devotionreader

Zero-tolerance for zero-tolerance biases

2008-12-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

A report released by the ACLU–CT,(Monday, November, 17 2008), raises questions about violations to students' rights to an education, as well as the influence of racial bias in decisions affecting student discipline, specifically suspensions and expulsions.

The report, "Dignity Denied: The Effect of "Zero Tolerance" Policies on Students' Human Rights, A Case Study of New Haven, CT, Public Schools," suggests that the 'zero-tolerance" policies influencing school discipline may serve to facilitate the "school to prison pipeline."

Such a disturbing report requires investigation of how school discipline policies and practices affect the incidence of suspensions and expulsions, and the impact on Black students.

Preliminary information gathering tasks have been delegated to an ad hoc committee; a report will be forthcoming early in 2009.

School days: Obama and McCain at NAACP Convention 2008

2008-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

During the 99th annual convention of the NAACP ten days ago, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama outlined their education policies to the nearly 3,000 delegates gathered in Cincinnati. Sen. John McCain promoted school choice and vouchers to help parents defray the costs of private schooling. “What is the value of access to a failing school?” he asked rhetorically. The NAACP does not support vouchers. It believes that school choice depletes public schools of the brightest students and leaves children and the support for public schools behind.

McCain said it is time to “shake off old ways and to demand new reforms in education.” Some of the reforms he mentioned were to give more spending discretion to principals and to establish new public virtual charter schools and online courses focusing on math and science. McCain also endorsed alternative certification for professionals transitioning into the teaching profession. Critical of teacher certification as a measure of teaching ability, McCain said “You can be a Nobel laureate and not be qualified to teach.” He said that parents only want “schools that are safe and teachers that are confident,” and he pledged to recruit new college graduates into teaching who ranked at the top of their classes. “We need their fine minds and good hearts,” he said to a largely polite but unconvinced audience.

In a surprise question and answer session following his remarks, McCain took questions on certification and pay raises for Headstart teachers. McCain disapproved of one delegate’s recommendation that Headstart teachers be paid higher wages. Instead, he called for greater scrutiny of teacher effectiveness in the school preparatory program before wage increases should be considered.

Sen. Barack Obama, in his address to the NAACP convention, pledged to make sure all children get a “world class education” from childbirth to college graduation. He told a receptive NAACP audience that the country needs to “uphold the ideal of public education,” but also to “fix” our public schools. Obama said his strategy would include recruiting an “army of new quality teachers,” increasing their pay and giving them more support. Further, he would provide tax credits of $4000 for college bound students.

The differences in the candidates positions were not only based on policy but approach. Obama presented his education strategy in light of chronic social ills such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, increased crime and violence—problems that contribute to poor academic performance, high drop out rates and, too often, incarceration.

As a corollary to his education plan, Obama pledged to expand job programs, keep police on neighborhood beats, and build on successful programs such as the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City—a highly regarded program that focuses on education and social issues to “rebuild the fabric” of communities in decline. These ideas are essential to any education policy aimed at reviving a vital public school education today in our country and in Greater New Haven in particular.

Among Greater New Haven students, performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test released mid-July revealed both significant and modest gains in reading, math, writing, and science. While a gain is a gain, it is evident that more needs to be done to obtain and sustain greater academic achievement by all students.

Redeeming public school education in the region will require institutional reforms that increase school funding, improve teacher quality, stem drop out rates among other issues. At the same time, reform measures are need to strengthen significant factors that influence academic performance such as parental involvement and mentoring, and to reverse debilitating factors such as joblessness or lack of affordable housing.

The Greater New Haven NAACP education committee has committed itself to advocate for equal funding, access and resources for education, quality certified teachers, a rigorous and culturally balanced curriculum. Every one who believes in these goals is urged to join the NAACP in our effort to bolster public schools in Greater New Haven and inspire our children to use education to help them realize their greatest potential.

Lisa Monroe is chairperson of the Education Committee for the Greater New Haven NAACP. She can be reached at ctnaacpedu@gmail.com.

Black men voicing change

2008-11-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

I have been fascinated by a number of Black men speaking on public radio about the change they should make since Barack Obama was elected our 44th president. They have said things like, "It's time for [Black men] to step up now. The whole world is watching us." "We have got to get ourselves together. Time to pull up the pants and get busy."

Other colleagues and friends I have talked with have heard the same things, with similar modest awe, jsut as we have responded to so many political and social implications that have surrounded Sen. Obama's presence in the election beginning on that February day in Springfield when he declared his candidacy for the highest office in this land.

This morning, on NBC's The Chris Matthews Show, NPR journalist Michelle Norris said that, in addition to the big picture change, she was hearing about change at the street level, change in Black men in light of Obama’s election.

Michele said that at the barbershop one barber said there were already 12 men who had come in to have their dreads cut off. Others are pulling up their pants.

Typical of a lot of mainstream coverage of the election, Chris Matthews weighed in with a off-target interpretation of Black men's behavior.

Matthews responded by saying, “Yes, they are ready to invest in America.”

Michelle Norris corrected Matthews analysis, saying, “They feel America has invested in them.”

The challenges President-elect Barack Obama faces loom large, none larger than dealing with the economy. But I think Obama was prophetic when he said in the last debate against Sen. McCain that it is often the challenges or threats that a president cannot anticipate that end up shaping his presidency the most.

Poverty, deep cultural disillusion and divide, urban violence, the state of our public schools--including the strength of our families and their commitmet to academic excellence of their children--are in the mix of the bubbling cauldron underneath the big picture issues. These issues are also America's infrastructure and will have to be revitalized and redeemed in order to call this nation back from edge of the economic or military gloom threatening over our heads. As president, Barack Obama will have to engage his considerable diplomacy to lead this nation across these fault lines. This is our time to bridge these longstanding chasms in our country, and we can, if Obama was right, that "we are the ones we have been waiting for."

Making Change

2008-11-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

Journalist and CNN commentator Roland Martin challenged an audience in Hartford, CT on Friday, November 15th to follow through on a slogan of the Presidential campaign in which Obama would say to his supporters, "we are the ones we have been waiting for."

Martin asked the audience members what change they are committed to making in their homes, neighborhoods, community? When President-elect Obama takes the oath of President of the United States, Martin asked, "what oath will you take on January 20th" to bring about change?

"The only people who get what they want are the people who believe," Martin said.

How will you take a personal role in bringing about the "change" promoted by President-elect Barack Obama?

First thoughts on Barack Obama elected President

2008-11-05T01:58:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama elected president

Two years of ardent support, hope, desire and belief culminated in those four simple but profound words blazoned across a television screen shortly after 11 p.m. last night.

It was those words that connected this long and improbable campaign, as Obama might call it, this noble and righteous crusade, to win the official title and more, the immensity of the Office of President of the United States.

What is impressive about Obama's election victory is the broad coalition of persons who supported him. An overwhelming African American vote certainly, about 95%, but also and for the first time, a monumental percentage of white voters stood for an African American candidate, even though a venerable white candidate was his opposition. Obama garnered an estimated 43% of the white vote. That percentage was not the majority, but it represents a long-awaited maturing of the white electorate who finally put off the long cloak of knee-jerk racial prejudice to actually deliberate on the choice they had between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama. And not only deliberate but act with courage on their convictions.

In this regard, Sen. Obama's victory is as much a transformative moment for white Americans as for Black Americans.

Afterall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream for his four children "to one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" was a liberation dream for white Americans to transcend the bondage of bigotry and to act on the democratic ideals of America's founding fathers who declared that "all men are created equal."

Additionally, part of Sen. Obama's broad coalition included about 66% of Latino votes, according to news reports, as well as boosts from younger voters, white women, including those Hillary Clinton dubbed "18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling.

So Sen. Obama's sustained and successful coaltion has already proven the viability of his most appealing platform for me, which is that we are not a nation of blue and red states, but we are the United States of America. And that American are in the fight together to improve our country and to be a positive influence beyond our borders.

On that fundamental premise President Obama must lead our nation, and among the priorities of his sdministation must be a reform and revival of public school education in this country. Tackling that behemoth will be a test of Sen. Obama's vision for domestic change. That's because the factors involved in rescuing public school education include a renewal of family values, respect and inclusion of cultural identity, equitable funding, eradicating the plague of social ills visited by high unemployment, drug abuse, poor housing, inadequate health care, and the lack of political will to champion a fair and balanced curriculum and a standard of accountability among all stakeholders in public education.

Across these issues are drawn the deeply entrenched lines of racial and class divide that lie yet unchanged beneath the euphoria of this justifiably proud stage in America's maturing democracy.

The hope now is that President Obama will lead us across these lines -- and that Americans of all stripes who enthusiastically supported his candidacy will follow his direction, and when necessary, even help to lead us further across divides into a truly free and fair democratic Promised Land.

Early bird voters

2008-11-04T10:15:00.001-08:00

Voters lined up in New Haven, and by now in every state in the nation, to cast their ballots in this historic election 2008.
Two educators, Lensley Gay and Susan Monroe, arrived at their polling center before 6:00 a.m. in Westville, well before the school day began in order to participate in the expected record-setting turnout, projected at 130 million total voters by the day's end.
Susan said that she was determined to get out early to vote, and Lensley encouraged everyone to "keep praying" through the day.
The mood among voters on this early morning could be described as subdued enthusiasm. They huddled closely to one another in a single file line, drawn to each others' warmth, and sense of unity, in the hazy, dew-laden school parking lot.

Powell endorses Obama

2008-10-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Gen. Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama for president on Meet the Press this morning gives Obama the buttressing he needs around the issue of his weak experience on foreign policy and lack of military cachet, especially vital to him in these waning, gut-checking days of the campaign. Even Joe Biden couldn’t deliver what Powell can and does. That’s good news for Sen. Obama.

Even more impressive, Republican Colin Powell condemned the outright lies and racist utterances promoted by McCain supporters, which his friend Republican Sen. John McCain himself has only passively disavowed.

Gen. Powell was direct in assessing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications to be president on day one, and he was pointed in questioning John McCain’s judgment in selecting Palin as a running mate.

His forthright critique of Sen. McCain’s faltering campaign does much to restore the good standing of former Secretary of State Colin Powell among many who are still stung with disappointment from his team player performance as a cabinet member in President George Bush’s administration.

Powell’s endorsement of Obama has been speculated on, if not anticipated, since the protracted ending to the Democratic primary last April and May and June. By breaking his silence about his support for Obama, Powell quietly restored the faith and respect I had for him as a reasoned and deliberate thinker, a fair and reliable judge of any issue threatening our national defense and our reputation around the world. Some of that faith I had in Powell was undermined by his soldier’s loyalty to Bush and his attempt to justify his pre-emptive attack on Iraq, based on unverified accounts of presence of weapons of mass destruction.

Now that he has acted independently to express his preference for Democrat Sen. Obama for president and, particularly, because he has rightly denounced and rejected the unchecked racist pronouncements by McCain supporters, Gen. Colin Powell re-emerges as an appealing figure who many Americans once had the audacity to hope would seek the presidency and bring the country together across racial and party lines. It is worth noting at this already historic moment that there are two men of African heritage on the national political scene who have enormous popular appeal among the masses to become president of the United States. Powell missed his opportunity to be our nation’s once and future king, but his well reasoned argument for supporting Obama puts him in an influential position to be a kingmaker.

Thoughts on the final debate

2008-10-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Most network polls conducted after the debate tonight give Sen. Barack Obama the winning advantage, but even as an Obama supporter, I say it was great to see Sen. John McCain finally come alive and respond freely to questions.

His previous scripted and rehearsed performances have so far kept me from believing in him as a man whose sensitivity to his immediate environment did not extend beyond a muffled sneer or vein bulging in his neck.

Tonight , McCain gave the audience a flashback to the aggressive McCain of old, someone who was ready to immediately pounce on his opponents and knock their ideas to the ground with a left hook out of nowhere.

The only difference in McCain these days is that while he is ready to throw a punch, the force behind it has been diminished by the amount of false accusation it has to travel thorough before it reaches his opponent. If Sen. McCain Cain would speak honestly maybe he could gain some ground

Quick thoughts on last night's debate 10082008

2008-10-08T03:55:00.001-07:00

Some quick thoughts on last night's debate ibetween Obama and McCain in Nashville:

Obama appeared more presidential than McCain. He improved his performance from the Rick Warren interview, for example, by shortening his answers and making a connection with middle America- emphasizing that economy, energy, and education were kitchen table issues that he was immersed in thinking about and already responsibile for improving. However, McCain spouted a lot of filler, especially beating the American exceptionalism drum--Americans are the best workers, best producers, best citizens, etc.

McCain seemed to take more cues from Obama, repeating phrases and answers Obama said. McCain's answer to the last question is an example, when he repeated Obama's statement that what often impacts even defines a new president's term is the unexpected crisis, not necessarily the problems he faces taking office.

Obama was aggressive without being offensive, often standing up and starting toward the center of the stage even when McCain was asked to address the question first. Obama seemed eager, energetic.
In contrast, McCain seemed, well, erratic, walking halting back and forth on stage, circling and looking stiff or as if he might stumble.

McCain needs to drop the assertion that Obama is "green" by signaling to Pakistan that he would invade them. Obviously, McCain is twisting Obama's words; it doesn't work.

The biggest surprise was McCain's $300B plan for distressed homeowners...which came across as too little to late. Or too much too late according to late night commentaries which reported that even conservatives balked at McCain's new plan.

McCain's campaign made a wise choice in not fueling the anger of Obama and his supporters by bringing up the sludge of guilt by association, i.e., William Ayers or even Rev. Wright. Nonetheless, McCain seems like his campaign is out of gas.

Vetting Gwen Ifill

2008-10-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

Gwen Ifill is the author of the forthcoming book, “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." Ifill is a professional and accomplished journalist, respected within her profession and held in high regard by many in the political arena she covers with passion and reliable and objective analysis.

That is why the flap from some in the Republican Party who are raising questions about her objectivity as moderator of tonight's vice presidential debate, because she is writing a book on Black political progress that reasonably must consider Barack Obama, is disingenuine, at best, but characteristically hypocritical and repugnant. Afterall, this is the Party that tolerated the presidential campaign tactic that made Willie Horton famous.

There is no reason to believe that Gwen Ifill will be anything other than professional and objective. The Republicans, insinuating that Ifill will be swayed by racial considerations in favor of the Obama ticket, reveal their own racism and bigotry. As Keith Olberman pointed out, no one has raised the question of whether Ifill would be biased toward Sarah Palin because she is a woman. Worse is the conservatives willingness to insert race into the debate when their true concern is to protect Sarah Palin, who has so far appeared as a lightweight dancing around the ring in this heavyweight contest.

As moderator of PBS's Friday night political round up program, "Washington Week," and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Ifill regularly brings in depth analysis to the forefront with integrity and balance. It is evident, particularly on "Washington Week," that the only preference Ifill favors is toward great reporting and insight, and she presses to get the best and most complete analysis of a story or issue from the journalists surrounding her on each program.

Watching Gwen Ifill revel in her passion, reviewing America's political drama each week, is as satisfying as considering the various points of view contributed by her guests.

Gwen Ifill is unrivaled in her fire in the belly for getting the story and getting it right. In that regard, she brings to mind a titan of politcal junkie's who appreciated her talent and made a way for Gwen to enter the ranks at PBS, the late Tim Russert. She will perform with integrity tonight moderating the debate, and tomorrow night at the helm of her weekly show.

Personal notes...

I have watched Gwen Ifill for years, reading her at least twenty years ago when she wrote for a newspaper in my hometown of Baltimore. I have met other professional journalists who praise her, and a few years ago, I enjoyed hearing testimony about Gwen in her early days when she wrote for the Black newspaper, the Boston Banner, from publisher Melvin B. Miller.

I have met and talked with Gwen Ifill on two occasions, at a formal talk she gave at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. several years ago, where she impressed the audience with her authentic journalist's heart and stories from her experiences working in news media. The other time was by surprise, one humid summer night at a crowded festival in a New Haven park, where Ifill stood on a dusty patch of ground up against a fence, and under the bright camera lights, conducting an interview with Ned Lamont, who was campaigning in his ultimate successful challenge of Sen. Joe Liberman in the Democratic primary two years ago.

Ifill took time to talk with me and an associate after her interview, sharing more of her genuine enthusiasm for reporting--in studio or even better out among people, where she liked to hear how the every day person interprets the politcal events of the day. She was tired, hot, perspiriing like everyone else, and loving the moment, exuding the same real excitement she does on tv. But unlike many things on the tube, Gwen Ifill was and is for real.

Can atonement be accomplished on this historic night

2008-09-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

On this historic night...

Everything surrounding Barack Obama's run for the presidency is historic. The significance cannot be overstated, however. On this historic night, Friday, September 26, 2008, Barack Obama, a Black man, participated in the first presidential debate of the 2008 general election at the University of Mississippi.

At this same institution a little more than 40 years ago, James Meredith became the first Black man to successfully matriculate at the University of Mississippi. Meredith was escorted into the university under guard for fear of the threat of violence waged against him by bigots and other zealous whites resentlful of his accomplishment. Ironically, Senator Barack Obama was escorted onto the University of Mississippi tonight under concern for similar precautions.

Of course--as a matter of course because he is a presidential candidate--Sen. Obama has a security detail assigned to him 24 hours a day. Not so much as a matter of course, Sen. Obama has had a security detail assigned for at least a year, since he began receiving credible threats to his life early in the run to the primary election.

Minutes before the debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain began tonight, news media mentioned the historic aspect of Obama's appearnce at the University, given its part in the nation's ugly history of racial segregation, discrimination and intimidation. Some suggested this high profile event featuring Sen. Obama gave the University a chance to prove that it had changed its attitudes, its values, as it relates to race relations.

That thread of a notion--that the rising tide surrounding Mr. Obama's political career over the last few years somehow serves as an oppotunity for white American redemption--has been floated more frequently from various ports in recent months from the New York Times Sunday magazine to the political desks of cable news pundits.

The notion cannot be validated, however. An affirmation of Mr. Obama can never substitute or makes up for past abuses and injuries that white society inflicted on Black Americans. One primary reason is because those abuses do not appear to be a part of Mr. Obama' heritage. Without attempting to make too fine of a point, Mr. Obama's lineage does not suggest that his forebears were recipients of the abuses inflicted upon Black Americans during 400 hundreds years of enslavement. Unless his Kenyan born father or white American mother had relatives who were enslaved in America, Mr. Obama missed the boat so to speak on that terrible history of racial oppression.

I do not mean to suggest that Mr. Obama does not find genuine cultural kinship with other Black Americans or that he has not met racial prejudice or been shaped by it. Nor do I mean to cast doubt on the goodwill White Americans may have to "right the wrongs of society." It is just that in my forty plus years I have learned something about redemption, forgiveness and the requirement to forgive, about how hard it is to position oneself with humility in order to be the forgiver or the forgiven.

The problem is human nature. Human nature is an awfully complex composition; like the clay that the prophet Jeremiah observed in the potter's hands, our human nature does yield under the shaping of Divine guidance, but deep-set elements such as resentment, fear, anger and arrogance harden our nature. That means we sometimes have to be cracked open or broken before being formed into a humbler vessel willing to see itself in need of forgiveness or a figure of grace who forgives.

These are some of the discordant notes underlying the hopeful comments stated tonight about the significance of Mr. Obama debating in a presidential contest at the University of Mississippi. Black and white Americans, to borrow a phrase from a friend, are caught up in a "strange dance" in which we Do-Si-Do around racial injustice or electric slide past racial resentments. Then, our illusion of social tolerance--the substitute for social harmony--is dispelled by incidents like the reprisal of dangling hangmen's nooses to intimidate Blacks, the Jena Six case, the O.J. trial(s), affirmative action or the inequality in public school education. These incidents stop the pretense and make us face the real music.

White Americans who openly seek atonement show progress in this society. But they have to seek it from those who have borne the injuries in question. Mr. Obama has received every insult reserved for a Black man in America, I am certain. Some two thousand years ago one man, or Son of Man, accounted for the sins of many. Can atonement for the injuries to many be accomplished through one man--even on this historic night?

Stay the course, Obama

2008-09-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Some Obama supporters are feeling let down and concern about the recent emergence of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska in the Republican presidential campaign. The Obama campaign must not be swayed from its game plan by the fervor erupting over Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. It is evident that in choosing Palin the McCain campaign was attempting to approximate the energy and interest surrounding the Obama campaign, a move designed to camouflage their lackluster candidate and vacuous platform. as well as warrant prime time coverage. Obama has celebrity, so the McCain camp wanted a celebrity. Selecting Sarah Palin was the equivalent of throwing a Hail Mary pass on fourth down with a minute to go in the third quarter of the Superbowl.

Now that both Democratic and Republican conventions are over, the Obama and McCain are officially operating in general election, the ostensible fourth quarter of this political season. There will likely be more gamesmanship from the Republican camp. While the Palin factor has launched McCain into the general election, she seems unlikely to have the gusto to carry him all the way to the White House. In fact, issues emerging about her early support for Alaska's "bridge to nowhere," her lobby for a reported $27 million in earmarks for her state, and some questions about her religious beliefs may prove to be heavy baggage that ultimately weighs down the McCain campaign hopes.

At this critical time, Obama should continue to pursue a campaign strategy based tightly on addressing the issues. The economy is the number one concern right now in the country. Obama is right to talk to people about their circumstances, how they are hurting, jobs are losts, homes are foreclosed on, while CEOs make multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses. As Obama has said recently, after the upcoming debates the American people will see a clear distinction between himself and McCain. The only way to achieve that distinction is to stay focused. Right now, McCain is running to be Obama. Obama must keep running for president.

Another river to cross

2008-06-06T03:21:00.000-07:00

So many person have rightly called for Obama to ignore the Clinton-generated public campaign pressuring him to name Hillary as his vice-presidential running mate. Top reasons have been cited as the baggage attached to Bill Clinton, his untempered ego, charismatic dominance, yet to be publicly documented financial affairs, and personal behavior. Hillary has her own baggage, as well, not the least of which is her polarizing personality to many within both Democratic and Republican camps.

In addition, choosing Hillary as vp would make Obama look weak, and frankly, like the status quo candidate, not the agent of change that is his greatest appeal to a wide spectrum of voters.

So last night's meeting between the two, just days after Obama declared that he will be the Democratic Party's nominee for president and on the same night Hillary declared that she was going to consider her next steps in the campaign process, is a mystery.

Did Obama maintain the authoritative position he needs to be taken seriously in the general election campaign? Did he cave in to Hillary's contrivance that he cannot win without her 18 million supporters--and that he cannot get those voters without her as vp?

Obama's circumstance at this stage can be viewed in the example of Peter, who while steadfastly looking at Jesus, was able to do what is only possible with God, to walk on water. When Peter's concentration on Jesus was distracted, by the self-awareness that he was doing something amazing, he faltered and fell into the water.

In that context, if Obama stays true to his inner calling to "come," he will proceed in a direction that will defy the pragmatic analysis that considers Hillary's voter bloc as paramount, as the determinant of the remaining campaign.

If he stays true to the innver purpose that has so far presided over his amazing journey, he will choose someone other than Hillary, who some pundits and dispirited supporters say is his only hope to get to the White House. Hillary and the vp issue are a potential diversion, a distraction to Obama. However, if he stays focused on his inner purpose, this vp issue is just one more river to cross on his way to the Promised Land.

She's got it bad, and that ain't good

2008-06-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton's performance on the last night of the Democratic primary (Baruch College, June 3, 2008) was abominable.

Rather than acting to unify the Party, by tempering the frenzy she has stirred among some White women and others who voted for her during the campaign, Hillary propped herself up as a power broker before the nation to whom Barack Obama would have to cater to before she releases 18 million voters to his effort to win the presidency.

Last night and this morning, my family, friends and radio commentators have described her performance in stunning terms, as "embarrasing," "deranged narcissism," "egotistical," "vindictive," "delusional," "divisive" and "evil."

The Black community--and all well-meaning Whites and others who value and are committed to maintaining the moral progress culminating in the Civil Rights Acts of the Sixties--must denounce and reject Hillary Clinton for what she represents, which is a return to blatant bigoted attitudes that essentially echo Chief Justice Roger Taney of the Dred Scott case (1857), who said "A black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect."

Hillary Clinton does not respect the fair fight and victory that Barack Obama accomplished, obtaining the number of delegates needed to secure the Democratic Party's nomination.

In fact, the Democratic Party, in allowing Clinton to hang on in the campaign, making mischief and biding her time, showed no respect for Obama or fear of its heretofore most loyal constituency, Black voters.

Does anyone believe that Hillary Clinton--or any other candidate--would not have been drummed out or brokereed out of the campaign weeks ago if the candidate in Obama's commanding lead were a White man?

Does anyone believe that Barack Obama would be permitted to challenge the rules or dismiss her accomplishment and hold voters hostage if Hillary Clinton has secured the pledged delegates needed for the nomination?

What does account for Hillary's death grip on this election campaign? Her tenacity appears strange, strained, as if she cannot psychologically adjust to a scenario that does not position her as the presidential nominee. It feels like she wants it too badly, and that ain't good.

Fruit of eternal vigilance

2008-06-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

It is not that Sen. Barack Obama is the first Black candidate qualified to become the nominee of a major Party. It is that enough White Americans have finally put race aside in selecting a leader to carry the mantle of ultimate power on behalf of this nation.

Last night, as Sen. Obama stood on the stage of victory in Minnesota, the achievement was Black America's and White America's. After watching so many years of being overlooked or ignored in many contests, (Maryland's support of Ben Cardin over Kweisi Mfume for the Senate race in 2006, for instance), Black America saw the fruit of its eternal vigiliance for equality when Sen. Obama declared that he had obtained the number of pledged delegates required to be the nominee on June 3, 2008.

By the will of the people, Obama is truly America's Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Now the work is to choose a running mate--not Hillary Clinton, whose race baiting, poor campaign organization and alarming death grip on a sense of entitlement to the Presidency nulify any view that she could be an asset to the ticket, let alone an effective elected official in the Senate, to say nothing of the executive office.

Obama's work is cut out for him: choosing a running mate, working to bring the Party together--encouraging Hillary supporters to join the winning team--and focusing arguments on policy and direction of his administration to win against John McCain in November.

Obama supporters can be helpful in bringing family and friends who supported Hillary into the fold. An "each one, reach one" campaign can go a long way in smoothing the path toward unity in the Party.

However, with this historic nomination must also come unprecedented support from the electorate to act on the call to action that is fundamental to Barack Obama's message. If we have the audacity to hope with Sen. Obama, we as committed believers must also do the civic work that affirms the reason for our hope. As Sen. Obama has said, we are the ones we have been waiting for.

What is exciting about Sen. Obama securing the delegates to become Democratc Party nominee is that everyone who comes aboard is called upon to roll up his or her sleeves, and get to work in the neighborhoods, the schools, the environmental causes and other efforts, in order to set America on a promising and prosperous course.

Americans want to get involved, to rally and work to put the country on the rebound. We have been in want of a leader to raise the banner and the rally cry.

Until now.

A light of her own

2008-05-08T04:12:00.000-07:00

Some political pundits have suggested that Hillary Clinton should be given time and respect to sidle up to the conclusion most of the electorate has demonstrated by voting--that she will not be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 2008. Reportedly, regarding when and how she will exit, the Obama campaign has said "the ball is in her court." However, that laissez-faire approach may not be the healthiest or most respectable posture for the Deomcratic Party or for Hillary.

That is because Hillary Clinton may not know how to exit the primaries, nor, in this slow and painful period of decline, may she possess the sound judgment and willpower necessary to call the game over. It can be understandable that the campaign has made her an emotional wreck. Hillary blithely entered the campaign season last fall fully expecting to bear the mantle of Democratic nominee for president seemingly by SuperTuesday in February 2008, and she has desired to don the crown of president for an even longer time.

I don't think that Hillary believed that she would have to break a sweat in the race. She had this in the bag, given her "background," her time served as the unofficial co-president, her claim to Bill Clinton's presidential legacy (the successful aspects), her overreaching sense of entitlement (because she and Bill had a pact?; because she endured the humiliation of Bill's philandering in the White House?; because she believed the fervent adoration that some supporters had for Bill Clinton would transfer to her?)

Today, Hillary Clinton is probably in shock, like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. The diffculty, however, is not in facing the light for, indeed, it seems that Mrs. Clinton has been preparing for a long time--at least 35 years--to be out of the shadows of her husband, to be in her own spotlight.

The psychological tragedy for Mrs. Clinton may not be that the spotlight is staring her down, but that the spotlight is about to become a glare in her rear view mirror. With each day that passes, the dizziying but egotistically gratifying spotlight of public attention, relevance and power attached to being a commanding presidential candidate will fade into the distance.

What will she be left with? The luster that has encircled her for eight years--her potential to one day be president--will have dimmed. No longer in Bill's shadow, she will walk in a shadow of her very own unfulfilled potential.

It cannot be easy to face the reality. That is why the superdelegates, the Democratic Party leadership, must step in now to end the campaign. In addition to the pressure they are bringing offstage, more Party powerbrokers have to do as Barbara Boxer of California did yesterday, strongly recommend publicly that Mrs. Clinton present a detailed outline of how she will proceed through the rest of the campaign, i.e., script an exit strategy and execute it.

Oh, what a night

2008-05-07T04:22:00.000-07:00

Tues. May 6th was a resounding victory for Sen. Barak Obama in North Carolina and Indiana primary elections, particularly in light of the firestorm around Rev. Jeremiah Wright that Obama's campaign withstood over the last four weeks.

The day before the May 6th primary, several television news program pundits considered both races as potential toss ups, speculating on what would happen if Clinton won both primaries or if Obama won both primaries, usually adding that Indiana was expected to go for Clinton. And it did--but by a slim margin of about 22,000+ votes, less of a margin than the number of people that attend some Obama rallies.

Despite the suggestion routinely lobbied at Obama--that he cannot close the deal--it is really Clinton who needed a knock out punch last night to convince superdelegates that she has a reason to continue to put the Democratic Party through more divisive campaigning. Clinton failed last night to do that. Since South Carolina, her campaigning has depended on fanning the fumes of racial division, stirring up animosity, resentment and fear among the electorate where these attitudes can most easily be ignited, among poor white uneducated.

The race-baiting tactics of the Clintons' and their supporters are despicable ("who do you want to answer the telephone at 3:00am?"; Jesse Jackson also won South Carolina; Obama would not still be in the race if he were white; Obama is winning because he is Black; next Obama will brag that he has not stolen cars; calling Obama "kid" and "that boy.")

By pursuing a desparate strategy of playing to racial bias, the Clintons spit in the face of Black voters, the faithful Democratic electorate that validated Bill and delivered him and Hillary to the White House in the first place. In 1992, it was not Saturday Night Live but The Arsenio Hall Show that launched Bill after his saxophone solo, which should be a lesson to the Black electorate not to sell its soul for a song.

Last night was the end for The Clintons; even Hillary's speech last night sounded in part like a swan song. Although she has not conducted herself respectably so far, Hillary Clinton should sound the first note of harmony to unify the Democratic Party by graciously exiting the primary campaign today.

Obama gave as close an acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination last night as he could. Clearly buoyed by his North Carolina victory, his confidence, energy and call for Americans to take back America was as appealing and inspiring as ever. Obama from the beginning has had the message that most Americans want to hear, the message that speaks to our hurt over the country's 8-year deterioration under Bush and our desire for the arc of democracy-for-all to once again lean toward justice and opportunity for every citizen.

Barak Obama should launch a salvo at McCain today, and by doing so, decisively declare the beginning of the general election campaign. Then, go on to run the campaign that he wants to run, and win in November.
Updated Thurs May 8

Sen. Obama - in his own words, Meet the Press 5/4/08

2008-05-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

When asked what happened between the support he expressed for Rev. Wright in his remarkable Philadelphia speech in March and his renouncement of the Chicago pastor last Tues. (4/29) in North Carolina, Sen Barak Obama, speaking on Meet the Press (Sun. 5/4/08), said that Rev. Wright "amplified and defended" the controversial remarks he had made in the past instead of taking the opportunity to build unity.

Sen. Obama continued, saying "that told me [Rev. Wright] was intentional in making comments that offend, but it also told me he is willing to distract our country and what [my campaign] is trying to do."

"In March I did what I thougt was right--denounce the worlds not denounce the man. What [Rev. Wright's] National Press Conference performance told me is that [Rev. Wright] was going to double down on divisive comments...."

Same cloth, different pattern

2008-05-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

After a reasonable presentation before the Detroit NAACP annual program Sunday night, surprisingly televised by CNN, Rev. Jeremiah Wright turned the page on pragmatism and poise the next morning, when he wrote a new chapter in his national profile through a presentation that included dramatic posturing and cockiness on Monday morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Defending and defining himself in light of the media-crazed defamation he has endured?
Injured and insulted by Sen. Obama's earlier denouncement of 30-second sound bytes from his sermons?
A Hillary supporter in sheep's clothing?
An opportunist?

Whatever his motivations, Rev. Wright (on Monday, 4/28) may have done what Obama has not ably done, even in his second denouncement on Tuesday, and that is draw an obvious distinction between himself and Rev. Wright.

Whether one supports Obama or not, it is hard to swallow that the hopeful, high-minded and uplifting Obama is overly influenced intellectually or philosophically by Rev. Wright. Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright share a Christian heritage, cultural and gender profiles, geographic domicile. Obama may be inspired by Rev. Wright's sermons on Jesus, but give Jesus the praise for that. He may also be strengthened by the African cultural framework in which Rev. Wright expounds on the Judeo-Christian heritage.

However, for the purposes of the American electorate deciding how much of its votes for Obama are also votes for the Chicago minister, Rev. Wright has done the most effective job of demonstrating that, though threads of their lives run within the same cloth, he and Sen. Obama are not cut in the same pattern.

Serious in Detroit-Rev. Wright

2008-04-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

In contrast to CNN commentator Soledad O'Brien's comments that his speech was not serious, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was serious in his address to the 2008 Detroit Freedom Fund dinner on Sunday, April 27th. Ms. O'Brien mistook Rev. Wright's use of humor--a tried and true technique employed to communicate and educate an audience--as the gist of his remarks.

In fact, Rev. Wright was deliberate in continually pointing out the very serious and significant perspective that Black American cultural styles of learning, expression and view points differ--but are not deficient--from that of White Americans.

Rev. Wright pointed out that the NAACP and the Black Church have historically worked in concert to address the white-dominated attitudes and the nation's laws that saw Blacks "treated as less than human or treated as second class citizens," he said.

The examples that drew humor--the difference between Africans and Europeans in rhythmic timing while clapping, singing, or stepping in college marching bands--helped to set up his more serious point, that is the distinctions between Black American religious tradition, our relationship to God as a liberator and deliverer, not only from this earthly life but a Saviour while we are in this earthly life. A deliverer from the physical bondage and social oppression Black suffered historically and that we contend with today.

Elitist

2008-04-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

Elitist?

What about President Bill Clinton? His fascination with the Kennedy aristocracy, shamelessly exploited during his term in office, was over the top, embarrasing really.

Remember the photo of President Bill Clinton standing next to Jacqueline Kennedy, sailing off Martha's Vineyard. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ted Kennedy, standing on deck in the background, stared awkwardly away from the romanticized "first couple."

The Bluest Eye

2008-04-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Lydia Diamond’s adaptation of the novel, The Bluest Eye, is an emotionally concentrated play in one act developed from the novel that first introduced readers to its author Toni Morrison in 1971.

Morrison’s novel, which has become a classic widely read in academia, lays bare how social steriotypes and attitudes about beauty crippled the spiritual, emotional and social well-being of Black girls--and Black people.

BookTalk discussion of The Bluest Eye

At the center of The Bluest Eye, both the novel and Lydia Diamond’s successful adaptation, is the phenomenon of racial color—more precisely how skin color in American society is used to perpetuate a racial caste system in which dark-skinned little girls, and boys, quickly absorb the message that they are ugly, undesirable and worthless misfits.

Facilitator Kerry L. Beckford and Margaret Penn

This is the message that young Pecola Breedlove, the central character, has absorbed in the mid-1940s of her small Ohio town. In an early scene of the play, Pecola sits slightly off center stage with legs crossed, hands clenched, head tilted upward and eyes closed, pleading to God to make her invisible—or to give her precious blue eyes, like the adorable Hollywood child star, Shirley Temple. At the foundation of that prayer is the hope that people, Black and white, will see her, look at her, affirm her humanity.

The unfolding scenes portray how Pecola’s mother, father, friends and the community each act out their own pain, contributing to Pecola’s debilitating end. Photo: Playwrights Richard Fewell and Lydia Diamond talk at Hartford Stage

Director Eric Ting carefully choreographed innovative staging including utilizing linen sheets to create walls and devising a riveting scene that showers water upon an actress in a crucial moment in the play.

The Bluest Eye opened its CT run in Hartford in February 2008 and continued its run at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, through April 20, 2008.

How the Montgomery Bus Boycott can drive more purpose into the new social justice movement

2007-10-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

" They knew why they walked, and the knowledge was evident in the way they carried themselves. And as I watched them I knew that there was nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity."

The economic "Black out" proposed for this week has generated much discussion from some who are in adamant support and others in opposition, if not to the boycott itself then to what they suggest is an action too short in its proposed duration or incomplete in explanation of its potential impact.

In discussing the "Black out," some people mention the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, the most effective economic social action conducted at the start of what became the Civil Rights Movement.

The Black citizens, business and religious leaders planned that boycott of the Montgomery bus system spontaneously, between a Friday and Sunday, after hearing of Mrs. Rosa Parks arrest on December 1, 1955 for not giving up her seat to a white man. The boycott was planned for the first work day of the following week, which was Monday, December 5, 1955.

Like the proposed "Black out" Friday, November 2nd of this year, the 1955 boycott was generated by outrage at acts of “over-prosecution” and social injustice, at that time represented by Mrs. Parks’ arrest, which was then the latest social injustice in a long series of injustices that Black citizens had suffered in Montgomery, and across the country.

It is instructive to consider that over the course of three days the Montgomery organizers put together a plan, publicized the action, and successfully carried off the first day of the boycott, even in the face of expressed doubts about the duration of the boycott and potential impact of the plan.

The story of that year-long boycott is told in Stride Toward Freedom, a memoir of the nearly day-to-day activities of the Montgomery bus boycott, written by a young Baptist preacher elected to the movement's leadership, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The story is a must read for Black Americans, all Americans really, a view from the first hand account of Dr. King how a system of entrenched discrimination sabotages the social and economic progress of its victims, and how a people unified by higher ideals of self-determination and dignity overcame legalized oppression through sustained and determined effort.

It may be surprising to some that over the harried weekend of planning, Dr. King struggled with the idea of "boycott." At that time, some persons compared the proposed bus boycott with similar boycotts conducted throughout the South by the racists White Citizen Councils with the purpose of denying goods and services to the Black community--and Whites of good will. Dr. King was certain that their discrimination was evil but questioned, as some do today, whether participating in a boycott was not as immoral as bigoted White groups. Was a boycott a negative action, when what was intended was a positive action, “to give birth to justice and freedom, and to urge men to cooperate with the law of the land...,” he asked.

He reconciled his struggle in recalling Henry David Thoreau's “Essay on Civil Disobedience.” The answer for Dr. King was non-cooperation. He wrote:

“When oppressed people willingly accept their oppression they only serve to give the oppressor a convenient justification for his acts. ... So, in order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system. This I felt was the nature of our action. From this moment on I conceived of our movement as an act of massive noncooperation. From then on I rarely used the word, "boycott."

Finally, Monday, December 5th arrived. Dr. King and the organizers waited to see what would happen. Would the Black Montgomery citizens unify, would the boycott be a success?

Dr. King and the other Black leaders had hoped for about 60% cooperation of the people. Early on Monday morning, Dr. King wrote, he and Mrs. King were up and dressed by 5:30am, waiting to see the first buses of the morning ride by their street. Soon, looking out their living room window, they saw an empty bus ride by--a bus normally filled with domestic workers.

"I jumped in my car and for almost an hour I cruised down every major street and examined every passing bus. During this hour at the peak of morning traffic, I saw no more than eight Negro passengers riding the buses." Jubilant, Dr. King said he realized that instead of 60% cooperation the Black community of Montgomery was participating at nearly 100%.

One of the most powerful passages of Stride Toward Freedom is Dr. King's description of the beautiful sight of men and women participating on that first day of the "massive noncooperation," which was sustained through the rest of 1955:

"During the rush hours the sidewalks were crowded with laborers and domestic workers, many of them well past middle age, trudging patiently to their jobs and home again, sometimes as much as twelve miles. They knew why they walked, and the knowledge was evident in the way they carried themselves. And as I watched them I knew that there was nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity."

Reviewing our past efforts in the wake of new social actions is educational, unifying and inspiring. In the next few days, as people plan their participation, we recommend that participants in the "Black out" get together and read aloud selections from our historical record of social protests. This activity will frame the current purpose with historical perspective, inspire unity, strengthen resolve and help to ensure sustained success in this new effort and those we engage in in the future.

Doesn't have to be a physical gathering. Send quotes by email, text message or just pick up the telephone. Each one, reach one; each one, teach one, our history, our inherited legacy, and our responsibility to one another.

For this week, we recommend Stride Toward Freedom, the first book selection for BookTalk, our online reading group focused on social action texts. We will post a date for an online discussion of the book soon.

Send us your recommedations for other books to include in the quarterly BookTalk discussion.

Peace

Is hanging a noose a hate crime or a prank?

2007-09-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

During its Saturday programming, (9/22/07), CNN asked if hanging a noose is a hate crime or a prank? The question itself is insulting. There is no basis for there to be a question. Of course hanging a noose is a hate crime. As one person reportedly responded to CNN by email, "there is only one use for that noose and we know what it is."
Another person responding to the question cut to the point: "people are promoting terrorism" by displaying the noose.
One responder said displaying nooses was "crass" but not a crime. Another said the act was a "hate prank." These comments reflect a sympathetic attitude with the teens (and others) who are testing the line of social tranquility. In effect they are saying that these acts are inside jokes and humor in the white community, reflecting a prevailing undercover attitude that is crass but tolerated and harmless.
Young people growing up in the tolerant hostility are now acting out--just letting off a little steam. They don't mean nothin' by it.That is not good enough, however. Displaying a noose is not letting off steam--it is a threat meant to cower black people into submission and passivity. That is the history of the noose, a history some who are still living participated in, and apparently their youth have taken up as a cultural legacy.
Title edited 9/22/07 2:06pm

Jena Six: “Shot heard ‘round the world”

2007-09-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

Watching the Jena rally broadcast on television and described on the radio raised much to compare and contrast with social action protests of the past. The coverage seemed a strange hybrid of a party atmosphere—celebrating the presence of R&B groups--and the more sobering and focused purpose of social protest against institutional injustice in the American legal system. What also caught my attention was that repeatedly commentators remarked how the great outpouring of support for the so-called "Jena Six"—at least 50,000 people attended the rally—all began last fall at the beginning of the 2006 school year around a question about who could sit under a shade tree.

Many persons interviewed on radio and television said that this outpouring of support from across America—from whites and blacks--was not just a one day event. It marked the beginning of a movement, something of a revolution. If this is true then the Black student who asked the Jena high school principal if there was any reason that he could not sit under a shade tree "reserved" for white students essentially issued the equivalent of the "shot heard 'round the world" in this 21st century. The "shot heard 'round the world" (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Concord Hymn”) refers to the initial shot fired in the battle that ignited the American Revolution. The premise of the student’s question shook the core of Black America. The fact that our children are still denied such basic human rights, that they are still instructed in a system of social inferiority, rightly exploded complacency and ignited a call to action in many Black Americans. Nearly one year later, the world saw Americans of all backgrounds rise up to reject this despicable social residual of this nation’s segregated past.

After hearing from the principal that he could sit anywhere on school grounds, Kenneth Purvis and his friends stood under the shade tree. White students responded by hanging three nooses from the tree. Kenneth Purvis said in an interview that after seeing the nooses, he and others went back to stand under the tree again.

These students acted in the spirit of resistance which is Black America's legacy and responsibility, from early enslavement through the Sixties and beyond. Resistance is a core value of Black American culture. "Resist, resist, resist," sang veteran social revolutionist poet Sonia Sanchez to an audience in New Haven just a few months ago.

Entrenched segregation in Jena shocked Black America but did not faze white Jena residents. The white adults of Jena who say that their town is not racist should be alarmed however that their children are. (How far does the "white" shade tree grow from its root?) At least three white Jena youth not only harbor racist attitudes, but situated themselves in the appalling historical context of American racial bigotry by hanging three nooses, thus invoking the heinous reign of terror whites levied against black men. (See 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginsburg)

The white students’ actions represent an attempt to threaten and intimidate based on racial supremacy, essentially an imbalance in power.

Taking a stand by sitting under the tree was the bravest and most affirming action those young people could take. They acted in the affirming tradition of forbearers such as Dred Scott, Rosa Parks and many others whose resistance contributed to dismantling legalized segregation and discrimination in America.

They challenged institutional racist attitudes, previously sanctioned by the school administration and exercised by their peers. Resistance was an imperative not only for their present school days but also for their future. What would be their prospects to obtain social equality in Jena five or ten years after high school, when a white Jena graduate would then be a supervisor in a position to hire them? The roles of segregation, submission and inferiority established in high school will carry over implicitly, if not explicitly, into work situations and all aspects of social order.

To allow this Jim Crow situation to dominate the small patch of ground in front of the high school is to sanction Jim Crow across the land. As Dr. King said again and again, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

There is much more to examine and build upon based on the sincere response of more than 50,000 black Americans, and Americans of all races, who came to Jena to protest injustice, to support the cause. There is much to be proud of in the youth who led the way.

Support the Jena 6!

Is the Black community in a battle to save the souls of our young people?

2007-09-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

"Our children are our greatest asset." "They are our future." We hear some variation of those comments often in our community. What is the evidence of their value to us?

I believe, I know, many of us are in pain over the headlines, news reports, unreported violence and abusive environment that some of our children experience each day. I am in pain over it.

Three of our best and brightest young people--college students--were shot and killed execution style in New Jersey a few weeks ago. Another of the group survived her wounds and helped police to identify the assailants. These hopeful young people had survived growing up in the Newark streets and were in the process of gaining access to education and opportunity until the moment they were attacked. The gunmen included teenagers, younger than the victims, and an alleged adult illegal immigrant and convicted criminal.

The stories of teenage murders in particular seem unending and unreal.

I do not relate to the extreme conditions I hear that our children grow up in today. I did experience a breakdown in the primary family, my parents separated for a time when I was a child, but the extended family (living with my grandparents) was a shelter and hedge against the encroachment of poverty and any challenge to moral values and a standard of behavior that my parents had instilled in me. This added protection from the extended family was firmly in place for a lot of my friends and our generation that grew up in the social revolution of the Sixties.

But it is clearly dismantled or at least severly weakened in present day families and communities. As a result, children are catching (or dodging in desparation) the full frontal impact of the the family breakdown--absent or unenforced standards of moral behavior, drug abuse, sexual abuse, poverty. The fruits of evil prevail in the absence of family social values, economic support and community intervention.

In addition to the family and extended family, the public schools were a strong enforcer of moral values that I learned at home. I despair the erosion of the high standards that teachers held themselves and my friends and I to beginning in my elementary school education.

Even though stories proliferate about the social malaise that has infected many poor Black communities, I have not had such a clear and powerful window to the entrenchment of this perverse social order until I read Cindy Brown Austin's novel, By the Rivers of Babylon (2007).

My reading is light in the urban fiction trend, and even less have I encountered the Christian thriller, which Rivers might be viewed as. But what Austin showed me more than any other text I've read is how our young Black boys are systematically reared into the criminal culture on a wide scale, and how a poor community (trapped in an expansive project complex) is occupied by a dominant drug culture as overtly as the U.S. military invades foreign territories, or the way I recall the National Guard occupied my neighborhood in Baltimore in the wake of riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By the Rivers of Babylon showed me that there is a force of evil that has set up a recruitment of our greatest assets, our future, our children. Through the interaction with Gabriella Sinclaire, a talented Christian journalist/love interest, Austin takes the reader along the narrative to peer into the mind and heart (such as it is) of the main character, Lincoln Duvall, one of the most notorious drug lords of a poor community, based loosely on the one Austin hails from in her native Hartford, Connecticut.

Lincoln Duvall is a menace, a terror. However, he also has a background that show him victimized by his parents volatile relationship and weakened moral foundation that left him exposed to the lure of acceptance, power and money in criminal life.

But what I caught sight of, hovering in the background of the outrageous criminal exploits of Lincoln Duvall and his flank of teen rogues, was the tedium of life that everday people were living, trapped as they were in a housing complex where the police were in partnership with the criminals, if only by complicity through their absence.

What I caught sight of was the despairing result when community breaks down, when the stronger more stable segments of the community are cut off, or cut themselves off, from the segments that are vulnerable to poverty, poor education, lack of exposure to opportunity and the access to society's rewards. What I saw was my own complicity defined by my lack of interaction with our young people.

Although the conditions have existed for more than a few generations, the novel is an eye-opener for me, another call to action that I am increasingly answering.
In the inagural issue of Devotion Journal we asked, "How are we telling our children who God is?" I believe that we must answer this question--how and even if we are telling our children who God is--as a means to reinstate a moral center for the family and the greater community.

Dialogues, community organization, increased mentoring, youth activites, public school revitalization, promoting marriage and extended family, and moral values--all of these responses are being discussed and planned by concerned community partners who have been affected by Austin's book, and most importantly, who have been answering the call to rescue our young people. There is more to come.

Knowing who God is is irretrievable from knowing our history as Black Americans. Our forbearers told us of the link between our history in America and our Christian heritage when they sang "I look back and wonder how I got ovah."

By the Rivers of Babylon poses its story as an underlying battle of good against evil, and that is accurate. In reaity, we are in a battle of good against evil, a battle to save the souls of our young people from the fruits of evil. By entering the battle we will be saving our own souls as well.

Talk to Me

2007-08-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

Don Cheadle (“Crash,” "Hotel Rwanda") is fantastic in the broadly drawn summer released biopic, “Talk to Me,” which he co-produced and Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) directed.

Cheadle is mesmerizing as the ex-convict turned walk-on radio personality, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Green. Cheadle convincingly takes on the loud-mouth bad man persona of Petey Green, without going over the top. He’s got the tough walk, the hip Seventies threads, and the pedigree of the streets: a thief, convict, and product of a dysfunctional home--his mother and father were simultaneoudly serving time while he was doing the same.

The movie tells Petey’s story as a deejay that used his empathy and wit to tap into the soul of Black Washington, D.C.

Petey cut his teeth as a radio deejay in the early Sixties while serving time in Lorton, a prison in the D.C. suburbs. It is the only thing he says that he can do well that is not illegal. A chance meeting between Black radio exec Dewey Hughes and Petey in jail leads to the unlikely opportunity later for Petey to “audition” at the station where Dewey is attempting to shake-up the format.

Petey's humor and inviting radio banter (“talk to me!”) with listeners raised ratings for the white-owned radio station that was the forerunner of the successful Black owned-WOL-AM radio in D.C. Eventually coming under the ownership of Dewey Hughes, the co-star in the movie, WOL became the flagship of the present day Radio One media conglomerate owned by Dewey’s former wife, Cathy Hughes.

As depicted in the film, Petey Green’s influence in the Black community was based on his willingness to speak “truth to power” and to the status quo. For example, in his first moments of his debut at WOL radio, according to the film, Petey spoke dispargingly about Hitsville music mogul Barry Gordy. The station manager (played by Martin Sheen) went ballistic and made Petey apologize moments later. In his own defense, Petey insisted that he only said what everybody knew about Gordy.
Petey tells the station manager, “I am the people.” That’s who Petey was, a voice of the people.

At a turning point from the light fair comprising the first third of the movie, Petey’s authentic voice paid off for the station and the D.C. capital during during a national crisis. The assassin’s bullet that killed Dr. King also exploded angry outbursts from Black America. The movie depicts the anger that spilled onto the streets of the nation’s capital (and other majority Black cities) that terrible night in April 1968. Fires burned, people were attacked and injured. Petey was the right man on the scene at the right time. Taking over the WOL microphone late into the night of Dr. King’s death, Petey spoke directly to the anguish that had cut the heart of Black Americans. He told the people that he knew they were hurting and wanted revenge. He did not blame them. However, the destruction of the community he said was not what Dr. King would have wanted. Both Petey and Dewey, the grassroots con-man and the professional hustler, were credited for their combined efforts to quell some of the unrest during this time.

The movie comments credibly on the class tensions between poor and affluent Black Americans. Dewey Hughes is a talented radio executive who models himself on the conservative and smooth Tonight Show icon Johnny Carson. Initially unknown to Petey, Dewey is also a graduate of the the poor and Black housing projects in Anacostia in Washington, D.C. He tells Petey that he made it out of the projects through moxy and the revelation, gained through watching the Tonight Show, that there was more in the world than his immediate surroundings.

The central tension of the movie exists between Petey and Dewey. Dewey views Petey through the prism of Dewey’s Hollywood-styled ambitions to become an entertainment mogul. Dewey aims to take Petey’s street-honed radio humor to the top ala comedians Dick Gregory or Richard Pryor. Despite his wit and bravado, Petey actually understands his limitations—or his range—and is comfortable and confident in his role at WOL and as host of a local public affairs television program. He tries to signal this to Dewey. However, blinded by his own aspirations, Dewey does not understand the depth of this truth until it is too late.

The dynamic is also interestingly played out using the metaphor of a pool game which causes both men to assess his own ability to “sink the nine ball.”

“Talk to Me” is ultimately an important movie because it points out the essential role of Black media. The movie showed that Black media is a necessary component of Black social unity in this country. There is the added benefit that the movie will spur on a movement among Black media producers to bring information and inspiration to Black audiences from the perspective of Black audiences. And encourage Black audiences to demand, protect and preserve Black media.