On the streets
of San Francisco, The Fight for Freedom of Speech-
African Drums Drum against Tuskegee Airman on "The Drum Major For Justice" Martin Luther King Jr.'s Celebration
President Barack Obama had given his inaugural speech on the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday Celebration appealing to Americans to work together and "care for the least of these." As members of ACCE, Occupy Bernal, and Occupy Noe talked to press and made phone calls to Wells Fargo Bank asking them not to auction off Tuskegee Airman, Ben Reed's home, a multicultural group of African Drummers led by an female African immigrant drowned out our pleas as freedom of speech clashed on the streets of San Francisco in front of the Museum of the African Diaspora.
It was only Saturday, January 19, 2013 that at my third meeting of ACCE and Bernal Occupy, I found out that the home of 90-year old disabled Tuskegee Airman, Ben Reed was to be put on the auction block.
As the meeting began and we listened to a state leader of ACCE talk about global organizational strategy, before the mention of Ben Reed came up, a fellow foreclosure fighter, Stardust, handed me the beginnings of a flyer for a call action to for people make phone calls to Wells Fargo Bank on MLK Day. As I read it he whispered, "we've got to get this on the agenda."
An hour and a half into the meeting, there was an opening to present the idea. "Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A 90-year old Tuskegee Airman's house is scheduled to be auctioned off on January 24, 2013. Let's do an action in front of MoAD, The Museum of the African Diaspora. (There's something deep in my spirit that cringes when the word "auction" and a Black man are mentioned in the same sentence.)
Everyone
groaned when they heard the story of yet another elderly person threatened to
lose their home but the group sprinkled with a few African Americans wanted to
know why MoAD. Discussion ensued
about appearing racist. They
were reminded about the action at the San Francisco Employees Retirement System
and the testimony made by elderly former city employees, the call for the Mayor
not to re-appoint Brenda Wright to the SFERS Board, and to remove divest the
City's $48 million dollars from Wells Fargo Bank (CBS Radio Story- http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.
After
much discussion, everyone seemed to understand that this was similar to the
action taken January 10th in front of the $4.1 million Raffle-"Dream
House" in Menlo Park. Occupy Bernal
and Occupy Redwood City held a news conference in front of the "Dream House" on January
10, 2013 to send the messages that these lottery type fundraisers distract from
the fact that millions of Americans have been displaced and many more can lose
their home and that a humanitarian solution to foreclosure must be forged. It was not an action against the nonprofit that benefited from the raffle. It was about showing the stark contrast between the 1% and the 99% and that it's time for the 1% to bring humanitarian solutions to the foreclosure crisis.
It
was late Saturday afternoon. We
needed a flyer and a media advisory. "We don't have any photos of Ben Reed, so you'll have
to search on the Internet," I was told.
I took on the assignment to create the media advisory and the flyer and
also pull together the committee that would meet afterwards, work out who would
volunteer to speak on Monday, who would hand out flyers and other tasks. "I'm
not a graphic designer," I told the group. "I'll do the best I can." It's one of those things that when there's no time it's
best to forge ahead by George and do what you can do, after all, this was a
soldier and my father had died in Viet Nam. He would have been a few years younger than Mr. Reed.
As I got on the Internet and began searching for pictures for Mr. Reed, nothing came up for him specifically. Then I found something generic that would work. His name kept rolling over in my mind, "Ben Reed, Ben Reed, Ben Reed." Then it hit me like a sledgehammer, ton of bricks, you name it.
Ben Reed, Tuskegee Airman, is this the Ben Reed I know?" The wonderful gentleman I had met at community functions over the years and who had graciously attended my family reunion in 2010? Oh, my goodness.
How many Tuskegee Airmen are still living? How many Tuskegee Airmen named Ben Reed could there be in San Francisco? Is this
the same family I know? "They were at my
family reunion honoring my parents in 2010 (Asian Week Story- http://www.asianweek.com/2010/
It had been decided to give MoAD a heads up. We wanted to make sure that MoAD did not think the action was against them in anyway. So I was charged to let them know since I knew the executive director and their PR consultant professionally. After hours of back and forth emails to 17 people and phone calls to get the flyer and media advisory approved, staying at Starbucks on Portola near Twin Peaks 'til they closed, dashing down Market Street to Kinko's Fed Ex, staying after hours to get flyers printed, waiting in the parking lot to hand off flyers to Ed Donaldson for the San Francisco Labor MLK Breakfast the next morning, finally after 10 p.m. Sunday night, I was on my way home to get the email off to MoAD with a text to their PR consultant to which I did not receive a reply. Stardust had begun sending out the media advisory about 9:30 p.m.
Inspired
by President Barack Obama's speech, Monday morning, with a tinge of remorse for
not being able to cover it for the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper as I had
done in 2009 (http://sfbayview.com/2009/
So after getting text photos from my sister in D.C., I hit the streets of San Francisco in front of MoAD about 10:45 a.m. for the 11:30 a.m. news conference and there found drummers lined up near the entrance ready to play. The thought hit me that we really needed those bullhorns (which never came) to be heard during the news conference. There was no plan for a noisy demonstration. We were just going to speak to the press and hand out flyers to people attending the museum, people interested in stories about Black people. We had a story that was unfolding, making history in our time and they, the museum attendees, could be a part of it by picking up the phone to call Wells Fargo Bank to help a soldier who served this country so they could have "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It happened! The clash of "Freedom of Speech," but nothing as strident as some have occurred on the streets of San Francisco. I had cordially spoken to the Executive Director and the PR consultant when I arrived. As it was nearing time for the news conference, they both had left the museum, so I spoke directly to the drummers that were assembled as I gave them the flyer about our imminent action.
"We're going to take a few minutes to briefly speak to the press about creating a humanitarian solution to foreclosures and a Tuskegee Airman whose home is threatened to be auctioned off in a couple of days," I explained to the group of drummers.
In a very thick African accent and hostile tone, the woman leading the group with a cowbell, responded, "You do what you do over there. We do what we do here. We will play."
"I'm just asking that for a few minutes, let us talk to the media about this 90- year old Tuskegee Airman who could lose his home this week, if we don't do something.
"We are going to play. We were hired to play. You do what you do over there!"
"Are
you dismissing me," I asked.
"No, I am not dismissing you!" "We were hired to do this job."
The
outrage boiled up in me as her thick African accent rolled through my ears and
the sight of her 'I'm a conscious Black woman' big beautiful woolly Afro filled my eyes. The contradiction was overwhelming!
"Look,
let me tell you one thing," I responded in a equally stern voice. "You would not even be here, if it were
not for people like this Tuskegee Airmen who sacrificed for this country and
the thousands of people with Dr. King who suffered during the Civil Rights
Era." "You...."And then I felt the
pull of the back of my jacket and I went with the tow....because it was beginning
to wail up big and strong, my adverse feelings about the "Motherland" that I
expressed for the first time last year with French-Cameroonian Filmmaker Jean
Pierre Bekolo ( Conversations with International Film Director Jean Pierre
Bekelo (http://sfbayview.com/2012/
Before me was an African immigrant getting in the way of a message to help a descendant of former slaves on the very day we honor a leader that is a descendant of former slaves, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. May I note here, President Barack Obama, a Black man, is not a descendant of former slaves, although his wife bears the blood of those who suffered cruelly for generations as slaves.
My fellow foreclosure colleagues reassured me that the drummers were not hired by MoAD as a tactic to "manage the protest," (thinking it was going to be loud and wild as demonstrations in San Francisco can be). The drumming entertainment was probably already planned. "Let's just focus on the message and do the best if any media shows up given everything that's going on today," said SF Filmmaker, Jacquie Taliaferro, who repeated and reinforced our fellows' calming message to me.
So the drummers drummed on and all I could think of was a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan film. Just before the Africans attacked the drums began... drumming through the night... wearing down the intruders. In this case, the African led drummers were intruding and I focused on the business at hand, standing for a cause in the face of that awkward resistance of a benign face that looks like you but impedes the way. No wonder there is "the God of our silent tears" that James Weldon Johnson wrote about.
The experience with the drummers in front of MoAD reinforced for me the sacredness of the battle with Wells Fargo Bank. As I mentioned to assembled media (KPFA, Channels 2 and 11), "We stand in front of MoAD to support Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed and others who are in danger of losing their homes. We point out that on one hand, Wells Fargo gives pennies to Arts organizations like MoAD to appear to be as a good citizen and on the other they are committing bank robbery stealing the homes of Americans. Wells Fargo Bank has moved away from its moral center. There can be a humanitarian solution to foreclosure."
It's the age-old battle of image vs. the reality. It's the childlike spirit to declare, "The Emperor has no clothes." It's the revelation in Revelation of the destruction that comes from bowing down before the "image of the beast." "There's more than meets the eye."
Later, as
I listened to the fantastic music playing on the field before the Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Memorial at Yerba Buena Gardens, saw people, children, adults and the
elderly moving about on an unbelievable great beautiful San Francisco day, I
wondered if the drummers at MoAD had droned out the message to care for "the
least of these my brethren" all in the benevolence of the benign state of
affairs of people having a lovely time.
Hopefully, the music and distractions of the day, did not
eradicate the
purpose of our MLK Day of Service Action to help people experiencing
foreclosure. Two musicians and foreclosure fighters facing down the
banks, Archbishop Franzo King and University of San Francisco professor
Pascal Thiam, performed a set at the MLK Day celebration.
One
thing flowed to another and I found myself at the AMC Metreon adjacent to the Yerba Buena Gardens viewing
"Django." The character Stephen,
played by Samuel L. Jackson, stridently stood out for me on Martin Luther King
Jr.'s Celebration. In that
character Stephen, I saw "Black on Black Crime" that occurs on the street and in the boardrooms. I saw the face of the African with the cowbell leading the
drummers and many executive people of color in corporations all over this
nation who are so far removed from the people they supposedly represent. They are removed from the people who
withstood the dogs and hoses, and those who gave their lives, the ultimate
sacrifice, so those executives of color can work where they do and have a better life. (Let's not forget White women and consequently the men in their lives benefited from Civil Rights efforts as well).
Time and time again, we see certain executives assimilate to the point, they sound and act more like the oppressors and they act more vehemently against the Black, Brown, Yellow, and Red people they look like. The spirit of Stephen of "Django" has multiplied into malevolent minions. Much like the Woody Harrelson character, "Haymitch Abernathy" in "The Hunger Games," they have eaten too many expensive and luxurious dinners. They have forgotten the struggle that opened the way for their opportunity.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations are over, but you can continue in the true meaning and purpose of the day by taking a few moments to call Wells Fargo Bank and emailing the company to come up with a humanitarian solution for Tuskegee Airman Benjamin Reed and his wife of many, many years, and others. Visit http://occupytheauctions.org for their story and others you can help. (There you'll find only a small sampling of folks who can use your help. Most people are held siege in their minds and homes hoping against hope for an answer and afraid and too often ashamed to ask for help.)
Larry Faulks lost his home to Wells Fargo and writes out his dream on the day of
celebration for the Dreamer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of MoAD's
Free Family Day activities--moments after telling media his story.
Here's
a link to the media advisory for MLK Day that outlines the reasoning for
the action.
Here is copy from the flyers that were handed out yesterday.
What
Would Martin Do?
Help Save Homes From Foreclosure!
Wells Fargo Bank settled with US Department of Justice on predatory and discriminatory loan practices for $175 million (including Bayview Branch).
- Tell Wells Fargo to Stop Foreclosures & Evictions Now
- Tell Wells Fargo to provide fair deal loan modifications Now
- Tell Wells to Stop Throwing Pennies at The Arts To Look Good While Robbing Millions of Homes
- Honor Dr. King! Call Wells Fargo Out Now- Tell Them to Save Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed's Home & Other Homes! +1 415-623-7738 Brenda Wright, SVP Wells Fargo/MoAD Board, and
- +1 866-878-5865 John Stumpf, CEO
Thank you for taking action in your own way! There is room for other ideas. Use your power to act out your ideas, concepts and insights.
| Jackie Wright Speaks at Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013 |
| Larry Faulks Speaks at Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013 |
| Ed Donaldson Speaks at Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013 |
Dr. King told the AFL-CIO in 1961, "Our needs are identical with labor's needs: Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community."
"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves." Harriett Tubman
Whether
MoAD's actions were intentional or not, they are worthy along with
other Arts organizations to receive more financial support from Wells
Fargo Bank and the general public. The financial contributions from Wells Fargo should increase. Compared to Wells Fargo Bank's ever increasing profits, the pennies thrown at MoAD and other nonprofits are not sufficient as Wells Fargo Bank is trading on the good name of the organizations to which they contribute. Wells Fargo Bank cast pennies to nonprofits as they commit bank robbery taking the homes of our neighbors.
With all said and done, I do hope it was just a case of MoAD hiring "rude musicians."
Humbly Submitted!
Jackie Wright
Complete Videos of MLK Day of Service Action posted at - http://occupytheauctions.org/wordpress/
Articles of Interest
As racism played a major role in the mortgage crisis, this New York Times Article is interesting-Reverend Greggory Brown of Oakland is quoted:
Pastor Calls for Help/ Open Letter to Faith Leaders-USE POWER AGAINST FORECLOSURES
http://www.wrightnow.biz/
"Django" and "Lincoln," Do they Call for Reparations?
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/