I have been angry at Barack Obama for a while now. I have chosen to keep most of that anger to myself; up to this point I have written relatively little about it. This column is mainly about Barack. It is also about someone many of you probably don’t know: a man named Jamaal Wilkes.
Strap in folks.
Jamaal Wilkes was born on May 2nd, 1953, in Berkeley, California. He was christened Jackson Keith Wilkes. He played competitive basketball at Santa Barbara High School and was an All-American scholar-athlete. He was so smooth a runner and athlete that they nicknamed him “Silk”.
His acclaim came as a professional basketball player in the league we now know as the National Basketball Association. Prior to his NBA stint, Wilkes attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was a two-time “All-American” member of the college’s basket ball team, during the infamous “John Wooden coaching-era”. That’s when UCLA won more games on the road than Charlie Sheen. That was when “winning” was something meaningful and significant: not something superficial, embarrassing and vulgar.
Jamaal was a member of the UCLA team that won 88 games in a row. In his three years at UCLA, they won two NCCAA titles and got to the semi finals the other year. He was the eleventh pick in the 1974 NBA draft (Golden State Warriors). It was the same year that he converted to Islam.
He played pro ball in the NBA until 1985. His last team was the LA Clippers. He was rookie of the year in 1975; and he played with three teams during his career: garnering four championship rings with two of them (LA Lakers and Golden State Warriors). He made the All-Star team three times.
Wilkes was six feet, six inches tall. He was blessed with good-looks, charm and grace. His playing weight was around 190 lbs. He played small forward in the NBA with an elegance, grace, smarts and style reserved for only those special athletes whom the Gods favor. He possessed a deadly jumper from either corner. It was so deadly that one Sports-Hall of Fame radio announcer dubbed it “a 20-foot layup”. He was so smooth a runner and player that his nickname (“Silk”) was totally befitting.
Jamaal Wilkes should be in the NBA Hall of Fame but he isn’t. He has been snubbed by the selection committee for too many years now. It’s a shame and a disgrace. He averaged scoring near 18 points a game and pulling down just under seven rebounds per. If memory serves me right he also averaged around three assists per game. An injury cut short his pro career.
If like me, you often surf the cable channels in the wee hours some nights/mornings -hoping to catch some enjoyable “old school” movie- then try to get your hands on a movie called “Cornbread, Earl and Me”. Jamaal Wilkes starred in it. His role was that of a high school ballplayer. It is a movie that was quite well done. It showed some of life’s harsh realities for so many young black men in the inner-cities: especially those who were born and raised in the “hood”. It also showed police officers (black and white) in a light that is unfamiliar to too many whites. It is a movie Barack Obama should watch: like immediately. Maybe Barack needs an education in “black”.
Hall-of-famer John Wooden was once asked in an interview, to describe his ideal player. His reply is worth noting. He said: “I would have the player be a good student, polite, courteous, and a good team player…….a good defensive player and rebounder, a good inside and outside shooter; why not just take Jamaal Wilkes and let it go at that”. This testimony on the character and personality of this perpetually smiling individual (Jamaal Wilkes) speaks for itself.
When I look at Barack Obama I am reminded of Jamaal Wilkes. Like Wilkes, Obama is a basket ball aficionado. He too played a lot of High School ball and a little college ball also. He is slim and tall like Jamaal. You can see Silk’s smoothness in Barack’s game. You can see the similarity in the natural handsomeness too. Like Jamaal, he too is blessed with good looks and charm. When he strides to the podium I can see “Silk” gliding to the basket. I can feel the silk in his speeches. I can see his elegance, style and grace: Barack is definitely one of those the Gods favor also; no doubt. There are shades of Wilkes all over and around Barack Obama: no doubt. Barack also possesses a golden voice and is an outstanding public speaker.
Whenever Barack Obama strides to the podium to deliver another one of those brilliant speeches – which has become commonplace over the last decade or so- I can hear blacks cheering from the gallery in anticipation of another bucket. I can see the “haters” cringing. I can see the “birthers” sucking their teeth. I can see the desperation in the Republican search for a 2012 presidential candidate. I can hear an echoing variation of Joe Biden’s words: damn this half-Negro is clean. And yes, when BO won the presidency in 2008, it was a “big fucking deal” (Joe Biden again).
Last week our president announced the official start of his re-election campaign, by launching another internet initiative, similar to the successful one of 2007-2008. He also showed up later that week at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) convention in Manhattan, New York. Unfortunately, our president got another free ride at black people’s expense. Unfortunately, he got another free pass from “Mr. Sharp Tongue” also. You see blacks have been waiting for Obama to put the ball on the floor and take it to the hole. They have been waiting patiently for him to dunk one for them. They are tired of seeing him stand in the corner shooting from the lips.
Barack Obama strode to the podium at NAN and delivered one of the worst speeches (in terms of real substance) that any black audience has ever heard from him. Mainstream media will never tell you this because most of the folks working in mainstream media happen to be white; and like BO they too have no idea as to what time it is in the black community.
Sure, Barack was his usual smooth self while delivering this non-speech. Sure enough his golden tongue was dripping honey all the way; and he was as witty as ever when he flubbed the state comptroller’s name (DiNapoli) while acknowledging dignitaries in the front row seats. He looked presidential, acted presidential, back-slapped like presidents do, glad-handed, hugged, kissed and quickly smiled his way out of the room behind a gaggle of secret service agents. It happened in a flash. And like so many presidents before him, Barack bullshitted black people because we have tolerated the bullshit for far too long. It’s time for black folks to show some intolerance.
Barack Obama stood in front of the NAN audience and reiterated his belief that there is only one USA. The same time he is saying this, many of us who have started to extrapolate data from recent census figures, have come to conclude that the USA is more segregated now than it was when the landmark Brown versus Board of Education case was decided in 1954.
Look, whenever I write these types of columns, I get the sense that my white readers aren’t too pleased. I also get the sense (from my comments section) that it’s uncomfortable for many of them. The truth is I write these types of columns hoping to engage whites in much needed discourse. Look, there is a type of much needed dialogue missing from the contemporary political debate. We all need to correct this situation in any way possible.
The genesis of the numerous “black-problems” facing these dis-united states can be traced back almost 400 years: that’s the truth; those are the facts. If as a nation, we are to ever solve (and resolve) them, then we have to begin an honest dialogue; starting yesterday.
I believe that if other people are going to mess up this world –or even destroy it- then blacks should be given some input into preventing their ancillary demise. The cries of black people all over the world are nothing but pleadings for inclusion, respect, justice and equality. In the USA, we cannot (as a nation) claim to hold that “all men (and women) are created equal” and yet treat some folks differently to others in the polity. This is total disrespect for the ideal itself: too many white-Americans are guilty of this; too many. And by the way: some blacks too.
How our president could fix his face to not say that there is a “Black-America” separate and apart from “White-America” is beyond me. That was simply amazing. This “Black-America” is metastasizing right before his very eyes and he buries his head in the sand -while doing nothing (or nothing much) about it.
He claimed at NAN, that his policies and accomplishments aid everyone -as he doggedly refuses to acknowledge that blacks in this country face a different reality when compared to most whites. He talks about education as being the key, without stating the obvious: almost two out of every three black high school students in this country, would not graduate next summer. With black male high school students, maybe one in four will graduate from those buildings which apologize for inner-city schools.
The president also failed to state that near one of every three blacks in the USA live in poverty. He also failed to state that there is a higher infant mortality rate amongst black kids than white kids; and that terminations (abortions) account for almost half of all pregnancies amongst black women in large urban cities; and that there must be something else going on behind these figures.
Look, there are at least three Americas in existence today. I mean this both literally and figuratively. It has probably been this way since the first black slaves arrived. There is an America for Caucasians; one for the aboriginal Indians; and one for blacks (and other people of color). Now and then there is overlap, but for the most part these Americas are separate and unequal.
In white America, the educational system is superior to ones in the other Americas; so too the health systems. Likewise are the houses (homes), hospitals, parks, recreational centers and the like. So too are the economic opportunities and natural possibilities for the pursuit of life, liberty, happiness and security: far superior.
Obama spoke as if he never got the memo on the different Americas. He talked about his policies and accomplishments benefitting all Americans, without acknowledging that blacks in America need some kind of special dispensation -given the uniqueness of their struggles. And when I say “blacks”, I am also referring to those Hispanics who are black: especially the ones that don’t state this on their census forms (scientifically proven).
This 2010 census, when fully digested, will show that non-whites make up around one-third of the country’s population; and this is without arguing for the non-white “minorities” who aren’t fully accounted for in comparison to Caucasians (whites). It’s too complicated to go into this right now: just know that many undocumented aliens refuse to be counted, and that’s why there is an obvious undercount. Preliminary figures coming out of New York City demonstrate this with alarming clarity; you can only imagine what happened in Florida, California, Nevada, and other states with large populations of colored folks and aliens.
Relative to the US population, the “Blacks” of which I write, make up at least one in six (as I sated before, I am including black-Hispanics). And yet you will find that more than half of all murder victims annually are black. They also make up almost two-thirds of all those injured in gun violence annually. They also make up almost two-thirds of the prison populations: which is slowly climbing towards two million -the largest in the free world. A significant number of blacks (especially males) pump money into the Social Security system and will never collect: because they will die before age sixty two (far less get to age seventy). If you doubt me then ask the actuaries.
Whites use drugs many times more than blacks, and yet blacks do prison time (for drug use, sales and possession) many more times than whites. There isn’t a single black gun manufacturer in this country, and yet there are arguably more illegal guns in the black communities when compared to the white communities. The number of Black CEOs in this country makes up less than one per cent of all CEOs in the country. White families are at least fifty times wealthier than black families. Do I really have to enumerate all this again and again in my columns?
In the armed services, blacks make up about one third of that population; and yet amongst the hierarchy of the armed services, blacks are as scarce as they are in the Dakotas. It is the “same difference” (as they say in the hood) in most corporate board rooms in the USA; ditto for Hollywood and mainstream media. In Hollywood, mainstream media and Madison Avenue, less than five percent of the writers (who shape our culture) are black. Less than two per cent of the producers who supply our news and other valuable information are black (read Farai Chedeya).
In Barack Obama’s administration (as well as in his re-election campaign structure), most of the frontline players are white. Barack is half-white (mulatto) but he is fully integrated into the mainstream of the white All-American thinking patterns: he has practically no clue as to what time it is.
If you study governmental entities all over the country to find out who gets the contracts, you will see that black-owned firms get less than two per cent. If you study unemployment figures throughout the country you will find that the “jobless” number amongst blacks are more than ten times higher than that for whites. The official “unemployment” (and “under-employment”) number is usually about four or five times higher: on a good day.
We don’t need another survey to find out that blacks in the USA have been in a depression while the rest of the country edges out of a recession. We don’t need another study (or “sting” operation) to show routine discrimination and blatant racism against blacks: in jobs, education, housing, employment, business opportunity and economic development. We don’t need another Sunday afternoon press conference from New York’s senior federal senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer, to list the many violations that the banking and insurance industries routinely perpetrate against blacks in the “hood”. Go see who is filing for bankruptcy and home foreclosures by the score: it isn’t only white folks y’all. Go see who is heading to homeless shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries in the inner cities.
Look, we don’t need another US president in denial as to the real casualties of racism, and ignorant of racism’s total scope. We need one who is sensitive to what time it is: one who should naturally know better than all the others before him (on this issue).
In the urban setting, we are in crisis mode folks. And to make matters worse, funding streams are not yielding sufficient monies for federal, state and local governments to fulfill their social obligations and responsibilities. Add to this the fact that those in power stubbornly refuse to further tax the wealthy: in fact the rich get tax breaks while all this is going on.
As it relates to what got us into the last economic downturn, I cannot find a single black person who contributed to this fiasco in a significant way. The financial meltdown was caused by greedy and unscrupulous capitalists who were (and are) overwhelmingly white (and male). These are just the hard facts of life folks. Read it and weep.
As it relates to the federal budget deficit I am still looking for the programs specifically catered to black folks, which caused this big gaping hole of red ink. If truth be told, those social programs from which blacks may benefit in general, are usually the first one gutted when Congress goes through its irregular phase of fiscal restraint (like nowadays). Meanwhile rich corporations hardly pay taxes, and just as rich white individuals they too hide behind the many tax-loopholes their lobbyists successfully negotiated with weak, inept and corrupt congress members (white, black, Hispanic and other).
When two out of every three black babies are born to out-of-wedlock mothers; when the missing father syndrome and the prison-recidivism syndrome afflicts black neighborhoods like it has been for almost half a century now; when the justice system routinely create perpetual felons through its discriminatory sentencing practices; when these and other factors exacerbate the malaise in the communities of color, then it is time for government to do an intervention. You can’t just sit back and watch, as millions and millions of young black lives are thrown into the dustbins of history year in year out.
You have to read Randall Robinson’s book (The Debt) to understand where this thing started, and why it’s going where it’s going. You have to read Mary Alice Miller’s columns -that consistently highlight the terrible plight of too many young black women in the hood- in order to understand the urgent need for federal action on behalf of young blacks (male and female).
When you look at the plight of black males under thirty years of age, you find too many entangled and strangled by the judicial system. This leads to a lifetime of stress, strain, disorder and bother. It leads to a lifetime of dysfunction (if they survive to any meaningful age) and eventually to another generation snatching the same baton.
Look, I am not only talking about a need for “Jobs” programs in the hood. I am not only talking about “educational” programs either: there are many solid programs already in place -some just need additional funding and long-term commitments. I am also talking about social (and psychological) programs on a grand scale -a la Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Teddy Roosevelt. I am talking about programs geared specifically towards targeting the malaise in communities of color.
Blacks need Barack Obama to be as eloquent as Michael Eric Dyson on articulating the pressing black issues of blacks in this country. We need him to be as passionate as Professor Cornell West on describing the different Americas; and on why we need to urgently strive for one America. Do not think for one minute that maybe a hundred years from now, we won’t find our descendants caught up in civil wars caused by issues around race, ethnicity, class, nationalism and /or religion.
We don’t need another “Philadelphia” speech from BO. We don’t need details lacking details as to how we are going to problem-solve in the black community: we need action. We don’t need some self serving dissertation on race and race relations when it is politically convenient or expedient; we need a commitment to his understanding of what we are truly up against in communities of color. He doesn’t have to feel that he is compelled to speak down to young black males, but he has to show that he feels their pain. He has to show his compassion for those who get few breaks in this life. We don’t need another demagogic overture when the Republicans are on his ass, or when those at Fox News Network pin him to Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton (that’s coming). We need help in communities of color: big help.
Barack Obama controls the instruments and mechanisms of governmental power at the federal (top) level; he needs to demonstrate to blacks that he can reward the most loyal voting-constituency of democrats for their years of fealty. All he has to do is come up with initiatives and policy decisions that confront the myriad issues uniquely facing communities of color.
Too many blacks seem to think that he is handcuffed by the re-election clock. Too many feel that (maybe) in his second term (if he gets one) he will show more sensitivity to their plight. I say the time for action is now. No more postponing of vital intervention. No more delaying of federal help to communities of color, around issues like housing, education, employment/ unemployment/ under-employment/joblessness, economic justice and judicial reform. As Martin Luther King wrote, there are too many deadly reasons “why we can’t wait”.
Look at the black communities and compare them with white communities. Compare the asthma rates and the HIV/AIDS rates. Note the cancer rates, and rates for other illnesses such as tuberculosis, high blood pressure, heart disease, et al. Do you really think that all these afflictions in the black community are just coincidental? Do you really think that it’s simply about diet, exercise and life style choices? Black communities suffer from low-quality food and medical supplies, but high-quality medicine and food prices.
We don’t need another undercover media episode showing the common-place negative predisposition in the way(s) blacks are treated by others, all over the country; when compared to whites: cab, bus, train or plane -driver (s),and there is no difference. It’s same old – same old, and business as usual: day in day out. There are psychological costs to all this after centuries. There are social prices being paid as we speak; but who is doing the book-keeping?
President Barack Obama stood before this black civil rights body and refused to talk about the tale of at least three nations (in one). Instead he tried to spin a yarn of one nation where things aren’t so fine but getting better. He looked like a basketball player isolated on the far corner of the court. He looked like a baller dribbling without reason while the shot clock is winding down. And those of us who loved the way Jamaal Wilkes played basketball are waiting for Barack to nail one for us; just as we are waiting for the powers that be to name Jamaal Wilkes to the basketball Hall of Fame: it feels like we have been waiting forever and a day.
Stay tuned-in folks; it’s spring: I am only warming up in the bullpen right now. Part two will be with you shortly.