The more things
change, the more they stay the same.
Yesterday was a
festive occasion for the Cleveland NAACP as a reported 300 people attended a
worship-and-praise service disguised as an installation of the Branch’s new
officers and Executive Committee. The event was held at Greater Abyssinia
Baptist Church, where the newly installed branch president, Rev. Hilton Smith,
and first vice president, Rev. E. T. Caviness, are associate and senior
pastors, respectively.
The program was
notable for several reasons, including its ecumenical outreach that saw
participation from representatives of Methodist, Jewish, and Episcopal
organizations, as well as several notables including US Chief Judge Solomon
Oliver and former television anchor Eleanor Hayes.
The feel-good event included remarks from
Smith outlining an ambitious agenda focused on education
and mentoring, economic development, fair housing, mental health issues, and
increased membership.
Underscoring just how difficult it will be to achieve these
lofty goals was this statement from Smith, as reported in this online account:
"Our youth know nothing about the NAACP. We have to
educate them, and re-educate them. We have some young professionals who are
Uncle Toms, and we made them that way. They have to be taught the
history." — Rev. Hilton Smith, Cleveland
NAACP president
Whatever Rev. Smith
meant by this remark, and whom he may have had in mind will have to await
explanation on a different day. But the remark has already raised many
eyebrows.
An accurate telling of
the NAACP’s century-old body of work might reflect the organization’s moving in
the eyes of many from progressive to radical to a period where, in the 1960s,
amidst some the grandest days of civil rights, NAACP leaders were denounced as
“Uncle Toms” by more aggressive civil rights organizations.
Smith’s statement does
underscore the continuing debate in large parts of the black community over
issues racial identity and racial solidarity. A lot of African Americans sense
in the hostility of many whites towards President Obama because his election is
a reminder that the United States is numerically every day becoming less and
less of a white country. By the same token, many black people — including
apparently, Rev. Smith — still side with the recently discharged sports
commentator, Rob Parker, who we discussed here last week.
Parker was perhaps
reading from the same textbook as Rev. Smith, questioning whether the
highly-touted Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was “black
enough” because, among things, he has a white fiancée and is even rumored to be
a Republican.
This leads me to make
a couple of suggestions for the Branch [btw, I am a dues-paying member]. First,
let’s refrain from personal characterizations, demonizing, and ad hominem
attacks on those with whom we may disagree.
Let’s talk instead about issues, finding common ground among ourselves
and with others, and solving problems.
Second, if the local
Branch truly wants to reach out to young adults — especially those who
acknowledge having at least one if not two feet in the black community [by
virtue of birth, marriage, cultural orientation, upbringing, etc.] and who deny
that having white neighbors, advanced education, or senior positions in white
bastions of power and privilege, makes them by definition any less rooted in
the black community — let’s have some properly moderated public discussions
that air these very issues.
The open and
ecumenical approach symbolized by the
selection of the eleven [!] speakers at yesterday’s program needs to be
replicated in deed by any NAACP
spokespersons who want to argue in favor of equity and fairness.
Black History Month
would be a perfect time to start!
More on Double
Dipping
We wrote last week
about the disdain for his constituents shown by Cleveland Councilman Ken
Johnson in his request to be reappointed by his colleagues just days after
resigning from his seat so that he could collect both his salary and an
enhanced pension, and how equal disdain shown by those colleagues for their
institution and their constituents in overwhelmingly approving this legal but
myopic maneuver.
We would not be so
down on Councilman Johnson if he had followed the approach of Roy Jech in
Parma. Jech resigned his council seat on December 31 for the same reason as
Johnson: unless he retired in 2012 his future pension benefits would lessen
upon subsequent retirement. But Jech, rather than seek reappointment, will wait and ask voters for reelection.
We think that shows a
proper respect for those whose support made the pension possible in the first
place.
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