During the past week, Kevin Powell’s supporters have been up on the blogs trying to discredit me, after I publicly and openly announced that I was an advisor to the Ed Towns re-election campaign. And believe me when I say that I am playing a minor role in this regard. Bill Lynch and Associates are running this campaign folks; all the congressman did was ask me as an old political acquaintance/friend to help out a lil bit. I consented for many reasons that I may eventually share. As I have said many times before: I like Ed on a personal level; he has always treated me well. We kid around a lot but it’s with respect and camaraderie.
Now this isn’t the first time that I have worked on campaigns which I announced on the blogs, however it is the first time that I took so much flack for it. And the fact is I have worked with candidates that were much more controversial than Ed Towns. So why is this heat coming down on me? I believe that Powell has many sycophants running around out there who see him as the second coming of Malcolm X. What they need to know is that the last time I looked, this was a free country; and just like any citizen, I have the right to go with the candidate of my choice. I could go with the candidate I deem better for this race. That’s my darn prerogative.
As great a man that Malcolm X was (at least to me), he still had his detractors; even today, there are many who still see him as a racist. And this is because there was a point in his history, where he ran around with the Black Muslims. They saw white people as devils and openly said and wrote this.
Maybe the audacity of these sycophants is modeled after their candidate’s pomposity. You see I experienced Kevin Powell’s pomposity today at a public event the Powell campaign called for media folks. There were reporters from conventional media and also writers from blogdom (like me); most of whom appeared to be given face time with the candidate. When I tried to interview him, I was met with hostility as soon as I explained to him exactly who I was; and this came about after I told him he didn’t have to sit down for an interview now, but that I hope we can do it at some point in the future.
You see, after some of his supporters accused me of doing a hit piece on him (which is not true), with my last blog column about the race in which he is currently embroiled against incumbent congressman Ed Towns (“Revisiting the 10th Congressional District, etc.”), I made a personal decision to seek an interview with him, hear what he has to say (face to face), and to listen as objectively as I could to what he is offering. I even cut short an important meeting today to fit this press event into my schedule.
Why? Because I have quite a few friends who seem to be drinking his kool-aid; which moves me to at least give him a hearing beyond the many negative things that mainstream media has said about him. Plus he seems to generate passionate and loyal followers. This in itself isn’t overly impressive -since many people I consider fools commanded loyal followers; David Duke is a classic example- but it does make you take note. And yet, I couldn’t get in a word edgewise. He kept cutting me off, evaded my direct questions, kept interrupting my trains of thought and speech patterns, and wanted to have a conversation with himself that he was willing to impose on my ears.
When he mentioned that he was had been doing many wonderful things with youth, and was actively working in the Fort Greene projects, I had to interrupt him to make a valid point. I was a member of the Fort Greene Community Action Network for many years. I also sat on various boards of directors of organizations doing good community work in the area, at specific times over the past quarter century. I told him that I never saw or heard of him as to being involved in this area. To this he replied, that “what you did was then, and this is now”. And with that he abruptly jumped up without seeking an excuse, to go talk to two whites waiting close by (from a Brooklyn Peace Group/or something like that). It was highly discourteous. He looked like a little slave boy talking to one of his buddies and “massa” showed up suddenly.
Meanwhile, his apparent bodyguard -who seemed to be more than six and a half feet tall- ominously hovered over our exchange; this was a bit disconcerting. I waited for a while expecting him to return to our conversation, and eventually he came back after having kept his back turned to me for a while. He abruptly gave me a card and announced that our conversation was over. I protested a bit but I decided to leave after this level of disrespect. I told him (amongst other choice words) that the offer to sit down and do an in-depth interview was still on the table. NO; I didn’t use profanity/LOL.
The media event was called by Powell’s campaign to defend against perpetual charges that he is a serial woman abuser -given his violent history in dealing with women in the past. The media packet included a long list of female supporters who seem to suggest that Powell has changed his ways. And yet, Bill Clinton has had (and still does have) many female supporters, even while anyone can say that he is a female predator. Too often women sleep and snuggle with the enemy. I could only hope that this isn’t the case with Kevin Powell.
Look, I am sure that this young man has grown since the many violent confrontations he has had with both males and females (as recently as four years ago). I suspect that he is even charming and personable. Many females I know find him to be handsome and articulate; but are these factors -if true- enough to make him the next congressman from the 10th district? Kevin Powell comes across as the Paris Hilton of Brooklyn politics: in this regard he is a celebrity; but no one really knows why.
On this my second meeting with the brother, I come away with the feeling that Kevin Powell is complex, haughty and arrogant. He reminds me of Kevin Parker -but much less obnoxious. Maybe they well eventually open a firm called Kevin and Kevin Inc. They elicit the same ambiguous feelings from me. If Powell isn’t careful, I may start treating him the same way I treat Parker: with lots of love/lmao. You see he pissed me off today; and now he knows.
In 1998 and 2000 Ed Towns was challenged by another young upstart (a nice guy too/ Barry Ford). Ford was nowhere close to being this pompous, and he had “an ivy-league degree”; Powell is a college drop out. Powell needs to take some lessons from Barry’s experiences; running for congress demands a more even temper and a less confrontational demeanor. You don’t isolate and alienate people -even those supporting your opponent. You never know when you could use a favor.
About Powell’s media problems with his past proclivities, I offer this story (and maybe even a piece of advice). Long ago in the country of Argentina, and in the time of Eva Peron (Evita), there came a day when she was very very depressed. So she sat sad and forlorn in her office when an old seaman came. He asked her why she was like this. She replied that after all these long years of not being on the stage (a dancer amongst other things), that some of her enemies still call her a “whore”. To this the old sailor replied: “it is what it is; the past is the past”. He further went on to say that he was over 80 years old, and that he spent most of his life at sea. He further stated that he had retired for almost 30 years; and after all that time people still call him: “El Capitan” (the captain).
Stay tuned-in folks.