Time To Move

National elections were completed last month, and Uncle Sam just now finished his housing rearrangement—he swept a couple Republicans under the rug, moved a lot of nondescript Democrats back into storage, and reclined in his White House. He must have laughed at the C-Span junkies yelling something indecipherable about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) express train heading back to Arizona. Yet as amusing as this good old American election drama is, there is something sinister and insidious lurking beneath Uncle Sam’s contented conservative front. It is the same unsettling force belying the pleasant satisfaction of America’s ever sprawling suburbs. The commitment to justice for the dispossessed—outside of G.O.P. focus groups awe-struck by George—is as absent as black faces in the Senate.

With each election, as if to coordinate with Uncle Sam’s status quo political “rearrangements,” the same salespeople parade through the telecasts and the media hawking the decline of Democratic commitment among black people and chronicling the rise of black Republicanism. In his Washington Post article “Survey Finds Black Voters Significantly Less Democratic,” Darryl Forrester writes that “African American leaders are becoming less likely to identify themselves as Democrats.” When Republican Mark Erlich chose a black running mate in the Maryland gubernatorial race, the New York Times described the decision as a “checkmate.”

It’s a sad state of affairs. Black people only feature in the American political game as equipment on the path to victory. Republicans still hail Bush the Elder as the ultimate chess-master for his brilliant appointment of Clarence Thomas. In each election, blacks are invited to stay through election night; after that they get taken out with the celebration’s garbage. Many who describe black Democrats as an endangered species seek to orchestrate a move of which Gary Kasparov would be envious. Those who misrepresent the new black political mentality as an example of burgeoning American conservatism remove racism from the social consciousness and restrict black politics to a purely domestic scope. In reality, black politics in America are inextricably linked to the African Diaspora and a world of exploding poverty. The Democratic Party is losing the so-called black vote because it has lost any remnant of an agenda relevant to black people. How long will it take for that epiphany to hit a donkey or an elephant?

Some might dismiss this conclusion as yet another misguided, ultimately hollow, cry against conspiracy. But conservative forces have already successfully distorted the legacy of a progressive hero. Michael Eric Dyson explains this process in detail in his biography of Martin Luther King, I May Not Get There With You: “Conservatives must be applauded for their perverse ingenuity in coopting King’s legacy and the rhetoric of the civil rights movement…Now terms like “equal playing field,” “racial justice,” “equal opportunity,” and, most ominous, “color-blind” drip from the lips of formerly stalwart segregationist politicians…and intellectually hired guns.” Similarly, many are seeking to apply this “perverse ingenuity” to broader national opinion as they preside over what they hope will be a societal funeral for black self-determination and African identification. Unfortunately, recruitment for this effort occurs on both conscious and subconscious levels. Consider who attains mainstream visibility on a daily basis: Alan Keyes, Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, and J.C. Watts.

Conversely, most black leaders, outside of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton—and in fact, most black people—do not receive any meaningful media attention. America does not currently respect the struggle of the dispossessed and the need to reflect on one’s connections outside the United States, especially pertaining to the black connection to Africa. Ironically, when black people do receive mention, their humanity is diminished, especially in American politics. Southern Democrats, who in many cases have forgotten the black masses, expected to rely heavily on the black voter turnout in this election. In trouble, they hoped to turn to their staple of Democratic meat: black people. And why wouldn’t a region festering with support for the Confederate flag (i.e., Georgia with the triumph of Governor-elect Sonny Purdue) want anything else but to feast on that meat?

In this time when the majority in both parties are afflicted by blindness to the real struggles, elections only serve to rotate power between a Commander-in-Thief and his group of bandits. These rogues steal public potential and societal focus away from those opportunities that could impact true human change. So when articles indicate the decline of black Democratic support, a fleeting glance at a list of the political parties—and the gaping hole that represents Washington D.C. residents—should explain that disengagement. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam’s probably resting right now with a newspaper, tickled by the reports. But I think that it’s time for him to move, and for us to truly rebuild the house.

Okechukwu W. Iweala ’06 is a first-year living in Apley Court.