When did it become fashionable to equate black pride with black self-destruction? What is the difference between black on black crime and defaming one’s family? These were just a couple of imponderables going through my head as I interviewed Rev. James David Manning on Friday, October 31. Rev. Manning, by the way, is the Harlem preacher whose videotaped sermon circulating the web includes some rather harsh language regarding Senator Barack Obama. (To view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4-TZspqlOs) Other thoughts:
• There has never been, and I doubt there will ever be, universal black support for a black candidate in the American political system. For reference, go back to Booker T. Washington, who advocated self-help as the panacea to black America’s ills at the time. Who was his rival? Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, who promoted change within the system as a means to achieving black empowerment; both of these men had huge followings. In more contemporary times, neither the Revs. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton could claim universal black support. American politics just does not allow for such a phenomenon. Now comes Senator Barack Obama, who has not fashioned his credentials primarily for black support (remember the Iowa caucus?), whose appeal cuts across a wide swath of Americans and Rev. Manning, when asked if Barack Obama is not the right leader, than who is, referenced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even Dr. King had his share of black detractors!
• Rev. Manning’s stand on black on black crime is admirable but no new position. What strikes me is his utter disregard for other forms of “black on black crime” – such as his incendiary videotaped remarks about Senator Obama’s mother. After all, is it not the case that a crime usually is preceded by thought, calibrated into words and introduced as an action?
• Does anybody really take this Bill Clinton as our nation’s first black president stuff seriously? I always thought it was merely a way of expressing kudos to Clinton’s affectionate relationship with black people.
• Like most black people, I grew up in the black church and was nurtured by the black religious experience. To suggest that Black people need to return to God is a bit pie-in-the-skyish; black people need to use the power that God gives us! Reminds me of a book that I need to add to my library: If God is So Good, Why Are Black People Doing So Bad?
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About the Editor
- W. Eric Croomes
- Arlington, Texas, United States
- W. Eric Croomes is a writer and playwright based in Irving, Texas and a native of Phoenix, Arizona. Eric is a graduate of Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas, earning a Bachelor of Arts in religion and sociology and is founder and executive director of Millennium Men of Color, a non-profit black male advocacy group. In 2002, Eric self-published Dance in the Dark, Poetic Reflections on Love and Culture, a collection of his original poems and essays on love and relationship in the African-American tradition. Three to Eight, a play examining the hours when most teens become pregnant and most juvenile crime is committed, was Eric’s first theatrical release and debuted at the 2004 Black N Blues one act play festival at the African-American museum in Dallas. Brotha2Brotha, Becoming Healthy Men from the Inside Out, a spiritual primer for men of color, was released in September, 2006. Eric’s next book, Thoughts in Black and Male, is slated for release in spring 2008. COMING SOON: THEVILLAGEREPORT.NET Visit Eric at www.wericcroomes.com
January 19, 2008 issue of Golfweek Magazine
and I didn't say 1958!
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