Voices/Dr. Jean Daniels

  McKinney for a truly singular moment
      toward Change
     I recently received two interesting emails — one from a teacher/community leader asking how to instill Black consciousness in Black boys. The
other was an article send by a friend in San Francisco. I read the news article first and then replied to the teacher/community leader.
    To the teacher/community leader I suggested that he or she make time for these young Black boys — preferably in one-on-one sessions. Listen to
the story and then interpret that story for the benefit of that child. There’re books, I wrote. But the first step is to listen to these Black boys, targets of a
systematic effort to demoralize their spirit. Prepping Black boys for use in the prison industrial complex is part of a demoralizing process enabling the
ineffectiveness of this population within the Black community while securing bodies for a new form of slavery.
    No Child Left Behind and fearful Whites promote a “realized” racial equality leaving Black boys more at risk for the not-so-subtle indoctrination of
racial inferior. Classroom walls plastered with Black historical figures can’t com mentioned in class today. “I” am less than all the whiteness
surrounding me. I suggested that the child be made to recognize his humanity first. Then through books, this child will come to recognize that there
isn’t anything in his heritage to be ashamed of — no more and no less than any other racial group.
    As Martin Luther King said in his “Our America” speech in 1967, it is criminal to make children think otherwise. The teacher/community leader
would make the child before him understand that his feeling of inferiority is evidence of this demoralizing process and not evidence of his lack of
human being-ness or some inadequacy inherent in his racial heritage.
    Black people have contributed more than hip-hop to the world, and Black history did not begin with the European conquest of Africa and the
Euro-American kidnapping of over 60 million Africans. Black consciousness is socially and culturally feared, and it’s economically not profitable for a
corporate-minded nation. That brings me to the second email — the attached article. The article refers to the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner,
Toni Morrison’s recent endorsement of the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. In the article, “Toni Morrison, who labeled Bill Clinton
‘1st Black President,’ Backs Barack Obama,” there’s a letter Morrison addresses to Obama in which she states that a vote for him would be a “vote for
change.” Morrison appreciates Obama’s view of this nation’s citizens as “we” and not “they.” She praises Obama’s “courage.” Finally, Morrison states
that “this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril.”
    The Talented Tenth continues to dictate to the masses of Blacks who, as Professor Marc Lamont Hill writes, “remain consistently assaulted by the
forces [of] white supremacy” (“Not My Brand of Hope”). In collusion with corporate power, the Talent Tenth works to suppress the possibility of real
change that can only come from the poor, lower working class that consists of mainly As Hill writes, from on high, America announced its “transition
into a postracial moment.” For many, this “postracial moment” is the one singular moment that represents yet another cruel moment in the history of
this nation. To ignore the implications of this “post-racial moment” is perilous indeed.
    In addition, Obama’s “change” is in facial coloring only. As a Black, he is the corporate media darling — not subject to what Black boys and young
men experience as day-to-day life in America. Where is his Black consciousness when he surrounds himself with ex-Lockheed Martin personnel,
“centrist market economists” from Harvard and the University of Chicago, and David Axelrod (ex-Exelon consultant) and others of the same elk
(Democracy Now! February 8, 2008)? Obama “backed down on a bill that would have required nuclear plants to disclose radio active releases” (DN
and New York Times). Why? Exelon is a major Obama donor, among others.
    Where is his Black consciousness when he supports unilateral war campaigns? At an AIPAC Policy Forum, March 2, 2007, Obama announced his
commitment to work “diligently” with AIPAC to secure Israel without reference to the plight of the Palestinians. Is he too fearful to speak about the
plight of the poor, lower wage workers who are mostly Black, Latino/as, Chicanos, and Native Americans? Has he listened to the story of Black boys in
America? Where’s the courage?
    While I don’t support the Green Party, former Georgia member of Congress, Cynthia McKinney is running on the GP ticket for president. She has no
problems being human, honoring her Black heritage, and standing up to corporate imperialism. To realize a truly singular moment, think outside the
Republicrat box!