"But Not for the Grace of God Go I?: A Look at Pseudo-Piety

Dr. Matthew C. Stelly

      I am no fan of organized religion of any kind because, for one thing, most of them treat women as inferiors. Secondly, especially in the black community, the church has become a “house of preying” – preying on ignorant and poor black people, and duping the ones that consider themselves middle class with fairy tales and promises while delivering nothing. If there’s a Heaven and an afterlife, then why are they so afraid to die? Why do they collectively bust a gut crying and whining when a relative or friend dies? Shouldn’t they be happy?

      I’ll address related issues in future columns. Right now I want to address religious piety and the phrase that serves as the focus and fulcrum of this article.

I am impressed with President Barack Obama for the most part. But he is increasingly showing me that he believes more in irrelevant bullshit than he does in black people. Oh, he’ll mention being black when he’s talking to the effeminate population of Morehouse College. But for the most part, he’s a true “American” in blackface and, of course, he’s half-white so that’s where his real priorities probably are.

      Now that we have some context, let me share with you what this man said the other day. When he was speaking to the bruthas at Morehouse College during their commencement, he made a statement that I have heard uttered hundreds of times over the years. And this is it: “But not for the grace of God go I.” To most people, this is an honorific utterance, one that pays homage to spirituality, beliefs and of course, ethics. I don’t see it that way.

      I view this statement as the epitome of arrogance and false piety. This statement implies that the person (or persons) you are talking about is somehow not under the aegis of the same “god” that you are. You Christians out there are quick to look down your nose at other people who are worse off than you are. You tend to blame their situation on how they are living their lives – which you believe is not “in accordance with God’s teachings” (in other words, YOUR beliefs). So if someone is down and out you look down your nose, sigh and claim: “But not for the grace of God, go I.”

       So God has “favored” you despite the fact that you claim that your faith teaches that God is no respecter of persons. You claim that all are equal in the eyes of your God. And yet by making this statement you are implying that you are seen as being “tight with God” and the other person is damned or somehow worse off.

       Let me tell you Black Christians something: you can believe whatever you want but first of all, cast down your bucket where you’re at (as Booker T. Washington would say). You need to look around those churches and take a look at what your ministers and pastors are doing before you consider yourself “better” than someone else. Your religion allows you to smoke, drink, carouse, ho, pimp, gamble and do whatever you want and then, after you’ve gotten off, drop to your knees and say, “Sorry about that, chief.” And then, voila! You’re forgiven.

       The point here is that you are no better than the person or people that you’re looking down upon. Doesn’t your Bible say something about “Judge not – lest ye be judged”? So what is all this bullshit about God’s grace being something bestowed upon you while he denies it from others? As Jean Knight would have asked you in her 1971 cut, “Mr. Big Stuff – who do you think you are?”

       Black people: we ain’t favored by nobody. We squander our skills, talent and intelligence by laying everything at the feet of the people who oppress us. Graduating from school only to venture out looking for a white man to “adopt” us. We get money from one oppressive system in the guise of “paychecks” and then turn around and give it back and boast about having to “pay bills.” To you, paying bills is some kind of maturity “rite of passage.” Your pensions are a joke and you see how black women are disrespected and are so confused they walk around with other people’s hair in their head, nails done by an alien race, and carrying enough weight to crunch a sidewalk. Black men are on the down low, locked up, gay or locked up.

        And you’ve got the nerve to say nothing when the highest ranking black man in history (not most powerful, highest ranking) says, to a group of young black men who are about to leave college and engage in the same activities I’ve just described, “But not for the grace of God go I”?

       There may or may not be a Supreme Being that is more than the way it’s described by organized religion. And if that is true and this entity is omnipotent, then “it” should be judged based on the decisions it’s made. A key reality is this: a worldwide minority of people controls the majority of the world. Based on that control there are on-going wars, exploitation, thievery and murder, all committed in the name of “the American way.” And you are all a part of it because your silence is consent.

       So the next time you hear somebody talk about “But not for the grace of God go I,” you think about that shit. You ask yourself, “when all is said and done, how “blessed” am I really?” If you’re truthful with yourself, the answer may prevent you from uttering such an asinine and arrogant statement in the future. 

Michael and Kobe: What They Are and What They COULD Do

My dog’s better than your dog/My dog’s better than yours/My dog’s better ‘cause he eats Ken-L-Ration/My dogs better than yours.”

Many of you won't remember the lyrics above, but as you can guess, they had to do with selling dog food. And it worked. They used kids' voices to sing the little theme, and they added, “Ken-L-Ration has real lean meat/and lots of other good things/When my mother goes to the store/she buys a million cans or more.”

Now you're going to ask, what does a dog food commercial have to do with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant? One of the signs of genius is to make things that are dissimilar, similar. The commercial promotes a product that gets people to buy into it because they actually believe that there is a special food for dogs. Why? Because if it's on TV, it must be true. This is how I believe American fans view Jordan and Kobe: as being beyond reproach and criticism and as a result, everything they do is approved and sanctioned. I'm a black man and I have different standards. I'm not going to fall for the okey-doke and believe that because “they” say it, that makes it so. Ken-L-Ration was peddled to the American public as “model dog food” in the same way that Jordan and Bryant are peddled as “role models” (as in “I wanna be like Mike,” remember that?)

The question is what has “Mike” done for US lately and for that matter, what about “the Black Mamba” (that's about the only thing other than his skin color that's black that he seems to associate with).

When people attempt to make it appear as if human relations in this country are improving, those of us with an IQ have to laugh. And when those human relations become more specific and we interject the variable of race, the situation goes beyond the laughable to the pitiful.

Black people have to start thinking as if they care about black people who are not their relatives or close friends. We have to realize that our oppression is collective and, as a result, so too should be our response to it. Our numbers are dwindling and anyone who is watching can tell that what we think is “black political empowerment” is really nothing more than “influence pedding.” Look at it: what do we control? Nothing. BET is sold to the Japanese, as was Essence magazine. We have some alright smaller stations (probably the best is Bounce TV), but none of them addresses critical issues. As soon as a black anchor receives some fame, he or she is off to a major white station.

We can do better and we can be better. But the best among us has to set the pace and the standard. True, many of them are idiots. But they still have the kind of visibility that could be transferred into action that would upgrade black communities and make up for the fact that these former slaveowners are never going to pay reparations.

But I digress.

Back during the days of enslavement, the plantations would often pit their “strongest buck” against another, a precursor to what I view as the modern day tendency to pit black men who have achieved on the national plantation, called America, against one another. Richard Pryor vs. Eddie Murphy, Denzel vs. Samuel L., Whitney vs. Aretha, and so on. Sports is no exception and the one competitive comparison that continues year after year is the one that asks, “Who’s the best: Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.” Let me settle the argument for you once and for all: ain’t neither one of them worth a shit.

Within the sphere of basketball the argument is moot. I never saw Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant make a single shot or move on an NBA court that I haven’t saw a kid make on the playgrounds or during pickup in college. Black men are black men and are creative, period. Both Jordan and Bryant have scored numerous points, won numerous championships and made a whole lot of money for themselves, but even more for the corporations that they represent – mostly selling shoes that black kids and their families can’t afford. In some cases, that black and Latino kids will kill for.

But these men are more than athletes and before you can talk about “who’s the best” on the court you have to ask why an answer would be so important – and to whom. In the greater context, does it matter? But you know what DOES matter? What these black men who have tens of millions of dollars are doing for black people. I’m not talking about their bullshit charities and/or contributions to the master pimp known as the United Way. I’m talking about an impact on communities where their people are powerless in a nation where power is valued above all else.

Here’s seven (7) reasons why I came to the conclusion that I came to above.

First, neither one of them seems to care enough about black women to marry and stay with one. Jordan screwed around behind Juanita’s back, paid off white women to keep quiet and has now finally married one. That’s his business. Kobe, out of high school, married this fine-ass Latina and then put his entire career on the line for some booty in a Colorado hotel.

Secondly, neither of them seems to have a political opinion to save their lives. When black people face a major disaster like Katrina, the most you can see them do is have their managers make a small donation – if that. If these two men called a press

conference and asked their corporate contacts to contribute money for housing, that disaster would have been quelled in months. Instead, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick, Jr., and Wynton Marsalis had to do it.

Third, neither misses a chance to kiss some white man’s ass. In the case of Kobe, it’s Phil Jackson and Duke’s Mike Krzyewski (another thing they have in common is that neither one of them can spell it) . With Michael it’s the same two along with Warren Buffett. These men do nothing for people of color other than pimp them. Michael and Kobe could do more to culturally sensitize these men to start some kind legal fund to help defend and develop college athletes. Do they? No.

Fourth, neither one has done a damn thing to try to get those ticket prices dropped so that young black kids can get into those games. When these kids are invited in, they have to sit up in the nosebleed sections of the Staples Center or Chicago Stadium. They could do more but simply will not.

Fifth, because I have such low regard for them as bruthas, maybe they could make up for their hedonistic transgressions by creating the Jordan-Bryant National Fundraising Initiative. What white segregationist millionaire wouldn’t pay $10,000 per ticket to attend a lecture by Jordan, Kobe or one of their NBA cohorts? That money could be placed in an account at a “negro” bank and then used to fund innovative projects in black communities, especially housing programs since Community Development Block Grants are dwindling thanks to the thievery of white mayors. They could also contribute to various AIDS projects around the nation because 40% of all new AIDS cases are black women – most likely infected by former inmates.

Sixth, in regard to those inmates. How are you going to do commercials for the United Way and these other poverty pimps when you won’t help the one group that is most in need of help: black men who are locked up? How can you read the newspaper to check box scores every morning (if you can read) and not know that black men are disproportionately represented in the nations lockups, even in states like Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Idaho? The creation of the Jordan-Bryant Prison Project, where at least they could get funding provided for those who are recently released (and therefore reduce the recidivism rates).

A seventh reason for why I say that neither Jordan or Bryant amounts to shit is because they won’t do more to support African-American studies at the universities they attended. Kobe didn’t go to college, but could surely make a contribution to places like Temple, which is in Philadelphia. Every NBA team has a major college nearby that at least has a Black Studies program. Black people, like Jordan and Bryant, suffer from an identity crisis spawned by 400 years of white oppression. You can’t liberate the body until you liberate the mind. National funding for our departments, matched by the National Humanities Council, would go a long way toward raising the consciousness of future generations of Black and white kids.

I could continue, but as the Muslim brothers say, “the hour has been well-spent.” An argument about who is “better” between Kobe and Michael is specious because neither of them is worth a dime when it comes to their role in helping those who were there for them before white folks “discovered” them. They can do more than buy mansions and Mercedes’ for their parents and relatives. And they can get Nike to get up off their chopstick wielding asses and do more as well.

Until then, “My dogs faster, 'cause he eats Ken-L-Ration, my dog's faster than yours! I have spoken. Don’t like it? Tough.

Radicalization? Here’s Why and How, Nitwits

Radicalization? Here’s Why and How, Nitwits

Dr. Matthew C. Stelly

      What is “radicalization,” you may ask. It’s a word being tossed around after, once again, it is discovered that people right here in the United States are planning and plotting to blow up buildings, kill people and otherwise undermine the nation. The response or “explanation” is that somehow these people “are becoming radicalized” and the followup questions are, “how is this possible?” “Why is this taking place?”

     “Radicalization” simply means “to make radical, especially in politics.” To act as if we don’t know what the reasons for these anti-social actions are taking place is ridiculous. America was conceived in radical activity and this nation has glorified it and reveled in it. “We killed the Indians,” “We put the blacks in slavery,” and more recently, a president (George Bush) declared from the deck of a battleship, “bring it.” He had no idea that the people bringing it would be living within the boundaries of America.

         Teaching western civilization in a way that implies that Greeks and Romans invested the air is a part of the radicalization mechanism. Radicalization takes place with each pink slip that’s issues after promises of long-term employment. With no regard for families, these corporations take their profits and talk of “downsizing” and “budget cuts.” Families are left to fend for themselves. And the recent subprime lending scam, carried out in full view of lawmakers, surely pissed a lot of people off and led to the biggest housing catastrophe in American history.

       Can’t you see it? George Clinton once sang that, “America eats its young.” The world is watching. The people watching today are the grandchildren of the people that his nation bombed and beat up. Every other movie that hits the theatre is presenting someone from the Middle East as “an enemy.” People are beginning to notice that America has the largest prison system in the world and that large numbers of those people are brown and black.

        Here’s a major example of America’s bombast and why people who are watching hold this country in contempt.

        A man -- former veterans -- Chris Kyle, who killed 160 people as a “sniper” has had a school named after him, Texas television pre-empting regular programming to show his funeral process (100 miles), has had a statue built and now none other than Bradley Cooper has been hired to play the role (with Steven Spielberg directing) in a movie about this guy’s life. What is a sniper? It’s someone who hides behind a rock or a tree and then shoots people. But here’s my point: most of his victims were brown people. Has anybody noticed that? On top of that, he’s not just a veteran, he’s a “hero,” dubbed “America’s deadliest sniper.” That’s like referring to Jack the Ripper or the Boston Stranger as “the world’s most aggressive feminists”!

        What is the message being sent all over the world? Kill people of color and you’ll be rewarded. You’ll argue that “they kill white people, too.” So that supports my point in terms of how the U.S. is being perceived.

       Where is all this radicalization coming from? It’s coming from right here in Washington, DC and its long-time policies. Slowly but surely America is becoming a dictatorship and is violating the privacy rights of its own gullible citizens. Having become a debtor nation, this country is farming jobs out to other countries and raising college tuition; revising its history and working to eliminate its racist past from movies and old-time TV shows. In other words it’s covering its tracks. Why? Because those tracks lead to many of the reasons why this nation has become a bastion for radicalization.

         America is so infected that even when it tries to do right it does wrong. You see it almost every week: some politician, whose role it is to use words and create images, has made some “racial” or “sexual” gaff and has to issue an apology. What’s inside usually comes out, and not always in a drunken stupor. Look at the composition of Congress: there’s your answer. The same people who have made decisions for centuries are still there in the guise of their progeny – progeny who, like their ancestors, believe in talking about equality while living in gated communities.

        Because of its history and tendency toward sensationalism, America has provided a rationale for radicalism. Just because it’s disguised in an earth vs. alien motif or humans versus zombies background doesn’t hide the fact that this is a country that beliefs in shooting first and then shouting, “halt!” Cartoons that teach young children every bad manner and habit in the book. And it’s been this way since the days of Little Black Sambo, when hundreds of thousands of kids had to sit in classrooms and listen to this crap. It happens when people talk about being “politically correct” so that they won’t slip up and say “nigger” or “spic.” Black women lightening their skin while white women get tans in an attempt to darken theirs. As the Last Poets album denotes, “This is Madness!”

      As most of us know, history shows two tendencies: that which rises and comes into power and then that which withers away like the last leaves of a painfully prolonged autumn. America is in the latter stages and simply chooses to go out “in a blaze of glory” (ala Rome). The National Rifle Association, the Tea Party movement, anti-immigrant hysteria (when white folks are the real illegal aliens) and the rise of a social networking movement that has people looking at i-pods as the world is crumbling around them – this is a sign of “the end of days.”

        I’m no Christian because I don't associate with any religion - none of them - that want to relegate women to second class status (and most of them do). But I do believe this: “whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Look around you: what some call radicalization is a response to this mass insanity. 

       And we have only ourselves to blame.

The Block Grant Fiasco: Land Use, Code Enforcement and Racism

OMAHA CODE ENFORCEMENT AS THE NEW URBAN

RACISM: Critique and Case Studies (Part 1 of a 3-part series)

By: Matthew C. Stelly, Director

Triple One Neighborhood Association

 I’m not an attorney but while in graduate school I always tried to enroll in at least one law class for the intellectual challenge. While excelling in them all, I also learned a great deal about the areas of law that I was most interested in: Communications Law, Civil Rights Law and, most germane to this essay, Urban Law and Legislation.

In this latter course, at the University of Iowa, I learned about how new forms of discrimination can take place and those in power can make the claim that its not about race. My insights and papers turned that class on its ear and, as was the case in most classes I had, my views were the basis of discussion for the rest of the class. I became fascinated with zoning and code enforcement-related issues.

In the case of Urban Law and Legislation, I learned about an early 1926 case dealing with zoning, Euclid vs. Ambler Realty. To sum up, the Ambler Realty company got the village of Euclid (Ohio) to enact zoning regulations that, in effect, ripped off this man’s land. The appellees – the town – claimed that their rights under the 14^th Amendment were violated, that the village had taken its land without due process of law the village used “the police power.” This is a power that can take land if it is an issue of safety and welfare of the community.

What a crock.

The holding was that any zoning ordinance has to be for the benefit of the public welfare, and has to be considered in connection with the circumstances and the locality. And here is what I found most important: the line which separates legitimate from illegitimate assumption of power depends on the circumstances and the conditions. The specifics of the case are not all that important, but here is what is: North Omaha and the long-time abuse and thievery of land over the past four decades.

As an urbanologist, I thought I’d write about it. Over the years I’ve helped scores of Omahans keep their houses and I’ve watched as others simply had the homes ripped up from under them by jealous relatives, drug-fiend kids and, in all cases, unscrupulous attorneys. They know who they are, and many of them are African-American.

At any rate, a situation is now underway that involves Code Enforcement here in Omaha, and in my view, it is the “new urban racism.” Outsiders don’t have the guts to come into our communities with signs, burning crosses and spewing forth racial slurs. But the Planning Department of this city has done more than its share to divide, disrupt and decimate North Omaha over the years. Not once has a single member ever accepted my challenge to a debate.

 To many Anglos, if a house looks bad on the outside, it should be torn down. Many don’t consider the people who live inside or the role that the city played in denying benefits and abusing grant funds that could have repaired those homes.

CODE ENFORCEMENT: THE NEW “EVICTION”

One has to wonder if the City of Omaha is using the stimulus money made available by President Barack Obama to obtain property that has been in North Omaha for many years. The fact is, such land-grabbing has been going on in North Omaha for decades and even former planning director Charlie Hill admitted as much.

Charlie Hill was in charge of code enforcement, the same department that Mulcahy now works for. An August 31, 1980 article in the Omaha World Heraldlays the blame squarely at Hill’s door: “[Charlie] Hill… said Omaha’s condemnation proceedings that start with complaints. There is no plan for routine inspection of buildings to ensure compliance with building codes, Hill said. As for condemnations … it appears to him the city may have been overly diligent in condemning property in North Omaha. Many buildings probably could have been saved with effort toward rehabilitation, he said, but instead they were condemned and torn down.”

The same mentality exists to this very day – “Oops, I did it again” seems to be the philosophy of the decision makers in the Code Enforcement Division of the Omaha Planning Department. They apparently don’t study or conduct any research on the housing stock but, instead, have always been at the beckon call of developers who come in with fancy charts, lovely architectural renderings and promises of making the city rich. The key, as far as a number of North Omahans are concerned, has always been to tear down North Omaha and divide it while building downtown, the near South side, far west Omaha, Midtown and the riverfront. Then, once North Omaha stands wobbling, they move in and claim that they want to save the day. But some damage, once done, cannot be rectified. And these planners, who have worked together to subjugate the residents of North Omaha, well know it.

So then it’s not just a random act or an “accident.” Why not? Because the demolition continued. Look what was happening in the ‘60s:

The Near North Side’s population plummeted from 29,655 in 1960 to 9,190 in 1990, census figures show. More than half of the 8,923 housing units counted in the 1960 Census have been condemned and bulldozed. And 357 of the 765 businesses or other non-housing units burned, moved or closed. About 60 additional buildings are slated for demolition, spared for now because the city lacks funds to pay contractors, said Ken Taylor, chief city building inspector. “It is a sad state of affairs,” Taylor said. “If the statistics are true, there won’t be much there in 25 years” (Smith, 1991: 8).

Condemnation and bulldozing – both forms of social control in and of themselves. The fact is, negative publicity and stigma aimed at North Omaha was a reality even back then. And the stigma continues today, and the housing being provided is nothing more than replacement housing aimed at filling in the areas that were left vacant because of the demolish-oriented actions outlined in the preceding excerpt.

But even before that Omaha’s housing rehabilitation had been labeled one of the worst in the country. Again, after being selected as the director of Housing and Community Development, Hill could no longer point fingers at someone else, the way he had earlier. And, in fact, in an April 2, 1980 article he went on record as telling the City Council that the housing rehabilitation program was “one of the worst I’ve ever seen” (Omaha World Herald, 1980: 4).

These folks admit their wrongdoing only when caught, when they are about to leave for a better job, or about to retire. This is a method that has been used by these evildoers since the turn of the century. And the white public says nothing and blacks are afraid to say anything.

Moving on to the politics and economics of urban planning and housing control, it becomes clear that these city planners, code enforcers and so on have found a number of ways to bring in enormous sums of money to invest in whatever they want to do while North Omaha, whose poverty qualifies the City for much of the money, goes on ignored and neglected.

For instance, in recent years, this city has upgraded its downtown (including the construction of the First National Bank Building, tallest building in the Midwest), put tens of millions into riverfront development, including a multi-million dollar Qwest Center, new hotels (Hilton, Embassy Suites) and even a baseball stadium that will be used for two weeks out of the year (to host the national College World Series). West Omaha continues to grow and annexation takes place so that the city can increase its population and, as such, qualify for more Federal dollars. The “Midtown” project even included granting mega-giant Mutual of Omaha area “blight designation” status so they could qualify for Tax incremental financing and construct for less money. What were they building? More businesses around the Mutual of Omaha domed cafeteria, including more restaurants, shops and retail stores. How many North Omaha residents will get jobs in any one of these businesses? Check it out for yourself.

This is part of a “Midtown Project” which is an area that has little, if any blight. And yet two miles to the north is the poorest community in the state of Nebraska (outside of the Indian reservations), and the monies that the city qualifies for to provide housing and jobs for that area has been historically abused.

Need proof? The following chart was put together after months of painstaking research to show how the city of Omaha has received millions in Community Development Block Grant monies, thanks to the existence of a “pocket of poverty.” That pocket is a code name for North Omaha – the black community. This is from 1975 through 1995, a 20-year period, and since 1995 the city has received at least $56 million more:

Table 1. CDBG Allocations to the City of Omaha, 1975-1995

Year of CDBG	Amount Of Grant
1975	$1,390,000
1976	3,088,000
1977	5,178,000
1978	5,226,000
1979	5,589,000
1980	5,912,000
1981	5,900,000
1982	5,842,000
1983	5,603,000
1984	5,034,000
1985	4,833,000
1986	4,057,000
1987	4,078,000
1988	3,715,000
1989	3,868,000
1990	3,654,000
1991	3,470,000
1992	5,587,000
1993	6,409,000
1994	7,024,000
1995	7,335,000

*add $472,000 in disaster

funds

**add $928,000 in

disaster funds

When then, is enough, enough? Why are they continuing to condemn housing, force North Omahans to seek injunctions and pay huge sums to save what housing there is in the area, only to turn around and still pay developers millions to “develop” an area that will then be transformed into a place where blacks will not be able to afford to live, play or work?

In North Omaha the residents strive to be home owners because for the most part, that is their part of the American Dream. The Drakefords were no exception. Their family, one of the few dual-parent stable families that was left, paid taxes and the children were law-abiding. The picture being painted of the way that Omaha treats its poor is for Blacks to buy homes in North Omaha because that is where they are most affordable, but to beware, because these are homes that they will lose eventually lose due to the high tax rates and the convincing arguments of developers who always target areas that are weakest: buy low, sell high.

This is of course the plan of these greedy developers and city planners. They look at North Omaha residents in the same way as the drug pushers view the residents of the area: as old fools to be used, laughed at, stepped on and pushed aside so that they can come in, set up shop, and make a profit while the residents either leave or die from fear.

          When it comes to the taking of housing and the zoning manipulation that takes place, the local planning departments of all major cities rein without rival. Omaha is no exception; if this series has proven anything, I hope that readers understand that when all is said and done, this could be you.

Nobody can get any money with these programs created through CDBG because of the qualifications that the City of Omaha has established – the government gives each city leeway and flexibility, believing that these planning departments will know much better what areas need the help and, with this knowledge, will disperse the money appropriately and fairly.

But that is foolish thinking when there is more than 30 years of evidence of abuse of CDBG funds in Omaha. They take the CDBG money and create programs that totally omit North Omaha. In fact, even the town of Council Bluffs Iowa gets more out of the CDBG funds than North Omaha does!

Omaha intentionally creates these standards so that the only people that can qualify for these programs are those who are outside of North Omaha, for the most part. The excuses, when it comes to minorities,range from “not enough money,” “you owe back taxes” to, get this: “the house is too far gone.” Now most of us know as the old saying teaches: “A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul." Our houses and apartments mean as much to us as the domiciles of West Omahans mean to them. When will the Planning Department and Code Enforcers appreciate this basic fact?

        Moreover, the house would not be “too far gone” had the city done its job 34 years ago when they got the first of its CDBG monies! And why does the quality of the house make a difference? It makes a difference because THEY want it; and when they get it, just like they did with Tech High’s building, all of a sudden money will be FOUND!

    surely, you know the story of what is now the Teacher Administration Center (TAC building) at 3215 Cuming Street. When it was the home to black students back in the 1960s and a model for the rest of the nation, that was too much like right for city planners. So they neglected it and then destroyed it. When changes were requested they claimed to not have the money. Then they waited. And waited. And then when the dust settled and black people “forgot” about those great Tech days, they suddenly came up with the money and, voila! A marble-walled, carpeted empire, replete with state of the art technology and administrative offices that would make Congressmen green with envy.

The same method of operation is taking place with the land in North Omaha.

The purpose of the Community Development Block Grant program was to build low income areas with jobs, social services and improving the housing stock. The city of Omaha is not alone in taking those rules and twisting them. Complaints abound around the country about the way that low income areas are being ignored despite the fact that these cities are receiving millions of dollars to “help” or “aid” them. Whether you are talking about Milwaukee’s northside, Chicago’s west side, Oakland’s west side, Dallas’ east side, or wherever, our poverty is generating hundreds of millions of dollars, free money, from the Federal government. But once it arrives in these cities, Black folk and the areas that we are funneled into are forgotten about, as friends of the Planning Department suddenly find jobs, while the inner city becomes to weak to do anything but wander.

Organizers to Save the Drakeford Home

A decade ago I created the North Omaha Development Advisory Board, an entity that would have input into how the CDBG monies were supposed to be spent. But before the deadline for ideas and proposals arrived, the City already had the money spent! They are in direct violation of the “citizen participation” componet of the CDBG guidelines, but hold mock meetings “inviting” people out. It is strictly a façade and a front: they show a video, listen to a few “community leaders” and then go on about business as usual: giving money to political cronies, long-term friends and organizations that hire outsiders to “deal with the problems” of North Omahans.

       For more information call the Triple One Neighborhood Association at 402-991-5913, or the Uhuru Sasa Research Institute at 972-217-0825.