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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5367
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 05:56 pm: | 
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“Ain’t No Such Thing As A Black Santa Claus:”
by Anthony Asadullah Samad
April 27, 2007
A great woman passed away this week. Congresswoman Juanita Millander-McDonald. She was a living example that if you stand for right and walk in faith, God will elevate you to places beyond your expectations. This woman was an advocate for the oppressed and underserved in the truest sense of the word. I'm not talking about what I've heard. I'm talking about what I know. I don't have a lot of respect for politicians. Most of them think you serve them, when they are supposed to be serving you. Juanita Millander-McDonald served her constituency every day she was in public office. She came out of the advocacy tradition and a sincere desire to uplift the downtrodden. She also worked to correct past wrong in our nation brought by slavery and segregation. This is a woman that I saw grow from a neighbor leader to a committee chair in Congress. But my greatest memory of Congresswoman Millander-McDonald was twenty years, before she even though of running for public office.
As a young NAACP branch president, my first national media issue involved a little L.A. suburb looking to maintain their dignity against a myth. The industrial city of Carson, which was a black city in the 1980s, was incorporated by many residents and looking to bring retail into the area. Its first shopping mall became the center of a national controversy when at the height of its holiday shopping season in 1988, its mall manager refused to employ a black man as Santa Claus. Employed by an outside contractor, the man, who was an unemployed construction worker showed up for work-ready to be the mall's Santa Claus (and his wife, Santa's elf) in order to make some extra money for Christmas. He was told that he couldn't possibly be the Santa Claus, because "ain't no such thing as a black Santa Claus." It showed to what extent that white people were prepared to exclude black people, not only from their reality, but also from their fiction. Racial insanity had now transcended the nation's biggest myth.
What happened then, I haven't seen in Southern California before or since. The local NAACP branch in Carson, knowing this issue was too big to handle-called in their "big brother" the 8,000 member Los Angeles Branch to mediate the situation. Then, without permission of the National Office of NAACP (who was butt-scratching on the issue for a whole week), the black residents of Carson called a boycott of the mall on Thanksgiving weekend-the busiest shopping day of the year-to send a signal to the mall owner that they were prepared to not shop there throughout the Christmas season (when retail merchants make 40% of their annual revenues). We counted fifteen (15) people in the mall the Friday after Thanksgiving. We, the NAACP and a group of Carson residents (of which Juanita was one of them), had a meeting with Mall ownership the following Tuesday. The owner made three offers to settle the issue. We rejected three offers. By the third offer, only Juanita and myself thought the offer was insufficient. Everybody else had caved and thought we were being unreasonable. Juanita spoke for the residents and I spoke for the NAACP. We met until 2 a.m. in the morning. And our terms were met. The residents got an advisory council that contributed to community programs. The black Santa Claus victim got a huge settlement.
And that mall has had a black Santa Claus every year for the past 20 years. Juanita Millander-McDonald became a local hero, ran for city council, then state assembly and subsequently U.S. Congress. She never deported from her quest for justice and equality.
Five years ago, Congresswoman Millander-McDonald went in search of the biggest crime never reported, the bankrupting of the Freedman's Bank in 1874. Set up to help freed enslaved African Americans to buy homes and farms, 72,000 depositors lost over $3 million dollars ($300 million 2007 dollars) with no justification as to where the money went. While all of the depositors were Black, most of the directors were White. The federal government never assumed responsibility for the loss, nor for the reimbursements that never occurred until Congresswoman Millander-McDonald raised a federal inquiry, 130 years later. We still don't know where the money went but we know at least one Congressperson over a hundred years tried to find it. Congresswoman Millander-McDonald was one of the first members of Congress to call out America's failure to address starvation and genocide in Darfur, and in the last few years her biggest fight was trying to fix America biggest travesty, the failure of the public school system.
On the fiftieth anniversary of Brown vs. The Board of Education, Congresswoman Millander-McDonald held panel discussion at the Congressional Legislative Black Caucus Weekend (which I was a part of), set up a national commission (of which I am a part of) to return to the premise of Brown and bring equal education to every child in America. As a school teacher from her heart, this was her passion and the kind of initiative that showed she never forgot the little people. She did so many other things, but these are the things I remember about a very special woman who gave everything she had to give to her people, her community and her nation.
Now every time I see a black Santa Claus at Christmas time, I'll say to myself, "Ain't no such thing as a black Santa Claus, right Congresswoman?" May Juanita Millander-McDonald rest in peace throughout all eternity.
Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum.com) and author of the upcoming book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/commentary.cfm?ArticleID=9202
Also quite moving…
The New Black-PERTs:
http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/editorial.cfm?ArticleID=9186 |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4275
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 10:14 am: |
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Or a white one, either. |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2099
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 07:51 am: |
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What I don't understand is our need to be so accepted by white america that we ignore our own businesses and become preoccupied with trying to participate in their world, which they have no qualms in telling us that they don't want us there.
Mr. Black Santa Claus and the entire black community of their area would have shown a whole lot more backbone and self-respect if they would have just accepted being showcased by a black business (and would have also brought in more blacks to that business).
Instead, he fights like hell to be the black Santa Claus at a white mall who DIDN'T WANT HIM
THERE, and now he's bringing in more black customers to that mall.
That's why I have such mixed feelings for integration. That everyone have the right to shop/go where they want is a good thing, but now it's the black businesses that suffer.
If you're ever in Atlanta, drive up AUBURN AVENUE and you'll see what I mean. This was the home of the first black-owned insurance company, and NUMEROUS prestigious companies, and Ebenezer Church. Now, the church is still there, a nightclub, a convenience store, and a small soul food restaurant. While the rest of the town has (THANKFULLY) started to see the rise of successful black owned business (which I attribute to the sheer numbers of blacks in Atlanta...heck, they can't ALL shop in one place), AUBURN AVENUE is a reminder of what happened when black people started to feel so "priviledged" to be able to work at white businesses, that they abandoned working in their own.
So, Mr. Black Santa Clause could have worked at a black business and brought all the black parents into that company hoping for pictures for their children. Instead he ignores them and fights to work at a business that doesn't want him, and now these black parents have to go to this place that didn't want them versus a black business that would have. Now, if they think they made a big impact of not shopping that mall on the Friday after Thanksgiving (trust me, they just showed up SATURDAY...they weren't doing nothing), imagine they impact if they had not shopped there anymore EVER and gone back to black businesses for the rest of the year....they're going to boycott a business that doesn't want them FOR ONE DAY, and then shop there EVERY DAY AFTERWARDS? *sigh*
Excuse me if I don't sing hallelujah. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5373
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 02:43 pm: |
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Reneta, I heard that it's mainly the lighter skinned Blacks that have it easy in Atlanta. I’ve heard this from a lot of people too…is it true?
Anyway, I'm not quite sure that a dark-skinned Black Santa would be as welcomed as you put it in every Black owned store.
...We’re just as colorist as they are racist.
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Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2106
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 03:30 pm: |
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I've NEVER seen a light skinned black Santa Claus in any mall here. I'm sure they exist, but I've never seen one.
I hear that the churches are "color-coded" like that, but I don't go to church, so I'm not sure. I've been to the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and I can promise you those people don't hang out in that neighborhood (or anywhere close to it, or probably not even INTOWN).
As for the rest of society, it isn't true. The center where my son used to go for speech therapy was owned and operated by an African woman (Nigerian to be exact). His first pediatrician was African, and the last day care he attended was owned and operated by a very dark skinned black woman whose own daughter was in Catholic school.
Even going to the pharmacy, you typically see two types of people: dark skinned black women, and Indian men.
I've only ever seen one light skinned policeman, and he was actually albino. Again, I'm sure they exist SOMEWHERE....I just don't see them myself.
This is in Atlanta/College Park/East Point. I can't say much about the other parts of the metro area.
Walk outside of Spelman/Morehouse/Clark-Atlanta for 5 minutes in any direction: mostly dark skinned people and many of them dress in African inspired fashions purchased in that very area from African or Island people.
I can't say where your friends may have been hanging out....maybe in the outer suburbs or something. |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2107
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 03:40 pm: |
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Also, tell them to check to check out their DOCTORS and nurses whenever they go in for appointments. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5374
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 04:25 pm: |
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Reneta,
My friend spent most of her time with "ballers", like David Justice, Halle Berry's ex-husband, so it's probably no surprise that she saw a color caste system, though I've heard many others say the exact same thing about all of Atlanta.
And if you're speaking of African/Caribbean dark-skinned Blacks, I'm not at all flabbergasted that you see many of them making it in Atlanta; they're making it everywhere!, lololol, I'm talking about dark-skinned African American Blacks.
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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2184
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 05:08 pm: |
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"...We’re just as colorist as they are racist."
Hurmph...I'm sure you would know all about that.
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Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2108
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 06:30 pm: |
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Tonya, come down and check it out for yourself. Go to Grady or Legacy (formerly Southwest) hospitals and see who the doctors and nurses are, not just African/Carribean, but Americans, too.
When I mentioned the pharmacies, these are AMERICAN girls, not Africans or Island people.
Go to any store in the West End or near Cascade, businesses on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain, and businesses in and near 5 Points. All dark skinned black people. My son and I actually kind of stick out on Cascade/R.D. Abernathy.
Again, I really can't say where your friends must have been hanging out because there are hardly many light skinned people AT ALL (in the areas I've named at least), much less enough of them to compare what they're doing versus darker skinned blacks. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5381
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 07:15 pm: |
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Reneta,
You know what, my friend used to try to get me to come down there ALL THE TIME!! Despite how colorist she felt it was, she did say Atlanta is a lot of fun. Who knows? I was thinking about vacationing in Florida. I might just swing by Atlanta while I'm out and if I do I'll be hitting you up, we'll get our groove on!
LOL
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Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2112
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 07:51 pm: |
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I'll be happy to show you around....but I won't be able to hang out at the bars/clubs after hours. Other than that, I'm free most of the day and know most of Fulton/DeKalb Counties (and a little of Cobb). We'll have fun.
(I would suggest a really good Jamaican restaurant, but you probably have a lot of those up north). |
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