“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
—Abraham Lincoln
And the drama
of Congressman Charlie Rangel continues to unfold with 13 charges of
misconduct, even as I type this essay: Mr. Rangel faces a range of
accusations stemming from his accepting four rent-stabilized apartments,
to misusing his office to preserve a tax loophole worth half a billion
dollars for an oil executive who pledged a donation for an educational
center being built in Mr. Rangel’s honor. In short, Mr. Rangel, one of
the most powerful Democrats in the United States House of
Representatives, has given his Republican foes much fodder to attack
Dems as the November mid-term elections quickly approach.
While this
saga continues, two questions dangle in the air: First, where did it all
go so terribly wrong? And, second, did Mr. Rangel begat the lack of
ethics also present in the career of his colleague, friend, and staunch
ally Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns of Brooklyn, New York?
http://beta.wnyc.org/blogs/azi-paybarah/2010/jul/28/towns-rangel-going-be-there/
To answer
these questions I think we must go back to the 1960s and the Civil
Rights Movement’s waning days. Dr. King was still alive, but his
popularity had plummeted, which explains why, to this day, many people
do not know his writings or sermons from those latter years. Congressman
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. of Harlem (Mr. Rangel’s predecessor) was
clinging to his seat amidst ethics battles of his own. The streets of
Black America were habitually afire, as urban unrest became the language
of the unheard ghetto masses. And in majority Black communities like
Harlem and Brooklyn, Black leaders, emboldened by Civil Rights
victories, chants of “Black Power,” and a once-in-a-century opportunity
for power, rushed through the kicked-in doors, into politics, into
business, into film and television, into book publishing and magazines
(or started their own), and into colleges and universities heretofore
shuttered. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. The
best because many really believed “change” was on the horizon. The worst
because some Black movers and shakers were so happy to get inside that
they came with no vision or a plan whatsoever for their followers.
Clearly very
few even bothered to read Dr. King’s landmark essay “Black Power
Redefined,” which sought to push Black leaders toward a programmatic
agenda that included the poor and economically disenfranchised.
And if there
were any communities in Black America to test Dr. King’s vision, they
were Harlem and Brooklyn. Brooklyn has Black America’s largest
concentration of people of African descent. But Harlem, in particular,
was the symbolic capital of Black America, and it was there that the now
famous Gang of Four—Percy Sutton, Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins, and
Basil Paterson—planned and plotted a course for their community, and
themselves. Rangel replaced Powell in Congress and became the dean of
New York politics. Sutton would first be a successful politician
himself, then eventually start Inner City Broadcasting, a major person
of color owned media enterprise; Basil Paterson would be, among other
things, New York State Senator, Deputy Mayor of New York City, and New
York Secretary of State; and David Dinkins, of course, became the first
Black mayor of New York City.
Truth be told
Mr. Rangel and his colleagues had an incredible vision and really did
nothing differently than their White predecessors had been doing for
decades in America: they saw an opportunity for a taste of power and
they took it. (And at least the Gang of Four brought an economic
empowerment zone to Harlem, something Congressman Towns pretended to
want to do in the mid1990s for Brooklyn, then mysteriously backed away
from, instead endorsing then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s re-election bid,
with Brooklyn never hearing about that zone again.)
Indeed, as I
was coming of age as a student and youth activist in the 1980s, and as a
then-reporter with various Black newspapers in the New York City area, I
remember well hearing their names mentioned often. And, to a lesser
extent, the names of their Black political peers in Brooklyn like Al
Vann, Major Owens, and Sonny Carson. It was awe-inspiring, because I did
not know that Black folks were leaders in this way. The pinnacle of
this Black political ascension in New York City, without question, was
the election of David Dinkins in 1989. For New York was the last of the
major American cities to produce a Black mayor.
But something
stopped during Dinkins’ years in City Hall. Black New York was unable to
shake off the catastrophic effects of the 1980s crack cocaine scourge,
or Reagan-era social policies. Meanwhile, Black leadership in New York,
rather than nurture and prepare the next generation of Black voices to
succeed them, did exactly what their White forerunners had done: they
dug their heels deeper into the sands of power and have instead become
leaders of what I call “a ghetto monarchy.” In other words, the
community-first values of the Civil Rights era have been replaced by the
post-Civil Rights era values of me-first, career first, and control and
domination of my building, my block, my housing projects, my district,
my part of the community (if not all of it), my church, my community
center, or my organization, by any means necessary. For as long as
possible. And often for as much money, privilege, and access to power as
one can get with a “career” as a Black leader or figurehead.
And that, my
friends, is what leads us, again, to the sad spectacles of the two
senior most Congresspersons in New York State: Charlie Rangel of Harlem,
and my representative in Brooklyn, Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns.
For it is so
clear that the leadership path of Congressman Rangel begat the
leadership path of Congressman Towns. Both may have been well
intentioned at the beginning of their careers. Both may very well
believe in the goodness, as I do, of public service for the people. But
something has gone terribly wrong, the longer they have stayed in office
(40 years now, for Mr. Rangel, and 27 long years for Mr. Towns);
something that, I believe, has zapped them of their ability to serve
effectively. That has zapped them of sound moral, political and ethical
judgment. That has led both to be disconnected from the very people they
claim to serve, both younger and older people alike.
And you see
this pattern with old school Black political leaders nationwide. For
ghettoes exist wherever you see Black city council or alderpersons.
Ghettoes exist wherever you see Black state senators and
assemblypersons. And ghettoes exist for most of the Congressional
districts, too, represented by Black House members. 40-plus long years
of Black political representation, in record numbers, in fact, but it
seems our communities are worse off than even before the Civil Rights
Movement.
Now I am very
clear that systemic racism has done a number on these communities from
coast to coast, from how financial institutions have treated urban
areas, to the deterioration of our public schools when White flight
became real in the 1960s and 1970s, to loss of factories, and other job
incubators, to the often combative relationship between our communities
and local police. And let us not begin to talk about the effects of
gentrification on urban areas across America the past decade and a half.
But if a
leader really has any vision, she or he figures out some way to help the
people to help themselves. You simply do not retreat to what is safe,
secure, and predictable in terms of your actions, or lack thereof. Doing
that means you simply have given up. Or, worse, you just do not care.
For me, no
clearer evidence than the other day when I was campaigning for Congress
in Marcy Projects in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, the
Marcy Projects made famous in the lyrics of hiphop superstar and
Brooklyn native son Jay-Z. 60-year-old Marcy Projects is so huge a
housing complex that it swallows whole Myrtle and Park and Flushing
Avenues between Nostrand and Marcy. It consists of 27 buildings, over
1700 apartments, and approximately 5000 residents. And except for areas
like Fort Greene (excluding its own projects), Clinton Hill, Boerum
Hill, and parts of Dumbo, Bed-Stuy, East Flatbush, and Canarsie, most of
Mr. Towns’ district is as impoverished, under-served, and as forgotten
as Marcy Projects.
There is the
sight of several elderly women sitting on benches in the middle of this
aging complex, frustrated with the state of their lives, their meager
incomes, the bags of garbage strewn about them, and the rats who have
created dirt holes so big around each building, that a small human head
could fit through most of those holes. When I ask these women where is
the nearest senior citizen center so they could have some measure of
relief, they say, in unison, “Right here, outside, where we are sitting
now, these benches. This is the safest place we got.”
There is the
sight of children, pre-teens and teens, running, jumping, over p#####
stained asphalt, scraping their knees on the ground filled with broken
bottles and broken promises. There also is no community center open in
Marcy any longer. Why that is the case, no Marcy resident can tell me.
What they do tell me is that Marcy Playground is being renovated. And
indeed it is. But the residents feel it is not for them, that it is for
“the new White people coming into the area, and the new Black people who
have some money.”
There is the
sight of all those Black and Latino males standing on this or that
corner, in front of this or that building, the hands of their lives
shoved deep into their pockets, their hunger for something better fed by
a Newport cigarette, a taste of malt liquor or Hennessey, a pull on a
marijuana stick. And then the ritual happens: a police car shows up,
males and females of all ages are asked for identification, are thrown
up against a wall, against the squad car, or to the ground, asked where
they live, where they are going, why are they standing there, what is in
their shoes, in their underwear. Or they are accused of trespassing for
going from one building to another, even if they are simply visiting a
relative or friend.
This is not
just life in Marcy Projects, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. This is what ghetto
monarchs like Congressman Towns and Congressman Rangel preside over in
Black communities nationwide. Perhaps, once more, they really cared at
one point—maybe they really did. But circa 2010, Charlie Rangel’s
problems are Ed Towns’ problems because the apple does not fall very far
from the tree. Yes, cite Mr. Rangel’s litany of indiscretions, but let
us not forget Mr. Towns’ own timeline of indiscretions while overseeing
his district (see the timeline below for Mr. Towns), for nearly three
decades, with, among other things, some of the bloodiest violence in
America, the highest HIV/AIDS rates in America, the most under-achieving
schools (with a few notable exceptions), and vast disparities between
the haves and the have-nots. Right here in Brooklyn, New York.
Is it little
wonder that as I travel this Congressional district, meeting with Jewish
folks in Boerum HIill, Chinese folks in Williamsburg, West Indian folks
in East Flatbush and Canarsie, or African American and Puerto Rican
folks in East New York, I hear the same things time and again: “We never
see Mr. Towns except maybe when he needs our vote” or “I have never
seen Mr. Towns in my life” or “I have called Mr. Towns’ office many
times and never gotten the help I need” or “I just do not trust any of
these politicians at all. They all lie.”
This is why
voter turnout is perpetually low. This is why incumbents get to stay in
office decade after decade. The formula is very simple for electeds like
Congressman Ed Towns: Identify the loyal voters and only cater to them
(helping them get election poll jobs, or regular jobs, helping their
children get into schools, paying for trips out of town to some casino
or amusement park or cookout). Stay out of sight of all the other
registered Democratic voters, banking on them simply pulling the lever
for “Democrats” every election cycle without any fuss or questions.
Never debate an insurgent opponent for fear of your being exposed for
who you really are, and for what you have not done for the community.
Turn your political seat into a business, one where your family member
and circle of friends and colleagues benefit from the powerful reach of
your position.
So why would
you want to give that up? Why would you even bother to do more than is
absolutely necessary when you are able to enjoy the perks of a long
political career without much effort, without much sweat equity at all?
Why would you even think that taking on the values of political
corruption are unethical at all, if there has been no one to hold you
accountable for so very long?
And why would
you see that Brooklyn, and the Brooklyns of America, are broken, so very
terribly broken, even though it is clear as day to the people in your
community?
Kevin Powell is a 2010 Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Brooklyn, New York’s 10th Congressional district. You can contact him at www.kevinpowell.net