Corey Booker Demonstrates Why I Will Never Be a Politician

I felt for one of my favorite politicians this week as he got caught up in the spin cycle that begins when you speak "off script". I have followed Cory Booker since one of my frat brothers worked on his first mayoral campaign. Since becoming mayor of Newark (aka Brick City) in 2006, he has easily become one of America's most recognizable mayors for his insight and community activism, but this week that rep took a hit as had to do some moonwalking after sharing some thoughts on the 2012 campaign. As I watched the fallout from his Meet the Press appearance, it reminded me why I could never be a professional politician.

Politics as currently constituted wouldn't work for me because you are beholden to cash interests above all else at the end of the day. The ability to speak what you truly feel is right is limited by how it will impact those who spend the most money to keep you in office. For all the goodwill Mayor Booker has built up as he tweets tirelessly about getting trash picked up, snow shoveled, and crime under control, he found himself the focus of news shows this week for daring to express his disdain for the hyper-partisan nature of politics today. His commentary went against the game plan of Team Obama 2012, and in the rules of the politics game in order to keep riding the escalator up to the top of the Democratic party, you gotta fall on line like a good soldier. This is especially true in an election year, and it doesn't matter that much if what the Mayor had to say made sense if you view it from his frame of reference.


If you are Cory Booker, your job is to continue to raise the profile of Brick City, and find jobs to replace the manufacturing positions that used to be the hub of the City's economy.  Major insurance companies like Prudential have been headquartered in The Bricks forever, but insurance companies and tech companies like Panasonic (opening up in 2013) often require employees with advanced degrees, which in Newark is only a small portion of the population.  According to the 2000 Census, Newark had the lowest educational attainment numbers of any city, and one in four children lived in a household with no working parents.  If you are Cory Booker, and you know that this is the profile of your city, of course you would be open to solutions that would help bring jobs and fortify pensions much like he has leaned heavily on charters to help raise school test score numbers.  Not saying that I agree, but I can understand.  So when you understand the economics of Newark, and you remember that Cory Booker was most recently a trending Twitter topic for being a super neighbor, rescuing one of his from a fire, of course he thought he could speak his mind, but alas he quickly found that that wasn't the case.


Ultimately this was another case where the nature of soundbite media makes something way worse than it is, and if you don't go back and check the raw message without the spin, then you are left thinking something way worse than you should.  Here is the Booker quote that got all the attention:


"As far as that stuff [Bain critique], I have to just say from a very personal level, I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. To me, it's just this--we're getting to a ridiculous point in America, especially that I know. I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, it ain't--they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses, And this, to me, I'm very uncomfortable with."


I have no problem with any of that because as the Mayor mentions, he was speaking from a point of view of what has been good for his city and state, which is his main concern.  But ultimately that sentence about "looking at the totality of Bain's record" could not stand because it was made at the same time that Team Obama was releasing attack ads painting Bain as the job killer.  So Cory Booker had to go on his Ustream and "clarify" in a manner that sounded much more like the talking points that the President's campaign workers want out in the media.   If you wonder why one of the most recognizable Mayors in America would do this given how much cache he has built, you just have to remember that he is a self-described Obama surrogate.  He wants to keep playing the political game when his time as Mayor is done, and being able to call on the Obamas (as well as the cultural and financial capital they inspire) when he needs them will always be a good "chip" to have in his back pocket.  I would have a hard time swallowing what I was truly feeling just to keep donors and cronies scratching my back while I'm trying to advocate for the people in my care, so worry not about me ever contacting you for donations for a political campaign run.  The game is rigged.

The Classroom and the Cell: A Perilous Balance to Navigate

As a teen I used to get my haircut right across the street from my house at Ms. J's barbershop.  I often listened as the men and ladies would come in and have various conversations with the barbers while in the chair.  As I got older I would occasionally try to participate in these discussions, however it would become apparent to me that I still had some reading to do as the complexity of the conversation would quickly grow beyond my adolescent understanding.  As I completed The Classroom And The Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America by Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marc Lamont Hill, I was reminded of these barbershop moments partly because of the format of the book, and also because Professor Hill's brother Leonard was often a prominent participant on those weekend afternoons as I waited to get my haircut.  As a grown adult, with a bit more reading under my belt, I found the topics which the authors discussed to be pertinent and their insights fresh.  The book embodies the type of intergenerational dialogue between Black men which is sorely lacking in our community particularly as you consider recent and ongoing events.

This week news came out that thirteen students at Florida A&M University (FAMU) would be charged with the death of "Marching 100" drum major Robert Champion.  The 26-yr old was beaten during a band hazing ritual, and ultimately passed due to shock and severe internal bleeding from repeated blunt force trauma.  As I read the Abu-Jamal/Hill text, I was saddened by the literal Classroom and Cell circumstance that these students now face in the name of upholding a "tradition" that was never intended to include this level of violence.  The words of Abu-Jamal and Hill were particularly piercing as they discussed Black masculinity and the "performances" that it entails.  Hill in particular noted the troublesome connection between a detachment from emotion, which many Black men are taught to have, and the normalizing effect it has on our views of violence.  When you add to that a particularly strong brand of homophobia that exists within many Black communities, you have the recipe for how a young man's life could be ended on a charter bus outside a football game.  I have seen the same escalation in violence among many of the Historically Black Greek Letter Organizations (HBGLOs), and it is particularly troubling because none of these organizations was founded upon principles of self-destruction.  In fact, all of the fraternities, sororities and their surrogates were created upon ideals of uplift and community service.  The FAMU case is just one example of how the conversations that Abu-Jamal and Hill were having play out in the larger world.  This is a key reason that this work is so important, and can serve as a catalyst for continued examination of key issues within Black communities across the nation so that healing strategies may be developed.

My reading of this text comes at a key juncture in my life where I have a rare moment to really reflect on who I am, and how I want to continue to develop.  One of my main theoretical undertakings during my doctoral studies was the issue of racial identity, how it continually morphs, and how the development process is fluid.  In this rare reflection moment, I face questions of how to parent, how to structure my career in a way that fits my marriage, how to use my accrued cultural capital to address gross inequities that exist in our society, and how to continue taking what I understand from a life that is centrally Black and male to foster meaningful personal relationships that are built on a shared humanity, one that transcends race, ethnicity, class, gender, and other labels.  This book was instructive because in Abu-Jamal you have a cultural and historical "oldhead" who can speak to issues of Revolutionary Black Leadership, Black Politics, and the Prison Industrial Complex in a very real, un-romanticized way so that the portrait in your mind is less abstract and more real.  In Professor Hill, I have a peer who has clear insights on issues of the day, yet is struggling with many of the same issues as I am, so it is easy to place myself within the the "conversation" going on between them.  While not exhaustive on any given topic, the text serves as a viable appetizer for further satiation of the appetite for knowledge, and insight into where Black people have been in this country and where they need to go.

There is a chapter on love in the book that is particularly poignant and instructive because the authors go beyond talking about the love that we have for self, or even our families, but of humanity.  If one can develop this kind of love, then they can become an agent for liberation.  The authors note how Martin Luther King, Jr laid down his life marching with garbage workers in Memphis.  That was out of love for people and humanity.  Throughout the book I found myself asking the authors to say more about the complexities of identity for Black people today and how that can help or hinder relationships, but then when I read Abu-Jamal's comments about the revolutionary powers of an all-inclusive love, in a manner similar to the way Paulo Freire described it, I realized that while the complexities and nuance exist, we don't have to get lost in them.  I salute the authors for their honesty and efforts and hope that folks will support this book so they too might have conversations with peers like the ones that used to take place at Ms. J's.  I will move forward reassured that love is a starting place answer many of the questions that I am pondering and it will also sustain me as I try to work towards a socially just society.

Mo' Money Mo' Opportunities at the Box Office

I was both happy and relieved to see that Think Like A Man, the most hyped Black movie in recent memory made it to the top of the box office not only on it's opening weekend, but also on the equally important second weekend. I was relieved because had this movie flopped given the amount of marketing dollars spent on it, it would be easy for pundits and haters to say that there is no real market for films featuring an all majority Black cast or that stars like Oscar-nominated Taraji P. Henson and Kevin Hart cannot carry a movie. I was happy because Kevin Hart, a dude I've known since he was 10 (RIP Ms Nancy), got to show out in a way that made comedians like Chris Tucker and Martin Lawrence box office headliners. I was also happy that producer Will Packer of Rainforest Films can add another No. 1 hot to his production resume (Takers, Stomp The Yard) as can director Tim Story (Fantastic Four x2, Barbershop). With over 60 million in box office sales after two weekends, Rainforest is producing for distributor Screen Gems in a manner similar to how Tyler Perry films draw for Lions Gate, and this will hopefully lead to additional opportunities for minority producers moving forward.

It's a fairly recent phenomenon (as in the start of the Oughts) that movies featuring Black characters have also been produced by other Blacks. Box office draws like Ice Cube (Barbershop) , Eddie Murphy (Nutty Professor II),  Will Smith (Pursuit of Happyness), and Queen Latifah (Bringing Down the House) have parlayed on-screen success into production roles.  Smith, Cube, and Latifah run companies dedicated to producing films told from a minority perspective. The more people that there are who are able to bring projects together, the more likely it is that people will be able to find something on the big screen that they feel connected to. Think Like A Man has been critiqued for among other things it's nod to patriarchy, but the key is that it exists to be critiqued just like any Tyler Perry, Ice Cube, or Will Smith flick. The art can only get better the more that it gets made and supported. Hopefully this continued domestic success will not only lead to larger producing opportunities, but also support internationally.

Side Note: Jerry Ferrara aka "Turtle" from Entourage must take GREAT care of his agents because this dude gets prime ladies to hook up with no matter what he's in (look up Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Dania Ramirez, and Gabrielle Union)

Where is the Anti-Gun Lobby?

There has been a new level of scorn cast on the  National Rifle Association (NRA) in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case for their orchestration of Stand Your Ground laws which allow citizens the ability to use deadly force instead of retreating in instances where they feel threatened.  In spite of this backlash, it was surprising to see GOP Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, go to the NRA annual convention to make a speech pandering to the membership in attendance.  A logical person might ask why would a person who has been tepid at best on his gun control stance would choose this time to address an organization widely viewed as an enemy in the Trayvon Martin case.  Upon doing a little digging, the answer is unfortunately simple: money.  The NRA puts it money where it's mouth is when it comes to protecting the right to be strapped, and in the long run Romney knows that he has no shot to occupy the Oval office if he alienates such a conservative-based constituency.  My bigger question however, is whether or not in the wake of Trayvon, and the increasing number of person-to-person murders, there will finally be a serious gun control lobby to counter the current influence of the NRA and similar organizations.  The current disparity in numbers is staggering.

According to the most recent report on Open Secrets.org, an average of 4.5 million dollars a year has been spent on gun rights in the last five years.  In contrast the average four gun control has been about 250K.  The NRA has lead the lobbying effort putting almost 3 million towards gun rights in 2011 followed by Gun Owners of America who spent almost a million.  On the other end, the leading gun control advocate was Mayors Agains Illegal Guns.  They put 200K towards lobbying in 2011, five times the amount of the next highest contributor, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (40K).  These numbers make it easy to understand why Stand Your Ground Laws as we currently know them have spread to twenty-four states.  Even as the world watched George Zimmerman surrender himself to the police, and be charged with 2nd-degree murder, special prosecutor Angela Corey cautioned that a conviction will be difficult to obtain as Stand Your Ground laws have been hard to fight in Florida.  An April article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the rise of justifiable homicides paints a clear picture that the change in self-defense laws has had an impact.  In Florida for example, the number of justifiable homicides has more than tripled, and in states like Texas and Georgia, the numbers have doubled.  No matter the race, ethnicity, or social standing of the victims, Americans are losing their lives due to laws that wrongly empower people to think they can act like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven.  There must be a greater effort to combat gun freedom or else the numbers will continue to rise.  The question becomes who will provide the financial clout to match the NRA and it's cousins?

It was a great symbolic gesture to see so many don hoodies and march in order to see criminal charges brought against Mr. Zimmerman and insure that due process is carried out.  Even athletes and entertainers, often vilified for their political neutrality, showed solidarity with the Justice for Trayvon movement as it struck a personal chord with their own positions as Black males and fathers in the case of NBA ballers Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.  As the Martin case unfolds, the movement must continue to press for FINANCIAL support to ensure that Stand Your Ground Laws and other injurious laws continue to be scrutinized and the influence of the gun lobby can be matched.  Micro-donations help put President Obama in office, and they can certainly insure that when we send our little ones to the store, they can come home safely.

I'll Take Stan Van's Pepsi Swig Anyday

It's been a tough couple of weeks in the coaching profession as there have been a number of serious missteps ranging from declaring love for Fidel Castro (Ozzie Guillen) to getting fired for lying about an affair even in the face of getting caught with said girlfriend on the back (Bobby Petrino). What has been odd to me is that of all these transgressions, Stan Van Gundy, head of the Orlando Magic received some of the sharpest criticism for simply telling the truth about the state of affairs in his organization. Given what I've dealt with in my own coaching career and understanding how outside factors shape your thought process when you are a coach, I'll ride with Stan and his Diet Pepsi swigs between dropping truth all day over some of the other behaviors coaches of all ilks display. Let me first lay out some of the factors that lead many coaches to ultimately crash and burn in the first place.

1. WIN OR ELSE MENTALITY

From the time a coach starts working as a volunteer for tot tee-ball, he or she is quickly made to understand that winning trumps all else if you expect to advance. Parent boards exercise the same coldness as a college board of trustees when it comes to getting rid of a coach who they think isn't "producing" no matter if the coach does an excellent job of imparting keys sports lessons like the value of teamwork, discipline, and hard work. The savvy coach develops a selfish mindset to take advantage of talent at their disposal and move on when it is gone. No one cares about the personal sacrifices the coach has to make to develop a "winning" program, so the coach in turn has no problems pulling up stakes and rolling out when a better opportunity comes along. Lane Kiffin jumped at the chance to come back to USC after only a year at Tennessee, Jim Harbaugh left a Stanford team that was a lock to be a top 5 team when the NFL came calling. You can never expect coaches to show loyalty to an organization or school because they learn early on that it will never be shown to them.

2. SPORTS CULTURE RULES

Due to the significant position that sports hold in our society, successful coaches are often asked to comment on issues outside of their realm of expertise, and this is a recipe for disaster. I'm sure there are other folks TIME magazine could have interviewed besides Ozzie Guillen to meet their mission statement, but they want to sell magazines and Ozzie is a quote machine so of course journalists set up camp in front of his desk and wait for the fireworks to begin. Coaches should be respected and celebrated for what they do in their profession, but just because you can win a national title does not mean that you are instantly ready to speak intelligently on topics such as American neo-imperialism.

3. I'M THE MAGNIFICENT

This is the status when coaches have truly reached the top of your professional food chain, and now feel as if they can do no wrong, or will never get caught. It is the most dangerous because you feel entitled to do whatever you please because you have worked hard, moved your family around, and now it's time to reap the benefits. So if you're Rick Pitino, and you're the man in Kentucky, you don't think it will matter if you have sex in a restaurant bathroom. For Petrino, you don't think you'll ever get caught sending naughty texts on a university issued cell phone. Even in sports with less spotlight on them, you can still get busted, ask John Trembley, the former swimming coach at the University of Tennessee. Women sports aren't exempt either as Kim Mulkey, coach of the undefeated women's National Champion Baylor Bears, will face sanctions for overseeing a basketball program where thousands of impermissible texts and phone calls were placed. Given the money involved in big-time club, college and pro sports, it is easy to see how coaches slide down a slippery slope in order to maintain their jobs. So when I see Stan Van calmly displaying that he's had enough of the game, I'm ready to take a Diet Pepsi swig with him.

Kudos to University of Arkansas athletic director, Jeff Long, for being able to stand up and say to a football-rabid community that even though the football coach has lead the program to a 21-5 record in his tenure, and there are no NCAA sanctions pending, this behavior cannot be tolerated. The same can be said for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell who has consistently shown the willingness to bring the hammer down on athletes, teams, and now coaches who don't "protect the shield". Goodell's latest target, the New Orleans Saints, will be without their head coach, Sean Payton, all year, and without their top assistant for almost half, because of a pay-for-destructive-hits bounty scandal. These suspensions make it a pretty good bet they won't be returning to the playoffs. Meanwhile Stan Van Gundy has had to put up with the circus of Dwight Howard publicly yo-yo-ing back and forth on whether he wants to stay in town, and up until recently, managed to keep his team high in the Conference standings. Even as it stands now, the Magic would be like their chances in a first round playoff matchup with Indiana. Stan spoke his truth when asked if he had heard that his franchise player wanted him fired, and let said franchise player twist in the wind when he decided to act like a clown and crash the press conference. If "speaking out of turn" after two years of making the most of a difficult situation is a problem, then I'll take that coach to run my team anytime. And I'll put in his contract that he can't own a motorcycle, speak on politics, or have the power to hire staff without my approval just to make sure it all works out.

Justice for Trayvon Means Institutional Change

The death of Trayvon Martin is a critical moment for America to send a clear message about where it stands on gun violence in general and the use of deadly force on Black men in particular. The emotional response from the nation in response to the fact that George Zimmerman has been able to walk freely for more than a month has been warranted and necessary, but as the coverage continues, I worry that those most concerned with justice for Trayvon will get side-tracked on issues peripheral to the situation. If we are to make certain that young Black men are not continually targeted as dangerous suspects, then there are large scale changes that must be made in the area of law enforcement that will require the focused channeling of all of our collective political and cultural cache. I would urge those at the forefront of the Justice for Trayvon movement to consider the story of Megan Kanka as they strategize and think of ways to prevent repeat Trayvon tragedies.

Megan Kanka was a seven year-old girl living in New Jersey who was raped and killed by a child predator who lived across the street. In the aftermath of their devastating loss, the Kanka family successfully fought to pass legislation that required communities to be notified when known sex offenders moved into the neighborhood. The law that was passed in the New Jersey legislature in 1994 became federal law in 1996 requiring states to develop a process by which communities be notified when a sex offender was released into the area. The Kanka case brought a heightened awareness to this type of crime to the point where we now have a regularly viewed show like To Catch A Predator on TV. In the case of Trayvon Martin, the Florida Stand Your Ground law has come under fire for being written in such a vague fashion, that it allows for there to be argument over whether or not the actions of George Zimmerman warrant him being in custody or not. It would stand to reason that amending this law would be at the top of the Justice for Trayvon goal list.

The authors of the Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, Senator Durrell Peadon and Representative Dennis Baxley, have stated on a number of outlets that the INTENT of their law is not to provide protection for people like Mr. Zimmerman who willfully pursue and attack innocent citizens, however the LETTER of their law apparently is not specific enough. I hope that at some point in the near future, the Seminole County Branch of the NAACP (Sanford is located in Seminole Co.), the national office of the NAACP, the National Action Network, and any other concerned parties would start to exert pressure on the Stand Your Ground authors in addition to Congressman John Fica since Sanford is in his jurisdiction in order to get the law amended. This would be a tangible first step in reversing the trend of putting law enforcement in the hands of citizens, and might provide momentum for tougher gun laws to be enacted. In the same way that many states mimicked Florida's law in the first place, then it should reason that they would change their laws accordingly given the amount of press that the case has generated. In this way, public sentiment and media work together to form a formidable force for change. When I see Toure getting into verbal slap box matches with Piers Morgan about the toughness of an interview, then I shake my head because I can already see that the effort has become distracted and is more about who can get in front of the camera fastest and most often. Justice for Trayvon has nothing to do promoting individual brands and everything to do with focused, collective strategizing and executing. So while you're rocking that hoodie , take a moment to send an email, Tweet, Facebook message, etc to your favorite leader and ask what he or she is doing to help move the justice for Trayvon initiative forward. We cannot be okay with a society that allows for young men of color to be hunted like game without consequence.

One Door Closes, Another Opens... For Real!

Time for me to testify so cue up the old school church organ in your head as you read this. If it's been a while since you made it to testimony hour, the Kanye West "Testify" track will suffice. Now that we've got proper background music, let me set the context of our tale. Since 2000, my professional life has revolved around coaching and education, and this past summer, it appeared I had reached a minor pinnacle, becoming the Aquatic Director/Head Coach at a brand new pool while also securing an adjunct professor position allowing for the continuation of my dual professional life. In less than three months, the team went from 40 athletes to 180, and while I was getting little sleep keeping up with my schedule, there was at least the pride in knowing that something good was unfolding at the pool and things were going well in the classroom. In addition, there was actually some money in my banking account between checks. Guess I should've known that there would be test coming soon.

DOOR CLOSING

I sat down with my aquatic bosses three weeks ago thinking that we'd be taking stock of the recently completed short course season, and making plans for the summer and next year, only to be told that they wanted to go in a different direction. One that didn't include me remaining in my position. Ironically, just before going into the meeting, I had done my daily bible reading and the verse that stuck out to me was that God is with us through all tests and trials. He doesn't say "IF" we make it through the trial, but "WHEN", and as I walked out of the meeting shell shocked after being blindsided, I kept from panicking by reminding myself of that reading. Negotiating to be paid the final months of my contract also helped ease the sting. If it was time for me to hang up the stopwatches and free my weekends of swim meets in favor of karate, hip hop dance, and swim classes, then that was fine. I have had a great ride as a swim coach. What was difficult was to see what was in store for me seeing as there were no tenure-track assistant professor positions being offered to fill the void.

DOOR OPENING

On Wednesday afternoon, I sat in a HS classroom observing a student teacher practice her craft when I got a 911 text from the Mrs. saying that she had gotten a call from one of our many social workers saying that they had a baby that was a match for us as foster-to-adopt parents. A year ago we had started the adoption process through the LA Co. Dept. of Child and Family Services. We had become fully certified in late October, and hadn't heard anything since. Now out of the blue, we were about to be parents of two. "Should I tell her we'll take it?" texted the Mrs. and I immediately texted back that we would. We met the 3-day old on Wednesday night, and brought him home Thursday evening. Elijah Emeka Carroll now has us back in the mode where more than two straight hours of sleep is a luxury, but he is our blessing. Often newborns who enter the foster system have been exposed to drugs, and Elijah is no exception, yet he tested negative for everything. Many of the scriptures that I have read recently discuss the benefits of faith to God's word. Nkechi and I could not ask for a more tangible representation, and we thank everyone for the support and well wishes.