13 years since the Million Man March?

Someone check my math? I clearly remember the first October 16 in 1995 that was declared our "Day of Atonement." I begrudgingly went to work as a work/study student in the African and African American Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis (Wash. U.), where I was first year undergraduate student.

I was super radical, adolescent and irrationally upset that the Program wasn't closed to observe the day. I believe I wore all black and a beret, like this:



My "sour grapes" might have been irrational, but my emotion concerning the politics of the time was not unfounded. There was a lot going on concerning African-descent peoples world-wide in 1995. One of the organizations with which I was active, the Association of Black Students (ABS), had been working on incarceration issues, educational inequity in St. Louis Public schools, and about month after celebrating Nigerian Independence Day (October 1), we witnessed the brutal hanging death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and others who were part of the Ogoni struggle.


SEE: http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/deathksw.htm

With only two tenured black faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and increasing gentrification occurring in the city of St. Louis, black students on Wash. U.'s campus took the Million Man March as a serious opportunity to reflect on our protracted struggle against persistent dehumanization.

*


My class-- the wonderful ABS class of 1999 ((unghhhh**))-- organized students to not purchase anything, not even food, on that day. We cooked. We stayed home from class and gathered to talk about political activity ranging from shutting down local Shell stations to reviving black academic support organizations. At sunset we congregated at an outdoor common area. We had candles (did I buy these out of my pocket??? someone advise). We held a vigil and verbally, spiritually committed ourselves to hope, change and love. We were human. We took a moment to respect that, to respect our struggle, and to connect our humanity with the world.

I have always taken time to reflect in that manner on this day as well as October 26 for the Million Women's March. I didn't know how special that group of fabulous black students turned black professionals was until I left for another geographic region. I send them blessings on this day. I also want to send love to Club Knowledge who kept that spirit alive for me when I moved to Oakland ten years later.

Peace. Harambee.


*((Imani Williams from Oakland's Club Knowledge and Tony Stephenson from Wash. U.'s ABS are pictured above. This was taken by the def prof in St. Louis, 2006. Tony is wearing a throwback ABS T-shirt. Go Tony!!))
**(("unghhh" was part of a senior year unity call for the class of 1999. Master P had a song with a chorus that sang, "Unghhhh, Nah nah nah nah," and we would say, "Unghhh, Na-Ninety-N(ah)ine."))

19 days left 'til Nov. 4

While watching the debate tonight, I sadly felt as if I were watching the SNL version. McCain was cartoonish and nonsensical and oddly on par with Tina Fey's representation of the Sarah Palin character. I was irritated that the post-debate analysis ignored Obama's attempts to center discussion on urgent issues of health care, economic crisis and quality education, as well as his proposal to eschew meaningless discussion about mudslinging and scare tactics employed by campaigns. I was proud of how Obama handled the debate. Schieffer's overt verbal interruptions of Obama compared to his compliance through lack of time enforcement with McCain revealed his inadequacy as moderator. McCain's use of hyperbole and emotional outburst during debate were disturbing, and as I said earlier, on par with an SNL skit.

Nonetheless, I am not down about our collective futures. With all of the news of the McCain campaign's attempt to rally racist domestic terrorist groups at political rallies, I became a bit concerned about the gravity of such a tactic. Dancing on fear and false claims of scarcity have influenced masses of insecure people to make choices that are clearly not in their favor in past campaigns. I have lived in an area that was home to the headquarters of 17 different white supremacist terrorist organizations, and I am quite familiar with the organizing strategies of these groups. McCain lovingly referred to these as his "fringe" group supporters tonight. I am relieved to hear from many past acquaintances who continue to live in this area that the Obama support is alive and vibrant even there. Many have told me of plans to organize "van loads" of people on election day and others have been working to support early absentee voting.

With this recent news, I have my heart set on hope.

Now we have to focus some of our energy on making sure people are educated about the many other propositions possible to vote on after they cast their votes for a better prospect in the presidency. But that's another blog...