Commentary
by Deoliver 47, Black Kos Editor
They say one picture is worth a thousand words:
I don't normally re-post something I have already had to say, and I said some of this in an individual diary Sunday, in response to two private conversations I had recently with members of the Daily Kos community. That diary was called Coalition Building:101. Those conversations were about the perceived frictions between the "black people" here at Daily Kos,(meaning Black Kos, as if we are exclusively black and male and straight) and the GLBTQ community and the feminist community.
My response to those private conversations was to talk about coalitions. What they are and how you build them, rather than to address anyone specifically or go meta.
I promised I would repost what I had to say here today, but I want to preface my statement with this - Black Kos is probably the most diverse regular community diary series here at Daily Kos, in terms of its ethnic gender and class demographics. We are an example of what a coalition looks like.
We are women. We are men. We are black, white, brown, yellow and red.
We are straight, we are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender. We are spiritual, we are religious, we are theist, anti-theist and agnostic; Christians, Jews, Buddhist, Muslim, African Traditional, Hindu and Pagans (if I left you out please add on). We are young, middle-aged and elders. We represent all social classes and walks of life. We come to this community to learn, to share, and to support one another. To do so in an atmosphere of R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
The picture above is important to me for many reasons. It represents a coalition we haven't seen since 1963. The African-American community was the foundation block of that coalition, just as we are the most solid, reliable, voting block in today's Democratic Party. Since the time of that coalition, many other movements have sprung up, but few, if any are truly representative of the cross-section who marched together on that historic day. The election of President Barack Obama was not a coalition - it was a vote. Yes, we won, as Democrats. But the work of coalition building does not take place in voting booths. It takes place people to people.
We have a lot of work to do.
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Coalition Building: 101 (reprise)
This picture is what coalition building looks like.
Many folks here have a favorite "issue". We are vocal defenders of that issue, and the issue of the week, month year, tends to take precedence over all else that is going on in the world. Many people have expressed opinions about what the POTUS has or has not done for our/their "issue".
I don’t usually get involved in those debates, simply because I live by my sig, which is a quote from veteran civil rights activist, feminist, ethnomusicologist and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock;
"If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition", Bernice Johnson Reagon.
Why do I have a picture from the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that took place in 1963?
Forget about MLK’s historic, "I have a Dream Speech" – that was simply icing on the cake.
What was key about that march was the coalition that was forged, between the organizers behind the event, and those who showed up to march.
Marching together there were: black people, white people, latino people, asian people, native american people, straight people, gay people, religious people, atheist people, young people, old people, union people, unemployed people, democrats, republicans, independents, socialists and communists – in other words – people from every walk of life who attended. In solidarity with an idea about "Civil Rights". It was not a demonstration for or against a President. It was a demonstration of "people power".
Let us expand the concept of that gathering – to "Human Rights".
There are few issues that don’t fall under that heading:
Anti-racism
Civil rights
The War(s)
The Environment and Global Climate Change
Women’s Issues and Reproductive Justice
GLBTQ Issues
Health Care
AIDS
Immigration and undocumented workers
The Criminal Injustice system
The Economy
Union and Labor Issues
Jobs
Religion versus Secularism
Did I forget yours? Add it in.
Perhaps it is time for us all to go back to school and remember the basics of coalition building.
You want "change"? You voted for "change"? Well, put your boots on and get ready to put your feet where your fingers are. Steada’ talking and ranting and infighting, and dancing to a "one note samba", it’s time to examine what you can come together around.
Life is too short to waste this important juncture in our history. We came together and got a Democrat back in the White House. Now we have a Congress to "move". We have a media that reports tea bagger rallies, and Sarah Palin book sightings (signings) as if they were bigger than the March on Washington. Bullshit I know – but it works. Time to put the lie to the liars – and shove it in their faces.
I am not suggesting a health care march, or a GLBTQ rights march, or a peace march, or an anti-Stupak or a Save the Environment march.
I am suggesting a 10 million person march. On Washington.
Yeah – you read that number right. Why not? Over a million people went to DC for President Obama's inauguration. If each of those folks got 10 friends to join in – 10 million is a piece of pie.
Can DC hold us all? Nope. Let the lines spill over into Arlington or Prince Georges County. Let there be a sea of blue filling the streets. A true rainbow coalition. Of all of us who believe in and have fought for "change". But first, we need to put aside squabbles, put aside the "my issue trumps your issue", or "my oppression is deeper and more lasting than yours". Save that for another day.
Find common ground, and Seize the Time (to quote Bobby Seale).
We are the change we have been waiting for. Keep it real simple.
Americans who voted for change. No other agenda.
Can it happen? Yes. No one believed that Bayard Rustin, and a few other stalwart civil rights activists could pull off the March on Washington. The naysayers – black, white, left and center stood on the sidelines and criticized. The people ignored the peanut gallery, put their boots on, got into buses, boarded trains and planes or just walked – to get to DC.
There was no major funding. No corporate support. No lobbyists paying for signage. No blogosphere.
A little history of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom:
Far larger than previous demonstrations for any cause, the march had an obvious impact, both on the passage of civil rights legislation and on nationwide public opinion. It proved the power of mass appeal and inspired imitators in the antiwar, feminist, and environmental movements. But the March on Washington in 1963 was more complex than the iconic images most Americans remember it for. As the high point of the Civil Rights Movement, the march — and the integrationist, nonviolent, liberal form of protest it stood for — was followed by more radical, militant, and race-conscious approaches. The march was initiated by A. Philip Randolph, international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO; and sponsored by five of the largest civil rights organizations in the United States. Planning for the event was complicated by differences among members. Known in the press as "the big six," the major players were Randolph; Whitney Young, President of the National Urban League (NUL); Roy Wilkins, President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); James Farmer, President of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); John Lewis, President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and Martin Luther King Jr. founder and President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Bayard Rustin, a close associate of Randolph's and organizer of the first Freedom Ride in 1947, orchestrated and administered the details of the march.
You may not know who any of the above known players or heavy-hitters were. I knew, or met them all.
A lot of names are missing from CORE's version of the history, notably Ella Baker’s, but no matter. Those who know, know that Sister Ella was right in there with Bayard, organizing. She never needed the spotlight.
Suggest that if you haven't read this book that you do.
Learn something from someone who knew about coalition building, and staying out of the spotlight. Strength coupled with humility.
Mrs. Baker said:
"One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going."
She said, "Strong people don't need strong leaders."
But most importantly she said, "In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you can change that system. That is easier said than done."
One of the key factors in changing that system is building strong coalitions.
I belonged at one point in time to many of groups "led" by some of those folk mentioned who were the named "leaders" of the March. Believe me – they weren’t bosom buddies. But that was put to the side, and all in-fighting was suspended for another day, in order to build the coalition needed to pull it off.
While Randolph (and the National Urban League's Young) focused on jobs, the other groups centered on freedom. Both SNCC and CORE were organizing nonviolent protests against Jim Crow segregation and discrimination. In 1963 King's SCLC was waging a long campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. The violence Sheriff Bull Connor and his men visited upon peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham brought national attention to the issue of civil rights. As Rustin later said, credit for mobilizing the March on Washington could go to "Bull Connor, his police dogs, and his fire hoses."
Operating out of a tiny office in Harlem, Rustin and his staff had only two months to plan a massive mobilization. Money was raised by the sale of buttons for the march at 25 cents apiece, and thousands of people sent in small cash contributions. The staff tackled the difficult logistics of transportation, publicity, and the marchers' health and safety. Attention to detail was crucial, for the planners believed that anything other than a peaceful, well-organized demonstration would damage the cause for which they would march.
We walked arm in arm – brothers and sisters united in the belief that our cause was just, and we were going to show the world what we believed.
We did.
Can you?
That means that you who may be an anti-theist will have to lock arms and walk arm in arm with a Maryknoll Nun. That means that you who are a criminal justice reform advocate may be walking alongside a policeman/woman in uniform or a judge. Landlords and tenants, doctors, lawyers and Native American chiefs. United.
I think you get my drift.
There have been other marches – I’ve been to many of them, I still have buttons from the Poor People’s Campaign, anti-Vietnam War rallies, Ban the Bomb...Free the "__" (name a group), Don’t buy scab grapes.... The ERA... The Million Man March...a host of issues.
We rant and kvetch about coverage given to teabaggers and birthers. We tear up the blogosphere with our pungent rhetoric. We get out and demonstrate for "our" issue, and give others short shrift. We put too much focus on Barack Obama and not on what we are doing to effect change in how we build strong, diverse, mass organizations.
That needs to stop, or at least be suspended till we can show the nation, ourselves and the world what we demand. Time to demonstrate that we meant what we pulled the levers for.
March for Human Rights and Change?
Yes We Can.
I close with some music that should resonate with us all.
Ella's song, for Ella Baker, Lyrics and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock, which quotes Ella Baker's well known saying "we who believe in freedom cannot rest".
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News and Events by Amazing Grace, Black Kos Editor
The Blind Side Is An Obvious Appeal To White Guilt
By Christopher Chambers
Internet Movie Database sources report that Warner Brothers is spending over six million dollars to promote its new film The Blind Side. That’s twice the production budget of the controversial movie Precious. Toss that figure in with the myriad of contrasts between the two movies and the only apparent similarities become (1) two overweight African-American teens, one male, one female, and (2) both abused by magnified pathologies within the black community. Of course the subject of The Blind Side, Baltimore Ravens rookie offensive tackle Michael Oher, is real. But he’s not the star of the movie adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book. Warner Brothers is pushing the film as an "Oscar vehicle" for star Sandra Bullock, who plays Oher’s Southern steel magnolia of an adoptive mom. This hints at the root of the debate of the film even before it opens: as "feel good" and family driven as The Blind Side is promoted, it might just be the flip-side of Precious.
Disney draws its first African-American princess
Over the past 70 years, Disney has given the world eight princesses.
Snow White was the first - and this week, Disney's latest film, The Princess And The Frog, opens in New York and Los Angeles, bringing us the ninth.
But this princess is different from those who went before.
Her name is Tiana and, for the first time in Disney's history of animation, she is African-American.
Sesame Street Got It Right on Race
As a child, I was drawn to Cookie Monster's manic love for baked goods, but my most vivid recollection of Sesame Street is Gordon. I can't remember when I first saw him, whether he was having one of his chats with Oscar about O’s grouchy outlook on life or whether he joined in a song urging us to do something good for ourselves, but I do recall his presence: warm, joyful, thoughtful and firm. Not a caricature or stereotype of a Black man, Gordon represents Sesame Street's greatest value for me as a father—a world where people of color are celebrated without being tokenized, satirized or exaggerated.
Books of The Times:Power and Style, in the Ring and the World
In the late 1930s, when he was still an amateur fighter, Sugar Ray Robinson began lugging an old Victrola record player around with him on the road. He’d bring a stack of records too, the good stuff: some Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington and Fats Waller.
He’d warm up to these soul-filling sounds and then burst into the ring, Wil Haygood writes in "Sweet Thunder," his excellent new biography of Robinson, "guided by the jazz in his head and the beckoning lights."
From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History
On that supercharged day in 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., she rode her way into history books, credited with helping to ignite the civil rights movement.
But there was another woman, named Claudette Colvin, who refused to be treated like a substandard citizen on one of those Montgomery buses — and she did it nine months before Mrs. Parks. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his political debut fighting her arrest. Moreover, she was the star witness in the legal case that eventually forced bus desegregation.
Debbie Allen's Middle Eastern adventure
"OMAN ... O Man!," pronounced "Oman oh man," is a show created by Debbie Allen to dispel the myths of Middle Eastern culture told through the eyes of two 12- year-old boys -- one Omani Muslim and one American Christian who meet at a military academy. The play was commissioned by the Kennedy Center in conjunction with their Arabesque festival to celebrate Arab culture.
To choreograph the play, Allen took 12 young students from the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, California, to Oman to meet with the country's Sultan Qaboos.' They also met with Omani dancers and dignitaries.
Four African Americans Given Prestigious Rhodes Scholarship
For the second year since 1994, four African-American undergraduates have won Rhodes Scholarships, which carry with them the privilege of studying at Oxford, England’s oldest and most venerated university.
Named for the South African mining magnate, Cecil John Rhodes, the scholarships, worth about $50,000 each for two years, have been prominent passports to gateways of power, privilege and prestige since they were created in 1903.
Two of the four blacks are men, and two are women. They are Andre McCall from Truman State University, Ugwechi Amadi, an MIT senior, and two Harvard College undergraduates, Darryl Finkton and Jean Junior.
Curtis Flowers faces 6th trial for the same crime
Curtis Flowers, a 39-year-old African-American is to stand trial for an unprecedented sixth time for the murder of four people in Mississippi in 1996. So far, two of his trials have resulted in mistrials and three in convictions that were later overturned.
James Bibbs, also an African-American, was a juror in Mr Flowers's 2008 trial, which ended in a mistrial. He was the only one of the 12 to vote against a conviction.
Reddy Case: 10 Years On, Violence Against Women of Color Continues
Violence against women of color is often reported out of context. The deeper social and economic injustices at work are overlooked. Today, a coalition including (partial list) Narika, ASATA (Alliance of South Asians Taking Action), South Asian Sisters, Asian Women’s Shelter, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Maitri, and California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, will mark the 10th anniversary of the Lakireddy Bali Reddy sex and labor exploitation case with a vigil and press conference in Berkeley.
Lakireddy Bali Reddy is a wealthy South Asian businessman who owned more than fifty percent of the rental housing in Berkeley and the popular Pasand restaurant chain, second only to the University of California in Berkeley property holdings; he is still the largest owner of rental properties in Berkeley.
After one of the victims of his sex and labor exploitation activity turned up dead in late November 1999, his criminal endeavors were brought to light.
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Today is World AIDS Day.
Let us not forget SILENCE = DEATH
Alicia Keyes will be holding a free you tube concert this evening:
"One Night, One Voice, One Life at a Time" will air live from the Nokia Theater in New York City on Tuesday, December 1 at 8 p.m. EST.
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The front porch is now open. We've got some leftover's from Thanksgiving, and fresh cornbread. Grab a plate and a seat.