America's Dream for Black Folks--It's a Nightmare

Given the immigration demonstrations here in Washington DC and other cities around the country, isn't it clear yet to Black folks that even under threat of deportation and arrest, immigrants are willing to risk it all for a way a life, to support their families, to live the American dream.  Where do we stand?  I read some months ago, when New Orleans was just starting the rebuilding process, an apparently able-bodied, African American man, complained about the immigrants who were moving into the city to do construction work.  He complained that the immigrants were working for $9 per hour and while he was unemployed, it was work he wasn't going to do, but all the while he complained about not having a job.  Is this what we as African Americans have become?  People who would rather complain and watch, as we're passed by. 

Have we grown so comfortable, and has life become so good for the majority of us that we can afford to keep the cupboard stocked with Hennessey, pay $4 a gallon to fill the tank disguised as an automobile, send little Daquan and Ashanti to the best private school, keep them covered in Nike, Vuitton, and Gucci and take annual vacations in Europe.  I don't think so.

How have we allowed, yes, allowed, the immigrant population, to push, pull and demonstrate us off the front burner to a place with no heat at all?  We are no longer the flavor of the month and truth be told we haven't been for a long time.  Politicians have been ignoring us and our needs for a very long time.  We invented, if not perfected the art of public demonstration, civil, but peaceful unrest.  But here you have people who are hungrier and less comfortable than us, showing us the way.  In March, in Houston, Texas there was an, oh so grand, conclave, called "Tavis Smiley presents The State of the Black Union."  It garnered a bit of attention and was televised on CSPAN.  I tuned in for a while and the more I listened the more I wanted to turn away, kind of like a traffic accident.  But for me and traffic accidents, it's not the gruesome aftermath of someone's inattention, inexperience, or stupidity that I want to witness. I want to see what dumb ass has pulled some dumb ass move and caused my hold up.  Well, that's the same way I felt listening to the telecast of the state of Black America on CSPAN.  I was done when the ever so honorable Louis Farrakhan wanted the audience to know that he felt that the event was so important that he chartered a private jet to be there.  And, my or my, did the audience eat that up.  Did anyone question at what and who's cost the jet was chartered. 

I picked up the May edition of Ebony magazine a few days ago.  Admittedly, something I don't do often.  Between the liquor and car ads and the fashion spreads that continue to encourage a lifestyle that has become more and more clear that we cannot afford and should not continue the pursuit of is always disconcerting.   But as my readers and listeners know, I am always of an open mind when it comes to getting my news.  Contained within the covers were pictures of a few of the esteemed attendees and the organizer.  Most notably front and center was Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, followed by Tavis Smiley and off course the Anheuser-Busch representative was pulling up the rear--because of course, one of these grand events can't be held without the assistance of the beer, liquor, and cigarette companies.  Yes, the same makers of the stuff that's killing us, the organizers look to  for financial support.  Sounds like blood money to me.  Giving the picture a once over and over again, I thought, MY, what revisionist history a few of these fellas have been successful at creating.  We have Mr. Farrakhan, who according to many who don't suffer from amnesia, and from Malcolm X's widow and family, was the perpetrator or instigator of the assassination of Malcolm X.  We have Mr. Sharpton. Considering the firestorm taking place on the campus of Duke University right now concerning, if , when, and who was raped, I thought back to Mr. Sharpton's involvement with a certain Tawana Brawley.  Was it ever proven that he was complicit in those false accusations against the police?  Haven't Black women been devalued enough, throughout our history on this continent, that false charges then or now don't need to be manufactured.  We live it everyday, just tune into BET's wall to wall music video programming, and there you can find evidence of why the world has come to think of the Black woman as an ass shakin-disembodied-not-a- brain-in-her-head-good-for-nuthin-but-a booty call.  We are lusted after, taken forcibly, and then discarded, sometimes by our own men.  So, Mr. Sharpton's involvement a few years back, in what was proven to be false charges by Tawana Brawley is not ancient history to me.

But these are the men we should line up behind?  And lest I forget Tavis Smiley.  The banner that served as a backdrop for these august men read: "Tavis Smiley Presents: The State of the Black Union."  While Mr. Smiley was successful at pulling this event off, was he busy getting paid, either in the publicity or in his wallet?  If, he is so concerned about the state of Black America, how about finding some humility and taking his name off the banner.  I don't remember, during any protest where Malcolm or Martin had protesters marching with signs saying Malcolm X Presents: The Black Muslims. Or Martin Luther King Presents the March on Selma.  We live in an age of such grotesque self promotion that what should be an event to really make a difference becomes just another opportunity for the organizers to line their pockets.  In this age of getting paid, even those that supposedly come with our best interest at heart need to get theirs.  Certainly, times have changed and so the vehicle that we use to make our wants and needs known needs to change also.  But as the recent immigrant demonstration showed us, old school still works just fine.  I checked the New York Times bestseller list yesterday, and indeed Mr. Smiley has a best seller on his hands.  But my question to Mr. Smiley is whether a portion of those proceeds are going to the Negro College fund or to support the NAACP or Urban League or 100 Black Men?  Contained in the same edition of Ebony that I mentioned earlier was an article about Mr. Smiley's book titled, The Covenant with Black America.  First of all let's take a look at the word "covenant."  Merriam Webster defines it as:

1 : a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement : COMPACT
2 a : a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action.

Now considering the definition, between what parties does this real or imagined covenant exist?  Given any number of the 10 covenants, to a reasonably thinking person, there needs to be some major political and government buy-in.  But given the state of the self-serving and politically impotent Congressional Black Caucus--which by the way have a very nice picture in Ebony with a copy of Mr. Smiley's book in hand--which also begs the question, "why are these people smiling?"  But I digress.  Who is looking out for our interest on Capital Hill?  Again I say, old school worked for the immigrants, why not for us again?  As I said before, I will not line up behind some worn out figure head or new media darling whose major goal is to get more airtime or a bigger payday. 

The Time Magazine dated April 24 '06 reads:  "The typical route to the top of the New York times best-seller list takes an author to swank Manhattan publishing luncheons and the morning talk-show circuit.  But radio and TV host Tavis Smiley, editor of The Covenant with Black America--a manifesto by prominent African-Americans . . .  just went to church.  Published in February by the small Black-owned Third World Press, the Covenant has sold 250,000 copies." 

Of course Mr. Smiley went to church.  That's where you go when you want to sell something to the Black community, be it snake oil or books.  And perhaps the real Covenant exists between Mr. Smiley and his wallet.

For months I have been suggesting to anyone who will listen, that Walter Mosley's book titled Life Out of Context should be prescribed reading, particularly for young people.  Is it any wonder that you haven't seen Mr. Mosley on the talk show circuit or read about this particular title ad nasuem?  In my humble opinion, its because what he writes in a Life Out of Context, is not what the publishers, editors or politicians want Black America to hear, to read, to know.  Hell, the Black community doesn't want to hear how how badly it is failing.  Mr. Mosley is known and acknowledged to be accomplished writer of fiction.  But Out of Context is not fiction; it's a view of Black America that is real and honest.  It says those things that need to be said over and over again until we get off our asses.

Is there really a need for rehashed sermons and tent revival--whose only real goal is to get the plate passed--to get Black Americans to understand that the ground that has been lost by our pursuit of an American Dream that we didn't prepare for and were not prepared to sustain over the long haul is tearing us asunder.

See ya next time,
Sunny