The cookie jar

Black politicians, preachers, educators, business people all must stay on their p’s and q’s when, especially when they hold high-profile positions. Last week Councilman Jon Johnson became the latest in a growing list of “Black leaders” caught with their hands in the “cookie jar.” Johnson has admitted to misusing FEMA monies and stepped down from the City Council. This is a loss on many levels for the Black community.

First let’s acknowledge that we never condone or advocate criminal behavior. But it’s also painfully obvious that playing the “game” is never fair to us. Blacks tend to face a higher level of scrutiny. In most cases ‘other folk’ manage to steal or mismanage drastically larger sums and face lesser consequences… get a bailout… or find a fall guy.

Having said this, when will “our leaders” realize and understand that their individual sins reflect on the character and competence of the entire race, another rule that does not apply to everyone else. When a white person does wrong, the populace shrugs their shoulders and says “shame on him.” When one of us does wrong, it’s “shame on them.” And the latter translates into adding additional fuel to their attempts to deny us opportunities based on the crimes, mistakes, errors or shortcomings of a few.

It was not that long ago that character and accountability was not the exception but rather the rule among our leaders. It was understood that their leadership was to lead the charge of a team effort, and that there is no, and never has been, an “I” in team.

And it’s disingenuous and just as much of a crime to think that we will continue to buy into or make up excuses for those who fail or betray the community.

In Johnson’s case the paltry sum of $13,000 was FEMA money that was supposed to help needy victims, most of whom would become his constituents. This money was directed toward his unsuccessful senatorial bid.

There’s no way to pull a Robin Hood scenario out of this. When you look at the condition of his district, there is no way to justify taking a single dollar from the rebuilding of those homes and neighborhoods. It’s bad enough that Black people in these areas are still fighting FEMA, the city, and the state to get their homes rebuilt. It allows the focus of proving allegations that huge sums of monies meant for them were diverted elsewhere to benefit others, because someone who was supposed to have our best interests got caught with his hands in the cookie jar for $13,000! Under these extreme conditions a betrayal from within our own ranks is what Shakespeare would call, “the unkindest cut of all.”

In this erroneously declared era of a “post-racial society”, we find ourselves in a battle for fair and equal representation on local, parish and state bodies. The recent at-large council race was won by a candidate who has shown open hostility toward Black leaders, advocates and the community itself. The last thing we need now is to create a situation where we could have even less representation than we do now.

Enough is enough. We have to ask ourselves what will it take, and what can we do to help our leaders resist creeping around that damned cookie jar? And how do we cultivate leaders whose commitment to the community won’t let them consider doing such harm?

This article originally published in the July 23, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.