Dancing Through The Pain

One of my best friends died last month, and his death has left a hole in my heart.  And while the hole will heal, the remaining scar will always ache. Like all testimonials about love, friendship and loss, it’s hard to know what to share and where to start, so I’ll just start at the beginning and share what's in my heart.

Before I arrived at Stanford, I’d attended almost a dozen schools, lived in three states and in twice as a many towns and cities. As consequence of this peripatetic childhold, I’d never had a best friend with whom I could share clothes, secrets and personal milestones. I arrived at Stanford as a reserved and introspective only child, and I probably seemed aloof to more than a few classmates. This is why the last person anyone—myself included—would have expected me to befriend was a gregarious, extroverted, Memphis-born and raised, youngest son, but he was blocking the dorm back door while I was moving in and insisted on introductions before letting me pass. Despite his cheekiness, I let "Magnus from Memphis" rope me into a long foot trek to the Stanford Mall (we later discovered that the shuttle we'd seen stopping in front of our dorm also stopped across the street from the mall), during which we swapped and bonded over life stories—with his including such embellishments as an overly-protective family and a false birth date. By the end of my first day as a college student, I had a best friend.

Even though we were as different as Memphis sweet tea and New Orleans café au lait, we were  inseparable. I was the “Ethel” to his “Lucy” and he was the yin to my yang. He was the social lodestar who forced me to pull my head out my books long enough to go to parties and Friday chill-outs, and I was his crisis manager and sounding board—and with Magnus, a bad haircut had to be treated with the gravity of a personal tragedy.

Despite the decades since our first meeting and the miles between us, he could still talk me into madcap mischief, and I could still convince him that what seemed like major drama was really just a minor episode. This is why, when he became discouraged while trying to buy his townhouse,  I was able to talk him out of walking away from the table and through a successful price negotiation. And this is why he could convince me to go dancing with a broken foot.

One of the last times that I saw Magnus, I was on a business trip during which I fell in the middle of a meeting and, unbeknownst to me, broke a small bone in my foot. Because we rarely saw each other, Magnus insisted that we have a nice meal and go dancing while I was in town. When I pointed to my swollen foot, he replied “Guurl, just tape it up real good." After doing exactly that and grabbing something to eat, we went to one of his favorite clubs and danced until the music stopped and the lights came on.

It's hard to understand how one friendship can shape and change someone's life. While I'll never know how our friendship shaped and changed him, I know how it shaped and changed me.  Even though he wasn’t the clothes-swapping, secret-sharing best friend I'd wished for while growing up (although his ability to fool me about his actual birth date—for over 30 years—suggests that he probably kept all the secrets I shared with him), Magnus was definitely the grown-up best friend I needed. Through our friendship, he taught me how to weave the dry straw of an existence into a golden life, and how to dance through whatever pain it brings. So whenever I think about him, I'm going to put some tape on my heart and just dance.

Embracing our proximity, while blocking our prosperity

While there have been numerous studies, reports and articles written about corporate discrimination, discrimination in the nonprofit arena is rarely discussed. Maybe it's because nonprofits are supposed to be bastions of do-gooders and "woke" liberals, so the idea that they would allow any type of workplace discrimination is inconceivable.

So imagine my surprise at seeing the results of the nation-wide Nonprofits, Race and Leadership Survey showing that blacks face enormous discrimination when pursuing nonprofit leadership opportunities. After working in a range of business organizations and living in both the North and the South, I can say that the difference between the corporate and nonprofit hiring discrimination faced by blacks in my generation, is very similar to the difference between the Northern and Southern racism faced by parents and grandparents.

In the North, whites are unconcerned about black prosperity, but they're very uncomfortable with black proximity. In the South, whites are comfortable living and being in close proximity to blacks, but resent seeing them achieve any measure of prosperity. This is why, prior to the Civil Rights Act forcing communities to protect the rights of their black citizens, Northern white racists would burn down a black person's house because it was next door to theirs, while Southern white racists would burn it down because it was bigger than theirs.

While most corporate discrimination involves not letting black candidates in the door (there's that proximity thing), nonprofit discrimination involves letting them in, but not letting them climb the ladder or have a corner office (and there's your prosperity angle).

After serving on the boards of two New Orleans charter schools and a New Orleans-based nonprofit that trains teachers, I've had numerous opportunities to see "prosperity discrimination" at work within the city's education reform-related organizations and institutions. At both charter schools and charter management organizations, the upper ranks are filled with young whites, many plucked from the classroom or an office cubicle with little more than a few years of education or general business experience. Conversely, the few blacks in leadership roles often have advanced degrees, along with a decade or more of relevant experience. It's as if the funders, influencers and decision-makers behind the reform movement believe that whites are supposed to be in charge of it and that few, if any, blacks are capable of implementing it.

Ironically, education reform is not the only area where I've gotten an upfront and personal view of "prosperity discrimination" in nonprofit organizations. Working in real development and finance has allowed me to see the juxtaposition of both "proximity" and "prosperity" racism up close, and feel the sting of it on more than one occasion.

Unlike most industries, real estate is divided into a profit-driven side and a social impact side. On the profit-driven side, you have companies and firms that focus on commercial real estate and market-rate housing. On the social impact side, you have community development and affordable housing organizations, most of which operate like or are structured as nonprofits. While the challenges faced by blacks pursing career opportunities in profit-driven real estate development and finance are well known, the challenges they face trying to advance on the community-focused, social impact side are lesser known but just as great...despite the fact that the "communities" in question, are often black ones.

At many affordable housing/community development and finance organizations, it is not uncommon for black employees to be given lesser titles than whites with similar management roles, or to see them relegated to lower organizational profiles than their tenure and experience would suggest. Conversely, it's not uncommon to see recent white college or urban planning masters program graduates, with only an internship on their resumes, placed in mid-career positions with one or more direct reports, and mid-career white professionals with very little relevant experience brought on board as directors or VPs.

In the case of one organization that I'm familiar with, black employees who'd repeatedly exceeded performance expectations were denied raises and promotions, while the CEO insisted on keeping one or more  white employees on the payroll simply because they "needed the money".

As the report has proven—and experience has shown me—whites in nonprofit organizations don't mind working WITH blacks, they just don't like or think they should be working FOR them. I just hope that some of the organizations working to provide blacks with equal access to educational and housing of opportunities, will start giving more blacks a chance to lead them in doing it.

Too Woke to Dream

Being black (and a woman) in America
Requires an exhausting level of hypervigilance.
So much so, that the mere act of survival,
Becomes success enough.

So we cautiously stay in our lanes,
Instead of venturing down roads less traveled.
Work just as hard to keep roofs over our heads,
As others work to shatter glass ceilings.
And settle for small corners of sunlight
Instead of shooting for the stars.

Because having to always stay woke,
Can make it is impossible to dream.

Like a good neighbor

I recently joined Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods. And while I initially thought it would just be an easy way to share resources and information with my neighbors, an unimagined benefit of joining has been the unique insights it has provided about the views, opinions and priorities of the people living around me.

In general, the majority of the exchanges in my Nextdoor circle—which encompasses my neighborhood and most of the uptown neighborhoods surrounding us—involve maintenance advice and recommendations, lost and found pet alerts, and info about upcoming community events.

While these discussions and posts demonstrate a general desire to be good neighbors, some discussions and posts are insighful for other reasons. Examples of these include:

-A rescue effort and veterinarian fund for an injured stray dog someone spotted on the Jeff Davis neutral ground. (To date, the dog has received treatment and has several people ready to adopt or foster him)

-A lively debate about which fruit trees the possums in our neighborhood have taken a liking to. (Grapefruit seems to be a popular choice)

-A heated discussion about how certain people and groups complain about not having jobs & opportunities, but are just too lazy to help themselves. (You know who you are, so I'll just skip the fingerpointing and name calling)

-Another heated discussion about how most of the native New Orleanians complaining about neighborhood gentrification were either too lazy or stupid to buy a home before the post-Katrina boom. (Unfortunately, no one has started a discussion thread to explain how we managed to create a robust, service-based tourism economy given how many lazy residents we must have had before Katrina)

-General posts about municipal issues, like the recent garbage can replacement project, that confirm the extent to which racist snowflakes and black politicians are destroying the city. (I suspect the reason that no one is ever willing to provide names and evidentiary details is due to city's litigious reputation)

-Heavy-hearted exchanges about how those hateful "social justice warriors" (SJW), in particular the ones who hate white supremacy monuments, have really changed the city and made some people want to leave. (FYI, while many of you SJWs may think D.A. Cannizzaro is the biggest threat to personal freedom, with his fake subpoenas and fondness for jailing witnesses and victims, I've learned that the distinction goes to your fellow SJW, Malcolm Suber)

-Numerous alerts about black cats sitting on people's steps, which I assume are for the benefit of our Wiccan, Vodun/Voodoo and superstitious neighbors.

I've learn so much about my neighbors views and opinions, that I'm eager to learn more about their households, in particular what they'll be selling when they have all those moving sales. And like a good neighbor, I want their relocation efforts to be successful, so I won't even quibble about the prices.

White Supremacy Bingo

Gotta love how white people sift through tens of thousands of news stories to find ones that provide confirmation bias, and give random reasons to vilify and attack blacks and Latinos, along with any groups or institutions they may be associated with?

Does social media have a secret white supremacy bingo game where you have to fill in the squares by being able to associate news reports with white supremacy trigger topics like quotas, BLM, immigration and Obama?

Just asking for a friend who might want to play if there's prize money involved.

We don't drink Abita in the hood

Dear NOLA Gentrifiers,

The reason you got such a great deal for your home is because, (drum roll)...IT'S...IN...THE...HOOD.

And guess what, people in the hood, do hood shit—like owning pit bulls (as opposed to chocolate labs and "snickerpoodles"), having loud gatherings, and walking everywhere.

Ironically, some of you moved to the hood with a "When in Rome..." attitude, and have actually embraced hood shit. (Don't think I didn't see you sitting on your porch the other night drinking Abita and eating Raisin' Cane's because you were too tired to cook.) And I'm cool with that, because I was a first-mover who paid less than half of what you paid for my house, and I've had more time to adjust to and get over the "newness" of hood shit.

The real problem is that you moved to the hood, thinking it would be cool to be able to do hood shit like drinking beer on your porch, but you hate seeing the people who held down the hood after your "momma nem" moved out to Metairie, doing the same hood shit.

To quote Tupac, "And you wonder why they call you bitch?"

The reason why our neighbors invite me to the barbeque and give you the side-eye, is because I haven't called NOPD (twice) to report seeing a "suspicious black guy" walking down the street, only to have him be  Miss So-and-So's son who's always walking because he does odd-jobs for people and can't afford car insurance.

So stop being petty and stop drinking Abita, because we don't drink Abita in the hood.

Survival over Secondlines

Yesterday I posted an article about people leaving New Orleans, but decided to refrain from sharing my thoughts. After seeing this story, I've changed my mind.

In addition to the poor economic prospects they face in New Orleans, relative to other cities (I've actually had a white college drop out who was making a six-figure salary tell me that $60K was "good money" for me despite my undergrad & grad degrees in engineering, art, business & urban redevelopment), professional & middle-class blacks are leaving New Orleans in droves because of their poor quality of life, exacerbated by second-class public services, in particular police protection.

While predominantly-black neighborhoods like New Orleans East, St Roch and the Seventh Ward deal with broken street lights, unaswered 911 calls and ambivalent police responses (ex. a crazy guy stood in the middle of busy street & threatened to 'blow my f'king head off,' and I had to call 911 twice, only for the dispatcher to ask me what I was wearing...but not the crazy guy), street lights are immediately fixed and cops immediately respond in predominantly-white areas like Tulane and Carrollton.

So while New Orleans has a nonstop supply of secondlines, festivals and other forms of cheap entertainment, being able to party all the time pales in comparison to being able to pay your bills every month and avoid getting killed.

Uber-predatorial

Based on what I've read, it appears that Uber books driver fees at a rate that would make the company profitable under its current pricing model. Knowing that the resulting fees would be unattractive to drivers, but needing to keep passenger prices low enough to beat out traditional taxis, Uber kicks back  a portion of its share of passenger fees back to drivers, resulting in an unprofitable fee split for the company.

By labeling something that looks like a driver kickback an incentive, Uber gets to book it as an M&S expense. Then Uber justifies the corporate losses resulting from the cummulative kickbacks/incentives/M&S expenses as the cost of growing their business, as opposed to what it really is, a predatory pricing model designed to drive their biggest competition—traditional taxi companies—out of business.

By reporting cummulative, pre-incentive fee splits as reported revenues, Uber creates the appearance of a realistic and sustainable (i.e., non-predatory) revenue, along with the potential for future profitability.

Thirty years ago, economists would have called Uber's revenue model and fee structure a form of predatory pricing, designed to gain market share and drive competitors out of business. Today, they just call it the "new economy".

The Right Pitch

Aside from the realizations that Senator Cory Booker is a rather unimpressive public speaker while Eva Longoria is a surprisingly good one, here are my main takeaways from the 2016 Democratic National Convention's opening night keynote speeches:

• Elizabeth Warren wants voters to believe Hillary Clinton is the right choice because she's the anti-Trump choice; however, many just believe that she's a different, but (almost) equally bad choice.
• Bernie Sanders wants his supporters to believe Hillary Clinton appreciates their shared values, while many just believe that the only thing she appreciates is an invaluable opportunity to assume a well-deserved spot at the top of the political food chain.
• Michelle Obama wants voters to see a softer, more humane side of Hillary Clinton, by casting her as a high-minded altruist with an unfaltering commitment to public service; in contrast, many just see her as an unapologetic elitist with an unwavering sense of entitlement.

While I doubt the senators and first lady genuinely expected everyone in the audience to buy their Clinton-infused snake oil, they—like their GOP counterparts—were probably reassured by the knowledge that most people will buy anything after hearing the right pitch.

We can't fighting moderm terrorists, while we celebrate historical ones.

I must confess that I am somewhat ambivalent regarding whether statues of various Confederate political and military leaders should be removed from public places; however, I am absolute in my belief that the monument celebrating the supposed "Battle of Liberty Place" should not only be removed, it should be destroyed.

It is generally accepted fact that this impetus for erecting this monument was to honor of the Crescent City White League, the New Orleans "chapter" of a domestic terrorist organization that was founded with the intention of using violence to intimidate and disenfranchise US citizens who happened to be black. To add insult to injury, the actual "battle" it celebrates was a paramilitary assault on and temporary takeover of a number of government buildings, during which over a hundred people were murdered, including 11 police officers.

Although the battle occurred in 1874, the monument was erected in 1891, as an indelible symbol of white supremacy's foothold in the state. Soon after it was erected at the foot of the Canal Street, the monument's role as a symbol of hatred and bigotry was solidified when it became the gathering spot for another Crescent City White League-sponsored terrorism event—the lynchings and murders of over a dozen men of Italian descent who had been accused (and acquitted) of the murder of the city's police chief.

No amount of revisionist whitewashing can change the fact that the Liberty place cop-killings and the 1891 mass-murders supposedly committed to avenge a cop-killing, were the actions of thugs and terrorists—not heroes. As the global community unites in eradicating the hate-driven terrorism of ISIS, we are cannot afford to allow such an overt symbol of and monument to bigotry and hatred continue to occupy a place in our local community.

Just as we have demanded that our national leaders decisively act to prevent future terrorism events, we must demand that our local leaders decisively act to eliminate monuments that celebrate past events.

Lincoln, Jim Crow and the Southern Strategy

The advent of upcoming major elections always revives two race-based conversations:

So the debate alway goes like this:

Conservative: Blacks vote for Democrats because they are the party of handouts.

GOP Party Leaders: Blacks are stupid for supporting Democrats, because they are the "party of Jim Crow" while we are the "party of Lincoln"

Both of these theories about why blacks shouldn't support the Democratic Party, rely ignore two basics facts:

After the Civil War and Secession, the main reason white Southern voters were overwhelming initially attracted to the Democratic Party, for the same reason because it had the "Party of Jim Crow" 

Secession and allowed the proliferation of Jim Crow laws. Conversely, the GOP's status as the "Party of Lincoln," the man who ended slavery, made it attractive to the majority of  new black voters. 

Democratic blacks  GOP wa "Party of Lincoln" The people who made the Democratic the "Party of Jim Crow" When the Democrats effectively ended Jim Crows laws, the Southern Democrats felt bereft Dixiecrats left the "Party southerners who embraced The GOP Don't they know 

1) Conservatives justifying their disdain for blacks for being blindly loyal to the Democratic Party

1) Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, racist Southerners were aligned with that Democratic Party (mostly because it was/is the party most aligned with working class values). When Northern Democrats realized that protecting EVERYBODY's civil rights was compatible with the rest of there working class platform, racist white Southern Democrats did a Tea Party move and form the Southern couldn't  racism couldn't see beyond During the 1950s an

The Source of Self

While watching this video about a father's struggle to love and accept a son who's never going to be the son he imagined he would, I thought about the role parents play in arming us to weather assaults from a world that may not value us or cetains aspects of who we are.

http://www.upworthy.com/this-kids-dad-is-just-as-bad-as-the-bullies-at-school-until-he-makes-me-smile-at-the-end?c=upw1

More than being the source of the genetic coding that makes us individuals, parents help shape our overall sense of self, our confidence in and certainty about who we are.

As our first protectors and providers, they impart us with self-sufficiency. As our first mentors and benchmark setters, they instill us with self-motivation. And, as the first people to know our character, to acknowledge our importance and to accept and embrace our uniqueness, they are critical in shaping our self-awareness, self-esteem and self-worth.

By teaching us to love and accept ourselves, they also show us how to accept no less from everyone we let into our lives.

Buying Your Freedom

Too often we tell our children that their bodies are the most precious things they have and that they shouldn't just give them to anyone, but that advice is wrong. The most precious things we have are our integrity, values and character (ie, our soul), and once we sell those things we can never truly get them back.

Yet too many people wilingly trade their soul to gain things like status, popularity and wealth. In the process, they wind up selling off—little by little—the essence of who they are, eventually becoming people they don't even recognize.

Maximum:

You can buy your freedom or sell your soul, but you"ll sell for brass and pay with gold.

Suspects, First and Citizens, Second.

Whether or not people want to admit it, there is a DOUBLE-STANDARD with regard to how law enforcement officers (LEOs) generally treat "perceived" threats when the person is white versus black. From Oscar Grant to Tamir Rice to my old acquaintance Casper Banjo, a disabled septuagenarian who was gunned down in 2008 by a police rifleman who claimed he was pointing a "replica gun", black men and women—from adolescence through their senior years—are initially viewed by LEOs as threats and not citizens. On the contrary, white people, regardless of the situation or circumstance, are first treated like citizens—with all the associated rights, including the presumption of innocence—and only labeled suspects when it is either obvious or necessary to do so.

Why I No Longer Talk About Race With White People

After following the media coverage associated with a grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown, as well as the divergent responses from white and black Americans, I decided that I was no longer going to discuss any issues involving race in a mixed race setting—in particular, one that includes white people.

This is because no matter what a black person says about racism, discrimination or racial profiling, most white people always seem to believe that they are the final arbiters on black people's experiences in America; on whether our claims of racism and discrimination are valid; on whether we are entitled to feel aggrieved by the injustices we THINK we have faced; on whether we are competent; and on whether we are deserving of the same rights, protections and opportunities that they feel are their birthright as Americans.

After years of conversations—in college classes and cocktail parties—I have realized that white people subconsciously believe that their opinion on the black experience trumps my actual experience  as a black woman, and that no amount anecdotal or actual evidence will change what they have decided is the truth about black people's lives and experiences in this country.

More important, I am refusing to discuss racism with white people because they're generally uninvested in ending it, so these conversations are at best, feel good opportunities for those that think it's wrong and blame game sessions for those who believe it either doesn't exist or that what blacks perceive as racial bias against all of us is justified by the actions of some of us.

As I get older, I can no longer afford to frustrate myself by discussing issues that impact MY life with people who believe that they know more about me and my experiences than I know about myself; especially, when I know that my perspective only matters if it validates theirs. Moreover, I'm at a point in my life where I cannot afford to invest my limited free time in unproductive discourse that will lead to neither understanding nor resolution of a particular problem.

So instead of wasting my time on fruitless attempts to influence white America's opinions and attitudes regarding race and racial injustice, I plan to avoid such conversations, opting instead to talk about the Saints' dismal record, the merits of okra versus filé gumbo or any other topic about which I know my opinion will be accepted.

Why I Wasn't With Mary

When people ask why I refused to vote to re-elect Sen. Mary Landrieu and supported her GOP opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, I point to a meeting I attended in 2006 with her and a recently elected senator from Illinois, where she promised to provide resources for recovering minority and small businesses.

This promise was delivered in the form of  a $1 Billion in special GO Zone New Markets Tax Credits that were supposed to be used to finance business and real estate investment opportunities in "severely  distressed" neighborhoods like parts of the Ninth and Seventh Wards, but were primarily used to finance her brother's Broadway South fantasies (maybe he thought he'd get a chance to use his undergraduate drama training), "mixed-use" downtown buildings offering high-rent apartments that 80+% of the city's residents can't afford or hotels offering wages so low that most employees have to work two jobs just to afford rent in those STILL underserved neighborhoods. 

This was was delivered in the form of BILLIONS of dollars of Disaster Recovery Community Block Grant funds she lobbied for that were supposed to create thousands of "quality" construction and permanent jobs for local residents, along with sustainable business opportunities for local disadvantaged businesses, but came with a waiver of the local hiring and prevailing wage provisions typical for such funds, allowing contractors to hire out-state and even undocumented foreign workers, leaving blacks even more under- & unemployed than they were before Katrina.

On the other hand, made an effort to research and meet Bill Cassidy, and wound up impressed by his work creating community clinics, his commitment to providing educational opportunities and resources for children with learning challenges, and his belief in empowering people to help themselves through entrepreneurship versus empowering established businesses to maintain the economic status quo—it should be noted that the Small Business & Entrepreneurship gave him a 100% rating on supporting favorable legislation, while Mary Landrieu only received a 58% rating.

While Cassidy may not deliver anything to help the people Mary promised to help during that meeting, I already know that Mary hasn't done it so I'm willing to take my chances on someone else and vote against him, if he fails to deliver over the next six  years.

Racism is NOT A Black Problem

For centuries, the wealthy white male power structure (WWMPS) has used racism (and all of the other isms) to justify treating people as less than so they can take more of. 

Like dealers who need to get high on their own supply, the WWMPS has wholesaled racism to the rest of the white community to pay for its habit. By creating institutions and systems that extend the benefits of racism to all whites, the WWMPS has turned white people into paid racism stakeholders who are willing to maintain it, or at very least, unwilling to fight it.

These wages of whiteness—paid through preferential access to resources and opportunities, as well as insulation from the injustices and negative outcomes faced by non-whites in similar circumstances—are paid to all white people, regardless of whether they have a hand in creating or maintaining it. As a consequence, the wages of whiteness are often too attractive to refuse, and too easy to disavow.

Unfortunately, the wages of whiteness are like an addiction for which the "antidote is also the poison", because only white people can fix the problem they've created. With every addiction, there are addicts who try to assuage their guilt by blaming others for their habit. With racism, this group typically justifies it as merely a by-product or consequence of the actions or behaviors of non-whites.

In general, white people are too 

addicted to the wages of whiteness to simply give them up. This is why almost two centuries of economic, moral and political efforts have done little to end racism. 

When the only person who has the ability to fix a problem benefits from its existence, any resolution is improbable. So until white people collectively admit that racism is a problem that needs to be fixed and that it is their problem to fix, racism will exist until the concept of race is no longer valid or relevant.

How The Media's Mirror Reflects The Black Community

One of the most popular recent stories in the Times-Picayune (T-P), the paper of record in New Orleans, has been recent release of Lil Boosie, from the Louisiana State Penitentiary after serving three years of an eight year sentence for drug possession and intent to distribute.   While Lil Boosie's release has been a prominent story, the recent death of Chokwe Lumumba, a man who was an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised, as well as the mayor of the largest city in Mississippi has been completely ignored.  In addition to posting at least a half dozen articles in the five days since his release, the paper's website recently participated in and live-streamed a press conference with the Baton Rouge rapper and parolee, who was acquitted of one murder-for-hire charge while he was in prison but remains a suspect in two more, who recently posted a video on Instagram of his seven year old daughter cursing like an irate sailor and whose total CD sales wouldn't even earn him a gold record.

There are those in the Black community who will undoubtedly call me a "hater" for criticizing the T-P's love fest with Lil Boosie, but there is no justification for celebrating someone who not only promotes thuggish behavior in his music, but embodies it in his lifestyle.  Moreover, covering the prison release of a quasi-celebrity rapper, while ignoring the death of a world-renown activist and politician, is not much different than putting stories about Black criminals on the front page while burying ones about Black achievement in the lifestyle section..

It is an accepted notion that—through their reporting—journalists are merely "holding up a mirror to society," and that their stories are accurate reflections of the people and events they chose to cover.  Unfortunately, it is also an accepted notion that journalists tell us everything we need to know about our society.  So if the only stories about Black people they chose to tell are ones that portray us as thugs, addicts, criminals and poor parents, the implication is that the personal characteristics and behaviors of this group are the sum of our reality and existence.

When the worst of us is celebrated while the best of us isn't even worth mentioning, the message to our children is that the values and social norms of the former are to be embraced while those of the latter can be ignored.  Through their in-depth coverage of Lil Boosie and virtual news blackout on the life and death of Mayor Lumumba, the T-P's mirror is one that reflects the lowest common denominator in the Black community and promotes thug life as our ideal life.

We Ain't Alright

Depending on whom you talk to and which neighborhood that person lives in, New Orleans is either thriving under Mayor Mitch Landrieu, or we’re still suffering eight years after Chuck D penned these lyrics in response to seeing Black New Orleanians struggle after Katrina:

Urgency

State of emergency

Shows somebody’s government

Is far from reality….

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night

Hell no, we ain’t alright.[1]

Mayor Landrieu claims that under his administration, we are improving and moving forward as “One City,” but if you drive through and talk to people in various neighborhoods, you will hear a tale of two cities—one that has thrived and benefitted from his term in office, and one that has been neglected.

In THEIR New Orleans, the CBD and French Quarter have been spruced up with freshly paved streets and sidewalks, along with new palm trees that are regularly strung with Christmas lights to celebrate the holidays and major tourism events like the Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Weekend and Mardi Gras. In MY New Orleans, people in predominantly Black neighborhoods like the Seventh Ward and Gentilly are living with broken street lights and sidewalks.

In THEIR New Orleans, money from the DOT's Submerged Roads Program is available for fixing Uptown streets like Magazine and Jefferson that never saw a drop of water during Katrina. In MY New Orleans, streets in Katrina-flooded neighbors like Broadmoor and Gert Town remain cracked and caving in almost nine years after the waters subsided.

In THEIR New Orleans, the city and school board have spent BILLIONS on new schools and public facilities. In MY New Orleans, the unemployment rate for the city's Black residents is one of the highest in the country.

In THEIR New Orleans, three police cars arrive within 15 minutes, in response to a security alarm at a Garden District residence.  In MY New Orleans, the police take over 30 minutes to respond to a 911 call from a homeowner in New Orleans East who's just been in a shootout during an attempted home invasion.

While people who in Uptown neighborhoods, the French Quarter or the CBD enjoy newly paved streets, reliable police services, a responsive City Hall and an overall improved quality of life that makes them feel the city is doing well, the people in MY New Orleans are living with broken street lights, pot-holed streets, high crime and higher unemployment rates.  So when people tell me New Orleans is doing great under Mayor Landrieu, I just tell them that while certain parts of New Orleans may be doing well, the people in my part of town "ain't alright."

---

[1] Lyrics from the song “Hell No, We Ain’t Alright” on the album Rebirth of a Nation by Public Enemy, 2005

 

 

The Asterisk In The Room

Social media is on fire talking about Richard Sherman's interview with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, during which he reads, writes and erases the latter for attempting to minimize his achievements.

As a fellow former college athlete and Stanford graduate, the exchange between Sherman and Bayless resonated with me personally.  Whenever I tell someone that I went to Stanford, I typically omit the fact that I was on the women's track team because the face of the person I'm talking to generally takes on an "it makes sense" look, as if the only way I could have possibly attended and graduated from such a prestigious and academically rigorous institution was if I'd been recruited to be some kind of college gladiator.
Even after I disclose that my admissions application included National Merit Semi-Finalist and National Achievement Finalist awards, three elected student offices (including the student body presidency during my senior year), a varsity letter in three sports and a transcript that included both high school AP and junior college classwork. Even after disclosing that I'd also been courted by West Point, MIT, Berkeley and CalTech, I still feel as if the person I'm talking to has put an invisible asterisk next to name to remind him or her that my athleticism somehow proves the implausibility of my proclaimed intellectualism and that my academic achievements are somehow fraudulent.

While black graduates from prestigious universities regularly face skepticism regarding their qualifications and achievements, those of us who were scholar-athletes at these institutions are treated like world recordholders with asterisks besides our names. To people like Bayless, our accomplishments and intellect are never afforded the same level of respect and regard as those of our white peers, and are often as discounted as a world record finish in the 100 meters, accomplished below sea level and with a strong tailwind.

Instead of acknowledging Sherman's athletic and intellectual exceptionalism, people are looking for reasons to discredit and diminish him. If he wasn't one of the best at what he does, he wouldn't still be in the league and his team wouldn't be going to the Super Bowl. And if he wasn't smart, he wouldn't have been able to get into and graduate from Stanford, or have been accepted into one of the school's graduate programs.
Richard Sherman is absolutely justified in being proud of his accomplishments, and in taking umbrage at anyone who dare dismiss them as anything but exceptional. In less than a quarter of century he has accomplished more than some people do throughout their careers. Not only has he managed to pass through the filters of being one of the best high school football players in the country, being one of the best college players in the country and being one of the best professional players in country, he has become part of the academic elite, having attended and graduated from one of the top academic institutions in the world.

In a few weeks, Richard Sherman and the Seahawks will take the field and attempt to bring home their team's first Vince Lombardi trophy. Win or lose, Sherman's detractors will be hard pressed to prove that he didn't deserve to be on that field or that his success warrants any type of asterisk or disclaimer.
The next time someone questions my qualifications or looks at me with incredulity when I tell them I went to Stanford, I'm going to take a page out of Richard Sherman's book and tell them that not only am I alumna, I am also a former student athlete which makes my accomplishments all the more exceptional and not less.