Excluded Again
Plus: A Commonsense Rally and Revisiting A Raisin in the Sun

I'm angry. I'm outraged. I'm livid. About what, you might ask. About the level of discrimination at the city, county and state levels of government hereabouts. With all of the probes going on -- the county, ODOT, and now City Hall -- you'd think that at least one Black person would be in jeopardy of being indicted (after all, according to society we're supposed to be the shady characters, right?), but not one single person of color has surfaced as a target of any of the investigations to date. Why? Because of out and out racism, that's why. We Black folks evidently are not even considered qualified to take bribes, graft and kickbacks. This type of thinking is... well, hurtful.

Also, it’s really not fair. I know that if we’re given an equal opportunity, we can be just as crooked as anyone else -- but, as per usual, we were left out when the payola pie was being cut up. It’s downright un-American, that’s what it is. I want the FBI to launch another investigation; I want to get to the bottom of these exclusionary practices. All we’re asking for is a fair shot; a chance to dip our biscuits in the gravy on occasion -- is that too much to ask? All we ever get are crumbs, like the piddling little Nate Gray scandal... how fair is that?

I know that we Black dudes like to take junkets to Las Vegas, just the same as the White boys … but noooooo, we were never invited, not even once, and I want to know why. Is it because we’re not members-in-good-standing of the “Good ‘Ol (WHITE) Boys’ Club?” Well, we want to be “players” too.

I mean, everyone knows that we Black folks just love to eat, but none of the lucre was ever spread our way so that we could go to Lancers on Carnegie Avenue for tasty seafood -- the guys that were tossing around the bribes wouldn’t even buy a brother a perch sandwich. It’s bigotry of the highest order, that’s what it is.

Trips to topless bars paid for by contractors? Hey, we can stuff dollar bills in the G-strings of scrawny, tattooed, and strung-out Go-Go girls with the best of them, but again, we were left out. It’s out and out prejudice; there can be no other explanation for it.

Well, we want in next time. We pay taxes just like everyone else, and we want to be part of the fraud, chicanery and schemes like every other red-blooded American. Hell, we might not swim much (so we don’t need swimming pools built), but we do barbecue a lot and therefore need decks additions built on the back of our houses. Even a smallish gazebo wouldn’t be bad … is that asking too much?

It’s our right, and we won’t be satisfied until we achieve full inclusion in the American Scheme. We’re planning to rally in front of the Federal Courthouse to press our demands (at a date to be announced later — much later). If all of the marching that Martin Luther King did meant anything, if Obama’s election to the presidency has any legitimacy, then we should be fully included in the dirty dealings, too… and the only thing that should beat us to Federal prison is the headlights on the bus. Damnit, fair is fair.

Rally in Support of Commonsense

An ad hoc coalition of civil rights groups, reentry organizations, halfway houses and substance abuse service providers gathered on the steps of Cleveland City Hall at noon on Tuesday to show their support for Mayor Frank Jackson. Last week Jackson stated that he would change the city’s policy in regards to individuals arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia containing drug residue.

Currently, Cleveland is the only city in the State of Ohio where the charge for such possession is a felony, but that will change on Jan. 1 when the charge will become a misdemeanor, with abusers offered drug treatment alternatives.

However, howls of outrage were heard from conservatives who wish to keep creating more felons, in spite of overwhelming evidence that substance abuse treatment is far more effective than incarceration, and comes at a lesser cost — both to the individual and to society.

Speaker after speaker restated that the mayor is not being “soft on crime,” but is being “smart on drug treatment.”

Revisiting A Raisin in the Sun

The enduring relevancy of Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play, A Raisin in the Sun, (currently mounted at the Play House’s Drury Theatre through Nov. 30) probably has as much to do with the failure of housing integration in America as it has to do with the success of the author’s exceptional dramaturgy skills. Penned in the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, the play’s 1959 debut marked a number of firsts: The first play written by an African-American female to appear on Broadway; the first Broadway play directed by an African-American — Lloyd Richards.

The production catapulted the young Hansberry (she was 29 at the time) into the role of Broadway foremother of Black arts, literature and — most importantly — aspirations. Her tragic and untimely death due to pancreatic cancer at age 34 robbed the nation — and the Civil Rights Movement — of one of its most powerful, incisive and accurate voices.

However, time has not diminished the power of her words … only magnified them. The issues of housing segregation, assimilation, Black upward mobility, and pan-African nationalism that Hansberry’s work forced America (and indeed, the world) to look at 50 years ago still resonate today … serving as a written testament to the author’s brilliant foresight. However, to paraphrase the NAACP’s motto, “Much has changed over the years, but much has not.”

Undoubtedly the most widely (in the entire world) produced play by an African-American author, this classic work can easily be mangled in the wrong hands. Fortunately, the current production was entrusted to top professionals in every aspect of stagecraft: Lou Bellamy’s direction is dead-on, and the cast, an ensemble of some of the top professional stage actors in the country, is, for all means and purposes, flawless. Not one false note.

My only question is, why did Michael Bloom, the Play House’s artistic director, decide to offer up this play during this season? Was Bloom prescient — did he know that Barack Obama would win the presidency, and therefore decided to bring back the most powerful play he could think of to accentuate the Zeitgeist? In any case, he could hardly have done better than Hansberry’s magnificent work.

The central theme of Raisin is housing integration — (although Hansberry adroitly raises and answers a multitude of other questions regarding the Black experience) — an issue drawn from Hansberry’s own childhood. In 1940, her father, a successful Chicago-area realtor, fought all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court to be able to live in a formerly all-White community where he had purchased a home. Her mother had to patrol the home the nights her father was away, pistol in hand, to protect her family from the outraged White mob.

When Raisin debuted on Broadway in 1959 the timing couldn’t have been more felicitous. The nation was on the cusp of what was to become one of the most tumultuous and divisive times in American history, and Hansberry’s powerful words played a pivotal role in energizing the Movement and moving the agenda forward.

Blacks, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. were challenging discrimination in all of its guises, and housing integration became a central flashpoint... as well as (at least to my mind) the biggest mistake of the Civil Right Movement. While I believe totally in the legal right for Blacks to live anywhere we choose... just because we have the legal “right” to move into an all-White neighborhood doesn’t mean that we should do so. Here’s why: It takes two races for integration to work, and, except for some isolated instances, most White Americans still are not interested in living next door to a Black person. The proof is, our nation is just as racially stratified today as it was 50 years ago -- and in some cases even more so. In most cases still, when Blacks move in, Whites move out. We then follow, and they move again. White flight.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for integration, but I personally would rather wait until Whites are ready to also buy into the concept before trying it again. Our effort can best be spent where it can do some good, instead of mistakenly pursuing the unattainable.

You see, I find the whole notion of some middleclass Blacks deriving their sense of self-worth from their residential proximity to Whites to be distasteful and demeaning. Even in this day and age I’ve heard some confused Black folks bragging about how they are the “only” minorities residing on their street or in their neighborhood. It’s as if they need White acceptance to be self-actualized.. Man, if that type of thinking isn’t as twisted as a pretzel... then I don’t know what is.

In spite of the foregoing, I’m not alone in sensing a new feeling of optimism extant in the land with Barack Obama set to ascend to the presidency in January; he certainly has succeeded so far in creating feelings of renewed hope for positive change — and integration is among them. However, it will take writers of Hansberry’s intellect and stature to keep us grounded in reality... to put some artistic flesh on the dry bones on policy.

There is a palpable fear that we will place much too much on the shoulders of the incoming president, without stopping to realize that some of the same folks who voted to elevate him to the highest office in the land would not care to live next door to him and his family -- but maybe that too will change in time.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play was exactly the right words and sentiments for the time back in 1959, and she probably had no idea of the ferocity of the White backlash that would prevent her ideals from becoming more of a reality. But now may be the perfect time to revisit her words... it just may be that America is now ready to hear what this brilliant Black woman had to say and live up to the ideals she so eloquently articulated -- I truly hope so. Go, see, and decide for yourself.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com

Frazier's book From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available now. Snag an autographed copy from the author at http://www.frombehindthewall.com.
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