Dear everybody!

Greetings from Vienna
This Mail is to remind you of the upcoming launching of the Black European Women’s Council on Sept. 9th 2008 in the premises of the European Economic and Social Committee Rue Van maelant 1040 Brussels.

*Our achievements so far:*

1. Thanks to Brenda’s unending support it was possible for us to secure the cooperation of the European Economic and Social Committee for this important event. This cooperation represents a very important step towards implementing the preamble of the Vienna Declaration which states “Our gathering here is an indication of the necessity for the EU to dialog with Black Women’s Organisations EU-wide. The European Year for Intercultural Dialog therefore presents an opportunity to initiate and strengthen partnerships and alliances. We welcome purposeful efforts to engage with the EU in the implementation and in consequence in the securing and exercising of our rights as full citizens of the EU and EEA”.

2. I had a meeting with the new Director of the Fundamental Rights Agency -FRA in Vienna last Friday and am very happy to inform you that Mr Morten Kjaerum, the Agency’s Director, is very happy about our activities and is very interested to work with us to advance the cause of Black Women and Black Communities in Europe. He would love to be at the launching; unfortunately FRA’s staff is on retreat on this date. So we agree he sends a video message for the launching.

3. I am most happy to inform those of you interested to attend the official launching on Sept. 9th, that the proposal I submitted to the *EACEA- Europe for Citizens* has been approved. This means we shall be able to cover part of your expenditures in form of perdiem (according to the EU Flat rates 2008). Enclose is the agenda of the launching for your information. The registration form is under www.bewnet.eu/company/registration-form/. Please register not later than August 15th 2008 for organisational reasons. We can cover perdiems for up to 3 participants per country.

4- With the funding of the EACEA we shall be able to host the first general assembly of BEWC (a slight change of agenda) and a workshop on how to organise national coordinations of BEWC in April 2009, in The Netherlands. We shall be able to cover perdiem for up to 40 participants all together.

At the moment I am working hard to secure a funding for a reception to celebrate our launching in Brussels. Should anybody know where we can apply for the sum of €10.000 to cover launch and reception, I shall be most grateful for your support.

We are currently working on the list of speakers for both the High Level Roundtable Discussion on “The role of Black Women in an all inclusive Europe, challenges faced by Black Communities” and the official speeches at the launching. We shall publish the final list on our website (www.bewnet.eu) as soon it is complete.

Please check www.bewnet.eu regularly for updates on this event. Be so kind to forward this invitation to interested black women and men around you. Should you have any questions, do please not hesitate to get back to us at anytime.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you again in Brussels for this great event.

With best greetings from Vienna

Beatrice

–
Beatrice Chalice Executive Director
AFRA — International Center for Black Women’s Perspectives
Graumanngasse 7/D/1, 1150 Wien
Tel/Fax: +43 1 9660 425
ZVR-Zahl: 488597767
office @ blackwomencenter.org
www.blackwomencenter.org

I would like to share a few sources of information and opinions of interest, that I have received via emails and comments.

1. Eddie Griffin: “To Prison and Back“: a personal and inspirational account of faith in action.
2. Black Women, Blow The Trumpet!: This blog explores very interesting and impactful topics for discussion concerning Black women in particular and our community in general. “Black Men: Repairers of the Breach“ is one artcle that I highly recommend for the Brothers to read.
3. “How the Subprime Crisis Is ‘Strip Mining’ African-American Wealth‏“: An eye-opening article by Kia Wright in The Nation online magazine.  
4. “The African Executive“: My favourite resource for commentary on issues directly affecting the Motherland. Currently a variety of thought-proving articles on Robert Mugabe and the political situation in Zimbabwe. 

Do Black models sell magazines?

The July issue of Italian Vogue will feature all Black models. How beautiful is that? I would love a copy.

Get a preview now, and be sure to pick up a copy. Rumour has it they don’t expect this issue to sell that well.

Anybody who regularly reads any of my writings will know I’m not the most devoted supporter of Barack Obama. While many people are more than willing to give Mr. Obama their unwavering support without fully understanding or even knowing anything about where he stands on issues sensitive to the black community, I feel that the black community, like any other community that has interest that need protecting, should ask Mr. Obama, like any other politician courting a community’s vote, what are his position.

Without exception every social measurement shows that the black population comes up short to its white community counterparts. Black people suffer higher rates of unemployment, black people suffer higher rates of incarceration, black communities have to deal with inferior quality schools, black workers make significantly less than white people for the same job, black people are less likely to receive or be able to afford quality medical care, black people are more than likely to be shot up by police as they walk down the street, black people are more than likely to pay higher rates and fees for credit, and the list goes on and on without end. If Mr. Obama was president, what kind of assistance or relief can the black community expect from his national leadership? Ever since Mr. Obama made his bid for the white house official I have made the argument that black people need to hold him accountable.

Mr. Obama can go in front of organizations that promote issues sensitive to the foreign country Israel and nobody thinks anything of it. It is a smart political move in fact because everybody is either comfortable with or is naïve about the Jewish community’s influence over our national policies. Mr. Obama can go in front of hardworking Americans, white Americans, and present his argument as to why he would be the best candidate for them. But to promote the idea that the black community should look for the same type of consideration from Mr. Obama is so unpopular it makes people angry.

Black and white people alike argue that it is not in Mr. Obama’s best interest to affiliate himself with the black community. Many black people say that black people who want assurances from Mr. Obama are defeatist who want nothing more than to sabotage Mr. Obama’s historic presidential bid. Black people who are willing to jeopardize the historic opportunity of America getting her first black president are doing the bidding for white people. The fact that it isn’t about Mr. Obama but about the black community is lost on these people. The chance to make history is more important than assurances for the black community.

Many white people make racist arguments that Mr. Obama is trying to be the president of all America and not just the president of black America. That is all the explanation needed to justify Mr. Obama staying distant from the black community. However, Mr. Obama participating and ingratiating himself within institutions of white culture does not invoke the opposite argument that Mr. Obama wants to be the president of white America and not the president of all America. There is an inherent assumption that white America and all of America are one and the same. By his very actions, Mr. Obama reinforces this sentiment.

However, it was reported that on Father’s Day, Mr. Obama returned to the black community whence he came with an appearance at the Apostolic Church of God in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. When I first heard that Mr. Obama ventured back to the black community, I was bracing myself to capitulate to the fact that Mr. Obama is without question a man of all the people. In all honesty, considering the alternative for the president, I’ve always considered Mr. Obama a better choice than John McCain. Once, after hearing a considerably disparaging remark made against Mr. Obama, a remark with racial overtones that called into question his ability to govern the high executive office effectively, I went to the Obama website and made a financial contribution to his campaign. I am beginning to regret that decision.

Mr. Obama, with his wife Michelle and his two daughters Sasha and Malia in the congregation, went to the pulpit at the Apostolic Church of God and delivered a passionate speech calling for men to take greater responsibility for their families. To a series of resounding ovations and hoots, Mr. Obama explained that any fool can cause a child but it is the courage to raise a child that makes a man a father. I actually made a donation to his campaign so I could support him so he could tell me this. I can get the same speech from Bill Cosby for free.

It is true that the black community suffers from too many fathers being absent from their children’s lives. But what can the black community expect from the president to help us reverse this trend? Is it the black community’s lot in life that all we can expect from Mr. Obama as president is more rhetoric? Hasn’t it already been proven that rhetoric alone is not helping the black community? Would the black community tolerate a white politician telling the black community that black men need to get their act together? But we will accept this from the black politician who takes the black vote for granted.

Any fool can stand behind a pulpit and say any fool can be a father. Any fool can be a politician and do what is safe to win the favor of the dominant white community in a political race. Any black fool can be a politician that courts the white community’s favor at the expense of any black community association. But it takes true courage for a black man to stand before the black community and confess true understanding of the issues that affect the black community.

Why are black fathers not in the black family home? Could it be a contributing factor that black people are denied jobs and black families can only get government sponsored financial and medical help if the black man is not in the picture? Is it possible that if black people were getting a fair share of employment and educational opportunities that the black family would be more likely to remain a cohesive unit? Is it possible that if black people were not being disproportionately hunted by police and prosecuted by a legal system hell bent on keeping black people in their place of subjugation that the black family would be in a better position to support the black community?

It takes courage for a black man to stand his ground and say that there is more to the story than the stereotypical argument that black men are the main source of the black community’s problems. The majority of the black men that I know go home to their families every night and do what they can as a father and as the man of the house as responsibly as any other group of men. In instances when the black man and black woman aren’t able to work out their differences and live together, the majority of the fathers that I know do what they can to financially support their children. The idea that black men are irresponsible and are not supporting their children is a negative, racial stereotype that uses a minority of examples to prove the whole.

Any high profile black fool can say that poor black people aren’t doing their fair share. Anybody can say that helping black people would be a handout as they make real policy to handover billions of dollars of our national treasure to American defense corporations. But it takes solid community leadership and courage to say that we need to address the problems of the black community as a society, as a community of compassionate people working to help our own. Any fool can talk rhetoric. To promise real leadership for the black community takes courage.

I have called for Mr. Obama to show courage and come before the black community and give some kind of indication as to what black America can expect from him. He just answered that question loud and clear.

I appreciate Mr. Obama’s return to the black community. However, as a member of the black community, as a black man who takes my responsibilities to my family and to my community very seriously, I cannot in all honesty support Mr. Obama in his bid for the presidency. This is not to say that I will become a John McCain supporter. The chances of that happening are pretty slim to none. Compared to Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama is a better choice as far as I’m concerned. But that advantage is slim and the affect on the black community will be an absolute wash. I have a good suspicion that regardless of who becomes president, the white man that is oblivious to the plight of black people or the black man who feels he has too much to lose by acknowledging plights of the black community, black people will continue to suffer.

My mom has got to be one of the most conservative people I know. She’s serious old school. She is literally from a different generation. Whenever the woman sees me she cringes inside. She hates the lifestyle I’ve chosen for my family and my self. She hates the fact that I’m living in a committed relationship with a woman that has not been sanctioned by any state government. She hates the fact that I wear my hair locked in a style that clearly embraces my African ethnicity. I should have one of those nice close haircuts that handsome black man on the news channel wears. She hates the fact that my son, her grandson, was born out of wedlock. She hates the fact that her grandson is going to have locks.

My mom hates the fact that whenever we get together to celebrate the traditional holidays, I will not let the occasion past without trying to get people to think about exactly what we are celebrating. Yes it might be called Thanksgiving Day, but why is the black community bothering to celebrate the European taking over the land we now call America and condemning the Native Americans to virtual obscurity? The European coming to America is one of the biggest factors that led to the African holocaust and our ancestor’s journey through Middle Passage and the subjugation of black people. When the conversation gets intense my mom would respond with one of her pleas for peace and unity for just one day.

My mom hates my religion. Jesus Christ is the only lord and savior of people. She doesn’t care if an African based spirituality existed thousands of years before the Christ was born it is blasphemous if it does not recognizes the son of god. Are you kidding? I recognize Jesus! He’s one of the greatest ancestors humanity will ever know. Unfortunately, the life of the man we know as Jesus has been manipulated and redefined to represent him as a meek man who quietly resisted the establishment with some kind of version of civil disobedience for his day. It isn’t unlike what the establishment is trying to do with Doctor King’s legacy. In fact, if Jesus the Christ was here today he’d probably be hated as some kind of Middle Eastern terrorist in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba! Can we have peace in this house for just one day?

But with all of her conservative views my mom wouldn’t hesitate to help the black community. My mom is the type of person who tries to hire the unemployed in her community. There are a couple of men in the neighborhood who will knock on her door and ask her for a little help. She’ll hire them to wash her car or help her in the backyard. Unfortunately for them, since I’ve moved back home and am much more accessible to help my mom out for free, the amount of business my mom does with these men isn’t near what it used to be and they just don’t have a reason to come around as much any more.

My mother goes to one of the neighborhood black churches as often as her eighty year old ankles will allow her. When she needs work done on her house she does her best to hire black contractors. Some have taken advantage of her. Others have done phenomenal jobs and have established a serious long term business relationship. When she gets work done on her car she uses a mechanic in the black neighborhood. My mom is a big supporter the local theater clubs whether her ankles allows her to attend an event or not. My mom does her best to support what remains of our urban black neighborhood.

Like most urban black neighborhoods, the neighborhood I grew up in, the neighborhood I have returned to after all of these years, has seen much better days. A lot of the people who worked hard to buy their homes and to keep them looking good have passed away and their homes have gone to people who don’t have as much vested in the property. Some of the houses have been abandoned and severely damaged. There are vacant lots where some homes and businesses used to stand. There’s little money, or interest, in the black community to provide for the cleanup of litter and trash throughout the neighborhood. But my eighty year old mom will continue to plant flowers on her property and fight to keep the weeds from the neighbor’s yard from encroaching on her bluegrass lawn. Whenever she buys fertilizer and lawn treatments she makes sure she buys enough to cover the two immediate neighbor’s lawns.

My mom is royally disappointed in the black community. The younger generation of people doesn’t seem to care much about anything other than the pursuit of selfish materialism. But my mother also knows that there is a subtle but constant pressure being applied to impressionable people in the black community to conform to a particular set of stereotypical behaviors for black people. Yes black people are using drugs. But where are these drugs coming from? Yes black people are shooting each other. But where are the guns coming from? Yes black people are committing crimes of property. But where are the jobs that will keep unemployed black people from stealing? Yes black people are angry. But why are black people angry and what are we as a society doing about it?

I learned a lot from my mom. And one of the things that I’ve learned is that being a black conservative doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to abandon the black community or think that black individuals need to do for themselves. Like most communities, people with a vested interest in the development and survival of the community need to work together to keep the community strong. A community cannot survive if everyone is trying to do only for themselves. That’s not community but individuality.

When someone says they are willing to be hard against the black community or when they say they want to help the black community by removing any tools and instruments that can be used to help the black community, it has nothing to do with being a conservative or liberal. Such concepts are deeply rooted in a psychosis to perpetuate the status quo of white privilege and black subjugation. Black people who have the resources to help others in the black community or the black community in general but make the choice not to help are not limited to a conservative or liberal mindset. Conservatism has nothing to do with it.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. We will add your capability and technology to our collective consciousness. Your people will adapt to serve us. Your freedom is irrelevant. Your history is irrelevant. Your culture will cease to exist and you will become one with us. We will strip away your identity. You will no longer think independently. Your thought patterns will become one with the collective. Your only goal in life will be to serve us. Your defenses cannot withstand our attack. Your only hope of survival is to cooperate. Resistance is futile.

These words may sound like the monotonic speech of the scariest villains from the Star Trek universe. But these words could have just as easily been the words from the Europeans as they descended upon Africa and started to dice and slice the continent up into their colonies.

Like the Borg in the 24th century, the Europeans in the 15th and 16th century knew that to assimilate the people of Africa they had to strip away everything the African knew about his or her world. While the Borg would use technology to assault an individual’s will, the European managed to subdue the will of the African with intense pain, agony, and torment. Like the wild mustang that resisted a saddle or a bridle with every ounce of its strength, the strong willed African became a challenge to the descendant of Europe. The white man had to suffer the possibility of exhaustion and working up a sweat from having to swing a whip to rip away the African’s defiance and gain his or her surrender. The image from the television mini series Roots of a bloodied and beaten Kunta Kinte, played by Levar Burton, hanging from his manacles as he is asked what’s his name. The name Kunta Kinte was irrelevant. The key to salvation from the pain was to submit and admit that his name was Toby.

With the African’s acquiescence of having his or her name replaced by a new designation, the first step in the assimilation process has started. The African surrendered his language as well. It could really hardly matter to the African. All family and friends were gone and the chances of running across someone else from his community were pretty slim so the consequences of forgetting the familiar language were already in progress when he or she was abducted from the home land. In order to keep some kind of social interaction in the new strange place with all the other subjugated peers the familiar language was replaced.

But what was truly a stroke of African assimilation genius was the separation of the African from his or her spirituality. What the white community chose to misinterpret and under appreciate as mere superstition was the African’s native spirituality. The pagan belief system of the sub-Saharan African, who was the primary source of African slave labor, was forbidden and the belief system of the conqueror was provided in its place. The theory here is that the African could not be completely controlled by white people as long as he or she continued to gather their strength of character from their belief systems that operated independently of any Caucasoid influences. The Africans had to be trained to avoid their traditional beliefs like the plague.

The many Africans who continued to value their spiritual beliefs here in the land of severe enslavement did not give them up easily. Some were probably given beatings that would make even Jesus in the Passion of the Christ wince and say, “Damn!” So the old ways had to be abandoned. Some of our ancestors couldn’t quite make the transition to the new European based or European influenced belief systems completely and had developed a hybrid that consisted of elements of the African pagan spirituality with the traditional European belief system. An example of such a hybrid would be the Santeria beliefs that are a heavy dose of Catholicism and an equally heavy dose of the Orisa based Yoruba traditions.

But many of our ancestors had to learn to reject their African beliefs at the end of a whip. For those that learned and adapted quickly they became the overseer of the others and would take responsibility for the spiritual teachings of the slaves. These people were the slave preachers who studied the master’s bible and earned the master’s trust. The preacher spoke on behalf of the master’s god and therefore the master. In the world of the enslaved the preacher was an enforcer. African’s who couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt to their new mandated spirituality would actually invite the entire community to suffer the consequences. The master was liable to cutoff privileges for everyone if they did not do their best to control the rebel rouser. Therefore, the slave community would work to make sure peer pressure is applied for the salvation of any one who defiantly tried to resist spiritual assimilation. The enslaved black community adapted the same assimilation techniques as the plantation. And resistance was futile.

This is not to say that the beliefs of the Christian, Catholic, Jewish, or whatever you may have of the white conqueror were necessarily inappropriate for the kidnapped Africans or for their future generations. Many people of African descent have adapted well and have developed their sense of religion based on the European traditions. There are many paths to god and one is just as good as the other.

But the real problem is that now that so many people of African descent have adapted the European’s belief system, we no longer value the spiritual traditions of our ancestors who lived in Africa free from the European or our ancestors who suffered through the middle passage. Indeed, the black community has learned en masse to turn our collective nose up at our brothers and sisters who still practice any form of African spirituality. We view these misguided souls as evil and anti-Christian. And if we see them as anti-Christian, then we must have no choice but to see ourselves as anti-African.

It’s not just a simple fact that it is different. Black Christians will tolerate the typical Jewish belief even though the Jews do not accept Jesus. The black community will accept the various forms of the Native American’s pagan beliefs. But as soon as we are faced with the beliefs that are our birthright, the African beliefs that go back thousands of years before Jesus and Moses walked the earth in the Middle East and Northern Africa, we are repulsed as if the devil himself has danced across our path.

People in the black community no longer have to fear getting hit with master’s whip for not conforming to his belief. Black people have pretty much adapted to the beliefs of the Europeans. But those of us who choose to honor our African ancestors and return to our African beliefs have to continue to contend with rejection and ridicule from our African peers as if master was still standing over us looking for one of us to slip up. As long as we continue to vehemently reject the spirituality that used to be ours as descendants of African people the more difficult a time we will have trying to establish our identity as descendants of African people. This is not a call for black people to cast their current European based spirituality aside. However, it is a request that you don’t immediately reject those of us who wish to embrace an African based belief system. Acceptance of the African based spiritualities will no longer bring master’s wrath on your head. Acceptance is not futile.

Back in the day, in my former life I was a working actor. Looking back at my life to that time so long ago, it does seem like it was a former life. I am certainly a much different person than back then.

Anywayzzz… when I was making my living as an actor in Toronto Canada, the experience was fulfilling in many ways, but it was mainly very frustrating. When it came to film and television roles, they were primarily U.S. based productions, so all the main characters were already cast with American actors. My first few years were working as an “extra” … basically in non-descript roles making up the background scenery. It was grueling work and somewhat demeaning. I remember many times when as an “extra”, I had to wait off to the side during meal breaks until the lead characters and the crew had eaten, before we were allowed to get our lunch and/or dinner (i.e. leftovers) from the meal table. After some time I was able to get an agent and I got cast in “better” roles in these productions. As a Black actor, I was primarily offered the role of “Black thug on the right”, or “Black thug on the left” … or if I was really fortunate, I got cast as “Black thug in the middle” , who got arrested by the lead “white” cop character and got to say a variation of the line: “hey man… I didn’t do nuttin!” After a number of these roles, my sense of self-respect couldn’t handle it, so I told my agent I wasn’t going to do them anymore and to try to get me auditions for roles that were not “race” specific. I think I went on 2 auditions after that before the agent dropped me.

When it came to theatre productions, things were a little better. There was certainly more “artistic-license” taken by producers and directors when it came to “non-traditional” casting. I played a variety of roles in numerous productions. I was given the opportunity to play “Benvolio” in a summer stock production of Romeo and Juliet. It was a fantastic experience and it led to an audition for the artistic director of the Stratford Festival. This festival is the premiere Shakespearean festival in Canada and it is world renown. I had known a couple of my peers… and I literally mean two Black actors, who had been cast in minor roles at the festival. However they were cast as background figures, non-speaking roles… “spear carrier on the right” or “servant on the left”. As a part of the festival’s training program, both were given the opportunity to “understudy” minor roles. From conversations with these friends about their experiences, it was obvious (to me at least) that the festival only hired Black actors (and other “actors of colour”) in an effort to appear to be inclusive, so as to ward off any criticism that they were racist or discriminatory in their casting.

So I decided that instead of doing a “standard” audition where I would recite a monologue and then stroke the artistic director’s ego and claim how it had always been my lifelong dream to work with him and be a part of the festival, no matter how small the role, and that I would be forever grateful and in his debt for the opportunity… I decided to put him on the spot and ask him why I should want to work at the festival? What was the advantage for me? What role(s) did he have in mind for me? I informed him it wouldn’t be worth it to me, to go there and play insignificant background roles. Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed. He gave me an exasperated lecture on the importance of respecting the auditioning process and “paying my dues” . He then ended the audition. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get an invite to work at Stratford… but strangely I felt a certain amount of pride for my stance.

I then made the decision to do low budget independent films and theatrical production dealing with social issues, primarily those relating to the Black and African community. I also worked with a collective of Black artists doing our own productions. However it became increasingly difficult to work on a continuous basis as there wasn’t much community support and the government funding for what was termed “non-traditional productions”, went primarily to ”white” film production and theatre companies that had submitted proposals to do “ethnic-based” productions. I worked for a couple of these companies and found that they were very eurocentric in their perspectives on social issues, as well as blatantly condescending and patronizing in their ethnic-based” productions. Although I worked for approximately another year or so in the arts before I decided to do something else, my most rewarding efforts during this period were the productions I did with other “artists of colour”. I didn’t feel like I was a slave to the whims and self-promoting generosity of “white” producers and directors.

I related the above story as a preface to this. I have been following the war of words between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, in regards to the lack of any Black soldiers depicted in Eastwood last two films on World War 2: “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”. Spike stated:

“He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films. Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version.”

Now I am a huge Spike Lee fan and one of the things I like about him is that he pushes against the Hollywood establishment. However I believe one should pick and choose one’s fight and be wise enough to pick ones that are worth the fight. This one is not worth the time and energy! I honestly believe that we would be much better served as a community, if Spike Lee and other Black producers and directors make films telling the stories of Black soldiers in WW2, than to expect that Clint Eastwood would ”pepper” his films with Black actors to be inclusive. Spike is right when he stated that both films “were whites-only affairs”. White director. White producers. White writers. White perspective. So there should be no surprise that it was not their primary concern, nor their second… nor third concern, to ensure that Black soldiers were represented in these movies. 

I saw both films for I am also a Clint Eastwood fan, and although I found them somewhat interesting, they were forgettable. The storylines just didn’t resonate with me in the long-term. As a Black man, it wouldn’t have made any difference if there were Black soldiers in these films. The stories weren’t about them or their experiences. Sure it could have added a more realistic element to have Black soldiers in the background, but to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have noticed and it wouldn’t have added anything relevant to the storyline. 

We have our own stories to tell and we should produce them ourselves. One of my favorite movies is “A Soldier’s Story”. Although directed by Norman Jewison (a Canadian.. I had to add that!), it was written by the Pulitzer Prize winning African American playwright, Charles Fuller. There is also the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. I am looking forward to the Spike’s next film, “Miracle at St. Anna”, the story of an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during World War 2. I am sure there are many more of these stories about the experiences, trials, tribulations and heroic feats of African-American Black soldiers in any era. “Glory”, another excellent film comes to mind. We can also take a global perspective and make films based on stories concerning those of African descent, apart from the African-American experience, such as “A Long Way Gone”, the incredible story of Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone. “The Last King of Scotland” about Idi Amin, the former President of Uganda, was a critical and commercial success, earning Forrest Whittaker an Oscar.

I am sure all this got started when Spike was asked by the media at Cannes… something like: “what was the inspiration for your new film?”, and he answered honestly that Black soldiers and their contributions weren’t being represented by Hollywood, and he referenced Eastwood’s films to make his point. We are all aware of how the media feeds on controversy and they ran to Eastwood and asked him to respond… and now it’s on! Spike shouldn’t allow himself to be manipulated by the media and let his work do the talking!

There are enough commercially and critically successful Black producers, directors and actors in Hollywood to join together and create there own production companies to feature our stories… the historical and contemporary tales of those of African descent. We have a rich history and culture to draw upon. Looking at the creation of both United Artists and First Artists are examples of how this can be done. By forming our own production companies, we can have the ability to tell our own stories… from our own perspectives… and break the chains of expecting and/or begging the “white” man to remember to include us in their stories or their depictions of history. 

I watched another heart-wrenching documentary on the genocide in Darfur. Titled “On Our Watch”, it was featured on PBS Frontline. It’s unbelievable that this atrocity is still occurring in 2008 and the leaders of our world community cannot muster the “will” to impress upon Sudan that it must stop this genocide. The documentary touched on some of the reasons why there is such a failure to act… the most vital being oil. It’s paradoxical that there are those who believe that Iraq was invaded because of it’s oil fields, while Sudan is left to continue it’s policy of genocide because of it’s oil fields.

There is lots of blame to go around for this failure to act, from the U.N; the U.S. (which has taken a hardline and imposed strict economic sanctions on Sudan, but could obviously do more… see here); the European Community, The Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Iran, The African Union, The Arab League and China… to name just a few of the major players. Let’s not forget about the Afrosphere, which could do much more to advocate for the people of Darfur. If half as much energy, focus and commitment was utilized by bloggers of African descent to organize, petition and demand action to stop the genocide in Darfur, as was generated to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, there would be more pressure on our leaders, both community and political, to address this issue. If we don’t show we care by taking action, they certainly won’t! For some of us, it will be a historic achievement to have a black face in the White House… while for others, it’s a historic achievement to survive the day without being raped, tortured or killed… and being able to have one meal for the day. Let me give a “dap and a big up!” to Yobachi over at BlackPerspectives.net, who has been constant in his commitment on keeping Darfur an issue in the Afrosphere.

Below are links to the PBS Frontline documentary and other informative sites on Darfur. There are also links on these sites giving you the opportunity to get involved in stopping the genocide.

1. On Our Watch
2. sudanreeves.org
3. Eyes on Darfur
4. Save Darfur
5. Save Darfur: Partner Campaigns

In 1849, at the age of twenty nine, give or take a year, Harriet Tubman escaped the system of institutionalized slavery in the state of Maryland and ran for freedom in Pennsylvania. Ms. Tubman made extensive use of the famous Underground Railroad network. It is believed that she took a common route for fleeing slaves which was northeast along the Choptank River, through Delaware and then north into Pennsylvania.

It was a journey of nearly ninety miles. Traveling by foot it would take a person between five days and three weeks. She traveled at night guided by the North Star. She had to avoid slave catchers that were just all too eager to collect a reward for the return of a fugitive slave. Through a variety of deceptions a number of people helped to hide, protect, and move her. At one house, Ms. Tubman hid in plain sight sweeping the yard to make it appear as though she belonged to the home owners. When night fell, she was hidden in a cart and taken to the next friendly house. The true particulars of her escape remain a mystery. But she admitted that she crossed into Pennsylvania with an overwhelming sense of liberation. Said Ms. Tubman, “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

But it wasn’t enough for Ms. Tubman just to be free. Immediately after reaching the city of Philadelphia, she began thinking of her family. Said Ms. Tubman, “I was a stranger in a strange land. My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free.” No stranger to work, Ms. Tubman began to work odd jobs and save money. Shortly after her arrival, the United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 forcing law enforcement officials throughout the entire union to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves and imposed heavy punishments on those who helped them escape. The law increased risks for escaped slaves. Many headed north to Canada.

In December of that year, Ms. Tubman received word that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold along with her two children, six-year-old James Alfred, and baby Araminta who remained in Cambridge, Maryland. Horrified at the prospect of having her family broken further apart, Ms. Tubman did something very remarkable. Ms. Tubman voluntarily returned to Maryland and risked her freedom. She went to Baltimore, where she hid her until the time of the sale of her relatives. Kessiah’s husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. While he stalled to make arrangements to pay, Kessiah and her children disappeared to a nearby safe house. When night fell, Mr. Bowley ferried the family on a log canoe sixty miles to Baltimore. There they met Ms. Tubman, who led the family safely to Philadelphia.

In spring of 1851 Ms. Tubman headed back into the lion’s den of Maryland to guide her brother Moses and two other men to freedom. Word of her exploits had encouraged other blacks. As she led more blacks to freedom she became more confident with each trip into danger. Ms. Tubman risked making the ultimate sacrifice in order to help other enslaved black people. The ultimate sacrifice wasn’t death but the loss of her freedom and the return to cruel enslavement. But her sense of family and her sense of black community compelled her to do for others what she had managed to do for herself at great personal risk.

Ms. Tubman didn’t sit on her ass back in Philadelphia in relative comfort and safety, looking down her nose at other black people who were too afraid to muscle up the courage to make that dangerous trek on their own. It is seriously doubted if Ms. Tubman simply pointed to her success and said, “I did it! Why don’t you pull yourself up by your boot straps and show some personal responsibility?” Ms. Tubman would never have said something as selfish and uncompassionate as what some black conservatives say proudly to applause from their white mindset peers these days. She would never say something akin to “black people aren’t doing enough to lift themselves out of their predicament” or something as assinine as a “black woman will not be truly free from racial restrictions until she can, without guilt or regret, disclaim being black or owing anything to black people. Watch out for the man who says another man has no choice, that he owes a debt to the race.”

In fact, Ms. Tubman didn’t do much talking at all. She lived simply and did what she could to help others find their way. She put her most cherished possession, her freedom, on the line by venturing back to where many escaped slaves feared to tread. She didn’t do it for glory and she never stood in front of anybody to gain their favor. She simply did what she could. Black people everywhere learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. We were taught that stuff when we were knee high in school. But instead of learning from her model and learning what it means to actually help others in the black community we relegate her example to the deepest and darkest corners of our consciousness. It is as if many of us have gone through a Vulcan mind meld and have purged any connection of her from our own actions. We applaud her for her selflessness but exercise behavior that is the most remote from her example.

A lot of our modern black, or formerly black, brothers and sisters could learn a lot from this simple woman who is one of our most deserving ancestors whether we in the black community recognize and fully appreciate her sacrifices or not. Black people who have done well and who have achieved levels of success that many of us can only dream of turn back to the black community and say all the rhetorical things about what we should and shouldn’t do, while they sit on their ass in their own personal materialistic heaven. They have truly escaped the bonds that keep the majority of black people imbedded in a system of white privilege and black subjugation. They don’t feel the need to reach back into the black community to pull all the others who dream of true freedom. It’s far better for black people who have made it to sit back and berate other blacks for not being strong enough or fortunate enough or smart enough or bootlicking enough or tom enough.

Although it’s been a long time since anyone had to use the Underground Railroad to escape institutionalized slavery there is a need for another more modern Underground Railroad to help people in the black community escape the chains of enslavement that hold us back today. Some black people do reach back to help other black people. Some are a lot more involved with the black community than others. I know of a high profile black celebrity that talks about how she regularly cleans out her closet and donate clothing to help others. Harriet Tubman could’ve simply cleaned out her closet and call it a day. But she didn’t. She went considerably above the call of duty. She never did it for ego. She never gave one thought that it would make her the cherished ancestor she is today. She just did what she had to do to help others. More people should learn from her example.

Listen to Candance Allen, an African American in London, speak about Obama’s nomination on BBC radio.

A white internet surfer was lamenting the fact that white people are being treated like second class citizens. This person felt this way despite the fact that white people control the vast majority of wealth in the United States. He or she felt this way despite the fact that white people obtain the majority of educational opportunities at the majority of institutions for higher learning. This person felt this way even though white people occupy the vast majority of upper, middle, and lower echelons of government positions. And the number of white people who are in executive, middle, and lower management positions in corporate America overwhelms any other racial minority.

This person felt this way despite the vast majority of white actors and actresses in movies and television programs that dwarf their black counterparts. For every black actress there must be a hundred white ones. For every Halley Berry, who claims not to be fully black because her mother was white, there are dozens of Kate Hudsons, Angelina Jolies, Kate Blanchettes, Gwen Stefanis, Reese Witherspoons, and Hillary Swanks. For every Will Smith there are dozens of Joaquin Phoenixes, Jack Blacks, Russell Crowes, Viggo Mortensens, Dennis Quaids, Ben Afflecks, Matt Damons, and Jake Gyllenhaals. But white people who want to go into acting can’t catch a break these days because of all the movies and television programs that don’t feature white people.

Across America there are thousands and thousands of companies with office staffs that are predominantly white. Many of these companies don’t even have a black employee in the office. And many of these companies don’t even have a black person on the payroll. Let one of these companies take proactive steps to racially diversify their workforce and the next white person who doesn’t get a job will be suing with claims of reverse discrimination. White people who apply for jobs at predominantly white companies can’t find a job these days.

From the perspective of a lot of people, white people are treated like second class citizens for having to share social resources with nonwhites. The moment some white people realize that they don’t have an exclusive choke hold on opportunities, these people begin to feel that white existence is under attack. Some people have yet to learn that white privilege is not a god given right but an artificial construct of a culture so dominating that it thinks nothing of locking nonwhites in chains for the crime of being not white.

One of the most evil institutions that ran contrary to the great establishment of white privilege was affirmative action. Wikipedia describes affirmative action as a set of policies and/or programs intended to promote access to education and/or employment opportunities aimed at historically socially or politically oppressed groups, typically minority men and/or women of all races. The motivation for affirmative action policies is to help rectify the effects of wrongful discrimination in the past and to encourage public institutions to be more representative of a racially diverse population.

But the protectors of white privilege countered affirmative action with claims of reverse discrimination. Suddenly, institutions that tried to correct their history of focusing on providing opportunities exclusively to the white community are being too unfair to white people. Companies with beaucoup white people on the payroll are suddenly unfair to white people and are being successfully sued for not hiring even more white people. But white people never sue an institution because an inferior white person is hired. However, it is a near given when black people are involved.

It’s not fair to do anything to correct the hundreds of years white privilege has enjoyed at the expense of the other races. It’s much better to keep the status quo and let white privilege continue rather than give affirmative action any legitimacy. In fact, everyday more and more black people are convinced that affirmative action is more hurtful to the black community than helpful. The fact that many black people calling for its demise actually benefited from these affirmative action programs is just an awful coincidence best overlooked. People who are benefiting from white privilege will support anyone who will promote the end of affirmative action and other concepts that can threaten white privilege. Black people who call for an end to affirmative action are one of this world’s greatest ironies.

White privilege is in no danger of disappearing. It is strong and it is flourishing to greater limits each and every day. No matter what measure a person applies to success white people are overwhelmingly represented.

It must be admitted that white privilege is much more satisfying and/or more gratifying for white people when other races do without. Black people getting jobs mean fewer jobs for white people. It doesn’t matter if white people who make up seventy percent of the population and are already getting ninety five percent of the jobs and the educational opportunities. White privilege needs it all. White privilege needs every last opportunity in order to make sure other people better understand their place in the social, economic, political ladder. White privilege does not thrive when it has to indulge the black community or the Latino community or any other non white community. In order to be secure in itself white privilege needs to make sure it has it all. Anything less is an attack on white privilege.

It’s interesting that I have been reading various commentaries and heard a number of commentators on television state that although they are fed up with the American political system, the hypocrisy of the “Rethuglicans” and the “Dumbocrats”, they will vote for Barack Obama because among the establishment candidates, he is the best choice. They cannot vote for McCain because he has become too close to Bush lately and seems to have adopted a number of his policies. They cannot vote for Hillary because, although she is a woman, she represents the presumed privilege and entitlement of the ”old guard”… plus she has been playing on the fear associated with the “race” issue, in her effort to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

While Obama, although he is more style than substance, more rhetoric than depth, and has unashamedly made the political choice to keep his association with the Black community at arms length and has bent over backwards to project ”white” American values, he is however seen as a “fresh” face… a change that America needs! Plus for many, both Black and “white”, his election to the Presidency of the United States… the first “Black” president… would be historical… and they all want consciously or subconsciously… to be a part of this historical event!

It is not surprising to me why “white” liberals America loves this guy… but for those who really want a change, or at least throw their support behind the potential for a real change from the norm… especially among the Black community… I would have thought that former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, an African-American woman, would at least be given some consideration. In December 2007 she announced that she was seeking the presidential nomination for the Green Party of the United States. She has brought this message to the electorate:

“For far too long Black America has been at the mercy of political pimps and usurpers, particularly of the Democratic Party. It is now the year 2008, and we in Black America, in conjunction with our Brown, Red, Yellow, and White sisters and brothers have a genuine and serious choice in order to build a true people’s movement for real systemic change through the “Power to the People” campaign….” 

Mckinney has been a constant thorn in the political establishments’ side since being first elected to the Congress in 1992… to the point where it is believed that the Democratic Party itself worked against her 2006 primary re-election. Interestingly when asked about her views on Obama she stated: “We have to be careful with the black people who are put before us by the media.” 

It is understandable why the establishment controlled mainstream media has ignored her candidacy. It is understandable why she has received no support from the “white” liberal establishment. And yes, it is also understandable why she has garnered no support from the Black community! I have not seen, heard or read anything in support for her from the African-American community, especially from the so-called Black progressive blogging community. All the buzz, all the focus, has been on Obama and Clinton! Why is that? Why do I say it’s understandable that McKinney has received no support or consideration from her own community? 

Last Sunday I was watching Meet The Press and during a discussion on the Obama and Clinton campaign, it was re-iterated that the majority of Black people only started supporting Obama once he won the Iowa caucus on January 3rd, 2008. Analyzing Obama’s blowout win in South Carolina, they showed that polls in July 2007 had Clinton with 53% of the African-American support to Obama’s 33% in South Carolina. After Iowa, he carried the Black vote 78% to her 19% for his win in the South Carolina primary! His support among the African-American community surged once it became evident that enough “white” liberals and “white” independents were willing to vote for him… and he therefore had a chance to win (at least) the Democratic presidential nomination. Once again… politically… Black America was taking it’s cue from the “white” liberal establishment! In a previous post I made this comment: “There is one thing that the Democratic establishment knows they can depend on: the reaction of African-American community… they know their “negroes”… they have been studied, researched and most importantly conditioned by the Party.”

So there are certainly other choices and candidates for President, that those who are really searching for a “change” can support. No… they are not the establishment candidates and therefore are not likely to win. Another candidate for serious consideration should be Ralph Nader. McKinney (and Nader) do sincerely have the interests of ordinary people, including the Black community, at their core… more so than McCain, Clinton and certainly Obama. They do represent platforms for “real” change and not the “business as usual” mantra. So if the African-American community (at the very least) supported enmass Cynthia McKinney for President… an African-American woman running for a Party other than the two establishment Parties, this would be a true historic event… regardless if she wins or not!

Nevertheless, taking the initiative to research and expand your field of options so you can make the best, informed choice of whom to support for President is important. Voting according to your principles, instead of limiting yourself to the establishment candidates or just “jumping on the Obama bandwagon” in the hopes of having a “black” face in the White House, should be the primary objective to making sure one’s vote count for something.  

RunCynthiaRun.Org

VoteNader.Org      

Brotherpeacemaker turned me on to this story. His commentary is worth sharing: “As a favor to Senator Kennedy, who early last week suffered a seizure and was later diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Senator Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at Wesleyan University! It’s interesting he could make last minute plans to make this possible when he couldn’t fit programs like the State of the Black Union into his itinerary even when given plenty of advanced notice.”  Very astute observation Brotherpeacemaker!

Kanye West spoke “power to truth” when he went off script and exclaimed, during a live on-air telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims in September 2005, that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people!” Well it appears that Barack Obama doesn’t care much about Black people either. He didn’t care enough to attend the annual State of the Black Union forum which was held earlier this year in New Orleans!! Obama cited scheduling conflicts, as his priority was focusing on his presidential campaign. Tavis Smiley who organized the event, faced a blacklash.. yes I said “black-lash” … for criticizing Obama’s decision not to attend the forum. At the time, I shook my head at the vitriol spewed towards Smiley by so-called “progressive Black bloggers”, the “Obama Fascists”, claiming among other things, that Smiley was jealous of Obama’s success and had a “crab in a barrel” mentality, because he had the audacity to question their Messiah. It got so bad that he received death threats and his mother and brother were harassed. It got so distressing that he ended up quitting the Tom Joyner Morning Show (read commentary here). When I lived near the Canada-U.S. border in Windsor, Ontario… across the river from Detroit, Michigan… I made it a point to listen to the TJMS on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I could hear what Tavis had to say. I didn’t always agree with him but he was always enlightening and honest in his opinions.

The bottom line is Obama decides it is more vital to his self-interest to step in for Ted Kennedy on short notice to address the future aspirations and endeavours of preppy Wesleyan University graduates, than to make the time to address the issues and concerns that are important to the survival and upliftment of Black America (read commencement address here). There is no doubt where his loyalties lie.

Compared to Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas is starting to look more and more like Louis Farrakhan.

American politics is a system that breeds cynicism, corruption, cronyism, and mediocrity. The most successful political candidates are usually the ones that offer quick and easy solutions to problems that can have deep social implications. Can’t afford to rebuild the roads? Issue a bond, borrow the money, and let future generations figure out how to pay for it. Need to balance the federal budget? Tap the social security money reserves intended to help pay for people’s retirement and let the politicians in office when it’s time for people to retire figure out how to get the money. People are complaining about the racial disparity in the public school system? Instead of spending money to support the schools that are lacking, usually in the black neighborhoods, we can spend money on bussing so we can shuffle students around to various schools so everyone can be mediocre. Are the gasoline prices getting too high? We can suspend federal taxes for a time period so that the eighteen cents that the government collects to repair roads and other services stops. Instead of paying four dollars a gallon gasoline with eighteen cents going to taxes we can pay four dollars a gallon and someone just pockets that extra eighteen cents. In the world of politics, immediate, simple solutions are key to winning over a public with little interest for the details of public social issues.

To compound this problem, there are powerful entities that want to make sure that their interest are well represented whatever the political environment. Wealthy corporate and private entities will use whatever vast resources at their disposal to wield influence on just about any serious political candidate from the local level all the way to the federal. These people have the resources to influence even the most powerful politicians to their disposal. It is a foregone conclusion that this influence involves money. But the ultimate goal is the power to bend others, even the most committed type A personality, to act against their own self interest no matter what. Often, it is a system of quid pro quo where I scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine. It is a prime condition for secrets that betray not the public’s trust or sense of faith, but the public’s sense of comfort that the politician will do whatever so the public doesn’t have to care about it. A politician’s penchant for secret deals and under the table partnerships and is a prime environment for fostering the corruption and cronyism.

It is truly difficult for me as a member of the black community to develop a comfortable trust in someone who has become so adept at thriving in such an environment. With rare exception, the political environment of the manipulators and the manipulated rarely has the black community’s welfare at heart. Indeed, a politician that makes the choice to reveal his or her self as a proponent of the black community is a politician that will be quickly guided to the exit door signaling an end to their political career. Therefore, a politician, whether black or white, will do well to keep any affiliation with the black community as distant as possible.

Black politicians have been able to achieve public office at all levels of government. Blacks have been city councilmen, mayors, state representatives, governors, and federal representatives. The only office black people have yet to hold is the president. But just because a black person holds a certain political office means nothing to black people. Black people are just as likely to be lynched by the police in cities with black mayors or black police chiefs as we are in cities with all white public officials. The black community is ignored in states with black governors just as we are in any other state. Poverty in the black community is just as rampant. Black unemployment is just as pervasive. Education for black people will be just as lacking. Medical care for black people will be just as disappointing.

With all of that said, there is an inherent flaw in the black community’s proclivity to put its collective faith in any politician. A cursory glance at American history will show that some politicians have appeared as champions of social change and an enormous boon to the black community. People in the black community have been programmed to accept America’s most famous politicians as people who have done well for the black community. The black community is supposed to appreciate George Washington because he freed his slaves in his will. But the fact is that George Washington condoned and supported the institution of slavery just like every land owner in his day. The black community is supposed to be thankful to Abraham Lincoln because he freed the slaves. But little is mentioned of the fact that Mr. Lincoln was a stout segregationist he never wanted to end slavery, who believed in the superiority of the white race, and would never condone black people achieving equality to white people. John Kennedy may have made the phone call to Doctor Martin Luther King when he was in prison for his civil disobedience. But Mr. Kennedy had a history of selecting some of the most conservative judges to fill the openings in the American south. And while the black community may thank Lyndon Johnson for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mr. Johnson condoned the public harassment of all civil rights icons throughout his presidency. And these are the presidents we are supposed to admire.

Richard Nixon hired Donald Rumsfeld to head the office charged with the responsibility of eliminating poverty in America. Hiring the uber neoconservative to manage one of the most socially oriented offices in the presidency is akin to hiring a fox to guard a chicken coop. Ronald Reagan initiated his war on welfare with his story of the black welfare queen who sits at home and robs the federal government blind as justification to cut the social welfare programs that helped the black community to the bone. And no president could have manifested more disinterest in the welfare of the black community than George Bush during the Katrina disaster. President Bush declared a state of emergency for parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, but his declaration didn’t include New Orleans or the parishes with a heavy black population.

So it is with a great deal of suspicion and low expectations that a black politician becoming president will do anything with the black community in mind. Indeed, it is interesting that a black politician that has to defend himself against white people who regularly make everything from highly suggestive racial innuendoes all the way through to outright blatant claims of African American inferiority will dismiss such language as something that must be ignored, but will become visibly outraged and angry when his former pastor says that the black politician is required to make politically advantageous moves in order to win the highest political office in the land.

It is understandable after all. A lot of black people say that the pastor should keep quiet in order to help the black man win the presidency. But what will the black community gain other than bragging rights that a black man has finally reached the final political frontier? If the experience with the black governor and the black mayor is any indication, we won’t gain anything that will achieve anything for us. It will be business as usual.

Most of the social changes that have benefited the black community did not come from public office. The social changes that we have craved came through activism. It came through people who have been front and center in the church. Most of our changes have come from the black community that works hard and made sacrifices of dignity, sacrifices of physical pain, sacrifices of time and money, and the ultimate sacrifices of life. No politician is willing to make these kinds of sacrifices to help the black community. The black politician has an image that white people can trust him or her to uphold. Social changes, the type of changes many white people protest in order to keep their white privilege, will damage that image of trust. It is the black church that has gotten us this far. If black people are to ever come back together again to continue our long, arduous fight for some kind of racial equality in America, it will be through the black church and not through any political office.

The way things look it is a fairly safe bet that soon a black man will wear the title of President of the United States. In order to help the black man gain that title, a lot of people are ready to turn their back on the liberal theology of the black church. Many of us are willing to sell our soul in order to gain what we think is the greatest political office in the world. And black people want those bragging rights so badly that we are ready to allow the only institution that has ever truly worked in our favor, the black church, to be labeled as some relic of a segregationist past fueled by black people’s victim mentality. The black community stands ready to abandon our collective soul.

“When you have a philosophy or a gospel, I don’t care whether it’s a religious gospel, a political gospel, an economic gospel or a social gospel…. if it’s not going to do something for you and me right here and right now…. to hell with that gospel! In the past, most of the religious gospels that you and I have heard have benefited only those who preach it. Most of the political gospels that you and I have heard have benefited only the politicians. The social gospels have benefited only the sociologists. You and I need something right now that’s going to benefit all of us. That’s going to change the community in which we live, not try to take us somewhere else. If we can’t live here, we never will live somewhere else.”                                                                                                    

Barack Obama has a problem. The majority of those whom Hillary Clinton call “hard-working white people” don’t like him. They don’t trust him. But most importantly, during this Democratic primary process, it has translated into not voting for him. Ohio, Michigan, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia have so far rejected his “change” message. According to some exit polls, up to 40% of these card carrying Democratic Party ”hard-working white people” state that they would not vote for him and stay home or vote for McCain, if he became the Democratic presidential nominee… (especially after he was caught making disparaging comments about their core beliefs in God, guns and illegal immigration during a private fundraiser in San Francisco). This is a serious problem for Obama. It’s not enough to garner the African-American and “white” yuppie liberal vote to secure the presidency. He needs a significant amount of votes from these “hard-working white people” to win.

So even after he made the choice to politically align himself with ”white” America by first, turning his back on dissenting African-American voices, and second, by playing his ”race card” to reassure “white peoples” that he was just like them… well the “white” half of him anyway…  they still went about rejecting him in the Pennsylvania primary (as well as in Indiana and West Virginia). Therefore desperate situations require desperate measures. Like Bill Clinton in 1992 , Obama needed his own “Sister Souljah Moment”. It came once again in Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  

On April 28th 2008, Rev. Wright gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on “The African-American Religious Experience”. This speech touched on the three aspects of the prophetic theology of the Black Church: the theology of liberation; the theology of transformation and the theology of reconciliation. This is one of the most enlightening and poignant discourse on the historical African-American Christian experience I have ever read. There was no mention (or attack) on Barack Obama, nor his presidential campaign. However at the end of this speech, the moderator posed questions based primarily on his relationship with Barack Obama and the repetitious media looped, so-called “controversial, hate-filled, un-patriotic and anti-American comments” by Rev. Wright.

Rev. Wright, who was not making a political speech and therefore had no concern with appeasing any constituency, answered the questions posed to him honestly and truthfully. He said what he believed… he shared what he felt… with no attacks on Obama, although it was obvious that the moderator was attempting to bait him into doing so. But perception is more powerful than reality… especially when it comes to politics. Obama utilized this as his “Sister Souljah Moment” and went on the attack. The next day after Rev. Wright’s speech, Obama held a press conference where he denounced, not only the comments of his former pastor, but the man himself (read transcript). Obama stated, with feigned exasperation: “I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday.”  

What… pray tell… so outraged Barack Obama about the comments of Rev. Wright? What in his speech on the African-American religious experience and how it led to the development of the  prophetic theology of the Black Church, so outraged Barack Obama? Why did Rev. Wright’s honest and truthful  responses to the questions posed to him, so outraged Barack Obama? According to Obama:

“But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.”

Okay I see. Obama and “white” America are offended by the good Reverend’s “ridiculous propositions”. Regardless of the fact that a number of reputable scientists have questioned the origins and purpose of HIV and AIDS (see here for one reference). Regardless of the history of Europeans and early Americans purposely infecting Native Americans via smallpox virus laced blankets in an effort to eradicate them, as well as the fact of the American government’s involvement in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Regardless of the fact, that despite one’s opinion of Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, they have worked continuously against all odds to empower and enlighten African-Americans… and his call for the “Million Man March” was a historic and influential event in the history of those of African descent everywhere. Regardless of the fact that the American government have been implicated numerous times in the assassination of populist leaders at home and abroad… in Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, the Caribbean, South and Central America. Regardless of the fact that the American government has and still supports militarily and financially, regimes which deny their citizens basic human and democratic rights, as well as terrorize them into submission to ensure the profits American multinational corporations. 

What I find most grievous is Obama’s “ridiculous propositions” that he had no idea that these were the opinions of his pastor. A man who was his pastor for over 20 years! The pastor who married him and baptized his children! He asserts angrily, like Peter when Jesus was about to be crucified: “I never knew the man!”  What I also find disturbing is the silence of the so-called rel