Over any given, seven-day period, there is never just one thing that black folks should focus on. We don’t have the luxury of being so single-minded. Every week, events are taking place, laws are being passed that affect our families and communities. Every seven days, racist statements are still being made, discriminatory things are still being done, recently-more-empowered international leaders are changing the economic landscape on which our country operates, domestic economic opportunities are still being “left on the table.” Each week, there are also national and local leaders who, sometimes, deserve recognition from us for what they are doing, and who need our collective help to get it done.
It hurts – and I mean that word, precisely – to have to focus on just one thing each week, when I know that the black condition, here in Philadelphia and across the country, is affected, in every waking moment, by every one of these circumstances, whether we fully realize it or not.
This past week was just like that.
Information, as usual, was coming at us from newspapers, from broadcast and cable TV networks, from the Internet, from radio, from our laptop computers, from our cell phones, from the people at church, from people at the barber shop and beauty salon, from friends and family members who happen to be incarcerated, and, more and more, from “Tweets” that we check into from time to time.
The critical nature of all of these information flows is so great that we can’t afford to just settle for what’s “on the menu.” What we really need to decide for ourselves is how to seek out even more information on critical subjects.
Much of what we read and hear is drawn from just a few sources – from outlets and services such as Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and related websites and digital “alerts.” The one thing those outlets all have in common is that none of them is owned by black or African people and so they, generally, begin their process of news gathering from that perspective.
When they, gather, edit and report “the news,” for the most part, they do not rank the concerns of black communities high up on their daily agendas. That results in information about Africa and African people around the world being casually treated, being intentionally or unintentionally distorted and, more frequently, left out altogether.
Did you ever wonder, with more than six billion people now on earth, living in 193 separate countries, all, theoretically, making news of some kind every day, how the morning news shows – on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, etc. – all carry the same top two or three stories each morning when you wake up. Don’t try to turn the channel, it’s a waste of time. It’s the same few stories, no matter which networks you watch.
Understanding how that happens, now, we can’t allow ourselves to get comfortable with there being only a single black reporter permitted to ask a question during the president’s “all –important” press conference on the economy last month. Curiously, that question, from an Ebony Magazine reporter, didn’t even include the words “black” or African American.” You have to wonder whether the Ebony reporter was more concerned about getting specific, black-focused information back to the magazine’s black readers or about not offending the president’s media advisers, who decide who gets invited back to the next White House news conference.
That mindset, and the decidedly non-African-American composition of Mr. Obama’s senior media relations staff, allowed him to feel free once again to “dance away” from the subject of his black experience as president, when that question was raised by another reporter. It also allowed him to send a signal to the country, once more, that the unique perspective of nearly 40 million black Americans really never does matter very much to him as he goes about “doing his job,” every day in the White House.
Once again, the president felt comfortable in marginalizing black Americans, and his own father’s heritage, in favor of his mother’s. It wasn’t the courageous approach. It certainly wasn’t an approach that reflected “change,” because that’s how it’s always been. His advisers, however, know that it’s the safe approach to take to get the treatment they want from mainstream media.
In a related story, there was also the news that the National Urban League has taken the lead in challenging Mr. Obama to publicly address black issues as part of his overall responsibility as President of the United States.
Now, that was “change.”
Like most of our national black leadership organizations, the National Urban League, until recently, had been giving every possible benefit of the doubt to the new President, in the vain hope that he would be, at least, appropriately attentive to black issues, without being prodded. That simply hasn't happened.
Let’s see, now, if the NAACP, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Operation PUSH, Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, national Black Clergy leaders, the Black Press and others pick up on the Urban League’s sharply focused and timely message to the White House.
There was also the news from the Federal Reserve last week that for every dollar of average white American family wealth in this country, the average black family has just 10 cents. That's actually a "change" for the worse, given that, in previous reports, black families had 12 cents for every white dollar. Where are all of my “post-racial” friends when I need them? Please… speak up.
Closer to home, there is the growing anticipation about when Mayor Nutter will convene public and private-sector leaders to launch an accountable initiative as a follow-up to the report by his Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity, two weeks ago. The report pointed out, among other things, that black-owned construction firms in the Greater Philadelphia area participated in just .5 percent of the $26 billion of local construction industry revenues.
There has also been a great deal of black media speculation about whether, and how, African-American businesses and workers will participate in the $18 billion in stimulus funding headed for Pennsylvania. In that regard, we should know that in Harrisburg, the Black Caucus, under State Representative Ron Waters, and key players such as Representative Dwight Evans, State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams and State Representative Jake Wheatley, have been definitely “on the case.” Trust me, it won’t happen without their sophisticated and coordinated political skills and without a “struggle.” We should know that and be engaged in their support.
Finally, there were a few more kernels of good news this week: Attorney Robert Archie was named chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, following in the role played so capably by Sandra Dungee Glenn. In addition, another very capable African-American attorney, Michael Pratt, was nominated to a seat on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, making him the first black turnpike commissioner in the history of the state.
Hey, if you run into Governor Rendell, Dwight Evans, Anthony Hardy Williams, Ron Waters, and any of the other members of the PA Black Caucus, let them know that you appreciate what’s been going on up there lately.
In the midst of all of the insanity and confusion, it’s a very good sign.
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