My Perspective: Color of Change Needs to Change

I have applauded the organization ColorofChange.org over the years especially as they fought for the Jena 6 but the reality is that the Jena 6 were wrong in their actions but they still should not have been charged with attempted murder. I have continued to receive the ColorofChange.org emails and many of them are in line with my own views. However I received an email on July 28 talking about firing Lou Dobbs for covering a story about the birthers and yesterday I received an email talking about Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist. What has happened to ColorofChange.org because it seems as if they are always jumping to the side of the left when it is suppose to be an organization that exists to strengthen Black America's political voice? Their goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone.

ColorofChange.org was heart-broken and outraged by the catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina. And they were devastated to realize that no African-American organization or coalition had the capacity to respond on the necessary scale. Hurricane Katrina made it clear that our lack of a political voice has life-and-death consequences. With no one to speak for them, hundreds of thousands of people—largely Black, poor, and elderly—were left behind to die. But it wasn't just Black folks. Poor, sick, and elderly people of every color were abandoned too. ColorofChange.org is not alone, and claims when we work to protect Black lives and interests, we do the same for all who have been left behind in political silence.

ColorOfChange.org is comprised of Black folks from every economic class, as well as those of every color who seek to help our voices be heard. Its members are united behind a simple, powerful pledge: we will do all we can to make sure all Americans are represented, served, and protected—regardless of race or class. How do ColorofChange.org does this is by using the Internet. The internet enables ColorofChange.org members to speak in unison, with an amplified political voice. ColorofChange.org will keep them informed about the most pressing issues for Black people in America and give them ways to act. ColorofChange.org will lobby elected representatives using email, the telephone, and face-to-face meetings. ColorofChange.org brings attention to the needs and concerns of Black folks by holding coordinated events in different parts of the country, running TV and print advertisements, and demanding that the news media cover our issues. ColorofChange.org also works with other groups—online efforts and other organizations that are doing related work—to magnify its impact. ColorofChange.org believes that when we come together and speak with one voice, we cannot be ignored.

I agree with all of that ColorofChange.org says but it doesn’t do that because in its emails this week, it takes one side of the debate instead of working to deal with this issues of race and discrimination properly, ColorofChange.org instead picks sides very fast. ColorofChange.org paints a picture of a one-sided story like it did in the Jena 6 story in order to give a portrait that makes people of color outraged when in fact the whole story someone needs to really investigate. The truth of the matter is that ColorofChange.org claims that when we work to protect Black lives and interests, we do the same for all who have been left behind in political silence and says it will do all it can to make sure all Americans are represented, served, and protected—regardless of race or class. However where was ColorofChange.org when MSNBC host Keith Olberman had an actress on his show screaming that all the people at the tax day tea parties were racists. Where was ColorofChange.org to defend all those tea party protests from the hate, vicious and demeaning comments that many television hosts on MSNBC such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews gave them.

ColorofChange.org send in its email about Lou Dobbs that Lou Dobbs is using his platform on CNN to revive paranoid conspiracy theories about whether President Obama was born in the U.S.1 While the question was put to rest long ago, Dobbs is pretending that this extremist nonsense is a legitimate national conversation. Intentionally or not, he is stoking the fires of racial fear and paranoia in the same way that the McCain/Palin campaign did when they cast Obama as "not one of us."2 Even after being called on this, Dobbs refuses to stop. CNN, which is held in high regard by many Americans and describes itself as the "the most trusted name in news," is allowing one of its hosts to give legitimacy to debunked, racist conspiracy theories. It asks people to join in by calling on CNN to dump Dobbs, and ask your friends and family to do the same.

ColorofChange.org goes on to say that for more than a year, folks on the far right have been claiming that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen; that he was born in Kenya, and as a result can't be president3. This theory has been repeatedly debunked. Not only has the state of Hawaii provided a birth certificate to media organizations several times, there were also birth announcements in two separate Hawaii papers when Obama was born in 1961--for most reasonable people, that would remove any doubt. However even ColorofChange.org has its information wrong because the state of Hawaii has not provided a birth certificate for many media outlets but instead has issued statements saying Obama was born in Hawaii and even Lou Dobbs says Obama is a U.S. citizen but has said he just needs to show his actual birth certificate to squash this nonsense from the birthers once and for all since Obama claims to be transparent.

However ColorofChange.org is doing exactly what other organizations have did in attacking Lou Dobbs when other television hosts reported on the story two weeks ago such as Chris Matthews of MSNBC and in ColorofChange.org own email it has a quote from the head of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, who had this to say about the claim: "It's racist. It's racist. Just call it for what it is."5 So is Phil Griffin calling Chris Matthews a racist and other hosts on MSNBC news who talked about the birthers such as Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow regardless if they had the same claim as Lou Dobbs in which they had people come on to talk about it but unlike Dobbs they didn’t have a birther on but only those who laughed and mocked the birthers. I guess because Dobbs gave birthers a voice or sit at the table is what organizations like ColorofChange.org and others don’t like.

But didn’t Dobbs do exactly what President Obama told us to do which is regardless of our differences let’s listen to them and give them a sit at the table in order to work out our differences in a way that we have never done before. But the truth of the matter is that ColorofChange.org and the Southern Poverty Law Center are not really going after Dobbs simply because of having the birthers on his show or talking about this but they are going after him because of his past stances on illegal immigration. As stated in the ColorofChange.org email, it says that Lou Dobbs has a history of attacking immigrants by spouting hateful rhetoric and lies but that is false because they left out the word illegal immigrants. ColorofChange.org goes on to say that Dobbs once claimed that "the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans" through "deadly imports" of diseases like leprosy and malaria.6 This kind of rhetoric feeds anti-immigrant hate, the kind of hate that leads to horrors like the beating death of Luis Ramirez in Pennsylvania and the shooting death of nine-year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona earlier this year. Dobbs' rhetoric has led organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to call on CNN to reign in Dobbs in the past.7 Now, Dobbs is going after President Obama by giving voice to the same kind of xenophobic rhetoric, stoking the deep-seated fears of angry right-wing extremists who, as CNN analyst Roland Martin has said, can't accept the fact that their president is Black8.

Dobbs may not like Obama, but it's a real problem for him to use his powerful position as a moderator of discussion about the news to validate a dangerous falsehood that's rooted in racism. Several watchdog groups have demanded action on the part of CNN. The head of the SPLC wrote CNN last week asking that they fire Dobbs based on his recent actions9. Media Matters and others have launched efforts to hold CNN accountable as well.10 CNN has the opportunity to live up to its description of itself as the most trusted cable news network. Or it can ignore the problem of Lou Dobbs and communicate something very different: that delivering real news and analysis is not its top priority, and that legitimizing extremist propaganda is an acceptable part of doing business. ColorofChange.org asks its supporters to join them in calling on Jon Klein, the president of CNN, to take Dobbs off the air. However where is this same outrage toward other television hosts who covered this same story. Also let’s be clear ColorofChange.org and other organizations like Media Matters take up for the tea party protestors like you are taking up for Obama. Why didn’t any of you take up for Sarah Palin and the attacks on her last year and this year or the attacks on Hillary Clinton last year.

Then just yesterday, ColorofChange.org continued to embrace the left-wing side of politics by saying more and more, right-wing talk show hosts are bringing race-based fear mongering into the mainstream, but FOX's Glenn Beck just took it to another level. On Tuesday, Beck said: This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist.13 It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making:14 that President Obama is using the White House to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence.14,15 Now I don’t agree with Beck’s comments but why isn’t ColorofChange.org using its voice to defend the woman who called 911 in the Gates arrest who was called a racist by the media and the blogs. Or better yet why didn’t ColorofChange.org say anything about the comments Professor Gates made to Officer Crowley in terms of calling him a racist in which Gates has not said he didn’t say.

ColorofChange.org goes on to say that together we can stop Glenn Beck.16 Starting today we're calling Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When they see tens of thousands of people signing on behind that question, we believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, damaging the viability of his show and possibly putting him out of business. All it requires is you, standing up and being counted. Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some people refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. We know that. The only way these views will fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society. Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs,18 and Rush Limbaugh19 are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process.

ColorofChange.org goes on to say that the dangers of these tactics are real. It says they saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: by the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting. The result was an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people.18,19,20 FOX has had a long history of race-baiting and racism on its shows, and we've run campaigns calling them out.21,22 But Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy.

Now I agree with ColorofChange.org that Glenn Beck was wrong for calling President Obama a racist because he is not but those who called Officer Crowley and the woman who made the phone call are wrong to for calling them racists especially the news media that put those notions out there. I do agree with ColorofChange.org that this distracts or divides us from coming together and talking about issues such as healthcare and the economy but by sending out emails such as this, ColorofChange.org is continuing the division when Beck said this on Tuesday and they are sending out an email 4 days later. ColorofChange.org needs to wake up and realize that it shouldn’t go along with the extreme left wing on issues such as this when they are the very ones who probably called the black officer in Cambridge who came to Sgt. Crowley’s defense an Uncle Tom. Is this how we change the debate and hail racial woes by continuing to go down the same road that has divided us for years. Yes Glenn Beck’s comments were wrong but ColorofChange.org where are you in defending the black officer. Where are you are denouncing those who are playing the race card in situations that probably aren’t racists at all.

ColorofChange.org is a good organization and can continue to be but it is slowly becoming another left wing group that only defends those who the left says defends. Let’s be clear, ColorofChange.org helped bring Jena 6 to the public’s eye but all the facts were not given by this organization and even when the case was resolved nearly 2 years later, it was resolved quietly with 5 of the Jena 6 admitting they were wrong in beating up the white boy and they don’t know why they beat him up. That was not reported by ColorofChange.org in the email blast they sent out. The truth of the matter is that ColorofChange.org needs to respect people’s second amendment right even when it is not in line with there’s. I don’t agree with Glenn Beck’s comments on calling Obama a racist but I don’t agree with anyone who labels people names when they are unwarranted. However ColorofChange.org doesn’t understand that because it hasn’t taken up for the black officer from Cambridge, it didn’t say Gates was wrong for calling Sgt. Crowley a racist and it hasn’t said anything about the racists comments directed toward the 911 caller that called the police cause she thought someone was breaking in Gates house.

ColorofChange.org needs to change its view in dealing with issues when its platform states it is for everyone. If ColorofChange.org is for everyone and is for being a voice for all African Americans than why isn’t it defending all blacks when people are spewing hate toward all people of color. ColorofChange.org is right, we have the power to stop hatred, racism, discrimination and bigotry but that begins with us having a new dialogue and approach toward these issues. We can’t continue to do the status quo and we can’t take sides too quickly or deal with one set of comments while ignoring others. We can’t just deal with national issues and avoid the local issues in regards to racism, hatred, discrimination and bigotry. We have to be a voice for everyone and we can’t just attack people for giving a voice to those organizations or people we don’t like. We can’t just attack people for simply using their first amendment right and saying they think the President is a racist. No one in the national media or organizations like media matters said anything about Kanye West saying President Bush doesn’t like black people. Let’s be clear, we can’t continue down this path and that’s why ColorofChange.org needs to be different in its approach to changing to politics.

President Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have shown the way that we can’t deal with our enemies with a close fist but we must deal with them with an open hand. We have to open not just our hands but our hearts, mind and soul to those who disagree with us and listen to them in an effort to understand their views and hope that they do the same in order to understand our views. It is from this dialogue that we can learn from each other and be a better people in the long run. This is a view that I practice every day. I welcome sitting down and talking to those who disagree with me and I understand their view better through verbal dialogue better than written dialogue sometimes. Still ColorofChange.org needs to live up to its motto which is it will do all it can to make sure all Americans are represented, served, and protected—regardless of race or class. Well in order for this to happen, we can’t continue to take sides in battles without fully understanding all the facts. We can bring attention to issues without siding with one side over the other. This is crucial to changing our nation’s racial debate.

I hope ColorofChange.org listens to me and gets back on message of working to resolve those political issues that don’t get dealt with on behalf of people of color. ColorofChange.org needs to talk about issues such as the fact that many committees on Capitol Hill have few black or people of color staffers. That is something we need to work on because that is not the right representation of our nation that is needed and there are many qualified people who can work on Capitol Hill but aren’t given the opportunity to do so. So my hope is for ColorofChange.org to change its ways and to alien itself in a centrist and moderate approach in order to address issues regarding people of color that’s the only way color of change can truly occur because there are already too many extreme left organizations who takes sides on issues and look how much attention they get—little to known. ColorofChange.org needs to change and needs to be a voice for real change not just the status quo rhetoric.

References:
1. Lou Dobbs Show, CNN, 7-23-09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvYcFgXCJrE

2. "Mob scene or campaign rally?" ColorOfChange.org, 10-14-08 http://www.colorofchange.org/united/message.html

3. "(Still) Challenging Obama's birth certificate," Politics Daily, 11-24-08 http://tinyurl.com/m2xhue

4. "CNN chief addresses Obama birth controversy," LA Times, 7-25-09 http://tinyurl.com/mk4rfd

5. "On Television and Radio, Talk of Obama's Citizenship," The New York Times, 7-24-09 http://tinyurl.com/mb467j

6. "CNN's Immigration Problem," Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, 4-24-06 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2867

7. "Broken Record," Intelligence Report, Winter 2005 http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=589

8. "CNN's Martin: Birthers' "I want my country back" comment means "How is this black guy all of the sudden running the country?" Media Matters, 7-22-09 http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907220041

9. "Major Civil Rights Group Demands CNN Remove Lou Dobbs From The Air," Huffington Post, 7-24-09 http://tinyurl.com/lafpuw

10. "CNN's Dobbs Problem," Media Matters http://dobbsconspiracy.com/

11. "CNN president Jon Klein declares Obama birther story 'dead,'" LA Times blog, 7-24-09 http://tinyurl.com/ncrj5f

12. "CNN President brushes off criticism of Lou Dobbs' continued floating of 'birther' theories," Who Runs Gov blog, 7-24-09 http://tinyurl.com/l3x7dp

13. "Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'" Media Matters, 7-28-09 http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008

14. "Glenn Beck: Obama agenda driven by 'reparations' and desire to 'settle old racial scores'," Media Matters, 7-23-09 http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040

15. "Palin linked to death threats against Obama," Economic Times, 11-9-2008 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3691429.cms

16. "Obama win prompts wave of hate crimes," Times Online, 11-17-2008 http://tinyurl.com/5rhf29

17. "MSNBC's Deutsch encourages viewers to demand advertisers on Beck's show spend money elsewhere," Media Matters, 7-29-09 http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907290037

18. "On Television and Radio, Talk of Obama's Citizenship," The New York Times, 7-24-09 http://tinyurl.com/mb467j

19. "Rush and reparations," The Nation, 5-12-2009 http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/435392/rush_and_reparations

20. "Homeland Security report warns of rising right-wing extremism, Huffington Post, 4-14-2009 http://tinyurl.com/cpgx6q

21. ColorOfChange.org email on Fox's attacks on the Obamas http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/message.html

22. "An overview: Fox News and its problem with African-Americans," ColorOfChange.org http://colorofchange.org/fox/summary.html