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Tom, a restaurant in China is using President Obama’s image to sell fried chicken.

Problematic, yes, but it’s just the latest in the stream of indignities against this president… like the president and first lady being portrayed as apes in cartoons… or a congressman calling the president a liar during the state of the union.

Whether we agree with all his policies or not, we have to agree that this president, has been accorded an unprecedented level of disrespect.

Disrespect –I submit– rooted in the long-standing and pernicious idea that Black people are just not the equals of white people.

Slavery and Jim Crow are over, but the myth of Black inferiority, which justified them both— is still very much with us—in the larger society and, worst of all, often, in our own minds in the form of internalized oppression…

That’s why the celebration of Community Healing Days – which is coming up next Friday through Sunday — is so crucial for our community…

Tom, this is the celebration sponsored by the Community Healing Network and championed by Dr. Maya Angelou that you helped support a couple of years ago at the Riverside Church in New York…

It’s a three day celebration on the third weekend of every October designed to mobilize Black people to overcome the lie of Black inferiority. That lie—and its devaluation of Black hair, Black skin, and every other aspect of  Black people – is a root cause of the low self-esteem so many black people have, the black-white academic achievement gap, the mass incarceration of Black men, the epidemic of violence, and many of the other problems facing our community…

If we really want to reverse these negative trends, we’ve got to engage in a fearless struggle for our psychological liberation.

Over the past year, Community Healing Network has entered into collaborations with the Association of Black Psychologists, Tom Burrell’s Brainwash Resolution Project, and the City of Tuskegee, Alabama – to begin to create a nationwide grassroots network of self-help groups focused on emotional healing for Black people…Tuskegee, your hometown Tom, has set out to be the nation’s first community healing model city.

…and all of this is happening — not a moment too soon.

As a people, we urgently need to focus on healing–in the face of all the lies and distortions of our beautiful African history…

We need to focus on healing because there are too many lies about Black people – lies we’ve been told and lies we’ve come to believe about ourselves.

We need to focus on healing because of the daily bombardment of negative, harmful media images of Black people…

We need to focus on healing even as we find ways to survive in an economic environment that has many of us jobless, homeless and looking for food… even as we challenge the inequities in our legal system that encourage police brutality, high rates of black male imprisonment and the inexcusable execution of people like Troy Davis – in the face of reasonable doubt…

Yes, if we are serious about solving the problems of the Black community we have to get at the root cause – the poisonous idea that we are inferior – which has for centuries undermined our ability as a people to fully love ourselves and each other.

Put “time for healing” on your agenda. Celebrate Community Healing Days… Go to communityhealingnet.org to respond to Dr. Angelou’s call to Wear Sky Blue during Community Healing Days to support this movement for emotional emancipation and Black self-love…

I leave you with the words of poet June Jordan:

“The fact that I am Black…means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

admin Empowerment, Obama, Politics Community Healing Days, Maya Angelou

Good Morning.

Tom, as many of our listeners know by now, controversy erupted a week ago after President Obama’s Easter visit to Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington DC…

Fox’s Sean Hannity seized on the First Family’s holiday visit to launch yet another attempted ‘death-by-association’ attack on the President comparing Shiloh’s Pastor Charles Wallace Smith with Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright and asking why the President would continue to associate himself with “such controversial spiritual leaders?”

Hannity aired a clip of a speech by Pastor Smith at a Pennsylvania college in January 2010 where Smith spoke about modern racism, offering this: 

And I quote: “Jim Crow has become James Crow, Esquire. And he doesn’t have to wear white robes anymore because now he can wear the protective cover of talk radio or can get a regular news program on Fox.”

As a result of Hannity’s airing, Pastor Smith and Shiloh Baptist received numerous racist threats by phone and email… surprise, surprise… Guess free speech comes with a cost, right?

You know, guys, I could jump into the fray and spend my time talking about how Fox News didn’t have to go and pull out an old clip from Pastor Smith in yet another attempt to smear our first African American President and label him as ‘too radical for the mainstream…’

But what’s the point?  This isn’t new.

We, as African Americans, should know this well because we have a lengthy history of being attacked by people with racist agendas…

That said, as you well know, because of the racism visited on our community, pastors like Wallace Smith, or like Jeremiah Wright… or like Adam Clayton Powell, or Reverend Al… have long spoken up for our community…

The black church has a proud tradition of activism, Liberation Theology, ‘speaking truth to power,’ and using the pulpit to advocate for black people while pointing out the country we live in often has not been kind to folks who look like us…

These ministers speak from their experiences, which is part of our collective experience in this country… At the same time, conservatives, given their agenda, are certainly going to try to prevent the President from advancing any “black agenda.”

But here’s the thing folks: No matter what conservatives or their organizations may do, or what mainstream America may think –and, whether an African American is in the White House or not– we, as a community, still have to have our own voice and our own agenda…

Pastor Smith knows this well and has a history of advancing our agenda, especially regarding the troubling issue of race in this country…

And that President Obama chooses to associate himself with the black community, which also happens to be a large segment of his political base, means that he’ll have to deal with the political or media fallout that it brings…

That’s what politicians do…

But the important point here is that our agenda should be just that – our agenda… with no apologies to any media group, politician or any other community…

And that agenda should be developed from the kinds of discussions that go on in our churches, our civic organizations, and our own media platforms like the one you’re listening to right now…

And so now I want to share some powerful words from that same 2010 college speech from Pastor Smith that speak about how we shouldn’t look to mainstream media to speak for us…

Reverend Smith said: “There is not a big city American paper that is going to give you what you really need to see underneath the surface to see the world through the eyes of the oppressed and the downtrodden. Look for yourself and don’t be manipulated by the mass media… Start seeing it for yourself… sense it, see it and then say it…

Then go from seeing it for yourself to doing something about it…

Tom, clear-minded and unapologetic words like these most certainly need to be, and must continue to be, spoken in the churches and streets of our community…

And before I go, I want to wish a Happy Mothers’ Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, play mothers, and aunties listening and, especially to my friend and colleague Sybil Wilkes and of course to my own mom (Sheila Hendricks) and my mother-in-law, Marsha Sullivan.

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

admin Media, Obama Fox News, Sean Hannity, Shiloh, Smith, Wright

Good morning Tom, Sybil, and Jay.

Well Tom, last night, as we all know, the President gave his first State of the Union address.

And as with presidents before him, within the first few minutes, President Obama reported that, “The State of our union is strong.”

They all say that no matter what condition the country is in.

But, today, Tom, I’m not going to focus on whether the state of our union is strong.  Instead, I want to talk about what we mean by “our union.”

So, I’m going to take a step back and start with this rallying cry that conservatives have been using, and that many Scott Brown supporters echoed during his recent and successful Senate campaign in Massachusetts…

You’ve heard it, Sybil: “Let’s take OUR country back.”

It speaks volumes about the state of race relations here in 21^st Century America, in this so-called ‘post-racial’ nation…

“Let’s take OUR country back…

Take it back from whom…? …from the solid majority of voters of all colors and ages who democratically elected our current president…?

Or from that ‘uppity’ black man who has no right to run it in the first place…?

Hmm… could that be the unstated but clearly implied suggestion…?

Jay, did you see that movie about the founding of the CIA called The Good Shepherd…?

In one scene, the Joe Pesci character tells the Matt Damon character, “The Irish, they have the homeland.  The Jews, their traditions.  Even the ‘N-word’ (he said), they got their music.  What about you people, Mr. Carlson, what do you have?”

In response, Matt Damon’s character calmly says, “We have the United States of America… the rest of you are just visiting.”

Well, I believe this attitude is a big part of what’s driving a lot of the Tea Party crowds…

I also believe – unfortunately – that many of these folks who call themselves ‘patriots’ hope and even pray that our Union is not strong, especially given the color of its captain…

They have even said as much… Remember Rush Limbaugh’s famous quote about wanting Obama to fail?  Do you think FoxNews wants Obama to fail?

Couple those sentiments with Tea Party protesters openly depicting our President as a witch doctor, a non citizen and a Muslim terrorist and I’d say, yep Tom, what we all know well: we still have a race problem in this country and I think we have to find creative ways to help address it.

Now I can understand if folks are opposed to many of the policies our President is pursuing … after all, they certainly have the right to protest, although George W. Bush’s administration  –who many of them support—tried to undermine this basic right…

I certainly don’t agree with everything our President does; Nor have I agreed with EVERYTHING any president before him has done.

…likewise, I don’t agree with the policies of the new Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, but I still wish him well in his new position and pray he can rise above party politics to do what’s best for our country and its citizens…

…I can criticize him politically without attacking him personally or questioning his love for his country…

…and yes, if you caught it last week on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann did go too far in attacking Brown personally, just as many have done with President Obama…

Ya see, politics unfortunately is often a vehicle for our people to pursue their own biases, whether it’s a journalist on the Left personally attacking a republican politician, or a right-wing campaign focused more on the race of the country’s first black leader than any particular issue…

…and if you ask them why they are doing it, they’ll likely tell you it’s for ‘the love of their country…’

So what can we do to solve this complicated 21^st Century, Post-racial race problem we have on our hands?  For one thing, I think we need more conversations like the one you led with Chris Matthews last week, Tom.

Not just on TV but in communities across this country—to help us as a nation—Black, White, Brown – work through this issue – which continues to bedevil us. I challenge each and every one of you to continue this conversation in your communities.

You know, W.E.B. Dubois said “The problem of the 20^th Century is the problem of the color line.”

It’s now a 21^st Century problem and we need some 21^st Century solutions for dealing with it.

Until next time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

admin Obama Obama, President, State of Union