Vision Circle

Nader & Permanent Interests

Folks should take note that Ralph Nader doesn't go away.

Now that he has officially tossed his hat into the ring of presidential politics, once again, he gets an opportunity to speak out on a national plaform to remind us of what he thinks in the long off-season.

Public Citizen, his years old organization is the author of some pretty decent white papers. I've referenced them on occasion in the past for issues like redlining. In the din of spin, Nader comes off as an anti-corporate crank (which isn't altogether untrue), and a spoiler for the Democrats (which is true, but not this year). But that doesn't change the fact that he has experience as a grass-roots organizer and is much more likely to have a firm grip on issues and policy than most of the front-runners. The problem is, of course, people don't vote for their permanent interests because their permanent interests aren't interesting to the press and the parties during the long off-season.

The Democrats are sounding like spoiled children. They are supposed to own the anti-corporate activism. They don't of course, but they want to appear to have a monopoly. Which only goes to highlight how foolish it is that a) we don't have a real third party and b) that there isn't much business between elections in the grass roots wonk department.

Black politics, however is more attuned to grass roots wonking. Or at least it ought to be considering how overwhelmed it is with its signature preoccupations: racism, civil rights and police brutality. Understanding that Nader is never going to win, just as Sharpton is never going to win reminds us that while the spotlight is always going to shine during presidential elections, it's what happens in the dark that matters. This is why Sharpton lasted longer than Mosely-Braun. Nobody knows what the ex-senator stands for when she's not running for office. Sharpton, on the other hand, can command attention at will.

The recent flap over Sharpton's back office staff being populated by Republicans illustrates how important it is to have something going on when elections are not happening. That means money.

This is something Nader evidently can do, can we?

Thinking about black markets

I've been trying to wrap my thoughts around the idea that politics is marketing by other means. Around a paradigm in which we don't elect representatives so much as hire them (Bush as CEO). I can't roll with it for a number of substantive reasons, but at the same time there is something very appealing in moving the focus of black politics towards market oriented activity. My father says over and over again that if black people want to build economic power there is tons of money to be made in black spaces like Detroit. As these communities are largely underserved, this strategy makes a great deal of sense, and has single handedly propelled Magic from a million dollar man to a 700 million dollar man.

One of the benefits here is that such a strategy only requires "black consciousness" to the degree that the individuals are actually AWARE of black people. Understand the difference?

And this model is easily portable. I know both Covington and Sudarkasa from my years at Michigan. When Cobb is talking about the new black critical mass, these are the folk he's talking about.

Dutton Speaks

Dutton directed Against the Ropes, the movie starring Meg Ryan. Ryan plays a boxing manager, and her character is loosely based on James Toney's old manager Jackie Kallen. I've got a lot of respect for Dutton, not only because he's so serious about his craft, but because of what he was able to do with Roc and the half-hour sitcom format. His work there places him in rare company...Bill Cosby, Debbie Allen, and Tim Reid are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head who've been able to instill a great deal of humanity and pathos into a half-hour meant to make people laugh.

Focus & Expectations

(From a recent online interview, I talk about my current focus and expectations).

I'm trying to see my way through to the critical mass of upper-middle class and rich blackfolks doing something. I'm not sure what it will be, but I believe it will be tremendous. I recall the adjudication of the Taxman case in New Jersey. I seem to recall that some wealthy unnamed black individuals raised a small fortune and settled this Affirmative Action case out of court. This among other things alerted me to certain possibilities. Since I've done the Silicon Valley thing and proved myself capable of doing business way above the merchant level, I'm doing what I can to make a small fortune myself. I think that as black businessmen such as myself become more numerous and visible we will see a real change in American politics. The way I see it, there are millions of African Americans sitting on the fence because nobody is really in tune with what their lives are like, yet they bear the brunt of an interesting type of backhanded regard. It's the suburban middle-class black kid who everybody likes to say should never in a million years get Affirmative Action. All of those kids are in their 20s, 30s and 40s now. There is no name for them that anyone in the popular press can toss around, but I think I know who they are and I think I know their political pulse. Black new money and black old money are going to do something. I'd like to be in the middle of that.

Contracts, Discrimination, and a little Basic Math

OK. A group of black contractors in Albany, Ga. are threatening to sue because they feel they've been locked out of contracts. Here's the original story. Jim's thinking the issue a bit overblown, and truly hopes that Jackson doesn't come rolling in to save the day. Dean chimes in by noting that when given a choice between reason and politics...folks will choose politics most of the time. Math makes people's head hurt. And of course, people chiming in on both sites are arguing that what black folks really want are guarenteed contracts, regardless of whether the bid is the lowest.

I'm thinking some context is in order.

Rethinking Slavery and Black Politics

I've written a number of entries at this point about black politics, particularly about outmoded conceptions of black leadership. A brother I play ball with (thanks Brian!) dropped Steve Hahn's work A Nation Under Our Feet on me. I haven't picked it up yet but I will soon.

Its basic argument is that even as they were beset upon by mass technologies of terror, enslaved African Americans fought for and sometimes won political victories. These victories were often short-lived, and were gained at the expense of flesh, bone, and blood, but they were victories nonetheless. Furthermore they were won not by porkchop reverends, or charismatic speakers, but by black men and women who met with purpose, in secret.

A couple of times this past week I've been called a conservative by my boys largely because of my critiques against Tavis Smiley's recent tour, and Al Sharpton. And you know what? On this they aren't wrong. I take a very old school position on the ability of black people to mobilize on behalf of their own interests without having to get someone from on high to come down and tell them what they need, whether that someone is Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, or Ice Cube's Barbershop 2 character. Hahn's work justifies my position.

(like i needed it.)

The Black Commentator Goofs

The Black Commentator is a site I don't read often. When i do read it, I find its candor somewhat refreshing. But in this most recent edition, they goofed...making an error common in Black Politics, basically arguing that Al Sharpton was a boon to the Democratic Primaries without substantially offering any proof of the fact. The first snip knocked me over the head:

Rev. Al Sharpton’s race for the Democratic presidential nomination should be considered a resounding success – for just about everyone except the candidate himself.

Class jumping?

With Cobb's previous musing from his January 28, 2004 posting of Class, two things stand out to this signifier...what is to come of this "gulf" between the so-called "progressives" and the "envelope-pushers" of black politics?

This will be a fun topic. I'll pick that one up in the near future.

The next matter is, how do we get Black folk to start accomplishing some of the things that we measure ourselves by? "Whitefolks do this," or "Latinos stick together," and other whatnot...how do we get there from here?

One of the challenges is bridging the wealth gap between African Americans and whites.

Another in the legion of challenges that working-class and poor Black folk face is the problem of debt through predatory lending.

An essential tool to bridge the "racial" gap of wealth, and help Black families "jump classes" within the span of one to two generations, is a sound plan to eliminate debt, curtail discretionary spending by delaying instant gratification, and saving. One of the best methods for Black folk to do this, in my opinion, can be found here.

If Black families would start eliminating their debt, stop their use of credit cards, and begin to save, the wealth gap between "races" could be wiped out (yes, I said wiped out, ) in one, two generations tops.

Continued education and will, the everpresent challenge. It will require a sea change in thought about money and what we do with it.

Kerry v. Bush

Today in Public Opinion I talked about the meme of electabillity that dammed and jammed Dean, and catapulted Kerry into the driver's seat. I also had my students watch an old Bill Moyers video about the evils of polling. It was filmed in 1989, and its age showed.

Anyone remember BehaviorScan?

The low light of the story was Willie Horton...the ad that single handedly relegated Dukakis to a Trivial Pursuit question. Non-blacks didn't recognize how racist the ad campaign was until much later...the best Moyers could do was utter something about pandering to our fears.

But a couple of swatches make me think we don't have to worry about that if Kerry wins the primary.

"Their tired old G.O.P. attack dog just won't hunt," Mr. Wade said, adding that Republicans would be running against "a Democrat who fought for his country in war, put criminals behind bars as a prosecutor, stood up for balanced budgets in the Senate," and "kept faith with America's veterans."

Another Kerry adviser was more blunt. "This is not the Dukakis campaign," the adviser said. "We're not going to take it. And if they're going to come at us with stuff, whatever that stuff may be, if it goes to a place where the '88 campaign did, then everything is on the table. Everything."

And:

Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot called on the Democratic front-runner, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) to repudiate the attack on the president. But Lindlaw writes that Kerry's campaign dismissed that contention.

"'It is up to President Bush whether he wants to answer these questions that continue to persist about the year missing from his National Guard service,' said spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. "John Kerry will stand up to the slanderous tactics of the Bush attack machine, and if the president wants a debate on patriotism and national security, we welcome that debate.'"

I'm really starting to warm up to the idea. This is going to be GOOD.

Gates and the Color Line

I can't stand it anymore. I told my students they should watch Henry Louis Gates' series on PBS tracing the lives of black Americans some forty years after the dream. And I could get through the first hour and a half without gagging. Then, when Gates began to interview a brother from Chicago stuck in the joint I lost it.

Gerald Early wrote a review about The End of Blackness. Cobb wrote about it. You've got to know Gerald to know what that last paragraph (quoted by Cobb) means. See...Gerald has got to be one of the most humble and straightlaced men I've met. I've never heard him utter a cross word...never seen him take out someone in print. Reading that last paragraph I...I think I shouted out loud. Damn.

"The author does not know enough, has not researched enough..."

This is how I feel watching Gates. When was the last time a white English Lit professor was asked to comment on the budget deficit as if he were an authority? Better yet...when was the last time Paul Krugman was asked to speak on Shakesphere?

So what we have are half baked analyses told "by the people" as if it were more authentic to hear poor men and women talk about how their friends are poor because "they don't want to do nothing." At least in Dickerson's case she can come up with an excuse. She didn't know better.

Gates?