By George Barnette
Special to the AFRO
Americans across a variety of groups and causes, came together Nov. 7 to let their voices be heard. (Courtesy Photo)
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(Courtesy Photo)
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(November 8, 2009) - They came from Canada, the Bahamas, Texas and other places all over the United States. They came with one goal, to let their voice be heard.
On Saturday morning, at Malcolm X Park in Northwest Washington, a coalition of different grassroots political organizations came together to hold the “Black is Back” rally and march.
The rally touched on a broad range of issues from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, granting of freedom to political prisoners, and the granting of reparations to African-Americans. But the one person who seemed to be held responsible for many of these issues was President Barack Obama.
“You should have known in the first place that the job of the President of the United States of America is to be the President of the United States of America,” said Imam Musa of Masjid Al-Islam. “That job is to carry out the criminal policies of the United States of America.”
Among the issues touched on in the rally were the major housing crisis in America and the U.S. government’s role in it.
“The wink and the nod between the banks and the housing authority is what brought on this [economic] catastrophe,” said Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Association.
Bailey and Jarrett Ball of local radio station WPFW also expressed displeasure with what they believe to be the gentrification of the inner-city communities.
“We can not hold a rally in Washington, D.C. and not recognize the issues in this city,” said Ball. “No more coming to this city and ignoring the gentrification.”
Several speakers expressed disappointment that the crowd numbers didn’t meet the ambitious hopes of the organizers, which were to have 100 people from every major city travel to the rally. But not everyone saw the negative in it.
“I’m not mad that the crowd isn’t as big as some might’ve hoped,” said Musa. Just remember that thinner knives cut the deepest.”
Not everyone is confident of the success of the movement in today’s political environment.
“A situation like this is complex, there has to be some follow-up,” said Silas Grant, a commissioner in Washington, D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C. “It’s easy for us to ride downtown in a nice SUV with heat and a/c and have all the music we want in our car and hop out and march for an hour, feel good then go to Starbucks. Those luxuries drown out the enthusiasm needed to follow-up on the passion we just exuded at a march.”