Come together
9th November 2015 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
I have to admit that I was a little bit moved by the recent formation of a new ministerial group that has come out of the gate challenging the status quo.
The group, Pastors for a Better New Orleans, has already taken a stand for economic inclusion, improved public safety and equal protection under the law.
As past generations have always said, talk is cheap, so I’m looking forward to seeing PBNO walk the walk. At this point, I am grateful to hear about any group of people standing up for egalitarian principles and fair, inclusive governance.
In this city, it isn’t that often, in recent years, that you hear about Black ministers or elected officials who speak out or stand up for racial equality, economic justice, environmental justice or equal protection under the law. Unless you’re talking about seasoned warriors like the Revs. Norwood Thompson, Marie Galatas and Skip Alexander who once marched alongside fearless leaders like the Revs. Avery C. Alexander and Abraham Lincoln “A.L.” Davis.
Nowadays, everybody seems to be doing the bidding of the white business community or doing and saying whatever is necessary to get a coveted grant or a handout from the powers that be.
As a result, the rest of Black New Orleans is left blowing in the wind. That’s why we find ourselves at the mercy of a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, state-run Recovery School District and Louisiana Department of Education that really could care less about the education, safety, needs or well-being of Black children in New Orleans. We also find ourselves at the mercy of a plethora of boards and commissions and a criminal justice system and business community who never consider the constitutional rights, needs or concerns of the Black masses in this majority-Black city.
That’s why we find ourselves systematically locked out of economic opportunities at City Hall, routinely railroaded by the criminal justice system, shot down like dogs by law enforcement agencies, treated like guinea pigs and prison inmates by charter schools and exploited with slave wages by the tourism industry.
That’s why we get a grand jury system that also refuses to indict a white homeowner for shooting a 14-year-old boy in the head for trespassing on his property, a D.A. that can’t decide whether a cop that fired a shot that led to the death of a man named Henry Glover should be charged with murder or any other crime, school officials who see nothing wrong with building a school for Black children on contaminated land containing at least eight toxic metals, a police department that routinely racially profiles Black men and boys and a city administration that shows little concern for the fact that more than half of the Black men in the city are unemployed.
All the while, local elected officials and school officials beam with pride about how wonderful the new New Orleans is.
Those who do everything in their power to keep us undereducated, poor and powerless tell visitors and newcomers to the city and the rest of the nation and the world that we are mired in chronic unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor health, violence and a host of other ills is because we are lazy, unambitious and don’t want anything for ourselves and our families.
It is a lie that is as old as the city’s charter.
Sadly, there is no shortage of Black men and women in this city who jump at the chance to be used by the people who run this city to keep Black people poor, undereducated and disenfranchised. The easiest way to identify them is to look at their voting records and their list of campaign donors.
Follow the money.
Some of those who sell us “down the river” are paid handsomely for doing so while others settle for the crumbs that fall off the table.
A childhood friend told me about a conversation he had during last month’s primary elections with a local Black candidate who he asked why most Black elected officials refuse to stand up for or represent the interests of their Black constituents.
“We have to provide food, clothing and shelter for our families,” the candidate told him. “We can’t do any of that if we’re fighting for Black people.”
When reminded that Black people marched, fought, bled and died so that future generations of Black people could vote and run for elected office, the candidate simply shrugged it off. Before he left the establishment where he made his comments, the candidate added that Black elected officials aren’t able to depend on Black constituents when things get rough.
My buddy told the candidate that Black people are the most loyal people on the planet, to the point of continuing to vote for Black elected officials who never represent them at City Hall, in the State Legislature or on Capitol Hill. He also told the candidate that when Black constituents take away their support for a Black elected official there is usually a good reason like a lengthy record of neglect and incompetence or some act so egregious that the community can no longer support the individual.
Needless to say, the argument fell on deaf ears.
What is it going to take for Black people to get a little respect from elected officials of all colors?
A concerted effort to send a strong message to them that we are mad as hell about being routinely ignored, neglected and disrespected and have no intention of taking it anymore. We need to start showing up at community town hall meetings and forums in massive numbers and making our presence felt. We need to show up at elected officials’ office and demand an audience with them. We need to bombard them with phone calls, text messages and emails that tell them exactly how we feel about their performances as public servants and precisely what we expect them to do to rectify the matter. And we need to let them know what we will do as a voting bloc should they fail to make amends.
Most importantly, we need to follow through on whatever promises we make to relieve them of their duties as elected officials ASAP.
We must become more focused, vigilant, unrelenting and dedicated to making elected and appointed officials do their jobs and ensuring that they suffer the consequences for failing to do so.
While the Tea Party has an agenda that does not favor Black people, one has to begrudgingly respect their single-mindedness, zeal and relentlessness in carrying out their agenda. We should employ similar strategies in carrying out our quest for inclusion, economic justice, environmental safety, criminal justice reform and equal protection under the law.
To do anything less would simply guarantee that we continue to suffer more of the same indignities, slights and injustices that we currently endure.
We have the power to change things in this city, state and nation. All we lack are the sense of purpose, unity, willingness to fight the good fight and the commitment to organizing and harnessing that power to achieve the things we need to grow and prosper by any means necessary.
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the November 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
