Category Archives: american history

Imus, Part V: Enabling Imus: Newsies Back Cowboy Don

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Ah…..truth tastes so good sometimes.  🙂

Enabling Imus
Newsies Back Cowboy Don

By Richard Muhammad

MSNBC and CBS Radio have seen the light and suspended talk show host Don Imus for a whole two weeks. Time to pack the protest signs and go home? Not exactly. While the venom-spewing old cowpoke may be unseen for a bit, the new question is what to do with the apologists for Imus insults aimed at Black women and media peeps who contend he really isn’t such a bad guy.

Like a troubled wife living with a nasty drunk, and sharing a raggedy filthy couch, some white journalist-types just can’t seem to kick the Imus habit, or get a healthy divorce. They have stepped forward to vouch for his character and need to embrace this “teachable moment.” Led by Tom Oliphant of The Boston Globe, they see redemption deep in the soul of the man who called Rutgers basketball players a bunch of “nappy headed hos.”

Seems like whenever a Black person allegedly does wrong, the lesson to be taught is accountability, responsibility and facing the consequences of one’s actions. Just ask teenager Shaquanda Cotton, who was recently released from a Texas facility where she was sentenced to seven years for allegedly pushing a white teacher’s aide.

Or ask actor Isaiah Washington if white gays saw a teachable moment when he made the mistake of using the f-word to say he didn’t call a fellow white cast mate a homosexual. There weren’t a lot of discussions about him teaching anyone anything, expect to avoid angering what one African American gay rights activist called “the gay mafia.”

Some media folks feel Imus’ “nappy headed hos” slur regarding play during the NCAA tournament presents America with an opportunity.

But when Michael Ray Richardson, coach of the Albany Patroons, of the Continental Basketball Association, talked about hiring “big time Jewish lawyers” to handle his contract negotiations last month, it wasn’t a teachable moment. Richardson was quickly suspended pending an investigation by the playoff-bound team. He won’t be back this season.

Richardson reportedly said in a late March interview with The Albany, N.Y.-based Times-Union, “Listen, (Jews) are hated all over the world, so they’ve got to be crafty … They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they’re run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they’re run by Jewish. It’s not a knock, but they are some crafty people.”

Richardson is also accused of using the word “faggot” in an attempt to quiet a heckler during a game the same day. Within a couple days, he was suspended for the rest of the championship series and not allowed in the team facility. Richardson apologized a couple days later. Unlike Imus, he made no attempt to downplay the pain caused by his words, or cite previous good works that make him worthy of a pass.

I wonder if those comments have the same “lack of animus” Oliphant saw in Imus and put forward in a defense mounted April 9 during a PBS NewsHour broadcast segment with writer Clarence Page, and in his column the same day.

Newsweek editor Howard Fineman went on Imus’ show April 9, appearing before Oliphant. “Just before I came on the show, I was coming upstairs and my cell phone rang, and it was some listener who called me out of the blue. I’d never heard of the guy before. I’d never heard his name. He called me and he said, ‘Are you going to go on the show and finally confront this Imus guy? Are you going to quit enabling him?’ ” said Fineman.

“And, you know, I thought about that, and I said to the guy, ‘You know, I’ll puzzle that through on the radio.’ And I would like to continue to enable you to do a lot of the good things you do. Including, you know, talking about stuff happening in the world, which you do a very good job of on this show. …

“You know, it’s different than it was even a few years ago, politically. I mean, we may, you know – and the environment, politically, has changed. And some of the stuff that you used to do, you probably can’t do anymore,” said Fineman. He described Imus’ remarks as “a big mistake” and “a teaching moment.”

Newsweek columnist Mark Starr came out against kicking Imus out on the street, saying the old coot was just an example how far things have swung in the name of entertainment. In Starr’s view, we’re all responsible.

Not from where Black folks sit.

Imus is so bad that even Page, the leveled-head, non-threatening Chicago Tribune columnist, argued that it’s time for Imus to go. Page recounted having Imus take a pledge on-air several years ago to refrain from the racially-charged diatribes, including an instance in which Imus reportedly referred to Gwen Ifill, a respected African American journalist, as a “cleaning lady” allowed to cover the White House.

“To the 10 young African queens who have been disrespected and violated in public, keep your heads up high,” said conservative darling Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries in a prelude to his Easter Sunday sermon. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was in attendance at the service in Somerset, N.J. According to a report in The Star-Ledger, Soaries called for Imus to be fired. “When I listened to it myself, I thought the guy is too ignorant to be on the air. … We would like Imus off the air,” the article said.

How often do the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Page and Rev. Soaries, a former secretary of state under Republican Gov. Gov. Christie Whitman and Bush administration political appointee, agree a firing, protest and potential advertisers’ boycott is in order?

The widespread anger in Black America was also apparently lost on a public radio reporter who covered an April 9 demonstration in Chicago by the Rev. Jackson, saying only about 50 protestors showed up. The report downplayed the way Blacks have responded, implied the protest numbers signaled a lack of interest, and had no reactions from Blacks about the controversy. The reporter also apparently missed the hours of hot conversation on Chicago’s WVON-AM radio, starting at 6 a.m. April 9 with “The Roland S. Martin Show” and rolling on through three hours in the afternoon with the nationally syndicated “Keeping It Real With Rev. Al Sharpton,” and columns by sports writer Stephen A. Smith, out of Philadelphia, Deborah Mathis of BlackAmericaWeb.com, Black bloggers and writers. Analysis came from white media observers.

What’s going on here? Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is found in the title of Starr’s online column, “Imus Is Us.” The “us” here consists of White America – white men in the media, in particular – unable to admit insults to Black folks actually mean something. It’s as if we are soulless beings and whites are always allowed to explain away, ridicule away, or ignore away the constant assaults on our dignity and psyche.

This bond of white attitudinal perception and brotherhood may also explain why the numbers of Blacks in newsrooms at daily newspapers and within the news industry continue to dwindle.

When the ugliness of American racism is exposed, there is always an apologist, a defender. So Michael Richards, who played Kramer on TV’s “Seinfeld,” can go on David Lettermen with Jerry Seinfeld to vouch for his goodness, despite Richard’s n—-r-laced, racial barrage against Blacks in a comedy club audience. And Imus can find comfort in the bosom of his brothers, who just can’t bring themselves to condemn him.

“You know, all of us who do your show, you know, we’re part of the gang. And we rely on you the way you rely on us. So, you know, you’re taking all of us with you when you go out there to meet with them (Rutgers basketball players), you know,” said Fineman on the Imus show.

“Good morning, Mr. Imus, and solidarity forever, by the way,” Oliphant said. He voiced support for Imus, called the racial broadside an accident and talked about his moral imperative to stand with the broadcaster as a member of the Imus “posse.”

“But to me, that only means that those of us who, through an accident, were scheduled (on the show), who know better, have a moral obligation to stand up and say to you, ‘Solidarity forever, pal,’ ” said Oliphant, in his closing words.

Imus walks and talks with America’s giants, and if he suffers from the disease of racism, what about his companions? Well, we don’t have to wonder. Just listen to what they actually say.

Richard Muhammad is editor of StraightWords E-Zine and is based in Chicago. He can be reached at straightwords@sbcglobal.net .

Imus, Part III: "Today"'s Comments :)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

I wrote that I was bored with this thing, but clearly I was lying.  🙂

Some random observations from watching the fun on the first hour of this morning’s “Today” show:

* I see Jesse’s doing his usual shakedown for jobs. I don’t think this bruh-ha-ha should be about Imus, MSNBC, CBS Radio or NBC hiring more Blacks. Or about Blacks appearing on Imus more frequently. (All that would do is give the next Juan Williams- or Robin Quivers-type a national platform.) I think it should be about Black people letting white people know they can’t use the power of the radio to degrade others.

* I know at least one person who doesn’t like Matt Lauer. I think the test for whether or not you like an interviewer is that you should watch him or her interview someone you don’t like, and then watch him or her interview someone you do like.  I think Lauer is a tough interviewer on a tough, tight format. I think he and Meredith did very well this morning.

* Boy, Imus really isn’t used to being challenged, huh?  🙂 I’m not particuarly proud of it, but there are few things I love more than watching powerful white boys squirm, particularly when the issue is their racism. 🙂

* It was good seeing Earl Graves, Jr. on, representing Black Enterprise.

 * With the two-week suspension, Black activists have been given a great opportunity. If they just pressure Imus’s advertisers to not be associated with his show, saying that if they do, a national campaign against them will start and never end, well, there ya go. 🙂

ADDENDUM: Al Roker’s clear. I’m not surprised. Don’t let the morning weather-clown act fool you; the brother gave the strongest interview about 15 years ago, when Philip Nobile wrote a Village Voice cover story about white racism in local New York City television news.

Imus, Part II: Ifill On Imus: "The Sincerity Feels Forced And Suspect"

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

From today’s The New York Times. 

Would’ve liked it if she went after her colleagues a little bit, but that’s not her insider’s style.

————

Trash Talk Radio 

By GWEN IFILL
Published: April 10, 2007

Washington

LET’S say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical names. Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat and Myia and Brittany and Heather.

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University had an improbable season, dropping four of their first seven games, yet ending up in the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball championship game. None of them were seniors. Five were freshmen.

In the end, they were stopped only by Tennessee’s Lady Vols, who clinched their seventh national championship by ending Rutgers’ Cinderella run last week, 59-46. That’s the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of teenagers from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying expectations. It’s what explodes so many March Madness office pools.

But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded “nappy-headed ho’s” — a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The “joke” — as delivered and later recanted — by the radio and television personality Don Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.

The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday by both NBC News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The sincerity seems forced and suspect because he’s done some version of this several times before.

I know, because he apparently did it to me.

I was covering the White House for this newspaper in 1993, when Mr. Imus’s producer began calling to invite me on his radio program. I didn’t return his calls. I had my hands plenty full covering Bill Clinton.

Soon enough, the phone calls stopped. Then quizzical colleagues began asking me why Don Imus seemed to have a problem with me. I had no idea what they were talking about because I never listened to the program.

 

It was not until five years later, when Mr. Imus and I were both working under the NBC News umbrella — his show was being simulcast on MSNBC; I was a Capitol Hill correspondent for the network — that I discovered why people were asking those questions. It took Lars-Erik Nelson, a columnist for The New York Daily News, to finally explain what no one else had wanted to repeat.

“Isn’t The Times wonderful,” Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. “It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.”

I was taken aback but not outraged. I’d certainly been called worse and indeed jumped at the chance to use the old insult to explain to my NBC bosses why I did not want to appear on the Imus show.

I haven’t talked about this much. I’m a big girl. I have a platform. I have a voice. I’ve been working in journalism long enough that there is little danger that a radio D.J.’s juvenile slap will define or scar me. Yesterday, he began telling people he never actually called me a cleaning lady. Whatever. This is not about me.

It is about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That game had to be the biggest moment of their lives, and the outcome the biggest disappointment. They are not old enough, or established enough, to have built up the sort of carapace many women I know — black women in particular — develop to guard themselves against casual insult.

Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus’s program? That’s for them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don’t know any black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.

Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she can become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It’s more than simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.

So here’s what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.

Let’s see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable shots.

Gwen Ifill is a senior correspondent for “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” and the moderator of “Washington Week.”

I'm Bored With The Don Imus Thing…….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…………….because white people in power are not going to turn on each other just because a lot of people of color are angry at one of them. I am slightly surprised  when ABC “World News” reported tonight that MSNBC suspended his show for two weeks.

Now, if these people of color used their resources to do what Tavis and Tom did in the 1990s—tie up the offender’s corporate phone lines, blast them on national, drive-time, morning radio every weekday—then maybe the power would shift.

But it would take real bravery, fueled by real anger, to do that. Real cojones that our groups—including the NAACP and NABJ—don’t have as of this writing. After all, I can call for ice to melt, but it won’t do so if it’s only 10 degrees out.  🙂

The Problem With African Heritage Month……….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

………is not that it’s only a month (people who complain about it should respect its history), but that, like its sibling, MLK Day, the Establishment uses it as a way to instill some innocuous pride instead of directly confronting the ugly side of American history.

A Wreath for Emmett Till (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards))

Check out this “News And Notes” story and subsequent interview. And here’s the newspaper account that spurred NPR’s interest.

So, children in 2007 L.A. who grow up with all kinds of rap lyrics can’t handle the Till story? PUL-LEASE.   🙂

BREAKING NEWS: 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Sets May 17 Date for Oral Arguments in Mumia Case

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

Once again, Dave is on point and in front of the herd. I’ve enclosed the open letter from Mumia’s lead attorney at the end of this posting.

March 23, 2007

Third Circuit Appeals Court Sets Date for Oral Arguments in Mumia Case

By Dave Lindorff

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelpia journalist and former Black Panther activist who has been on Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, will finally have his appeal of his conviction heard by a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which set a date of May 17.

At that session, Abu-Jamal will argue that his original trial for the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally flawed because of racial bias by the prosecutor in jury selection. He will argue that his conviction by that jury was improper because the prosecutor improperly was permitted to lessen jurors’ sense of responsibility by assuring them that whatever they decided, the defendant would get “appeal after appeal” and so their decision “would not be final.” He will also argue that his effort to appeal his conviction was damaged because his post-conviction relief act hearing was presided over by a judge who was clearly biased in favor of the district attorney.

The hearing will also hear a claim by the district attorney that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence—lifted by a Federal Judge in 2001—should be reinstated. The federal district court had ruled that Abu-Jamal’s sentence had been arrived at by a jury that was given improper and confusing instructions by Judge Albert Sabo, and that their sentencing form itself was
misleading.

Meanwhile, it has been learned that the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office earlier this month attempted
unsuccessfully to have the entire Third Circuit Court—one of the more liberal appeals courts in the nation—recused from hearing Abu-Jamal’s appeal on the grounds that Abu-Jamal’s claim of jury selection bias was charging then DA Ed Rendell (now Pennsylvania’s governor), with having deliberately violated the law. Rendel’s wife, Marjorie, is one of the appeals court judges in the Third Circuit.

Abu-Jamal’s attorney Robert R. Bryan, objecting to the DA’s effort, noted that there was no claim of illegality on the governor’s part, but rather on the part of the prosecutor in the case, Joseph McGill. It is alleged that a succession of Philadelphia DA’s encouraged their prosecutors to remove as many blacks as possible from capital juries, and documentary evidence has been submitted to show that this was done, both by the DA’s office over all, and by assistant DA McGill in his own capital cases. During jury selection for Abu-Jamal’s trial, 11 black potential jurors who had all agreed they
could vote for a death penalty, were removed by McGill using his available peremptory challenges (meaning he did not have to give a reason for his action).

In a letter to the DA’s office stating that the request to have all the circuit’s judges recused from hearing the case had been rejected, the clerk of the court said that such a request would have to be made not as a letter, but in the form of a formal motion. In a scolding tone, the letter notes that such a motion “must be in proper form, i.e. an original and three copies and certificate of service.”

“It must have been humiliating for the opposition” to receive such a note, comments attorney Bryan. He notes that to date, the DA has “not had the guts” to make such a formal motion, adding, “We’ll see.”

Authors Website: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

Authors Bio: Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books (“This Can’t Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy” and “Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal”). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is “The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office” (St. Martin’s Press, May 2006). His writing is available at
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net .

———–

March 22, 2007
Legal Update

Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Martin Horn, Pennsylvania Director of Corrections
U.S. Court of Appeals Nos. 0 1-90 14,02-900 1 (death penalty)

Dear Friends:

Today notification was received that oral argument in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is scheduled on Thursday, May 17, 9:30 am, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Ceremonial Courtroom, 1″ Floor, U.S. Courthouse, 6″‘ and Market Streets, Philadelphia. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the National Lawyers Guild, which have filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs, are also participating.

This case concerns Mr. Abu-Jamal’s right to a fair trial, the struggle against the death penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken journalist. Racism and politics are threads that have run through this case since his 1981 arrest. The complex issues under consideration, which are of great constitutional significance, include:

Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process of law and a fair trial under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments because of the prosecutor’s “appeal-after-appeal” argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err on the side of guilt.

Whether the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude African Americans from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal’s rights to due process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and contravened Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).

Whether the jury instructions and verdict form that resulted in the death penalty deprived Mr. Abu- Jamal of rights guaranteed by the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and violated Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367 (1988), since the judge precluded the jurors from considering any mitigating evidence unless they all agreed on the existence of a particular circumstance.

Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments during post-conviction hearings as the result of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo which included the comment that he was “going to help’em fry the ni – – er”.

Recently the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office sent a letter to the court suggesting that the entire Third Circuit should disqualify itself from deciding the case of my client. We filed a reply strongly objecting to this absurd request, explaining that the position of opposing counsel was “utterly unfounded and should be rejected.” On March 10 the court rebuked the prosecution, advising that it had failed to follow proper procedure and thus no action would be taken.

Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and I are in this case to win a new and fair trial for Mr. Abu-Jamal. The goal is for our client to be free. Nevertheless, he remains in great danger. If all is lost, he will be executed. Your interest in this struggle for human rights and against the death penalty is appreciated.

Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Congrats To………..

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…….my friend, Hazel Trice Edney, who has been named Editor-in-Chief of the NNPA News Service, which includes BlackPressUSA.com.

Although many sisters have worked as the News Service’s Managing Editor in the 1990s and early 2000s, in terms of power over content, she may be the first woman to serve as the News Service’s EIC in the organization’s 60-plus year history.

I always said Hazel was another Ethel Payne. Now I have proof.  🙂

The Way We (Struggle To) Live In New York City, Circa 2007

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Got this from April Silver.

New York’s Affordable Housing Crisis

By Kevin Powell

Stacy had been subletting an apartment in an expansive complex on the Upper Westside of Manhattan from a family friend for ten-plus years. A product of working-class New York, this arrangement helped to give Stacy’s life a foundation and, for once, she was enjoying the fruits of the Big Apple experience. So you can imagine the shock and awe when Stacy, a single mother who scraped to make ends meet as she raised her son, received a notice from the management of her rent-stabilized building that she would have to vacate unless she were able to shell out $2400 a month in rent, a huge leap from the $900 she was currently paying. Terrified, confused, and sure she would wind up in a shelter or on the streets if she did not react quickly, Stacy, an administrative assistant by profession, sought and found a small apartment for her and her son in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She is thinking of leaving New York City altogether because she feels trapped by her environment; and because over half of her income each year goes to rent. 

Imani is a modestly successful model who supplements her earnings by bartending at exclusive nightclubs. Financially astute, she has been saving her money to purchase a condo here in New York, her adopted hometown-the city Imani would prefer to live in rather than anywhere else in America. And why not? Imani is young, talented, energetic, intellectually curious, and she feels it is here that she can achieve her dreams as an actress, or whatever it is she so desires. But Imani is in crisis mode. For the past several months, the management company of the building where Imani rents (her cousin’s name is on the lease) has been harassing her about her residency, threatening to evict her, refusing to acknowledge that although she has been in this unit for two years, has written every single rent check, from her checking account, that somehow she is suddenly not eligible to rent that unit, with or without her name on the lease. Terrified and confused about the matter, Imani is being forced to go to court to fight for her apartment, and she has no idea what she will do if forced to vacate or pay a substantial rent increase if she wants to keep her living space.

Welcome to the terrordome called the struggle for affordable housing in New York City, circa the early days of the 21st century. I have been living in New York, mostly in Brooklyn, for 17 years and I have heard variations on the stories cited above multiple times, from renters and subletters alike, from New Yorkers of all ethnicities and cultures, all religions and faiths, all educational levels and occupations. Clearly, there is something rotten in Gotham, and it is the fact that millions of New Yorkers, quite literally, cannot afford a place to live. I knew it was a problem as I watched a parade of folks come and go in my neighborhood, in my borough, in my city, the past several years. I knew it was a problem with the loss of massive housing developments like Stuyvesant Town. I knew it was a problem with the recent threat to Starrett City as a mixed income and culturally diverse experiment in affordable housing in New York. There at Starrett City a developer attempted-and failed-to purchase it for a billion dollars or so, with the intention of creating top-dollar luxury apartments on the development’s vacant land. And God only knows what he and his partners planned to do with the tenants already inhabiting the previously built towers. We who are honest know the deal: New York City is propelled by and on the backs of working class and middle class New Yorkers of all persuasions. That was the case in 17th century New Amsterdam, the original name; and that is the case today at this critical juncture in our city’s history. I moved to this great metropolis, from across the river in Jersey City, because I wanted to be in a space where, as a writer and an activist, I could encounter the myriad of people, social classes, sights, sounds, languages, cultures, foods, and attitudes as I could no where else. And I moved here because I knew that in spite of all its big-city problems, that New York is the one place in America where you could walk half a block, turn a corner, go one subway stop, and, without question, feel the heartbeat of what former Mayor David Dinkins called “a gorgeous mosaic” at any given moment. 

But that New York City is being threatened by what could potentially be our worst housing crisis in decades. Like Stacy, more than two million New Yorkers pay over half their income in rent. In just three years (2002 to 2005), the city’s subsidized affordable housing shrunk by 11%. We know that state and federal initiatives like Mitchell-Lama, Section 8, and public housing were specifically created to serve and protect low to moderate-income urban dwellers. And we know that tens of thousands of Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 apartments have been lost; and there lingers a loaded and uncomfortable question about the future of public housing in New York.   

So we have a battle on our hands. We have to ask ourselves what kind of New York do we envision 10 years from now, or by, say, 2030, as Mayor Mike Bloomberg has instructed us to do? Is it a New York City where all New Yorkers can continue to live and coexist to make this metropolis the most magical, the most multicultural, the most multidimensional, and the most multilingual on this planet? Or are we going to sit idly by as New York becomes an oasis mainly for those able to rent or sublease at or above today’s market value for an apartment?

Stacy has already lost her apartment, and Imani may as well. But concerned New Yorkers can help turn the tide in the fight for affordable housing by pressing newly-elected Governor Spitzer to reverse the destructive practices put forth during the Pataki administration which favor landlords over tenants. This means repealing “vacancy decontrol,” preventing displacing rent increases, extending rent regulations to all developments, preserving state-built affordable housing, and enacting legislation that gives tenants and tenant-selected qualified buyers a right of first refusal to purchase buildings put on the market. This means that while we applaud Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to create 94,000 new affordable housing units, and to preserve 71,000 existing ones, we also must move to maintain the nearly 1.5 million housing units at risk if local and state elected officials do not act immediately. This means, too, supporting the efforts of key organizations like the Working Families Party and Housing Here and Now, who are spearheading this latest charge for affordable housing in New York.

And, for sure, it means some of us will have to burrow into our souls and ask ourselves what New York City, our city, will look like if all affordable housing, and its occupants, were slowly but surely to disappear in the coming years and decades?

Kevin Powell, a community organizer and writer based in Brooklyn, New York, is the author of 7 books, including his most recent essay collection, Someday We’ll All Be Free (Soft Skull Press) . He can be reached at kepo1@aol.com .

To learn more about the New York City affordable housing crisis, and to get involved, please visit these websites:

Working Families Party

Housing Here and Now