The Legacy of Dr. King's Vision

On the eve of the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, the impending sense of change felt across this nation is intense and immediate.

Magnified by the observation of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. it lends a transcendental quality to the moment unfolding before us.

What is taking place before the scrutiny of the lens and the pen that will describe this moment in history and the eyes of millions of observers is nothing less than a new declaration of an awakening of our collective consciousness.

The culturegeist is evolving before our very eyes.

It's not just for black people, or Democrats, or for Americans but for the world and for humanity. Millions of people across the globe recognize this sense that we are witnessing the ascension of an intelligent and pragmatic world leader grounded in humanity and character; tethered by his faith.

Every media channel is poised to capture each moment of the time-honored ceremony about to take place in the Nation's Capitol. The millions of people who've descended upon the city to witness the occasion or simply "be there" will stretch the limits of the bandwidths and electronic conduits through which millions of gigabytes of data will flow back and forth between mobile devices and computers well into the night.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been 80 years old last Thursday January 15th had he not fallen to an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here in America one of the ways we recognize King's legacy as a human rights icon and transformative figure is with the observance of a federal holiday on the third Monday of each January.

There's a powerful Tsunami of change pushing it's way through America. Towards a more advanced and inclusive culture born of the core of our country's complex history. It's part of a movement with many soldiers and participants; many heroes and many martyrs.

It didn't just start with Obama but his character, ideas about this nation and record as a politician have placed him in synch as the path of this wave prepares to usher in unprecedented change.

Dr. King could not have wished for a greater gift.

Watch the "I Have a Dream Speech"

Still Afraid of the Dark? Madison Avenue Gets an 'F' for Diversity in New Report

A January 8th Adweek article rips into the the advertising industry for it's dismal record of hiring minorities and a culture which discourages hiring or promoting people of color.

In a story that ran on the Media & Advertising page of the New York Times Stuart Elliot focused on the collaborative efforts of attorney Cyrus Mehri and the NAACP to bring attention to the advertising industry's dismal record of creating a racially diverse workplace.

On Thursday Mehri and representatives from the NAACP held a press conference in New York to announce the initiative Mehri's firm Mehri & Skalet calls 'The Madison Avenue Project'. They released a 100-page report, 'Research Perspectives on Race and Employment in the Advertising Industry' that outlines their conclusions.

The Times' piece quotes Mehri as saying: “Forty-five years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it’s still a closed society,” he added, where “favoritism rules and merit is cast aside.”

For anyone familiar with the media industry, this does not come as earth-shattering news by any means. For years Madison Avenue has taken heat for keeping it's ranks essentially closed to people of color and today it remains the most segregated professional sector in the United States.

They were talking about the same thing 30 years ago.

For example, the report released Thursday (click the link above for a PDF of the report) cites in part: "In 1978 the New York City Human Rights Commission found that limited minority employment (in the advertising industry) was 'not simply the result of neutral forces, but emanated directly from discriminatory practices.'"

It wouldn't be accurate to malign everyone in the advertising business for bearing responsibility for the entrenched culture of hierarchy quietly linked through connections through school, family or professional association; and skin color.

To be fair, a number of professionals from the industry have made calls over the years for the industry to improve it's track record of minority hiring and recruitment. The advertising organization known as the 4A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) has made efforts, such as their 2005 Diversity Career Fair pictured above.

But the industry has yet to undertake a serious effort to back up the scattered rhetoric usually bandied about during Adweek or in February during Black History Month.

Mehri, who has a proven track record of successfully bringing suits against large corporations including the NFL, is leading what seems the most concrete initiative to encourage changes within the industry.

I for one hope it takes root, I used to temp for ad agencies in the mid 90's when I moved to Manhattan and let me tell you as a black man I felt like an alien walking around a new landscape.

But it's so much more than any one group of people feeling anger at restrictions built into the structure of the industry they are excluded from.

Through a constantly-evolving media merger of images, text, colors, sounds, shapes, words and music delivered to Americans across a range of media platforms, advertising wields enormous power and influence in shaping the ideas and concepts we have about ourselves and the society we live in.

By all rights it makes sense that the industry should be comprised of a collective workforce that mirrors the fabric of the nation.

But unfortunately, as Cryus Mehri reminded the attendees during Thursday's press conference, entertainer Nat King Cole once shrewdly observed;

"The advertising industry is afraid of the dark."

Cyrus Mehri accuses the industry of non compliance.

Riots Erupt in Oakland After Police Fatally Shoot 22 Year-Old African-American in the Back

I hate doing this kind of blog entry but it's happened once again.

Police have fatally shot and killed yet another unarmed African-American male citizen of the United States.

CNN.com reports on riots and mass arrests of protesters in Oakland, California in the wake of community outrage over the death of 22 year-old Oscar Grant, a father who was shot in the back by Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle as he lay face down on the ground while another officer had him subdued on the ground of a train station.

Multiple witnesses at the scene captured the shooting on video which sent community residents into a fury. Apparently Grant and two friends were pulled from a BART train for being involved in a brawl around 2am as they celebrated New Years at the popular Embarcadero waterfront area in San Francisco.

Racial injustice over the shooting sent crowds into a fury on Wednesday night to protest against excessive use of force by police.

Interestingly, national media attention seems more drawn to the riots that have erupted in the wake of the shooting than the actual shooting itself.

Why aren't police held accountable for excessive use of force in this nation?

Watch the video for yourself, why would a police officer need to shoot an unarmed suspect already held to the ground?

Fortuno's Victory in Puerto Rico Brings Hope to Moderate Republicans

Addendum to my last post about Ann Coulter and Chip Saltsman.

This morning as I read through the Wall Street Journal I came upon clear evidence that reasonable-minded and principled Republicans were just as sick as I am of the right-wing nut jobs of the conservative movement (*see Ann Coulter) garnering the lion's share of media attention as the nation prepares to close the door on the Bush/Cheney presidency and celebrate the innauguration of president-elect Obama.

Easha Anand put the spotlight on the newly-elected governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno in this morning's Journal. The 48-year old Hispanic politician (pictured above) is the kind of candidate many Republicans see as the real future of the party.

At Georgetown University he subscribed to the William F. Buckley-founded National Review and counts Ronald Reagan as his hero.

Part of that future is certainly Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Elected in the fall of 2007, he was the first Indian-American and first non-white politician since Reconstruction elected to the office of governor in the state of Louisiana.

Jindal and Fortuno are part of the base of a potential bridge to the millions of conservative Hispanic, African-American and other minority voters the GOP often ignores in the planks of their political platform and alienates in the execution of their core ideals; a few politicians not withstanding.

Certainly the National Black Republican Association might take issue with that statement. The short-list for GOP party head includes two African-American men.

Michael Steele has become more familiar on the national stage in recent years. The bespectacled former Maryland lieutenant governor addressed the party delegates at last summer's Republican National Convention.

His views are seen as somewhat more moderate than fellow black Republican Party chair-candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, the ex-secretary of state of Ohio (a critical battleground for presidential delegates. Blackwell led a 2004 Ohio amendment to ban recognition of same-sex marriages, supports gun ownership rights and opposes abortion.

Those positions might sound conservative but they mirror the views of millions of African-American and other minority voters the GOP has yet to put out the welcome mat for.

When Jindal first won in Louisiana there was definitely something of a magical quality to his public personae and his eloquence. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and serious questions about government responses to the crisis he seemed to symbolize and radiate a sense of hope.

His intelligence and forthright manner remind me very much of a Democratic candidate who moved from notoriety as a state politician to national office with incredible speed - Barack Obama.

Jindal "has that", back in October I blogged that he was going to change the face of the Republican party. He was born in 1960 and raised in a middle-class suburban environment with parents who instilled a combination of conservative traditional Indian and American values into his character along with a genuine love for the nation.

No coincidence that the Fortuno piece ran in the Wall Street Journal either.

Irrespective of your opinion of Rupert Murdoch it's an excellent newspaper that bears the standard of what I consider (for the most part) to be a progressive, pro-capitalist conservative mindset.

It's the perspective of many (I suspect) who silently yearn to distance the GOP from it's current conventional wisdom tag as a party that has no interest in appealing to a wider spectrum of Americans that represent different races, religions, backgrounds, sexual orientation and nationalities.

Guys like Furtuno and Jindal are the Republican party's first steps on the long road back to a White house they probably won't see until at least 2016 at the earliest. After their bruising defeats in the recent elections the GOP is clearly facing an immediate, crucial and defining moment in their party's history.

Let's face it people, from a pure media perspective, the Republican Brand is dead in the water.

Will they shift their ideals to embrace the America that is, or will they continue to give off the impression that they're scared of it?

As long as Republican Party chair-candidate Chip Saltsman can send copies of "Barack the Magic Negro" out to the current members of the Republican National Committee as Christmas presents, that Elephant ain't gonna hunt.

Coulter Gets Cancelled - RNC's Saltsman Defends Sending Out Copies of "Barack the Magic Negro" to RNC Comm Members

In recent days the acrimonious cogs of the more conservative elements of the Republican media machine have kicked into high gear with an all-out assault on the African-American president elect they worked so hard to defeat in 2008 - they're even chucking pot shots at the future First Lady too.

Rising out of the political primordial ooze of cess-pool media with her bizarre mix of fact-bending empty right-wing rhetoric and intellectual hot air is Ann Coulter. Concocting a book that Media Matters identifies as filled with unsupported claims and complete fabrications.

After being deluged with e-mails and calls (prompted by Media Matters.org I called last Friday and left a message, call 212-664-4444 and share your opinion!) NBC bowed to pressure and pulled the plug on Coulter's appearance to plug her book on the Today Show.

Kudos to the cooler heads who prevailed in THAT decision. Who honestly thinks the network that partially defined the 2008 presidential election with Tina Fey's hysterical lampooning of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin can, in good conscience provide a platform for Ann Coulter to pitch a book filled with lies and distortion?

Who's the Einstein over at 30 Rock who booked her in the first place?

While I'm glad viewers will be spared from having to listen to her, part of me feels bad that there are people who won't get to hear and appreciate the racist, anti-Semitic schpeel that comes out of her mouth when she knows a camera or a mic is on.

She's so obstinate and grimly spunky, I really admire her steadfast determination to defy reason, truth and sense and live her life from her own perspective, however irrational it is. It lends truth to the oft-repeated phrase; Dinosaurs DO walk the earth.

Oh but wait! There's music in the air to accompany this multi-pronged assault too!

Also leaving pockmarks strewn across the media landscape is the now-infamous CD that Republican National Committee chair-candidate Chip Saltsman sent out to members of the Republican National Committee as a stocking stuffer for Christmas.

It includes the song first played on Rush Limbaugh's show back in 2007, "Barack the Magic Negro" , but it doesn't stop there! This kooky collection of juvenile racist slag also includes such holiday classics as "The Star Spanglish Banner" and "Ivory and Ebony". Really.

And this comes from a guy in the running to HEAD the GOP? From CNN:
"I think most people recognize political satire when they see it," Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. "I think RNC members understand that."

Um, okay. Chip.

In the face of one of the most challenging times in American history it's reassuring to see the GOP making these efforts to broaden the reach of their party and reach out to a wider demographic and counter the perception that the GOP is simply not equipped to serve the needs of the millions of people who voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

You have to wonder how many of those voters were voting AGAINST the very message the noisiest wing of the GOP media seems to be sending out on all frequencies these days. Coming in loud and clear with seemingly little interference from the more reasoned minds of the Republican Party.

Coulter lampooned on SNL:

Madoff's Betrayal

I've been weighing the cultural fallout from Wall Street investor Bernard Madoff's recent admission to authorities that his financial firm was just an elaborate scam.

The majority of the media attention about the curious case of this entrenched financial con artist (pictured left) has been focused on the alarming scale of the scheme, the failure of government agencies to react to the warning signs and the high-profile investors he swindled.

But what kind of impact will this shameful $50 billion scandal have on our country and culture? The extent of the damaged to his victims clearly goes way past money.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was a descendant of French royalty and sailing enthusiast whom many wealthy European investors (including members of the Rothschild family) entrusted with growing their capital in US markets.

He was just one of the wealthy fund managers who watched their investments vanish into thin air after Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme unraveled recently.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning December 23rd, just two days before Christmas Villehuchet was found dead at his desk his New York City office with his wrists slashed after he'd spent days trying frantically to recoup some of the $1.4 billion he'd invested with Madoff.

There were politicians impacted as well.

New Jersey Senator Senator Frank Lautenberg's charity lost money. On Christmas day Associated Press journalist Angela Delli Santi reported that New Jersey State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a 73 year-old grandmother was also one of Madoff's victims after her Los Angles-based money manager Stanley Chais informed her that their money had been invested with Madoff's firm - and there was nothing left of the $1.3 million she and her family had unknowingly invested with Madoff.

Her story was echoed in the Blogosphere as well.

Was it really worth it for Madoff? His once-sterling reputation on Wall Street will forever be overshadowed by the truth of the deprived nature and depth of his greed and deception.

I haven't seen a lot of mainstream media discussion about the impact on the Jewish community.

Nor have I seen a lot of dialogue about the unfortunate reality that the incident only serves to fuel the simmering stereotypes fueled by the age-old anti-Semitic images and distorted caricature of the "greedy Jewish banker" which still run through the fabric of this nation and in many parts of the globe.

I say that as an African-American guy who gets sick of hearing media headlines about ignorant criminal acts committed by young black men; it's not just that it's an embarrassment to the black community as a whole when I read about some kid in Brooklyn who attacks and beats an elderly woman of color in her building elevator for 30 bucks. To me that's a disturbing sign we ALL need to pay attention to.

So I wonder how Jewish people feel about Madoff.

How does a man pass himself off as a wealthy, well-connected financial genius for decades when he's just a guy who uses knowledge of the stock markets & institutional investing, common sales techniques, and a fictionalized word-of-mouth reputation to play on people's greed and loyalty to their faith?

I'll leave it to writers with far more expertise in the complexities of financial oversight to uncover the wordy, numbers-laden details surrounding exactly how this slick hustler pulled this off under the scrutiny of government regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Award-winning NY Times financial reporter Diane Henriques offered one of the best pieces I've read on the scandal and the man behind it; it helped offer some perspective to this complex case.

We're looking at a man who spent years on golf courses in the US and ski slopes in Europe culling relationships with influential investors, financiers, celebrities and bankers (often based on their shared Jewish heritage) and selling them an intoxicating cocktail of false word-of-mouth assurances of trust, inflated hard-to-believe yearly returns and the alluring promise of belonging to an elite company of prominent investors based on religious ties and wealth.

Bernie never used the hard sell, you had to be "referred" to him.

While hard work helped propel Madoff to the top of Wall Street and his early belief in electronic trading reflects his foresight, he is certainly not some kind of financial prodigy or market wizard as he was oft-called; for instance, according to the New York Times he had personal relations with one of the SEC officials charged with oversight of his "firm".

Even in normal circumstances there's something inherently distasteful about about a scam artist who serves his own greed by taking advantage of others in order to line his own pockets. But in the current economy it takes on a nauseating and distinctly un-American quality; even if he was duping the rich.

The Yeshivaworld.com Website offers interesting insight into the New York Hasidic community's thinking on current events. There are some Jewish people from New York who simply dismiss Madoff because he's not "really" Jewish.

A mistake is only a mistake if we learn nothing from it. Let's hope this doesn't just become another cultural marker of our times, another opportunity for people to make money.

What a sad statement of the inherent greed that in many ways defines our current culture.