_ Throughout our history on these hostile shores,Africans in America have had a tradition ofaE convening conventions, conferences and-sym-posia to assess the state of the race and discuss/debate strategy and tactics for moving the Black_ Freedom Struggle forward. This tradition was opicked up and carried forth by scholars andPs ~- activists in the latter half of the 20 ? century~ through the convening of a number of importanta gatherings. From the Black Power Conferencesof 1967 and 1968, to the historic National Black Political Conven-tion in 1972, the founding conventions of the National BlackIndependent Party and the National Black United Front in 1980, tothe State of the Race Conferences in 1994 and 1997 and the BlackRadical Congress in 1998, this tradition has been kept alive. One ofthe most important gatherings of the latter half of the 20 ? century inthis regard was the Congress of African People convened in Atlantain 1970.The decade of the 60s witnessed convulsive changes in blackAmerica as the civil rights revolt shook apartheid to its foundationsin the South and the passage of various civil rights laws appeared toerase the status of blacks as second class citizens in this country. Bythe mid-60s, however, the goal of integration as articulated by themainline civil rights organizations came under attack as BlackPower, black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism burst onto the sceneand gained prominence within the black community. Black Poweradvocates unleashed excruciating critiques against the traditionalcivil rights leaders, often labeling them ohandkerchief heads ? and ouncle Toms. ? The civil rights leaders fired back that the youngmilitants were reckless and irresponsible adventurers whose actionsthreatened to destroy the progress that blacks had made towardsintegrating into American society.It was against this backdrop of acrimony, tension/conflict be-tween various ideological tendencies that poet-playwright-politicalactivist Imamu Amiri Baraka, chairman of the Committee for aUnified Newark, worked tirelessly to convene a Congress of AfricanPeople. This initiative was notable for the effort to include blackscholars, activists and leaders from across the political spectrum,from the Nation of Islam to the National Urban League. In addition,in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, there was a concerted effort to reachout to African people from the continent and all parts of theDiaspora. Indeed one of the highlights of the Congress was theparticipation of a delegation of aborigines from Australia.My recollection is that more than 3,000 people from around theU.S. and the Pan- African world participated in this great gathering.As if yearning for a truce in the ideological shoot outs between BlackPower advocates and the traditional civil rights leaders, the partici-pates listened enthusiastically to a range of speakers from WhitneyYoung of the National Urban League, Owusu Saduakai of MalcolmX Liberation University to Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nationof Islam. The Congress was a splendid display of ounity withoutuniformity ? as Baraka described it, a glimpse of the possibilities ofa ounited front ? formation to address the multifaceted issues andconcerns of the Black Nation. It was an exhilarating experience. Asan outgrowth of the Congress of African People, Baraka organizedlocal networks of scholars, activists and organizers, modeled afterthe Congress of African People, in several cities across the country.Indeed, it was the example of the Congress that set the stage for thehistoric National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Ind. in1972.As we celebrate the dawning of a new century and millennium,it would seem appropriate, even necessary, for Africans in Americato convene another Congress of African People. Though the timesare considerably different from 1970, in many respects one couldmake the case that nothing has fundamentally changed for Africansin America and the Pan- African world. DuBois T prophesy that thecolor line would be the principal problem confronting black peoplein the 20th century is still relevant as we enter the 21st century. Thequestion is can African people at least come together to assess thecrises we face as black people from our various political perspec-tives, and discuss some approaches that might be useful for trans-forming our condition as oppressed people as we enter a newmillennium. Despite our previous failures, can we examine theprospects for forging some type of broad united front as a mecha-nism to foster joint work around issues of mutual agreement in theface of a common and recalcitrant opposition? In the spirit andmemory of our beloved Kwame Ture, who believed so fervently inand work indefatigably to promote the concept of a united front, Ibelieve we should give it a try.Accordingly, as | move around the country inthe coming months,I will be discussing the idea of convening a Congress of AfricanPeople in the year 2000 with anyone who is willing to listen and lendtheir support. In the name of our ancestors, we need to start the 21stcentury with a renewed commitment to the total liberation andreconstruction of African nations and communities everywhere. Weneed a progressive Pan-African Agenda for the 21st century andthere is no more appropriate forum to air and discuss such an agendathan at an international Congress of African People._,United States. It does, in fact, offersome food for thought on both sidesof the issue. "More than 40 years ago, authorPhilip Wylie wrote at least twomajor books. One, A generation ofVipérs dealt with a notion called oMomism. ? The Tsecond was entitledThe Disappearance.It is the second book, The Disap-pearance, that was the partial gen-esis for the column.Wylie Ts vivid and highly activeimagination created a tome in whichat a given point, all of the women inthe world disappeared in the mindsof the men. Insofar as the womenwere concerned, all of the men dis-appeared at the same time.Please note. Both groups occu-pied the same space at the sametime. The difference was the man-ner in which they handled the day-to-day matters of life and living.The men took on all of the dutiesthat had previously been handledby women and they carried on. Thewomen, of course, did the samething in reverse. Many men had tolearn new skills, such as cooking,sewing, cleaning, balancing check-books, and getting their male chil-dren to school. And the list goes on.Women had to take on mascu-line perspectives and become sole" breadwinners, carpenters, mechan-oo lar column nei-ther condemns nor condones theidea of a female president of theics, plumbers, and electricians, etal.Clearly, this was a brand new_ way of life for both groups. Therewas a major difference however inthe problem-solving process. Menfought and killed each other overpetty differences, while womensought to talk out the problems andcome to an amiable solution thatwould be satisfactory to all con-cerned.Based on Biblical history, onwhich our society was built, menhave been the leaders of our vary-ing societies. They have been at theforefront of every major circum-stance since the beginning of re-corded time. They have been thegenerals and admirals in the wars.Men have headed the financial in-stitutions, the business conglomer-ates, with few exceptions.Now, for the first time, womenare standing in the door of majorpolitical and societal change. Thecandidacy of Elizabeth Dole for theRepublican presidential nominationis real, however imperiled it mightseem. Madeline Albright is the firstfemale secretary of state this coun-try has ever known. There may verywell be others to follow in her foot-steps.Several years ago, former Con-gresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ablack Democrat from New York,announced she was going to run fori ts About; a Woman. as s Presidentpresident, Well, that was a shortand sad episode in the history ofpolitics. It did not become a func-tional reality.Barbara Jordan, the first blackcongresswoman from Texas, afterdelivering a brilliant keynote speechat the Democratic National Con-vention some years ago, was men-tioned as a possible vice presiden-tial candidate. That too, fell flat.One of the things that seem to beparamount is the fact that male poli-ticians don Tt understand that womenare women and they don Tt neces-sarily see things the same way thatmen do. They have their own vi- sions, attitudes and ideas.All too often, women are pooh-poohed by men because of those dif-ferences. This brings us back to TheDisappearance. Wylie points out thatwomen were not as concerned aboutwho was the strongest and most pow-erful among them. They were moreconcerned about solving whateverproblem existed in the most effec-tive and efficient manner.Factually, it is not likely that wewill see a female president for atleast another decade. In the mean-time, we must come to recognizethat when a woman is elected presi-dent of the United States, and it isgoing to happen one day, we woulddo well not to expect her to be thecarbon copy of any man who hasever held that office.Whoever she is, she will, mostlikely have her own agenda and herown ideas about dealing with gov-ernments across the world. She willalso have her own ideas aboutsimple things like poverty, children,child care, welfare and most likely,she will not adhere to any prescribedparty line.There are still those among uswho believe that the world leader- "ship belongs in the hands of men.That will be a hard change to ac-cept. Some men will never acceptthe notion, no matter what the vot-ers say.We must, however, rememberthe only thing in this earthly realmthatis essentially certain, is change.Change is inevitable. We cannotstop change. When we attempt to ~stop change, we attempt to curtailprogress (whatever that is). So wemust reconcile ourselves and makepeace with the notion that one day,a female will sit at the helm of thisnation and we will have to learn tolive it, whether we like it or not.From still another perspective.African Americans as well as otherminorities might well benefit fromsuch a step. Women, by and large, .do not harbor all of the built-inprejudices that men bring as a part .of their functional baggage. The:female by nature is more compas-sionate than her male counterpart.Of course, there are exceptions. tothat rule. But, it could bode well forthe nation and the world as a whole.BETWEEN THE LINESGood Bye Football Folly, Hello Real Economic Development (Santa Barbara Plaza?)Pant IllDr. Gary Y. Okihiro, professor of history anddirector of Asian Studies at Cornell University,was interviewed by the staff of the advisoryboard to the President's Initiative on Race andwas not impressed. Okihiro concluded that theInitiative would simply provide a forum for awide discussion on the subject of race without alegislative agenda or programmatic outcomes. oLike other presidential initiatives, this one wasto be limited to talk "politic, bloodless, andcheap. ?Okihiro believes that the advisory board T Sfocus on dialogue was excessive and that suchtalk "focused, systematic, prodigious "has beengoing on for years. He notes that some politi-cians and white Americans might have discov-ered race as aresult of the president's /nitiative,but that scores of other Americans, especiallyracialized minorities have long understood thesting and consequences of race in their dailylives.Okihiro reminds us of the presidential com-mission report written some 30 years ago. oThisis our basic conclusion. ... Our nation is movingtoward two societies "one black, one white "separate and unequal. ? oWhat white Americanshave never fully understood "but what the Ne-gro can never forget "is that white society 1sdeeply implicated in the ghetto. White institu-tions created it, white institutions maintain itand white society condones it. ?The addendum to the /nitiative on Race re-port provides statistics that show a greater com-plexity to the figures of race in America thanthose of 30 years earlier. In 1998, the nation wasmore diverse. African Americans made gains ineducation, employment and income, althoughthe gap between themselves and whites has re-mained essentially unchanged over the threedecades. Asian and Latinos, due in large part toimmigration patterns, reveal very different andmixed profiles. Asians are among the most highlyeducated of all racialized groups and have highermedian family incomes than whites, but theyalso have poverty rates that exceed those ofwhites by more than 50 percent; Latinos, asURBAN PERSPECTIVE *Another Perspective on PresidentClinton Ts Race Relations Initiativecompared with African Americans, have con-siderably lower educational levels and slightlyhigher poverty rates, but lower unemploymentrates.Those contrasts under late capitalism point toa manifest conclusion about race in America,i.e., it was never a binary of white and blackalone. And despite gestures toward the moreinclusive universe of race, the president Ts advi-sory report is mired in the racial binaries ofwhite and black, white and non-white, both ofwhich foreground and privilege the Position ofwhiteness, says Okihiro.Despite the new racial and ethnic mercerages in the report, it cites the white-black para-digm and, in particular, the enslavement of Af-ricans as foundational to subsequent and appar-ently less important unfoldings of white-non-white relations. As Dr. John Hope Franklin re-marked, oThis country cut its eye teeth on rac-ism in the black/white sphere. ... It learned howto impose its racist policies on other people, atother times, because it had already become anexpert in this area. ? Okihiro observes that thereport portrays racism and racial subjugation asexceptional and as aberrations in the nation Tspast or as othe darker.side of our history. ? An-other reading might suggest that slavery wasamong several forms of labor and racial bondageand exploitation and that a central and recurrentfeature of America Ts history is that odarker side. ?The board Ts notions of racism as largely anindividual, and not a social matter and of itseradication as a product of reaching a mutualunderstanding and, thereby, appreciation throughdialogue, surciy influenced its readings of thepast. A paraliel concept is the largely correct,though misleading view that each group has itsown history and circumstance. according toOkihiro. For example, one member of the advi-sory board, referring to Native Americans, stated, oTheir history is unique, their relationship withour federal and state governments is unique andtheir current problems are unique. ? And, as ifracism could be measured and redress conferred; oWhile not large in numbers, their situationstugs at the heart. ? However, racial paralles arejust as important as unique pasts and presents.For Okihiro, the parallels, the connections,enable a far more comprehensive appreciationof race and race matters than that propose by theadvisory board. He offers examples in AsianAmerican history, although comparable ex-amples can be raised by all other racializedgroups. .Asians first-tested America Ts racist defini- "tion of acquired citizenship in a California fed-eral court in 1878 in the case In re Ah Yup. Ah ©Yup and two co-litigants claimed that Asians ©were included under the category owhite, ? a\ strategy that was followed by all subsequentclaims almost without exception, the ruling by afederal Circuit Court against Chinese natural- ~ Tization employed the argument that formed the ~: crux of later decisions that the Chinese, byeveryday speech and scientific evidence, were onon-white. ?Although some Asian Americans might haveclaimed whiteness on the basis of racial andcultural affinities, some African Americanssought distance from Asians on the basis of "citizenship and history. oThe Negro is an Ameri-can citizen whose American residence and citi-zenry reach further back than the great majorityof the white race, ? wrote Howard Universityprofessor, Kelly Miller, in 1924. oHe has, fromthe beginning, contributed a full share of theglory and grandeur of America and his claims to »patrimony are just and rightful due. The Japa-nese, on the other hand, is the eleventh hour ~corner, and is claiming the privilege of those ~who have borne that heat and burden of the day. ?Okihiro asserts that unlike the alien Japanese,Miller argued African Americans deservedAmerica Ts promise of equality as citizens and astheir ojust and rightful due. ?The separations among racialized minorities _were assuredly accompanied by solidaritiescrafted across racial divides, according toOkihiro. He says that in order to forge a new ©future as the President Ts Initiative on Race pro-poses, there must be arealization of racializations ,as constructions that uphold the relations ofpower and a determination to dismantle them.Finally, we canget some relieffrom the football folly that haspreoccupied real inner city eco-nomic development for the past fouryears. NFL football ended up wheremany thought it would go, Hous-ton. It surely did not end up wheremost (objective analysis) knew itwould never go, the onew ? Coli-seum. Proposals for a onew ? Coli-_ seum was folly Ts folly. It was neverserious consideration for the NFL.It was just the leverage for the BBD(bigger and better deal).One Coliseum commissionerstated that the Coliseum is like othepicture of the pretty girl you showto make your girlfriend jealous. ? |have one better: the Coliseum is:like the girl oyou do ? for years, but_ never have any intention of marry-ing her. It's oa momentary thing ?whose best days are behind her oncethe chase ended, but you never sayno to her on a lonely night. TheNFL even brought a deal back fromthe dead (Hollywood Park) so itseg t have to marry the Coli-seum. All the glitz and glamour inthe , "t bringing this oldbiddy back to life, And everybodycould see that, less one or twopeople. As a basis for inner cityeconomic development, it was (andis) nonsense.No publicly funded stadium dealin America is making money; the jobsare low-wage, the businesses are sea-sonal. As for promises on contractson construction work, you only haveto look at the Coliseum Ts $135 mil-lion earthquake work and the refur-bishing of the local Leimert Park tofind out how many locals would behired once the deal was done. I, forone, am glad this pipedream has beensmoked up. And I could really bashwith oI told yous ? for the next fourweeks, but I won't. The oreal dealers ?knew what the real deal was, and itwasn't the Coliseum.Everybody in Los Angelesknows, including the NFL, that LosAngeles would have a team now ifthey had stuck with former Dodgerowner Peter O'Malley. The NFLwould have handed it to him on asilver platter. Councilman Ridley-Thomas leveraged into the deal onthe Staples Center when the mayorneeded his vote to get public funds.He got the mayor to push O' Malley(and his 35 years of professionalownership/management, plus 35years of civic loyalty) off the ledge,and signa oprop ? letter for the Coli-seum. Once he got out in the wateron this one, he found out it was adifferent game.The mayor gave his word on theColiseum, not necessarily his sup-port. The mayor was real lukewarmon football once he got his StaplesCenter. It wasn't the same passion hegave the charter, or the school boardtakeover. Meanwhile, olittle Caesar ?was out there overplaying his handand began believing his own hype.Including the othis is about us ? rheto-ric, In the end, it'was never about us.This whole football award thingamounted to what most reasonablepeople (including myself) stated thiswould become once a second teamemerged to salvage the first deci-sion deadline, stall time for a otes-tosterone contest ? (bidding war)amongst'the billionaire boys club.Well, as Los Angeles found out,when the Texans whipped it out, itwas long enough. As Richard Pryoronce said, othe water was cold ...,and deep too... ? Los Angelescouldn't go deep enough. Nevercould, : 2Discussions about real problemsin the area were masked in mockeryand protests (against communityoutsiders) about saying what wasreally true about the economic re-alities of some areas in our commu-nity. None of these billionaireswould have been talking aboutspending a billion on games andtoys before they built up their owncommunities. They didn Tt have tomake a choice between ofootball ?and oquality of life ? issues in theircommunities.Certainly, South Central resi-dents have dignity, but it does notmask the enmity associated withcomments expressed by others aboutour community, mucli of which, ascallous as it sounds, we know aretrue. We know there are areas aroundthe Coliseum that have run down foryears, and should have been built upyears ago. The money has never beenthere for local economic deyelop-ment until football became the fo-cus, which is not right. If nothingmore, maybe now the policymakersand elected omouths ? will acknow!-edge the economic shortcomings ofour communities and resolve thembefore othe condition of our com-ih We Saath e i eteaeee st mer USLoesch? Gc ia a etal al nha ibd eh tamalemunity ? becomes fodder for come-dic commentary when fantasy foot-ball is revived (whenever that willbe).Now maybe we can talk aboutreal community economic develop-ment. How do we bridge the ocapi-tal gap ? in South Central? How dowe get manufacturing (with highwage jobs) into the inner city? Canwe find a way to get the Los Ange-les Community Development Bank -out of shambles and get deals on theStreet (wasn Tt it started for capitaland manufacturing purposes)? Howdo we bring commercial develop-ment (beyond low-income housing,strip malls and supermarkets) to theinner city?And speaking of commercial de-velopment, now that the footballdeal is dead, can the Santa BarbaraPlaza, the most lucrative commer-cial venture (with two dozen blackbusinesses in the mix and $150 mil-lion in development opportunities)in the black community, be taken .off ostall? ?Businesses are dying on the vinein Santa Barbara Plaza because thelocal football politics conflictedwith local community development¢politics when Magic Johnson sided *against the Coliseum. Magic was ocourted ? back to the Coliseum withassurances his deal would fly when othe Coliseum deal flew. Now thatthat mean Santa Barbara Plaza isgrounded also? I hope not. Stand ©posted for a big community fight 'over this one. In fact, expect one.But I, for one, don Tt want to hear *a thing, not another mention of a © "the Coliseum is ogrounded, ? does onew ? Coliseum. Find $400 million |" |in private community development o"'investment (with parking) for some-thing that Ts not sports- or entertain- ©ment-related, or not withinastone Ts °throw of USC or downtown Los *:Angeles. Go find inner city capital :to build a commercial enterprise to ogo with the obeautification ? and in-frastructure dollars. Let Tstalk abouta new Normandie and Exposition, anew King and Vermont, anew West- ~ aern and Vernon, a new Santa Bar-bara Plaza. Football was political _folly; billionaires battling for taxwrite-offs. And one person's ©pipedream to be in the mention for ,;mayor. Oh, well, Now's the time to ,get to work on some real economicdevelopment, ?