I wanted to keep this short and sweet, but I've failed. Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of that town that oscillates between unbridled potential energy and a sinkhole of inertia and everything ghetto, De-troit, has got to go. Whether the bastard goes to jail or not, he must resign. His presence is, in the words of Terrance Howard to Ludacris in the Oscar winning film Crash (and Obama to Ludacris for that matter) "You're an EMBARASSMENT!!!" His momma barely survived a primary run off. Such is the mold, breaking. I mean, an incumbent black politician, entrenched and powerful, almost loosing an election to an energetic newcomer without all the damn baggage and corrupt cronyism, pandering to mega-pastors and hoodlums alike? Wha' th' Fudge? Well, I'm PROUD to say we did it in Maryland first, knocking out yet another self-serving Congressional Black Caucus knucklehead, Albert Wynn, and putting in Donna Edwards. This despite Wynn's eleventh hour conversion to Obama. Now, should Barack be the litmus test? No, but reality makes things shake out that way. Almost all of the US and state/local black democrat incumbents who supported Hillary Clinton most certainly held the immutable genetic trait of being entrenched, surrounded by cronies, in bed with developers, mega-pastors, lunatic cliques within powerful unions, and all sorts of other such foolishness. living in the time of 19th Cenutry machine politics. Trust me, such tribalism with the polity and through interest groups is likewise historically entrenched. Centuries now. But Barack is the hammer of change (pardon the 1966 Mao Cultural revolution prose). Seriously, just as the Barack-Ludacris interchange is metaphor for the new world vs. old ghettofab culture war, Kwame's demise is allegory for a younger generation that's eager to copy the fatuousness and power politics of his mom's. Thus his age doesn't immunize him from tsunami that will hopefully sweep away old tools like Major Owens or even Maxine Waters and insert more folk like Donna, like Kevin Powell, or, on the local level, leaders like our very own DC Hercules of buppy nerds, Adrian Fenty (the anti-matter Marion Barry). Oh look--lemme keep it simple. Kwame's a crook, an embarassment. I could care less how many bammas and rappers think he's cool. He's done. An embarassment. Can we start using that word again? The Black Arts folk scared it out of our vocabulary in the late 60s, for the meaning for which it was intended. I'm happy to see it making a comeback. Now if it would only trickle into the book biz! Even if Barack loses to McCain, at least this revolution, of quiet cool, of polish, education and getting things done, has been fomented. Rent Crash and drink in the metaphor...
