Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Book Note - Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins by Thomas G. Smith
Thomas G. Smith has written an excellent work of history titled "Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins." Smith literates a powerful narrative, in which the reader uncovers the despicable past of the Washington Redskins and the NFL. The reality is that Jim Crow was an American institution, and professional sports were in no way a safe haven for the Black American. As we witness the presidency of our nations first black president, this book bears a solemn message that the United States must understand it's past in order to never repeat it's mistakes. Smith allegories Sammy Baugh's 1947 car accident with the Washington Redskins performance post WWII(or beginning of the modern era of professional football):
"Baugh was unhurt, but the car wreck would come to symbolize the Redskins' football fortunes in the years following World War II. From 1946 through 1961, the Redskins enjoyed only three winning seasons, appeared in no title or championship games, and amassed a record of 69 wins, 116 losses, and 8 times. They devoured eight head coaches and played no black athletes."
George Preston Marshall, the racist owner who set the African American player prohibition, and championed anti-desegregation, created the abomination that was the early early Washington Redskins. He literally ran the club from 1932 until his death in 1969. In addition to an abysmal record, the franchise passed on drafting hall of farmers like Jim Brown, Jim Parker, Roosevelt Grier, Roosevelt Brown and Bobby Mitchell. Mitchell would eventually sign with the Skins' in 1968, Marshall's racial ban would still bar the likes of even Jackie Robinson a 4 sport-letterman at UCLA.
Much of President John F. Kennedy's actions in regard to Civil Rights, were driven by his relationship with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King originally intended to vote for Richard Nixon in 1960, because he did not like the fact that Senator Kennedy was a catholic. The incident would only heighten the monumental relationship that would evolve from two of the greatest American minds. President Kennedy referred to Washington D.C. as "a city with Northern charm and Southern efficiency." In 1959 just before the President's victory, Marshall decided to change the Redskins' fight song. The original lyrics were altered from "Fight for Ol' D.C." to "Fight for Old Dixie." Enter the Kennedy Administration.
A sitting Democratic president, especially from the North, has always faced hostile conservative factions. Lincoln, F.D. Roosevelt, and our current President all understand this sentiment quite well, especially in regards to the South's history of social strife. President Kennedy's Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall would spearhead the crusade to integrate the Redskins'. Sec. Udall's department oversaw the land and facility in which Marshall signed a 30 year lease. Marshall would quickly cave to our Presidents demands in another exemplary instance of the Democratic principle's of equal opportunity for all over conservative GOP ideology.
Mr. Smith has written an excellent piece of sports history. Personally, it took me back twenty years, to my childhood just out side Washington D.C.. My mother, uncle, and grandparents would recite every single story in Mr. Smith's book with fire and zeal. I am a child of the Party Democrat, and President Kennedy is the equivalent of a Desert Father on both sides of my parent's respective families. Moreover, this book highlights many similarities to our current political environment. Conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists (founded in Georgia) harbor a great deal of hatred to our Northern, Democrat President. A tragic, but familiar tune.
"Baugh was unhurt, but the car wreck would come to symbolize the Redskins' football fortunes in the years following World War II. From 1946 through 1961, the Redskins enjoyed only three winning seasons, appeared in no title or championship games, and amassed a record of 69 wins, 116 losses, and 8 times. They devoured eight head coaches and played no black athletes."
George Preston Marshall, the racist owner who set the African American player prohibition, and championed anti-desegregation, created the abomination that was the early early Washington Redskins. He literally ran the club from 1932 until his death in 1969. In addition to an abysmal record, the franchise passed on drafting hall of farmers like Jim Brown, Jim Parker, Roosevelt Grier, Roosevelt Brown and Bobby Mitchell. Mitchell would eventually sign with the Skins' in 1968, Marshall's racial ban would still bar the likes of even Jackie Robinson a 4 sport-letterman at UCLA.
Much of President John F. Kennedy's actions in regard to Civil Rights, were driven by his relationship with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King originally intended to vote for Richard Nixon in 1960, because he did not like the fact that Senator Kennedy was a catholic. The incident would only heighten the monumental relationship that would evolve from two of the greatest American minds. President Kennedy referred to Washington D.C. as "a city with Northern charm and Southern efficiency." In 1959 just before the President's victory, Marshall decided to change the Redskins' fight song. The original lyrics were altered from "Fight for Ol' D.C." to "Fight for Old Dixie." Enter the Kennedy Administration.
A sitting Democratic president, especially from the North, has always faced hostile conservative factions. Lincoln, F.D. Roosevelt, and our current President all understand this sentiment quite well, especially in regards to the South's history of social strife. President Kennedy's Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall would spearhead the crusade to integrate the Redskins'. Sec. Udall's department oversaw the land and facility in which Marshall signed a 30 year lease. Marshall would quickly cave to our Presidents demands in another exemplary instance of the Democratic principle's of equal opportunity for all over conservative GOP ideology.
Mr. Smith has written an excellent piece of sports history. Personally, it took me back twenty years, to my childhood just out side Washington D.C.. My mother, uncle, and grandparents would recite every single story in Mr. Smith's book with fire and zeal. I am a child of the Party Democrat, and President Kennedy is the equivalent of a Desert Father on both sides of my parent's respective families. Moreover, this book highlights many similarities to our current political environment. Conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists (founded in Georgia) harbor a great deal of hatred to our Northern, Democrat President. A tragic, but familiar tune.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Racism Prevents Progress
This week President Obama will address his American constituents. Most political pundits point to an agenda loaded with incentives to assist our economic recovery, centered on job creation and growth. Our greatest hope as Americans, is for the conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalist to abandon their racist, chauvinistic, anti-humanity agenda. This would require the Radical Right to turn their collective backs to their corporate benefactors and actually stand for the American worker and lower/middle class American voter.
This will be a large task for the conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists to undertake. The racism and anti-islamaphobia that has over run Europe, continues to maintain a steady heart beat among the American political arena. The Modern Red Scare has manifested itself in a variety of ugly forms including an increase in "patriot" and "militia" organizations, all grounded on hateful rhetoric and experiencing an exponential rate of growth largely because of a sitting African American president. America is a vast and diverse land. The conglomeration of races, ethnicity's, cultures, and religions, the United States represents an array of individual American experiences. The reality is that even in the 1940's, if not the late 1800's, America had evolved from its original English, Anglo-Saxon roots, into a growing multicultural nation. The ruling elite from the Revolution to now remain W.A.S.P. in culture, "White Anglo Saxon Protestant". The original oppression from wealthy English, Anglo-Saxon elite, continues to haunt much of the same cultural groups who assisted in founding this great nation : Arcadian-Creole, Spanish (both coincidentally Catholic), African-American, and the Indigenous American.
President Obama never thought this would be an easy undertaking. A nation that harbors hate, ignorance, and a gross sense of insecurity, perhaps does not deserve such a noble lion of politics, much less its first Black President. October saw the United States with its first fatality free month in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. His upcoming speech will certainly entail a massive investment in our nations infrastructure, especially in regards to transportation. The sad truth is that the Obama Administration has maintained the moderate stance that it ran on during its original election cycle and victory. The few attempts that the Democratic President has taken towards righting our economy have been visciously attacked by conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists. The reallity is that the Radical Right wishes to only cater to the elite of the United States economy. The tragic fate of the middle and lower class Americans, is left to the mighty will of our Commander-In-Chief. President Obama will surely follow the world trend of regulating the wealthy elite who have since time immemorable have taken every opportunity to exploit our nations resources for their own families, drinking buddies, and church congregations.
This will be a large task for the conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists to undertake. The racism and anti-islamaphobia that has over run Europe, continues to maintain a steady heart beat among the American political arena. The Modern Red Scare has manifested itself in a variety of ugly forms including an increase in "patriot" and "militia" organizations, all grounded on hateful rhetoric and experiencing an exponential rate of growth largely because of a sitting African American president. America is a vast and diverse land. The conglomeration of races, ethnicity's, cultures, and religions, the United States represents an array of individual American experiences. The reality is that even in the 1940's, if not the late 1800's, America had evolved from its original English, Anglo-Saxon roots, into a growing multicultural nation. The ruling elite from the Revolution to now remain W.A.S.P. in culture, "White Anglo Saxon Protestant". The original oppression from wealthy English, Anglo-Saxon elite, continues to haunt much of the same cultural groups who assisted in founding this great nation : Arcadian-Creole, Spanish (both coincidentally Catholic), African-American, and the Indigenous American.
President Obama never thought this would be an easy undertaking. A nation that harbors hate, ignorance, and a gross sense of insecurity, perhaps does not deserve such a noble lion of politics, much less its first Black President. October saw the United States with its first fatality free month in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. His upcoming speech will certainly entail a massive investment in our nations infrastructure, especially in regards to transportation. The sad truth is that the Obama Administration has maintained the moderate stance that it ran on during its original election cycle and victory. The few attempts that the Democratic President has taken towards righting our economy have been visciously attacked by conservative GOP and Tea Party Fundamentalists. The reallity is that the Radical Right wishes to only cater to the elite of the United States economy. The tragic fate of the middle and lower class Americans, is left to the mighty will of our Commander-In-Chief. President Obama will surely follow the world trend of regulating the wealthy elite who have since time immemorable have taken every opportunity to exploit our nations resources for their own families, drinking buddies, and church congregations.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Hustling Trio: Smiley, West and Palin
By Bankole Thompson Post by Mildred Gaddis in Detroit Now on Aug 16, 2011 at 7:10 am MICHIGAN CHRONICLEVOLUME 74 – Number 48 August 10-16, 2011 479 Ledyard • Detroit MI 48201 313.963.5522
The only person missing at the Tavis Smiley and Cornel West anti-poverty tour in Detroit Monday, which in my view was actually a Poverty Pimping Tour (PPT), was Tea Party darling Sarah Palin. And maybe if Michelle Bachman, Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner were there, it would have made for some interesting conversation around the Obama presidency. Because Smiley, West, Palin and the other vicious Obama critics have one thing in common: Destroy the Obama presidency for personal reasons. Lets be clear. Elitism is the tie that binds Smiley and West. West, a once towering and respected Black intellectual who has recently been having tantrums and behaving like a three-year-old who is refusing to drink his milk and wouldn’t watch Dora and Diego (children cartoon characters), has given the intellectually bankrupt and public relations journalist Smiley intellectual legitimacy.
In return Smiley has given West much needed publicity and a platform on the national stage to unload dogma and postulations of “democratic tradition” even when they contradict West’s own existence. What a pact. Smiley has long had a gripe with President Obama, dating back to when he was candidate Obama. It began with the intense 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama could not make it to Smiley’s “Black Agenda” forum and instead offered to send his wife, Michelle. Smiley refused to accept the candidate’s wife to represent her husband. Like an anointed “Black savior,” Smiley went on radio demanding to know who was candidate Obama not to show up at his function. The forum went on without candidate Obama and as it turned out it became a Smiley lovefest with Democratic candidate. West got pissed off at Obama after receiving a severe public chastising from the president that dealt a blow to his Ivy League ego during an Urban League conference in Washington, D.C. As West was reaching out to shake the president’s hand, Obama scolded him saying he (West) should be “ashamed” of himself for telling liberals that he (Obama) was not progressive.
Prior to that, West was angry because during the 2008 campaign Obama stopped calling him every two weeks. Added to that anger, West did not receive a ticket to the presidential inauguration and complained about the hotel doorman getting one when he — the almighty intellectual — could not secure a ticket for someone he campaigned for. All of that bruised the egos of Smiley and West and now exposes the insincerity of their critique against the president and reduces them to nothing but two angry men who deserve to be enrolled in an anger management class. Given that West and Smiley are in this for themselves, it leaves me to wonder, what is their democratic commitment to justice and equity? What is the personal sacrifice they’ve made to address the issues of the poor? It’s hard to believe that their mission at this point is pure.
There’s nothing wrong for them to make very comfortable livings. But the questions I want answered is what poverty alleviation program did they implement in Detroit this week during their tour? Did they set up a million dollar employment fund to help train laid off workers to get a job and help struggling families and at the same time challenge corporate Detroit to match those funds and get Detroiters back to work?
How many Black kids in Detroit and other cities from disadvantaged families has West enabled to acquire a scholarship to a four-year college or an Ivy League school? What in concrete terms have West and Smiley personally offered from their rich coffers — backed by the corporate sponsors of their events — to reduce poverty in Black America in the next five years? From the intellectually acrobatic “State of the Black Union” symposium launched by Smiley to speaking on the lecture circuit, their latest vicious attacks on the president is nothing but personal.
If their egos were not bruised and they had been receiving regular White House invitations, neither would be out here accusing the president of defending the same “plutocrats” and “oligarchs” who sponsor some of the events organized by Smiley and West. Smiley, during mid-2000, teamed up with Wells Fargo to organize “wealth building” seminars in Black neighborhoods. Smiley, who was the draw for Wells Fargo executives, would charge up his Black audiences about how he hated banks. The seminars, purported to help Black families build wealth when in actuality it was a well coordinated ploy to subject desperate and innocent Black borrowers into high cost sub prime mortgages. In fact, a lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo by the State of Illinois charged that Wells Fargo discriminated against Black and Latino homeowners by selling them high cost sub prime mortgage loans while their White counterparts received lower cost loans. The lawsuit by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was the result of an investigation into possible lending and consumer fraud laws. “As a result of its discriminatory and illegal mortgage practices, Wells Fargo transformed our cities’ predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods into ground zero for sub prime lending,” Madigan said in announcing the 2009 lawsuit. “The dreams of many hardworking families have ended in foreclosure due to Wells Fargo’s illegal and unfair conduct.”
In the Chicago area, 45 percent of Wells Fargo’s Black borrowers and 23 percent of Latino borrowers received high cost mortgage, according to the State of Illinois. Will West rail against Wells Fargo that his buddy Smiley was promoting at the expense of innocent Black borrowers? Because we lack a critical mass, no one dares to challenge Smiley and West since the duo have long arrogated themselves as the oracles of the Black race and claimed exclusive ownership over Black issues. Smiley and West are marketing poverty as a valuable asset and a brand booster for their products at the expense of a very uncritical mass that cannot see through the prism of their deceptiveness and race-baiting game. Of course, they are using the powerful tool of race as a traveling enterprise, appearing to provide teachable moments for suffering Blacks when in truth they are playing a self-serving game. Because President Obama appears vulnerable heading into the 2012 campaign as exemplified by the debt ceiling process, West and Smiley are in an “I told you so” moment to vindicate themselves from the atmosphere they have created that has helped allow Obama to be viciously attacked by the right wing machine. In doing so, they have become the Black faces of that right wing attack machine. They are on board with the inept and unintelligent Palin who is bereft of common sense but has made a fortune out of saying outrageous things about the Obama presidency.
In using the president’s racial identity to question not only his commitment to the Black race, but also make him guilty of not being “Black enough” by further questioning his masculinity as a Black man, West shamelessly attempted to deconstruct Obama as if he was an academic exercise. West’s suggestion that Obama’s association with Whites leads him to believe that the president is not a “free Black man” is insulting to any Black person with Whites relationships. And if that is the race barometer West uses to gauge the loyalty of Black leaders, then he should use the same for Harry Belafonte, the legendary Black activist and entertainer married to a White woman. He should do the same for Julian Bond who is married to a White woman — he is the former chairman of the national NAACP, a man who was in the trenches fighting Jim Crow long before West became a footnote in the discourse on race. What about Frederick Douglass who was biracial? West was simply engaging in a very dangerous display of egocentric elitism at the expense of the masses of struggling people, while West remains protected in his handsomely paid Ivy League tower and cannot get fired because he is tenured.
To see through the antics of West is to understand that he, and others like him, come from a deep tradition of elitism and egocentrism that has long pushed the narrative that nothing is legitimate unless it has their blessings. By demanding that unless their rings are kissed, West and his friends continue to contradict their own democratic postulations and posturing. At the poverty rally held in the City- County Building the crowd was electrified when West started throwing names of civil rights legends and skillfully utilizing the politics of the English language to mesmerize his audience. Obama supporters David Stephen (from the group Detroiters for Better Government), Ernest Johnson, Renette Jackson and others gave Smiley and West a piece of their minds at the rally, alerting attendees not to allow the duo to throw dust into their eyes.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., King donated his financial gift from the Nobel Peace Prize to the Civil Rights Movement and died leaving his family in dire straits. What has West donated to poor Black families in here and elsewhere? West understands his audience very well which is why he’s always masking under the guise of prophetic unction because its a safe and revered place from which to operate. And in masking, he lists names of individuals and institutions that are culturally and politically wedded to our sensibilities, so we can be whipped into further frenzy and momentary relief before returning to our nightmares.
How many homeless and domestic violence shelters did Smiley and West visit during their tour to highlight the silent suffering of Blacks? They raced through Detroit got people excited and left. The next time they show up in Detroit it might be another ego-boosting tour, not a ground-breaking ceremony to open a skilled center to help young Blacks prepare for meaningful careers.
Bankole Thompson is the author of the book “Obama and Black Loyalty, Vol. 1,” a trilogy on President Obama. His new book, “Obama and Christian Loyalty,” will be released soon. Listen to his weekly analyses Thursdays, mornings on “The Craig Fahle Show,” WDET-101.9 FM-NPR affiliate. He is a member of the weekly “Obama Watch” Sunday roundtable program, on WLIB-1190 AM-New York which is simulcast in New Jersey and Connecticut. E-mail him at bthompson@michronicle.com.
The only person missing at the Tavis Smiley and Cornel West anti-poverty tour in Detroit Monday, which in my view was actually a Poverty Pimping Tour (PPT), was Tea Party darling Sarah Palin. And maybe if Michelle Bachman, Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner were there, it would have made for some interesting conversation around the Obama presidency. Because Smiley, West, Palin and the other vicious Obama critics have one thing in common: Destroy the Obama presidency for personal reasons. Lets be clear. Elitism is the tie that binds Smiley and West. West, a once towering and respected Black intellectual who has recently been having tantrums and behaving like a three-year-old who is refusing to drink his milk and wouldn’t watch Dora and Diego (children cartoon characters), has given the intellectually bankrupt and public relations journalist Smiley intellectual legitimacy.
In return Smiley has given West much needed publicity and a platform on the national stage to unload dogma and postulations of “democratic tradition” even when they contradict West’s own existence. What a pact. Smiley has long had a gripe with President Obama, dating back to when he was candidate Obama. It began with the intense 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama could not make it to Smiley’s “Black Agenda” forum and instead offered to send his wife, Michelle. Smiley refused to accept the candidate’s wife to represent her husband. Like an anointed “Black savior,” Smiley went on radio demanding to know who was candidate Obama not to show up at his function. The forum went on without candidate Obama and as it turned out it became a Smiley lovefest with Democratic candidate. West got pissed off at Obama after receiving a severe public chastising from the president that dealt a blow to his Ivy League ego during an Urban League conference in Washington, D.C. As West was reaching out to shake the president’s hand, Obama scolded him saying he (West) should be “ashamed” of himself for telling liberals that he (Obama) was not progressive.
Prior to that, West was angry because during the 2008 campaign Obama stopped calling him every two weeks. Added to that anger, West did not receive a ticket to the presidential inauguration and complained about the hotel doorman getting one when he — the almighty intellectual — could not secure a ticket for someone he campaigned for. All of that bruised the egos of Smiley and West and now exposes the insincerity of their critique against the president and reduces them to nothing but two angry men who deserve to be enrolled in an anger management class. Given that West and Smiley are in this for themselves, it leaves me to wonder, what is their democratic commitment to justice and equity? What is the personal sacrifice they’ve made to address the issues of the poor? It’s hard to believe that their mission at this point is pure.
There’s nothing wrong for them to make very comfortable livings. But the questions I want answered is what poverty alleviation program did they implement in Detroit this week during their tour? Did they set up a million dollar employment fund to help train laid off workers to get a job and help struggling families and at the same time challenge corporate Detroit to match those funds and get Detroiters back to work?
How many Black kids in Detroit and other cities from disadvantaged families has West enabled to acquire a scholarship to a four-year college or an Ivy League school? What in concrete terms have West and Smiley personally offered from their rich coffers — backed by the corporate sponsors of their events — to reduce poverty in Black America in the next five years? From the intellectually acrobatic “State of the Black Union” symposium launched by Smiley to speaking on the lecture circuit, their latest vicious attacks on the president is nothing but personal.
If their egos were not bruised and they had been receiving regular White House invitations, neither would be out here accusing the president of defending the same “plutocrats” and “oligarchs” who sponsor some of the events organized by Smiley and West. Smiley, during mid-2000, teamed up with Wells Fargo to organize “wealth building” seminars in Black neighborhoods. Smiley, who was the draw for Wells Fargo executives, would charge up his Black audiences about how he hated banks. The seminars, purported to help Black families build wealth when in actuality it was a well coordinated ploy to subject desperate and innocent Black borrowers into high cost sub prime mortgages. In fact, a lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo by the State of Illinois charged that Wells Fargo discriminated against Black and Latino homeowners by selling them high cost sub prime mortgage loans while their White counterparts received lower cost loans. The lawsuit by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was the result of an investigation into possible lending and consumer fraud laws. “As a result of its discriminatory and illegal mortgage practices, Wells Fargo transformed our cities’ predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods into ground zero for sub prime lending,” Madigan said in announcing the 2009 lawsuit. “The dreams of many hardworking families have ended in foreclosure due to Wells Fargo’s illegal and unfair conduct.”
In the Chicago area, 45 percent of Wells Fargo’s Black borrowers and 23 percent of Latino borrowers received high cost mortgage, according to the State of Illinois. Will West rail against Wells Fargo that his buddy Smiley was promoting at the expense of innocent Black borrowers? Because we lack a critical mass, no one dares to challenge Smiley and West since the duo have long arrogated themselves as the oracles of the Black race and claimed exclusive ownership over Black issues. Smiley and West are marketing poverty as a valuable asset and a brand booster for their products at the expense of a very uncritical mass that cannot see through the prism of their deceptiveness and race-baiting game. Of course, they are using the powerful tool of race as a traveling enterprise, appearing to provide teachable moments for suffering Blacks when in truth they are playing a self-serving game. Because President Obama appears vulnerable heading into the 2012 campaign as exemplified by the debt ceiling process, West and Smiley are in an “I told you so” moment to vindicate themselves from the atmosphere they have created that has helped allow Obama to be viciously attacked by the right wing machine. In doing so, they have become the Black faces of that right wing attack machine. They are on board with the inept and unintelligent Palin who is bereft of common sense but has made a fortune out of saying outrageous things about the Obama presidency.
In using the president’s racial identity to question not only his commitment to the Black race, but also make him guilty of not being “Black enough” by further questioning his masculinity as a Black man, West shamelessly attempted to deconstruct Obama as if he was an academic exercise. West’s suggestion that Obama’s association with Whites leads him to believe that the president is not a “free Black man” is insulting to any Black person with Whites relationships. And if that is the race barometer West uses to gauge the loyalty of Black leaders, then he should use the same for Harry Belafonte, the legendary Black activist and entertainer married to a White woman. He should do the same for Julian Bond who is married to a White woman — he is the former chairman of the national NAACP, a man who was in the trenches fighting Jim Crow long before West became a footnote in the discourse on race. What about Frederick Douglass who was biracial? West was simply engaging in a very dangerous display of egocentric elitism at the expense of the masses of struggling people, while West remains protected in his handsomely paid Ivy League tower and cannot get fired because he is tenured.
To see through the antics of West is to understand that he, and others like him, come from a deep tradition of elitism and egocentrism that has long pushed the narrative that nothing is legitimate unless it has their blessings. By demanding that unless their rings are kissed, West and his friends continue to contradict their own democratic postulations and posturing. At the poverty rally held in the City- County Building the crowd was electrified when West started throwing names of civil rights legends and skillfully utilizing the politics of the English language to mesmerize his audience. Obama supporters David Stephen (from the group Detroiters for Better Government), Ernest Johnson, Renette Jackson and others gave Smiley and West a piece of their minds at the rally, alerting attendees not to allow the duo to throw dust into their eyes.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., King donated his financial gift from the Nobel Peace Prize to the Civil Rights Movement and died leaving his family in dire straits. What has West donated to poor Black families in here and elsewhere? West understands his audience very well which is why he’s always masking under the guise of prophetic unction because its a safe and revered place from which to operate. And in masking, he lists names of individuals and institutions that are culturally and politically wedded to our sensibilities, so we can be whipped into further frenzy and momentary relief before returning to our nightmares.
How many homeless and domestic violence shelters did Smiley and West visit during their tour to highlight the silent suffering of Blacks? They raced through Detroit got people excited and left. The next time they show up in Detroit it might be another ego-boosting tour, not a ground-breaking ceremony to open a skilled center to help young Blacks prepare for meaningful careers.
Bankole Thompson is the author of the book “Obama and Black Loyalty, Vol. 1,” a trilogy on President Obama. His new book, “Obama and Christian Loyalty,” will be released soon. Listen to his weekly analyses Thursdays, mornings on “The Craig Fahle Show,” WDET-101.9 FM-NPR affiliate. He is a member of the weekly “Obama Watch” Sunday roundtable program, on WLIB-1190 AM-New York which is simulcast in New Jersey and Connecticut. E-mail him at bthompson@michronicle.com.
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