BLACK MILLENNIAL PEOPLE

WARNING: The beginning of this particular DOWN FRONT! has nothing to do with the general nature of its subsequent contents. So don’t be dissuaded from continuing the reading.

The other day I happened to really notice a particular billboard. It was at Marina and displayed two huge pieces of M and M candy. The text said something to the effect that M + M = 2000. I was never too hip with the Roman numerals thing, but I surmise that "M" is the equivalent of 1,000. (Stay with me, now.) Below that daunting calculation was a note that M&Ms is the official candy of the Millennium, i.e., the (getting-closer-all-the-time) year 2000. Well, that’s hip advertising; but not especially original in that everybody and his brother and sister gets on the "Official" bandwagon at winter and summer Olympics time.

BUT the ad prompted another one of those prize-winning ideas in my head. It came in the form of a question: WHY NOT DECLARE AFRICAN AMERICANS AS THE OFFICIAL PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2000?

The possibilities are limitless. One the "pop culture"side that would mean tee shirts, ribbons, banners, backward facing caps, underwear, sneakers, a new soft drink, special Slauson and Crenshaw incense...you name it!

On the more serious side, there is every reason why we should articulate a brand new way of thinking/reflecting about and living in this place called America. Year 2000 is a golden Black opportunity to "get it right." But I am not suggesting across the board failure in this regard. On the contrary, there is nothing we have not as a people already tried. In some strange way(s) the gamut of full-bodied behavior is the history of African Americans writ large. The getting it right has more to do with adopting a pattern of living which truly begs the question of so-called white acceptance. In fact, there is good cause to set that prospect aside as a primary agenda item. Let’s (as the young folks say) be real.

If we take 1619 and Jamestown as accurate points of departure - or arrival, if you will - then the year 2000 is a scant 19 years from an actual 400 365-day increments. But who’s counting with that kind of precision and in the long run, how much difference does it really make. The truism is a bold and frightening one: After all this time, Black people in these still United States are not a self-determining people. Our fate rests unalterably in the hands of others whose own agenda precludes any important attention or concern about or for ours. Whether we are talking about profits from Lotto or the location of a library; college tuition rates or college admission rates; government grants or germ warfare; book publication or book selection...you name it. The final decisions somehow always "just kinda sorta" get deferred to someone else. I’ll not spend time here addressing the exceptions and/or making a case for the long term significance of those exceptions.

So there is indeed a certain irony about the prospect of declaring ourselves to be the upcoming century’s official people. One might appropriately ask, "Officially What?" Or, perhaps equally cogent, "Official to or for Whom?" Or, better yet, "Officially sanctioned to do what from now on?" Well this wouldn’t be much of an interactive publication if I were to supply all of the answers, lay out all of the possibilities. So, I’ll leave it to the reader’s imagination to think about it. One thing is for sure if and when we do make the declaration, a lot of other folks are gonna be royally pissed. But that’s O.K. too. There is something rather catchy about a partnership between royalty and officialdom.

BRING ON THE TAPES

(Dated: 3-24-98) The Tom Joyner Morning Show happens to be one of my favorites. In fact, it is my favorite Black radio show. But this morning, Tom tired me somewhat. He is accompanying President on at least part of the latter’s Africa trip. Joyner and Tavis Smiley have flown ahead while the President stops in Rwanda to meet with some of the genocide survivors. Joyner and Smiley have made a number of telephone calls to update those who listen in on any one of the 95 stations around the country. That, by the way is an accomplishment all by itself.

One can both appreciate and mourn the power of the media when the source of information is limited, biased or both. Until this Thursday’s L.A. Sentinel comes out (oh joy!) the only Black perspective I can tune to is Joyner’s snippets. He’s a successful, resourceful and sometimes funny talk show host, but is certainly no journalist. (I am both surprised and disappointed that Tavis has not added much...at least up to now. I happen to be a strong supporter of commentary that is measured and reflective; but one sometimes is without the luxury of looking at important matters after the fact. "It" is often a "rat now thang.) To hear Joyner rant on and on using precious minutes talking about the heat and the mosquitoes is just plain sad. I’d be the first to admit that it’s better to hear a good brother direct from (any place in) Africa than to hear nothing at all; and I give Joyner his just desserts. In fact, I am looking forward to his live broadcasts which start tomorrow, 3-25-98.

The bigger point is this: the widely dispersed Black Community needs a first rate international news organization. I know little about BET or its capabilities. I do know that CEO Johnson is pushing for a Las Vegas casino. (So much for priorities.) But there ought to be a videotaped story of Clinton’s visit. All the other complaining I do - and will continue to do - the linkage is important; and it should be appropriately documented...from a Black American perspective. Young people learn from that infectious television screen. And picking up on vital information months later doesn’t hurt at all. The "line loss" is minimal. Come to think of it, there isn’t even anything with the many heads of African states that sits in one of our libraries. We can complain all we like about the shallowness of a rap-laced generation; but we sit by and let things like the Academy Award self Congratulatory Madness occupy our time and attention. Oh, happy day! Bring on the talk. Bring on the tapes!

JOYNER IN CAPE TOWN

(Dated: 3-25-98) Tom Joyner and his totally ridiculous (said lovingly) are now in the Cape Town Civic Center, waiting for the President. Clinton and entourage are scheduled to arrive at 1 am Thursday. I always look for the special or fluky twist to human circumstances; so I find it joyful that American Black folks got to the CC before the rest of the most certainly overwhelmingly non-African American press gets there. One can suppose that they have the run of the joint and perhaps even squatters rights to the best seat in the house. Well, maybe the 2nd best spot. To be sure ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, etc. have already staked out a claim to "their spot."

Joyner said that when he broadcasts tomorrow there will be lots of noise in the background. But background noise is no newcomer to Joyner’s Morning Jam. His sidekick, Jay is a gas! And Sybil provides an unsuccessful element of seriousness to the collection. No harm in trying. The "crack-up portion of today’s broadcast had to do with the visit of Jay, Sybil and Myra to Victoria Falls. Their description was politically or geologically correct and then...they took off. They mentioned the fact that some folks are bungee jumping from the bridge near the falls. They were quick to point out that the jumpers, however, are not Black. Jay, in fact, interviewed a jumper who said the jump was the experience of a lifetime. Jay took his word for it, and didn’t attempt to gain the experience of a lifetime for himself. He asked the bungee man if there were any Black jumpers and got the expected answer: No.

Somehow the subject of the name of the falls came up; and after it was acknowledged that this natural phenomenon was named after "somebody named ‘Victoria’, England’s Queen Victoria was identified. That began a ripping conversation of the similarity of this designation to Columbus’ "discovery" of America. Everyone agreed that the falls had a name long before the arrival of Europeans. The natives (i.e., indigenous population) to the area had already named the falls. No one in Joyner’s crew knew what that name was; but that didn’t stop anything. The pumped up group quickly decide that what the rest of the world calls Victoria Falls was originally called "Leroy and Them’s Falls." Admittedly that takes longer to say; but it has that special flavor of Black American wit that sets our perspective on "things" apart from the rest of human. And that is a true gas: Leroy and Them’s Falls!!

Later in the morning they completely lost it. They spent no less than 10 minutes milking having witnessed a very brief encounter between a female chimp who had bent over to take a drink from a steam and a male chimp who happened to drift by at (for him and 3 of Joyner’s team) the right time. The male chimp reportedly glanced around to check the scene for lions, and having smelled, seen or otherwise sensed any, took it upon himself to "hit it." The hitting took but a few seconds; and the male, after finishing, simply sauntered off without so much as a "Thank you, ma’m." Of course, the assessment of the encounter was, "Just like they do (back) in the States. No flowers, no pizza, no nothing." It took all the morsel of concentration I had to keep from driving up on a curb from uncontrolled laughter. What a morning show!!

WINNING THE WAR, LOSING HISTORY

A little over a week ago I heard an interesting interview on NPR. The man being interviewed has written a book about some of the feelings and attitudes which prevail in the South to this day relative to the Civil War. (Some people believe the war is still being fought.)

The man made two interesting observations: First, that in mock reenactments of key battles, more people chose to be on the losing side. [History informs us that the South lost.] He explained this in part by alluding to the inclination of Americans to side with the underdog.

His other point hit me as sound, profound and ironically attractive. He said that clearly the North had won the war; but the South had won the history. I don’t remember much of what he said after that because that little bell in my listening head went off; that little light inside went on for me from that point on. What a seductive observation. And one which - I like to think - applies oh so readily to Black people in America.

There are plenty of fair-minded optimists in or sometimes beleaguered midst. There are those who are irretrievably locked on the light at the tunnels end, who "know" that joy comes in the morning, who are never trapped by the setbacks of the week, the month, the decade or the century. They have always been and will remain special. For our purposes here, I will designate them as out true Historians. Because they are the ones who do not simply tell our story (anyone can do that) but pull back from the morass, the chaos, the temporal victories and triumphs [important though they are] and write our long term history. Now, before we completely swallowing that notion, let me clarify: The writing in this sense is not the recording (like DOWN FRONT! purports to do.) No, it’s much bigger and more meaningful than that.

The history they write is pervasive, magnanimous (and magnificent!), malleable, elusive, and...at the very top of the list, POSITIVE. Indeed we have lost and will probably lose a lot more characteristically American "wars." But we got the HISTORY!!