Ghetto Dictatorships?

I met and hung out with Kevin Powell a few years ago. We have a mutual friend and he spends a lot of time in Philly visiting this brother. When I heard that he was running again for a seat in New York's 10th congressional district I followed his campaign. I figured that if anyone could unseat the entrenched pol in that Brooklyn congressional district, he could. Boy was I wrong. I should have known that you Negroes treat your elected leaders like your furniture: you don't like to change them. (Charlie Rangel anyone?)

One of the problems, of course, with business as usual among the old school black pols, is that s&^% never gets done. Maybe we need a black version of the teabag movement to shake them up. Clearly what they are doing isn't working. Sitting around D.C. and (pardon my French) jerking each other off is not my idea of serving the people.

Anyway, Powell had a few choice words for the black political establishment after getting his young behind handed to him by the business as usual candidate:

"..Additionally, I must say this to my opponent, Congressman Ed Towns, his team, and his supporters: You may have won this time but it is so clear to so many that the days of your reign here in Brooklyn are very close to over. You’ve never had to work so hard to hold on to your seat, you’ve never had your nearly three decades of lazy leadership exposed so much and to so many, and you can no longer be invisible, silent, or otherwise missing in action to the people of Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional district, nor to the American people.

Mr. Towns, we expect you to earn the salary and great benefits our taxpayer dollars cover, and we expect you to think very seriously about your legacy as a Congressman in these final years of your Congressional life. When you and I crossed paths Tuesday night, election night, at that polling site near Starrett City, it was the first and only time we’ve ever had a one-on-one conversation, and I have lived in this community, in your district, for 20 years. You avoided debating me in 2008 (as you have avoided debating all opponents since you were first elected in 1982), and you avoided debating me again this year. And that is fine. It is clear you do not really believe in the very democracy that many sacrificed their lives for to achieve, including those in places like North Carolina where you were born and where some of the great battles of the Civil Rights Movement occurred.."

Kevin, I know you were on "Real World MTV", but this is the real world.
Brothers against brothers, and folks clinging to power by any means necessary.

"..Moreover, Congressman Towns, it is a two-way street: you have to begin to respect and acknowledge the leadership that is not just your son, or your daughter, or your daughter-in-law, or someone you’ve handpicked to be in your Brooklyn circle. As I have stated before, what is most troubling for me and many others in Brooklyn is that within Black Brooklyn (as is the case throughout Black America) we have something I call “ghetto dictatorships.” In other words, you may have had good intentions when you first got into office, Mr. Towns, for I do believe you are, at your core, a good and decent man. But somewhere along the way you lost your way and your Congressional seat has become more about power and influence for yourself than about everyday people..."

Hmmm, "ghetto dictatorships", Kevin you have coined an interesting phrase. And I know exactly what you mean. We could remove the name Towns and insert take your pick in its place.

"So I end this statement by saying that I challenge you, Congressman Towns, and all Black elected officials in Brooklyn and across America, to cease participating in these ghetto dictatorships, to really look yourselves in the mirror and answer the question I asked you, Mr. Towns, which you could not answer on Tuesday night: What is your legacy going to be, what have you really done for the people of your district, not just for a handful of people lucky enough to have gotten a job or favor from you? That is the true mark of leadership, to touch as many lives as possible, to help as many people as possible to become self-empowered, with or without legislation, and in as many creative ways as possible. Anything less means we’ve done a grave disservice to whatever God we claim to believe in, a grave disservice to the history and the people that came before us, and a grave disservice to that sacred space we call public service." [Article]

OK Kevin, go get em next time. Just try to keep your house clean this time. Just remember, you ain't Sarah light.