Written by Ann Brown

for the Moguldom Nation 

In 2010, veteran journalist Tavis Smiley gathered together a group of Black political, religious, educational, and business leaders to discuss the state of Black America and the lack of a Black agenda under President Barack Obama, who was then in the middle of serving his first term.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Professor Cornel West, Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, and civil rights advocate Dorothy Tillman were among those included at the event, entitled “We Count: The Black Agenda Is the American Agenda.” The special media event was broadcast on C-Span on March 20, 2010.

Smiley, then a PBS talk show host, said felt was compelled to hold the event because of the public debate over whether Black leaders needed to press Obama on the Black agenda, according to KBLA Talk 1580 Los Angeles.

Also included in the discussion was advertising pioneer Tom Burrell, Professor Michael Eric Dyson, and Julianne Malveaux, who was then president of HBCU Bennett College. The Black Agenda panel discussion took place at Chicago State University. They discussed issues concerning the Black community, especially Obama’s policies. 

“Now the truth of the matter is President Obama is not addressing the Black agenda. President Obama has been told that is all right not to address our agenda. If you don’t address it, don’t worry about it because they gonna be quiet,” said Tillman, a former alderman of Chicago’s 3rd Ward who held that office from 1985 to 2007.

Dr. West said he gave Obama a grade of C minus on policies and priorities focused on poor and working people, saying, “He has really not come through in any substantial and significant way,” The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.

“A Black agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, quality education, investment in infrastructure and strong democratic regulation of corporations,” Dr. West told The New York Times. 

“The Black agenda, at its best, looks at America from the vantage point of the least of thee and asks what’s best for all.”

In Arkansas, are the lawmakers looking at the legislative agenda from the viewpoint of those who have the least?  Sadly, I think not. 

by Wendell Griffen

In recent days we have witnessed unprecedented evidence of bigotry and violence. Bear with me while I mention some of the more obvious examples. 

Start with the abuse and disrespect Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson experienced this week from Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was called vile names. Her professional and personal integrity was demeaned. Her character and intelligence were questioned. What Judge Jackson experienced was intentional bigotry. 

She was the target of premeditated violence from Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, and Charles Grassley.  Remember their names. Remember how they treated Judge Jackson.   Do not believe them if they eventually make predictably fake excuses, assertions of good faith, and other efforts to downplay their bigotry and violence. Those vicious politicians could not crack Judge Jackson. They could not break her spirit. 

Through it all, Judge Jackson did what Black women and girls have been taught to do for generations. 

She maintained her sense of personal dignity and worth. She did not abandon her moral high ground by trading insults with political clowns. Judge Jackson showed the world that she is smarter, more professional, and more courageous than all her attackers combined. I look forward to her being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks. I look forward to her joining the U.S. Supreme Court after she takes the oath of office.   

I am already envisioning the wonderful spirits of Constance Baker Motley, Shirley Chisholm, Harriett Tubman, Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, Coretta Scott King, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, and countless other women rising to salute Judge Jackson when she becomes Justice Jackson.   

Move now to the bigotry and violence the world has witnessed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the hypocrisy of the United States and other rich nations concerning the daily violence happening in that war. Western nations took almost no time to begin imposing economic sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. 

The same nations, including the US, refuse to impose sanctions against the apartheid regime of Israel because of the daily violence, land theft, and discrimination it has perpetrated against Palestinians and other persons of color for generations. 

They have not said a word about imposing sanctions against Saudi Arabia for the violence it is carrying out in Yemen.  

Journalists are constantly talking about how Russian aggressors are committing war crimes against Ukrainians. Meanwhile, the media outlets for whom they report refuse to devote similar attention to atrocities and war crimes committed by the Israeli military against Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza. They are not talking about the daily theft of land, invasion of neighborhoods, and destruction of olive trees by Jewish settlors in Palestine.   

Now shift to the local scene. Reporters, politicians, and pundits are talking sorrowfully about gun violence in Dumas, Little Rock, Chicago, and elsewhere. But they typically do so by suggesting that violence is an inherent part of Black life. 

They refuse to mention the violence committed against Black people and communities every day by militarized police tactics, racial gerrymandering of voting districts, and deliberate measures to depopulate Black families and communities through mass incarceration, gentrification, and other forms of systemic violence.  

Do not let journalists forget how violence against persons of color by people in power is ignored, excused, and even validated. Do not believe flimsy excuses from journalists, politicians, preachers, and other so-called influence leaders for treating systemic violence against Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian-Pacific Island, immigrants, and LGBTQI persons as excusable, or worse yet, deserved.   

And do not forget Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s courage, exemplary calm, and unwavering reaction to what Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska termed “jackassery” during Judge Brown’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.    

Remember it.  Teach and model it to young generations. Celebrate it.  

Live it.    

Can I get an "Amen"?  

Wendell Griffen is an ordained pastor, and published author. His latest work is The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, 2017)