Black & blues at the DNC

Following is an open letter to the Black community written on Aug. 28 by Iyanna Jones, who is with Black Waxx Multimedia, Inc. and appears in the documentary, “Disappearing Voices: The Decline of Black Radio.” (www.disappearingvoices.com) E-mail: [email protected].

My beautiful Black brothers and sisters,

I’ve been listening to the nationwide chatter of folks smitten by Barack Obama’s candidacy. At the DNC he had people, and not just women, swooning over him and this aura of supposed change he’s got billowing about him like a halo. In the eternal popularity contest that is the United States presidential election, many equate him to a rock star. I’ve seen people blinking back tears because they are so profoundly inspired by his candidacy. These are the same folks for whom Barack signifies an arrival for Black folks. I’m in tears too. Because none of the news coverage mentioned how police brutalized PEACEFUL, PERMITTED protesters at the DNC in Denver, beating women down with billy clubs, arresting 80-year-olds and pepper-spraying kids. Rioting, out-of-control cops attacked the press and blocked the view of the cameras so that they could have their violent way with protesters, and none of it on record. They even beat up producers and reporters from USA Today. Mind you, none of this happened at the protests of the Republican National Convention at the last election.

People, Black people in particular, need to pay very close attention. This is political theater bought to you by Fake-Assed Political Process Productions. I’d rather watch soap operas and I hate soap operas but at least they try to develop characters you can actually believe in. I’ve been trying to be diplomatic about my opinions because we’re all entitled, right? But seriously, this is not me expressing my “opinion.” This is me documenting what is actually going on. And this is people ignoring the truth because they don’t have the strength of mind to turn off the television and pursue alternate means of information gathering, like alternative and independent media. I might “think” Obama is a charlatan in my “opinion” but as an observant (and well-read, well-informed) human being I “know” that nobody in the presidential office works in the interests of the people, at least not right now; maybe when people start getting engaged in politics as more than spectators.

And my disclaimer: I love Black people. And I do believe in supporting your own. I want nothing more than to see the end of discrimination and oppression. I would love to see a Black president. Of course I want to live in a country where people can live side by side in peace. But if the price of peace means foregoing justice or the truth, if it’s just “getting along” and acting like everything is okay and “hoping for change” instead of “working for change,” then I’m not with it. Anybody selling anything else is a liar. Another reminder: we were chock full of hope over Gore and look what happened.

Don’t people remember that when we saw the first Black elected official in this country, people had the same response? Oh Lordy we done made it! Cleefus is an assemblyman-alderman-mayor or whatever. Now look at the state of Black politics. But Obama’s supposed to wipe that slate clean? Idiocy. Our supposed savior has to be more than Black. He’s got to have integrity and he’s got to be a person at heart, not a politician. And people have to realize that right now there’s no room in this system for a person like that. But we could change it, the people, you and me, not Obama the “rock star.” My intelligence is insulted by this “we shall overcome” analysis when it ain’t us doing any of the overcoming. Today, Barack will be baptized as the golden boy of the Democratic Party, 45 years to the day of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.” I have a dream too. I have a dream that one day people will wake the fuck up.

Revolution ... then Peace,
Iyanna Jones