Looking Back, Forward & Around

Our astute regular readers, whom we appreciate beyond our capacity to state, are likely aware that we like to keep our eyes on leadership in Northeast Ohio’s black community, and that from time to time we experiment with formats to help us do a better job of reporting.

Today’s post is one of those experiments, a first in what we excitedly expect to be a major transformation of how we deliver news and opinion. We’ll have more to say about that as we move into the New Year. But for today, we are offering a quick look at some of what happened around here last week, and a head’s up for what’s on tap this week.

Looking back

We noted in a prior post the Cleveland NAACP’s town hall meeting that was to offer an innovative feature. As we understood it, a clinical psychologist was to address the important topic of the psychological impact the election of Donald Trump as our 45^th president might be having on our community. Properly used, psychology is a most valuable lens for understanding human behavior at both individual and group levels. Its importance is too little understood in society, especially by those Americans who just want “the facts” and dismiss any analysis of the “mumbo jumbo” that actually holds the keys to understanding why people do the things they do. Those who don’t pay attention to psychology on both the micro and macro levels have no chance to understand either the President-elect or the people who voted for him or against Hillary Clinton.

So, as Fareed Zakaria would say, that’s our take, now let’s get started.

I showed up late for the NAACP town hall event after attending a recruitment reception downtown for the National Urban Fellows program. NUF is a wonderful under the radar program that supports and equips public service professionals. The program is geared to people more or less between 5-12 years into their careers who believe that government or civic service is their passion and who are ready to commit to an intense 15 month experience that will place them with a top-rank organizational internship while they earn a master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College at City University of New York. Cleveland is a favorite NUF site, given the committed institutional support from The Cleveland Foundation, the Neighborhood Leadership Institute among other organizations, and a strong alumni network of champions, including such folk such as Natoya Walker Minor and Darnell Brown of the Jackson administration, and Sylvia Perez, who will be moving from the Cleveland Foundation to a top position at United Way early next year. If you or someone you know might be a candidate for this program, you or they should immediately reach out to Miguel Garcia, NUF’s president and CEO to explore joining NUF’s 2018 class, which will convene next summer.

NAACP town hall

When I left the NUF reception I headed over to St. James AME Church to see what I hoped might be a positive discussion on healthy community responses in the wake of the election. Board president Michael Nelson had invited clinical psychologist Natalie M. Whitlow to speak to address questions and concerns about community mental health in the wake of Trump’s victory. This was a useful idea since the Trump campaign has heightened insecurities in many communities, especially communities of color and other groups less generally favored by mainstream America. When black people, for instance, weren’t being ignored or targeted we were being ridiculed or used as props in the Trump campaign.

As I entered the hall in the basement of St. James, several things struck me at once. The attendance was much higher than for any NAACP gathering I had attended in years.  Perhaps 200 people were there, including a number of whites. I thought of this as a positive. Civil rights is not the responsibility only of black and brown people.

The overriding sensation I picked up on when entering the room was one of tension. One of the challenges of public meetings is their tendency to become platforms for the expression of raw emotions. Open wounds are on display, and it can be hard even for skilled facilitators to maintain order. This is especially true in the black community.

It’s a difficult thing for many outsiders to appreciate how devastating America’s racial caste system has been on millions of human beings. The United States has never honestly embraced its fundamentally unfair treatment of its black citizens, continually finds ways to perpetuate that unfairness, and in fact blames the victims of that mistreatment, so a town hall meeting called to discuss the resulting discomfort is almost sure to tilt towards bringing out those who are most wounded. More heat than light gets generated and even a late arrival could feel that disorder immediately upon entering the room.

Despite the challenges, continuing to provide a forum to address important issues is a role that the local NAACP should be encouraged to continue. Mike Nelson said later in the week that the branch would be making some changes aimed at minimizing the disruption caused by the unruly few.

Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus

A couple of nights later I found myself in the tiny village of Newburgh Heights, where just over 2,000 of the county’s roughly 1.1 million residents live closely packed into a community sitting just south of Cleveland. Newburgh’s mayor is a self-declared progressive who is quite proud that his burg provides extended family leave for all its public employees. Last Thursday, its village hall was home to a gathering of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, a group of citizen activists formed in the wake of the presidential campaign, and initially assembled by a core of Bernie Sanders followers.

The meeting was planned as a sort of TEDx seminar, with a series of speakers each having 15 minutes to address a critical public issue. A Lakewood teacher talked impressively about the conservative assault on public education; despite his apparent sympathy for our current president, he called Obama most anti-public education president in American history, a label the president will likely deserve until at least day for 47 of the incoming administration.

Tish O'Dell, Community
Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Tish O’Dell of Broadview Heights, representing the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, decried the increasing corporatization of America and warned the Dakota Pipeline conflict would soon find its counterpart in Ohio. There were also speakers who addressed the fight to increase Cleveland’s minimum wage to $15/hour; restoring the federal Glass Steagall Act [New Deal legislation that kept bankers focused on banking and prevented their dalliance in the kinds of speculative finance that caused the 2008 mortgage meltdown]; and climate change.

CuyCo Progressive Caucus
meeting, Dec. 1, 2016

But truth to tell, what drew me to the Newburgh boondocks that night was the fact that one of the speakers was a representative of Black Lives Matter, Cleveland. As I waited for his turn, my curiosity was heightened as I surveyed the audience: it was 90% white, its members phenotypically and sartorially indistinguishable from a Trump campaign rally audience.

Kareem Hinton
Black Lives Matter, Cleveland

The BLM representative was Kareem Henton. I didn’t know him but I had seen him at a number of social justice events over the past year. Speaking in a low-key, direct, logical, non-threatening manner, Henton said BLM was not connected to partisan politics or politicians or anybody’s old guard and that they did not feel obliged to play by the long-established rules of political engagement that marginalized their concerns. He said that BLM Cleveland would focus in 2017 on seeking small victories, specifically citing Cleveland city council races.

Henton undoubtedly surprised many in the audience when he said, “We are not of the mindset that all Trump voters are racist.” He said he thought that for many of them concerns about personal finance had submerged all other issues, and driven them to vote for Trump.

More surprising to this observer than that observation was the response of his listeners. They wanted to know, “how can we best support you?” and “how can we be your allies?”

Henton encouraged caucus members to be visible in their support, stressing that visible white support grossly reduced the ability of BLM critics to marginalize their protests and initiatives.

“One of the most important things a person can do is show up. All are welcome.” Your presence “defies the image” that BLM is a racist one-issue fringe group and “gives us legitimacy” because “we can’t be relegated.” And in this modern age, he urged people to follow BLM Cleveland on Facebook.

• • •

Looking forward

Two local nonprofits with notable pedigrees are holding their annual meetings this week, unfortunately at the same time. This Thursday at 5:30p, the United Black Fund will meet in the new Veale Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. UBF provides funds to nearly one hundred area nonprofits each year. Founded in 1981, it was an outgrowth of Blacks Organized for Social Service [B.O.S.S.], an effort founded by George White, who later became the presiding judge of US District Court for Northern Ohio; attorney and quiet philanthropist Roosevelt Cox; and the Rev. Thomas Chapman of Avon Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant.

Rev. Dr. Stephen Rowan, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church and chairman of the Cleveland Foundation, will be the keynote speaker.

• • •

Starting just 30 minutes earlier is the annual meeting of the Phillis Wheatley Association, established by the remarkable Jane Edna Hunter in 1911 as the Home for Colored Working Girls.  Phillis Wheatley was once the center of civic and cultural life for aspiring black Clevelanders. Hundreds of Greater Clevelanders have attended its Camp Mueller, which at one time occupied more than 200 pristine acres in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

PWA’s meeting will take place at its landmark Midtown headquarters, located at 4450 Cedar Ave.

Faith and Finance Also Noteworthy

Also on tap this week is the Christian Business League’s quarterly Faith and Finance Breakfast. This Friday’s program will feature Darrell McNair, CEO of MVP Plastics. McNair is the public-spirited businessman who recently purchased the headquarters building of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and leased it back to them, thereby greatly easing the financial burden the building had become for the League.

The breakfast costs $15, runs from 7:30am to 8:59am, and will take place at Mt. Zion Congregational Church, 10723 Magnolia Dr. in University Circle.

 Also Noteworthy

 The City of East Cleveland could serve as poster child for our observation above regarding the devasting consequences of America's racial caste system. Once again, the insolvent city is spending money to recall its political leadership. Mayor Gary Norton is the target this time. We'll post the results here; they should be available by no later than 9pm tonight.

-->

-->

Mourn, then organize

I don’t have much doubt that the primary internal factors that will drive the incoming Trump administration are the need for adulation and the desire for money. I’m going to try and ignore the President-elect's unhealthy and chronic search for approval and hope that those in better position than I will be diligent in following the money.

Based on his early appointments, the early signs are not good about the money flows. As Ohio's senior Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted with respect to Steven Mnuchin, the President-elect’s pick for Treasury secretary, Trump “isn’t draining the swamp [but] stocking it with alligators.” Voters who wanted fair play in government are instead getting rough riders in Treasury and Education [Betsy De Vos], with other, equally ruthless picks undoubtedly to follow.

If we can be sure of anything with Trump, it is that he will overreach at some point.  If he is slow to do so, the kinds of people he is selecting will do the overreaching for him. Either way, the question is whether his opponents will be able to mount an effective counter, which brings us to the question of the Democratic Party.

Yesterday, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi turned back a challenge from Youngstown-area Congressman Tim Ryan. Pelosi has proven herself to be a tough leader, but some observers think her ability to steer Congressional Democrats to be effective grassroots champions is hindered by her second-in-command, Steny Hoyer, a Maryland representative who entered Congress with a liberal reputation but appears to have gotten much too cozy with corporate lobbyists. 

​

The Democratic Party needs a serious makeover. Lip service to progressive values while chasing corporate cash can no longer be the game plan. Bernie Sanders may not have been the perfect messenger — such may not exist — but his message was certainly closer to the bold direction much of the electorate wanted to see.

The battle for the Party's new direction may now be shifting to the struggle over the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison would be a disruptive force to the old order, which alone is reason enough to consider him. He is also young, articulate, knowledgeable, and quick on his feet. And as both a black man and a Muslim, his very presence at the table would speak volumes.

Shaun King made a forceful argument in today's New York Daily News about just how white the post-Obama Democratic Party remains in all the ways that matter. For me it evoked comparison to my autumn reading about the history of black Republicans in the middle half of the twentieth century. If I had to pick a single takeaway from my study, it would be how loyal black Republicans remained in the face of GOP hierarchies that at campaign time woefully underfunded any outreach efforts to black communities.

You'd think the Democrats might do better by their black folk, and they do with respect to picking candidates. But that's not the case when it comes to money, the sacred milk of politics. How people spend their money speaks volumes about their values. This was clearly on King's mind when he wrote "we must come to grips with the overwhelming whiteness of the Democratic Party." Before you say he's being hyperbolic, consider his evidence:

"Of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the Democratic Party between 2010 and 2012, less than 2% of that was spent on vendors of color of ALL other ethnic groups."

Is there a third path? Many disillusioned local Democrats are exploring that possibility. At this point they are mostly Bernicrats, and there is no reason to assume they will be any more egalitarian in their approach than the major parties. But at least they are addressing the issues that the major parties square dance around.

The Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus meets tonight starting at 6:30 in the Newburgh Heights Village Hall, 3801 Harvard Ave. on the agenda will be a series of short presentations on issues that should be of concern to all voters, including Black Lives Matter, reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, the assault on public education, and global climate change.

I dropped in on Monday's NAACP town hall meeting (more on that soon) and was dismayed to hear a Bedford Hts. councilperson talk about getting ready for the 2018 election. 2018? Doesn't she understand that at least in Ohio it's always political season? There are no off-days, let alone off years. Municipal elections and judicial contests will take place all over Cuyahoga County next year. Tea Party success in "off" year elections and down-ballot races are what poised them for victories in state legislatures, redistricting, and Congressional races.

If you aren't at the table, you are on the menu.

Now more than ever, it is critical to think globally and ACT locally.

-->

Mourn, and then organize.

Trump: Prepare for Trauma

Three weeks after the election and it’s still hard to know where to begin in discussing the nation’s new political landscape.

We have seen some pretty spectacular failures by a number of the country’s institutions. The Electoral College, designed to prevent an incompetent rabble-rousing populist from winning the Presidency, has instead enabled victory by a man of such unprincipled essence that neither his supporters or his opponents can speak with assurance about what he will do in office.

The Democratic Party that eight years ago championed a candidate of audacious hope and change, this time rejected its best hope for audacious hope and change and chose a pale imitation of the last two Democratic incumbents, a candidate seemingly unable to articulate a core message that even acknowledged, let alone addressed, the electorate’s overwhelming desire for the end to a rigged system.

The Republican Party establishment proved itself spectacularly incompetent to halt the hostile takeover of its party banner by a man no more loyal to its precepts than Nixon’s dog, Checkers.

And the Fourth Estate, armed with every sophisticated tool and device imaginable, totally missed the underlying guts of this election cycle; cable television in particular allowed its greed and hubris to dismiss Trump’s antics and treat him as free program entertainment to the tune of almost a billion dollars in free publicity. They simply knew he could not win the nomination, could not secure more than 40% of the electorate, and could not surmount the levees of the Electoral College. And while they were spectacularly wrong, there they were the day after the election, bloviating about how he did it and what will happen next.

The truth is, Donald Trump won for a bevy of reasons, and Hillary Clinton lost for even more reasons. But fundamentally, Trump connected with the passions, fears, and resentments of enough voters in the strategically important places to turn them out. And it’s the passions, fears and resentments of all voters to which attention must now be paid.

For all his undeniable media mastery, the President-elect probably does not have a clue how to manage the expectations of the not even a plurality of voters who elected him. To be sure, a lot of those who voted for him don’t really expect him to keep all of his campaign promises. They just liked the fact that he made them; they especially delighted in the way he seemed to do it, sticking his fingers repeatedly in the eye of political correctness, with apparent indifference to the hall guards and monitors of the narrow political corridors. Will that be his style of governance? Could that approach possibly be an effective substitute for well-thought out, carefully executed policies? Does anybody think Trump has thought that far ahead?

Let’s set aside policy for a moment and consider what we do know about the man who will be sworn in as our President on January 20, 2017. We know he loves to make deals and he loves to win them. It’s what turns him on and he will break all the rules to win. We know he loves attention, craves it, can’t do without it. And we know he’s thin-skinned, rash and impulsive on a personal level, with a toddler’s attention span.

How does that compute to the daily running of a Trump administration that we also know is contemptuous of the political establishment, uses the media, and plays the public? No wonder his sensible allies are as frightened as his foes.

Among those who do need to be frightened but not paralyzed are people of color, Muslims, those whose sexual preferences or other characteristics make them less than the newly-defined mainstream of American people, which turns out to be the same as what was Constitutionally-baked in as the mainstream: white men who profess the Christian faith.

Those whose genes, pigmentation, accent, faith, or preferences do not accord with that mainstream are having a difficult time these days. A dear friend of mine — I have to say he’s white for clarity and pertinence — told me that after the election his 15 year old granddaughter went to school at Shaker Heights High, and that when the election was brought up, the whole class dissolved into tears, including the teacher. This story was not unique. We all have to acknowledge and deal with the fact that nearly half of our fellow citizens pretty much said “f*** you” to half the country because of their anger, pain, and resentment. Does it matter if they were manipulated into voting the way they did?

Perhaps that 15-year-old girl, along with her parents and classmates, should attend tonight’s town hall meeting sponsored by the Cleveland Branch NAACP. The meeting will feature a post-election conversation on the emotional impact of the election. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Natalie M. Whitlow, will be on hand to speak to the immediate trauma of the reported results and the potential for long-term damage. Dr. Whitlow told me yesterday that the consequences of anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other symptoms are real and should be dealt with appropriately.

The meeting starts at 6:30pm tonight at St. James A.M.E. Church, 8401 Cedar Ave. These meetings usually have secured, free parking.

-->

-->

From Selma to President-elect Trump

​

Last night I watched Part 1 of a two-part special that takes a timely look at what has happened in America's black communities in the five decades since the major constitutional victories of the Civil Rights movement. "Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise" is at once a sobering yet powerful reminder of how far the country's most crucial ethnic minority has come since the legal eradication of Jim Crow, a hundred years after slavery, and how far we still have to travel before the promise of true equality is more reality than dream.

The most riveting image of this pithy but briskly paced retrospective came from deep in the heart of black-belt Alabama, where the sharecroppers of Lowndes County displayed unfathomable resolve and courage and dignity in registering to vote. Their first step towards exercising a long-denied constitutional right carried with it the risk of loss of life, not to mention home and sustenance, for these would-be voters were treated as aliens in the land of their birth.

Racial terror in Lowndes County was undisguised, perhaps especially because black people comprised 80% of county residents. The white men who considered it their duty to keep those black people under heel had no need for ginned up rituals and pointy-headed masks to cover their barbarism. They saw inhumane treatment of their fellow citizens as sacred honor.

Fortified by young idealists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC] like Stokely Carmichael who immersed themselves in the community, these poor black farmers risked everything for a vision of a better way of life for their children.

In showing how overt barriers of racial discrimination were dismantled, this must-see program reinforces important parts of American history too often buried, glossed over, or shaded. Facts do matter. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said after his unsuccessful attempt to combat housing discrimination in Chicago, racism in the North was more virulent than anything he had ever observed in the South. His experiences there helped crystallize his understanding that segregation was imbedded not just in political and social structures, but was deeply rooted in the American economy. The program points out, albeit in passing, the role of government at all levels in creating and maintaining America's ghettos. The concentrated poverty these public policies engendered has made racial and national progress more difficult.

African Americans have shown themselves to be extraordinarily resilient, so this story is far from unremitting gloom. There is a glorious sound track, ranging from Spirituals to Stevie, from Aretha and James Brown to the Sugar Hill Gang and Public Enemy. There are iconic references everywhere: Flip Wilson, Soul Train, and countless other markers of the coal deep influence of black people on every aspect of American culture. And throughout, in what could easily be overlooked, is the subtle but powerful effect of black people telling our own story through the voices of activists, witnesses and scholars.

It may dawn at some point upon senior viewers that this quick and measured history — so vivid and contemporary to our circumstances — is news to Millennials, Gen Xers and those yet to be named. I found disturbing echoes of present day attitudes and polices and politics of current trends throughout the program, especially in crowd scenes of backlash. And who remembers that while Ronald Reagan campaigned on a slogan to "Make America Great Again", his administration proceeded to accelerate the construction of gilt-lined streets for the favored and busted pavement for the rest of us? If this history was more widely known and shared, perhaps we would not be so in danger of repeating less savory aspects of our past.

Part 2 airs on Ideastream next Tuesday at 8pm. You can catch Part 1 online here.