black…MYstory

The mayor of Los Alamitos, CA, Dean Grose, got a big kick out of a picture of a watermelon patch growing in front of the White House, with a caption reading “No Easter egg hunt this year”.  In fact, he was so amused by it that he sent it to, as he termed it, “a small group of friends.”

One of those “friends”, Keyanus Price, who is a local businesswoman and volunteers for the city, was not amused.  In fact, she publicly chided the mayor for it.  At first, Grose, a man in his 60’s, attempted to say he was unaware of the stereotype about black people and watermelons, which leaves one to ask then, what amused him so about the picture.

However, now, the mayor admits that his actions were in such poor taste that they have affected his ability to lead.  As a result, he will resign effective March 2.

For a small city of 12,000 people, the Mayor has made Los Alamitos famous for all the wrong reasons.

Popularity: 18% [?]

When I heard Eric Holder speech, I knew that, in the age of the sound bite, people would gravitate to 4 or 5 words in it.  The passage I refer to is the following:

“Though the nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

Well, I have to agree with him.

We live in a society that believes that issues go away and things fix themselves if you ignore them.  Race continues to be an issue because we don’t talk about it enough.  Sure, we have racial controversies that, when they happen, people go to their different corners and prepare to come out swinging but, is this healthy?  Why don’t we talk race at a time there not a riot or a police shooting of an unarmed black person?  Why don’t we talk about race when we’re not reading about a round-up of illegal immigrants?  Why don’t we talk about race when a white person is not suing over a job he/she felt they deserved?

No, after centuries of living amongst one another, we still can’t talk about it outside of the context of controversy.  So, yes, we are a nation of cowards when it comes to race.

Look, I of all people understand.  I discuss race almost every day.  However, as I get older, I realize that it’s us folks who are not in the top 2% of the wealthy in America are getting screwed, all of us.  I’ll defend black folks but, I’ll also speak up for the underdog, regardless of race.  I am still a coward but, I am trying to work out of my cowardice.

Too many people say we shouldn’t discuss race because it further divides us.  I disagree.  It’s not the airing out of  differences that’s killing us — it’s the silent assumptions we make about people.  It’s our discussing race in a vacuum, only among people who look like us and, hopefully, think like us that stops progress on this issue.  Granted, there are times where we need to get together as a group and talk things out but, we can’t just stay in that group and can’t just talk to that group, if we want things to change.  You have to put it out on the table and make it plain.  Will you bump heads?  Of course.   Will we have big blow ups? No doubt.  However, if you start having the tough conversations, now, they don’t stay difficult forever.  You develop a more open environment and, eventually, it’s not as hard to have these discussions and, with any luck, these discussions turn into resolutions.

I’m not talking magic or kumbaya here.  I’m talking about hard, bitter, tough work.  It’s not work for cowards so, who are you?

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Last month, I posted a story about Robbie Tolan.  Tolan, a minor league baseball player and son of form MLB player Bobbie Tolan, was shot in his own driveway in an affluent Houston suburb by a police officer who claims to have believed he was driving a stolen vehicle.

The circumstance surrounding the shooting, as well as the races of those involved. are raising clear questions about whether or not Tolan was racially profiled. Since that time, though not willing to come out and say that her city has a problem, the mayor of the suburb of Bellaire, TX, has already hired an outside consultant to look into traffic data in her town to determine if there is a pattern of racial profiling.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Robbie Tolan and his family will get a chance to tell their side of the story to the nation.  Tomorrow night, on HBO’s Real Sports, there will be a segment highlighting this incident.  Here’s some of what was discussed in that interview:

(Sgt. Jeff) Cotton “never said a word. He never said ‘shut up.’ He never said ‘get down’ or ‘stay down.’ He never said a word. He picked his gun, he took his gun and he just shot him,’” she said.

Robert Tolan told Gumbel that he found it difficult to return to the family home because “even though they cleaned it up, I can see the blood on the floor and on the concrete. I mean, I see everything that night.”

His parents remain critical of the manner in which the case has been handled by Bellaire officials and skeptical about their chances for a just resolution.

Referring to general comments by Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel in support of police, Marian Tolan said, “We’re residents of Bellaire. They didn’t serve and protect us. We weren’t passing through. We weren’t visiting. We’ve lived here.”

Real Sports will air Tuesday, February 17,2009.  Check your local listings for times.

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A few days ago, Colin Powell sat down with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and was very blunt about the state of the Republican Party.  He spoke about how people like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are not the best people to have out front speaking for the party as they do very little to move it forward and, in the case of Palin, actually cost it political clout through the use of divisiveness as a political tool.

But, there was one part that really caught my attention and that I hope the Republican party heeds — America will soon not be a “white” country (emphasis mine).  In other words, people of color will soon constitute a majority of Americans and any party not wishing to fall into irrelevance will want to learn how to appeal to those voters.  In fact, Powell says that, if in 20 years the Republican party doesn’t get this right, it could sink into obscurity.

After his complicity in the crimes of BushCo., I’m not cutting him much slack but, on this, I heartily agree.

Video below:

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According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there have been more than 200 hate-related incidents across the U.S. since Barack Obama was elected president — a number unseen in modern presidential elections.

What’s being seen is everything from web postings, to cross-burnings to even murder coming from  members of hate groups.

Certain hate groups are seeing record traffic on their web sites and a large increase of inquiries into their organization by interested individuals.

The simple point is that we knew that this was coming.  Despite what some want to believe, we are not in a “post-racial America”.  I truly hope that we get there some day but, unfortunately, today is not that day.  We need to be honest enough to say that this is what we are dealing with and confront it appropriately.

In the meantime, I am keeping my antennae up, lest I be caught slippin’.

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Given the heated election season we have just had, I am sure that emotions are still running high on both sides and the rhetoric is still flying back and forth.  So, with that being said, I am sure that some Obama supporters are crossing lines, too.  But, what I am bothered about is when adults attack kids for being excited about what they are seeing in this election. It especially bothers me when that person is a teacher.

A teacher’s aide has been suspended without pay for some comments the aide made to a student who was expressing joy at the Obama victory.  Allegedly, the student said things like:

“Obama would be killed,” “the flag would be changed to the KFC flag,” and “the national anthem would be changed to ‘Movin’ on Up’ (the theme song of ‘The Jeffersons’).”

The student was also told by the aide that her beliefs were wrong and that her kids would be “screwed up” because Obama would be president.

With any luck, this person will not be allowed in classroom again.

A video of a news segment on this story is below:

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I guess Georgia Republican Representative Lynn Westmoreland must have caught a plantantation flashback.  In a interverview yesterday, he was comparing vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to Michelle Obama (oddly enough, I didn’t realize Michelle Obama was running for vice president but, I digress) and offered the following:

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity.”

He was then asked to clarify that he said “uppity” and he stated:

“Uppity, yeah.”

Uppity is a word that has often been used to disparage black people who some white folks believed were too proud of themselves or, more often, were perceived to be not acting in “their place” on the racial hierarchy.  In other  words, an “uppity negro” was one who had the audacity to believe that he/she was equal to a white person.

So, to hear someone, particularly a Southern politician who would be well aware of the implications of such a word, using it to describe two black people, leads me to believe that he was using it in the racially-tinged way that it has come to signify.

So, Rep. Westmoreland, from this uppity negro, I present to you the “Middle Finger” award.

Popularity: 21% [?]

I have a deep respect for the opinions of Dr. Ron Walters.  More often than not, I have agreed with what I heard from him.  He is often uncompromising and unflinching in his analysis of politics as they pertain to black people.

So, when I saw that he weighed in on the discussion of an Obama presidency meaning the end of black politics (article here), I had to give it a read.

I was not disappointed.

In a nutshell, Dr. Walters, in sharp tones, expresses his views on why many eschew the struggle for social justice:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not universally loved by Black people and was hated and feared by many of the Whites who now put him on posters. The primary reason was that he and many of his generation made the White establishment and the Black who were connected to them uncomfortable with the maintenance of a system of practices built on a racist hierarchy.

The courage to challenge it by some in that generation was not universally exercised by most Blacks because they felt they had much to lose: jobs, prestige, friends and even the support of relatives. I can conceive of that being a major problem today when a larger Black middle class - which has always led the struggle for justice - now feels that so entrenched that it does not have to deploy the tactics of the past, not because they would not be successful, but because they would be personally vulnerable in the new corporate atmosphere, embarrassed, or lose the support of friends and relatives even more today.

He continues:

I understand the great yearning for Blacks who have reached the standard of American affluence not to have to mobilize to demand justice. But until justice comes, that will be their responsibility because they have access to greater resources than the poor. The myth that electing a Black president will resolve these problems, is created by some uncomfortable Blacks, the media and institutional leaders who pine for the emergence of non-confrontational Black leaders because they work within the systems they control.

We need institutional Black leaders, but they have other responsibilities. I remember that in the mid-1970s, the Congressional Black Caucus had to make a proclamation that they would hence forth not be considered civil rights leaders, but legislators, that they could not take on those kinds of issues and tactics. Their task was to pass the laws that either corrected or prevented them.

It is still true today. We need the division of labor in Black leadership to be understood and supported, especially by Blacks, even if the media does not. So, the only circumstance in which Black Politics disappears is if racism disappears, so that those who suffer from it need not take extraordinary measures to achieve justice. In this sense, we don’t live in a “post” anything era, because the challenges are still here.

Speak on it, Dr. Walters!

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Well, the time that people like the Pat Buchanan’s of the world fear is on its way.

A new census report shows that, combined, minorities will constitute a new majority in America by mid-century.

By 2042, there will be a greater number of non-whites than whites and by 2050, a full 54% of America is expected to be non-white.

Hispanics will be the largest “minority” with an estimated 133 million out of a projected total U.S. population of 439 million.  Black people will constitute some 65.7 million and Asians will see their numbers grow to an estimated 40.1 million.

In my child’s lifetime, he may very well see a major shift in the racial/cultural dynamics in America.  Something tells me this is going to be a most interesting ride.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Let me be clear, again.  I believe Pat Buchanan is a racist (see here and here).  With that being said, he strikes me as the type that can’t stand to see a black presidential candidate acting…well…presidential.

I understand wanting “you guy” to win but, Buchanan is going out of his way to shill for McCain by excusing much greater transgressions on the part of his candidate on the the issue of being “presumptuous” while attacking Obama by taking statements out of context in a Republican line of attack that has been discredited by reputable news agencies.

Enter Rachel Maddow.

I believe she is the very stuff of Pat Buchanan’s nightmares:  she a smart, armed with facts, doesn’t back down and…gasp…gay.

So, I know it especially irked Buchanan to have both his party and, to a certain degree, himself taken to task for attacking Obama for not being humble enough for their liking and questions if it is their prejudices that are determining their assessment of Obama.

The clip is below.

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