Anxious Harlem Braces For Election; On Brink Of Potentially Historic Vote, Nation's Symbolic Capital Of Black Culture Remains Tense

Chet Whye has reason to be confident.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/03/national/main4565819.shtml

Harlem4Obama, the grassroots organization he directs, has recruited more than 1,000 volunteers and registered 3,000 voters. It has opened field offices in Pennsylvania and Virginia. And, perhaps most promising, Barack Obama maintains a lead over John McCain in the majority of national polls.


Despite all the favorable signs - and the cake on his desk for his 53rd birthday - Whye is hardly celebrating.

"We’re scared," he says. "It’s really more intense right now."

Traditionally the backyard of Hillary and Bill Clinton, Harlem is now abuzz with Obama fever - and Obama himself has singled out community efforts here as a source for his policy positions. Still, even as the United States may be poised to elect its first African American president, the nation’s epicenter of black culture remains anxious about Obama’s prospects.

The tense mood is palpable in Harlem4Obama’s donated office on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 133rd Street. Whye takes a flurry of calls on his cell phone while coordinating campaign strategy from his laptop. Volunteers phone voters to urge patience at the polling sites. And a hand-written sign hangs in the corner serving as the ultimate cautionary tale: "I Was In New Hampshire."

The sign refers to Obama’s primary defeat to Hillary Clinton. Back in January, the Illinois senator enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls before losing a narrow vote to the New York senator. Whye and volunteer Alima Berkoun recalled a long and dismal drive from New Hampshire back to Harlem.

"That was a wake-up call," said Berkoun, who has lived in Harlem for 13 years. "The next day I was out on 125th Street working even though I was sick."

Perhaps one reason Obama has inspired volunteers in the community is that the Illinois senator has credited Harlem for inspiring one of his presidential platforms. Last year, he singled out the Harlem’s Children Zone, an ambitious and successful anti-poverty effort, as a model for his policy to address the plight of urban America.

"There's no reason this program should stop at the end of those blocks in Harlem. It's time to change the odds for neighborhoods all across America," Obama declared last July. "When I'm President, the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone in 20 cities across the country."

Harlem was not always safe ground for Obama. Once Hillary Clinton’s turf and the home of her husband’s office, the community's support was fractured between the senators from New York and Illinois. Indeed, Hillary Clinton received twice as many votes as Obama in Harlem’s district during the New York Democratic primary in February.

But ten months later, after a lengthy and bitter Democratic race, Harlem’s political leaders and Clinton backers have slowly gotten on board with the Illinois senator. Obama signs now adorn nearly every street corner and many Harlem businesses, including Karrot, an organic health food store on 117th Street.

The store is a hub of passionate political discussion among locals and its owner, Carlos Aguila, is not afraid to display his views. Outside his shop is a chalkboard sign that reads: "The coming retirement of the GOP brand." Inside his store, you can buy his top-selling drink "The Obama" - a concoction of almond milk, peanut butter, chocolate and bananas.

Aguila, 49, says he is emotionally invested in this election for the first time in his life and he believes 99 percent of Harlem will vote for Obama. He cites the nation’s evolving racial makeup (what he calls "the browning of America") as the main reason to be hopeful. Still, Aguila concedes that anxiety and uncertainty hang over Harlem.

"The whole neighborhood feels it. We’re talking about a black man," Aguila says. "If he’s so good, why is [the race] so close?"

Although Harlem has produced iconic black political figures (Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell, to name two), many residents say they do not dwell on race in politics. Whye says that a recent survey mailed out to voters revealed the number one issue among Harlemites is not housing or education or health care - it is political conduct. Accordingly, says Whye, the community's residents not only praise Obama's demeanor and intellect but they also have an emotional attachment to his family.

Even one of the rarest of sights in Harlem - a McCain supporter - agrees. Keisha Morrisey, who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for New York City Council in 2002, acknowledges she's a fan of the Obama clan. "I love the family. I love Michelle and the daughters."


In the final hours before the election, Whye is trying to translate that love into logistics. His office is focused on stationing volunteers at the nearly 200 polling sites in Harlem's 15th district. Meanwhile, volunteers are calling on-the-fence voters in battleground states right up until Tuesday. His biggest priority is preaching patience to the overwhelming number of first-time voters - the ones "Barack pushed through the door," as Whye puts it. He worries some will get intimidated by polling red tape and frustrated by long lines. But Whye is blunt when it comes to local residents waiting to cast a vote for Obama.

"Most people from Harlem - their ancestors made it through slavery," he says. "So you can wait."

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Election 2008, Social Justice-Myth & Reality‏

The presidential nomination process of 2008 is generating unprecedented interest and participation among all segments of the American citizenry, especially young and new voters. In many states around the country, voter participation in the nomination and party primary process has surged fifty percent in general, and, in some instances, increased more than one hundred percent.



Both political parties recorded a groundswell in all states, but the Democratic Party is experiencing the lion’s share of new constituents. Philadelphia, last of the large delegate states, and according to some political analysts, “a must win state for the Clinton campaign,” 200,000 new voters have been recorded. Anecdotal information suggests that Senator Obama will win a majority of the Democratic Party newcomers.

The increase in voter participation is a healthy development to help mitigate abounding political apathy and a constricted electorate. Not since the high point in the civil rights movement has youth involvement in the political and electoral process been so energetic. Without question the historic nature of this season’s presidential campaign is the likely impetus for the election’s popularity in the Democratic Party.

Senator Hillary Clinton, potentially the first woman Democratic Party nominee, and Senator Barack Obama, potentially the first Black American Democratic Party nominee, are the only nominees left in the race. The eventual nominee will market a watershed in American presidential politics irrespective of the ultimate standard bearer. Hence, the final outcome of the party nomination process will amount to a social justice outcome, the popular politically correct refrain, as the issue of gender or race will prevail at the end of the day.

The social justice political concept has evolved into an umbrella phrase under which the breath of civil rights issues as well as issues of race, class, gender, and the special interests and peculiar needs of the Black and minority community issues are framed. Many in the civil rights Black leadership orthodoxy assert social justice as the over arching goal of the present day civil rights movement. In New York City, urban centers, and inner cities in particular, police brutality, racial profiling, the need for improved employment opportunities, quality education, adequate health care, etc., are positioned as issues requiring social justice.

Social justice has become a ubiquitous euphemism and a smokescreen that obfuscates a direct and coherent solution to problems and issues. It also perpetuates the theory of race and multi-racialism. What is social justice? What does it look like? How can it be achieved? Is social justice a political phantom? Is the goal of social justice a lofty objective that skims the political surface while the public is manipulated by political wedge issues, emotional hot buttons and code words?

The presidential nomination campaign between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their party’s nod is an interesting case study of social justice and the so-called race question. This writer suspects that the issues associated with this case study will persist in the general election process. Accordingly, the general election will embody either the issue of gender or race as the social justice rhetorical imperative. Interestingly enough, the patent southern strategy of the Grand Old Party (GOP) will likely be applied in either case with a stereotypical gender or race pejorative subtext.

The issue of race has recently emerged as a tactical initiative in the Democratic nomination process with its’ traditional manifestation as an odious political machination. Personal invectives and invidious attacks against the character and judgment of Senator Obama, and longstanding racial prejudice and stereotypes are being superimposed in the public discourse. To his credit, Senator Barack Obama has managed to skillfully navigate the tidal wave of race-based political rhetoric and diversions.

In response to the escalating controversy surrounding the highly charged sermons and comments made by Senator Obama’s pastor, the renowned Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Senator was compelled to answer a broad range of hyperbolic questions and inferences. Senator Obama stepped to the occasion and delivered what is viewed in many quarters as a brilliant and definitive presentation relative to that challenge that all Americans face in our collective obligation to move America beyond the false divisions associated with racial prejudice and multi-racialism.

The Senator’s presentation and accompanying admonition to Americans is compelling and persuasive and this writer is obliged to abide by this nobleman’s injunction.

We “uni-racialists” hold that multi-racialism is an imposed social construct that facilitates economic, political, and social exploitation of Black Americans in particular, under the auspices of racial superiority. The theory of race distinction was accommodated by the age of enlightenment, which provided the cover narrative for a world wide slavery system, based on racial inferiority.

Unfortunately, the pervasively well documented idea of racial inferiority has crystallized in the human nature consciousness and there is now a visceral and emotional component resulting from five hundred years of the popular history. But, to quote a world respected prophetic preacher, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “no lie lasts forever.”

Senator Obama may be on to something as he raises the point that we need to turn the page on race and political business as usual. In addition to the inspired Senator’s instruction, perhaps we should observe the emerging unity between religion and science on the issue of race.

The latest scientific data confirms that all human beings living the planet earth today as we speak can be traced to a single mother of us all that lived millennia ago in east Africa, in the vicinity of Ethiopian and Uganda. Whether this very distinguished mother responded to name Eve or some other name the similarity of these scientific findings with the Genesis Biblical proposition, of one human family is noteworthy. To again quote the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “truth crushed to the earth will rise some day.”

Obviously, it remains to be seen how the Democratic Party nomination and eventual general election will proceed and end. Nevertheless, history has already been made on multi levels by this presidential campaign and it’s a certain bet that more surprises are in store moving forward. However, it may be safe to forecast that the issue of race is currently on the public discussion table and will likely remain there far beyond the November general election.

My suspicion is that the idea of multi-racialism and race-based electoral politics will ultimately move beyond the vague notions of the social justice political umbrella and take its rightful place in the human mind as the phantom that it is. Now that the racism gene is out of the jar, some are suggesting that race will be a dominant feature, despite Senator Obama’s attempts to elevate the political discourse. Should this be the case, the election will prove among other things that we have not yet crossed the Rubicon.



Gary James is a freelance writer and political analyst. His second book will be released this summer and his third book will be released in the spring of 2009. For more information contact visit www.garyjames.info.

©®™ 2007, 2008 All photos by "El Boxing Empress" Keisha Morrisey- Empire Morrisey Studios, for Bloodline Boxing Communications Entertainment and Starlite Boxing's Sweetscience all rights reserved