I Am a Community Organizer

And I will be blogging on Monday, 8 September, along with blogs such as the The Young Black Profession Guide, The Electronic Village, The Jose Vilson, From My Brown Eyed View, The African American Political Pundit, Springer’s Journal, and Inkognero in honor of the great work that Community Organizers do.

Please join me, and ask your blogging buddies to do so as well. I’m not interested in stories meant to score political points (although I’m pissed at the political cynicism that would attack community organizing). I’m interested in stories about the grassroots, the community organizers out there that are doing their thing via blogs, social networking, real life organizing that doesn’t have a (D) or (R) following it. That’s what I’d love to hear about. Since Community Organizing has been brought into the limelight, I would love to hear how those involved are working for progress and transformation. Progress and transformation from the ground up. So, while a lot of this action day will be political in nature, I’d like to see some posts, comments, whatever springing from my own post that are more focused on grassroots, non-denominational progress.

If that sounds like you, please participate and please leave a link in comments so that others can find you.

The Blackface Files Return

I’m not a fan of Sarah Silverman. I find her humor juvenile and often offensive. She will stoop to the lowest level possible to try and get a laugh. Yet I was still shocked to learn that last week’s episode of her show, titled “Face Wars,” went so low as to contain (oh yeah…you guessed it…the hip trend of last year hasn’t gone away yet) Silverman in blackface. Take a look:

Yep, she went there.

Now, I’m a big fan of comedy, especially subversive comedy, and so I understand that many comedians exploit stereotypes to get their point accross. Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Sacha Baron Cohen, among many others have all to varying degrees of success exploited racial/ethnic/religious stereotypes to get a point across. The difference, for me, is that they all exploited racial/ethnic/religious stereotypes in order to expose the ignorance of those stereotypes. In Silverman’s episode, it seems to me that she is revelling in stereotypes and trying to be as offensive as she possibly can. When I saw the bit where a black man is wearing a big nose and a t-shirt that reads “I love money” (the black man and Silverman attempt to switch places so that Silverman can prove that Jews have it worse than blacks, as if that’s a question worth asking) I almost threw my computer monitor out the window.¹ Really? Did she need to go there? If you haven’t seen the episode you probably don’t get where I’m going here, but in the context of the show it is nothing but offensive to me and serves no purpose other than to perpetuate the faux black/Jewish divide.

What really gets my goat about this episode is that it’s all played off as “starting a dialogue about race.” Um no. All I see is the worst stereotypes about black folks and Jewish folks being perpetuated with little to no actual commentary on why these stereotypes are messed up in the first place. It’s all shock. No commentary. And when it has all ended, she has painted herself as the most “open-minded.” To wit, this little supposedly funny bit from the show:

“What do we want?”

“The freedom to explore issues of race in American culture through the use of post-modern dramatic irony.”

“When do we want it?”

“We think it’s fairly obvious.”

That could be funny in a lot of comedic situations, but here, I find it all too telling.

1. For the full context here, you can watch the episode in ten parts here [↩]

One, Two, KaPow! Mychal Bell Is Released

First this:

Justice Department Asked to enter Jena Case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Black Caucus is asking the Justice Department to investigate possible civil rights violations in the “Jena 6″ case that sparked a massive protest in Louisiana last week.

“This shocking case has focused national and international attention on what appears to be an unbelievable example of the separate and unequal justice that was once commonplace in the Deep South,” the group of 43 lawmakers said in a letter to Acting Attorney General Peter Keisler.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department has been closely monitoring the case of six black high school teens arrested for beating a white classmate in Jena, La. He said the department also is investigating allegations of threats against the students and their families.

“Since these investigations are ongoing, the department cannot comment any further,” Roehrkasse said.

And then this:

Jena Six Defendant Released on Bail

A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here walked out of a courthouse Thursday after a judge ordered him freed.

Mychal Bell’s release on $45,000 bail came hours after a prosecutor confirmed he will no longer seek an adult trial for the 17-year-old. Bell, one of the teenagers known as the Jena Six, still faces trial as a juvenile in the December beating in this small central Louisiana town.

Both stories show up on Google News within the last few hours.

My favorite part: “District Attorney Reed Walters said Thursday that he would not appeal that decision and would let a juvenile court deal with the case.”

Gee, Mr. Walters. Not so cocky any more are you? What happened to that stern conviction you had that Mychal Bell deserved to rot in jail for the next 50 years for wielding his deadly tennis shoe? Your change of heart didn’t have anything to do with the growing support for you to be investigated and kicked out of your job, was it?

I’m just wondering.

Regardless, this is certainly good news. A message has been sent, loud and clear, that this sort of injustice will not stand, but once again, this is far from over. I feel that we must remain vigilant in keeping our eyes on this case. We must not let the Jena justice system off the hook just because they finally were pressured to do the right thing.

This is just the beginning, my friends.

Here’s why:

Six white suspects accused of torturing a young black woman for days in West Virginia will not face federal hate crime charges, Justice Department officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

At one point, an assailant cut the woman’s ankle with a knife and used the N-word in telling her she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaints.

On August 18, 2006, seven young African American lesbians traveled to the West Village from their homes in Newark for a regular night out. When walking down the street, a male bystander assaulted them with sexist and homophobic comments. The women tried to defend themselves, and a fight broke out. Thus began the women’s nightmare for almost a year. Three of the women accepted plea offers. On June 14th, 2007 Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20), and Renata Hill (24) received sentences ranging from 3 ½ to 11 years in prison.

The women and their families now call on our communities for support. Their emotional and financial burdens have already been immense. These hardships will only continue as the women begin their prison terms and the process of appeal.

Swastikas and hateful messages aimed at Jews were spray-painted on buildings and cars in more than a dozen locations in Brooklyn Heights on Monday night and yesterday, and fliers with savage epithets were found in three locations there, the police said.

There were no arrests yesterday, but more than 20 detectives were assigned to the case, as were dozens of officers in uniform and plainclothes, along with members of the department’s Hate Crime Task Force. A city truck equipped with tools and chemicals to remove graffiti was also dispatched.

The Jena Six Case is not just an assault on black folks, or black men in particular. It is part and parcel of an assault on anyone that does not fit The Mold. Not heterosexual? You’re damned. Not able-bodied? You’re damned. Skin too brown? You’re damned. Practice the wrong religion? You’re damned. Don’t speak English well? Your damned.

That’s what this is really all about. The specificity here, crimes against black folks, is certainly notable and should be pointed out as crimes against black folks, but for those who seem to think that these crimes aren’t worthy of your support because the victims don’t meet your standards of “good behavior,” it should be pointed out that your behavior is more than likely looked down upon by the same people that you are happily siding with in this case. The difference? You tell me.

Update: Carmen points out that Reed Walters is still ignorant and racist as all get out. Surprise, huh? From the Chicago Tribune:

“I firmly believe that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened,” LaSalle Parish District Atty. Reed Walters told a nationally televised press conference.

When a black Jena pastor attending the press conference called it a “shame” that the prosecutor was crediting divine intervention for the orderly behavior of the demonstrators, Walters, who is white, said: “What I’m saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly.”

Gah! Can you believe this man? Carmen sums it up nicely:

No way dedication to justice, restraint and discipline could have played a roll. No sirree, Bob. That’s right Mr. Walters, remind your base to be afraid of “those people,” tell them that what they saw on that awesome day a week ago was a mirage whipped up by the Lord Himself. Afterall, only the Lord could suppress the savage and destructive urges of “those people.” African American human beings, united for a cause, could have never pulled off anything so grand on their own.