Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 September 2000 — Page 13

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2000

PAGE A13

Clinton-Gore dilemma for Black America (Part 2)

The contrast in the reception that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and President Clinton got when they spoke at the NAACP’s annual convention this past July couldn't have been more glaring. The delegates listened to Bush’s worked-over platitudes about racial tolerance with polite skepticism. With j Clinton they had a love fest and treated him as a conquering hero. Clinton reminded the delegates that he and A1 Gore were joined at the hip for eight years and that if they adored him, they must adore Gore too and do everything they can to help elect him president. But. his demand that Blacks reflexively back Gore underscores several enduring political dilemmas for Black voters. In every presidential election the past four decades Blacks have given the Democratic presidential nominee more than 80 percent of their vote, Clinton included. It mattered little that Clinton’s eight-year record on social justice and civil rights issues has been marked by a blurry mix of achievement, cautious rhetoric, neglect and political opportunism. And that Clinton spent two elections trying to outReagan Reagan in a chase to nab defecting white middle-class, ethnic and blue collar voters for the Democrats and distance himself from “special interests” (i.e. women and minorities). Clinton also played two major trump cards to maintain unbending Black support. The first was Republican indifference, even flatout hostility, to Blacks. It will take far more than Bush’s much-bally-hooed talk of diversity and inclusion and the showpiece parade of Black, Latino and Asian faces and Colin Powell that they rolled out at the Republican National Convention to overcome that bitter legacy of neglect and rejection. ■ His other ace-in-the-hole is that Blacks have no other political choice beyond the Republicans. The talk of forming an independent Black political party to chal-

The Crisis

in Black

and Black

lyial Ofari

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lenge the Democrats and Republicans is the stuff of pipe dreams and delusion. Every effort to form such a party has crashed on the hard bedrock of political division, fear and traditionalism. Some Black activists claim that Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s credentials as acrusader for the environment and against corporate rapaciousness merits a hard look. But Nader has a badly exposed Achilles heel. He has publicly said next to nothing about racial profiling, police abuse, failing inner-city public schools, the obscene racial disparities in the prison and criminal justice system, the surge of murder violence in f>oor communities, the dreary economic plight of many young Blacks and corporate racism. His failure to speak out loudly on these problems will not help him shed his cloak of invisibility with Black voters. Yet despite these racial pluses for the Democrats a significant number of Blacks now call themselves independents. This means that potentially large numbers of Black votes could be up for grabs for the Democrats and Republicans this election. History has amply shown that ethnic bloc voting can make or break a candidate, campaign and agenda. In 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. threatened to boycott both the Republican and Democratic conventions to force a stronger civil rights platform. In 1965 U.S. Rep. Aoam Clayton Powell of Harlem issued a “Black Position Paper” to

the Democrats demanding they share greater political power with Blacks. In 1972 the National Black Political Convention forced President Richard Nixon to increase minority business funding, propose nonpunitive welfare reform, and strengthen affirmative action programs in the trades, and pushed the Democrats to adopt one of the most liberal activist platforms ever. In 1984 and 1988, Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition pushed the Democratic Party to support District of Columbia statehood, national health insurance, full employment, political redistricting and affirmative action. In 1996, the National African-American Leadership Summit demanded Republicans and Democrats endorse an independent Black agenda. The social and economic devastation of many poor and workingclass Blacks has raised the political stakes even higher this election. Gore should not have a free hand to say and do as he pleases with Black voters as his boss did for eight years under the presumption that their votes are in the bag. And Bush should not get away with spouting photo-op campaign stump slogans about making the Republican Party inclusive and then doing nothing to make it a reality. Black voters can and should lobby, challenge and pressure Bush and Gore to support increased funding for jobs, health, and education programs, scrap the Clinton administration’s failed drug policy, and a total overhaul of the raciallywarped prison and criminal justice system. This is the price that Bush, and especially Gore, should have to pay for Black votes. Blacks should have no dilemma about challenging them to pay that price. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of The Disappearance of Black Leadership. His column can be read on-line at v www.agoodBlackman.com. Email: [email protected]

Are you feeling good or doing good? By JAMES CLINGMAN rise to a fever pitch while we are Finally, if you really want to being entertained. “do” good rather than merely “feel” Brothers and sisters, we must Our emotions are stirred tremen- good, get in the freedom business, get down to real business. For too dously by motivational speakers. “Economic freedom is the greatest long we have been engulfed in a They make us look into ourselves cause before the Negro today.” sea of emotionalism, riding on a and realize our potential, at least Those words were spoken by wave of ecstasy, and drowning in for the moment. They rally the Horace Sudduth, national president our own “feel good” approach to winner in all of us and cause us to of the Negro Business League in economically empowering our- commit, for the moment, to do bet- 1950. selves. ter, to work harder, to make more His words still apply, and if we Some of us are so steeped in the money, and to “win” in the game of want true economic freedom we emotional messages we hear ev- life. must do more than make emotional eryday that we forget, if we recog- On Sunday mornings millions speeches. We must do more than nized it at all, the message of col- of Black people are stimulated come up with schemes and scams lective economic redemption and emotionally, and their religious that only put a sour taste in our what it will take for us to achieve it. fervor is such that we make prom- mouths. And, we must do much We see it so often. We will pay ises, new commitments, and decla- more than rally, march, protest, ' tremendous amounts of money to rations to God himself. We sing, complain, whine, seek apologies, be uplifted for a little while by dance, cry, testify, and issue prayers and turn over our tremendous someone who tells us we are all and supplications proclaiming our wealth to other folks’ businesses, winners. We pack the house when new being and how we are going to We must do for ourselves, with someone is in town discussing how change the way we have lived. the resolve and the willingness to each of us can “make it big.” We With all of these emotional out- sacrifice for one another, if we are hold in the highest esteem those lets and emotional experiences going to attain true economic freewho bring virtually nothing to the available to Black people, you dom. It’s much more than just feeltable regarding Black cooperative would think we would be the most ing good for a little while and goeconomics and pay them dearly for active people on the face of the ing home. It’s about exchanging their time. Earth. You would think we would our dollars, pooling our resources, But let a brother or a sister come have, by now, gained all of the and building our own communito town who has a message or 3 benefits and prosperity we so often ties. plan for our people to escape the speak about in our emotional ses- Yes, we can go to the concerts, chains of economic deprivation, sions. listen to the motivational speeches, and watch us scatter. Watch us find You would think that by now and pay close attention to the sersomething else to do. we would have transposed some of mons. But follow through iseveryHave you ever wondered why our emotion into work — work thing.Ohyes.let’salsotrypacking many of us are so enthralled by that will lead us to economic free- the house when someone is mak-emotion-laden messages? Have dom. You would think. ing a presentation on how to get you noticed how difficult it is to get As we continue to expend enor- our economic freedom, some of our people aroused when mous energy on emotional activi- I ask you: Are you feeling good it comes to messages that require ties, and we will continue it, let’s and then doing good? Or are you critical thinking, research, or ac- make a conscious and concerted just feeling good? tion on our parts? . effort to parlay that emotion into Emotion is a wonderful thing; something pragmatic and tangible. James Clingman is the former don’t get me wrong. I love to be After we are entertained, let’s at editor of the Cincinnati Herald entertained; I love tobe swept away least ask: “Who received the lion’s newspaper. He is the founder and emotionally. But we cannot allow share of the proceeds and what are executive director of the Greater our mere emotions to control our they doing with it?” Cincinnati African American everyday actions or the lack of After we have heard the motiva- Chamber ofCommerce and author appropriate actions when it comes tional speeches, many of which we of the new book. Economic Emto our economic survival. paid so dearly to hear, let’s go out powerment or Economic EnslaveYou must admit that we are “in and follow through on what"we ment — We Have A Choice the house” when entertainers come have heard and make our lives bet- (enterzone.com/power). Contact to our cities. We will pay whatever ter. And after the soul-stirring ser- him at P.O. Box 6722, Cincinnati, the price to see them, go through mons we hear each Sunday, or any OH 45206, (513) 489-4132, or by all kinds of weather (Why won’t other day, let’s go home and get to e-mail at mailto:[email protected]. we do that when it comes to vot- work being more loving, more trusting?), postpone or cancel anything ing, kinder, and fairer to one anelse in conflict with the event, and other as a people.

LETTERS

Rwidcr thanks Ik* Ratardar For the previous four years, your newspaper (my newspaper) has kept me tied to my roots - home. I’ve been incarcerated in Texas, however now I’m free, after paying my debt to society. Through The Recorder, I’ve learned so much and kept in tune with the city. I’m proud of this paper and look forward to buying it from the many distributors in Indianapolis. Thank you for providing me with The Indianapolis Recorder newspaper. Jesse Howard Lubbock, Texas Blood donors noodod for nttornoy with lovkomln In his room at University Hospital, bold red letters read: “Make

Me Whole Lord,” as a reference to Scripture in John 5 in the New Testament. And that is the crusade of the Indiana Blood Center on behalf of Mark E. Walker. Walker, 31, is in need of a bone marrow transplant since being diagnosed with leukemia a year ago. Walker is a recent newlywed and upon return from his honeymoon, he went for his routine checkup to find that his leukemia had returned. Walker is an attorney for Lewis and Wagner and has put fighting battles in the courtroom aside to fight for his life. Walker’s chances of finding a match through the African-Ameri-can community are much greater. Unfortunately there is a shortage of donors among the AfricanAmerican community. According to the Indiana Blood Center, a person could find out if they are a possible match and could help Walker by donating 20 minutes of their time at the Indiana Blood Center. A possible donor will be helping many others whose lives are depending on their one

Mark and Chantal Walker and only match, which could be you! This is an urgent outreach and your help in this matter is certainly appreciated by Walker’s family and friends who love Mark and pray for his recovery in the fight against leukemia. For more information, contact the Indiana Blood Center, 3450 N. Meridian St. at (317) 927-1613.

isrnping from blackness: racial Identity and public policy

The greatest struggle of any oppressed group in a racist society is the struggle to reclaim collective memory and identity. At the level of culture, racism seeks to deny people of African, American Indian, Asian and Latino descent their own voices, histories and traditions. From the vantage point of racism. Black people have no “story” worth telling; that the master narrative woven into the national hierarchy of white prejudice, privilege and power represents the only legitimate experience worth knowing. Frantz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks makes the observation that the greatest triumph of racism is when Black people lose touch with their own culture and identity, seeking to transcend their oppressed condition as the other by becoming something they are not. Under colonialism and Jim Crow segregation, people of African descent were constantly pressured to conform to the racist stereotypes held of them by the dominant society. Some succumbed to this pressure, assuming the mask of “Sambo” in order to survive, or to ensure that their children’s lives would go forward. Others sacrificed themselves to achieve a higher ideal, the struggle to claim their own humanity and cultural traditions, and to build communities grounded in the integrity of one’s own truths. The knowledge of blackness is not found in genetics, and only indirectly in the color of one’s skin. It is found in that connection to symbols, living traditions and histories of collective resistance, renewal and transformation. We now live in a time when legal segregation, colonialism and even apartheid have been dismantled. The “white” and “colored” signs across the South that I remember so vividly in my childhood have been taken down for over a generation. Perhaps it is not surprising that a growing number of our people casually take for granted the democratic victories achieved — the right to vote and hold elective office, access to fair employment, the abolition of racially segregated public accommodations, opportunities in higher education through affirmative action — failing to recognize that what has been won over centuries of struggle can be taken away. Although they are the prime beneficiaries of the freedom struggle, they distance themselves from it. They have come to the false conclusion that what they have accomplished was by their own individual talents and effort. And they actively attack the thesis that blackness, in and of itself, has any cultural value, outside of the uplifting effects of whiteness.

Debra Dickerson, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, is one example of this unfortunate trend. She’s the author of a new book. An American Story, that argues, “it’s long past time Blacks opted out of blackness.” In an op-ed essay several months ago appearing in the Washington Post, Dickerson criticizes Howard Universrty’s ’ " African DNA database project for attempting to link Black Americans to African ancestors. For Dickerson, the DNA research only has value because “we who were swindled out of every link to the past except skin color will be able to find out more about our (European) heritage.” Dickerson has no patience for African Americans who identify themselves as part of the African diaspora. “A Nigerian who immigrates to America in 2000 has virtually nothing in common with the descendants of American slaves, but we’re both conceptually freeze-dried down to that one aspect of our Selves.” Besides, she notes, “there are few Black families who don’t brag about the whites and Indians (all chiefs) in their lineage and lie about how hard it was to make their hair stand up Mike that’ during the reign of the Afro.” At the end of Dickerson’s essay, in a passage that is both confused and outrageous, she claims that Black Americans should not “despise” the white men who raped their foremothers. “Without slavery, there would be no Jesse Jackson,” she insists, “no Leontyne Price,” ‘Tiger Woods,” “jazz or gospel,” and “no me.” Should the NAACP halt its campaign against the Confederate battle flag, because it’s part of “our” heritage, too? Should the descendants of those who were raped find identity and meaning for themselves by coming to a new appreciation of the rapists? Dickerson confuses genetics with culture. We may share a genetic tie to the slaveholders, but their only vital contribution to our historical identity was the struggle we waged against them. We share no morals, and no common history. We owe them nothing except contempt. More academic in style, but no less self-hating, is the recent book. Losing the Race: SelfSabotage in Black America, by University of California linguistics professor John H. McWhorter. Losing the Race

argues that affirmative action cripples African-American students contributing to a spirit of Black “anti-intellectualism” and to a “deep-reaching inferiority complex” that discourages learning. “In my years of teaching,” McWhorter declares, “I have never had a student disappear without explanation, or turn in a test that made me wonder how she could have attended class and done so badly, who was not African American“ ■ t McWhorter’s central point is that Black people as a group are unprepared and unworthy of being admitted to elite whitp .. institutions. Black Bcritcley u* > students, however,' l aren i thPtMal * loss. None of-them “would he uncomfortable in a nice restau^ rant" and most “probably do know what wine goes with chicken.” Nevertheless, they clearly cannot compete with their white counterparts and are trapped by their “defeatist thought patterns.” McWhorter does admit that his race helped him to win academic fellowships, and to achieve his faculty positions at Cornell and now at Berkeley. But like the proverbial man who escapes from a pit and pulls up the ladder behind him, trapping others at the bottom, McWhorter desperately wants to distance himself from his oppressed sisters and brothers. The price for admission into the white establishment is to denounce Blacks in stereotypical terms. And in fact, Abigail and Stephan Themstrom, who viciously attacked affirmative action in America in Black and White, praise McWhorter’s book as “brilliant.” * Dickerson and McWhorter arc cultural casualties in the centu-ries-old struggle against racism. But it would be a mistake to conclude that they are aberrations. The death of legal segregation, and the explosion in the size of the Black professionalmanagerial class, creates the political space for the emergence of Blacks who want to escape their blackness. They may be prepared to denounce their own people in order to advance their careers, but we should not permit them to go unnoticed or unchallenged. To uproot racism, we must constantly remember that the first ■< step is in appreciating our history and culture. Dr. Manning Marable is professor of history and political science, and the director of the Institute for Research in AfricanAmerican Studies, Columbia University. Dr. Marable’s column is also available on the Internet at www. manningmarable. net.

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