What's Obama Got To Do With It? We Need To Step Up To the Plate.

A FB Note originally written on April 26, 2011:

Several incidents over the past two weeks has reminded me, once more, about the fact that so much has been and will remain the same in communities of color. The election of an African American man seems to have served the purpose of putting folks further into the comfort zone of denial. The facts are that the same program still remains in place for people in communities of color. Many with new faces but the intentions and outcomes are the same. The continuation and escalation of violence, exclusionary tactics (called Jim Crow in the late 1800s), under education and unemployment, to name only a few.


I passed a small rally on the way back from the post office in from of PS173 on 8th avenue and 149th street on Friday. Students and teachers were calling attention to the takeover of a charter school board that they graciously allowed to take space on the 3rd floor of the school. The board renovated the space putting in marble tiles, updated computer systems and state of the art educational tools and furniture. The public school in the remainder of the building is still using furniture from the 1950s and -60s and has to fight for basic supplies. This charter school board is now trying to lobby Mr. Klein to allow them to take over the entire school and push the public school children and their families out. This very same story happened last year with a school around the corner from me on 144th street between 7th/8th avenues called Countee Cullen. I did some volunteer work for them and they eventually beat back the vultures. I exchanged info with a couple of teachers from PS173 and told them I would get contact info for them so they can find out how C. Cullen handled their business with the city and charter corp. that wanted to wholesale snatch their school. I did some research in other inner cities throughout the US and this appears to be a new tactic for excluding children in certain neighborhoods and income brackets (which boils down to children of color being in the majority). A Google search came up with a myriad of articles on takeovers by mayors, charter school boards and private sector groups from Pennsy, Michigan, Milwaukie, LA, Chicago, etc.; an article in the Independent detailing the rise in occurrences (http://www.indypendent.org/2010/01/29/taking-the-public-out/); and loads of studies detailing the basic formula for these takeovers, how they hide under the auspices of "No child left behind", etc. This stuff is no different from the segregation tactics of the mid 1950s thru 60s, it's just slicker like many of the oppressive, exclusionary racist policies that have been resurfacing across the socio-economic spectrum. They are designed to make the greater, privileged society think things are cool when the folks who have to live it continue to see the same treatment their grandparents and parents endured.

In the area of the justice ("in-just-us") system I continue to see constant police violence, manipulation and abuse of power. Last week a 86 year old woman was beaten nearly to death during a 'routine' investigation of a 14 year old boy, who happened to be her grandson, and had her residence listed as 'last know address'. The boy was implicated in a shop-lifting incident at a local bodega where some milk and other items were taken. They wanted to know his whereabouts and proceeded to beat the info out of her. Last night, on the corner of 145th street and 7th avenue, a block from where I reside, a mentally impaired young man - wearing a medical bracelet AND chain indicating this fact - was beaten unconscious and placed in the back of the squad car. With his head hanging out of the door and his eyes lolling, they attempted to close the door. A bystander had to yell at them in order to prevent the door being closed against his head. The gentleman was threatened with arrest. Another bystander, recording the entire incident, was wrestled with so that the officer could confiscate his cell phone. Others created a diversion and the gentleman was able to flee. Friends of mine who live in a building overlooking the area were able to see the entire incident clearly and relayed the story to me. The beaten young man's girlfriend, who is also mentally challenged but higher functioning (the young man cannot speak) tried to get the police to understand that they had the wrong guy. The person they were looking for left a bodega and instead of confronting him outside the establishment as he was leaving, the officers followed the 'suspect' for a few blocks. He somehow ended up walking in front of the young man and his girlfriend and they mistook the young man for the other guy. (??) Two days ago some friends of mine were playing chess at 145th street Park when several officers approached them, lined them up against the fence and proceeded to check them and the entire line of tables for alcohol. Folks had beer and small wine bottles IN BAGS not open to view yet somehow tickets were issued for having open containers of alcohol to the folks who had beers only. The summer hasn't even started yet. I can only imagine how it's going to be out there this simmer: constant harassment. We are adults and many who relax at the game tables are veterans yet we are not afforded the right to enjoy sitting in the park without being harassed about petty garbage. Folks on the street, in front of their residences or bodegas are being approached by police when they display any kind of hand to hand exchange. Some of these incidents end up in violence, abuse or with the person being arrested. The case is dismissed, of course but that person's time was wasted and their life was disrupted. Young boys 10-12 and 13-14 are being chased down and thrown to the ground.- for taking silly crap like potato chips. I saw a young man no older than 14 with three grown police men on top of him and one standing with his foot on the boy's back! They are starting folders on children as young as 9-10 years old for stuff that we've all done as kids - silly stuff like jumping the turn-style or climbing the pool fence and going swimming when it's closed. Police are getting 'collars' for this kind of thing in our neighborhoods!

I have experienced profiling and unwarranted searches myself and was arrested once for trespassing in my place of residence. I stayed overnight in jail just to have my case dismissed. At 12% of the population, African Americans make up 80% of the incarcerated with Latinos right behind them. The unemployment rate in NYC is 54% for Africa American males and cities across the US post similar percentages (this kind of disparity hasn't changed since the enactment of co-called civil rights laws).

Racism and it's results effect folks on a daily -- contrary to what others who do not experience living in black, brown or yellow skin (unfortunately that is the criteria to which the majority of people in this society view other human beings) may want to believe, it has never stopped. Since Jim Crow was enacted at the end of the 19th century to this day -- it has been the same deal for people in my communities.

It won't stop until those who are placed in that category referred to as privileged have the courage to change their paradigm and remove the blinders of denial. And I do not mean rich people, politicians or those who have stolen power. I am referring to the folks who live outside these neighborhoods and who have been afforded, by the afore mentioned political structures, to partake of certain benefits by virtue of the arbitrary connotation of a class and race called 'upper middle class' and 'white'. This silent majority, in tandem with the struggling classes, has the ability to reshape the current socio-economic structure into a more feasible and equitable existence. We just need you to take the self imposed blindfold off, remove the gag from your mouth and step up to the plate.