Archive for 2008

By Rev. Jerome C. Chambers, President

Champaign County NAACP

So many people have fought and shed blood for the right of every American to cast a vote.  Will your vote be taken for granted this time around?  You can send a powerful to Washington, but you cannot do it if you do not vote.  Like the lottery—you cannot win if you do not play.  If you do not register, you cannot vote!

Never believe that it is simple.  It is not.  Even after 44 years after the poll tax was abolished, minority voters across the country (U.S.) are still fighting to participate in the political process.  There are states that are still bogged down in the quagmire of overt voter intimidation, to the strategic placement of polling places away from specific communities, to laws that call for citizens to provide state-based IDs to vote, and various other tactics to prevent minorities from voting.  The fight is still on!

Although Mother Rosa Parks took a stand by keeping her seat, the Black minority must now speak up at the ballot box in order to be heard.  Do not allow your vote to be taken for granted this (2008) or any election year.  Whether it is immigration reform, equality in education, national health care (disparities in Black and White), environmental justice (toxic racism), or homeowner’s mortgage relief, the path to success is building the community power for change.

Will your vote be taken for granted this election?  Will the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 make a difference for blacks and Hispanics registered for the first time?  Are the issues the more important than voting “color or gender?”

It is a tougher choice now, more than ever before.  Whether embracing the positions of one candidate over the other, as evidenced in the last election when a large majority of African American Christians voted along “religious persuasion” lines, the question is choice.  For many conservatives, including some blacks, it is ironic that African Americans would be so strongly opposed to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  However, the Republicans who freed the slaves in 1863 are not the same Republicans often branded as racists by many African Americans.

The record is, at the height of the struggle for civil rights, a new brand of Republicans called Southern “Dixiecrats” emerged with those persons who switched parties in order to resist liberal Democrats’ efforts to desegregate the South.  It became noble or distinguished for the two top officials of the country (at that time) to endear themselves to African Americans by supporting racial integration, voting rights for blacks and equal employment opportunity.

What will first-time black and Hispanic voters have to muddle over in the voting booth?  Will they side with the group that has shown the most support or will they support the group that has “taken” away the benefits of those who are the most needy?

The allegiance, which continued through the ‘70s and the opposition of the Vietnam War is perhaps “digging in” politically, hoping to galvanize the Black vote to shore up its political stand.  Yet, the 1980s regime opposed affirmative action and cut funding for unemployment, housing and education programs that had been supported by African Americans.

Is the glass half full or half empty?  On the other hand, is it a thermos bottle of recognizable half-truths, unfaithful promises, and apparent illusions?  Who better communicates the divergent political views of the underserved and under-represented masses?  Will minority communities, known for its devotion, become allies to a platform of platitudes?

The social investment of these groups must not be taken for granted this time around.  Someone must articulate what is good for the goose and the gander.  If the “chickens come home” they must have somewhere to roost, otherwise there will be a fierce battle over turf and the right to speak on behalf of the marginalized and disenfranchised.  How certain issues are translated into a vote at the polls, largely depend upon both community and religious leaders.  Registering legal age voters is one thing, getting them to the polls to vote is another thing.

It is not difficult to be undecided, what with the serious weaknesses around the issues that are as important now as it was four years ago—budget deficit issues, the war in Iraq, fluctuating oil prices, and the governmental bail outs of insurance and financial institutions.  In view of all the other issues that have arisen, perhaps it is time to make both parties fight for the votes of African Americans, Hispanics as well as Asians.  Taking optimism to task is probably the best idea to date.  It is still too early to tell.

There are many issues, too numerous to mention.  The black electorate may surprise even the most discriminating analysts, those who have taken them for granted.  Of all the issues, the economy is the heartbeat of American, whether black, white, red, yellow or green.  People will be “voting” their pocket books and wallets.  As African Americans enter polling stations across America to vote, they will be thinking of what must be done now that was not done forty, fifty, even sixty years ago. 

With this lever called the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, will there be African Americans who do not plan to vote this year?  Will the day after the election have been a nightmare for the ones whose dream were not realized, or will there be “dancing in the streets?”  Voting one’s conscience is the only thing that cannot be taken for granted.

You are guaranteed one vote.  Whichever way you vote, you do have a choice for a change, what you do with it is between you and your conscience—only do not be taken for granted.

Commentary by Rev. Jerome C. Chambers

If ever the phrase “Them and Us” has been contextual, it is readily seen in the course of a court case that took a year of incubation. One must have sharp eyes, infinite hearing and a clear head to determine if the verdict rendered against Brian Chesley is fair. “I didn’t do anything,” he said in his testimony. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Now the public must consider what truth is or which side of the badge and uniform makes the most sense. The platform for another call of racism will not escape the judgment of those who care about the meaning of “with liberty and justice for all.” The testimonies of the children that were subpoenaed “to tell the truth, the whole truth” were properly disregarded, as other testimony and evidence appeared to be, and sanitized for the good of the “State.”

Sometimes justice is blind in one eye. Although she is depicted as wearing a blindfold, she really cannot see. That is why there are laws, statutes, edicts, and regulations one must be well versed in to understand what one can or cannot do. In this case, two young teen-agers were just walking “Jay-Jay”, an eight-year-old home from a basketball game in the gym at Douglass Park on Champaign’s north side. What could be wrong with that?

If the definition of justice is impartiality and fairness, why does the public have to choose sides? The verdict of the all-White, mostly senior citizen jury, from the out-lying areas of Champaign County, was: “Guilty on both counts,” the foreperson announced. Count number one was resisting a policeman. Count number two was obstructing a policeman. It really means a police officer asked or demanded that a young Black seventeen year old (now eighteen) male to “Stop!” He continued walking. Is that resisting? If he was to be arrested, what did he do, but fail to stop? Walking away from a policeman is not a criminal offense; perhaps, it was not the best judgment, but to be guilty of going home is a travesty of justice.

Secondly, he (Chesley) allegedly refused to give his one free wrist to the empty handcuff, although three officers were on top of him after he was allegedly thrown to the ground. Another officer (per his testimony) left his cruiser, proceeded toward the action, and wrenched the youths’ arm from under him and the deed was done. Now, what could be wrong with that? Was this obstruction? Did it take four officers to subdue a slightly built youth of seventeen (now eighteen)? Is there a message here? If so, what is it?

This is America, “land of the free and home of the brave.” Watching the basketball tournaments for the past, few weeks can make one wonder: Have any of these young men and women had similar experiences, “walking while Black?” How many times were any of them “profiled,” perhaps entered into a database just in case? What do we tell the young children that were also in the park; that testified to what they saw? Is ‘guilty’ the verdict for just us?

Since ‘hizzonor,’ the judge ruled that a goodly amount of testimony and evidence would later become inadmissible; it is clear as mud, that the defense had no real chance of making its case. Likewise, young Chesley, who probably should have taken the adult diversion alternative, contrary to popular belief, could have had this over and done with last year. However, we are all victims of our choices. One of Chesley’s supporters exclaimed, “You got a raw deal!” Deal or no deal, what will this misdemeanor mean for yet another Black youth.

Emotionless, Brian walked out of the courtroom with his attorneys and the rest of us, who had waited, “with bated breath,” relieved that that portion of humiliation had ended. The young prosecutors who scrambled into the courtroom to hear the verdict appeared to be as stunned; yet, relief prevailed, not justice. Justice delayed, in truth, is justice denied. The all-Black jury rests its case too.

Rev. Jerome C. Chambers
President of the Champaign County
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
217-398-6738

P. S. The NAACP has disseminated an educational pamphlet to the schools, etc. what to do if you are stopped by the police. This action was undertaken by the Education Committee of the local branch of the NAACP. The Champaign County Police Department has copies of it as well. It was also documented in Steve Bauer’s article last year.