Getting rid of the old guard

Earl posted a brief snippet of a dialogue between Oliver Willis and Steve Gillard on the changing of the guard.

Every few years, right around one of these moribund marches, we get this argument. I'm not immune to it myself. Hell just the other day I told a couple of people that the old heads (Jackson, and Farrakhan in particular) are going to have to die before we get this marching stuff out of our blood and move beyond brokerage politics.

Oliver is right on point in his basic critique (jackson, farrakhan, and sharpton are hustlers). But here's where he is wrong:

1. Black people aren't as moved by these speakers as we may THINK they are. I think most of us realize that these guys are pimps and hustlers...BUT we also have a long standing love affair with wordsmiths. Jackson, Sharpton, and Farrakhan are the best wordsmiths in America PERIOD. I have strong disagreements with ALL of them, but I'll be damned if I'd ever get snookered into a debate with any of them.

2. The idea of "black leadership" is bankrupt by its very nature. For folks like Oliver black people's problem isn't that we've got pimps running the show, it's that we've got the wrong kind of pimps running the show. Put Oprah and Cosby in the mix, and we'd be GOOD.

3. There's this sticky structural problem that Oliver can't get his head around. For Oliver our problem is largely cultural. The data is pretty clear here that it ain't the culture.

Now Gilliard (apologies) on the other hand seems to understand the problem of white supremacy, and the structural hurdles black men and women face.

But his argument--that Farrakhan and others are speaking truth to power when no one else will--falls flat for two reasons.

1. There are all TYPES of people who make the critiques that farrakhan and the others do. Of course no one makes these critiques as well on the mic. Adolph Reed for starters. Barbara Ransby. Errol Henderson. Oba T'Shaka. For some reason Gerald focuses on political representatives, as if that's the correct body of folks to focus on. JACKSON AIN'T BEEN ELECTED TO NOTHIN' SINCE HE WAS 2ND VICE GRAND OF OMEGA PSI PHI! You don't compare these guys to the ones that had to actually fight for votes!

2. Speaking against police brutality and doing something against police brutality are two very different things. Where was one of the big three when Jamala Rogers and an entire coalition of black, brown, and white folk in Saint Louis forced the mayor to create a police review board? Where were they when blacks in Detroit fought for the successful passage of a living wage ordinance? The part of northern black political culture that i've grown to detest is its acceptance of wolf ticket politics. Talking shit don't mean jack unless action follows.

Both should take a gander at an essay Michael Thelwell wrote about the March on Washington. The first one. It's in Gerald Early's excellent SPEECH AND POWER vol. 2, and also in REPORTING ON CIVIL RIGHTS vol. 1.

Comments

[Cobb]

Thelwell ought to blog.

This romance with rhetoric is to be expected. Why? Because of the black romance with Socialism, and the black romance with unelected preachers and the self-fulfilling prophesy of the 'leadership of the black church', African Americans are not vested in real pork and patronage. Too many blackfolks are only out to hear speeches like they hear sermons. All they want is something to say Amen to, and they are so accustomed to not being able to hold anyone accountable, that there's tolerance of corruption built into the black electorate.

This is not just a supply problem. It's a demand problem. And those who demand more? Well, they bolted the Rainbow Coalition a long time ago.

[Lester Spence]

"Thelwell ought to blog."

Nope. Hell...I don't need to blog as much as I do. Let bloggers blog, and let intellectuals write, research, PUBLISH. Bloggers need to read Thelwell though. No doubt.

I don't pin the romance with rhetoric on anything other than black love of the spoken word, perfectly uttered. We love the spoken word like we love the behind the back pass, the Barry Sanders spin, the way Coltrane turned a phrase, the way Gaye carried a note.

We love the spoken word because it, when done right, represents ma'at made real.

"...they are so accustomed to not being able to hold anyone accountable, that there's tolerance of corruption..."

this sounds like FEMA.

[P6]

Now Gerald on the other hand
You mean Gilliard, right?

All they want is something to say Amen to, and they are so accustomed to not being able to hold anyone accountable, that there's tolerance of corruption built into the black electorate.
You got it wrong, Cobb. They want someone to say Amen to them. People will always follow someone that acknowledges them before those that ignore them.