Friday, September 30, 2011

Black Leadership, Engagement and Troy Davis: Too Damn Late

I had intended to write a beautiful theological reflection about the life of Troy Anthony Davis and how his blood was an atoning sacrifice for racism and the institutions it controls.  But like one of my students said, "It's Too Damn Late."

He's right!  This blog should have been written last week.  Scratch that, this blog post should have been written months, even years ago!  But I got stuff to do!  I had to help get a vigil together for Brother Troy...I had to help prepare for a leadership call-to-action with students.  I had to go sing in the choir at the church.  I had to go find some new clothes.  I had to talk on the phone with friends.

There were so many things that got in the way of blogging about Brother Davis.  I finally just gave up my blogging attempts...and just tried to react to all the things on my plate.  The operative word is "react."

I think I'm just like all the other black folk out there...that life is sooooo busy, the only thing I can do is react.  Or maybe, it's the only way I know how to do things because of the way I have seen in it done by Black Folk who lead.

Even where I am, I watched students learn about the saddening reality of Troy Davis late in the game, or find out about him posthumously.  This is a problem!  But the real problem is that we just waited (in ignorance).

We waited on national media to call injustice to issues that effect black and brown folk mostly.  We waited for national leaders to say something...and some of them did, but we are not involved in those organizations.  We waited for friends, church members, and family members to begin discussions about the prison industrial complex, racism, and the death penalty.

We waited until a man was dead!  Lord, have mercy on us!  The vision of the biblical Mary, The vision found in Habakkuk, and the vision that Joseph possessed were all preemptive.  If Black people are ever to have the kind of world they need, we must begin to be preemptive.  We must have vision and foresight, and not be lulled asleep by the normative narrative that others will fight on our behalf, and take care of us.  We must do more than pray for leaders...we must engage leadership.

We must speak up earlier, know more than what is handed to us, read more than what we usually do, think about more than what is on our mind, create more than we usually create, and fix ALL that is broken.  As one of my professors at Clark Atlanta University used to say (Dr. Mack Jones), "we must not be resigned to a chorus of Hosannas about how far we have come, when we have much more to do."  That thought sticks with me in this historical moment when we pull out candles, sing songs, and say Troy will never be forgotten.

After working on a student leadership event, and a vigil for Troy Davis, I'm beginning to think that my student (et al.) was right.  We are too Damn late!  Not just for Brother Davis...but for all things that REQUIRE our attention.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

VIP Status...with Absolutely No Importance

So, I'm not going to lie...I've been to the club before and noticed the line that gets you in faster than the "minions" standing in the regular people line.   And, all people want to be in that line because you get better service, and it seems like you are getting somewhere faster than the Mr. and Miss Average (Ku)Joe.  Some people with a lack of importance pay their way to get into these lines.  Others are entourage for the real star(s).  And yet, other folk fake it until they get exposed or slip in.

I'm beginning to think that the same is true of black leadership. Everywhere I look, somebody is trying to be president, senator, representative, pastor or chair of something.  That's cool, but could you do something meaningful with the space and time you occupy.  What I know about leadership and what I know about this historical moment is that we are living in a very critical and complicated time. Thus, our leaders must be more than empty suits with the right credentials, lacking substantive thought.

My honest impression is that most of the leaders I've been witnessing in close proximity want power and prominence for no other reason than to say that they have made it.  But I am reminded of Alexs Pate's thoughtful remark in regards to black success: "what are you 'making it' to?"  What is the purpose of position if you have no full understanding of how to use it fully to create change for those who have elected (or acquiesced) to follow your leadership?  Why be in charge if you have nothing of importance to offer? 

Worse yet, are those people who look the part but have real skill deficits. And, people who lead with skill deficits, ultimately have to be managed from the bottom up. Trust me it is a tiring thing to manage the manager/pastor/boss/president.  It's actually annoying as hell!  Further, no one benefits from people who can't do the job! 

So I started with the club, but let me move to the church for just a second.  God understood that Saul...looked the part, but was ultimately a disappointment...and could not lead God's people.  Thus, enter David.  Samuel on behalf of God had to SEARCH for David.  In fact, David wasn't even present at the initial meeting when God sent Samuel to find a new king...but David was found!  Paradoxically, I think we might be Saul selectors, needing Davids.  We choose people to lead us who externally fit the bill, but whom competency has never met.  It would behoove us to reflect thoughtfully before putting another "no-account negro or negress" in charge of our organizations, churches, groups, businesses, etc.

Plus, most of them don't want to lead!  They want the status that leading brings them.  They want VIP status without having any important agenda items, no important goals/visions, no important speeches, no important skill set...just no important anything.  I am convinced that we are a people being led by celebrities that lack relevance.

The challenge for us as a community is to begin to discern whether we have let people slip into the VIP line...and so we are dealing with fakes. Maybe we are listening to the entourage...thus taking direction from groupies. Or, we might be listening to people who have paid their way into the VIP line...thus, allowing money to set the agenda, rather than merit/preparation/capability.  In any case, we all need to know that fakers, groupies, and opportunists aren't the real thing...no matter how much they masquerade in VIP space.

When you and I are able to recognize these folk from the real stars, we might actually find out that the real folk are standing in the line with us because real leaders (who follow Jesus' model) don't need to be in the VIP line to be important.  The work that they do speaks for itself!

Could the real leaders please take your place!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

It's Hard To Watch Black Unity Die..

I admit that the world is extremely complicated...and yes it may be extremely challenging to the un-savvy brother or sister...but I am honestly worried about black folk.  Recently, I've been watching a group of peers struggle to make sense of institutional racism that is ultimately being perpetrated by black hands.  While it is clear that the major players stand to benefit, the peers only seem to feel ultimately connected to and reverent for the very folk who are seeking to thwart their opportunities at best.

It is a sad sight but I hear Thurgood Marshall's musing in my head as he offered a considerable thought about the unfathomable Clarence Thomas, the then nominee for the Supreme Court.  Brother Marshall offered, "A black snake and a white snake will bite you just the same."  This shining insight is very true in this age where black people seem to be pitted against each other.

Conservatives seem to have more and more "tokens" to pull out of their coin purse...and so do liberals...and everyone else in between.  Everyone except Black people who believe collective causes and collective identities seem to have a bunch of "change" shaking in their pockets.  What it means is that there are quite a few smoke and mirrors keeping all of us from seeing what I might aptly call the "light."

In this day and age, so called black opinions are so diverse that we all become very careful about expounding about what "all black folk" should galvanize around.  But, the reality is that there are a plethora of challenges for our viewing pleasure.  There are issues that we must address particularly as a community of folk who typically collectively end up with the raw deal.

I know, I know...your family is totally fine.  Your friends are totally doing well.  But, I don't know when our exceptional personal experience ever became the collective experience of Black folk.  I think if some of us took a different route to work than we would find that all of us don't live in suburbia or uptownia or loftia...and don't commute into work with Green Tea or Latte in hand.

In fact, I believe that its this kind of exceptionalism that is killing black unity one shot at a time.  I don't know if it's the black quasi-bourgeois who are stabbing it in the back with this "I got mine, you get yours mentality", or the preachers who are shooting it with this anti-black Christian rhetoric, or  black organizational leadership strangling it with this kleptocratic mentality, or maybe its media and black intellectuals poisoning it with poor thoughts of what blackness could be.

If there is ever a need to be black, and to be mobilize around cultural values...I believe the time is now.  Because, we live in a critical time where the stakes are high and the expectations for leadership are too low.  I'm hoping we can take black unity's wounded body to a hospital, apply salve, bandage it up, and then nurse it back to health.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Antoine Dodson Song: Now Run and Tell That

   By now, you’ve heard the song that is in the top twenty  on iTunes or seen the video on YouTube which features Antoine Dodson—an upset effeminate brother voicing his anger at the attempted rape of his sister.  The song has become so popular that even the lauded NC A&T marching band has arranged and is now performing a version of it.
  While I’m sure that we have all shared quite a few laughs as we listened to the parody of the on air interview at WAFF 48 in northern Alabama, there are sad truths festering beneath the humorous video, primarily produced by white hands.
  Haven’t we seen this before? Black people splashed across the television exploited for embodying plantation stereotypes, doo-rag or handkerchief atop their heads.  Abrasive and angry, their thoughts easily dismissed…dismantled because of a perceived lack of sophistication or education.
  Isn’t this a mediated message...one that many people of African descent are trying hard to run away from? Black folk have seen this image all too often as the singular image in news reporting.  Too, aren’t the deplorable conditions of the “ghetto” real?  Isn’t that what Antoine Dodson is saying...that the dispossessed don’t have the same access to goods and systems as the “bright and the beautiful,” even in the famed Obama era. Dodson’s commentary hearkens back to Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke,” in the sense that it reminds us that the poor are still forgotten. However, this time we are rolling in the aisles, rather than paying attention to Dodson’s message.