The Steadfast Denial of Reality

I almost feel sorry for the Republican Party these days. The GOP self-immolation seems almost complete, down to the predictable last-minute acts of desperation. Witness their indefensible defenses for Sarah Palin’s frightening lack of intelligence - their equally bizarre accusations of ACORN, minorities and city folks in general as anti-American. While this pitiful descent into madness may somehow be energizing their base - provided their base consists of the most easily manipulated people on earth - their steadfast denial of reality proves to the rest of us what they know, but can’t bring themselves to say. It’s over.

Instead, they play Moby Dick’s doomed Captain Ahab, vainly lashing out at the great whale even as he’s taken under the waves forever. “To the last, I grapple with thee! From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!”

And it is this Ahab attitude that keeps me from actually feeling sorry for Republicans. Because I know that for the GOP, hate’s sake is going to include Election Day shenanigans the likes of which we’ve never seen.

OK, shenanigans the likes of which most people in the country have never seen.

This is Philadelphia, where the political shenanigan was first invented, and eventually perfected. Also, the proud original home of cronyism, dirty pool, and double dipping.

So, while this whole ACORN voter registration ballyhoo may have whipped up the uninitiated, for us, it’s a big, fat yawn. Why? Let’s examine this “scandal”: ACORN, among many other agencies around the country, employs armies of freshly scrubbed young people with perfect teeth to register new voters door-to-door and on street corners. ACORN then pays these young people on a sliding scale, according to the number of registrants they sign up. More signatures equal more money.

We should all then be shocked, stunned, and horrified when some of these happy young folks try to make more money by padding their lists, writing in multiple or fictitious names and addresses. I mean, is this contingency unexpected? Who’s zooming whom here?

To make matters worse, ACORN and the other agencies are required by law to submit all registration lists, even the obviously bogus ones listing Mickey Mouse, Wayne Gretsky and Tobor the Eighth Man. (My personal favorite is the old Philadelphia tradition of listing a cemetery as an address, then writing in the names off the tombstones. Classic.)

Now, everyone knows that Mickey Mouse isn’t going to show up in Philly to vote, and neither are the dearly departed culled from the gravestones. A fraud, sure, but a relatively victimless one, considering that the outcome of an election is not decided by people who don’t show up to vote.

Yet, here comes McCain and the GOP, screaming about this latest threat to the fabric of democracy, and all humanity, at the scheming hands of a few overly enthusiastic ACORN employees. Lawsuits are filed, and thousands of registration lists containing hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters are called into question.

With any luck, they figure, most people won’t see through the smokescreen. Most people won’t know that the GOP’s last best hope of winning lies in somehow suppressing the votes of those most likely to vote for Obama. Most people won’t know the difference between voter registration fraud, which you might make a case for against ACORN, and actual voter fraud, where someone, say, shows up to vote twice under different names.

Meanwhile, the door is open for the GOP to “monitor” voters in pro-Obama areas. You may have noticed recent flyers distributed in North and West Philly, falsely warning potential voters with anything from outstanding warrants to parking tickets that police will be ready to arrest them when they show up at the polls. Expect more of this, and expect it to get worse.

Expect a repeat of 2000, when minority votes were arbitrarily stricken from the rolls, when ballots were deliberately confusing in elderly voting places, or deliberately misleading in minority voting places. Expect a repeat of 2004, when “Swift Boating” and outright lying gave way to dozens, maybe hundreds, of GOP-sponsored electronic voting machines “accidentally” erasing huge numbers of votes for the Democratic candidate.

Expect voter intimidation in all its forms leading up to Election Day. Expect to be lied to, lied about, and treated as something less than a full citizen. Fortunately, here in Philadelphia, we’ve learned over the years to expect just about anything when it comes to Election Day politics.

These people are desperate, folks, and they’re not going down alone.

What To Expect from Brother President

Caught up in the Obama whirlwind, I’ve been almost giddy lately with the possibility of the first Black President of the United States. We all have.

This is a unique moment in history, and its importance bears down on us like a great weight. It is a chance for America to begin finally to fulfill her own promise, to inject some truth into Jefferson’s supposedly self-evident idea that all men are created equal.

I say supposedly because I don’t think it needs to be said here that all men have not been equal in America’s long history. Women either.

In fact, the very idea of equality was opposite to the philosophical foundation that made this country great: that vast land could be stolen from one race of people, and then another race of people could be forced to work that land, all for the benefit of the conquering race of people. That’s colonization at its finest, folks, and the young America was a group of colonies.

Of course, none of us needs a history lesson, nor do we need to be reminded that real freedom for Blacks in America is only about 50 years old, and since then has been coming in drips and drabs. And make no mistake: every right, every freedom, every victory has come with a heavy price, a bill that many African-Americans are still paying.

So, of course we revel in the idea that one of us can become president. Sure, they loved to tell us when we were kids that anyone could become president, but come on, no one really believed it. We revel in it because maybe the day is coming when we can finally look our children in the eye and tell them that they can reach their full potential with study and hard work, and not harbor secret fears that we’re just setting them up for a painful reality check later on. We revel in it because while Obama represents change for much of the country, for us he represents hope. Not just hope for the future of America, but an even more fervent hope for the future of Black America.

And this is where I fear we may be setting ourselves up for a reality check.

I heard a couple of young people discussing politics the other day while in a store. The two girls and a boy, about 17, were obvious Obama fans. Standing behind them, I was just happy at the number of young folks who have gotten involved in politics lately, when one of them said something jarring. I’m paraphrasing here, but she said that when Obama becomes president, he’ll rebuild Black communities and Black schools, get rid of drugs, get jobs for everyone, and well… pretty much make everything all right.

OK, I want him to win, but that might be asking a bit much from the brother. He’s just a man, and more importantly, a politician. His policies and initiatives, however sound, will still judged in the court of public opinion. He’ll be stymied by members of Congress, hamstrung by the courts, and hounded by the press with every misstep. That’s just the job.
Or have we already forgotten how years ago we whooped and danced at the idea of Philadelphia’s first Black mayor? Two Black mayors later, are you still whooping and dancing? All right then.

To his credit, Barack Obama is a very smart politician. Maybe even smarter than ol’ Bubba himself. Smart enough to know that the slightest hint of bias or favoritism in the Obama administration will set off a media firestorm the likes of which we haven’t seen since, well, ever. His urban agenda, by political necessity, must be completely even handed. Any urban renewal policy initiative that benefits North and West Philly would similarly have to benefit Port Richmond and Kensington and other areas. And that would apply all over the country. That’s just, I think, the political reality.

If we’re smart, we won’t expect any special treatment from an Obama administration. He’s not going to be ‘our’ president any more than he will be ‘theirs’. Let’s just get that through our heads now.

What we can expect though, is fair treatment. We can expect that our government will respond with the same speed and compassion to a catastrophe in Black areas that it does elsewhere. We can expect that our government will honor its commitment to treat its citizens as identical stakeholders of a single proud Republic.

We can expect to be treated as if we are all created equal.

When In Doubt, The Black Guy Did It

Being a newspaper columnist is not as easy as you might think.

OK, it is – but let me make my point.

Some weeks are so slow and so same-old, same-old that it can be difficult to come up with fresh, new material. Then there are other weeks, like this week, that will have your head spinning while trying to decide among thirty or forty topics people are talking about.

Another slain Philly cop is laid to rest, and the resultant firestorm conjures up everything from the governor calling for a moratorium on all state paroles, to the Fraternal Order of Police calling out judges at a news conference. Over at City Hall, a city council member and his aide get involved in a war of words with FOX 29 over time sheet discrepancies, and then the aide pulls one of the most boneheaded council session stunts of all time – which is really saying something. If there is a college course somewhere in how to bungle a media crisis, this will live forever as the textbook case.

Elsewhere, we are less than a month away from one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and polls show the candidates in a virtual dead heat. The stakes are enormous, and the issues change priority on a daily basis. The stock market teeters on the verge of collapse while Congress scrambles to pass a bill ensuring a financial ‘rescue’, because that sounds better than the failed bill promising a ‘bailout’. There is still a war in Iraq costing us $8 billion per month – money that we apparently don’t even have anymore.

Senators Obama and McCain have been trading shots over the economy, while the Republican National Committee has been engrossed in the monumental but vain effort to prevent Americans from finding out that Sarah Palin is as dumb as a bag of hammers.

But through all this week’s quagmire, one shining light emerged.

One story so amazed, amused, and astounded me that I felt it was my duty to share it with you.

On the floor of the House of Representatives, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann laid the blame for the current financial crisis squarely at the feet of …. wait for it… Black people.

Not greedy Wall Street executives, who walked away with millions in salaries and bonuses by playing Texas Hold ‘Em with senior citizens’ pensions. Not unregulated bankers, flipping mortgages like pancakes while scheming to buy up any bank smaller than their own. Not even her own Republican Party, who spent the past eight years squandering the Clinton surplus and, like Nero, fiddling while Rome burns.

Black people.

Follow her convoluted logic, if you dare.

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), passed in 1977, requires banks to lend in the low-income communities where they take deposits. The banking industry had traditionally “redlined” minority neighborhoods by refusing to generate mortgages, while intentionally keeping Blacks and Latinos out of white neighborhoods. There was therefore little chance that Black people could gain good credit. CRA was passed to fix that.

Because of the CRA, according to Bachmann, “[President Bill Clinton] turned the two quasi-private, mortgage-funding firms (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) into a semi-nationalized monopoly that dispensed cash to markets, made loans to large Democrat voting blocs and handed favors, jobs and money to political allies. Loans started being made on the basis of race, and often little else. This potential mix led inevitably to corruption and the Fannie-Freddie collapse.”

That’s right. Because they outlawed redlining a generation ago, banks were forced – forced, mind you – to loan mortgage money to shiftless, no account you-know-whos, and then thirty years later, poof! Financial collapse.

This theory makes perfect sense – that is, if you’re a both a racist and exceedingly stupid – like Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Of course, everyone from the Congressional Black Caucus, to Business Week and the Wall Street Journal, to some of her own GOP allies have pointed out the folly of this far-right wing argument. Yes, it’s ludicrous on its face. Yes, no competent economist would agree with this foolishness. But all that misses the point.

Despite the success of Barack Obama, and for that matter, successful Blacks all over the country, America is still a place where Blacks are a quick and convenient scapegoat - the ultimate cause of anything and everything that worries white folks. Even in the hallowed halls of Congress, you can still yell, “The Black guy did it!”, and rest comfortably assured that will be the end of the conversation.

Reclaiming Black Manhood

I have recently come to the heart-rending conclusion that we, as Black men, are coming dangerously close to losing the one ideal that has sustained us for nearly 400 years in America: raw courage.

Set upon, hounded and besieged from the moment our chained African ancestors squinted against the sunlight, after months in the dark misery of the Middle Passage, Black men have epitomized courage, honor, and dignity. Robbed of language, religion, culture and humanity, our forefathers still managed to achieve great feats of engineering, invent machines that would revolutionize the world, and build this country from scratch. And they would do it all without credit, profit or acknowledgement from their white overseers or the books of history.

What I cannot understand how this rich heritage of courage, heroism, and sacrifice could have given birth to a generation of craven cowards and low-rent poltroons.

Poltroon is another word we ought to bring back to life. More than just a coward, a poltroon preys on the weak or unsuspecting, usually in numbers or with unnecessary violence. Say, for instance, like opening fire on a crowded playground.

I met Miles Mack a couple of times. It seemed like whenever I went to cover a story in Mantua, Miles was around. He was loved and respected, a brother with no greater purpose in life than helping others. He founded the X-Tra Miles Developmental Basketball League, and played surrogate father, uncle and big brother to hundreds of troubled kids over the years. He was murdered while handing out championship trophies, in front of maybe 200 witnesses.

When Miles lost his life last Thursday night, the poltroonish gunmen were shooting at someone else. They had their victim, Darren Hankins, right where they wanted him - unarmed and unsuspecting. They hit him, and five other people, including Miles Mack.

I cannot imagine the sad existence that surely must accompany an absolute lack of decency, morality, or any sense of right and wrong. How can you not think of yourself as the lowest form of coward? Who cares about the so-called “reason” for the killings? What reason could you possibly have to behave in so shameful a manner?

You can ask the same question of the pair who last week gunned down Veno Leigertwood, a brilliant, hardworking young family man in Yeadon. An Ivy League graduate and entrepreneur, Leigertwood returned to his alma mater (and mine) John Bartram School to mentor and guide students through the rigors of college application.

A couple of young brothers snuck up behind Veno and shot him to death in his driveway.

I don’t have to tell you that these are not isolated incidents.

From the guys who get their kicks beating up old men in mall restrooms, to the recently jailed poltroon who beat seven women’s faces in after snatching their purses, we’ve been flooded with case after case of young brothers whose heinous actions, a generation ago, would have made their families hide in shame.

When did we decide that craven cowardice is an acceptable quality of manhood?

There are any number of socio-economic factors we could tick off that contribute to crime: poverty, lack of educational and employment opportunities, institutional racism, continuing inequities in the legal system, and a host of others. All fair, and all valid.

That does not explain, however, a change in attitude that excuses, and even encourages, the lowest forms of cowardice. Being a purse-snatcher is one thing, beating the women up after taking their valuables is quite another. Having it out with someone with whom you disagree is understandable, sneaking up on them and shooting them in the back is not.

It’s easy to blame to lack of real father figures in the community, and certainly, to some extent this is true. Fathers (and grandfathers) are the traditional teachers of manhood, but women can just as easily teach boys not to be cowards. Single mothers can, and do, teach their sons to respect themselves and others, and that their actions reflect not only on themselves, but their families and their community.

But somebody, somewhere is telling our boys that it’s perfectly alright to prey on the weak, to gang up on the unsuspecting, to shoot wildly into a crowd. Someone is telling them that these actions don’t make you less of a man, and that you still deserve respect.

The first step to reclaiming our legacy of courage is to find out who is feeding our sons these vicious lies – and pray we’re not too late.