
by and large has been blinded by centuries of racism. As, indeed,
historically is the case with settler states, which typically have
genocidal origins. The pogroms (what else can they be described as)
carried out in Tulsa and Rosewood should be a lesson to those who
believe in the inherent goodness or benevolence of white U.S society
as a whole. As a people, sectors of the white population throughout
the long and tortured history of the country, have personally engaged
in genocide or ethnic cleansing. Many of those that have not, which
may be the majority, have either cheered from the sidelines or tacitly
agreed through their silence. The main difference between the genocide
of the past and that ongoing today being that for much of the country’s
existence it was accomplished by the settlers themselves and now
its labeled “the war on drugs” and
carried out by the various
state institutions comprising
the prison-industrial
complex.
Even if
one charitably assumes that the U. S. media can and will accurately
report on U.
S. adventures or misadventures abroad, will as racist society such
as the U. S. be able to muster the appropriate moral outrage and
countervailing action appropriate to the slaughter and maltreatment
of black and brown peoples? Not likely since so much of their identity
is based on the domination of and perceived superiority over black
and brown peoples. Then, when someone among their own, such as Eugene
Debbs, decides to stand with humanity and attempt to move the white
U. S. masses away from their allegiance to the brutish U. S. ruling
class, he is either quickly marginalized (ala Noam Chomsky) if he
or she is lucky or simply murdered or imprisoned if not. But lets
also not forget the economic dimension. Much of the wealth of not
only the U. S. but of the global North as a whole originated and
continues to originate with the destruction and exploitation of
people of color. Racism is integral to the maintenance of a modus
vivendi
with the conscience (such as it may be) of whites individually and
collectively. This is why poor whites consistently vote against
their material interests by voting for the most reactionary politicians. Abandoning
racism would simply mean the destruction of their collective identity.
An identity that while having spelled doom for non-white peoples
and perhaps ultimately whites themselves cannot be easily discarded.
Apparently, the psychological comfort of their white skins is more
valuable than decent healthcare, wages and schools. In short, if
the Iraqis, or the rest of the world for that matter, are waiting
for the white masses in the U. S. to wake up from their stupor and
put the clamps on their ruling class, we all should collectively
not hold our breath.
The good folks
reaches an ever widening
circle of very smart people. We’ve just been introduced to Cynthia
Emerlye.
This is
the first time I've visited your website. Your article on Howard Dean was
very informative. I mostly want to congratulate you on the
beauty of your website design. I
love the layout and
colorful, playful feel
of it. Congratulations
on great design!
design honcho Susan Gamble
thanks you, Ms. Emerlye.
Ms. D. Green has kind words
for the whole crew.
Just had
to thank you for your wonderful commentaries. I find your commentaries to
be the most thought provoking take-no-prisoners analyses of issues
since the now defunct "EMERGE" Magazine articles. Although
I don't get the chance to read every article due to my hectic schedule,
I try to read them as often as I can. The articles help me
to maintain my sanity in the midst of the suffocating propaganda
masquerading as "news" in the mainstream media. Your
articles let me know that I am not alone in my thinking and that
some people really do see through this massive mainstream "bamboozle" as
I call it. I hope you never stop writing and publishing.
Your
comments are welcome.
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