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Presidents’ Day 2018

I am a museum lover. Before the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Portrait Gallery was my favorite Smithsonian museum. It’s now my second museum. When Barack Obama won the 2008 election, I thought that he will be included in the pantheon of American Presidents.

President Obama’s portrait was unveiled last week.

In an email, Obama wrote:

Today, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald became the first black artists to create official, Smithsonian-commissioned portraits of a former President and First Lady.

And Michelle and I joined our distinguished predecessors and thousands of our fellow Americans on the walls of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

To call this experience humbling would be an understatement.

That’s because, as a former president, when you choose an artist to describe your likeness, you have the opportunity to shape, quite literally, how someone sees the office of the American presidency. And how they might see themselves in that presidency.

[…]

The arts have always been central to the American experience. They provoke thought, challenge our assumptions, and shape how we define our narrative as a country.

Thanks to Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, generations of Americans — and young people from all around the world — will visit the National Portrait Gallery and see this country through a new lens. These works upend the notion that there are worlds where African Americans belong and worlds where we don’t. And that’s something Michelle and I hope we contributed to over the eight years we were so privileged to serve you from the White House.

Michelle Obama’s portrait will join the collection of First Ladies.

In case you missed it, check out “Obama Portrait Unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.”

International Jazz Day 2016

All good things must come to an end. Jazz Appreciation Month is going out on a high note. On Saturday, April 30, America’s classical music will be celebrated across the globe, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

 

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said in a statement:

Jazz was born in the U.S. and traveled the world as a music of tolerance, freedom and human dignity. This is why UNESCO created International Jazz Day and we are extremely pleased that in 2016 Washington, DC has been designated the host city for this global celebration, with a unique All Star Concert at the White House, hosted by the President of the United States Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. This event reminds us Jazz is more than music – it is a universal message of peace with rhythm and meaning.

 

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock added:

We are thrilled that President Obama and Michelle Obama are hosting the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert at the White House, and are truly grateful for their commitment to jazz and its role in building bridges and uniting people around the world. Over the past five years, the innovation and creativity of Jazz Day has been a beacon of light to millions of people who find common ground and communicate through the values inherent in jazz. On April 30th, people of all ages in all corners of the globe will participate in International Jazz Day. A wide range of momentous events will take place in thousands of neighborhoods – and the streets will be alive with the sounds of peace and freedom.

The lineup is a real-life fantasy jam session.

The all-star global concert will air on ABC-TV at 8pm ET.

Did You See ‘Jackie Robinson’ on PBS?

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball.

Last week, PBS aired a two-part documentary, “Jackie Robinson.”

Like all African Americans, I admire Robinson’s achievements, and dignity and grace in the face of unrelenting racial taunts and threats. I was delighted when I stumbled upon the plaque in Brooklyn Heights noting the place where Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager Branch Rickey signed Robinson in 1945.

But somewhere along the way, I developed an inchoate impression the baseball icon had become an “Uncle Tom” after his playing days ended. Ken Burns’ film disabused me of that foolish notion. Robinson was a race-man who advocated for political empowerment:

I’m a black man first, an American second, and then I will support a political party—third.

Robinson was in the tradition of “Radical Republicans.” He understood that playing one-party politics in a two-party system would ensure black folks would not get a fair return on the investment of their political capital.

Robinson also pushed for economic empowerment. In 1964, he co-founded Freedom National Bank in Harlem. The bank later opened a branch in Bedford-Stuyvesant. I grew up in Bed-Stuy. As an emerging race-woman, I opened my first savings account at that branch. Frankly, I don’t remember whether I knew Robinson was associated with Freedom National Bank.

If you missed “Jackie Robinson,” you can watch full episodes online at PBS videos on demand.

New York Street Games

First Lady Michelle Obama is on a mission promoting her Let’s Move! campaign to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.

The Childhood Obesity Task Force recently released an action plan, “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation.” Among its recommendations:

Getting children more physically active, through quality physical education, recess, and other opportunities in and after school; addressing aspects of the “built environment” that make it difficult for children to walk or bike safely in their communities; and improving access to safe parks, playgrounds, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities.

Back in the day, New York City kids never stopped moving in the built environment – the sidewalks and streets. Whether it was dodge ball, stickball or hide-and-go-seek, kids were physically active.

My favorite games were hopscotch and skelly. And I loved jumping double-dutch.

To this day, when I pass girls jumping double-dutch, I think about asking for a jump. But I quickly come to my senses. I  would probably get tangled up in the ropes and fall flat on my you-know-what.

But one is never too old to take a walk down memory lane. So check out “New York Street Games,” a documentary that will premiere at the Village East Theater next week.

Black Voter Turnout: Act II

In the 2004 presidential election, black voter empowerment groups were upstaged by the fly-by-night America Coming Together. ACT was spearheaded by Steve Rosenthal who convinced major donors that he knew more about black voters than the organizations that closed the racial gap in voter registration and turnout.

In one election cycle, ACT and its partner, the Media Fund, burned through $200 million. The ROI was a Democratic Secretary of State in Missouri. Still, Rosenthal bragged that his high-tech ground operation was a success, but the patient died.

With no accountability, ACT packed up its PDAs and has not been heard from since.

Dr. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland, is a longtime critic of outside groups big-pimping black voters:

In my book ‘’Freedom Is Not Enough,’’ I wrote that in the 2004 election, Americans Coming Together (ACT), a White Democratic-leaning 527 organization funded by a collection of rich donors like George Soros, went around Black civic and religious organizations and sponsored its own voter turnout drive in the Black community.

Legions of kids with Blackberries showed up in places where the NAACP, Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black churches, Black labor unions and local Black civic organizations had worked for years to turn out the Black vote successfully. The result was that not only were many of the Black organizations de-funded, but our strong Black churches and civic organizations were pushed aside to make way for professional canvassers.

Walters has seen this play before:

The Obama campaign is using the same tactics of ACT, financing thousands of young kids coming into Black communities to register Black voters, when from my brief survey, traditional Black organizations who have done this for years have received no funding from the campaign. Now, there are some legal issues here that complicate non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations receiving direct funding from political campaigns and the fact that the Obama campaign has raised more money than the Democratic Party and leaned on 527s not to come into the game. But it seems to me that they could have been worked out to enable the Obama campaign to be an empowerment vehicle for the Black community.

So it was ironic to me that Michelle Obama would urge a convention of Black Baptist ministers to turn out their people to vote – at the last minute in the campaign, with no accompanying funding mechanism – when Blacks have criticized the Democratic Party for years for doing the same thing.

Ironic indeed. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

GOP Targets Michelle

It is open season on Michelle Obama, the New Yorker’s "Angry Black Woman" in combat boots.

A while back, the Tennessee Republican Party got all shook up when Michelle made a campaign appearance in Nashville. In advance of her campaign trip to Seattle, the Washington State Republican Party rolled out a welcome attack video.

Barack Obama has again asked folks to lay off his wife. In an interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said:

It's infuriating, but it's not surprising, because let's face it: What happened was that the conservative press—Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk—went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way...and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans. And I've said this before: I would never have my campaign engage in a concerted effort to make Cindy McCain an issue, and I would not expect the Democratic National Committee or people who were allied with me to do it. Because essentially, spouses are civilians. They didn't sign up for this.

Like it or not, Michelle is fair game. So she should put on some fashionable boots and keep on stepping.  She should also borrow a phrase from Nancy Sinatra:

These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

With Obama leading John McCain in the polls, on Jan. 20, 2009, Michelle might be able to say, "Are you ready boots? Start walking down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House."

New Yorker Magazine Runs for Cover

The July 21 cover of the New Yorker perpetuates racial stereotypes. In the name of satire, the "Politics of Fear" cartoon plays into the smear that Barack Obama is not patriotic. The depiction of Michelle Obama as a machine gun-toting revolutionary in combat boots evokes the "Angry Black Woman."

In a transparent attempt to cover its rear, the New Yorker has compiled a gallery of past political covers. But without context, the current satirical cover merely fuels "a lot of distortions, lies and misconceptions about the Obamas."

A British cartoonist wrote:

Any regular reader would immediately 'get' that cover as it was intended. A not too subtle lampoon of the exaggerated right wing smears Obama has been subjected to so far. I mean, the Stars and Stripes burning in the fireplace. Come on.

So the message should be clear.

But I'm afraid it isn’t, because taken out of context, it can mean whatever you want it to. And here we come to the internet. Seen on its own, scattered randomly over the internet, with no knowledge of what the New Yorker's mindset is, this cartoon can be interpreted however you wish. As a stand-alone image on the web, it really could be some Right-wing website or magazine's propaganda. But it doesn't really matter - it's a cartoon of Obama worshipping anti-American terrorism.

For his part, Obama is downplaying the kerfuffle. He told CNN's Larry King:

Well, I know it was the New Yorker's attempt at satire. I don't think they were entirely successful with it. But you know what? It's a cartoon, Larry, and that's why we've got the First Amendment.

And I think the American people are probably spending a little more time worrying about what's happening with the banking system and the housing market, and what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, than a cartoon.

So I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it.

King asked, "But didn't it personally sting you?"

Obama said:

I've seen and heard worse. I do think that, you know, in attempting to satirize something, they probably fueled some misconceptions about me instead. But, you know, that was their editorial judgment.

Ultimately it’s a cartoon. It’s not where the American people are spending a lot of their time thinking about.

OK, end of story.