The Limits of (Black) Power in the White House — Àdisà

The Limits of (Black) Power in the White House

It is not within the arrangement of personal constitution see elected official as heroes. (Perhaps that would be different if I were in that federally protected one percent.) So I come to politics clear eyed, unsentimental and with no expectation that they will do anything exceptional--their job is to rearrange furniture, not renovate. Exceptional people who are deeply principled and wish to really do good tend to either stay away from the griminess of electoral politics or are unable to get enough traction to get elected. Ancestor Chowke Lumumba, former mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, stands out as an exception that proves the rule.

Five things I understood about the election of President Obama early on which positioned me to understand that the goal of Black folks should be to survive his presidency rather than to expect to thrive during his presidency, just as we had every other president, were these:

1) You don't run to be head of Empire to end Empire any more that the one fights to be head of an automobile company to end automobiles, positions themsleves to be CEO of an oil company to end oil dependence, or fights to be the Grand Wizard to integrate the Klan. You run to be the head of Empire because you think you can be a more efficient manager of it than the other candidates, not because you have a problem with Empire. That to me is common sense.

2.The President has authority but no power. This may appear to be a paradox. But if you understand how Empire works, government leaders are managers of Empire, they are not owners. Managers have authority to carry out the will of those who empower the Empire. Just as the overseers on a plantation had authority, but not power. To the enslaved African it may have been experienced as power, but power resided with the plantation owners. In other words, the President is free to execute the will of the powerful but he is in no position to contravene their wishes. It is important remember that those billions that elected him twice did not come from kickstarter--they came from monied interests who expect a return on their investment. Capitalism is our national religion (let's not pretend otherwise) and the office of the President serves as one of its High Priest. The job of the High Priest is to advance and elevate the religion, not the congregants. Wu Tang told you, its all about C.R.E.A.M.

3. Within the frame of having authority but no power, the President has the latitude to do two things: 1) Advance Empire which means increased destruction in foreign lands in the interest of empire. This is also known as foreign policy; and 2) Engage in harm reduction strategies at home or what we call domestic policy. Harm reduction models are helpful in stemming the bleeding but do little to address the violence that produces the wounds. ACA or Obamacare is a harm reduction strategy. Harm reduction is not insignificant, but its chief goal is addressing the symptoms, not the disease.

4) Leadership is lonely. Anyone who has ever been a position of authority in a hostile space and tried to do good for Black and Brown folks, whether it was your college MEChA or the BSU or in a business setting or at a job or in academe, knows that your folks will cheer you on from the stands but when the fighting starts most of 'em ain't showing up for the fight. This means that expending political capital on constituents, whose vote is all but assumed, and whom you know wont go to battle to back you up if you do step up for them, in the cold economics of political capital is considered wasteful spending.

5) The same mentality of the men who are militarized and primed to terrorize Black and Brown lives, who are throwing flash grenades and tear gas like dice in a crap game share the same mentality as most of the folks that make up the Secret Service—the disrespect and destruction of Black and Brown lives is practically a job requirement at every level of law enforcement. In other words, his safety is in the hands of folks who often don't believe in Black folks right to exist.

In the end, what we have learned, beyond the extent to which people will pretzel their integrity to be close to the illusion of power, about the limits and limitations of a kind of cafe au lait power in the White House is that it is mostly cream and very little coffee.

—Adisa.