Those old enough to recall “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the a historic boxing event held in 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), that pitted the undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman against former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali as the challenger, might also recall an incident that occurred at the airport when the champ arrived in the country.
Foreman deplaned holding the leash of his aggressive-looking German Shepard, and the Africans immediately hated him because of the symbolism: This was the breed of dog the white police and military had repeatedly set on them during their rights struggles. Many black Americans had similar reactions, recalling the images of the snarling and snapping dogs Bull Conner’s cops unleashed on black demonstrators in Birmingham less than a decade prior.
The cry of “Ali, bom-by-yea, Ali, bom-by-yea,” which translated to “Ali, kill him,” reverberated throughout the streets of Kinshasa wherever the challenger (who went into the fight as an underdog) walked in the capital … as he was being followed by huge crowds. Foreman would later acknowledge that his cultural miscue turned the masses of Africans against him, and he felt that played a substantial role in his losing the fight. However, personally, I think Ali was going to kick his ass no matter what … but that’s just one man’s opinion. But optics do matter.
Fast forward to Frank Jackson’s State of the City speech where he said that, while some of the people mounting a recall effort were sincere, others were “outside agitators.” Ouch! Bad choice of words, and words, like optics, matter too.
“Outside agitators” is the term first used by J. Edgar Hoover as he alluded to the presence of communists in the civil rights movement. His phrase was quickly picked up by racists across the South, such as George Wallace, Lester Maddox and others opposed to any change in the status quo. They repeatedly stated that black residents of the South were as happy with the racist institutions as “hogs in slop.”
Mayor Jackson could have instead said that some of the leaders of the recall effort didn’t live in Cleveland, which is true, and far less incendiary. And again, words, as the insulting language on the response the city filed to the lawsuit brought by the family of Tamir Rice, really do matter.
In this case, Jackson’s poor choice of words led Michael Nelson, the attorney leading the recall of Mayor Jackson effort to say, at the first community meeting on the recall effort that people in the room should be proud because of the mayor’s words. “… when those freedom riders went into the South, they were called outside agitators, too. You should all feel proud that you have been elevated to the status of outside agitators,” said Nelson.
Now, no election ever hinged on one comment, but elected officials can die by a preponderance of ill-timed comments … by the accumulation of a “thousand little cuts.” An utterance that carried no negative weight in less tumultuous times can become freighted with import when the waters are muddied.
While Mayor Jackson might be genuinely dismissive of the majority of individuals in leadership roles of those arrayed against him, concluding that these are the same folks that have always been against him almost from day one, he really should reassess the situation.
Yes, there were some folks at the recall meeting prone to making wild, outlandish pronouncements — these are the unhappy shit-starters, the folks that have been so brutalized by racism they are now afflicted with PTSD, lucky to not be locked away somewhere in a padded room, playing handball with their own doo-doo — there was a coterie of youthful, skillful organizers that have the abilities and determination to collect the number of valid signatures needed to put the recall issue on the ballot.
And with Mayor Jackson and his inner circle moving even deeper into the bowels of City Hall to ward off any and all criticism (previously they were hunkered down in a bunker, they’ve now moved to the bomb shelter) they may be misreading the tea leaves. Obtaining 12,000 valid signatures might by now — or soon will be — a fait accompli.
While some might scratch their heads over the continued fealty to Jackson by many in the black community, the answer is simple: Too often in the past have our leaders been unfairly marginalized and decimated by the majority press … seemingly in an effort to tell us who we should follow; but those days are long past.
But with that said, Frank Jackson is slowly but surely loosing his base of support in the black community. Believe me, I know, it’s my job to keep my finger firmly on the pulse of local black opinion, and I do so by talking to a wide range of folks on a regular basis. What I’m hearing from dyed-in-the-wool Frank Jackson supporters are that his intransigence is making some of them physically sick … to the point of them taking to their beds with migraines. Can the collective wisdom of this large number of supporters — elders in the black community — be so far off base? I think not.
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://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.