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Kwanzaa 2021: Celebration or lamentation?, by James Clingman
For 50 years, Black people in the United States have celebrated the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
Achieving real power
Many people are highly insulted by Confederate statues and monuments, and they want them taken down and/or destroyed.
Finally, a listening tour
The national office of the NAACP has made a couple of significant changes lately. They dismissed chairwoman Roslyn M. Brock and president Cornell Brooks.
‘Radio-Activists’
Some of us believe that simply talking about a problem, mainly by delineating its symptoms, is actually doing the work necessary for a solution. You would think that with all of the activists we have within our ranks that some actual activity, beyond mere exercising our powers of speech and penmanship, would take place.
Permanent interests
A man of vision, strength and determination who practiced what he preached, Floyd McKissick succeeded James Farmer as national director of the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, in 1966. And under Mr. McKissick’s leadership, CORE was transformed from an interracial, nonviolent, civil rights organization into a group that promoted Black Power.
Making our own black history
“There are (Black people) who are willing to worship the pyramids of 4,000 years ago but will not build pyramids in the present so their children may see what they left behind as well. We have a leadership who rallies the people to look at past glories but leave their children neglected ...” - Dr. Amos N. Wilson in “Afrikan Centered Consciousness Versus the New World Order: Garveyism in the Age of Globalism.”
Return on investment?
Having read some of the post-election statements by our top black organizations, and after watching some of their leaders on TV news shows commenting and lamenting the loss by the Democrats, I thought about the effectiveness of our champions for civil rights, economic empowerment and political empowerment. How effective have they been in terms of gains for the collective of black people, their primary constituents?
Buying black then and now
The advent of initiatives throughout this country to “Buy Black” and “Bank Black” can be traced to the early 1900s during which time campaigns similar to today’s efforts were established. Slogans such as “Double-Duty Dollars,” “Don’t shop where you can’t work” and efforts such as Black Cooperatives cropped up as a result of our forebears understanding and being willing to act upon the fact that their dollars mattered.
Requiem for black people
Lorenzo Collins, Michael Carpenter, Roger Owensby Jr., Timothy Thomas, Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Kenneth Walker, Sean Bell,
Do black lives really matter?
In 1991, Latasha Harlins was shot in the back of her head and killed by Soon Ja Du, a Korean storeowner in Los Angeles. Ms. Du received a $500 fine, 400 hours of community service and five years’ probation from Judge Joyce Karlin, who ignored the penalty of 16 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. Ms. Du received no prison time for her callous act of murder — execution style — of a 15-year-old African-American girl over a $1.79 container of orange juice. This case, and the outrage it brought, foreshadowed the Los Angeles civil unrest now known as the Rodney King Riot in 1992.
Stop whining, start grinding
It’s interesting how the young folks have started using a term that describes what the older folks should be doing. I hear young people saying, “I’m grinding,” and I hear older folks whining. Young people know they have to “just do it,” as the saying goes, in order to achieve their dreams. In many cases they are willing to take risks and forego the creature comforts that could accrue to them via high level corporate salaries. They are willing to sacrifice in order to pursue their own path in life, unconstrained by the “rules” someone else sets for them.
A piece of Cuba
I remember a line from Gil Scott-Heron in “The Bicentennial Blues,” where he was discussing the Nixon administration and this nation’s penchant for getting in on the economic action of other nations. He called Henry Kissinger the “International Godfather of Peace, a ‘piece’ of Viet Nam, a ‘piece’ of Laos, a ‘piece’ of Angola, a ‘piece’ of Cuba.” That line is fitting 40 years later as President Obama returns from Cuba accompanied by a dozen business executives.
Beyond T-shirts and hoodies
Recollections of my 1995 article on the business of college athletics danced in my head when I heard the news about the University of Missouri football team’s refusal to play until the president of that university, Tim Wolfe, resigned or was dismissed.
Controlling our own story
In war, one of the first things the enemy does is destroy his adversary’s ability to communicate within its ranks. Chaos likely ensues if a fighting force cannot communicate internally. Individual soldiers end up doing their own thing, left to their own devices. They make decisions based on their individual situations and in their individual interests. This allows the enemy to come in and pick them off one by one, using false information and propaganda, instilling fear of being captured or killed, or by making the individual feel abandoned and left with no hope of victory.
Where are we in political arena?
Here is something to think about as we watch the political circus that is currently dominating the news: Black people are nowhere to be found in the real action, nowhere to be found in determining the candidates from which we will eventually choose to compete for the presidency, and nowhere to be found in the debate questions or answers. We are merely watching from the balcony, as we had to do in the 1950s in segregated theaters and churches.
Illusion of post-Katrina recovery
Katrina does not need the word “Hurricane” as a descriptor; we are on a first name basis with her. Nearly 1,500 people died as a result of that storm, and others were abandoned, left to fend for themselves in unbearable heat, polluted waters and filthy municipal facilities. Hundreds of thousands, called “refugees,” were relocated in what could certainly be called Third World refugee camps. And many more were sent to what Barbara Bush thought was a pretty nice place, the Houston Astrodome.
Working for change
In light of the conversations about police abuse, unwarranted stops and arrests and homicide cases involving black people and police officers, many black people get angry, maybe have a march and then go home to await the next incident. Amos Wilson said, “Until our behavior changes, the behavior of those who oppress and abuse us will not change.” In other words, the onus for change is on us.
Forgive student loan debt
By the time you read this, millions of college students will have graduated and be looking for jobs. Many will be going on to grad school and millions suddenly will be faced with paying off college loans or contemplating obtaining a loan for graduate studies. Neither option is attractive.
50 years of economic futility
During the 50 years from 1963 to 2013, black people have been on a virtual economic treadmill. Our relative economic position has not changed. Our unemployment rate consistently has been twice as high as the white unemployment rate. It was 5 percent for white people and 10.9 percent for black people in 1963. Today, it’s 6.6 percent forwhite people and 12.6 percent for African-Americans. The typical white family had $134,200 in wealth in 2013, while black families had $11,000, which is lower than that of Hispanic families, at $13,700.
