Color of Change Spins Up the Reactors on Oscar Grant Killing

Color of Change has entered the fray in the Oscar Grant killings in California, with the following email to its members:

On New Year's Eve, Oscar Grant was shot execution-style by a transit police officer in Oakland, California. He was shot in the back while face-down on a subway platform--unarmed and posing no threat.

Twelve days later--despite several videos showing exactly what happened--the officer who killed Grant hasn't been arrested, charged, or even questioned. He quit the force and has refused to speak. The District Attorney has done nothing.

It's time to demand that California Attorney General Jerry Brown take over the case and arrest Grant's killer, and to ask that the US Department of Justice launch an independent investigation into the conduct of local authorities. Please join me:

http://www.colorofchange.org/oscar/?id=2176-544691

In the case of Grant's murder, the DA has already let 12 days pass while doing essentially nothing--the officer who killed Grant is able to travel and leave the state, and he's free to talk with other officers and attempt to construct a story to justify his killing of Oscar Grant.

California's Attorney General needs to step in now and arrest Oscar Grant's murderer. And the US Department of Justice should investigate the failure of the authorities in Alameda County to act. It's the first step towards justice. After that, we will push for systemic changes to create public accountability for BART and other police departments. Creating those structural changes will be a much longer fight, but Oscar Grant's tragic death is a wake-up call that should give us a real chance to help prevent this from happening again.

Please join me in demanding justice, and then ask your family and friends to do the same:

http://www.colorofchange.org/oscar/?id=2176-544691

Our take: The refusal to act 12 days later by the authorities is sorta like them indifferently spitting in the face of the black community. This guy blows away an unarmed, defenseless and helpless man on camera and has not been subjected to so much as a question by the authorities? That is unmitigated &%#@*%*. I followed COC's link and submitted a customized letter about this egregious failure by the authorities. You should too.

Julian Bond's Deathgrip on the NAACP

When Julian Bond announced his intention to give up the leadership of the NAACP as its board chair, I was certainly all for the idea, but completely skeptical that it would result in a change that would make the organization more relevant into the future.

So imagine my total lack of surprise when Bond announced that based on an outpouring of support and encouragement (I suspect its more fear and cronyism at play) that he would once again seek the chairmanship.

Despite eloquent pleas to pass the baton to new, capable leadership from NAACP members themselves, I doubt that other board members of the NAACP will have the courage to say no to Bond's wish to take yet another turn at the helm and look to the future. Out of fear of change or antipathy to the hard work of organizational development, they will likely take the path of least resistance and re-elect Bond. When they do, it will simply be a further example of their loss of relevance and balance.

NAACP Leadership Change Insufficient to Reverse Continuing Decline in Relevance

Julian Bond has announced his intention not to stand for re-election as board chair of the NAACP when his current term expires. Bond said "I'm ready to let a new generation of leaders lead".

Generational change in leadership at the NAACP board level and in local communities is a long overdue and necessary step, but not sufficient. It must be accompanied by a significant increase in the quality of strategic leadership at national and local levels. At both levels, the simple organizational capability to run effective meetings, analyze problems, then develop and carry out a strategic, relevant response over time has been either lost or surrendered in pursuit of narrow political agendas or the retention of most favored gate keeper status. The Urban League is similarly afflicted. I have scant confidence that the change in leadership at the top will result in a complete rethinking of the NAACP's role, assets, strategy and goals. Visionary and paradigm shaking leadership is what is required. I will be utterly surprised if anything resembling that emerges from the NAACP's long overdue leadership change.

Bond seems to site Obama's election as the catalyst for his decision to make room for new leadership. Far from stirring a paradigm shift though, I suspect Obama's election may only serve to mask the organization's continuing strategic leadership drift.

Kwame's Out - Top Staff Bailing

Kwame Kilpatrick entered pleaded guilty to felony charges in his perjury case and no contest in his assault case. His plea requires his resignation, which he has tendered effective Sept. 18th. He has to pay a million dollars restitution, probation for five years and he will be disbarred. With this plea deal, at least one portion of this sad saga comes to an end.

Now comes the fallout. Within hours of the announcement of his plea deal and resignation, Police Chief Ella Bully Cummings announced her resignation. I always liked Ella and she was easy to look at. I was dissapointed by the fact that she lied for Kwame on command as well, most notably in the Navigator scandal. With Kwame's exit, she bails, presumably before Cockrel gives her the axe. Also announcing her departure is Sharon McPhail. This woman is a real piece of work. Kwame lied with dispatch, and this woman made an Olympic sport out of spinning his BS to the public. Kwame would tell an absurd lie, and McPhail was the closer, arguing his case with vigor and even conviction. Early on, watching her lie with such fervor to the citizens of Detroit was almost amusing, because it was such an absurd production every time she opened her mouth. After a while though, it just became a disgusting spectacle to watch this woman purposefully set out to decieve the citizens of Detroit on Kwame's behalf. If there is anyone who I will enjoy watching shuffle off the stage as much as Kwame, its McPhail. Her role in this mess has been truly disgraceful. These are only the first to cut and run now that Kilpatrick has gone done in flames. Over 100 of his appointees are facing the axe. Some of them might not be deserving of it, but no one could blame Cockrel if he took office and made a complete sweep of any Kilpatrickite remaining in the administration, a deBathication of Detroit if you will. Well, however it goes forward, let the cleanup of Detroit politics begin.

Detroit's Long Nightmare Is Over

Kilpatrick now expected to plead guilty Thursday morning

Detroit's Mayor, with Governor Granholm's hearings underway, has apparently cut a deal to leave office and accept a negotiated sanction in the text message scandal. At the same time Kwame is negotiating his exit, Christine Beatty is busy taking the fifth amendment in depositions. With Kwame exiting stage left, and a continuing investigation into the death of Tamara Greene ongoing, she may still be in for a rough ride. When the Freep gets those text messages sent in the 48 hours after Greene's death, this story may have another chapter still, with a bigger cast of characters.

Penetrating the Kilpatrick Shield

The Kilpatrick machine loses another round and its possible that yet another layer will be peeled off the multi-layered wall of protection that is the Kwame Kilpatrick friends and family shield. Clearly, the Kilpatrick narrative is corruption, but could it be deeper than that? Could it be thuggery, even murder?

Kwame's current woes stem from his firing of police officers who reported and then investigated misconduct on the part of his security detail. Those allegations included claims of abuse of overtime, but also included the story of the rumoored but never proven Manoogian Mansion party. That rumor, known and believed to be true by every citizen of Detroit, tells the tale of a wild party at the Mayor's mansion that included at least 3 strippers, one of whom was reportedly Tamara Greene. Denounced as urban legend by Kilpatrick, the story goes that wife Carlita walked in on this party in progress to find Ms. Greene giving her husband a lap dance and clocked her. She had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. No evidence of the ambulance run or the police report from the response have been unearthed, though tantalizing bits of evidence and testimony have surfaced that may become the initial chinks in the armor. Of the three strippers thought to be there, all are now believed to be dead. In Tamara's case, she died in in a hail of bullets fired by assassins from a moving vehicle.

I myself, via the unique grapevine of urban communities, have acquaintances in Detroit who told me that the party happened for sure and they knew because their cousin catered it and told them about it. Stories of that sort are all over the Detroit community and everyone knows that party happened, just like everybody knew Kilpatrick was having an affair with Beatty. Credit Kwame's network of friends and family with top notch operational security that rivals Al Queda. Not one shred of proof nor a single person has been produced who will attest that this party ever occurred.

But as the pressure piles on, and real investigation begans to put regular folks on the spot who have lots to lose if they can be shown to be part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice in a murder case, the incentives to turn on the Kilpatrick machine will grow. The release of text messages from officials in the Kilpatrick administration in the period immediately following Greene's murder ratchets up that pressure another notch.

Beatty Looking for Immunity - But That Ship May Have Sailed

Christine Beatty, through her lawyers, has begun fishing for an immunity deal, but that ship may have sailed, because prosecutors don't appear to be biting. We advised Ms. Beatty some time ago that she should run, not walk, but run down to Prosecutor Kim Worthy's office and cut herself a deal. At the time, the Prosecutor Worthy was sending signals that she was prepared to listen. Alas, she did not follow our advice and the prosecutor seems rather disinterested now.

As her legal expenses mount and the pressure on Playa increases, perhaps she is now beginning to catch a clue that unless she gets her get out of jail free card stamped now, there won't be any passes left when the hammer gets dropped on Playa, and that day is coming. Maybe the sight of photo after photo of Carlita and Kilpatrick in touching photos in the paper, showcasing their love and support of each other through this ordeal has served up a much needed reality check.

Playa still got a gig and a wife and will be using his ticket to the Democratic Convention. She's got a divorce, a pink slip and a slow motion ride to the pokey, unless she starts thinking about unhitching her fate from his.

Our Deepest Fear: Part I - The Organizing & Collaboration Gap

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- by Marianne Williamson from "A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles"

Most of you are probably familiar with this poem from the movie "Akeela and the Bee", recited so very powerfully by Laurence Fishbourne. In the movie, the context of its recital was really a call to excellence and an exhortation to conquer our fear not of failure, but of success. In the days when I come away from meetings with neighborhood leaders and community groups shaking my head in frustration, this poem often comes to mind when I am struggling to understand why we can't seem to get out of our own way

It is the the crisis of black leadership. There is a critical shortage of effective black leadership in America. Simply put, we have too little of it, particularly in our organizations. Across the board, black led organizations seem almost incapable of exercising principled, effective, strategic leadership. This phenomenon holds true across the spectrum of black organizations, from churches, to national service organizations to community development corporations. Whether you're talking about homeowners associations, civic organizations, block clubs, local chapters of national organizations, black greeks, or political organizations, effective, accountable, strategic leadership is few and far between.

The result of this is underperformance at the local and national level by african american led organizations. I see it every day. What am I talking about when I say a lack of leadership? Organizations that operate without a budget. Organizations whose board members can't coherently tell you what their organizations do and why, verbally or in writing. Organizations that don't systematically and routinely assign people to tasks and require accountability for those tasks to be accomplished. Organizations that are dysfunctional as hell, but think that a funder, or investor will give them major dollars to support their organization. Organizations that have no strategic plan or have not or cannot chart a future course for their organization 2-5 years out.

Three overarching issues top my list of stuff we are getting wrong at the neighborhood level. You tell me if the following rings a bell for you when you examine what organizations are doing at the grass roots level in your town.

• We don't organize or collaborate effectively with each other
  
• We have low levels of organizational capacity
• We do not practice disciplined, strategic thinking and planning
  

Right at the top of the list of things we do that are keeping us down is a failure to collaborate. We appear to have lost the ability to get in a room, find common ground and develop an effective plan of action to solve problems in concert with one another. We fail to do it within organizations and we fail to do it across organizations. Two examples generally speaking:

In the faith community: black neighborhoods are typically home to large numbers of churches who are routinely touching the lives of hundreds of people, but we fail miserably at harnessing that people power effectively. Ministers have personal leverage that they wield to lesser or greater effect to advance church goals. Sometimes they even band together to combine their personal leverage and manage to have some effect, but this is rare. What you almost never see them do is truly mobilize the people of their congregations to effective political action and when it does happen, its a march and my loyal readers know our stance on marches.

Here is an experiment in congregational organizing I'd love to see: take your average black neighborhood and you can probably find 10 churches. The ministers from those churches all establish an Neighborhood Policy ministry in their church or whatever you want to call it. Each church gets 5 people to commit to it. That's 50 people. Each month, those 50 people do three things, in concert: they write a letter to a public official or corporate decision maker on an issue that affects the neighborhood. They make a phone call to a public official or corporate decision maker about a neighborhood issue and they each donate $5. In twelve months, that's 600 letters, 600 phone calls and $3,000. That's not a huge amount of activity or very complex organizing, but its way more than happens in our communities now and would yield tangible results. That's just a small step towards greater effectiveness. The reality is that most black neighborhoods are home to more than just 10 churches. Increase the number of churches involved to 20, 50 or 100 and do the math. Mobilizing in this fashion yields results, but we don't do even in this minimal amount, yet we are mad when our neighborhoods get passed by for investment over other neighborhoods.

Our grassroots organizations: Most cities with a significant presence of african americans are home to a variety of african american organizations, like Jack & Jill, 100 Black Men, the NAACP, the Urban League, BDPA, Urban Bankers, Greek letter organizations, etc. Those organizations are typically engaged in a variety of activities and almost without exception, they have some level of involvement with youth (potentially an ineffective duplication but thats a differrent conversation). What you don't see happening amongst these organizations is collaboration. I'm willing to bet you in most urban areas that the leadership of these organizations have never gotten in a room with each other to talk about mutual goals and objectives. Here's an experiment in collaboration. The leadership of local organizations should be intentionally talking to each other once a month. Keep it simple, lets start with a brown bag once a month, where people start sharing about what they are doing, how they are supporting it and how they could work together to accomplish something larger and more powerful than they can separately. If you really wanted to be ambitious, you'd make it a facilitated process. The bottom line? Black organizations are not working together anywhere near as much as they could and should and we are experiencing underperformance in service to our communities.

Why is this is a problem? Because in a world where resources are scarce and becoming more so, collaboration is the name of the game and organization empowers neighborhoods to obtain the resources they need. Organized neighborhoods will obtain resources for development, unorganized ones will not. Organization is critical because the kinds and levels of resources necessary to impact our neighborhoods across the country are resources that are delivered by institutional partners like city, state and federal governments, corporations and foundations. Institutional actors like these cannot work with unorganized entities. They require some structure at the neighborhood level which operates at a high enough level of organization to interface with them, and to use the type of resources they provide including being able to account for how those resources are used (this gets to the issue of organizational capacity, which I'll talk about in Part II). Collaboration is essential because you can attract more resources when you are operating in partnership than when not, because you leverage more resources for greater results and that makes your efforts more competitive when evaluated against competing efforts by the public and private sectors that provide capital and financial support to neighborhood efforts.

In summary, we're not effectively organizing in our communities. We actually have massive amounts of organized people power readily at hand in our faith community, but we most often use this resource in rudimentary and unsophisticated ways that fail to harness the power of people acting in concert. We're not collaborating either. All too often, we're not working together, we're fighting each other. We've got to see beyond our individual agendas as community organizations to ask the question, "what can we do together that we could not do separately.....how do we create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts?"

Is what I'm saying resonating with you? Do you see these same critical deficits in operation in your local community? Your neighborhood? In the organizations you are involved in right now? How do we start getting out of our own way?

Next Up:
Our Deepest Fear: Part II - The Capacity Deficit

Contrasts in Justice: Joe Horn & John White

Stop. Don't read the post yet. Just check the visuals. Sorta telegraphs the outcome and damn if I'm not just plain weary of that.

A Pasadena, TX grand jury has declined to indict Joe Horn on any criminal charges stemming from a Nov. 14, 2007 incident when he shot and killed two black hispanic men who were robbing his neighbors home. Horn observed the robbery taking place from inside his home and called the police. Despite repeated instructions from the police dispatcher to remain in his home, Horn insisted on going outside and confronting the thieves. When he attempted to stop them, they tried to run and Horn shot each one in the back with his shotgun, killing them both.

This stands in stark contrast to the fate of 53-year-old John White, convicted of manslaughter and now serving time for the August 9, 2006 killing of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro during a confrontation in the front yard of White's home. Cicciaro and his friends had come to intimidate and potentially assault Aaron White, John's son. They called his home and told him they were coming for that purpose. John and his son armed themselves and waited, rather than calling the police. When the guys arrived, they confronted them and in the ensuing confrontation, John White shot Cicciaro in the face, killing him.

The white man in Texas who confronted burglars robbing his neighbor's house completely unnecessarily killing two men with shotgun blasts to the back will not face a single charge or consequence, and in fact is lauded as a hero on many fronts, though in fairness the City of Pasedena appears to at least have some awareness that this result is not quite right.

The black man who confronted a group of teens in his own front yard, teens who called his home at least 30 minutes in advance to say they were coming to physically harm his son and who rather than call the police, armed himself and waited for them to arrive to confront them, and shot a foolish, perhaps malovelent teenager? He's in jail, serving a maximum term of 5 to 15 years in prison.

In both of these cases, the shootings were not justified in my opinion. Both men had ample opportunity to avoid harm and allow the authorities to address the situation. In both cases, each man chose confrontation and reckless, unnecessary self help tactics to address the situation with tragic results. Both should have faced a consequence. The results of the justice system handling of these two cases has been depressingly predictable in its disparity of result.

Do you agree with me? Aren't both of these guys wrong? Or were they both justified? Or have the courts sorted it out correctly?

A&E Network: Here's How To Become a Racist Brand

Day of Blogging for Respect In Media

The "Dog the Bounty Hunter" tv show is making a return to the A&E network this summer. As you may remember, Dog was outed as a bit of a racist pig when his son and his girlfriend made public a recording of Dog's racist tirade caught on tape.

In response to viewer demand and clamor for the show, A&E has decided to return the program to the airwaves. Clearly, the price for being a racist, for offending African American viewers and consumers in the TV audience, is simply not high enough. A&E clearly hoped that with the passage of time, outrage would fade, the healing would begin and they and Dog could get back to making money. We should ensure that those hopes are dashed completely.

Here's the thing. If you listen to his recorded rant, Dog was quite the self-aware racist. He was crystal clear about the fact that his little tv career would be finished if word got out that he and his bounty hunter squad spent their time routinely calling black people niggers. He understood quite plainly that his career in tv would be finished. I think we ought to insure that his expectations are met.

Its simply not acceptable that media companies and the advertisers who support their programming have no sense of proportion or respect for the sensibilities of African American viewers. If we are to have respect in the media, it is abundantly clear that we must build and maintain the capability to inflict severe and lasting damage to the brand of any corporation or advertiser which supports media programming that intentionally and knowingly insults African Americans. If we are to enforce even a modicum of respect, this must become so.

In pursuit of that goal, in collaboration with other bloggers, the BrightLine wiki was formed. The BrightLine wiki was created to empower the African American community to enforce media respect. It is an archive that records clear and blatant racial offenses in the media and documents the program and advertisers associated with it. This information will be collected and disseminated to the African American community via blogs, black newspapers, black radio and person to person, so that the brands that support programs which disrespect African Americans can be exposed and held accountable. By establishing clear and well recognized bright lines for media companies and their advertisers which cannot be crossed without risk of serious and sustained damage to their brands, we hope to bring about a sustained improvement in the level of respect demonstrated towards African Americans by television, cable, radio and internet broadcast networks.

Also in furtherance of respect in media, the Afrosphere Action Coalition in conjunction with ConsciousInk has sent a letter to A&E as well as many of its former advertisers of the show to express our disappointment with A&E’s and it’s advertisers decision to financially support the return of ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ to the airwaves after the public revelation of Chapman’s disdain for people of color. We are urging them and their advertisers not to reward racism with their financial support. Hopefully they will see the error of doing so.

Now they need to hear from all of you

Tell the programming executive’s at A&E and the companies that advertise with them that their support of someone with such demeaning views is unacceptable. Tell them that linking their brands to racism and disrespect of African Americans is a mistake that can only result in negative consequences for their brand and their bottomline.

A&E VPs of Programing
nancy.dubuc@aetn.com, rob.sharenow@aetn.com,

Travelocity Public Relations:
Vollmer Public Relations
Amanda Borichevsky
E-mail: amanda@vollmerpr.com
svc.travelocity.com/custsvc/0,,TRAVELOCITY,00.html

Tylenol- Online contact form
www.tylenol.com/vcrc/email/tyemailform.jhtml?id=email
1-877-TYLENOL

At&T- Online contact form for customers
localization.att.com/loc/controller?cdvn=landinglocalization&pid=1080&cookieResetted=true&ltype=contactus

Red Bull Energy Drinks- Online contact info
redbullusa.com/?gclid=CLnl1oXc-JMCFQOuFQod5FvoVg#page=CompanyPage.Contact
+1 (310) 393-4647

Yellowpages.com- Online contact form
www.yellowpages.com/contact_us/comments
(877) 647-6278

All State Insurance-Online contact form

www.allstate.com/about/corporate-email.aspx
866.908.2500

LG HD T.V’s- Online contact form

www.lgservice.com/gcsc/b2c/hpi/main
(800) 243-0000

Dell Computers- Online contact form
support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/email_customer_care/emailcustomercare?c=us&l=en&s=gen
1-800-915-3355

Nintendo- Online contact form

www.nintendo.com/consumer/webform.jsp
425.882.2040

Subway
www.subway.com/Applications/CustService/frmCustomerService.aspx

Let Us Draw A Line In The Sand Now

This is a deliberate, intentional show of contempt and disrespect. This demeaning slur of Michelle Obama was developed, approved and put on the air by the staff of Fox News. No one questioned it, no one said this is not appropriate, no one said "we should not do this".

Its a demonstration that Fox News and its advertisers hold African Americans in contempt. That Fox News and its advertisers consider us unworthy of respect. Michelle Obama is an Ivy League graduate, a mother and wife and an accomplished professional woman in her own right. To use the pejorative and demeaning "baby mama" label to describe her is an obvious racist slur and Fox News knows it.

A vigorous campaign of financial protest against Fox News and the brands of the advertisers who support it is clearly warranted and required. It is now amply and abundantly clear that if we do not begin taking concerted, sustained action to make clear that this kind of blatant racial insult cannot be delivered with impunity, we will be subjected to this over and over again.

If this is how some of the the best and the brightest among us will be casually demeaned, what can we, the average African American expect?

What About Our Daughters, Black Women Vote and Electronic Village among others have successfully led accountability campaigns. Jack & Jill paved the way for the necessary tactics with the Clinton Attacks Obama Wiki. I believe a similar archive that records the offense, the program and the advertisers associated with it is needed. We need to connect that archive to a mechanism for coordinated dissemination to the black community via the black blogging community, the black newspaper community and black radio of information about the brands that supported the offensive material so that our community can express its opinion to those brands, those brands can be exposed to the majority community and those brands can be held accountable.

If we are to have respect in the media, it is abundantly clear that we must build and maintain the capability to inflict severe and lasting damage to the brand of any corporation or advertiser which knowingly supports media programming that intentionally and knowingly insults African Americans. We have practiced this type of accountability already. We have the tools. We have the technology.

Let us draw the line in the sand now. Because this shit has got to be stopped.

Obama Outgrew Trinity

Obama and wife Michelle announced their decision today to leave Trinity United Church of Christ. I continue to be impressed by Obama's sense of political timing, timing the announcement so that it was partially overshadowed by the day long drama of the Rules & Bylaws Committee. Tomorrow the pundits and press will have to decide which story to give more time, the fact that Obama's ascendancy to the head of the democratic party is nearly complete, or he and Michelle's pragmatic shedding of the association with Trinity to stanch the political bleeding. Gina, WAOD's High Priestess said she didn't blame them.

"If I was held responsible for every word that came out of someone else's mouth and they continued to say stuff that kept me constantly embroiled in controversy"

My lovely Alaine makes the additional point that these pastor eruptions are out of order anyway, because what they ought to be talking about is Jesus and the Word of God. Had Pastor Pfleger been doing more teaching about the Savior and less opining about white supremacy, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I think I agree with Gina's point and Alaines as far as they go, but really there is more to this. Obama has been at Trinity 20 years and I for one don't believe he didn't know the nature of the political views of Trinity's congregation or its pastor. Of course he knew and my takeaway from that conclusion is that he probably identified with it at one time, but has outgrown it. There was a time I was a stalwart democrat, when I was very liberal in my social and political views. I've outgrown that and I think Obama has outgrown the political thinking of Trinity's leadership and most of its congregation, which lets face it, is politically positioned right in the middle of black American political sentiment. Tiffie30, a commenter on Monroe Anderson's blog, put it this way.

"As a black woman, I found myself disagreeing -- like the majority of his congregation and black Americans -- that white folks owe us stuff. What precisely are Father Pfleger and Rev. Wright advocating? Reparations? His bit on Hillary was hilarious, but his previous, angry racial comments blunted that humor. Trinity and Barack obviously don't see matters of race the same way(all one has to do is listen to his race speech). I mean, Barack is a guy who believes his daughters should not benefit from affirmative action at the expense of poor whites. That's the polar opposite of reparations. The truth is that the majority of black folks have moved on but Trinity leaders have not."

I totally agree with her point about Barack moving on, though I think she completely gets it wrong about Trinity's congregation or the majority of Black America. The truth is that Trinity's leadership and its congregates are stuck in an ineffective mobius loop of racial victimhood. That their political understanding has a basis and is rooted in a concrete reality and history doesn't change the fact that its ineffective and unproductive. It does not advance our interests to wallow in victimization and indeed in this instance, arguably does our group interests harm as their self righteous "afrocentric to the core" antics impede Obama's run, to no good purpose. They seem nearly powerless to help themselves in this regard.

The really problematic part of this though, is that at least 60% of Black America is politically standing shoulder to shoulder with Trinity and Plfeger and Wright. And this focus on victimization over accountability continues to be the stumbling block in the path of Black America.

Looking for Daddy

And now, something a little different.

I don't blog much about our family and children and relationships, an area I'm far less competent to discuss in comparison to my wife, who has spent her life writing about such things. But every once in a while, I have an insight.

I didn't grow up with my father, never even met him until I was 14. Mine was a single parent home. My mother raised me and my Dad simply wasn't in the picture. For the most part, I can only recall feeling sorry for myself about this once during childhood. It was a moment that passed quickly and I got on with life. Having no Dad was just the way it was and how it had always been. While it never really troubled me, paradoxically, I grew up resolving that I would have a whole family one day and that my children would know their father.

Even still, though I understand intellectually that my children love me and that my interaction and presence in their life is important and meaningful to them, I have to confess that more often than not it doesn't feel particularly real and present to me. But sometimes it gets brought home to me with great clarity.

Not long ago, my 6 year old son Noah (pictured top left), had a Daddy's Day at school. On this day, all the Dads were to come for lunch and eat with their kids and hang out with them. I was a few minutes late arriving at the school and when I got there, the children had already been seated in the cafeteria with their Dads at the tables. I walked in and began looking for my son. I spotted him before he spotted me. He was looking for me too. He was sitting at the table, scanning the room, on the lookout for me. It was the look on his face as he searched anxiously for sign of his Dad that I haven't forgotten since: a look of worry and concern, maybe even the beginnings of fear, that his Dad was not going to be there for him, that maybe he had been abandoned. It was a look that told me that while this was perhaps just an inconvenient interruption of my workday for me, that for him it was a big frikking deal. It mattered to him big time. It made a difference to him if I was there or not.

I waved to catch his attention as I strode forward to join him, like a giant through a crowd of elves. For a moment, all I thought was "let me banish that look from his eyes right now". When he saw me, his face lit up like the brightest strobe light you've ever seen (my son has a wonderful smile). He hollered "Daddy" as I came into his view and instantly his demeanor changed from fearful and worried to happy and carefree. We had a wonderful time. But in that moment before he knew I was there, when he was "looking for Daddy", I learned something about how very real and important my presence is to him. I grew up without Dad and its clear to me that I really missed something, though strangely enough, its hard to define what it was. But now and then, I gain glimpses of what I lost through my children, who have what I did not. I never knew a childhood with my father. My children will never know one without.

Bold Faced Lying as Olympic Sport in Detroit

You know, just when I think that the absurdity quotient cannot possibly get any higher in Detroit, I am proved wrong. Bold faced lying is being raised to the level of an art form and Olympic sport in Detroit by both Christine Beatty and Kwame Kilpatrick. Their latest and greatest attempt for the gold as liars extraordinare, courtesy of their lawyers? The text messages aren't theirs. Thats right. Their lawyers are signaling their intention to aggressively attack the authenticity of the text messages and challenge the prosecutor to prove that those messages were sent by the Mayor or Beatty.

We have previously encouraged Ms. Beatty to run, not walk, to Prosecutor Kim Worthy's office and spill her guts in return for a good plea deal that might keep her out of jail, preserve her financial resources and prevent her from potentially being removed from her children's lives for an extended period. Ms. Worthy herself last week issued an invitation to Ms. Beatty to do exactly that, saying "I'll say this on the record. I will say that if, at any time, she wishes to come to this office and talk with us, we'll certainly listen,". Beatty's lawyer has scoffed at the notion. The legal strategy appears to be to fight every point and not concede on anything by both the Mayor and Beatty.

We had some level of sympathy for Ms. Beatty to this point, but given the high stakes legal strategy she is pursuing of denying and lying about any and all wrongdoing, her sympathy has now run out. She is taking the same blatant, arrogant path of defiance as the Mayor. If she is willing to gamble her freedom, her time with her children and the financial impact of all this on a defense that she is innocent, such sympathy is wasted. At this point, one can only conclude that while Ms. Beatty is an intelligent woman of some accomplishment, she is also equally if not moreso the incredibly foolish woman with appallingly bad judgment revealed in the most recent text messages.

She was used by Kwame for his own enjoyment, and strung along with pillow talk and vague assurances that she would always be his girl and the wispy almost promise that perhaps one day she might even be his publicly acknowledged woman. He has happily cut ties with her, but she is banking her future on a legal strategy and defense integrated with his? Because trust me, at some point, there will come a time when he will throw her under the bus to save his own skin.

It is all part and parcel of the continuing and sad epic of failed black accountability in this chocolate city, as black citizens and white CEO's share complicity in perpetuating the tolerance of utter foolishness and shameless corruption in public office.

Race Hustlers 2.0 for the Millenial Generation

Fellow bloggers Shecodes and Villager, authors of the blogs Black Women Vote and Electronic Village respectively, were contributors to the Bloggers Roundtable at NPR recently. The topic: Are Civil Rights Groups Obsolete? The discussion was prompted by the fairly sorry performance of the NAACP and Al Sharpton in response to the Dunbar Village gang rape case. The NAACP and Sharpton after months of ignoring the case, decided to engage in some advocacy on behalf of the rape suspects from which they relented only after dedicated activism by a group of women bloggers and their allies.

The discussion concluded that while not quite obsolete, civil rights organizations clearly have not figured out their next evolution. Or have they? Enter Color of Change. A portion of their stated mission:

Using the Internet, we will enable our members to speak in unison, with an amplified political voice. We will keep them informed about the most pressing issues for Black people in America and give them ways to act. We'll bring attention to the needs and concerns of Black folks.

When I turn my attention from their mission statement to the action campaigns they have initiated, the issues they focus on differ very little if at all from those of older civil rights organizations like the NAACP. Voting rights, police brutality, responses to racially insensitive statements, criminal defendant/prisoner rights and Katrina which gave them their start seem to be Color of Change's stock in trade.

Their stated goal is to give black Americans a political voice. What is different is the mechanisms they use to spread their message (the web) and the primary audience they target (the young). But the voice they want to bestow differs not at all from the existing black establishment, in tone or content. The tactics and approach are the same old dance of victim identity. Look at the Jena Six, their most notable accomplishment. What was the most impressive piece? They made a huge march happen, but as I asked some time ago, is the march the only thing in our playbook? To be fair, they raised money for the Jena Six's legal defense. I wonder if COC is picking up the legal defense tab for the civil suit brought by the parents of Justin Barker against the Jena Six parents?

Some of the campaigns are inane exercises in ineffective naivety. Take for example their campaign to stop genocide in Darfur. Their goal: to get at least 100 people from each congressional district to send a letter to President Bush, urging him to push for a UN Security Council resolution which would create a peacekeeping force with the power to stop the violence. Send a letter to BUSH to URGE him to PUSH for a UN resolution? How timid and inconsequential is that? Or the whiny and irrevelant campaign to complain to the RNC about Sen. George Allen and his macaca statements. Without exception, COC's campaigns are exercises in whinyness or entreaties for government action to do something for black people.

In short, they are as myopic in outlook and lacking in proactive, strategic relevance as the NAACP, the Urban League, PUSH, the National Action Network and others. For all the Move On.org money, the nice website and the huge mailing list, at bottom, their just the next generation of race hustlers.

Bitching About Negro Chicken Dinners is Not Accountability

Hat Tip to Mo'Kelly

Obama supporter Cornel West blogged his dissapointment regarding Obama's decision not to attend the King commemoration events in Memphis, a sentiment later co-signed by Tavis Smiley in a radio commentary. I don't generally rant here at the season, but I'm going to depart from SOP today.

West and Tavis both work my nerves with this kind of "blackness" litmus test. Obama is busy running a campaign for the nation's highest office. While it certainly would have been nice if Obama could have attended, that he did not go does not change or affect a damn thing of consequence in the lives of black people.

Tavis and West's reaction is no different than the people jumping on Obama for Wright's comments. Its the same logic. So what would they have us believe? That Obama don't care about black folks because he passed on the King events? Is that what we are going to be doing to the brother from here out, jumping in his grill every time he doesn't show up for some purely symbolic stuff and claim he is distancing himself from black folk for political reasons? Because he doesn't come and genuflect at some civil rights icon as the West and Tavis think he should? Its bull.

Obama has got to take care of business. King is dead and he gon stay dead whether Obama came to lay a wreath or not. Stop hating on the brother over BS that is less important than the herculean task he is trying to accomplish.

If Obama becomes president, I'll appreciate it if he shows up for every negro dinner, event and awards show, that will be real nice. But if he never goes to a one, but spends his time being a damn good president and taking care of business in a way that means I as a citizen can take care of business, I will be perfectly fine with that. As Dyson said at the SOBU, stop hatin on Negroes!

Whether Obama shows up in Memphis is not critical in any way, shape or form to the issues facing black people. It would have been nice for him to go, but whether he was there or not doesn't matter in the big scheme of life. As I read it, they are complaining that Obama is trying to put distance between himself and race issues, coming off the J.Wright controversy. Lets assume they are correct. SO WHAT!? Obama is trying to win an election, one in which he has to overcome the political impediment of being black. If he were running to be president of black america, then I would say it mattered, but he's not. He's running for POTUS. He's got to juggle and manage the impact of racial dynamics on his campaign, like it or not.

This idiotic idea that he must put his blackness front and center every damn day as apparently West and Tavis would prefer is just plain stupid. The brother can't escape the race perceptions of his actions and never will from white people and black people. Just because he is currently the most prominent black man in America and poised to make history does not mean that he has to sign on for every symbolic black event or thing in order to demonstrate his negro bona fides again and again.

He's got to get the damn job. Tavis and West bitching because he didn't come to the cultural equivalent of a really big Negro chicken dinner is just frikkin stupid. These are the same guys who sat around at the SOBU talking up and down about accountability (see my political videos). Is this the kind of BS they want to hold him accountable for, that he didn't come to the big Negro chicken dinner? When they talked about accountability, I thought we were talking about policies and practices, the rule of law, educational investments, stuff like that. But it seems like what they want to hold him accountable for is proving his blackness by genuflecting before the sacred cows of the civil rights establishment. Thats the kind of BS thinking that produces a moribund NAACP that doesn't get why representing rapists at Dunbar Village is wrong, or an Urban League that puts out a compact with America thats little more than a wishlist of government programs and says squat about what black people will do to solve their own problems.

This brother is playing for the history books and their big accountability, finger wagging, stern voice of disapproval is because he didn't come to the big chicken dinner? Thats house negro thinking and they should both get their heads out of their ass.

Black Accountability Resource: Scholarship Opportunities

There is an email circulating around that asserts that black students are leaving scholarship money for college on the table. I suspect there may indeed be some truth to that, so I thought I would recirculate the wonderfully actionable information about scholarship opportunities contained in the email. If you have a student or know a student in your family or someone else's that needs financial support for college (who doesn't), then please pass this along.


1)Bell Labs Fellowship for Underrepresented Minorities

2) Student Inventors Scholarships

3) Student Video Scholarships

4) Coca-Cola Two Year College Scholarships

5) Holocaust Remembrance Scholarships

6) Ayn Rand Essay Scholarships

7) Brand Essay Competition

8) Gates Millennlum Scholarships (major)

9) Xerox Scholarships for Students

10) Sports Scholarships and Internships

11) National Assoc. Of Black Journalists Scholarships (NABJ)

12) Saul T. Wilson Scholarships (Veterinary)

13) Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund

14) FinAid: The Smart Students Guide to Financial Aid scholarships)

15) Presidential Freedom Scholarships

16) Microsoft Scholarship Program

17) Wire dScholar Free Scholarship Search

18) Hope Scholarships &Lifetime Credits

19) William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship for Minority Students

20) Multiple List of Minority Scholarships

21) Guaranteed Scholarships

22) BOEING scholarships (some HBCU connects)

23) Easley National Scholarship Program

24) Maryland Artists Scholarships

26) Jacki Tuckfield Memorial Graduate Business S cholarship (for AA students in South Florida )

27) Historically Black College & University Scholarships

28) Actuarial Scholarships for Minority Students

29) International Students Scholarships &Aid Help

30) College Board Scholarship Search

31) Burger King Scholarship Program

32) Siemens Westinghouse Competition

33) GE and LuLac Scholarship Funds

34) College Net Scholarship Database

35) Union Sponsored Scholarships and Aid

36) Federal Scholarships &Aid Gateways 25 Scholarship Gateways from Black Excel

37) Scholarship &Financial Aid Help

38) Scholarship Links (Ed Finance Group)

39) FAFSA On The Web (Your Key Aid Form &Info)

40) Aid &Resources For Re-Entry Students

41) Scholarships and Fellowships

42) Scholarships for Study in Paralegal Studies

43) HBCU Packard Sit Abroad Scholarships (for study around the world)

44) S cholarship and Fellowship Opportunities

45) INROADS internships

46) ACT-SO bEURoeOlympics of the Mind 'A Scholarships

47) Black Alliance for Educational Options Scholarships

48) ScienceNet Scholarship Listing

49) Graduate Fellowships For Minorities Nationwide

50) RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD

51) The Roothbert Scholarship Fund

The Double Standard of Black Accountability Applied

The meltdown occuring in Detroit City government has now entered what can only be viewed as an embarrassingly painful slow motion train wreck phase. Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty have been charged with 12 and 7 felony counts respectively. They were required to surrender to police, they were booked and mug shotted.

As we watch this mess unfold, we stand in jaw dropped awe of the denial and disregard of Kwame's corruption being exercised by a large portion of the voting populace, many members of the clergy and the corporate leadership of the city. It is absolutely distressing to watch people you might otherwise believe to be reasonable make excuse after excuse for the behavior of Kwame and his administrative minions. It is a failure of black accountability that the majority of the city's citizens and corporate leadership are not leading the charge for regime change at city hall. In fact, Kwame actually has a legal defense fund with a variety of committee members who have signed their names in support of it. I considered it shocking some of the nationally known people supporting this foolishness, specifically Willie Brown- Former Mayor of San Francisco and Michael Eric Dyson. How either of them could bring themselves to lend their credibility to a manifest crook, liar and thug masquerading as a mayor, I simply don't understand. But I digress from my main point.

Though the focus has been quite clearly on Kwame, we have kept an eye on how Christine Beatty is faring . As many know, she resigned her position as chief of staff shortly after the scandal broke. We identified Beatty as Kwame's mystery guest for his massage at a NC resort via the Detroit cousin's friend network. While Beatty is out of a job and facing serious legal consequences, many in the city and notables like Willie Brown are rallying to the mayor's side. The corporate fat cats who bailed out the mayor's re-election effort that Beatty helped engineer are aiding Kwame with their silence support. The citizenry continue to support him, but little love seems to be flowing Beatty's way at all. He's got a legal defense fund, and it only seems fair to us that Beatty should be included in it as well. The citizens of Detroit and the legal fund committee should be demanding she be added as a beneficiary, especially given their repeated assertions that Kwame will be fully vindicated. So the unemployed Beatty is getting no help to pay her legal expenses and her lawyer is not cheap. She suffered another setback in court as well when the magistrate refused her request to leave the state to seek work and required her to wear a tether which reports her whereabouts, though it does not restrict her to her home.

So Beatty is out of a job, facing massive criminal liabilities with custody of two children and is now restricted to the state and cannot go elsewhere to seek work without the court's leave. At the same time, she certainly is not going to get work in Michigan. Meanwhile, her ex, Da Mayor, has got a legal defense fund, vocal supporters and can leave the state to carry out his official duties (prior notice to the court of course).

We repeat our advice to Ms. Beatty. Have your attorney run to Ms. Worthy's office, cut a deal for immunity and spill your guts.

NAACP Answers on Dunbar: What We Learned

Well, I've been traveling out of town for the past few days getting some much needed RR with the family but of course keeping an eye peeled on the blogosphere and the Dunbar Village accountability campaign being waged on the NAACP. Since I was on the road, I missed the blogtalk radio show on Dunbar Village on Thursday night. Representatives from the NAACP, Adora Obi Nweze, President, Fl State Conference NAACP and Richard McIntire, the NAACP national spokesperson joined the Black Women's Roundtable hosted by WAOD to respond to the stinging and scathing criticism the NAACP has been receiving.

I listened to the archive of the show including the NAACP portion and the discussion afterwards. The NAACP responses and performance were pathetically inadequate and demonstrated an organization manifestly out of touch. They apologized for the press conference, saying that it was not their intent to suggest that they cared more about the suspects than the victims. They were not well versed in the facts of the Boca Raton cases and ill informed about how their national policy directives informed the actions of the WPB branch. They were unwilling and unable to explain their internal protocol for how local branches intervene in cases (though the local branch in my area seems very clear that permission from their state body is required when I asked about it.)

So what have we learned from this little episode? Surprisingly, not much that was new. All it really did for me was to confirm the fact, which I've blogged on before, that black organizations are nearly incapable of engaging in principled, strategic leadership. The responses of the NAACP betray an organization that is poorly organized, with poor unit discipline and extremely inconsistent quality of leadership at the local level. It seems fairly clear that the WPB branch did not obtain any authorization to intervene in this case before undertaking this ill advised press conference. Furthermore, they got involved in this press conference apparently without having done any significant amount of research into the Boca Raton case, which has a very different fact pattern, as evidenced by their inability to talk about it when questioned by reporters from the Palm Beach Post at the scene.

The quality of local leadership for the NAACP is clearly in question. Maude Ford Lee, the local president, pursued this course of action apparently without authorization, without a clear understanding of the facts of the Boca case and apparently without having given any real thought to the nature of the Dunbar Village rape itself, something I find even more appalling because she is a woman herself.

The poor legal, moral and political judgment demonstrated by the local chapter is simply compounded by the equally inept response of the national organization, which does nothing to rein in the action of the local branch, nor does anything substantive in regards to support for the victim. Clearly unwilling to rebuke the local chapter leadership, the Florida state president apologizes for the press conference, but is unwilling to go any further, and the NAACP's national spokesperson offers up a mish mash of contradictory statements. Its clear that they are only concerned with the agenda of pursuing actual and perceived cases of racial injustice and are willing to ride any set facts to do so. If that were not the case, then the national and state bodies would have indeed rebuked the local chapter for their involvement in this case.

It highlights the sad fact of bad leadership in black organizations both nationally and locally. Because there is little in the way of accountability, these organizations continue to waste humanpower and financial resources on ill advised strategies to obtain dubious gains in racial equality. The NAACP has demonstrated itself to be just such an organization, as has the National Action Network of Al Sharpton.

There was a lot of discussion afterwards about what is the response of people like ourselves, bloggers, activists, a new generation who are embracing the new tools and technologies of the information age to connect with each other and the world on the issues we care about. Some suggested a new organization, some said reform these groups from within, some said run for office. None of these options seems either a great solution or particularly satisfying or complete as answers by themselves. There was talk of coalition building and I think that comment points in the right direction, of a third way. We've seen this accountability campaign force a response from these civil rights establishment dinosaurs. We did it by harnessing the power of communication and the web to connect the concerns of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who are not otherwise connected. I myself collaborated with people I've never met or seen in places I have never been. Thats very powerful .

We need to continue to harness that power. To build the ability of people who share similar concerns to be able to join with one another on issues we care about and to be involved in action that impacts those concerns. Its not an organization per se, but a coalition of the willing built around shared values and principles, that works to mobilize people power and raise money in specific targeted ways to effect change where its needed. WAOD's prior campaigns and this one demonstrate a power that in my view we have only barely begun to tap. We should be thinking about the next level.

State of the Black Union... Awesome: But Something Is Missing

I listened with great interest, amusement and political junkie enthusiasm to the State of the Black Union event hosted by Tavis Smiley this past Saturday. As a forum of political thinkers, commentators, intellectuals and activists, it was marvelous. To have an opportunity to hear so many very articulate and lucid thinkers on the black condition in American was very thought provoking. I loved hearing Dyson drop science about Obama and accountability (see the Featured Video). Farrakhan called on people to reconnect to God, quoting the Bible the whole time, which I found intriguing. Perhaps he was just making allowances for the audience before him, but I found it curious that the spiritual leader of the NOI did not once in his remarks acknowledge his own God, Allah, but rather punctuated his comments entirely with the scripture of Jehovah (for the record, I do not believe Muslims and Christians worship the same God, but thats another post). I was interested in the comments of Sheila Jackson Lee and her impassioned, if slightly defensive, championing of Hillary. I was entertained and then a little appalled at the commentary of Dick Gregory. I enjoyed Sharpton being the fly in the ointment, violating the seemingly tacit agreement that the participants would not rhetorically set at each others throats over the Obama/Clinton nomination conflict. And I found much of interest in what many of the people had to say about the state of our black union.

But in as much as the commentary and critique was inspirational, I find fault with SOBU as it is put forward on two grounds. For one, as much diversity as there may have been in the panels ideological viewpoints, it is largely the case that those panelists are almost exclusively to the political left, in several cases, the far left. So there is a great deal of sameness in their thoughts. Its a lot of preaching to the choir and celebration of victimhood. Whether its being laid out in Sharpton's hood certified straight talk or Cornel West's incomprehensible and impenetrable intellectual speechification, it all shares a similar premise: the idea that we are the eternal victims of a relentless and unending white supremacist onslaught encoded in the DNA of this nation's every institution. To listen to the SOBU panelists, this victim status is and will always be the defining characteristic of our existence. Its a perspective I reject as self limiting and self defeating. But it is the operative world view of nearly all the SOBU panelists to my mind. Which leads me to the second fault I find with this august gathering, which is that that they are all talk and insufficient, non strategic action. This talented tenth epitomizes, for all the talk of accountability and agenda, the crisis of black leadership. There is a crisis of effective black leadership in America. Simply put, we have too little of it. Across the board, black led organizations are almost incapable of exercising principled, effective, strategic leadership. This phenomenon holds true across the spectrum of black organizations, from churches, to national service organizations to community development corporations. Whether you're talking about homeowners associations, civic organizations, local chapters of national organizations, greeks, or political organizations, effective, accountable, strategic leadership is few and far between.

What happened? There was a time when the black community had more capable leadership. But it seems as though somewhere between the end of the civil rights movement and the beginning of the 21st century, we lost our strategic leadership skills. An older post civil rights generation has remained stuck in the strategies of an era that is long gone, while blocking a younger generation from leadership. The new generation, focused on "getting mine" isn't applying critical thinking or strategic leadership skills to the intertwined political, social and economic challenges we face.

The result: underperformance in nearly every aspect of the community when it comes to implementation of effective strategies that address the interests of the black community. For all the prescriptions of the SOBU panelists, none of them individually or collectively, has an organization articulating AND implementing in a strategic, disciplined way an agenda of rational political and economic action. Where's the beef? Do any of you know how to articulate and implement a vision and strategy for black progress that does not rely on government response or calls to free our minds? Who is articulating a national policy on economic development, social response and political development of the black community that is worth the paper its printed on? Not anybody on those panels.

The State of the Black Union? Perhaps as troubled as it has ever been. Our talented tenth have a variety of answers to our problems, answers which themselves are problematic, shortsighted and grounded in victimhood. But that aside, I don't think any of them has the first clue about how to strategically, on a national level, implement solutions to the problems we face. Unacceptable.
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