Crisis of Leadership

It was the late scholar and historian Dr. Manning Marable who once sagaciously suggested, “The power of a democracy depends upon its informed citizenry.” Those who participate in the experiment of democracy, in the American project, must be aware of the logistics of the political realities at any given moment. What we don’t know and fail to understand can be the direct and primary cause of the perpetuation of our own oppression, discrimination, and disenfranchisement. As African Americans, our vote is critically important because it has never been our inherited American privilege but our blood-purchased right that can never be taken lightly or for granted. That’s why the clergy who are encouraging their parishioners to stay home and not exercise their democratic capacity in the voting process is extremely troubling, counter-productive, and tremendously flawed.

With that being said, those who disagree with the President’s Obama’s stance for the equality of marriage for same sex couples are indeed entitled to have an alternative opinion. The privatization of the moral ethos of the Black Church has been conservative in its orientation for the majority of its followers. The major flaw I see is the confusion between religious proclivity and constitutional authenticity. If you don’t agree with the President’s view because of your religious beliefs, that’s fine but now is not the particular moment to engage in a narrative that contributes to negative political backlash because of one disagreement. This is a terribly narrow and nearsighted. Even if your religious views may cause you not to agree with the Same-sex marriage issue, you should still want and fight for all citizens to enjoy the same benefits of society that you have. I agree with Dr. Otis Moss Jr when he says,” There is a difference between religious rites and constitutional rights.” Sometimes our doctrinal orthodoxy blinds us to democratic opportunities. High-profile ministers who have been quiet in the midst of pervasive injustice are now realizing that their microphones are still working and are fired up on this issue. How theologically expedient.  There is too much at stake to not galvanize our churches, mosques, temples etc.  Education, healthcare, mass-incarceration, mandatory minimums, student loan debt, stand your ground laws, woman’s rights, and job creation are issues that some unthoughtful, uncritical, pious, religiously obsessive clergy are encouraging their members to walk away from.

E. Franklin Frazier said that the black church was the first place of Black Americans to engage in “social cohesion.” That’s still true. The church has the authority to legitimize and validate sociological movements in the Black community. So if Pastors are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day, that Pastor is holding a position he or she is not qualified for and has consequentially disqualified themselves from future leadership in our community. This displays the ultimate crisis of leadership that is so prevalent in our religious communities. I believe it’s that crucial. Roll out of that church. Our ancestors died for the right to choose to vote not so we could choose not the vote. The duality of the Black vote is an extraordinary event. We vote for those who never could and for those who we hope always will vote. These ministers are historically ignorant, politically irrelevant, culturally disembodied, and theologically deficient.

My Music Experiment

I'm a music snob.There I said it. I love the classics. (I always challenge the language of "Old School").  I love Jazz from  Theolonius Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock, Soul from Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Kahn, Funk from James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament Funkadleic, Rock from Pink Floyd, Blood ,Sweat, and Tears, Yes, Heavy Metal from Led Zepplin, The Who, Motorhead, Deep Purple, Blues from Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and even Country from Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.This snobbery is always evident and reveals to me that either I'm getting older or the music is getting worse. (Now I sound like a real old head tho). I think its a little of both especially the latter. I think I may have been spoiled by the music of my generation. Each generation lays a hold to this claim but I would argue that from about 1992 to 2002, it was a tremendous era for Hip-Hop and RnB.

My era was an era where you  were judged on your creativity and the dexterity of your album. Some of the best albums ever dropped during this time. The Chronic,  What's the 411? Illmatic, Doggystyle, 12 Play, Diary of a Mad Band, SWV, Ready to Die, Do or Die, My Life, Boyz to Men,II, DoggFood, All That I Am, Reasonable Doubt, Only Built for Cuban Linx, Me Against the World, Do You Want More, Muddy Waters, Life After Death, Harlem World, Baduizm, The War Report, Capital Punishment, Things Fall Apart, Aquemini, The Mis-Education of Lauren Hill, Vol 2 Hard Knock Life, Black Star, Black on Both Sides, The Moment of Truth,and whats crazy is that I can keep going. I judge music through this prism and out of this particular context. It would be a task for me just to listen to some of the material that's out.

After a week of listening to Power99, I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't rip my ears off  immediately. The tracks, though simplistic are infectious, the lyrics, though elementary are catchy, and the artists, though they can be redundant, have large followings. Cats like 2 Chainz, Future, Tyga, Big Sean, and the omnipresent Nicki Minaj are having the moment right now and I  finally have accepted it.

The critique I have is that today's music lacks the diversity and individuality that was essential to my era and the times before me.  I miss that.. Most of this music sounds exactly the same. Being a clubhead, I love to party but you can't always party your way through the rugged terrain of the society that we live in. Or can you? Unlike most, I don't blame Hip-Hop for the ills of society and I don't expect the artists to save the world but I do expect some of them to "say" something to the world and about the world. I miss the diversity where Redman , DMX, Nas, Jay-z, Common, Outkast, Scarface,Talib Kweli, Ice Cube, Eightball and MJG, Gangstarr didn't have to be like everybody in order to get noticed.

The greatness of the culture of Hip-Hop and music in general is the complexity of the voices that interpret and create the music. The Clone ethos takes away from the power of the voice.

A Formal Introduction

Allow me to reintroduce myself my name is Grove!! I should have done that earlier but that Trayvon debacle has been weighing heavy on me. The great Brizzeranne convinced me to share me thoughts (Just my thoughts Ladies and Gentlemen!) and some of my public as well.( I don't have a public but I love saying that.) This blog is just an attempt of a young Black man who is trying to make sense of his own existential reality and the world around him. Let's see what happens.

WE ARE TRAYVON MARTIN

It was Dr. Marc Lamont Hill who once said, "Black lives don't have as much value in our society as White lives." It is astonishing how truthful that reality is. The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Jim and Jane Crow are just few examples of the historical legacy of African-American existential inequality in these yet be to United States of America. But I must say that we have made tremendous and transformational  advances as a people and as a society. A black man by the name of Barack Obama along with his family now occupy the most powerful, influential residence in the world. Yet Trayvon Martin murderer remains free.

The Trayvon  Martin, 2012 public lynching, is a  tragic chapter within the narrative of the American story. A young man with so much potential and promise sleeps in an early grave. George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon simply because he had the time, opportunity,  the law , and the doctrine of White privilege to protect him. The unforgettable 911 call  captures Trayvon begging for his life while simultaneously displaying the heartless, merciless man that George Zimmerman is. A Klansman without the horse and sheets but with the same philosophy, and intentionality as those vigilantes. George Zimmerman's actions are haunting reminders that Black Americans often find themselves failed by the same laws that disproportionately protects their white counterparts. Emmit Till's reality is alive and well, embodied in the injustice that permeates this awful ordeal.

Dr. Martin Luther King once prognosticated that, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." That's so true. Their is no difference between Trayvon and our son's, nephews, grand-son's, brothers, uncles etc. WE ARE TRAYVON MARTIN. Our society equates young Black males with criminality by virtue of their very existence. What a sad commentary. Justice must be served for Trayvon, his parents, his family, his friends, for Emmit Till, Troy Davis, and other Black males who were senselessly murdered because WE ARE TRAYVON MARTIN!!