MANSFIELD: Was I Mistaken?

By Mansfield Frazier

A loyal reader called and asked me which Corky & Lenny’s restaurant was I referring to last week when I wrote that minority employees are treated fairly at the establishment. He works near the location on Chagrin and I-271 (which indeed was the one I was referring to) and said he must be going in the establishment on the wrong days, since the only work he ever sees minorities performing is menial… as per usual for many local eateries.

I admit my info could be based on long-ago visits, since I don’t get out that way as much as I once did, and certainly restaurants (as well as any other businesses) can regress in terms of fair employment practices. But the crux of last week’s piece had to do with the employment fairness restaurants that are selected to open in the new casino will have to demonstrate. And, while there are no guarantees on anything racial in America, I’m somewhat confident that if fairness isn’t the rule rather than the exception at any businesses operating on the premises of the new gambling establishment, all some writer has to do is point that fact out and I’m positive it will be corrected.

Casino owners are much smarter than local business owners and they know fair and equitable business practices actually increases — doesn’t diminish — business. If Corky & Lenny’s is not employing folks fairly on Chagrin, rest assured they will be on Ontario.

 

LeBron

In retrospect, I was one of the few… indeed, perhaps the only… writer to warn against us placing too many hopes, dreams and aspirations on the shoulders of an 18-year-old years ago when LeBron first donned a Cavs jersey. I felt such pressure to be the savior of the entire region wasn’t fair to either him or us. But since the word “fan” is shorthand for “fanatic” there was little I or anyone else could do to prevent us from falling ass-over-shit-can in love with what has to be the most physically gifted athlete of all-time. We made him into King James… and we perhaps also ruined him in the process.

Miami obviously isn’t in need of a “king” — hell, they struggle to get fans that hold tickets to sold-out games to quit partying and show up by tip-off time. In spite of a concerted effort by Heat management to rectify the problem, fans still usually start trickling long after the game has started. Hey, this is, after all, Miami, and there are other things to do. These are not the hardcore fans LeBron was raised with and came to know.

So, now when King James goes to sit down there is no throne, only a regular seat on the bench… just like everyone else on the team. His entourage has been banned from the locker room and Coach Pat Riley is treating him like a mere commoner… hey, what gives?

Does LeBron really want to come “home”? He certainly wouldn’t be the first person to find out the grass isn’t always greener, and that it feels far better being a big fish in a smaller pond than vice-versa. At least he’s now finally apologized for the stupid and childish manner in which he left Cleveland, so that’s a sign he indeed is growing up; but don’t expect Cleveland fans to grow up too… fanatics rarely are very forgiving.

But King James might simply be posturing for Coach Riley, letting him and Heat management know that he does have somewhere else to go if they don’t begin treating him — if not quite like royalty — at least more in the manner to which he’s been accustomed to.

Interesting.

 

The Great Race

As the contest continues to heat up in the race for county prosecutor, Team McGinty continues to demonstrate it has the moxie and money to win this contest, in spite of the fact that — at least in my not-so-humble opinion… and the opinion of many others — he’s not the person best suited for the job. The other candidates, those with less cash and name recognition (which means all of them) have to find a way to offset McGinty’s advantages, but at this juncture I don’t see any of them engaging in the grassroots types of politicking it will take for any of them to win.

One candidate said to me, “Blacks on the eastside have to come out and vote for me if I’m going to win,” to which I responded, “No, you’re going to have to figure out how to get Blacks to come out and vote for you.” Indeed, Blacks didn’t just go out and vote for Obama, he set up machinery, a Get Out The Vote campaign that worked well for him. However, local political contests, especially in minority communities, are different in many ways from national contests.

The late, great Fannie Lewis was a master of inner-city politics; while she didn’t invent the shoe leather campaign, she certainly perfected it. First, she realized younger Blacks — with, at least in their own minds, good reason — tend to eschew voting since it’s difficult for them to see how being engaged in the political process is of benefit to them. And I get where they’re coming from.

Simply take a look at the ongoing country corruption probe and the dearth of Blacks indicted or testifying is somewhat astounding; either we Black folks are indeed very honest and above such illegal activities — not! — or, we were shut out of the perks, graft and gravy jobs. By way of example, when now disgraced former Sheriff Jerry McFaul hired 36 friends and family for cushy appraiser jobs, not one single one was a person of color.

When Republicans like that bozo Herman Cain accuses Blacks of being on the Democratic plantation he’s not totally wrong. For our undying fealty to the party of FDR, the payoffs in terms of real progress for the masses have been scant to non-existent. True, Obama won, but a candidate of color still has diminished chances countywide. Of course Democratic operatives and party bosses privately say, “Where are Blacks going to go, to the Republican Party…? Of course not.” No, we just stay home on Election Day.

Back to Fannie Lewis for a moment. She knew that voter-rich “silos”, high rise apartments such as Willson Towers on E. 55th and Chester Avenue, exist all over the eastside and most have, in addition to 400-500 voting age residents, their own voting machines on Election Day. Residents don’t even have to go outside to cast their ballots. Fannie had a point person in every such high rise in Ward 7… and that’s why she was unbeatable.

The high rises (along with other residential housing developments) are concentrated pockets of voters… places where word-of-mouth spreads fast, even for candidates that were previously unknowns. The mistake many novice office seekers make is this: Simply because they are hearing their own name over and over again all day doesn’t mean folks in these insular enclaves even know of their existence. These places have to be unremittingly mined for votes… if a candidate is serious about winning.

Certainly this type of shoe leather campaigning isn’t as sexy as attending debates and going to ward clubs where candidates can demonstrate their legal acumen and flair for delivering what they think will be the telling blow to an opponent, but, in a close race these are the votes that can make the difference.

By now virtually all informed voters have already made up their minds in regard to who they’re going to vote for, so little gains can be made with this demographic; but real gains can be made, not with undecided voters, but voters who won’t go to the polls or send in an absentee ballot without a candidate assiduously courting them for their vote.

 

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.

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