A young Black man, a graduate of
one of the best law schools in America (Yale), who, from a poor family,
uses his gifts and energies not to make a buck for Wall St. or Dow
Jones, but to make a difference in his neighborhood of Oakland,
California, by community organizing around social problems: jobs, the
environment, clean energy, police violence, and education.
Imagine what such a man must've
felt to see an unprecedented presidential campaign by another young
Black man, who, from modest economic means, also graduates from one of
the best law schools in America (Harvard), and spurns lucrative offers
from rich law firms, to become a low paid community organizer on
Chicago's West side, the city's poorest, Blackest neighborhood.
Why -- he must've felt that this
was a man after his own heart.A man who came from the poor, and
returned to the poor, to serve and organize amongst them.
He must've thought that this was
the coming of a New Age -- a new era of profound social change in
America.
So, Van Jones, activist, joins
the Barack Obama administration, as the green energy czar, a field he's
passionate about, to provide jobs in Black communities, and conserve
natural resources as part of a larger change in America's addiction to
oil.
But, almost immediately, Jones
comes under attack from forces in America that really don't want change.
Egged on by "conservative"
shout-show hosts, Jones was being labeled "racist," and that old Cold
War charge that should've died with the fall of the Soviet
Union--"communist."
This should've had little impact
on a President who has been called "racist" and "socialist" by the same
people. These are, if not the very same people, certainly the
ideological descendants of those who spit on Black children trying to
go to schools during the Civil Rights movement, who called Martin
Luther King, Jr. a "communist" so loudly that he was under FBI
electronic surveillance to the day he died, and those at the forefront
of the so called "debate" around health care.
For the, change means fear. In
their dark imaginations, the only people who want change are communists.
It shouldn't have had an effect,
but it did. Jones resigned, to protect a President who wouldn't protect
him.
It reminded me of Lani Guinier,
another brilliant Yale trained Black lawyer, who got left hanging when
racists dubbed her "quota queen" when she was nominated for a post in
the Clinton administrations Justice Dept.
The more things change.....If
racists can ostensibly lose an election, and still dictate policy,
then, have they really lost?
It seems to me that the loudest
voices screaming "racist" are the most racist, who stood for a status
quo that has never served anyone, but themselves.
###
Death Row prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal is a committed revolutionary, journalist, and author of many
books. His most recent title is "JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: Prisoners Defending
Prisoners vs. The USA" published by City Lights Books (www.citylights.com). Massive evidence demonstrating that
Mumia Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair trial has convinced groups as
diverse as Amnesty International and the national NAACP to demand that
he be granted a retrial. A growing movement that includes the NAACP and
the National Lawyers Guild further advocates the US Department of
Justice to investigate the ample evidence of civil rights violations in
the Abu-Jamal case. Such an investigation should result in Abu-Jamal's
retrial andrelease. To support the movement in support of investigation
and retrial see here
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