"Black Amity" In Politics

By Brother Taj  - June 2019

In 2007 and 2008 while working as a political market research manager I had the privilege of having then–candidate Barack Obama as a client. However, I would have voted for him anyway on the basis of one consideration: he was Black.

Voters who would admit to this motivation are decried as reverse-racist and a traitor to the idea of post-racism, but given a national culture that rides on 4 centuries of enslavement and exclusion, no apologies are needed. We have had enough of inhumane consideration and treatment. Enough of institutionalize bigotry. Enough of racially motivated violence and murder. Enough scourging by drugs and brutal policing. And, enough of mass incarceration.

It should all cause Black Folk to rise up in protest, refusing to perpetuate anything similar with our own hands. What more effective repudiation to white supremacy and its insidious effect, then for a Black person to refuse to shoot, rob, assault, rape, cheat, slander, defraud, sell drugs to, evict, smack-up on a reality TV reunion special, etc – any other individual on the sole basis of them being Black?

Imagine the death of crab-in-the-barrel syndrome that presently plagues us. Imagine the rise in self-worth and charity. Imagine little black children not thinking the black doll is ugly. Imagine no one remembering why the word “Chiraq” entered the lexicon. Imagine more graduates and less mugshots with Black Faces in them.

The prolific effect of slavery and the accompanying philosophies of Black inferiority demand a reaction that is extreme in its repulsion – but not too extreme. The solution to white supremacy is NOT black supremacist ideas like the approaches of the Nation of Islam, et al. They have served some purpose but they came attached to the same kinds of asinine racial ideas that demean Black people. (The NOI still has not reconciled it’s “do for self” philosophy with the teaching that its dead messianic leader is orbiting the Earth in a space ship right now…)

It would be good if we could meticulously disseminate the politics of a particular black presidential candidate because we have an abundance of candidates to choose from but we are not there yet. For now, let us welcome in with open arms those who choose to run – locally and nationally; let us encourage and be inspired by them. Personally, I am going to consider voting for Kamala and Cory, long and well before a Biden, Hillary, or Bernie.

  

Of course, we not just vote for black candidates because they are black- let us also patronize black businesses for that very reason also. Our collective wealth is shrinking – it’s past time we reject the notion that prices are too high, etc, as reasons to not “shop Black”.

The need for Black Amity was no more apparent than against the backdrop of Denver’s mayoral election this year, where a Black incumbent, Mayor Michael Hancock ran against Jamie Geillis, a White transplant from Iowa, who in 13 years had no political presence in Denver, nor even voted. Hancock was seen as a disappointment, not too dissimilar to how some saw Obama – and blamed for the gentrification that urban Denver neighborhoods have experienced. 

Many Black activists threw their support behind Geillis, inexplicably stating that a vote for her would help Black people while casting Hancock as a sellout coon. Geillis proved unworthy of this type of support with not only her cringe-worthy flub of trying-but-failing to state what “NAACP” stood for, but also by running and ducking the subsequent invites to Black forums. She gave the mayor a priceless photo opp as he sat onstage next to an empty chair – a pic that damn near went Denver-viral.

And ultimately she lost, leaving a little egg on the faces of her Black supporters in the eyes of quite a few people.

It should be said in the case of choices where we have someone cast as a “coon” or a “sellout”, I say we still support them, especially in the face of an alternative that represents more of the same disregard for our people. And I also say that a collective involvement and accountability is the best prescription for eradicating coonery.

In the end, it is past time we realize that it is the love for ourselves that will be the demolition tools of racism and discrimination. The revolution of Black Love is not something that is hard to imagine – not even anything hard to implement.

After all, we implemented it really, really, well that one November back in 2008…