Your Black Writers

HILLARY CLINTON DOESN'T DESERVE THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION

2008-03-08T09:42:00.004-05:00

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

HILLARY CLINTON DOESN’T DESERVE THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION

Blank statement: Hillary Clinton does not deserve the Democratic Nomination for president–in fact, based on what these primaries have revealed of her character, she doesn’t even deserve her seat in the senate. While Hillary has long since switched to the Democrat Party, recent weeks have clearly demonstrated that her Republican inclination towards cutthroat politics, shallow character and deceit remains firmly in tact. Compelling evidence of that is the CBS News report indicating that Hillary said, both she and Senator John McCain offer the experience to respond to a crisis, while Barack Obama only offers rhetoric. Specifically, he report quoted her as saying, "He’s [John McCain’s] never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002." That is the most mean-spirited and irresponsible remark that one Democrat can make about another prior to a national election. With that statement she has essentially–no, in fact-- endorsed Republican, John McCain over Barack Obama if she fails to get the Democratic nomination.

That statement, along with her subsequent behavior clearly demonstrates that Hillary Clinton has embarked upon a scorched Earth campaign against both Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as a whole, and it is also now clear that her every move is designed to hold the very viability of the Democratic Party hostage against nominating anyone but herself.

Further evidence of that is in spite of her claim during the last debate that she is "so honored to be here with Senator Obama" and that she represents change, throughout the run up to the Texas/Ohio primaries she has engaged in the Karl Rovian politics of mudslinging ("to see what will stick"), the politics of fear, and an attempt to ridicule Senator Obama’s strengths, even though she certainly realizes that if Obama is the nominee her attacks will make it more difficult for him to be elected in November. In fact, that is her plan–to sling so much mud on Obama that he won’t be able to mount a viable campaign against the Republican nominee.

In my article, Will the Reall Hillary Please Stand Up?, I pointed out that "Even Bill Clinton has acknowledged that if Hillary doesn’t get a win in Texas, she won’t get the presidential nomination. So in the next two weeks her character, and the kind of experience she brings to the table will be on display. If she’s truly committed to change, and what’s in the best interest of the United States, we’ll see a lady engaged in a valiant, yet, clean fight for the nomination. But if the "experience" she so often speaks of is of the old-style, me-first, America-be-damned kind of politics of the past, we’re going to see a lot of lying, desperate mudslinging, and win-at-any-cost kind of tactics."

I also pointed out in that same article that "Hillary is right in one respect, however–experience can be impressive, as we saw in the Texas debate–and she certainly has it. But Hillary has the wrong kind of experience–she’s experienced in the old ways of voter manipulation. During the debate we saw a chameleon at work–first we saw the cordial Hillary, but she felt she needed to set herself apart; then she became presidential Hillary, but Obama easily matched her sober, no nonsense veneer; then she went into attack dog Hillary, only to quickly change tactics after being booed; towards the end, she finally settled on Saint Hillary, to confer love upon her opponent. It took her the entire debate, but being the "experienced" politician that she is, she finally stumbled on just the right tone of manipulation. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of that in the future, so I just wanted to give you a playbook so you can keep up with which Hillary is on display."

No, I’m not clairvoyant, it’s just that Hillary is so self-serving that she’s predictable. You see, Hillary is so far behind Obama in the number of delegates necessary to secure the nomination that she’d have to win all of the remaining primaries by over 20 points just to catch up. In short, she can no longer win the nomination–the only way she can get it is to steal it. Thus, she’s calculated that the only way she can become the nominee is through hook, crook, and deceit. So she’s calculated that she must threaten to destroy the Democratic Party’s chances of winning the November election in order to secure her community property rights–the office of the presidency. That’s right, she sees it as her entitlement.

So, even though all of the democratic candidates agreed beforehand not to campaign, or seat, the delegates in Florida and Michigan due to the states’ violation of a prohibition against holding their primaries before February 5, now Hillary is demanding that the 366 delegates be seated, and with good reason. In spite of the fact that all of the democratic candidates, including Hillary, agreed that those delegates wouldn’t be counted, when all of the other candidates took their names off the ballot, Hillary allow her name to remain on, and since she was the only Democratic name on the ballot, technically, she won the primary. Now that she’s hopelessly behind Obama in delegates, she wants to change the rules of the game and count those delegates.

A fight over this issue would tear the Democratic Party apart and allow a republican victory in November. Hillary knows that, and she also knows that Obama is the people’s choice for the Democratic nomination, but instead of taking the high road and simply bowing out gracefully, she’s holding the Democratic Party hostage as she slings mud at Obama, so that later she can convince the superdelegates (the party bigwigs) that Obama is so muddied that he wouldn’t be a viable candidate–never mind the fact she’s the one who’s throwing the mud.

So the real Hillary has finally stood up, and what do we find–vindictiveness, deceit, and self-service. Some would call that hardball politics. I call it a flaw in her character, that should preclude her from the Democratic nomination.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com

Mommie, I Smell A Lie.

(You Can't Fool A Child).

SPEAK UP/SPEAK OUT

2008-03-01T08:52:00.002-05:00

By: Nathaniel Gadsden
Founder & Director
Nathaniel Gadsden’s Writers Wordshop
1416 Cumberland Streets
Harrisburg, Pa. 17103
pgadsden@aol.com
www.nathanielgadsden.com
(717)233-7611

Recently, the cities of Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have been rocked with a string of senseless shooting deaths. Almost all of the victims were young African Americans, and the killers were also young African Americans. Unfortunately, this is not shocking news to most people living in Harrisburg, the United States, or the planet earth. The sad reality is, African Americans are killing one another, in what I call, a Self-imposed Holocaust and we don’t know what to do about it. We have marched, held town meetings, supported tougher sentencing guidelines, called on God and cried. Every step we take forward against the Holocaust it appears that we lose a step. We are a resilient people, strong and vibrant at our best, but even the strongest foundation can begin to crack, over time, if the steady drip of destruction is not repaired.
I want to propose something to all writers, spoken word artist and performers/actors of the African American Community. Let’s refocus our energy, time, and talent toward the total destruction of the African Holocaust in America, Africa, and anywhere it prevails. Let’s put aside our fixation on relationships, personal stardom, and intellectual showmanship and gather together under one God directed path of the complete and total destruction of the African Holocaust. We will only write, speak, create product and energy that eliminates self-murder in our communities. We will not adopt the language of the “fool” and pretend that it is something special, you know, “a black thing.”

We will not allow our “voices”, public celebrities, or private citizens to fill the air with gossip, put-downs, and fowl language. Even Tom Joyner, Jay Anthony Brown and the other celebrity voices will be held to this standard or we will simply stop listening. Our performers, such as Eddie Murphy, Monique, Jay Anthony Brown and others, will take responsibility for their craft, or we will stop supporting them. And we take this stand not to destroy our voices and creative genius, but to say no to the misuse of our God-giftedness any longer, no matter who the artist is.

We must take this stand, because we know that the creative community has major influence over the minds of our community. Much of the negative energy and negative life choices that are being made in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, can be found in most towns and cities where our people reside. The common thread that connects us is too often the movies, television programs, plays, radio shows, magazines, and sporting events. What is said through these outlets carries an enormous amount of influence in African American communities, including Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a Writer/Creative person I must do all that I can to ensure that the images and messages I give life to do not ultimately take a life from the community I love. Will you join me?

I would like to hear from you. Let’s start a movement of creative artist dedicated to saving the lives of our people. I can be reached at (717)233-7611 or email: pgadsden@aol.com. My Web page is: nathanielgadsden.com

Hillary Clinton's Black Supporters In a Difficult Situation

2008-02-19T17:42:00.002-05:00

This may come as a shock, but Hillary Clinton DOES have some black supporters left. Not many, but a few.

Black supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton have been thrown a major monkey wrench in the Presidential campaign. Many political leaders made their careers on the backs of the Clinton family and from day one, they never saw Obama becoming a serious candidate.

They have been proven oh so wrong, and they don't quite know what to do about it.

African-Americans represent the only major voting block that Senator Clinton has not been able to carry in at least one of the Democratic primaries. Obama now carries 84 percent of the black vote in Alabama, 87 percent in Georgia, 84 percent in Maryland and the list goes on and on.

People have joked that black people can't stick together. But this election is proving that the myth is not reality.

Being black and maintaining support for Hillary Clinton has not worked out for many prominent black leaders. Bob Johnson was attacked heavily for supporting Clinton. Tavis Smiley was virtually tarred and feathered by the black community for questioning Obama's commitment to blackness. It has gotten to the point that many prominent African-Americans in support of Clinton are simply keeping quiet about their loyalty.

"Obama has become almost like a trend in the black community," says Dr. Boyce Watkins. "Whether that is a good or bad thing, we won't know until he is elected. But seeing a real black man running for office has reminded many that Bill Clinton was not the first Black President. Hillary and Bill have been living off that untruth for years."

Last Friday, 25 prominent supporters of Hillary Clinton held a closed conference to discuss how they deal with the fact that people "pester, intimidate, question our blackness" for not supporting Obama.

The person putting the call together was Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. Lewis, once a strong supporter of the Clintons, has now begun to waver in his support. His constituency in Georgia favors Obama 5 to 1, a fact that he simply cannot ignore.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer is determined to remain a strong supporter of Clinton, stating that it was time, "to stand up and say why you're for Hillary Clinton in the face of adversity. We can't afford to be wishy-washy . . . Stand up. Fight. Advocate for your candidate. Don't capitulate. . . . Don't let nobody intimidate or threaten you. Just hold on."

This is not the first time this has happened. In 1984, many black supporters of Walter Mondale were feeling pressure during Jesse Jackson's run for The White House. The primary difference is that Jackson was not nearly as strong of a contender as Obama. The argument at the time was that they were being safe by supporting the likely winner. They cannot make the same argument with Obama.

Former San Fransisco Mayor Willy Brown put it in perspective.

"I think most white politicians do not understand that the race pride we all have trumps everything else."

Only time will tell how things turn out. But with Barack Obama being the front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination, history is surely being made.

Barack Obama: The New Black Power?

2008-02-11T20:30:00.000-05:00

by Dr Peniel E. Joseph

Barack Obama’s meteoric rise from charismatic senator to national phenomenon to presidential contender reveals the complex evolution of black politics since the civil rights and Black Power era. Obama’s candidacy is particularly noteworthy during this primary season and election year, which comes on the fortieth anniversary of 1968, a year when effort to transform American democracy ran headlong into a violent defense of white supremacy. Born in 1961, the same year Freedom Riders faced prison to desegregate interstate travel across the nation, Obama remains aloof to the culture wars—whether based in racial, gender or ethnic solidarity—that remain a cornerstone of the legacy of the 1960s. “I think America is still caught in a little bit of a time warp,” Obama confessed to Newsweek last summer. “The narrative of black politics is still shaped by the ’60s and black power.” Indeed.

Obama at rally in Nashua copyright 2008 Jeff GlagowskiBlack Power era radicalism loomed over 1968, a year most often remembered for the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in the spring, followed by the election of Richard Nixon as president in the fall. Urban rebellions—what the media and law enforcement officials referred to as riots—gripped dozens of cities that year, in the sixth straight summer of civil disorders. Radicalized college and high school students staged raucous demonstrations, walkouts and campus takeovers that sent shockwaves through much of the nation.

Black radicals stood at the center of these demonstrations. Advocates of Black Power would ultimately transform American democratic institutions through gritty, often provocative, street demonstrations, campus takeovers and community organizing that challenged entrenched black leadership as much as government officials.

Four decades have passed since King was cut down by an assassin’s bullet on Thursday, April 4, 1968. It’s worth remembering how King’s post-’65 push for economic justice, critique against the Vietnam War, and efforts to galvanize the nation’s poor stood, in part, as a response to criticism from black militants.

The years between the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision calling for desegregation and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act are popularly recalled as the heroic period of civil rights struggle. In scholarly and popular histories this era is most often evoked by a collage of images that begins with a black woman holding a newspaper sign announcing the Brown decision; moves to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King being arrested for participating in the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama; stops briefly to show federal troops protecting black students in Little Rock, Arkansas; before jumping ahead to dramatic pictures of racial terror in Birmingham that include stark footage of black civil rights demonstrators being attacked by German shepherds and fire hoses. King’s August 1963 March on Washington speech becomes the centerpiece of this newsreel style version of history.

But there is another side to this story that is often left untold, but crucial to understanding contemporary black politics. During the same decade that cast King in the spotlight, black radicals, led by Malcolm X, confronted American democracy’s jagged edges of poverty, police brutality, poor schools, unemployment, and an emerging urban crisis through bruising protests in places such as Harlem, Detroit, and Los Angeles. While critical of the civil rights movement’s focus on desegregating public accommodations and what many considered its overemphasis on the power of the vote, many of these Northern militants drew inspiration from these struggles and simultaneously participated in both movements. Early Black Power radicals, most notably Malcolm X, drew strength and power from the international arena, paying particularly close attention to the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia, Ghanaian independence in 1957 and the Cuban Revolution of 1959. When Fidel Castro came to Harlem in 1960, the first leader he met with was Malcolm X. In February of 1961 what several years later would become known as Black Power made its national debut via an organized demonstration at the United Nations in protest against the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1966 Stokely Carmichael, a young civil rights organizer who had done impressive work in some of the most dangerous parts of the South, gave name to a pre-existing movement by calling for “Black Power” in the heat of the Mississippi Delta. Black Power would galvanize black radicals, but quickly came under fire—then and now—for advocating what critics argued was a racially separatist philosophy that promoted anti-white feeling, fomented violence, and reeked of sexism. In truth, while certain Black Power activists were guilty as charged, the major strains of the movement represented a far more nuanced and radical critique of American society. Black Power activists harbored a deep cynicism regarding the ability of American democracy to be extended to African Americans. Carmichael’s pursuit of political, economic and cultural power came only after suffering years of physical violence and abuse at the hands or ordinary white citizens while trying to promote voting rights among sharecroppers.

1968 was also the year of the Black Panthers, perhaps the most enduring symbol of Black Power era radicalism. Contemporary mythology surrounding the Panthers focuses on the group’s bravado, flashy clothes, guns, and fiery polemics that advocated an armed confrontation against the state. Less well remembered is the fact that co-founder and minister of defense Huey P. Newton was a college student and an ex-con, a young organizer who cared deeply about the survival of the black community. On this score, the Black Panthers launched a host of “survival programs” during their relatively brief (1966-1982) existence that focused on bread and butter issues, including health care, decent housing, food, clothes and the treatment of prisoners.

The Panthers were, in fact, simply the most spectacular manifestation of the Black Power era’s call for radical democracy. Black college and high school students from New York City to Greensboro, North Carolina out to San Francisco successfully transformed university curriculums and founded Black Studies programs and departments around the nation. Trade unionists in Detroit and other cities attempted to organize workers caucuses to challenge the entrenched racism of white-controlled unions. Led by Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and many others, the Black Arts Movement re-imagined the very contours of blackness through poetry, prose, theater, dance, music and style. Black feminists challenged sexism both in the society and in the Black Power movement itself, arguing for a more inclusive vision of Black Power that promoted a human rights agenda. Welfare mothers from New York City to Las Vegas dreamed of a guaranteed income and, when Dr. King met with them to encourage their participation in the Poor People’s Campaign, they lectured him on the intricacies of public policy. Finally, hundreds of thousands of ordinary local people backed a new generation of black politicians and successfully elected them as mayors of a range of urban cities in the 1960s through the early 1980s, including Cleveland, Gary (Indiana), Newark, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Barack Obama is a direct beneficiary of this rich and varied legacy. As late as Harold Washington’s historic 1983 mayoral victory in Chicago and Jesse Jackson’s robust 1984 presidential campaign, the Black Power legacy infused black political protest, organizing and even electoral politics. Black Power’s impact was of course often blunted by the media’s refusal to acknowledge its continued existence after the mid-1970s. But something happened to black politics in the post-Black Power era, perhaps best exemplified by Jesse Jackson’s own meteoric rise from insurgent outsider to the most recognizable black power broker within Democratic Party circles. Jackson’s route followed a trajectory taken by venerable activists such as Andrew Young, John Lewis and other civil rights veterans who came to define King’s increasingly radical dream as accommodation with powerful white neo-liberals.

Jackson’s endorsement of Obama notwithstanding, the aging civil rights cadre has repudiated Obama because he threatens to cut them out of their cozy deals as intermediaries between the Democratic Party establishment and the black community. But from Black Power’s legacy we have been given Barack Obama, an intelligent, handsome and inspiring politician whose blackness has become a source of his racially transcendent appeal. Yet, when we take a closer look, Obama has all the trappings of a strong, if closeted, race man, complete with a lovely black wife, two beautiful black daughters and membership in a black church that is unabashedly Afrocentric. Until recently, Obama appeared to be more of the leader of a movement than a bona fide presidential candidate. A victory in the Iowa caucuses changed that and the Clinton campaign launched a series of racially coded, but still patently obvious, lines of attack through various proxies that brought up Obama’s substance abuse as a young man, slurred his anti-war record as a “fairy-tale,” and impugned Dr. King’s legacy by asserting that it took Lyndon Johnson to actually pass civil rights legislation. These attacks have successfully served the Clintons’ Machiavellian purposes: to out Barack Obama as a black candidate. They are also reminiscent, in their own way, of the worst kind of racial pandering engaged in by the Democratic Party’s southern wing during the post-Reconstruction era. While certainly not as blatant as Alabama governor George Wallace’s infamous “segregation then, segregation now and segregation forever” statement, the impact of the Clinton campaign’s racial politicking is similar: it casts racial difference as un-American, subversive, and a threat to the very foundations of the nation’s democracy. But, even as it successfully positions Hillary Clinton to win the party’s nomination, this strategy may have crippling long-term repercussions. As black Americans become increasingly aware of the Clinton campaign’s ugly efforts to racially swift boat Obama’s candidacy, there could be a backlash among African American voters come November.

By playing the race card, the Clintons have successfully pivoted the Democratic primary away from substantive political issues (e.g., the war in Iraq) and turned it into a debate over which oppressed group (blacks or women) deserves the nomination. Gloria Steinem’s New York Times op-ed piece, published in the aftermath of Clinton’s loss in Iowa, set the tone for this storyline, arguing that black men had received the right to vote fifty years before white women while conveniently ignoring that most blacks could not exercise that right until 1965 because of racial apartheid in the South. Predictably, as attacks by prominent white politicians and ex-president Bill Clinton on Obama mount, the black community has rallied with the latent sense of nationalism that is always bubbling beneath the surface. For all intents and purposes, Obama has now been outed as a black candidate, the very moniker his entire campaign had successfully avoided. By promoting a robust version of the American Dream, albeit in Technicolor, Obama’s campaign had heretofore avoided that perception.

This need not be the political Achilles heel that many might imagine. After all, contrary to popular opinion, the Black Power Movement fought for bread and butter issues that made an impact on the lives of all Americans, including good public schools, decent housing, healthcare and gainful employment. While activists looked for racially specific solutions to problems rooted in slavery, a variety of multi-ethnic and racial groups looked to the movement as a broad template for social and political justice goals. In this sense, contemporary discussion of multiculturalism and diversity are rooted in the radically democratic ethos of the Black Power era. Obama has recently come under attack for comments suggesting that Ronald Reagan’s presidency reflected a deeper more substantive change in America than Nixon or Clinton. I absolutely concur, even as I vehemently object to the Reagan era’s acceleration of black poverty, incarceration and misery. Reagan’s presidency in many ways represented a counter-revolution to the search for “land, peace, bread, and justice” advocated by the Black Panthers. Obama’s legacy is still unfolding before our eyes. Ironically, the key to achieving the broad, racially transcendent impact that his soaring rhetoric aspires towards may lie in lessons taught by a Black Power Movement whose legacy Obama is unlikely to ever publicly claim.

Print About the Author

Peniel E. Joseph is associate professor of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University. He is the author of the award-winning Waiting Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (Holt, 2006) and editor of The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era (Routledge, 2006). A native New Yorker (and former Brooklyn resident), he is writing a biography of activist Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).

Hillary Clinton's Secret Past: Aligning Yourself with a Racist

2008-02-03T14:03:00.000-05:00

by Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com
www.YourBlackWorld.com

Senator Barack Obama has sent Hillary Clinton’s camp into a panic. The Internet generation, with the wide accessibility of information, has put her image into a tailspin. The more we dig into Hillary’s past, the more clearly we can see what the Clinton’s have brought to Black America.
I also remain cautiously optimistic about Barack Obama, and only time will tell what kind of leader he will become. But my concerns about Hillary Clinton came a couple of years ago, during a conversation I had with one of her top advisors. Since I advocate for black males, the advisor asked me to help Senator Clinton round up African-American men who don’t normally vote so they could support the benevolent politician as she charged forward to The White House. Barack Obama didn’t yet exist, so the idea of actually having a black man representing black men was out of the question.
Quite honestly, the awkward conversation made me feel the way a Freshman sorority girl feels when the drunken, horny frat boy says “I will love you forever” (as he slowly unzips her pants). They wanted something from me, and my gut said that black men would move back down the priority list right after Senator Clinton’s crew had been satisfied.
Hillary Clinton wants votes. She knows how to get them. She wants to be President of the United States. Barack Obama has become a nuisance. Mrs. Clinton has wanted to be president since she was a child, even choosing the right husband to get the job done. I respect a focused person, I really do.
The problem is that Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill have ridden to prosperity, in large part, on the backs of black people. These are the same black people who may or may not be aware of the Clinton path to political success. We see the Clintons in black churches, smacking on barbecue chicken, playing the saxophone with sun glasses and saying “You go girl” in the middle of their speeches. But looking at the Clintons’ past reveals something entirely different.
Hillary Clinton, when trying to prove that she is every bit as black as Barack Obama, often mentions her deep involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. She regularly speaks of listening to Martin Luther King and how it moved her to fight for racial equality. Barack Obama was a baby in 1963, so he was only fighting in the struggle against mandatory potty training.
In Hillary’s words, she was not being potty trained, but involving herself in a dogfight for African American freedom: “As a young woman, I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear [King]. . . . And he called on us, he challenged us that evening to stay awake during the great revolution that the civil rights pioneers were waging on behalf of a more perfect union.”
If Senator Clinton was so deeply moved by Dr. Martin Luther King, then why was she so closely aligned with Senator Barry Goldwater, a known racist and one of the few Senators who opposed passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Martin Luther King gave his life to get this law passed, and it would seem that anyone so moved by King’s legacy would not be one of the greatest supporters of one of Martin Luther King’s greatest enemies.
The truth is this: In 1963, Hillary Clinton was a Republican. But knowing Hillary Clinton, she wasn’t just any Republican. She was President of the Young Republican Organization at Wellesley College and an overwhelming supporter of Senator Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater did not like African Americans, and he especially hated Martin Luther King Jr.
In her memoirs, Hillary Clinton describes herself as 'an active Young Republican' and 'a Goldwater girl, right down to my cowgirl outfit.'
OK. Perhaps there is some small chance that while attending his "radical" Islamic Kindergarten (the one that Hillary’s camp warned us about), Barack Obama was also Goldwater Girl. But I doubt it. A self-proclaimed “Goldwater Girl” doesn’t sound like someone who was standing with Dr. Martin Luther King in his fight for Civil Rights. When you align yourself with someone who is directly aligned AGAINST Martin Luther King, then I would argue that you are pretty much anti-King, and anti-Civil Rights.
The truth of the matter is that Hillary Clinton’s camp never thought Barack Obama would be a threat. She never expected African Americans to start asking the hard questions, since we usually ask the easy ones. Perhaps she felt that she could continue to deceive people of color and that none of us would ever actually read her memoirs. Barack Obama was sure to be similar to Jesse Jackson, who ran a very powerful campaign, but was not quite able to transcend race and obtain such overwhelming support from Americans of many backgrounds.
Even more telling is the fact that Hillary Clinton asked Wellesley College to seal her Senior Thesis and make it unavailable to the public. Every Senior Thesis written at Wellesley for the past 100 years has been made available, except for the one written by Senator Clinton. If we can question what Kindergarten Barack Obama attended, then perhaps we should have the right to read Hillary Clinton’s Senior Thesis. Maybe we can all learn to become “Goldwater Girls”, since that seems to be the best way to celebrate Martin Luther King’s legacy.
Last month, Barack Obama, still a black man (as he was in 1963), raised more money than any other presidential candidate in American history. The amount, $32 Million dollars, was so great that the Clinton camp refused to release its own numbers. This reminds me of episodes of Animal Planet, when the lion’s roar is so strong, the other animals just whimper, drop their heads and slowly walk away.
Clinton’s alliance with Goldwater is not just disturbing because of the racism. It also reminds us of the ruthlessness of many American politicians. When hearing the annoying bark of a nearby French poodle, Barry Goldwater yelled "Throw that damn dog in the incinerator and turn it on!" When asked who the dog belonged to, Goldwater replied, "No – my wife's. We're waiting for him to die."
These words might remind some of the morally reprehensible actions of Michael Vick. Instead, the words remind me of one of Goldwater’s staunchest, proudest and most ruthless supporters, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and the author of "What if George Bush were a Black Man?" He does regular commentary in national media, including CNN, ESPN, CBS, BET and other networks. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com

Why Did Toni Morrison Call Bill Clinton the First Black President?

2008-01-22T00:28:00.001-05:00

Some are questioning the intelligence and judgement of writer Toni Morrison. In a 1998 article for The New Yorker, Morrison named Bill Clinton the "first black president" by stating that he possesses a long list of characteristics possessed by black people. In Morrison's words, she claimed that Clinton possesed "almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

Some have argued that Morrison's characterization of Clinton was both flawed and insulting to African-Americans. Given the diversity of people of color, Morrison has been regularly challenged on the idea that she simply felt that the fact that Clinton was a poor man as a child implies that he serves as a suitable presence for African-Americans in the White House.

An equally confusing notion put forth in Morrison's essay is the idea that African-Americans cannot hope to have a real black president. Instead, they must accept a white male substitute for the job.

In the same essay, Morrison went on to argue that Clinton's attacks during the Monica Lewinsky scandal could be compared to the plight of black men in the criminal justice system. “The message was clear: ‘No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place . . .’”

Morrison referred to Clinton's prosecution as a "lynching", further accentuating her comparison of Bill Clinton's experience with that of African-American males.

When Death Comes Knocking: The Reality of HIV

2008-01-15T08:55:00.001-05:00

I learned a long time ago that when death comes knocking, there’s nowhere to hide. When the AIDS epidemic hit and spread faster than a prostitute’s legs, I remember feeling a sense of panic and urgency. Panic, because the disease affected anyone and everyone. And urgency due to an overwhelming desire to know. Like most people, I was scared…more like horrified at the thought of possibly having contracted a deadly disease due to something I had done.
I’ll never forget the day that Ervin “Magic” Johnson announced on national television that he was HIV positive. My heart sank, and I cried so hard my tear ducts became dry. Although I was devastated by the news, I couldn’t help but think about my uncle. My uncle was an openly gay male. I became physically ill thinking that he could be infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
A few years later, my fear became a reality. Not for me, but for my uncle. I remember that he had quit his job and moved to the same city as me. When I saw him, there was something different about him. Not only did he physically look different, he started behaving with a true sense of urgency. Although he never confided in me about his condition, I believe he knew that he was terminally ill. The truth was he was in denial. It wasn’t until he began to experience flu-like symptoms that he went to the hospital. That’s when the doctor confirmed that he had full-blown AIDS. Even then, he was ashamed and full of remorse. He didn’t want the family to know, especially his nieces.
Not long after my uncle turned thirty-two, the virus began to take over his body. An MRI revealed that he had a mass on his brain, which impacted his speech and ability to walk. After being confined to a wheelchair and requiring the constant care of a nurse, he was placed in hospice.
“Your uncle died today,” were the words my mother left on my voicemail.
I felt as if someone had sucker-punched me in the gut and left me winded. An invisible vacuum must have sucked the air out of the room, because I thought I was going to suffocate. It didn’t matter that his chances for survival were bleak. I refused to accept his prognosis. I fasted, prayed and pleaded with God for a miracle. There was no miracle, and I was grief-stricken.
The same morning that I received the news about my uncle’s demise, I got dressed, crying all the while, and went to work. After running a red light, I nearly joined my uncle. Because of my tears flowing like a river, my vision was blurred. I arrived at the office, eyes red and puffy, and went to my desk. I couldn’t stop crying. Unable to concentrate, I went back home.
Admittedly, I was having a difficult time. Later that evening, while sobbing in my pillow, I felt my hair being lifted off my shoulders and plop back down. Immediately, I stopped balling and looked around the room. No one was there. I didn’t feel afraid. Rather, there was a comforting presence. Suddenly, I heard my uncle’s voice as clearly as if he were standing in the same room as me.
“Little niece, don’t cry for me,” he said. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Now stop crying and go put some ice on your eyes.”
Although I missed him terribly, the grief became more bearable. Having that encounter helped me to understand that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Energy doesn’t die, it transcends. At his funeral, I shared my experience. Later, I found out that lots of people were comforted by my testimony.
For a while, I had vivid dreams about my uncle. I even participated in AIDS Walk Atlanta. I didn’t want other people to go through what my uncle went through.
Ten years has passed since my uncle died, and AIDS is still an epidemic. Recently, I visited his gravesite for the first time since his burial. I introduced him to my four-year old daughter, his great-niece. I realized that I really did introduce them because a few months later, my daughter came to me with her notebook in hand. She had drawn a picture of her uncle. She didn’t know his name, or at least she didn’t tell me. In her artwork, the man had long hair and wore a crown. She proceeded to tell me that he was no longer with us and that he wanted to be a girl. My jaw dropped. I was shocked and skeptical at first. Then she informed me that while he was in high school, he wore a dress. After high school, he got married to a boy.
Everything she said was true, but she had no way of knowing any of it, unless he had told her. My daughter is young, and I’ve never had a discussion with her, or around her, about same-sex relationships. Thankfully, she wasn’t afraid and neither was I, especially when she told me that he hugged her.
Hearing about my daughter’s encounter with our deceased uncle reminded me that there is still so much work to do regarding combating HIV/AIDS. It amazes me that although the media has done a good job bringing awareness to the disease, so many people are still getting infected. I feel as though I have been personally commissioned to help eradicate this pandemic. Each and every life lost to AIDS related complications is too many. We need to do everything we can to stop the spread of this horrific disease. If anyone thinks that HIV/AIDS is limited to homosexuals, intravenous drug users or morally corrupt individuals, think again.
The United States vital statistics found on the “Until There’s a Cure” Web site suggest otherwise. The following stats are disturbing.
 An estimated one million people are currently living with HIV in the United States, with approximately 40,000 new infections occurring each year.
 70 percent of these new infections occur in men and 30 percent occur in women.
 By race, 54 percent of the new infections in the United States occur among African Americans, and 64 percent of the new infections in women occur in African American women.
 75 percent of the new infections in women are heterosexually transmitted.
 Half of all new infections in the United States occur in people 25 years of age or younger.
The worldwide statics are even more alarming.
 Over 22 million people have died from AIDS.
 Over 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 74 percent of these infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa.
 Over 19 million women are living with HIV/AIDS.
 By the year 2010, five countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, China, India, and Russia) with 40 percent of the world's population will add 50 to 75 million infected people to the worldwide pool of HIV disease.
 There are 14,000 new infections every day (95 percent in developing countries). HIV/AIDS is a "disease of young people" with half of the 5 million new infections each year occurring among people ages 15 to 24.
 The UN estimates that, currently, there are 14 million AIDS orphans and that by 2010 there will be 25 million.
No one deserves to contract HIV/AIDS, regardless of their lifestyle. When death comes knocking, it doesn’t care about age, race, nationality, religion, sexual preference, gender or social status. What will you do to make a change?

Only Struggle Breeds Success

2008-01-15T08:37:00.001-05:00

Dr. Alduan Tartt - YourBlackWorld.com

WOW, there certainly is a market for selling hope and prosperity? Have you seen how many motivational products are on the market these days: “The Science of Self-Discipline, The 4 hour Work Week, Lead the Field, etc.? Isn’t it great that we only have to wait “45 Days to Get Rich” and that we can, “Have the Life of Our Dreams in 90 Days”? In fact, did you know that it is possible to “Achieve a Whole New You in 7 Days”? It certainly appears that society is getting a whole lot smarter because we have miraculously figured out how to obtain riches, live the life of our dreams, and transform our lives in record time. Imagine, our parents, mentors, and ancestors had to struggle and endure for decades to get the same results. One has to think, if they knew what we knew they could have retired earlier and endured far less suffering.

If you’re like me, you have gotten caught up in the hype too. In 2007, I purchased motivational CD’s, tapes, DVD’s, workbooks, and even attended workshops and boot camps to improve my life, get rich, and find my true calling in record numbers. I sincerely cherish my expansive library of motivational products because they have significantly influenced and added value to my life in unimaginable ways. Being a motivational speaker myself, I even got caught up in creating products that would transform people’s lives in record time too. However, there was one thing that kept getting in my way: THEY DIDN’T WORK IN 7 DAYS.

I didn’t “Earn a Million Dollars as a Speaker in One Year”. I didn’t even earn a hundred thousand dollars! It’s taken me years to “transform my life” and I’m sure I’m still transforming. As for my dream life, I had some revelations about that too. I realized through daily prayer and relationship with God that I already was living my dream life and didn’t know it. In fact, when I began to reflect I became upset because I remember vividly that I struggled, lost direction, and got distracted from my true calling chasing “A Million Dollar Lifestyle in a Week”. I began to think that my cherished arsenal of motivational products was a fraud but then something told me to listen again.

When I went back and listened I realized that, almost to an author, I had missed one very integral, salient, and redundant point: Struggle is necessary for success and we only have limited control over when it comes. How did I miss that and why wasn’t struggle emphasized more in the titles? Was I duped, sold false hope, or outright lied to? I mean a 4-hour work week clearly implied that I can have more with less time. How was it possible that I had less money than what I had before I purchased these products when I was adding 5-10 hours per week just to listen to the tapes and CD’s? I mean, I was really mad but then I came to peace with myself.

To be real, I wasn’t duped. The authors told me the truth and I bought the PR and marketing hook, line, and sinker for one reason: I wanted a short cut. I certainly didn’t mind skipping struggle, losing money, or working for the rest of my life. I realized that I had gotten caught up in the hype. We’re living in a microwave society that wants and expects everything NOW! We watch reality TV shows, MTV, and VH1 and see everyday people transform into stars, in what appears, overnight and we want the same thing. I mean, it’s OK for children to think that Peter Pan can fly, Santa Clause can fit down chimneys, and WCW wrestlers really fight each other but what about adults? We’re grown and we know better, don’t we?

Television, radio, and those damned infomercials (my weakness) are so powerful. Even as adults, we forget that television is contrived, scripted, and fantastical which means that the extraordinary is the norm in Hollywood. What we forget is what is edited out, fast forwarded, or outright skipped. However, I’ll admit that I did turn the channel when the spokesmen kept it real about struggle, patience, and self-discipline. I didn’t want to hear that. Instead I bought what I wanted them to sell me: Instant Results! As a society, we now expect instant gratification, boundless energy, success, wealth, and prosperity without having to work for it. We desire the results now and could do without having to struggle, persist, or depend on God for it.

In retrospect, I’m glad that things didn’t work out for me in record time. Had I been so lucky, I most certainly would have traveled the world encouraging others to do the same while I openly and naively challenged their belief system if things didn’t work out for them in 7 days. Now that I struggle, I can better identify and appreciate the exhausting journey of obstacles, trials, and tribulations that we all must endure in order to be successful. Rome was not built overnight and neither were Les Brown, Oprah Winfrey, or Jay-Z for that matter. Certainly none of my heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, or Nelson Mandela learned how to be leaders from listening to motivation tapes and CD’s. Instead they all followed their dream, worked hard, struggled, endured, and prospered…and in that order!

Who are we to take short cuts? The moral here is that no matter how much we get mesmerized by instant success productions in a microwave society; there remains one tried and true formula for success: Belief, patience, persistence, and hard work- Notice that no specified time was included. God knows what we need, what we can handle, and has the ultimate time table for our success.

Remember that struggle is part of the process, builds endurance, faith, stamina, and ALWAYS precedes success. So, don’t give up on your dreams because you did not achieve your dreams in 7 days. Remember that the harvest takes time and fruit can be long-bearing. Keep stringing together 7 days of hard work, persistence, and faith in God and watch what happens over six months, one year, and two years! Besides, success stories without conflict don’t sell very well and ultimately rob you of your testimony to encourage others. Embrace and enjoy the journey.

Dr. Tartt is a licensed psychologist, power life coach, and motivational speaker in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He is available to speak on a variety of topics and enjoys coaching and supporting believers on their walk with faith towards a better tomorrow. He can be contacted at www.drtartt.com or 1-877-377-4002.

Why I am a Cheating Black Man

2008-01-13T23:22:00.001-05:00

I am a black man and a cheater. Not all the time, just every now and then. The itch comes to me, and no matter what my wife does, I still can't help but want another woman. At least for a night, or two, or three.

I love my wife very much. No woman I've ever met or will meet will hold a more important place in my life. I also love my kids, our house, my job and the fish in my daughter's room. I love everything about my life at home, even though my relationship has become dull and rocky. But while I love having a strong black family, I also love being a man, and there is a part of me that just can't handle monogamy.

I see alot of misinformation in Essence and other black women's magazines about men and what we want. It's silly to me, because women don't know a thing about us. At the same time, they spend all their time talking about us. They always think they have us figured out, that we can be changed, and that they can come up with some magic formula that will control us and make us want to give them all the blissful matrimony they are seeking.

They couldn't be more wrong.

Here's the deal on cheating. Not from every man's point of view, just mine. You would never know I was a cheater, because I don't act like one. I don't think my penis is made of candy, and I don't want to have sex with every woman I see. I just want one sexy black woman, every now and then, as long as she is not my wife.

I have four confessions to make, please hear me out before you attack.

1) Love usually has nothing to do with cheating.

Women have this silly belief that if a man cheats on you, he must not love you. That's like saying that if you really love God, you won't scratch your toes. One has nothing to do with the other. I could be faithful to a woman I hate and cheat on a woman I love. Whether I love a woman is communicated by whether I continue coming home to her, or whether I visit her if she is sick, help her pay a bill or take care of her aging, yet annoying parents. The woman you love is the one that you want to see when you are NOT horny.

2) I didn't care much about being married, and many men can do without it.

I don't need the emotional security that women crave, I never wanted the ceremony or the legal commitments that come with matrimony. Personally, I would rather NOT have the state involved in my relatonship. I got married because my wife was a good black woman and she wanted to get married. That's it. If I could have had my way, I would have continued to date her forever, without ever getting married. It's not because I am a dog, but I would have been considered a dog for not marrying the woman I love.

I recall seeing all my friends who were married, bored and miserable. On top of that, they had to answer to someone every single day, take out the trash and deal with some irritable woman on her period, who feels that she can hold sex over their heads. I never wanted to be that guy.

But it was love that made me willing to be that guy. I have been that guy alot, especially when my wife was pregnant. I also support the African American family, so I do what I can to keep us together. But even though I have experienced the ups and downs of marriage, I still don't see what's so great about it.

3) You can't control us with sex.

I have heard women say things like "If you don't do this or that, then I'm not giving you any." Some men may be affected by this kind of thing, but I'm not. If my wife withholds sex, I give her 2 weeks. If she is not having sex with me within two weeks, I find someone else to have sex with. It's not her right to decide if I get to have sex, and she can't use sex as a weapon.

What she doesn't realize is a couple of things. First, men NEED sex. Again, it has nothing to do with love. We need sex the same way that a woman needs to socialize or a good daughter needs to hear from her mother. It's a purely physical urge, like when you have to go to the bathroom, but not bad enough that you're going to burst. The discomfort from the unfulfilled need is just strong enough that you sigh when you are finally relieved.

Second of all, as a black man in my early forties, there are always at least 5 other beautiful black women willing to drop their pants for me in a second. It's just a numbers game, since a black man with a job and all his teeth is considered a good prospect. So, whether she knows it or not, my wife has competition. But then again, maybe I have competition too and don't know it, I accept that. In fact, if she is tempted to cheat, then that supports my argument that we should never have gotten married in the first place. Women ask us to do something that we don't want to do, then get mad because we don't do it right. It reminds me of when my older sisters used to force me to play house with them, and then get angry because I put playdough in the teapot out of boredom.

Because I love my beautiful ebony wife, I am willing to wait for sex. But only two weeks. After that, I get resentful and start to think bout exercising my options. It's at that point that one of my many unmarried ex-girlfriends gets invited to lunch. They are always happy to meet me.

I am not trying to be conceited, but it's the honest to God truth. I hope that the truth is appreciated, but I suspect that some of you reading this might feel more comfortable with the same old lies. Perhaps if I weren't so committed to telling the truth, I could become more comfortable living the big marital lie that exists in America. It's that same lie that makes Internet Pornography the largest industry on the web, with most of the content being purchased by married men.

4) If we want another woman, there usually isn't much else you can do about it.

I truly believe in the theories which state that men are genetically wired to want more than one woman. We don't choose to be that way, we just are. We are also trained to lie about it, since there is nothing that turns a woman off more than saying that you want more than one woman. But get a bunch of guys together and ask them to describe their sexual fantasies (with no women in the room, of course), and most of them would describe something that involved at least 2 or 3 women. I have shared these thoughts with my wife and I find that she is only interested in killing the messenger. So, that throws honesty out the window.

I am not sure if I will continue to cheat, but I know that my male friends do it all the time. I envy the single guys, who can do what they want, with whom they want, and no one calls them a bad person. I share my life, my space, and my time with a woman, deal with her moods and am continuously there for her, yet, if I fulfill one fundamental need that I have as a man, I become a villain.

It just doesn't seem fair.

Outcast from the Black Church - By Donald Smith

2008-01-13T21:29:00.001-05:00

Many of my friends are very religious. No matter what they were doing the night before, you find them in church every Sunday, praising he Lord and asking for forgiveness for whatever God awful thing they did the night before. As long as they go to church and predicate their actions by saying that "Jesus forgives all", they are ok.

But then again, many of my religious friends are good people. But they too can be difficult to deal with, as I continuously confront the Black Church Mafia. The psychological stranglehold that religion has on black people is amazing and overwhelming.

I was born and raised in the church. My brother is a prominent pastor, and my mother was too, before she passed. I went to church with my family every Sunday, even before I knew what it meant to go to church. I didn't know why I was going, I just knew that if I didn't, I would get my butt kicked.

Then, one day I woke up and started asking questions.

I am not gay, I am not a terrible person. I obey the laws, go to school and pay my taxes. I have always treated people kindly and fairly and I don't make enemies easily. I love my neighbor, help old ladies across the street, and give toys to orphans at Christmas.

But none of that matters to my friends, because they all say that I am going to hell.

This is what I go through as a black man who does not go to church regularly and who doesn't buy into what religion is all about. Once a strong believer, I've asked the most basic questions about my Christianity, and the answers have not made any sense. What also does not make sense is that people tell me that in order to find the answers, I have to go ask the people in the church or look inside the bible.

I have a problem with that, and here's why.

1) The bible was written by men. Yeah, they say they were inspired by God, but so does every other man in history who has written a religious book. The book possesses a great deal of wisdom, but is also full of sexism and incredibly tall and ridiculous tales.

2) No one knows what is going to happen when we die. That scares people. The idea that you are going to die and simply not exist anymore is so daunting and scary that you are relieved when someone comes along and says "That's not true, I know EXACTLY what is going to happen when you die!".

So, my question to this person is "Have you died before?"
Answer: No.
Second question: If you have not been dead before, then how do you know what happens when we die?
Answer: Because this book told me what happens.
Third question: Who wrote the book?
Answer: God.
Next question: Is God nearby to confirm that he wrote the book? I didn't know he was an author.
Answer: No. He didn't exactly write it, someone wrote it for him but they were inspired by God.
Next question: Really? Do you have proof of this to show me that this person or people are no different from the fanatics, like the guy in China who led 20 million people by convincing him that he was Jesus' little brother (true story)? I just want to make sure I am getting the real deal and not something fake, so I need some validation here.
Answer: The guy in China was a false profit, but this is real.
Question: Can you confirm that?
Answer: No, it's a matter of faith.
Question: That's all you can say?
Answer: Yes. And if you don't believe what I say, then you are surely going to burn in hell forever.

Gee thanks. So, you present this notion that there is a Big Brother figure, a super hero who protects us from our enemies and counts evey hair on our head. If anything good happens, it was because God did it, not because it just happened. If something bad happens, then of course it was not God's will.

And no religion can hold itself together without a nice series of threats. The bible states that anyone who does not state Jesus Christ to be his Lord and Savior will burn in hell. What a nice way to keep people following you, especially if they aren't sure what the heck is going on in this world we're living in. You've provided them with insurance that says "Well, even if it's not true, maybe you should join the group just in case it is."

Life can be scary, hard and stressful. During those times of stress and weakness, religion makes us feel better. It is comforting to know that there is a big giant who can make your boss pay for firing you, help you pay that bill you can't quite make, or heal that illness that the doctors can't find. That is why religion is so popular. I studied psychology in school and while my religious friends think that all this education has made me into a non-believer, I prefer not to be ignorant. Psychology is the driving force behind religion, which is why some people are addicted to church like a drug and go into such a frenzied state during prayer. It makes you feel like your problems are going away.

I know because I've been there. What we think is the Holy Ghost is really the chemicals flowing through our brains providing a soothing effect that induces us to do more of what we were already doing. When we get weak, we just go back for more of the drug.

Of course I can't say this to my friends, but I don't care. I've got to be honest. It doesn't mean that I am right. It means that my theory is just as good as theirs, even if I don't have a book written by God to prove it. I am not arrogant enough to make such a claim.

As a result of being a black man who is willing to at least consider the possibly that black folk's heavy religious commitment might be superstition, I get the following:

1) Few black women will consider marrying me, since I am not "equally yolked" (I guess I would be a bad egg). They would rather marry some lying, cheating, arrogant pastor than to marry a good man who simply asks the hard questions and doesn't accept any old idea that everyone else is following.

2) All of my friends and family are constantly trying to convert or save me. Although I live a normal and good life, they consider me a lost sheep because I do not find the higher power through the conventional channels. I tell them that if God wants to find me, he will find me. After all, he is God, right? And your counter argument that God is finding me by sending you to talk to me makes me want to tell you to leave. You are not God's vehicle, unless you can show me a license and registration.

3) Everyone considers something to be wrong with me, when I simply judge people by the content of their character. I am not a bad person, and no one is going to convince me otherwise. Also, those who feel that every Muslim or Budhist in the world is going to hell and that God is only going to save the Christians needs to realize just how arrogant that actually sounds.

4) Whenever I pose simple questions or alternative theories, they are not taken seriously. I am told to seek my answers from people and sources that are already biased in their perspective. I am also attacked for having no faith and being a non-believer. The idea of open thought and ideas is only accepted if you accept the answers provided to you by the church. In other words, it's an open court, as long as the defendant is found guilty at the end.

I really get sick of it, but it doesn't matter. People are going to continue to believe, continue to ostracize those who do not believe, and that is the way the world will continue to work.

Man is afraid and religion makes him feel safe. So, that is why it will always have power.

Hillary Clinton and Her Entitlement Mentality

2008-01-08T13:22:00.000-05:00

by Sheri Mitchell - YourBlackWorld.com

I listen to the news every morning before I leave for work. Listening to the doom and gloom and the occasional happy story seems to energize me for the day ahead. The last few mornings I have been surprised by Senator Clinton's statements about herself and her opponents. I live in Central NY, and we are used to her haughty, uppity disposition, and the "I will run my campaign the way I see fit" attitude from the steely calculating ice queen who cries for votes.

But we also wait for Bill to come and visit us every year at the New York State Fair and have his Gianelli at the Dinosaur BBQ stand and be the rock star he is. Oh yeah and if he has to, he can bring his wife. It just wasn't as exciting last year when she came alone, while Bill was with Oprah. I love Bill, I tolerate Hillary. I don't think I am alone here. But despite her lack of charisma she is smart and very strong and I would think that she would think before she opened her mouth. But maybe because she is trailing in the polls, her frustration over not being the favorite is coming out and showing her entitlement mentality.

Yesterday I was reading some clips from Senator Clinton's latest speech and in the speech, she was talking about change. Clinton mentioned that having a woman president would definitely be change. Well yes it would Hill, but it would also be a big change having an African American of any gender in the White House considering the legacy of institutionalized racism in our country. Hon, you aren't the only one with the potential to make history here so simma down. I am both Black and a woman and I know I have had more issues in my life because of the color of my skin than I have because I have a uterus. It would be nice to think that she considers herself the only woman up against all these men. Instead it appears to be her against the guys and the Black one over there. Does she think that because she is a woman she should get some extra points? Once she gets a personality, I will give her some points.

In her interview with Diane Sawyer this morning, Senator Clinton said that Obama and Edwards have gotten a "free ride", in the campaign arena. She said she doesn't mind taking all the scrutiny. Oh really? Hillary, she who is running on the popularity of her husband? She who no one would know if she hadn't been the First Lady? She who would not be where she is if it weren't for some of us that might have voted for her because we liked her husband? If anyone is getting a free ride it is her clinging with both hands to her husband's coat tails.

John Edwards is running while his wife is fighting to stay alive. Barack Obama is Black, he has a Muslim name, and he doesn't have a lot of experience. In addition, The Clinton campaign has tried to discredit him at every turn. Does she want to talk scrutiny? Edwards is being criticized for running while his wife is dealing with breast cancer, and Obama has has been hammered about everything in his life from drug use to religion, most of this coming from the Clinton campaign machine. Let's top it off with some nut job threatening Obama's children! Doesn't sound like much of a free ride to me.

Sounds like Hillary is doing her classic lashing out because she thought she was entitled to walk into the White House again unimpeded. Hillary: newsflash....you are not entitled to be our next president simply because you slept with Bill. If that were the case we might have a couple more Presidential hopefuls out there somewhere that have yet to come forward!

Do me a favor Hillary: why don't you stop bashing your competitors and tell us in detail about some of those changes you have made in the last 35 years? I really can't think of any, even though I live in your state. Maybe she is talking about her hair color or her clothes. Give me substance and not barbs. At the NY State Fair just stay home, but please send your husband. He's kinda cute for a chubby good ole boy. I'll buy him a Wine Slushie.

Women are Forgotten in Black Leadership: Mary Alice Miller

2008-01-04T12:09:00.000-05:00

Many Black "leaders" decry the lack of massive support when calls go out for community action. They wonder why outrage is not spontaneous and ubiquitous. Black leaders actually vocalize their wonder when the masses go about their business as if nothing is going on.

What most Black leaders miss are these facts: the leaders are Black men, the issues revolve around Black males, those expected to engage in community action are Black women, and issues related to the well-being of Black women and children are ignored.
Under normal circumstances, male leadership stands for the well-being of the entire community- men, women and children. In the Black community, male leadership are generally concerned only with themselves, and other males. The well-being of women and children, in the community and the home, do not seem to be of paramount concern. The low rates of stable marriages among Blacks, and the doubling of Black children in single-parent families (from 35% in the 1960's to 70% at the beginning of the 21st century) are two examples of the absence of "operational unity" in the Black community.

During the Civil Rights Movement, with Black men in leadership roles, Black women and children were the backbone. Rosa Parks' courageous defiance was the spark of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Black children were at the center of integrating Little Rock High School. Black male leadership strategically used Black children as fodder for water cannons, dogs and filling jail cells during Civil Rights marches. What did Black women and children get for their efforts? Dismissed.

Years of sustained action culminated with the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act in 1965. The March on Washington was organized by A. Phillip Randolph (international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters), Whitney Young (president of the National Urban League), Roy Wilkins (president of the NAACP), James Farmer (president of the Congress of Racial Equality), John Lewis (president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) and Bayard Rustin (organizer of the first Freedom Rides).

Black women played the central role in a wide variety of Civil Rights organizations and actions, including Daisy Bates (president of Little Rock NAACP who recruited the Little Rock 9), Pauli Murray (lawyer and feminist who had staged the first sit-in at a Washington restaurant during World War II), Dorothy Height (president of the National Council of Negro Women), Diane Nash (student leader and organizer of the Freedom Riders in the South), Jo Ann Robinson (college teacher who worked with a group of middle-class Black women to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott), Ella Baker (acting director of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, advisor for Black college students who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and Rosa Parks (long time activist and catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott). Despite the sacrifices of these and other Black women, the organizers of the March on Washington refused to let even one Black woman speak.

Black women thought the Civil Rights Movement included our well-being, in spite of Black men marching with large placards tied to their torsos declaring in huge black lettering, "I AM A MAN." Black women thought we were included when we got arrested at protest marches side by side with Black men. It was our children who were strategically used as human targets for water hoses. But when Stokely Carmichael (who appropriated the term "Black Power_" from Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.) was asked the role of the Black woman in the movement, he slipped up and honestly (from his point of view) retorted, "On her back."

Popular culture was sometimes not much better. A classic Parliament Funkadelic line: "Stupid Jill forgot her pill, and now they have a son," as if Jack, who had no concern for the well-being of Jill or his son, was not responsible for the situation he created. Blaxploitation movies glorified "pimpin" and being a "playa" at the expense of Black women, nurtured children and stable families. Gangsta rap is no better when it tells the world Black women ain't nothin' but hos, not wives.
Last season's Survivor: Cook Island graphically illustrated how casually Black female opinion is dismissed. The 16 participants were divided into 4 teams- Black, white, Asian and Latino. The Black team members, Sekou, Nathan, Sephanie and Sundra were asked to make a decision. Without thinking, Sekou grabbed Nathan's shoulder, stepped forward and conferred for a decision. Left out of the team process, Stephanie and Sundra looked at Sekou like he was stupid. Later, it was no surprise that Sekou was voted out. Sekou's analysis of the vote was that the team made a mistake by voting him, their leader, out. It never occurred to Sekou that a true leader takes into account the gifts and opinions all team members bring, including Black women.

In spite of this and other increasingly public and private indignities, our love for Black men has kept hope alive.

For decades, Black women have been the backbone of community action. Interestingly, when many of these same women (who are members of any number of community groups) ask for development of community action around issues related to the well-being of Black women and children, they are told they are being "divisive". Many Black women, not wanting to be "divisive", have dropped their inquiries and calls for action. This has been going on for years.

Who are really the "divisive" ones? When Black male leadership chooses "Black issues", why are they (with few exceptions) limited to support for Black male challenges with the criminal justice system? Could it be that addressing the well-being of Black women and children would require Black men to look at and amend their selfish male privilege instead of myopically focusing on white racism? The greatest risk to the well-being of Black women and children is not racism or police brutality. The greatest risk to the well-being of Black women and children is the behavior and attitudes of Black men. Consider, for example, the large numbers of Black children on welfare and the family and community instability attendant with Black women begging for food stamps to feed Black men's children as if it is a glamorous lifestyle. Why has no Black male leader called for a rally at the welfare center demanding that Black men get their children off welfare? Why has no Black male leader held a march in support of children who feel threatened when they are sexually harassed while walking to school?

There are a few glimmers of hope. Tamika Mallory has led the National Action Network's Decency Initiative in challenging denigrating lyrics in Hip-Hop. Girls For Gender Equity, under the leadership of JoAnn Smith, gives young teens tools to deal with street sexual harassment. Kevin Powell has been hosting monthly men's meetings after his successful Black and Male in America conference. Byron Hurt produced Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a documentary look at misogyny in popular Black music. Taharka Robinson recently organized a march against domestic violence.

In the meantime, Black women need to speak up, even at the risk of being called "divisive" by "divisive" male leadership. The survival of the Black community is at stake.