The POTUS Speaks to Blacks, Foolishness Ensues in The Media

President Barack Obama recently addressed the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C.

Some of the reports of President Obama's recent CBC address painted a picture of what the President said that is very different from what he intended -- and what the fullness of his talk actually conveyed.

This discrepancy is not unique.

For example, I was at the New York Hilton on July 16, 2009, when President Obama spoke to the the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People during its Centennial celebration.

I post his speech below, in full, exactly as it arrived in journalist's hands a couple hours before he stepped to the podium at the New York Hilton on that humid July evening. What gripped me about this address at the time, and which still resonates, is the President's firm grasp of the history of race relations in the US and his nuanced (if also tough) analysis of the mounting barriers to racial and economic equality in America.

Those nuances were not discussed much in the day-after coverage of the President's NAACP address in '09....a dynamic that apparently hasn't improved in the interim.

First, here is a link to a big news story that appeared in the press the very day after The POTUS made this NAACP address in '09....ostensibly written by a "respected journalist" who covered the very same event. Please find another link below, and of course, feel free to search other "live" pieces from this July 2009 address on your own: It truly was a historic speech, in my view.

As the saying goes, You Decide: In this case, read this material -- the links I've provided and the actual speech, below -- then consider whether there might be a bit of a....perception gap between some in the mainstream, Legacy press corps who follow The POTUS, and...the rest of us.

At the same time, in fairness to my colleagues in the MSM press, there were also black outlets that criticized President Obama following that'09 NAACP speech for allegedly having been "condescending."

Oh, and as I was writing this post tonight -- Tuesday, 27 September, 2011 -- I learned that someone yelled out during a talk by President Obama yesterday that he is "the anti-Christ.

At best, blatant disrespect.

At worst?

Some citizens of our great land continue -- three years into his term -- losing their minds over the presence of a black Commander in Chief. Sigh.

So, to the transcript: I recommend you read President Obama's speech first, then click the links I've provided.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the Comments or to ignore, cogitate, seethe, or celebrate in private. I've covered this sort of media shortcoming for a long time -- yes, it has become most tiresome but still: it must be placed into the record, especially since the "media reporters" at what remains of the MSM for the most part ignore diversity gaps in newsrooms.

For now, here's that 2009 speech that President Obama made to the NAACP on its 100th Anniversary.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________________________

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY

July 16, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery

NAACP Centennial

New York, New York

July 16, 2009

It is an honor to be here, in the city where the NAACP was formed, to mark its centennial. What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past one hundred years.

It is a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education; back to an America just a generation past slavery. It was a time when Jim Crow was a way of life; when lynchings were all too common; and when race riots were shaking cities across a segregated land.

From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come – just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action. They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislature.

But they also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people. It would come from people protesting lynching, rallying against violence, and walking instead of taking the bus. It would come from men and women – of every age and faith, race and region – taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; taking seats at Greensboro lunch counters; and registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that they might never return.

Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union. Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies. Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, governors, and Members of Congress serve in places where they might once have been unable to vote. And because ordinary people made the civil rights movement their own, I made a trip to Springfield a couple years ago – where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged – and began the journey that has led me here tonight as the 44^th President of the United States of America.

And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks – we know that too many barriers still remain.

We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else – a gap that’s widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.

We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.

We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.

And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.

These are some of the barriers of our time. They’re very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They’re very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.

But what is required to overcome today’s barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.

The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?

The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.

But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.

On the 45^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.

But we also know that prejudice and discrimination are not even the steepest barriers to opportunity today. The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation’s legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.

These are barriers we are beginning to tear down by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; making housing more affordable; and giving ex-offenders a second chance. These are barriers that we are targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, and through Promise Neighborhoods that build on Geoffrey Canada’s success with the Harlem Children’s Zone; and that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and support to get there.

But our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state, and structure, of the broader economy; an economy fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy built not on a rock, but sand. That is why my administration is working so hard not only to create and save jobs in the short-term, not only to extend unemployment insurance and help for people who have lost their health care, not only to stem this immediate economic crisis, but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will put opportunity within reach not just for African Americans, but for all Americans.

One pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that cuts costs, makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and closes health care disparities in the process. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil, putting people to work upgrading low-income homes, and creating jobs that cannot be outsourced. And another pillar is financial reform with consumer protections to crack down on mortgage fraud and stop predatory lenders from targeting our poor communities.

All these things will make America stronger and more competitive. They will drive innovation, create jobs, and provide families more security. Still, even if we do it all, the African-American community will fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters. In the 21^st century – when so many jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow – a world-class education is a prerequisite for success.

You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob. It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential.

Yet, more than a half century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across this country. African-American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math – an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way on civil rights. Over half of all African-American students are dropping out of school in some places. There are overcrowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children – black, brown, and white alike.

The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country the best education the world has to offer from the cradle through a career.

That is our responsibility as the United States of America. And we, all of us in government, are working to do our part by not only offering more resources, but demanding more reform.

When it comes to higher education, we are making college and advanced training more affordable, and strengthening community colleges that are a gateway to so many with an initiative that will prepare students not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate; an initiative that will help us meet the goal I have set of leading the world in college degrees by 2020.

We are creating a Race to the Top Fund that will reward states and public school districts that adopt 21^st century standards and assessments. And we are creating incentives for states to promote excellent teachers and replace bad ones – because the job of a teacher is too important for us to accept anything but the best.

We should also explore innovative approaches being pursued here in New York City; innovations like Bard High School Early College and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School that are challenging students to complete high school and earn a free associate’s degree or college credit in just four years.

And we should raise the bar when it comes to early learning programs. Today, some early learning programs are excellent. Some are mediocre. And some are wasting what studies show are – by far – a child’s most formative years.

That’s why I have issued a challenge to America’s governors: if you match the success of states like Pennsylvania and develop an effective model for early learning; if you focus reform on standards and results in early learning programs; if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet the highest standards of success – you can compete for an Early Learning Challenge Grant that will help prepare all our children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.

So, these are some of the laws we are passing. These are some of the policies we are enacting. These are some of the ways we are doing our part in government to overcome the inequities, injustices, and barriers that exist in our country.

But all these innovative programs and expanded opportunities will not, in and of themselves, make a difference if each of us, as parents and as community leaders, fail to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children. Government programs alone won’t get our children to the Promised Land. We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.

We have to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands – and don’t you forget that.

To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.

And it means we need to be there for our neighbor’s son or daughter, and return to the day when we parents let each other know if we saw a child acting up. That’s the meaning of community. That’s how we can reclaim the strength, the determination, the hopefulness that helped us come as far as we already have.

It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.

So, yes, government must be a force for opportunity. Yes, government must be a force for equality. But ultimately, if we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own destiny, each and every day.

That is what the NAACP is all about. The NAACP was not founded in search of a handout. The NAACP was not founded in search of favors. The NAACP was founded on a firm notion of justice; to cash the promissory note of America that says all our children, all God’s children, deserve a fair chance in the race of life.

It is a simple dream, and yet one that has been denied – one still being denied – to so many Americans. It’s a painful thing, seeing that dream denied. I remember visiting a Chicago school in a rough neighborhood as a community organizer, and thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope, despite being born into poverty, despite being delivered into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were already facing.

And I remember the principal of the school telling me that soon all of that would begin to change; that soon, the laughter in their eyes would begin to fade; that soon, something would shut off inside, as it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass – not because they weren’t smart enough, not because they weren’t talented enough, but because, by accident of birth, they didn’t have a fair chance in life.

So, I know what can happen to a child who doesn’t have that chance. But I also know what can happen to a child who does. I was raised by a single mother. I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong. Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life.

The same story holds for Michelle. The same story holds for so many of you. And I want all the other Barack Obamas out there, and all the other Michelle Obamas out there, to have that same chance – the chance that my mother gave me; that my education gave me; that the United States of America gave me. That is how our union will be perfected and our economy rebuilt. That is how America will move forward in the next one hundred years.

And we will move forward. This I know – for I know how far we have come. Last week, in Ghana, Michelle and I took Malia and Sasha to Cape Coast Castle, where captives were once imprisoned before being auctioned; where, across an ocean, so much of the African-American experience began. There, reflecting on the dungeon beneath the castle church, I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities on the voyage from slavery to freedom.

But I was also reminded of something else. I was reminded that no matter how bitter the rod or how stony the road, we have persevered. We have not faltered, nor have we grown weary. As Americans, we have demanded, strived for, and shaped a better destiny.

That is what we are called to do once more. It will not be easy. It will take time. Doubts may rise and hopes recede.

But if John Lewis could brave Billy clubs to cross a bridge, then I know young people today can do their part to lift up our communities.

If Emmet Till’s uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families.

If three civil rights workers in Mississippi – black and white, Christian and Jew, city-born and country-bred – could lay down their lives in freedom’s cause, I know we can come together to face down the challenges of our own time. We can fix our schools, heal our sick, and rescue our youth from violence and despair.

One hundred years from now, on the 200^th anniversary of the NAACP, let it be said that this generation did its part; that we too ran the race; that full of the faith that our dark past has taught us, full of the hope that the present has brought us, we faced, in our own lives and all across this nation, the rising sun of a new day begun. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

It was in this America where an Atlanta scholar named W.E.B. Du Bois, a man of towering intellect and a fierce passion for justice, sparked what became known as the Niagara movement; where reformers united, not by color but cause; and where an association was born that would, as its charter says, promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the United States.

From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come – just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action. They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislature.

But they also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people. It would come from people protesting lynching, rallying against violence, and walking instead of taking the bus. It would come from men and women – of every age and faith, race and region – taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; taking seats at Greensboro lunch counters; and registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that they might never return.

Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union. Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies. Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, governors, and Members of Congress serve in places where they might once have been unable to vote. And because ordinary people made the civil rights movement their own, I made a trip to Springfield a couple years ago – where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged – and began the journey that has led me here tonight as the 44^th President of the United States of America.

And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks – we know that too many barriers still remain.

We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else – a gap that’s widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.

We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.

We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.

And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.

These are some of the barriers of our time. They’re very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They’re very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.

But what is required to overcome today’s barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.

The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?

The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.

But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.

On the 45^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.

But we also know that prejudice and discrimination are not even the steepest barriers to opportunity today. The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation’s legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.

These are barriers we are beginning to tear down by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; making housing more affordable; and giving ex-offenders a second chance. These are barriers that we are targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, and through Promise Neighborhoods that build on Geoffrey Canada’s success with the Harlem Children’s Zone; and that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and support to get there.

But our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state, and structure, of the broader economy; an economy fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy built not on a rock, but sand. That is why my administration is working so hard not only to create and save jobs in the short-term, not only to extend unemployment insurance and help for people who have lost their health care, not only to stem this immediate economic crisis, but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will put opportunity within reach not just for African Americans, but for all Americans.

One pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that cuts costs, makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and closes health care disparities in the process. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil, putting people to work upgrading low-income homes, and creating jobs that cannot be outsourced. And another pillar is financial reform with consumer protections to crack down on mortgage fraud and stop predatory lenders from targeting our poor communities.

All these things will make America stronger and more competitive. They will drive innovation, create jobs, and provide families more security. Still, even if we do it all, the African-American community will fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters. In the 21^st century – when so many jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow – a world-class education is a prerequisite for success.

You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob. It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential.

Yet, more than a half century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across this country. African-American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math – an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way on civil rights. Over half of all African-American students are dropping out of school in some places. There are overcrowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children – black, brown, and white alike.

The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country the best education the world has to offer from the cradle through a career.

That is our responsibility as the United States of America. And we, all of us in government, are working to do our part by not only offering more resources, but demanding more reform.

When it comes to higher education, we are making college and advanced training more affordable, and strengthening community colleges that are a gateway to so many with an initiative that will prepare students not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate; an initiative that will help us meet the goal I have set of leading the world in college degrees by 2020.

We are creating a Race to the Top Fund that will reward states and public school districts that adopt 21^st century standards and assessments. And we are creating incentives for states to promote excellent teachers and replace bad ones – because the job of a teacher is too important for us to accept anything but the best.

We should also explore innovative approaches being pursued here in New York City; innovations like Bard High School Early College and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School that are challenging students to complete high school and earn a free associate’s degree or college credit in just four years.

And we should raise the bar when it comes to early learning programs. Today, some early learning programs are excellent. Some are mediocre. And some are wasting what studies show are – by far – a child’s most formative years.

That’s why I have issued a challenge to America’s governors: if you match the success of states like Pennsylvania and develop an effective model for early learning; if you focus reform on standards and results in early learning programs; if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet the highest standards of success – you can compete for an Early Learning Challenge Grant that will help prepare all our children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.

So, these are some of the laws we are passing. These are some of the policies we are enacting. These are some of the ways we are doing our part in government to overcome the inequities, injustices, and barriers that exist in our country.

But all these innovative programs and expanded opportunities will not, in and of themselves, make a difference if each of us, as parents and as community leaders, fail to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children. Government programs alone won’t get our children to the Promised Land. We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.

We have to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands – and don’t you forget that.

To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.

And it means we need to be there for our neighbor’s son or daughter, and return to the day when we parents let each other know if we saw a child acting up. That’s the meaning of community. That’s how we can reclaim the strength, the determination, the hopefulness that helped us come as far as we already have.

It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.

So, yes, government must be a force for opportunity. Yes, government must be a force for equality. But ultimately, if we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own destiny, each and every day.

That is what the NAACP is all about. The NAACP was not founded in search of a handout. The NAACP was not founded in search of favors. The NAACP was founded on a firm notion of justice; to cash the promissory note of America that says all our children, all God’s children, deserve a fair chance in the race of life.

It is a simple dream, and yet one that has been denied – one still being denied – to so many Americans. It’s a painful thing, seeing that dream denied. I remember visiting a Chicago school in a rough neighborhood as a community organizer, and thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope, despite being born into poverty, despite being delivered into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were already facing.

And I remember the principal of the school telling me that soon all of that would begin to change; that soon, the laughter in their eyes would begin to fade; that soon, something would shut off inside, as it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass – not because they weren’t smart enough, not because they weren’t talented enough, but because, by accident of birth, they didn’t have a fair chance in life.

So, I know what can happen to a child who doesn’t have that chance. But I also know what can happen to a child who does. I was raised by a single mother. I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong. Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life.

The same story holds for Michelle. The same story holds for so many of you. And I want all the other Barack Obamas out there, and all the other Michelle Obamas out there, to have that same chance – the chance that my mother gave me; that my education gave me; that the United States of America gave me. That is how our union will be perfected and our economy rebuilt. That is how America will move forward in the next one hundred years.

And we will move forward. This I know – for I know how far we have come. Last week, in Ghana, Michelle and I took Malia and Sasha to Cape Coast Castle, where captives were once imprisoned before being auctioned; where, across an ocean, so much of the African-American experience began. There, reflecting on the dungeon beneath the castle church, I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities on the voyage from slavery to freedom.

But I was also reminded of something else. I was reminded that no matter how bitter the rod or how stony the road, we have persevered. We have not faltered, nor have we grown weary. As Americans, we have demanded, strived for, and shaped a better destiny.

That is what we are called to do once more. It will not be easy. It will take time. Doubts may rise and hopes recede.

But if John Lewis could brave Billy clubs to cross a bridge, then I know young people today can do their part to lift up our communities.

If Emmet Till’s uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families.

If three civil rights workers in Mississippi – black and white, Christian and Jew, city-born and country-bred – could lay down their lives in freedom’s cause, I know we can come together to face down the challenges of our own time. We can fix our schools, heal our sick, and rescue our youth from violence and despair.

One hundred years from now, on the 200^th anniversary of the NAACP, let it be said that this generation did its part; that we too ran the race; that full of the faith that our dark past has taught us, full of the hope that the present has brought us, we faced, in our own lives and all across this nation, the rising sun of a new day begun. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

Six Years in DC: Seven Things I Have Learned

For more than two centuries Washington, DC has left footprints across the globe. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, then, that living here during the past six years has changed my life too, if not my core identity.

I came here from Minnesota in early June 2005, not exactly of my own choice but not exactly reluctantly, either. I was a "trailing spouse," aka The Wife (and 2 Kids) who relocated to suburban DC for the Husband's job....a mere two years after we'd left Boston for St. Paul, for the same reason. In the late spring of 2005, when we alighted at Washington's Reagan National Airport -- while our household goods traveled overland in a big Graebel Moving Company truck -- I also was a veteran Journalist.

I recognized the career advantage of relocating to DC from the Upper Midwest, where I had lived -- and shivered and fretted over my withering work prospects -- for two years with my (now former) husband and our two children.

In St. Paul, I had appreciated the low "friction factor" of life in the Twin Cities -- few traffic jams, affordable real estate, good public schools, low crime rates -- not to mention the calm sensibility of the Lutherans and Methodists who are the Establishment in those parts. I wasn't totally enthralled with the idea of living in the Mid-Atlantic but I was pragmatic enough to understand that nearby DC might be a good place to re-enter the workforce fulltime, following a long child-rearing break.

Yes, well.

Timing may not be everything but it does matter.

The news business had began to contract in earnest in 2006, with national and regional news organizations shedding jobs by the thousands. By 2007 in Washington, DC, two outlets where I received semi-regular work starting in the fall of 2005 —NPR and The Washington Post—began eliminating hundreds of jobs.

That development coincided with the end of my 11 year-long marriage. And just when I sought to re-enter the industry where I had worked for 15 years before stepping out in the late 1990s, the once-reliable stream of jobs slowed to a trickle, then dried up altogether by early 2008. At least it did for me.

On to what I have learned in DC.

1) DC Provides...With Conditions

Given what I've recounted above, I am very fortunate to have "landed on my feet," at least financially. Psychologically, and emotionally, however, the reinvention process has been slower.

In the macro, being in DC has been a mostly blessing. Watching the President and First Lady come into their own, having a decent range of news biz-related work options to explore. Yet living here since '05 also has felt sometimes like a curse— witnessing the death of the news biz, an industry in which I'd worked since college; falling prey to the boundless ambition and delusions of power that grips many "professionals" in the District.

Not trying to be a martyr here, or to say that I am without agency in this (I agreed to marry the now ex, after all; and, with his approval, to step out of what was a thriving career). I'm fortunate to have been able to learn from these mistakes, however dearly the learning came. For example, I now know the value of financial literacy, having learned it the hard way.

But I have also felt frustrated when attempting to gain professional traction in the insular, often maddeningly frivolous culture of DC media and political circles. In micro, this has meant that I often felt like a fish out of water two times over: A laissez faire Californian accustomed to superhighways, wide open spaces, and ease of job mobility, stranded in a thick swamp of rigid professional hierarchy and Beltway Insider status quo. And on top of that, in the upper-middle class Maryland suburb where we had moved in '05 -- the kind of place where Competitive Parenting is the order of the day -- I was by the end of '06 a Stay at Home Mom who suddenly had neither a high powered career, or a husband or a stable dwelling to call my own.

2) Inside the Beltway Values are Different From Yours' and Mine

What are "values" in DC? Depends on which precinct you travel in. I can say that hypocrisy, misogyny and showbiz under-gird much of what happens in the media politics-political operative spaces....and that lots of folks around here just seem to accept it.

For example, a “man” can retain a high-level professional position despite knowledge by many and apparent acceptance by a few that he has abandoned his children, refuses to pay their expenses, mentally and spiritually abuses a former wife -- and I do mean ME -- and receive not an ounce of social or professional condemnation. In DC, a "man" can do such a thing, and still turn up on national political television talk programs, experiencing no social or professional stigma whatsoever.

At the same time, I can't help but get it, the way things are in DC: Every week day, I walk past the Mayflower Hotel (pictured above) on Connecticut Avenue in DC ....and therefore have a hard time taking Elliott Spitzer seriously as the host of a CNN weeknight political talk program. I read the reports about how a DC-based International Monetary Fund executive allegedly attempted to rape a hotel worker in New York. And now, in California, I understand that there is a small army of former Arnold Swarzenegger for Governor supporters who are going public about their sense of "betrayal" following the ex-Governor's admission of infidelity. (This too is a DC story, as Arnold has not kept his presidential yearnings a secret; also, in a terrible kind of historic symmetry, his soon-to-be-ex wife, Maria Shriver, happens to come from a DC political family in which marital infidelity has been a long-running motif.) Perhaps it is my problem, I think, as I sometimes sail past the gilded entrance of the Mayflower Hotel, this naivete or whatever it is that allows you to feel betrayed by hypocrites. Clearly, career success -- and by implication overall Worthiness -- of even the rankest philanderer or deadbeat dad is what matters, right?

If you are thinking this last sounds "very," personal, well there it is. Does that make the question less legitimate?

In Washington, there is a long-standing adage for male politicians, appointees, and high-level professionals: Anything goes -- just don’t get caught with live boy or a dead girl!

A horrible joke. Yes. But in the realms of politics, media and business, men have all the power—even when they haven't earned it or don't deserve it. Even when they come right to the edge of that perverse adage. The recent disclosure by Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC that she was paid 14-times less than her co-host, Joe Scarborough, though they are supposedly equal partners on the popular, DC-centric "Morning Joe" weekday national political talk program is disheartening—but not at all surprising. And throughout the glossy media companies, trade groups, law firms, and private political strategy and communications outfits that are the engine of Washington, DC -- apart from government agencies and contractors, which at least have to hew to the pretense of an HR structure -- men routinely receive much higher pay than women, no matter if their women counterparts are better educated, smarter and more emotionally qualified to lead than they. And among elected officials in these parts...? Well, the file marked Senators and Congressmen Behaving Badly is nearly too large to carry these days, isn't it? (And hat-tip to Gawker.com for bringing us the indelible image of Republican Chris Lee, posing in front a bathroom mirror, shirtless in his surreptitious bid to cheat on his wife; as a language freak, I am eternally grateful for the phrase, "Shirtless Congressman," now handy way to describe the actions of some of these winners.)

Further, women in DC carry the double-burden (as is the case elsewhere in corporate America) of having to manage their children's lives and their own careers, if they choose to stay in the working world. This is not new, or unique to DC.

The double standard as it plays out here makes for an acutely thick air of hypocrisy in DC, given the high degree of "messaging" and national coverage emanating from here that argues for equitable treatment of women in the workplace and in society. Sometimes, the hypocrisy is thicker than the summer humidity that chokes the region in August.

3) One Good Thing I Have Learned in DC

There are exceptions, of course but I have been fortunate to learn that women in DC's shrinking news universe RAWK. Without the women I have been honored to know in DC media, including a few Boldface names at The Post and at NPR, I very likely might have been evicted along with my children, back in '06-'07. You ladies know who you are—thank you. Oh, and ditto for other women friends in media coast to coast, too, who helped me in a multitude of ways between 2005-09 with money, job leads, hard-headed advice, their large hearts, spirits, and patient listening. (And yes, in fairness, many men in media, too, have been supportive during that period. You guys know who you are, too, and thanks!)

4) Integrity? A Precious Thing In DC

Now that I have a bit of perspective -- and breathing room -- I can more calmly assess this odd place. I can safely say that sexism infuses just about every aspect of professional life in DC -- to our collective detriment.

For example, in my case, the personal is acutely political. The ex in my life quite adeptly plays up his Political Journalist bona fides (such as they are, and such as they are enhanced by the fact of his being black) to obtain bigger and better jobs, unlimited by the scheduling and energy-draining challenges of having to daily manage two school-aged children. During the months when I was searching for work, I sometimes wondered how I would fare if I had dumped my kids and marriage, and struck out anew. It could have gone either way....perhaps.

There I would be in a job interview. (I envision a meeting with a Big Shot Media Type in a glass-encased aerie at 400 North Capitol Street in DC, a view of the Capitol Dome over his shoulder as he interviews me.) When Prospective Employer asks, "Do you have family here?", I'd reply, "No, my Mom and siblings are on the West Coast. I am divorced. The kids live here, though, with my former husband. I see them frequently. It was tough at first but we make it work."

In my flip-the-script version, were I the Divorced Parent who did NOT have the kids fulltime, how would the male Media Exec react to the news that I had dumped my marriage and walked out on my children?

Would it glance off his shoulder, a Titleist of job candidate info, rolling down the fairway? Or would he give me the side-eye and, however politely, in the way of DC, thank me for visiting and send me along? Would he think, What kind of woman bails out on her kids?

Of course, I do not know if that is what the ex said to his current media employer -- a flashy upstart news company based in Arlington -- during their courtship last year. But I suspect that had I been a Divorced Mom Journalist seeking to re-enter the media workforce in DC, and shared with my prospective employer the news that I am NOT by my own choice the primary caretaker of my children, it would have been received quite differently than the what the ex experienced when his Old Media job ended early last year, and he set out in DC searching for another news media perch.

Meanwhile, the Schott Foundation (pdf), the Council of Great City Schools, and umpteen other big nonprofits, universities and research groups regularly publish studies and reports showing the stubborn link between black children, absentee fathers, broken homes, and the education and employment gap that bedevils the African-American population in the U.S. My ex is aware of such data, and yet continues to reject all entreaties by me to become more involved in his children's development, in school and in the daily process of their social orientation. Apparently, protecting his children on a daily basis, inoculating them against the stings and uncertainties of growing up, as well as being on hand for the little triumphs and accomplishments that also mark their daily experiences, is less important than being a DC Media maven. That does take a lot of energy -- and a good amount of rationalization.

So I am left to wonder -- What defines "credibility" in DC media circles?

5) The Media and Political Classes Here Are Different From Most Americans -- For Better and Worse

I do not subscribe to the sweeping condemnation (usually leveled by Republican candidates or operatives) that "Washington is the problem." I have been fortunate to meet plenty of wonderfully generous, fun, interesting people during the six years I've lived and worked in and around DC -- along with plenty of jerks, climbers, fakers and assholes. I try to focus on those who believe in democracy and who truly are working hard to make our nation a more equitable, compassionate place.

But it also is true that in these environs you will find a high degree of ambition, power-mongering and back-stabbing, particularly in media, political consulting and in lobbying circles. I am confident that this kind of behavior—some of which I have personally witnessed or otherwise been privy to—may be confined to a small slice of those who work in those circles. As ever, I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt and to meet them where they live (or work). Yet the Bad Actors in these spaces tend to suck up all the oxygen, distracting everyone else from the important ground-work that needs to be done.

I have been back- and front-stabbed a time or two, yes. But I am a big girl. And I sleep very well at night, thank you very much, largely because I refuse to become a Stabber. This too is a lesson I've learned here: DC seems to draw a certain type of personality that is easily seduced (and deluded) by a perceived proximity to power and by the supposed affirmation that comes from dealing with national politicians or media "stars" on a regular basis—this I know first-hand, and sadly, so do my children.

6) Another Very Good Lesson: Being on Hand When Barack Hussein Obama Became President

I am mostly happy to have had a "DC experience" during the period in which Barack Obama became president. I do not care if you think it sounds corny: I stop and wave when the POTUS' motorcade steams down Connecticut Avenue. I pore over the White House website -- bypassing the filter of the news orgs, sorry, my colleagues! -- to observe what goes on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (or what gets released, anyway.) The POTUS and The FLOTUS are exceptional leaders, and as recent events in the international arena have demonstrated, President Obama is a masterful diplomat and commander in chief. I do want his Administration to turn the same kind of laser-focus that it showed in taking out Osama bin Laden toward taking down the income inequality, racial injustice and such that drags on American progress. I do not think that the Administration's relative slowness in this, however, is as harmful as the previous Administration's duplicity and uncanny ability to nurture high-level hypocrites.

I've also finally stopped fighting and learned to accept and decipher (if not appreciate!) DC euphemisms like "...[Fill in the Blank] was thrown under the bus," and, "...at the end of the day," and "thought leaders." Oh yes, these phrases are annoying and pretentious yet I recognize them for what they also are—tools of the trade in these parts. Boston and San Francisco, too, have their own lingua franca, and God knows Minnesota does!

It is just that, to those who live outside the Beltway, DC-speak tends to be condemned as linguistic evidence of all that is "wrong with Washington." Perhaps with good reason.

7) In Conclusion: You Know That "Washington is the Problem" Message-point That Politicians Toss Around?

I can assure you that Republican political operatives are not alone in singing that tune. The Georgetown and K Street communications and political strategists who cater to corporate entities, left and right political groups or parties; to foreign governments, and really, to anyone with a checkbook fat enough to pay them, are quite adept at pulling, twisting and turning that idea to fit the client's need. It is, perversely, a magnificent thing to behold, the gamesmanship and reality-bending that occurs in the name of "controlling the narrative."

Poor old professional DC. Its wealth of idealists, corporate climbers, policy wonks, moneychangers, overachieving Do-gooders, strivers and of course world class hypocrites makes it a lovely scapegoat for whatever ails you.

Yet and still....

I have learned that egalitarian spirit and great ideas do exist here, and that they can flourish, at times, and send good things far and wide. All one has to do is look beyond the flashy jockeying, the posing and whatnot. It requires determination and solid values that likely formed before you arrived in the nation's capitol.

But do it.

Ignore the "Gotcha" impulse, squint and you can pick it out, there beyond the filigree that obscures the beauty of our Constitution. It does exist in DC -- substance over style, reality over showbiz.

Opting Out of the Noise Machine

Oh, we had a grand time Restoring Sanity yesterday in Washington, D.C.!

Even if we couldn't see the main stage or hear very well from our perch on the sun-drenched steps of the National Gallery of Art....

It was swell simply to be in the crowd of so many people who apparently agree with Jon Stewart's concern that our political discourse has gotten way out of hand. Actually, what Stewart said at the end of the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear is that Americans might want to turn off the Noise Machines (that would be your cable TV political programs, and by extension, the blogs and talk radio programming too), as the invective and whatnot in these venues tends to poison your soul.

Or, as Stewart put it, the Conflictinator is not our friend.

Well, that is not exactly a revolutionary idea (although I do relish Stewart's new word, "Conflictinator:" it perfectly encapsulates the endless stream of hot air and manufactured conflict that swirls around us at a stronger and faster pace by the second.) Yet, frankly, I detected skosh of hypocropiety in Stewart's closing speech, if I may say so.

I mean, think of it: Stewart, Colbert and the rest of the merry band of Comedy Central Political Satirists create as much heat as any political pundit currently befouling our TV machines nationwide. Same time, though, Stewart and Colbert deserve props for at least attempting to bring a measure of LIGHT along with the heat. And that is valuable indeed during these tense, dark times.

All in all, it was a good day; I am glad that I was there.

Now, how long will this warm glow last?

Photos: Amy Alexander

On Ginni-Gate: How Did The Call Happen?

My, my, my, so many questions around this Virginia Thomas Calls Anita Hill situation.

First, the most obvious -- How did Virginia Lamp Thomas decide to call Anita Hill and ask for an apology? Why was October 9, 2010 -- a Saturday morning, at approximately one hour past sunrise -- the right moment to place the call?

More disturbingly, What did Clarence (the Wronged Husband, in Ginni's mind) know, and when did he know it?

Ah, the mind reels.


Over at The Black Snob, Danielle Belton asks questions in a context that is even more pertinent -- the daily give and take between Clarence and Ginni, and what peculiar aspects of their.....relationship might have led up to the moment when Ginny grabbed that phone in her daintly "little" hand, and dialed Professor Anita Hill's line at Brandeis.

The Snob asked:


What brought this up? Do [Clarence and Ginni] just re-enact the hearings once a week to get...all riled up all over again? Does he give the high tech lynching speech before blessing dinner?


This line of questioning creates Domestic Scenarios that are too terrible to contemplate.

But contemplate them we must.

I surmise that it went a little something like this:

The night before The Call, Clarence and Ginni return from their usual Friday night Spot, the "VIP" dining room at Bennigan's in McLean, Virginia. As usual, a rip-roaring time was had by all -- they'd dined with Dick and Lynne
Cheney. They enjoy these Friday get-togethers at this Spot because that is Cattleman's Buffet Night.

So the Menfolk polished off a rack o' Southern Smoked Ribs, four pitchers of Miller (Lite), a half-dozen baked potatoes. (Dick passed on the butter and sour cream owing to that heart situation -- Danged arteries just won't stay unclogged!) The Wimminfolk had enjoyed their Endless Shrimp Special and broccoli, washed down with the best of AmRhein Wineries new Chardonneys -- none of that sissified California wines for Ginni and Lynne, oh no oh-oh! They drank only labels from Virginia wineries, the more Teutonic-sounding the better.

Lynne had cut herself off after that second bottle but Ginni -- ah Ginni was on a roll! Regaling them with stories from her recent whiste-stop tour on the Tea Party trail, and before anyone knew it, there were FOUR empty bottles of AmRhein on the table!

They parted company just after the Witching Hour: the Bennigan's manager usually let them stay as long as they wanted, but Dick was lookin' a bit peaked, and Ginni had wobbled a bit when she made her last trip to the Ladies' room. As Dick and Lynne ducked into the backseat of their stealth-sedan (driven by Twin Towering SS men in dark shades and ear-pieces. Yes, the shades stayed on, even at night) Ginni hugged Lynne and whispered sloshily, "Next time I visit the Tea Parties up in New England, you should come with me! They really do it up over there in Massa-SHOOT-ches.... though you'd never guess from how the Lamestream media fawns all over that prissy little Governor Patrick."

The two women cackled, and bid each other adieu.

In their Ford Expedition on the way home, Clarence asked what she and Lynne had been giggling about there at the Cheney's invisible car.

Ginni: "Oh, I was just trying to entice her to come with me next time I visit the Tea Partiers in New England. I swan, everytime I go up there, I feel like I have to watch my back....all those Eggheads and over-entitled bloggers running around, it can be exhausting....."

Clarence: "Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck, now there there Sugarfoot. No one in their right mind would try to roll on you....not anyone with any sense, I should say. I mean, I can think of ONE person in New England who probably would give you face full of buckshot, if she got the chance....."

Ginni, slumping against the passenger-side door: "Oh crap, not again with this....!"

Clarence: "Hey, you know what I'm saying, and you know its true! Bitch set me up! And you always act like it was 'OK," her lying like that on me. Gettin up in front of the Confirmation Committee and LYING ON ME."

Ginni: "Whoa, keep your eyes on the road, you nearly took out the Ridge's mailbox again!"

Clarence: "Well, all I'm saying is -- if you really, really, truly and one hundred thousand percent LOVED ME, you would not stand for it. You would not let her continue to exist in comfort and security, minding her own business as if she had not nearly torpedoed my DREAM JOB....the job I WORKED MY WHOLE LIFE FOR! The job I EARNED, the best job EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD, WHICH NOBODY BETTA NOT EVER TRY TO TAKE FROM ME, EVER AGAIN!"

The Expedition veered dangerously toward the center line on the dark, back-road leading up to their sequestered estate, and Ginni grabbed the wheel just in the nick of time.

Together, they steered the lumbering vehicle into their own mile-long "driveway." Clarence's hands gripped the wheel tightly, but his breathing was returning to normal.

Ginni: "Clarence...I'm so sorry. Its okay, I got it. Baby, it is OK. Don't you worry, my Big Man. You are right. I get it I get it I get it....."

Clarence: "Not the first time I've heard that, Ginni......"

Ginni: "Well then hear this -- I GET IT, Clarence. And you best believe me when I say this right now: Mama's GOT THIS."

The next morning, Ginni tip-toed out of their bedroom at sunrise.

She had cotton mouth -- effing Chardonnay did it every time! -- but it was nothing a big tumbler of water and even bigger cup of bitter black coffee couldn't fix.

She padded downstairs, paSSED the portraits of John Birch and Strom Thurman hanging in the foyer.

She went to her office next to the kitchen, fired up the Carly Fiorina Type-and-Search-Machine, and got busy.........

New Populations, New Challenges = A Call for New Language

Did I mention that I admire The Nation?

Not just because I am affiliated with it, but also because Cooler Heads tend to prevail at the Nation, a venerable publication. Yes, Cooler Heads, even within the context of partisan political coverage. And when I say "venerable," I mean an American mass-market journal of political news and information that has published continually since 1864...all the while on the side of the angels.

I have never met Isabel Macdonald, the Nation Institute-funded writer who delivered the story that unmasks our most recent high profile Hypocrite -- oh, there have been so many in recent years, on the left and right of the political spectrum -- but she has captured an important thread that has been floating around in the zeitgeist lately, just beyond reach: The human failings that can exist in anyone, and which too many alleged "leaders" try to hide, even as they condemn in public anyone else who shows the same failings.

And so, given Isabel's trenchant story in the current issue of the weekly Nation, and considering other related developments during the past few weeks in the realm of American cultural politics, I have been inspired to come up with a new word:

Hypocropiety.

Noun, describes one who vociferously invokes religion or national affiliation to criticize in public a movement, idea, or development while privately engaging in the behavior being criticized.

Pronunciation: Hy-poc-ro-pah-i-ety.

Origin: Me, October 7, 2010.

Related Forms:

Hyp·o·crit·i·cal, (adj.), from Greek, hypocrisis, "one who acts on the stage, pretense."

hyp·o·crit·i·cal·ly, (adv.)

su·per·hyp·o·crite, (n.)

un·hyp·o·crit·i·cal, (adj.)

un·hyp·o·crit·i·cal·ly,(adv.)

Pious: from Latin, pietas, one who respected his responsibilities to other people, gods and entities (such as the state), and understood his place in society with respect to others. In the Roman, "the love a son should have for the father."


Hypocropiety, related definitions:

1) Reverence for God or nation, devout fulfillment of religious or nativastic obligations: a prayer, admonishment or pledge full of piety, masking deceit.

2) The quality or state of being pious: saintly or patriotic piety as facade.

3) Dutiful respect or regard for parents, homeland, etc., stated: filial, terrestrial, religious piety as facade.

4) A pious act, remark, belief, action, or the like, furthering the external perception of the devotion and sacrifices of an austere life.

Use:

"Former CNN news anchor Lou Dobbs hired undocumented immigrant workers at his multi-million dollar estates, even as he regularly appeared on a national television program denouncing as 'unpatriotic" undocumented illegal workers and those who employed them."

Synonym, n., Bishop Eddie Long.

BrownTwitterBird Speaks....Er,.... Tweets!

Oh, it was tempting to nest all weekend, snuggled in, enjoying the blessedly cool and tornado free weather. Hasn't this summer been some kinda hot mess? I will tweet you what: BrownTwitterBird and my two BabyBrownTwitterBirds are about through with PEEPCO. I mean seriously. How is a body supposed to keep it together when the lights and A/C are crapping out every five seconds? The Biblical rainstorms and gale force winds we can handle -- BTB has personally clocked mad miles over the years, migrating from the West Coast to the Southeast to the Northeast to the Midwest....Chile, my little wings go all a'trembly at the thought of all that flying....

So we do enjoy a quiet, drama-free weekend now and again. But the sanctity of our humble Silver Spring branch was nearly shattered yesterday morning, after one the BabyBrownTwitters plopped the Sunday New York Times into the nest. Usually I do enjoy the Sunday Times, oh how we greedily pore over the wedding listings and twitter delightedly at all the rich folks from Harvard, and Yale, and Brandeis getting hitched by their Uncle Jasper who went and got ordained by the Universalists through the mail just so he could be the one to sanctify little Madison Brockton's and Kim Yoon's holy matrimony!

We love, abso-tweetly-LUV young love, especially when it is made legal at the Penobscot Bay-side retreat that was bought by the great-great-great-great-great-great GrandPa of little Miss Establishment!

Anytweet, after I made the rounds of the A-section, the Style section, and Book Review -- BTB cannot live without a good poring over the Letters section of Book Review, where tout le monde effete NY literary types meet to scratch and claw at each other like peregrine falcolns perched atop the Dakota -- I moved on to the shredding phase of my Sunday Times ritual. (BTB is all about the recycling, and, lucky me, those thoughtful, forward-thinking Timesfolk really do provide the best acid-free, no-ink-on-your-feathers paper evah, most excellent for reinforcing our humble nest.

But as I tore through the Week in Review section, carefully shredding each page into the quarter-inch wide strips that BTB prefers, what do these pinprick black eyes catch sight of?

Maureen Dowd, telling that cute, pudgy Robert Gibbs that he needs to resign. I mean, really? Hold the feed -- Seriously, Maureen?

BTB would like to know when newspaper Columnists got so thin-skinned? Or, for that matter, while we are at it, why Maureen and her ilk in the blogosphere and on the TV machine are so vigorously pooping in the punchbowl of the POTUS over his supposed lack of "progressive" policies?

Around here, we keep a clean nest, Honey.

And let me tweet you what: Unless you are hatching some kind of brilliantly diabolical plan to clip the wings of the POTUS so cleanly and mercilessly that he cannot possibly win another term, so that Sarah Palin can take over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue....so that you and your ilk can again return to the High Dudgeon of complaining about the bird-brain Republicans who next time around will most assuredly succeed in their evil mission to ruin this country, well, I respectfully suggest you chill out. We know from bird-brains and the POTUS is not among them.

As is? At this point? The finger- and tongue-wagging is most unbecoming, and tiresome. BTB doesn't have fingers to wag and puffed-up feathers don't actually wag with emphasis, so alright you've got me, there was a tiny bit of Green-eyed Monster in that comment, I have to admit.

But I say this with affection, Maureen. Most times, I do enjoy your scratchings. Why, I even agreed with you a few weeks ago, when you said the POTUS might want to dump some of those smug white guy advisers and those La-Di-Dah Brattle Street blacks who fill up his aide ranks, and go hire some salt-of-the-earth Regular Folk (black or white, truth be told), who know their way around a Crow's Nest, and I do mean that gamey dive up in Gloucester, Mass., where all those hearty Lobsta-People used to hang out. Really, it would be so tweet indeed for the POTUS to get some hard-headed advice from a smart, grounded adviser who hasn't yet been puffed up by The Importance of Being a Political Insider. BTB found it amusing, then, that you caught so much hell for writing that, but personally? I think it was gutsy and spot on -- even if you did cadge the idea from the sage of the Lower House, Jimmy "Wise Owl" Clyburn.

That cute little Robert Gibbs called out the "Professional Left" -- to which I tweet, And, what? He was as right as rain, and honestly, Maureen, it might help if you flapped over to the real world once in while, to see how most folks are faring these days. Not just to Northern California, where BTB has noticed you spend a suspiciously large amount of time and seem to take particular glee in flitting around with the likes of Phil Bronstein and Gavin Newsom, aka, the Oily Twins of San Francisco. Really, there are so many more interesting birds to flock with in that corner of our fair land, and in many other cities and towns, too. I mean, your outfit, bless its shrinking heart, does still have a travel budget, right?

And you do know that folks are as varied, mysterious and surprising as a Peacock's jacket under a microscope, yes?

Put on your tough bird panties, and take a spin out of the Beltway perch, why don't you. The "Progressive Left" really needs to get out more, and I mean out where job losses and gun violence and food pantries are not just tweeting-points, they are where folks live....or are trying to, anyway. (Speaking of weddings and gun violence -- BTB pert near dropped her seed when she read about the shoot-out at that wedding in Buffalo, NY, over the weekend. Sure did. And you know -- now THAT is something to fight about, the Gun Lovers who keep insisting it is OK for everyone to be able to go out and buy a gun. Everyone should not be allowed to have a gun, for Tweet's sake, haven't we all seen the former Mrs. Don Draper waving that bb-shotgun around with a cigarette dangling form her lips while she draws down on my cousins? And know what else Maureen and the Progressive Left? If you want to carp at the POTUS over a boutique issue, that is my pick, thank you very much, not your gay marriage or your climate change.)

Off you go now. Time to rustle breakfast for the BBTBs. I'll be looking for an update soon, in my Times, so don't make a BrownTwitterBird have to take off her earrings......

And Don't Call Me Shirley....Though I Do Sport a Nice Set of NAACP-Ben Jealous Tire Marks on My Back

Surely you don't think that Mrs. Shirley Sherrod is the first black woman to be thrown under the Escalade by NAACP President and CEO Ben Todd Jealous?

As Princeton professor Melissa Harris Lacewell quite succinctly put it, "the villification of black women for sport and political gain" is as old as our republic. But the most upsetting aspect of L'Affair Sherrod, Harris-Lacewell said during an interview on MSNBC last week, is that it exposed the NAACP as being a part of this historic mistreatment of black women. Moreover, "To say [Sherrod's] last name alone should have prompted, for the head of the NAACP, an immediate moment of pausing," Harris-Lacewell said, referring to Jealous' quick decision to "denounce" Sherrod for a fake-ass "reverse racism" speech that a right-wing blogger put out.

Yes, well.

If this were a motion picture, right here the soundtrack would swell with cascading string instruments, that universal sound of an approaching Flashback.......

I first met Benjamin T. Jealous in early May 2009.

We sat down in a back booth at Chipotle on Ellsworth Drive, in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.

A mutual friend had connected us, though in Washington D.C. lingo, "friend" can mean a Pro contact, a Source, or an Associate. Got it?

Anyway:

I needed a job. Ideally one that didn't involve writing for dubious Websites or PR firms that flak for guns, booze, or the GOP.

Ben needed a Real Journalist...or so he said.

As he laid it out between the big bites of tortilla something or other and soda pop that he consumed, the NAACP was planning an Investigative Unit. In his description, this was to be a collection of staffers and volunteers throughout the association's 1,200 or so branches and chapters nationwide. The plan was to set up "investigative units" -- folks trained in the fundamentals of good old-fashioned journalism, and armed with cameras, and Internet-access -- to report on developments in their jurisdictions.

The units would be directed by a Communications manager in D.C. or Baltimore, and the "content" delivered by the units would be produced at the NAACP's soon to be redesigned main website. The Communications manager of the unit would report to the association's communications chief, based in D.C. Because I had done award-winning work in "legacy" and digital media -- at big newspapers, magazines; in broadcast journalism, including at NPR, and on the Web -- in addition to having written nonfiction books about Serious Black Stuff, whew, right? -- I was the right person for the Manager of Web Content and Special Investigations job, Jealous said.

I sipped water, and watched him from across the table. (I was too broke to buy a meal; he had offered, but I declined.) We seemed to be simpatico: He grew up in Northern California, in Monterey, a hop skip down the coast from where I grew up, in San Francisco. He had worked in newspapers, the African-American press, as a journeyman reporter and then as head of an association of black newspapers. A decade younger than I am, Ben Jealous seemed familiar to me -- passionate about improving the conditions of black Americans, and about social justice in general. "Light-skinned bourgeoise," is how one friend of mine, a black British journalist who knew Jealous socially, would later refer to Jealous and other members of his inner-circle.

But at our first meeting, I mostly saw a youngish brother who apparently wanted to bring the nation's oldest civil rights organization into the 21st Century. Sure, he seemed a bit green -- he stumbled over words from time to time, with the odd hard consonant getting stuck in his throat -- but I heard a sharp intellect there, too.

"With all this new digital technology, and given our networks across the nation, we have a great opportunity to take civil rights work to a new level," Jealous said, referring to the prospect of activating NAACP members to serve as "eyewitness reporters" in their own communities. I said I believed I could help. (And I meant it.) We also talked about mutual acquaintances in the shrinking world of major media, and our respective families. Jealous has a lovely wife and an adorable toddler daughter; I have two elementary school aged children, a great family in San Francisco....and a problematic former husband in D.C.

Jealous said he would connect me to the Vice President of Communications at the NAACP's office in D.C. (which I learned is called the "Washington Bureau.)


I-Teams? What I-Teams?

That is how I came to be the Voice of Ben Jealous for much of the summer of 2009. Not the head of the "I-unit" -- which, I soon learned, was being "temporarily" tabled -- but the writer of Jealous' op-eds, and of the Official Statements, and Press Releases for the association. But mostly, between June and August of last summer, I masqueraded as Jealous in the pages of The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, CNN.com, and on several other high-traffic websites. (Check out these enclosed links -- they take you to columns by "Ben Jealous," all reported and written by yours' truly.)

That NAACP Communications chief that Jealous hooked me up with? Oy gevalt. A truly Vampiric black woman in her late 50s. You know the type -- utterly in denial about the fading of their formerly femme fatale physique yet still committed to thigh-high skirts and Tx3s -- Too Tight Tops. In Vampira's case, sometimes on special occasions, she augmented this look with 5-inch high heels.....Lucite, see-through heels. That's right, just like those that some hookers and sex-workers delight in.

On my first day at the "Washington Bureau" of the association, Vampira essentially turned me into Ben's mouthpiece, saying she needed "help" writing. Was Ben aware that I was not, in fact, working on building the I-team that he had described at our first meeting? Good question. Wish I had the answer. Vampira said that my writing skills were needed to "help out, just for now," on a couple of campaigns that the NAACP was ramping up: Save Troy Davis (a black man on Death Row in Georgia), and advancing the big 100th Anniversary Convention of the NAACP, scheduled for the second week of July 2009.

Why not?, was my initial response, not only because I am a Team Player but also because my spider senses told me that Vampira and Jealous had a co-dependent relationship, i.e., she served his insatiable need to be in the national spotlight, and he saw to it that the association pays Vampira a tidy six figure salary. Oh, I almost forgot to mention: In short order, after I arrived to work in the association's D.C. office on NW 15th Street in early June 2009, I realized that Ben Jealous has this....thing about being in the Limelight. Yes, sadly, that is (or at least it WAS at that time) the association's entire Communications Strategy -- Get Ben in the National Press. I was new to this kind of Communications work -- which Vampira referred to as "the Dark Side" -- but the intense focus on getting Ben into the press struck me as.....extreme.

For example, not long after I started work, Ben Jealous appeared as a panelist on HBO's "Real Time, with Bill Maher." He turned up in Maher's Southern Cal studio on June 12, 2009, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan for the NAACP's "Save Troy Davis" campaign, it read "IAMTROYDAVIS.com." (Yeah, you want snappy messaging? ColorOfChange.org this ain't.) Troy Davis is a black man convicted several years ago of the shooting death of a white policeman in Georgia, and the NAACP had joined forces with Amnesty International and a few other human rights organizations to try to get a new trial for Davis. I won't go into the complicated and, frankly, ambiguous details of the Davis case here. But I will say that I dug in on writing op-ed after op-ed in support of this effort largely because I do believe America's criminal justice system often unfairly locks up black men.

Is Troy Davis truly innocent? You got me. And, as I sat in on phone calls with Vampira, the association's legal partners, and activists in Georgia, it eventually became clear to me that the NAACP couldn't be entirely positive, either, that Davis was innocent.

But that is the thing about the New Generation NAACP as I witnessed it last summer under Ben Jealous' leadership: Details are for Old Schoolers! Gray-beards who just don't get it! Deep thinking, homework, rigorous study and research takes time, is unglamorous, and usually is not captured by cable and network news cameras. And here is another problem, given the wacked-out Communications Strategy I describe above: Jealous rejected -- according to Vampira -- every opportunity to improve his on-camera performance skills. Yeah, I know -- paradoxically crazy, right?


"What're You Gonna Do?"

Because what I saw during Jealous' turn at Maher's desk in June 2009 was a handsome, passionate, articulate black man.....who has a speech impediment.

Yes, there it is, I said it.

And while it is inherently a minor thing, which millions of people world-wide experience, for Ben Jealous, it is emblematic of a larger issue, i.e., his out-sized ego and the high degree to which he is coddled by Vampira and a retinue of flunkies, sychopants, and hangers-on within and without the association.

More to the point, Jealous' unwillingness to accept expert help to overcome his stuttering is also symbolically resonant of the current state of the NAACP -- so close to the edge of greatness, yet so unable to pull back from the Olde Time Patriarchy that self-destructs on its best intentions every single time. (Remember Ben Chavis as NAACP president during the early '90s? I do, since I covered his downfall for The Miami Herald. Then there was Kweisi Mfume, who..... oh Mercy. Ben Jealous, to my knowledge, has not used association funds to pay off Women Not His Wife to keep them quiet about sexual liaisons. But the cult of President-and-CEO Hero Worship is, sadly, alive and well at the NAACP.

The association's late-breaking forays into social media and "coalition-building" with human rights organizations is mostly window-dressing. The installation several months ago of Roslyn Brock as Chairman of the NAACP may be a glimmer of hope for true progress. Still, that is not a lock. I mean, Ros is relatively young, and yes, she says she is New Jack and wants to bring the association squarely into the 21st Century.

But she is also quite Establishment, which is to say an NAACP Baby, which, in turn, is to say that Brock might be ill-equipped to kick the ass of Ben Jealous -- or at least push him away from the cameras, and pull forward the faithful Worker Bees who toil in the depths of the association. During my time there, I met some of the hardest-working, dedicated and Righteous folks I have ever known. There are a whole bunch of Shirley Sherrods working at the En-Double-A who are probably royally ticked off right about now. Because, you know? They believe in the mission....and they want (and deserve) Brave,Visionary Leadership that doesn't behave as if black women are expendable.

But, returning to how I got some Shirley Sherrod-style tire marks on my back thanks to Ben Jealous: Okay, when I walked into Vampira's office the Monday after Jealous' embarrassing turn on Maher and asked if Jealous had ever had intensive media training, this is what Vampira said:

"You're right, he doesn't do well on live television AT ALL, and I've suggested we get someone in here to help him with it. But he doesn't want to. So what're you gonna do?"

Hand to God, people. "What're you gonna do?" was Vampira's reply.

Also, during my FIRST WEEK ON THE JOB, Vampira told me she believed that Jealous had a certain mental health diagnosis. I won't repeat it here, as I have no way of knowing that what Vampira said is accurate. We were walking back from lunch at Georgia Brown's on 15th Street, when she let it fly. Honestly, I can't remember what precipitated that comment. But when she said it, I stopped walking and looked at her. She began to ramble on about how Jealous' mental health challenges should be considered in the larger context of blacks and mental health care; I assumed she Went There, at least in part, because I am a subject-matter expert on that topic. I didn't ask for details or saying anything except, "Oh. OH."

Over the next several weeks, as the Davis campaign heated up, and the Convention approached, I watched, fascinated, as Vampira and other Communications staffers wrangled Ben Jealous onto national news programs at CNN, PBS, ABC, MSNBC, CBS, and other outlets....where he stumbled and gesticulated his way through interviews about the association's "relevancy," and why this NAACP is not your Grand Pappy's NAACP.

Did the talking points that I wrote for Ben and gave to Vampira ever make it into Jealous' interviews? No. Listen, a key aspect of the enabling/co-dependent relationship between Jealous and Vampira was this: She isolated Jealous from the rest of the Comms team.(Of course, this indicates that he allowed himself to be isolated.) I saw Ben a grand total of three times between when I started work in the DC office and when I left in late summer. (Of course, you saw this coming, right? Vampira pushing me out of the association? T'yeah, sure did, and I still do not get why I didn't see it coming, especially after she inexplicably dropped that "Ben has [mental health diagnosis]" on me in early June....)

Things seriously escalated when I told Vampira that, with the Troy Davis campaign ended -- in July 2009, the US Supreme Court had agreed to consider hearing the case -- and following the close of the 100th Anniversary Convention -- where President Barack Obama had delivered a most excellent speech, and yes, I was glad to have been there -- I fully expected to turn my attention at long last to building the I-units throughout the association's branches and chapters.

You know, silly me -- the job I was hired to do?

But even before that, I knew she was gunning for me -- I'm one of those people who has a hard time making with the Happy Face when I'm in the midst of unethical goings-on and ego-driven, craptastic shenanigans. Later, I learned from other NAACP staff members that Vampira had never intended for me to set up any I-units.

Real Housewives of Atlanta -- NAACP-style

Moreover, with a distinctly COINTELPRO flair, since my first day on the job, Vampira had been methodically bad-mouthing me to other leaders in the NAACP, the Vice Presidents in Baltimore who were closest to Ben Jealous (and likely, she'd bad-mouthed me to Jealous too) even as she assigned me one op-ed after another -- all of which were published. (Did I mention that Vampira cannot write? Well, I should say, she cannot write or think about issues in a way that will truly move the association forward positively. That's where I came in. She was expert, however, at working Ben Jealous.)

And so here it is -- a Real Housewives of Atlanta style set-to that sped my departure from the Nation's Oldest Civil Rights organization. (That is how one of my colleagues, a smart Digital Media guru in California, characterized it when I shared this crazy-assed story with her during a phone talk later that summer: "Girl, that is some 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' bullshit," this colleague said. Which cracked me up, since at the time we were discussing this, I had just watched that program for the first time, agog at its stage-managed depictions of trifling women scrapping over trivial nonsense. Had my scrapes with Vampira looked like that to those who'd been on the scene?

Back to the denouement: On the day before I was scheduled to take the Acela to New York to work at the Convention in mid-July, Vampira phoned me- she was already in NYC -- and said, "Amy, I need you to take a look at the draft of Ben's speech he will give at the Convention -- it really needs work, and this is the sort of thing you're really good at. So please, you know, do your thing....but keep it quiet: Ben will be embarrassed if he finds out that anyone other than ME is helping him with this."

Sure enough, in short order I received Ben's Convention speech as an email attachment from Vampira....followed a couple of hours later by another email from Vampira in which she asked me to bring her business cards to NYC. (She had forgotten to bring them, and they were in her office in D.C.)

I phoned her cell immediately, following her second email asking me to bring her biz cards, to let her know that I had already left the NAACP office in D.C. and that I wouldn't be returning there before I headed up to New York. Therefore, I politely said to her outgoing vmail message, I will not have your biz cards when I arrive at the New York Hilton, but I will do my best to contact the Office Manager, and ask her to send them express.

Okay, apologies for getting into the weeds here, but this is instructive:

Two days into the convention, Vampira rolled up on me in the Press Room at the New York Hilton and actually began loud-talking me .....because I hadn't brought her business cards. Calmly, I reminded her that I had contacted the Office Manager back in DC, and that the cards were on their way. To which she replied, "After this convention, you are DONE. You won't be working for us anymore."

She said this at a near-shout, in a room filled with journalists who had come to the Hilton to cover the 100th Anniversary Convention and President Obama's speech. I told her I was in the midst of helping find press passes for the newcomers, and that I would follow up on finding her business cards as soon as I'd cleared the line of waiting media pros. But I was furious and humiliated -- I am in my mid-40s. I have written books, articles, and produced high-quality journalism for more than two decades, at some of the nation's best outlets, in Old and New Media.

Yet Vampira actually believed that I had taken a job at the NAACP to serve as her op-ed writing minion and business-card carrier. How about that?

When I left the press room at the Hilton following Vampira's freak-out, I immediately found Ben Jealous' personal assistant -- a highly-efficient young black woman, one of two association staffers who mind Jealous' schedule -- and told her that Vampira had, for all intents and purposes, loudly fired me in the middle of the press room. The young assistant sighed, and said, "Why don't you go get lunch, Amy. I will take care of this." Oh, and while I was at it, I also let this assistant know that I had, at Vampira's request, rewritten Jealous' convention speech....and that despite my having turned that assignment around in 24 hours, and returned it to Vampira via email, it had not come up.

Later that afternoon, Vampira phoned my cell and left a message: "I don't know why people are saying that I 'fired you' today in the press room, Amy. But, you know, there is so much going on here now, things are kind of chaotic, I just think everyone needs to do their best to keep things going smoothly, and that we should have a meeting to talk about duties, when we return to D.C. next week." I didn't return that call, and I avoided Vampira for the remainder of the confab.

But on the day, a couple of weeks after the convention closed, when Vampira phoned my cell as I headed home to Montgomery County from the association office on 15th Street in D.C., I had pretty much had enough.

She said, "Come in tomorrow at 9am, we need to have a meeting to talk about your work. "

"Fine," I said, "because, you know, it is time for me to turn my attention to the job I was hired to do...."

Vampira cut me off. "Actually, everyone doesn't always get to DO the same job that maybe they expected to at the time they're hired....given our resources, you should understand that you will do whatever work I feel we need, at any given time. And I AM [your supervisor] here."

Yes, an Al Haig moment. And it pushed me right over the top. "Look, I've been doing ALL of the writing since I came here. I know it, you know it, and everyone else in Comms knows it. Now, I agreed to it initially, because of the Davis campaign and the Convention. But those things are DONE now, and I need to get these reporting units set up....."

The President and CEO Regrets

Well, you can write the rest of this part of the story. Now, of course, at any point during my dealings with Vampira, I could easily have contacted Ben Jealous, in confidence, and shared my concerns about her erratic behavior.

But I did not. I lacked confidence that Jealous would have my back.

So did I have any direct dealings with Ben Jealous after Vampira pushed me out?

He emailed me later in August 2009, after I'd left the association, and said, in essence, Gee Amy, I sure am sorry that things didn't work out. It will be helpful to hear what your experience was like, if you care to share. I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks, but after I return, maybe we can sit down together...

I waited a few days after reading THAT passive-aggressive claptrap, and then wrote back saying, Sure, I'm happy to sit down with you. In the meantime, I will be needing another job really soon, since, you know, I am a divorced mother of two elementary school-aged children. So I will really could use a good reference from you.

And you know what?

I bet you DO know what. Ben Jealous didn't reply to that email.

The Investigative Units were not developed, though the main website did receive a makeover, with a spiffy Ben Jealous blog, and YouTube video snippets from Ben's speeches, and photos of Ben at various events, and links to "Ben's" op-eds......But no real-time content from NAACP "reporters" on the ground.

Fade out. The End.

Except it wasn't, was it?