Tale of Two Marions: Great ones Going Social

I awoke to find two Marions in the news this morning, two black Marions. Neither received coverage for celebratory good news. Nothing uplifting and no great achievements to announce either. Au contraire. The news? The usual "been-caught-so-I confess" despair, of course, of the self-inflicted kind. Their plight, these two Marions, reminded me of the label this teacher used to place on promising students who were clearly doomed to this kind of self-inflicted failure. He would look up from his desk, eyes lifted beyond his bifocals and lean into the student to impart a particular warning: "You, my dear, are going social, " he would say, "Stop yourself now or your life will never be the same."

His name was Mr. Sikkrut or Sliprutts I think. He was a gym teacher, (or was it speech?) who really had an eye for the ladies - especially the nubile cheerleading ones. Whatever his lecherous defects, he did have a sense about people. And if there was one thing Mr. Sikkrut could spot, it was someone heading for a fall from grace because of their inner insecurities, single tragic flaws and, as he put it, "Going social" behavior. The students who began high school wide-eyed and well intended, seeking popularity, enticed by vanity, quickly became members of an "in" crowd, or an "out" crowd of cleverly disguised misfits, and would one day meet their social demise. He could spot them from the very first day of school. Lacking backbone, wrapped in trends, huge potential and a propensity for going social to fill a void hidden deep within.

Sikkrut-the-great-psychic-Swamee, was fired one day, for placing a male student in a headlock, choking this popular football player until it caused the student to pass out. This took place during a classroom standoff/pissing contest incident, prompted by a mutual desire to impress the females in the classroom. Idiotic, testosterone-oriented, bad judgement. He eventually became an alcoholic and a victim of his own prediction. Bad decision makingin order to floss for an external no one. He was never heard from again. The male student? He, of course, became a state legislator representing a major US city. Still wanting to be seen and still cleverly disguised.

I think the world turns slowly, purposefully, to allow balance to yin-yang us. what goes around, ladies...

Washington, DC has never been a model city. Rather, it is actually two cities that share two cultures, unified under one zip code. The Washington government "mother", who has two children of different races and, because of the laws of the time, one child is indisputably inferior, never to be given the same rights and privileges of the other, much lighter, sibling. Marion Barry became Mayor of DC's dark side. befriending the worker, the home-owning grandmothers, the voters, by being there. He also curried enough favor on the lighter side of town, making sure key big business figures ate off the land so that his power remained - though often challenged - always just beyond their reach. Talk to the parents of baby boomers in DC who were there back in the Marion Barry hey-day, and you will find that to them Marion Barry is still: "My Mayor!" they proclaim proudly. The Pastor of [insert any major DC Baptist Church here] welcomed the good "mayor" into the pulpit just last week. And he spoke like the leader, the deliverer, he sees himself to be. Proud Marion. Unapologetic for the days of crack use and b's who set him up in hotel rooms which are long behind him. The American memory and black pseudo-leadership is tragically flawed, having "gone social" long ago.

Marion Barry+Youth jobs="He's got a good heart...what is so corrupt about that? All them politicians do something. At least he's bringing it home to the kids." says Mr. Amtrak worker. That is a big deal for working-class black America. But...what of the future.

BUT when the inner city DC boys turn 17, cannot read in spite of their summer yard work paid for by the Barry plan, and they return to the NE side of town rejected and unwelcome by the world of their lighter brother other side of town, their lives (most of their lives) have but two destinations. One is prison. The other is death - by drugs and the killing of the mind, destruction of the community and spirit and death by bullets. Yes, many have left Washington's prestigious black educational institutions and thrived beyond the confines of poverty. Exceptional models of black excellence. Exceptional. Exceptions. But what of the Mayor's Washington? Deal making, my-main-man...The chocolate city was swept up by the crack epidemic. Street 'soldiers' marched the narcotic into the community and the elite used it for the "social" entertainment. Living high - even at the Mayor's mansion. God bless you Effie Barry for staying by his side for as long as you did. Can you imagine the things she endured being the wife? Living the lies? Peace to her. The new mayor, Adrian Fenty grew up watching the tragedies unfold. I think a change is coming.

Can I be a wife? If my hubby "goes social" God forbid, can I save him?

Okay, I will stop here again just sooooooooooo disappointed about the state of our black people and what it all means for the women and black girls. Does DC have strong black girl leadership? Eleanor Holmes Norton has been the occasionally powerless DC representative in Congress who is angry, with heavy emphasis on the rhetoric, but comfortable. Likable and rarely capable of blocking the unacceptable, but has she ever delivered the improbable? Don't think so. Not taken seriously. Bush laughs at lawmakers like her. Would, say President Obama view her differently? Does she bring anything to be viewed differently about? I know, I digress.

Marion Jones. another beautiful black girl with the civil rights name, who let us down today ladies. Not unlike the infamous Marion Barry, whose 50 pairs of cuff links and six Rolexes were stolen in a newsworthy break in the other night. Today, after winning her five medals (3 of them gold) in the Olympics and smiling her way into the hearts of sisters everywhere, she confessed to illegal steroid use to "enhance" her performance. She adamantly denied it. Bewware of adamant denials. And today, confession and apology. Who's next?Say it isn't so Serena! I am holding on to the hope that the Williams sisters remain goddesses of sports power. Marion, how could you? Who was so greedy and influential that they got into your mind, heart and vanity convincing you to run faster, better longer and stronger, by rubbing your body with "the clear" without regard for "the crime?"

No one can ride your back, or MAKE you carry them, if you are standing up straight. Bending over is the problem. Weakness and yes, the proverbial lack of knowledge of self, causes destruction to pile on. Many of walk around with a whole lotta monkeys on our backs. Stress self-inflicted. Stand up straight at all times girls. Find your gifts and use them preciously, carefully, cautiously no matter what the temptation. Do not go social and place others intentions before your own integrity.

Going social.

The Supreme Court went social at one point. Yes, I said the Supreme Court. Delivering a crushing blow to black people, the brunt of which was bourne by black women. The evolution of Supreme Court’s expansion, retraction and then expansion again of “national power” via the Commerce Clause, was clear in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). When wealthy magnate Conrnelius Vanderbilt wanted to use the river with his steamboat and was challenged by NY state and a steamboat license holder. The court jumped in and said Vanderbilt deserves the freedom to sail where he wishes. He deserves that freedom! It is good for commerce! We are the great protectors of interstate commerce. Go and sail on! They ruled he should pay no attention to state of NY who want to control and limit his come and go. That showed backbone ladies. History changing backbone. But strangely, in 1883, under the question of racial discrimination, the once strong and mighty court which protected man's freedoms suddenly became weak and deferential. The case? Black people wanting to stay in motels, or eat where they chose. Spending of their money where they wished. Still good for interstate commerce? Oh, ha ha...uh, no. Thsi same court said: We musn't overstep into the states decision-making authority and force people to treat blacks equally. Equal? Well, this is not for us to decide. (Oh, really?) The FRONT of the bus? Hey, now we've heard the back is quite comfortable. Can't you blacks be happy with that? Come now.

The weakness and failure of the court to defend us and their cow-towing to racial "going social" peer pressures wrapped in legal misinterpretation, set the race back hundreds of years. Blacks who became educated landowning citizens after the Emancipation, were reduced to doing the tap dance of segregation. How courageous it must have been for Martin and Ralph and Rosa and Coretta, Thurgood and John Hope to work in the face of oppression. They had to at one point DECIDE not to go social and accept the whims- even the 100 year old ones- of the nation. Little girls speaking. Little girls marching. Four little girls ascending, so YOU and I would not have to take it anymore. And what did you do with THAT MARION?!! Steroids slap God in the face and undermine the incredible talent he gave you. Look how far you'd come without them! You felt you needed "the clear," huh? Are you insane?

How could throw away your leadership, accomplishment, role modelship, presence, gift and achievement away in one peer pressure moment? We laugh when elders talk about the Civil rights movement. We roll our contact-lensed eyes when the NAACP releases yet another f#$&ing STATEMENT proclaiming something unjust, just after they have hit up corporate America to sponsor their annual chicken dinners. But what about the reality that the only reason your one-crooked-front-tooth-having self would still be running from racists and lynch mobs and Jim Crow and bus back-seats was because someone refused to bend over and stood up straight through the segregation wind and rain and dogs and jail....for YOU?

I am weak. We all are week. And the road straight to hell is paved with good intention. I live every day trying to watch those moments when I catch myself compromising. An event, an opinion, a credential, a project, a conversation, a commitment, a relationship - that we know we SHOULD do without. It's a fight for your soul girls and we are losing.

I do not know where the next army of soldiers will come from. Where are you Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou? Speak to us. Keep us away from "the clear" and help us be clear about our mission that every free moment we have in the "My Mayor" city should be spent saving other little girls from the weak and teaching them strength. It does not matter what you did before today. You can redeem yourself. Even the Supreme court, prompted by irrefutable arguments by brilliant and brave black minds, regained it's back bone and passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 ending segregation based on the marches, sit-ins, protests, sacrifices and the Heart of Atlanta Motel v U.S (1964) hotel case among others.

Yeah, I know we cannot change the world, when America's Next Top Model is on. We cannot look for fresh politics and men who can stand up straight, when McDreamy with no lips, smiles at us through the TV screen. Move a mountain? Get a pedicure? Decisions. Decisions. That is equality, right? Wrong.

Run and don't get weary girls. Start now or your life will never be the same. You can stand up...to anything. Don't you bend to what is sexy and social and surrendering your soul. You can stand up...to anything.
I believe in you.