Thoughts From A Short Round Black Man

The Ghosts of Archie Bunker

I’m going to be honest, I was scared

This was my 11th presidential campaign and election, but it was the first one in which I was genuinely scared.

Elections have left me:

Resigned (’80-’84)

Frustrated (’88)

Happy (’92-’96)

Mystified (’00-’04)

In tears (’08-’12)

And in shock (‘16)

But was the first one in which I was truly scared about the outcome.

On the last MLK Day overseen by a president of color (for now), I wrote that even though we were going into the darkest days in American history since Reconstruction, that I had hope because “hope is the first step toward changing the world.”

Well the world has changed—and that’s why I’m scared.

It has changed in big and small ways.

The big ones—especially this year—we have seen in the streets, on our screens, and on our faces.

The small ones are the culmination of the choices made 4 years ago.

Four years ago, the decision was made to let Archie Bunker run our country.

For those of you youngsters who might not know who this individual is:

Archie Bunker was loud, called people Hebes, Coloreds, Chinks, and Japs, told us that “The bible says that White people are superior,” and lamented the fact that he couldn’t tell “Polock” jokes because he might “hurt their feelings.”

Archie was a character created by Norman Lear for his landmark show “All in the Family” as a caricature and repudiation of the proud, unrepentant racists that were in control of the national narrative after the election of Richard Nixon. Nixon called them the “Silent Majority,” those White men born during the Depression, who went from high school (if they graduated high school) to the military, to the factory floor. White men who felt they had been “ignored” in the rush to finally allow “Negros” and women become members of society.

For some who watch the show, Archie was a source of eye-avoiding embarrassment:

Archie was every older White man who came out onto their porch to watch as you walked through their neighborhood if you were a certain hue, or your hair was a little too long.

Archie was the uncle you asked your parents about “why does he have to come for Thanksgiving?”

Archie was the boss whose racist jokes you had to laugh at because he filled out your schedule.

But over the 13 years Archie was on the air, he was also a source of pride—for those who felt they were being placed in the “back of the bus” by:

“Lazy people who didn’t want to work and were still begging for money,”

“Black people who weren’t qualified but still got the job,”

“The broad who sicced my manager on me because I stared at her and made her ‘uncomfortable,’”

“Forcing my kids to go to school and hear drivel about slavery and the slaughter of Indians.”

“Those people screeching in that funny language—WHY CAN’T THEY LEARN ENGLISH?!?”

For those people, Archie was “Telling it like it is,” discussing those things that people had “become afraid of saying in public,” and politicians began to notice:

Candidate Reagan hinted at the Archie Bunker grievances in 1980 (“States Rights”).

Thanks to Lee Atwater, candidate Bush (the Elder) gave it a face (Willie Horton).

Candidate Clinton won points—and showed that Democrats wanted the “Archie Bunker” vote—by calling out a minor rap star (“The Sister Souljah moment”).

When Clinton used Archie, it started being called “reaching out to the Blue Collar voter,” and people started tiptoeing around it—quietly closing the lid on it during the 2008 election.

Unfortunately, the Archie Bunkers of the world were about to get a new voice from a game show host, who started calling into question the location of the birth of the Democratic candidate for president of the United States.

When that game show host glided down the golden escalator of his housing complex for the Rich and Entitled and started talking about “Bad Hombres” and others in the crudest, racists and sexist terms we’ve heard in a modern presidential campaign, he gave voice to those “Silent Americans” who honestly believed that had been forgotten about. In return, those Americans supported the game show host with a fervor straight out of “Triumph of the Will,” delivering the game show host a victory that even he didn’t think was possible.

And with that victory, Archie Bunker was front and center.

Attitudes and actions that folks who look like me thought had been left behind were not only given free reign, they were paraded in our faces with a smile, laugh and epithet (“Snowflake”—which when you look like me has always been a little amusing).

Which brings me back to why I’m scared.

You see the reality is, even though the game show host can now start counting the days until he has to leave a house that he really didn’t like (he loved the power, but has readily acknowledged that the house was so beneath the level of opulence he was accustomed to), the hatred, vitriol and anger that he has generated on both sides is like toothpaste out of the tube—it can never be put back in.

I spent a portion of the morning after the election listening to C-Span, which has two phone lines—Republican and Democrat—and just lets people talk.

The calls on the Republican line spoke about:

The election being a plot to bring communism to the U.S.,

That this will now allow “Black Lives Matter” to dictate how to run the government,

How there was credible evidence that ballots were being taken from election centers and being destroyed (Somehow this caller knew they were ballots from supporters of the President),

How there was credible evidence that ballots were being taken into election centers to pad the vote (Somehow this caller knew they were ballots from supporters of the President-Elect),

And how there was already a plot to kill the President-Elect so communists can, and I quote: “put that N***** B****” in the Oval Office.

I do believe they were just a little upset about the results of the election…welcome to my world circa 2016.

The responses I heard in that short time scare me because even though Archie Bunker WAS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, he embodied the REAL FEELINGS of many White people—(and numbers don’t lie, the majority of the votes the outgoing president received were from White people)—scared, angry and frustrated that the position they once held is starting to slip away.

Today’s Archie Bunker is no longer fictional, they are men and women who thanks to the words and actions of the current resident of the White House (and his enablers online and on local and national broadcast outlets) believe they have a license to act out, lash out in a manner that if communities of color did something similar…well we know how White folks act when large groups of BIPOC folks come into their communities, don’t we??

In 2016, the supporters of the game show host who became president said people should just accept the results—their side won.

In 2020, the supporters of the game show who is now the 10^th one-term president in American history (the last one being the Bush who used Willie Horton) are calling for revotes (Herschel, I know you still probably collect checks from him from your USFL days, but What the What?!?), and for far, far worse.

Like John Wilkes Booth, they would probably consider their act the necessary steps needed to save the union, because if you truly believe the snippet of Thomas Jefferson’s letter about the “tree of liberty” it’s easy to justify an “act of patriotism.”

It’s my sincere wish the national temperature will begin to drop on January 20, 2021, but that’s the saddest and scariest part of all. The simple reality is:

SEVENTY MILLION (70,000,000) people supported the outgoing administration.

SEVENTY MILLION!!!

I assume each of those people had a reason why they voted for the game show host—much like the SEVENTY-FOUR MILLION (74,000,000) who voted for the president-elect.

But in voting for the game show host—and from my Facebook postings, I have a few friends, White and Black, who were among the 70,000,000 who voted for him—those voters have to explain, excuse and justify the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism that has been part of his administration.

Those voters have to acknowledge/admit they are satisfied with the fact that his complete ignorance and cowardice in the face of a disease that has killed a quarter-million Americans is OK with them.

They have to believe that America really is a binary country—that if you’re not “with them, your against them.”

In other words, they have to proudly, unapologetically be Archie Bunker.

And that scares me…

Until Next Time.

Media, “unnamed sources” and the truths we choose to follow

I assume during his breaks from helping fire the furnaces, the 37^th President of the United States puts down his shovel, wipes his brow, looks up and says “damn, why didn’t this happen when I was in office, I might have made it.”

People who I assumed were bright folks have been filling my social pages about how “It’s horrible they’re doing this with unnamed sources for no other reason than to bring people down…” and prefacing these remarks by saying “I’M NOT BEING POLITICAL….”

C’mon—the very nature of these posts are political—because the only person who right now has to deal with “unnamed sources” on a national level is the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

I usually let these comments pass, but in responding to one that even FOX NEWS has confirmed the story, the reply back was: “WE KNOW HOW TRUSTWORTHY FOX IS…”

SMGDH…

Do you sincerely believe that after what happened to Dan Rather in 2004, that any professional (and my definition of professional is one who has been trained in the vocation) reporter would go to air, print or online with a story that they’ve haven’t been able to verify AFTER getting the information from the unnamed source. Do you think any editor would allow a reporter to air, print or go online with a story that they haven’t seen the VERIFICATION of?

I get it—ever since the acts of the 37th President of the United States (and the actions of his first VP, who coined the phrase “nattering nabobs of negativism” when speaking about the media) ended his term prematurely, there has been a concerted effort from BOTH PARTIES to denigrate the work of reporters. And as I mentioned with Rather, there have been some reporters who have helped electeds in the effort to make people distrust the press by taking shortcuts and shading the truth

And thanks to that, we’re at the point where people believe NOTHING—unless what they read or hear confirms and/or conforms to their world view. And in today’s world, where every theory—no matter how outlandish or asinine—is just a mouse click away, it’s easy to find a point of view that matches yours.

More’s the pity…

In today’s current atmosphere, Richard Nixon, who until the current officeholder, had perpetrated the greatest example of malfeasance while occupying the White House, would have said Woodward and Bernstein can’t be believed because the bulk of their reporting was from “unnamed sources.”

The fact that they then went out and VERIFIED the statements they received from these unnamed sources is superfluous.

<<and I suspect some of the parents of these people posting now DID feel about Nixon and the way “he was treated” in the same way their children are feeling about the current occupant of the White House…but I digress…>>

I suspect that for far too many people, if a media organization they didn’t agree with told them “water was wet,” they would accuse that outlet of a liberal (or conservative) conspiracy…

Understand, newspapers grew out of the partisan world of politics—there were newspapers that were essentially house organs of the political parties they supported. So in that aspect, Fox News and MSNBC are just a throwback to the “glorious” days of Hearst and Pulitzer. But for the most part (and there are those who would argue—like the people posting about “unfair treatment”) these are professionals who are trying to do a job that everybody now believes they are capable of doing, you know like the beer-bellied individuals who believe they could fake out Bobby Wagner, hit a Marco Gonzales curveball, or drive past Kawhi Leonard….

As a person who spent a decade in the profession, the majority of the people working on and reporting these stories, whether if it’s with a community paper, the shrinking number of independent local dailies, the even smaller number of local TV and radio outlets, or those who are trying to scratch out a living writing newsblogs, are focused on providing those who are looking at their articles with the unvarnished truth.

Now that “truth” may be from their point of view—as we have seen from outlets like Fox, OAN and MSNBC—but it’s truth that is the result of the work they put into it.

You may not agree with it—and it appears that at least one-third of members of my grade school and high school graduating classes that I’m in contact with—at least for now—doesn’t (but hey, they also don’t agree that the subject of these “unnamed sources” is a racist and a misogynist…because you know all of those times its been reported is “fake news”).

Remember, just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean that it’s not true.

It was true back in Nixon’s day—and since other sources (even if you throw out Fox and CNN) have confirmed portions on the article that has set off this firestorm—it’s true today….

Until next time…

Seattle and “Touching the Elephant”

This summer—the last six months—have been a perfect example of the story of the blind men and the elephant—men without sight touching different parts of the massive creature and coming up with different conclusion of just what the animal was.

In 2020, every person has been touching the elephant and coming up with different conclusions on what is going on.

From the pandemic to the protests, on a national and local level, across all spectrums and all generations, much like the blind men, your perspective depends on where you’re touching the elephant.

You’re either “exercising your right to freedom,” or helping “perpetuate a virulent disease.”

You’re either supporting those who are “fighting back after 400 years of oppression” or speaking out for those brave men and women “who are protecting us from chaos in the streets.”

You’re either acknowledging there’s “a collective issue with the current structure of the criminal justice system that must be addressed,” or “we’re dismantling a perfectly good system because of a few bad apples.”

You see it in the memes and messages posted onto social media and in the stories disseminated in print and broadcast outlets.

This past week, Seattle has become a microcosm of the elephant story because of a series of events that lead to the retirement/resignation of the Chief of Police.

Those who are “touching” Carmen Best’s story from the perspective of “Seattle is dying,” are pointing out the chaos of a city and location—downtown—that they stopped coming into on a regular basis a decade ago.

There are older Black people—people who are the age of my oldest siblings (late 60’s—early 70’s) who are “touching” Best’s story from the perspective they grew up with, anger because after finally having “one of ours” work their way up the ladder and reach a position of authority, that person has been driven out. Worse yet, that person was driven out before they had a chance to “prove themselves,” akin to the “Last Hired, First Fired” scenario People of Color have had to endure forever.

On the flip side, younger Black people—those in their late teens to 20’s and 30’s—“touch” Best as “she may be Black, but she was in charge of a fundamentally flawed and/or racist organization whose focus has been on the perpetuation of the status quo.” So while concerned, there is not the visible anger that has been expressed by older Blacks such as the former King County Executive.

Seattle’s two most visible radio talk show hosts (AM and FM)—neither of whom live in Seattle, but make a lot a money bashing Seattle—“touch” Best as an opportunity to treat someone who at the beginning of the summer they said was letting chaos reign in the city as a conquering “hero,” a person who stood up to the “Marxists” running the Seattle City Council.

And then there’s everybody else, touching the Best “elephant” and still unsure of what the Hell is going on—which makes it par for the course for 2020.

“We” like our world to be (if you’ll excuse me for injecting color into this conversation) Black and White.

“Lock up all of the protestors/rioters” (White) vs. “Protests/Riots are the voice of the unheard” (Black).

“Blue Lives Matter” (White) vs. “ACAB” (Black).

“People should be just as angry about Cannon Hinnant as they are about George Floyd” (White) vs. “Both deaths were tragic, and those responsible should be prosecuted” (Black).

–By the way, the suspect in the death of Hinnant was quickly apprehended and is being held without bond—can we say the same for the suspects in the death of Mr. Floyd, or those responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor??

“Chief Best is a victim of an out of control City Council who enjoy making Seattle a Third-World country” (White) vs. “The actions of the SPD, directed by Chief Best, deserved to be examined to see if the systemic issues that are part of the current law enforcement model of the department that she was in charge of can be corrected or if the whole system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt” (Black).

The problem of Black and White (or White and Black) is that there is no room for discussion, for nuance.

Jim Hightower’s famous statement about there’s nothing in the middle of the road “But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos,” is what America has become—two positions that can be called “Right” or “Wrong” “Black” or “White” “Liberal” or “Conservative” but no in-between.

Like the men with the elephant, what people “touch” has now become their position and nothing—NOTHING—will move them from that opinion/position. The unfortunate thing about this is that it means people are talking at each other instead of talking to each other. Where the conversations could develop a new color: gray.

Because there are times when there is a middle of the road, but only if people are willing to stop what they’re doing—see which sides message can be shouted the loudest—and LISTEN:

Folks responsible for property damage SHOULD face prosecution, but it should also not detract OR distract from the primary message that has put people into the streets since May 26.

Police serve a vital responsibility, but let’s be very clear, some cops—not all—but more than the “BLUE LIVES MATTER” crowd will ever admit, ARE BASTARDS (ACAB) and those bastards are taking the lives of Black and Brown (and on occasion White) people.

We need to be protected from those cops and start working on the system that allows them to act like bastards and get away with it. Acknowledging that it’s more than a “few bad apples” is the first real step toward building a new paradigm instead of patching up the old, failed system.

And most painfully, we need to acknowledge that while doing an incredible job during a difficult period in the city’s history, and that there are plenty of people whose fingerprints are on how she is leaving, as the Chief of the department, Carmen Best is responsible for the actions taken by the officers under her charge and the anger those actions have generated.

Is that fair? It’s as fair as the actions taken against the Police Chief who was in charge the last time Seattle was nationally recognized for being “out of control.” In the wake of the WTO riots, everyone started pointing fingers at the actions (or inactions depending on where you “touch the elephant”) of the SPD and started saying Chief Norm Stamper needed to take responsibility for what occurred.

Stamper’s way of “taking responsibility” was to resign/retire from the position.

You cannot (and I will not) deny or defend the ham-fisted way the City Council has proceeded this summer in a conversation that quite frankly we need to have, the rebuilding/restructuring of law enforcement in this city. It’s a conversation that MUST take place, and a conversation that sadly will now no longer have the voice of Chief Best as part of the mix.

The current model isn’t working, and we need to get under the hood and fix what has not been working as quickly as possible.

And that is only going to happen when people move, start touching other parts of the elephant and start discussing what they have touched going forward. It’s not going to be Black—and it’s not going to be White—but it may be something that will get us back to talking to each other.

There’s a good chance that in the end, neither side is going to be happy with the solutions that come from this, but as Henry Clay said: “A good compromise is when both parties are dissatisfied.”

We need to start working on compromise. Because we’re not all right, and we’re not all wrong.

We’re all just touching different parts of the elephant

Until Next Time.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

This is actually the most dangerous part of the rebellion that is going into its third week:

There has been a response to the horrific scene of another White man with a badge killing another Black man.

There has been the paroxysm of anger—and yes violence—over the response to the incident, because after all—this was the original view of the actions of Officer Chauvin and his band of killers on what was done to George Floyd.

Don’t forget that it took almost THREE MONTHS for our friends in Georgia to finally act on the execution of Ahmaud Arbery and while the Louisville Metro Council adopted legislation to prevent people from being murdered in their bed like Breonna Taylor, there’s still crickets about the officers responsible for her death being brought to justice.

So forgive me if I lean more toward the Dr. King quote that too many White folks ignore during situations like this, preferring memes about peaceful marches and ignoring the fact that police response to Dr. King’s marches was akin to what we’ve seen recently, except they also used fire hoses and police dogs.

But why am I calling this the most dangerous part of the current situation?

Because minus the reaction in Atlanta, to yet another police killing of a Black man, the issue has gone from “sexy” to “boring”, which means people can both start ignoring it and changing the narrative.

What I mean is this: shouting (police and protestors), burning cars, clouds of tear gas, busted windows and people pouring out of stores with handfuls of whatever is eye catching. Just like the car accident on the side of the road—you can’t help but watch it.

Even in this modern world of communication, the old axiom –“If it bleeds, it leads”—is still the standard that most local newsrooms in America live by because noisy riots full of smoke, shouting and flash bangs are SEXY.

“People are busting up windows, torching cop cars—GET EVERY REPORTER AND CAMERA CREW WE HAVE DOWN THERE!!”

(And in the case of one Seattle TV station—don’t forget to send your private ARMED security detail with the reporter, because you never know….)

But on Friday, June 12, 60-THOUSAND SILENT MARCHERS filled the streets of Seattle, a sea of humanity that stretched for miles, protesting the continuing injustices perpetrated on Communities of Color in general and the Black Community in particular.

AND WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE TO THAT??

Did stations go live with the peaceful protest? And interrupt the soaps, Kelly Clarkson and Dr. Phil?

ARE YOU CRAZY?!?

So something that could potentially have as much impact as the smoke, fires and noise that TV stations went live with two weeks ago gets relegated to streaming platforms on TV websites this week.

Why? Because peaceful protest, no matter how impactful it might be, are BORING.

And boring is bad, which is why the most meaningful march in Seattle in a generation was relegated to cyberspace.

When situations like this start to become quiet—start to get boring—people (and you know who you are) start thinking: “maybe it wasn’t as bad as we were lead to believe.”

Worse yet, like a good magician that distracts the audience as they pull the rabbit out of the hat, people start districting you with minutiae—such as this little missive that is springing up on social media:

“This badge ran towards certain death as the Towers collapsed on 9-11.
This badge ran into the line of fire to save the people in the Pulse Night Club.
This badge sheltered thousands as bullets rained down from the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas.
This badge protected a BLM rally that left five officers dead in Dallas.
This badge ran into the Sandy Hook School to stop a school shooter.
This badge killed the Oregon District mass shooter in seconds.
This badge has done CPR on your drowned child.
This badge has fist fought the wife beater who left his spouse in a coma.
This badge has run into burning buildings to save the occupants.
This badge has been shot for simply existing.
This badge has waded through flood waters to rescue the elderly trapped on the roof.
This badge has intentionally crashed into the wrong way driver to protect innocent motorists.”

It has a few more stanzas—but you get the idea…

Or people start pulling homilies out of mothballs

And just like that, the conversation shifts from the painful one we MUST HAVE about fundamental reforms that need to take place not only in law enforcement, but in all of society, to “we just need to trim the few bad apples” and “we shouldn’t judge a group as a whole because of the act(s) of a single individual.”

It has come to my attention that these statements and memes only come out when:

A White person commits a heinous act (think Dylan Roof),

And when law enforcement are caught doing something unspeakable (like George Floyd, Tamir Rice, and THOUSANDS of other Black people).

Add to that conversations about “anarchists” taking over police stations, and suddenly we’re not talking about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, but about “lawlessness,” “why aren’t people respecting property?” and “why are people trying to erase history?”

Understand, I know right now, there are far too many of my White brothers and sisters who wish this would just go away because as I’ve discussed before, the conversations you need to have as part of the transformation that is coming are painful. But I beg you not to let your focus slip.

Just because the protest are quiet doesn’t mean they have stopped—they’ve just stopped being interesting to some of the messengers reporting on them. Stay focused; don’t be distracted by the rabbit coming out of the hat.

It’s not about the CHAZ (or CHOP). It’s not about not every cop is bad (even though I must say when a person of color commits a heinous act, it’s still pretty common for White people to assign blame to every member of that specific race…)

It’s about how we do right by George Floyd and preventing what happen to him from happening to another Black man.

Pointing out the individuals who commit these acts and saying that they don’t represent all of a department or race is still a good thing, but we also must remember that it’s the current system they operate under that allowed these individuals to think they could lean on a man’s neck for almost 10 minutes and get away with it.

The changes that are coming must be systemic, and trying to say that it’s the individual and not the system that is at fault is what has lead us to the situation we find ourselves in right now.

And that situation is this: I’m starting to become really concerned that some of you all are more worried about property, which at the end of the day can be cleaned up or replaced, and propriety (why can’t we achieve this in the way we were taught about in our history classes, Black people marched and it all got solved—the end) than the DEAD MAN who brought people into the streets and has some of you so scared you want to bring in the military.

Keep your eyes on the prize, because this is where we see if people are truly sincere about making a lasting change in our society, or if they’re looking for the rabbit to come out of the hat.

Until Next Time.

UNCOMFORTABLE FIRES

As I was watching the “Fire next Time” become reality, I stayed mostly quiet, because I’m now at a point in my life in which this has become a racial “Mobius Strip”

I was getting ready for Kindergarten during the 1967 “Long Hot Summer,” which lead to a conclusion that our nation was heading toward “two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.”

25 Years later, I watched Los Angeles burn as the men responsible for Rodney King, the first nationally videotaped assault of a Black man at the hand of law enforcement, were acquitted.

And the roll call has continued:

Amadou Diallo,

Eric Garner,

Philando Castile,

Tamir Rice,

Freddie Gray,

Michael Brown,

The times and dates start blending together.

Black men (and one who didn’t get the chance to become a man), killed first and foremost because they were BLACK. And those responsible receiving little or no punishment.

The response to these actions and the inevitable acquittals: marches, riots and yes looting and the destruction of property.

And now George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

For all of my life, but especially over the last generation, some White people look in horror at the history occurring before them and immediately start seeking out the Black people they know—coworker, high school or college friends, rec team teammates—and start speaking the predictable banalities of shock and contrition, usually followed by “what can we do to change things?”

Some try to “educate” themselves by reading books and letting their children know about Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X., Hank Aaron, Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and feel like they are doing their part to raise their children to love, be unbiased and with no prejudice.

To me, at this point, all I see is White folks “checking the right boxes” so they can feel good about themselves.

Because the simply reality is that unless there is a SYSTEMIC change, we’re going to be back on that Mobius Strip. The world we live in is now a world in which everyone has a camera and these acts are not going to be ignored anymore because they will be broadcasted on Facebook, Twitter, and the growing panoply of social media platforms.

Whether it’s a cop choking out the life of a Black suspect, or a “Becky” calling 911 because a Black birdwatcher had the audacity to ask her to obey the rules, the micro aggressions that are all part of the subtle, covert racism woven into the history of this country are starting to be shown in high definition video. And the inevitable response will continue to occur again and again.

Which means that unless we start working on solutions yesterday, this cycle is going to start all over again, growing bigger with each incident.

Currently there is a lot of discussion about “uncomfortable conversations,” and that term has always fascinated me, because who are they “uncomfortable” for?

You want to know what uncomfortable is?

Being in the 4th Grade and opening up your social studies book and seeing the words “Jigaboo” “Spearchucker,” and everybody’s favorite “N” word littering the chapter about Africa.
Being a high school sophomore and finding out that you have a new nickname after friends had been watching Tarzan over the weekend: “Bomba.” When you tell them it has to end, they reluctantly stop, but there is a neat drawing in your yearbook with the bone-in-hair native wishing Bomba a great summer!
Getting an offer for what you consider your dream job, working in the newsroom at the #1 station in your city, and wondering if the primary reason you got the position was because it became public knowledge that management at that station put on a performance in blackface and it had very few Black reporters and staff.
Having a U. S. Customs agent finger her holster as she ask you about the White woman in the back of your car, and having your brother and sister-in-law have to produce their marriage certificate to show that she was indeed married to one of the Black men in the car. We laugh about it now, but I’ve always wondered what would have happened if they had decided to leave their marriage certificate in Canada.
Being pulled over in Longview by a State Trooper who wanted a rundown of every city you stopped in during a vacation down the coast, and wanted to know where you worked.
Having the sales clerk at the store in Alderwood Mall ignore you and your fiancé as you were shopping for your engagement ring, not once, but three times. I still joke that I should have had my wife (who is White) be the person to call the clerk over.
Calling the police about the downstairs neighbor being attacked and beaten by their boyfriend, and having those police question you and ask if there was a reason you stopped attacking the woman?
Having a parent of one of your bosses come up to you and praise you on all the work you’ve done to make the world a better place—and you having to point to the other Black man in the room and explain that is the man you want to praise.
And having Prius driving, Obama voting White folks talk about wanting diversity—but only if it doesn’t affect their children.

THAT IS UNCOMFORABLE. And understand: every BLACK PERSON and PERSON OF COLOR has had similar “uncomfortable moments,” and those who claim they haven’t—I call “shenanigans!”

THAT IS UNCOMFORTABLE BY A FACTOR OF SAY 10,000 over the conversation you want to have with me (or any other Black person) about the privilege you have enjoyed all your lives, regardless of your economic position, and what you can do about it.

So for now, if you want to share your discomfort—and understand, there are a lot of White folk who will tell you that have nothing to feel uncomfortable about and start talking about “not seeing color” of “All Lives Matter” as they say if only “those people” knew how to act—I think it’s time to stop seeking absolution from me and other people of color.

Start having those uncomfortable conversations with your parents about how they felt about school busing back in the day (and now), or about how they reacted when the first family of color moved into the neighborhood you grew up in.

It’s time to have the conversation with the friend who says “these folks need to stop killing each other in Chicago and LA before we do anything for them”

You need to call out the folks who get angrier about being inconvenienced by these protestors than they are about the act that caused the protests.

And finally, you need to take some quiet time to wonder about some of the things you have done, past and present, that have perpetuated the very things you’re asking for my help to understand and solve. Because, you see at the end of the day, Dr. King, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail was right:

“I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”

Once you’ve had those conversations, give me a call.

Until Next Time.

“I don’t want to be no accident”

36 years ago, Richard Pryor released “That N*****’s Crazy” a transcendent album.

One routine, “N****** vs Police”, unfortunately still rings true:

Cops really put a hurtin’ on yo ass—they really degrade you..

White folks don’t believe that s***, “Aw come on—those beatings—they were resisting arrest..I’m tired of this harassment of police officers.

That’s because the police live in YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD—you know them as “Officer Timson.” Officer Timson—are we going bowling tonight? Nice Pinto you got there…

N****** don’t know them like that…

White folks get a ticket: “Here you go officer, glad to be of help…”

N****** be saying: “I AM REACHING INTO MY POCKET FOR MY LICENSE..BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO BE NO M************ ACCIDENT!!

It’s not true about all police—but in 2020, this routine continues to hit just a little too close to home.

We have seen black men:

SHOT REACHING INTO THEIR POCKETS FOR THEIR LICENSE,

CHOKED TO DEATH FOR THE CRIME OF SELLING LOOSE CIGARETTES,

And now ASPHIXATED FOR SOMETHING—WE DON’T KNOW WHAT—they’ll get back to us on just what alleged crime caused his summary execution.

All taken by sworn officers of the law.

(It’s fascinating that two of these executions have occurred in Minneapolis, but that’s a story for another day).

And we know how this will go, because we’ve seen it too many times:

The dead Black man will be devolved into a creature deserving of death.
The good officers will stay silent, protecting the murderer(s) because “the only color we see is blue.”
The justifiable cry of frustration (marches, riots) over another Black man taken by law enforcement will degenerate into memes about “I hope they identify them all and take away their welfare” and “all lives matter.”
The Justice Department (ESPECIALLY THE CURRENT JUSTICE DEPARTMENT) will investigate and say they couldn’t find a reason to charge the officers.
After a delay of months—possibly years—those responsible will be found not guilty or there will be a mistrial/hung jury, because we have to understand these officers lay their lives on the line every day and unfortunately this “occasionally happens.”

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Why does it feel that we continue to take dramatic steps back? Back to the day when something like this could casually be sent as a post card.

I ask, because we know on some website that caters to the creatures who applaud what happened George Floyd, there are post celebrating this photo.

A few years ago, a columnist in a local weekly wrote that “Black man hunting season began this week.” When I read that statement, I didn’t roll my eyes, but wondered just how much truth there was to that sentence.

We’re not hunted by “paddy rollers” any more, but if we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, we could be George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Ahmaud Arbery.

I despair that people who know me, consider me a friend, acquaintance, former classmate, believe that George Floyd “had it comin’,” “should have just obeyed the officer,” or any other justification they have for this cold-blooded murder DO NOT UNDERSTAND that “there but for the Grace of God goes this short round black man…”

Because what we continue to see is that people of color–especially Black men– are not afforded the luxury of anger, confusion or irritation when it comes to interaction with law enforcement… those reactions could very well be a death sentence…

I hope to have a couple more turns on this planet and before I depart.

I would love to be afforded the opportunity of being comfortable and safe living as a Black Man…

Until Next Time

Virus Vanity

Today, I’ve decided that I’ve had my fill of Facebook and Twitter posts like this one. I’ve also had my fill of those who dare to compare their vanity to the civil rights struggle, you know the thing that people DIED FOR so I could be considered equal in the eyes of some, not all, but some of my lighter hued friends.

I deal with intelligent people. So I’m going to assume that some of these people missed some basic life lessons along the way and that they post these not out of raw ignorance or racism, but because they were sick on the day this was taught in elementary, middle, and high school.

I’m also going to assume they were just as sick on the day it was taught during your time at college.

So I’m going to provide them with this lesson free of charge, because what are friends for:

People go to grocery stores because the average human can go approximately 30 to 40 DAYS WITHOUT FOOD. If you take away hydration—you know WATER—that drops to approximately 21 DAYS.

I’m going to break this down into simple terms:

FOOD IS A NECESSITY.

IF YOU DON’T GO TO THE GROCERY STORE FOR FOOD—YOU WILL STARVE TO DEATH.

STARVING IS BAD—TRY TO AVOID IF POSSIBLE.

While I have friends who are quite capable of hunting their own protein, I acknowledge that I cannot. So for me, and I assume a number of other people, GOING TO THE STORE FOR FOOD IS A NECESSITY (and that while I could stand to lose a few pounds, I would prefer to do it through proper nutrition and exercise, not THROUGH STARVATION).

The converse of the above equation is this:

For people who go 30 to 40 days without a haircut, or a trip to get your nails done, or not being able to get the proper makeup—it means your friends, neighbors, and random people on the street, get to see what your significant other sees EVERY DAY WHEN YOU TURN OVER IN BED AND SAY “GOOD MORNING” TO THEM.

Again, I’m going to break this down into simple terms:

HAIRCUTS, NAILS AND MAKEUP ARE NOT A NECESSITY.

IF YOU DON’T GO TO THE BARBER/SALON/BEAUTY PARLOR—IT WILL NOT CAUSE YOU TO STARVE TO DEATH.

IF YOU DON’T GO TO THE BARBER/SALON/ BEAUTY PARLOR—IT MIGHT CAUSE A LITTLE EMBARASSMENT.

LAST I CHECKED, EMBARASSMENT WILL NOT KILL YOU.

It appears that Shakespeare was wrong. Today, he might change that line in Hamlet to “Frailty, thy name is people denied their trip to the barber or nail salon.”

Will Joyce, the mayor of Stillwater, OK, rescinded an order that was designed to keep the people who are doing GOD’S WORK in grocery stores and other vital locations HEALTHY.

He asked people to wear masks going into grocery stores.

The resulting anger TOWARD THE GROCERY WORKERS, forced him to end that effort to keep people safe.

Joyce said something that I think far too many of you have forgotten. Perhaps it was because you were again sick on these vital days in elementary, middle, high school and college when this was being taught.

If you missed those days, I think you should listen to what Mayor Joyce said:

“To the people who resort to threats and intimidation when asked to take a simple step to protect your community: shame on you. Our freedom as Americans comes with responsibilities, too.”

Too many of you have forgotten that.

Your actions are shameful, vain, selfish, and a mockery of the freedoms you claim to love.

Why is that?

Because you selfishly value your freedom to be vain over the freedom to help keep people alive and safe.

Until Next Time…

42

There will be protest…
America is not ready…
You’ll lose business…
It’ll create a circus…
Too much fuss for a limited talent…
Too controversial…
Not “grateful…”
Not really interested in playing…
National opinion is against it…
It’ll disrupt teammates…
Has disrespected authorities…
Businesses have a right to choose who they employ…

And people will ask: “Why can’t I just enjoy sports without having politics rubbed in my face? Sports are supposed to be about fun, so stick to sports!”

You think you know who I’m talking about—don’t you?

Actually I’m talking about a:

UCLA athlete who played running back, was all conference in basketball and was an Olympic level sprinter—Some argue the sport that made him the most important athlete in the history of Major League Baseball was his worst sport.

Who was brought up on military charges for being “uppity” and “disrespectful” because of not moving to the back of a bus,

That was according to some people “old,” “slow,” “and lacking skills” so not worth adding to a team,

Was seen as “disruptive” and too “fiery” to be a good teammate,

It was predicted that people and businesses would boycott because of his inclusion,

Who after a Hall of Fame career in which he endured castigation, anger and threats said something that if it was repeated today would get him called everything but a child of God:

“As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”

As we celebrate what Jackie did today…all I have to say is this:

It was not just about sports for Jackie in 1947—and it won’t be about sport when sports come back…

Until Next Time

Plague Journal

At the start, it seemed simple enough…there was a disease that was seemingly ravaging the 3rd World…but hey that’s what we expect. Diseases ravage “lesser countries” and we shake our collective heads about it and say to ourselves: “if only they could be more like us…”

As my mother used to say: “God don’t like ugly.”

Welcome to 2020: The year when COVID is declared the “Word of the Year” by Merriam-Webster.

There has been mention of various infections over the last half century. In a past life, I wrote a release on the effort to make the public aware of King County’s monitoring of the response to the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus.

That was in 2009.

That release mentioned King County was following the guidelines adopted as part of King County’s Pandemic Flu Preparedness Plan.

The Pandemic Flu Preparedness Plan was adopted by the King County Council in 2007.

Understand, even when you’re prepared, and King County has been at the forefront of responding to the pandemic, bad things can happen.

And let’s be honest—as a whole, this country wasn’t prepared for this. So now we’re paying the price.

Fingers can be pointed in a lot of directions, (and most of those fingers sure as hell better be pointed toward the big building on Pennsylvania Ave in D.C.), but we carry some of the responsibility as well.

How many of us saw the first stories of COVID-19 and thought “OK a new strain of flu, I’ll just ride it out.” Especially since it was half a world away.

When we saw the first deaths, who thought: “that’s OK, that’s in another part of the state (or country), it won’t touch me…”

It really didn’t seem real.

When did it become real?

It became real to me when I was told to stay at home and not go into my office, unless I really needed to come in.

When did it become reality?

–When my wife’s boss told her that she had tested positive.

–When 2200 miles away, my daughter is under a stay at home order in Nashville—while the rest of the state of Tennessee cavalierly continues to go about its business in the belief that COVID-19 appears to only impact “Blue States”

–When a sister (who is a medical assistant) and my niece (who is a manager at an office equipment company) were told they were “essential personnel” and had to continue going out during this pandemic.

That’s when reality sank in.

My wife and I have been under self-quarantine since St. Patrick’s Day. While we have been going out for walks and drives (house to car to road to house) we have stayed indoors.

Last week, the handle on our toilet broke, and I had to debate if I was putting people at risk if I went to the hardware store to pick up a new handle. I did go, but I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering if I was in danger because of the items I touched, and the people I passed by. I guess the bigger question should have been: because of my actions and the potential that I have been exposed, was I endangering the lives of the people in the store?

That is our current reality.

A reality that involves:

–Models that project potentially 100,000 people dying during this pandemic,

–And the occupant of the house on Pennsylvania Ave finally admitting the pandemic could go into the summer and perhaps the idea of celebrating the Resurrection by potentially putting millions at risk might not be a good idea.

Sitting here at home and I can’t help but think of Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”

Many here in this country are guilty of the crime committed by Prince Prospero:

Indifference and arrogance.

If you think that’s harsh, look up River Church in Tampa, Florida on Google.

The pastor of this church, like Prospero, believes himself rich enough and powerful enough to ignore what is taking place outside of the walls of his castle, leaving those who he never considered equal even before the plague, to fend for themselves.

If you don’t remember the end of the story, Prospero discovers too late that those he is trying to ignore and forget have a way of finding entrance to the most impregnable of bastions.

This has been a little heavier that what I’ve posted in the past, but I’ve never had to post in the middle of quarantine either.

Stay safe and stay aware. Listen to the professionals. Be careful.

The people who love you aren’t ready for you to die.

Until Next Time.

LIV: From Fritz to Patrick—and those in the shadows

They’ve always been around; you just didn’t realize you were watching them:

On this day, the day that has become Roman Numeral Day, we tend to think of the evolution being Doug to Steve to Donovan to Colin to Russell to Cam to now Patrick…

But Fritz Pollard was around for the birth of the NFL, as both the starting Halfback and Head Coach of the Akron Pros of the newly founded American Professional Football Association—which today is now known as the NFL. He was a halfback, which meant he was the primary ball handler back in that ancient time—QBs were primarily blockers in the fledging days of football.

Fritz lost his job in the NFL when the Depression hit and the coaches and team owners felt it was unfair for some players to be unemployed because of the color of their skin…hmmm…imagine that…

When the rule they say wasn’t a rule ended, Black players were allowed back in the league, as long as they could run, catch and tackle. Those who could throw the football? Wait here until we decide which position you’re best suited for.

Willie Thrower (stop laughing, that was his name) played in a game for the Chicago Bears, in 1953 in relief of starting QB George Blanda. Willie went 3-for-8, was pulled and released shortly after that.

A rebel league was formed 7 years after Willie Thrower threw his passes. While the American Football League championed civil rights—including moving its All-Star game because of the racist hotel policies of the city where they were schedule to play, they emulated the older league in one way. The American Football League welcomed Black players, as long as they could run, catch and tackle.

It wasn’t that colleges weren’t developing Black QBs during the NFL/AFL war—Sandy Stephans took the University of Minnesota to back to back Rose Bowls in 1960 and 1961. Jimmy Raye was the QB for Michigan State against Notre Dame in the 1966 “Game of the Century.”

Stephans finished his career playing fullback in the AFL. Raye was drafted by Philadelphia and converted into a defensive back.

And of course there were plenty of QBs learning the game at places like Grambling State, Southern and Tennessee State, the campuses of America’s Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Eldridge Dickey was an All-American QB at Tennessee State and was drafted in the first round by the Oakland Raiders—but soon after the Raiders thought he would be better catching the ball than throwing it.

Oct 20, 1968; San Diego, CA, USA; FILE PHOTO; Denver Broncos quarterback Marlin Briscoe (15) in action against the San Diego Chargers at San Diego Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darryl Norenberg-USA TODAY Sports

In an ironic twist, the year Dickey was drafted, there was a Black starter in Denver. Marlin Briscoe started for the Broncos—but only after the starter broke his collarbone and the backup couldn’t do the job.

Briscoe played 5 games and passed for 14 TDs—a Bronco rookie record he still holds. His reward for playing so well?? He was released by Denver for wanting to play QB. When he was signed by Buffalo, he was converted to wide receiver. He would win two Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins…but not in the position he wanted to play.

Irony: it’s likely that Briscoe was converted to wide receiver because Buffalo already had a Black QB—Grambling’s James Harris—the first Black QB I remember seeing in the NFL.

Coming into ‘70s, Black QBs didn’t need a burning cross…oops, I mean a burning bush, to realize if they wanted to play the position they had been playing since Pop Warner, they might want to look someplace else.

Condredge Holloway was the first Black QB to start in the Southeastern Conference, playing for the University of Tennessee.

Warren Moon was at the wheel of the University of Washington team that beat the vaunted University of Michigan in the 1978 Rose Bowl.

When the NFL draft rolled around, both Condredge and Warren told the NFL not to bother. They took the Underground Railroad north to Canada and the Canadian Football League.

Condredge won a title up north.

Warren won five titles in a row in Canada (take that Tom Terrific) on his way to becoming the most coveted free agent in the history of the NFL, but only after showing he was a better QB than the likes of Vince Ferragamo, David Woodley, and Tony Eason—all who started in the Roman Numeral Game (and lost…) while Warren was battling snowstorms in Edmonton.

Condredge and Warren are both in the CFL Hall of Fame—and Warren is also a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, the only player to have a bust in Canton, Ohio and Hamilton, Ontario.

Tony Dungy came out of the University of Minnesota as an All Big-10 QB at the same time as Moon. The only Black man to win the Super Bowl as a coach was converted into a defensive back by Pittsburgh.

Sensing a pattern here?

It took Doug Williams, another Grambling St. grad, ripping the heart out of the Denver Broncos to get people to start thinking maybe, just maybe, a Black QB might be capable of being a Super Bowl winning QB.

When Doug won his ring, Randall Cunningham was expected to follow him into a Roman Numeral Game. He never made it, but Randall help usher in a generation of “athletic QBs” because suddenly, drafting “athletic QBs” became a cool thing.

Kordell and Rodney and Akili and Aaron and Jeff and Dante and Steve and Michael and David and JaMarcus and Colin and Robert—and of course, Russell.

They’ve been followed by Dak and Deshaun and Lamar and the starting QB for Kansas City, Patrick, starting for the team that made Sandy Stephans play fullback to stay in the league.

Understand that when he steps onto the field, Mahomes will carry a legacy that stretches back to the start of the NFL, to Fritz and Willie and Marlin and those nameless players who were given the opportunity to carry, catch and tackle, but never to throw the football.

Also understand that between wings and ribs and brats and beverages and commercials, we’re going to hear A LOT about the “great athleticism” displayed by Pat Mahomes. Why? Because Pat and Cam and Russell and Colin and Donovan and Steve and Doug are still not seen as great quarterbacks….

But as remarkable athletes.

I still have SB XLVIII on my DVR, and while watching it recently, you know the same words they’re going to use to describe Mahomes in SB LIV were used when describing Russell Wilson. For me, those terms have almost become “trigger words.”

I look forward to the day the talking heads start talking about Pat and Dak and Deshaun and Lamar—and Russ—and their great awareness in the pocket and their incredible presence on the field, you know, the same way they talk about Drew Brees, Gardner Minshew, Flat Ball Tommy and Jimmy Garappolo.

Here’s hoping this game, win or lose, is the start.

Until Next Time.