INAUGURATION DAY THOUGHTS: WHAT ABOUT JUSTICE?

As I watch Inauguration Day activities and commentary, I am just awed –- and not in a good way –- at the “spin” being spun “. . . from sea to shining sea” regarding the significance of this election and Inauguration Day.

If you believe the media –- as well as so many whites and some Afrikan descendants –- today is either “the culmination of a dream”; “the end of a struggle”; and / or “the culmination of what we’ve been fighting for.”

Seriously? We’ve been fighting for an Afrikan descendant in the White House?

Now, MAKE NO MISTAKE, I stand with those who acknowledge this historical moment and I fully support those who celebrate this historical moment. . .I understand its emotion, its significance, its resonance to so many who have fought for so long. . .

However, my question is “BUT WHAT ABOUT JUSTICE?”

Because, see, that is what I thought was at the heart of the fight against racial apartheid and the other forms of oppression that was (were) delivered as a cherished twin (along with “freedom”) in the birthing of America and nurtured for the majority of its history.

The fight for JUSTICE has lasted for 400 years . . . are we saying now that the struggle that cost so many lives (physically and metaphorically, in terms of the hopes and opportunities of A People) and spilled so much blood was so an Afrikan descendant can be the head of a country where deep inequities grow by the day, or be the “Black face” of a country that has chosen for so many years to follow an imperialistic agenda?

Do we say “oh, that’s okay now” and continue to support decisions and choices that may represent the best economic, political, and power interest of this country –- at the expense of other countries and peoples because there is an Afrikan descendant at the helm?

Is this truly the culmination of “the dream”, the beginning of what is being heralded as a “post racial” America when $419 million in Black wealth is being lost through foreclosures; when prisons where Black youth are being incarcerated in record numbers are one of the few thriving growth industries; where for every dollar of white per capita income, Afrikan descendants had only 57.5 cents in 2005 – down .2 cents from 2002? Where Afrikan descendants and whites will achieve parity in high-school graduation rates by 2013, but won’t achieve parity at the college level until 2075? Where –- for other communities – 80% of accumulated lifetime wealth begins with a gift from a relative, while for nearly 80% of Afrikan descendant children, the journey toward accumulated wealth begins with no assets whatsoever? (Stat sources: The Reinvestment Fund, University of California, Santa Barbara; US Census Bureau; and United for a Fair Economy)

Yes, America is now in love with President Barack Obama, but will that love extend to the rest of the Afrikan descendant community? Or the majority-Brown and Black global community? Will it extend past this moment to the greater issue of JUSTICE?

Today I pray that this country has the courage and fortitude to ride the wave of this moment past self-congratulations for choosing one man (who finds America increasingly stripping him of his self-identification as “African American” and imposing on him their identification as “Bi-racial”) to embracing the moment in history in which his election and presidency affords us: inspiration and motivation to mobilize and organize in support of a true JUSTICE agenda.

Then we can all be guaranteed to stand on the right side of history, not only in symbolism but in truth.


Moving Forward!

Adar