Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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Let This Be A Teaching Moment For the Black Community

The website, 2UrbanGirls, recently published an article with the following sensational headline:
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"Local Activists Najee Ali and Earl Ofari Hutchinson accused of working with LAPD to arrest Ferguson Protestors"

My immediate reaction was, "Wow! That’s a serious allegation, especially considering both of these gentlemen’s history of steadfast support of the Black community." So I began to research the site. Who are these people who would make such a charge? But I couldn’t find a thing. Most websites with fictitious or anonymous names have an "About" page that will tell you who’s running the site, and their mission, but when I went to this particular site, there was nothing. So I said, lets see who wrote the article. But again, absolutely nothing. The article didn’t have a writer's byline, or the name of anyone who could be held accountable for the charges that were being made. So essentially, these were snipers hiding behind a rock who could say anything they liked, and couldn’t be held accountable.
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But in an attempt to maintain my objectivity, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this was just an oversight, so I went on to read the article anyway - and then they pimped their hand. The article said, "The Christian Science Monitor reported back on November 25th, that local community activists met with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), weeks prior to the Ferguson Grand Jury decision, to discuss how to control the impending protests." Okay, many church and community leaders did that - they’re trying to head off the possibility of Black people being brutalized and killed by overzealous LAPD officers, as has happened in the past. But then, in the very next sentence they said, "Activists Najee Ali and Earl Ofari Hutchinson have been accused of planning with LAPD to embed persons into the protests, who would then tip off the LAPD." So the obvious question is, WHO accused Ali and Hutchinson of conspiring with the LAPD? The name of the person, or persons, who made the accusation should be conspicuously displayed in the article, since a basic tenet of good journalism is to provide the reader with "who, what, when, where, and why." But the article never did say.
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But in spite of their sloppy journalism, I went a step further, and went directly to the Christian Science Monitor article that they referenced - which took a little work, since 2UrbanGirls failed to provide a link. But once I managed to get there, I didn’t find one thing, or one person, accusing either Najee Ali, or Earl Ofari Hutchinson of conspiring with the LAPD.
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So who are these people who have gone to such lengths to conceal their identity? Just because they have the word "Urban" in their name tells us absolutely nothing about their agenda - in fact, it doesn’t even mean that they’re Black. They may be a group financed by the Koch Brothers, or an arm of The Conservative Consortium For The Division And Denigration Of Black People for all we know. So we should use this as a teaching moment for the Black community - just because it’s in print, doesn’t mean it’s true. We're played like that ALL the time. There was one guy online a couple of years ago who used the screen name "Bro Man," and it turned out that he was a barefoot redneck.
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But unfortunately, in many cases, it doesn’t have to be conservative White people trying to con us. We have hordes of Willie Lynch-type Black people among us who are ALWAYS willing to lend the enemies of the Black community a helping hand - and we must ALWAYS be vigilant with respect to such people, because they are the most insidious of all. We can see the White man coming, but we can’t see them, because they’re already among us - they’re like a thief in the night.  It was people like them who brought down the Civil Rights movement of the sixties - and killed Malcolm.
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During the 1960s J. Edgar Hoover disrupted the Civil Rights movement by using provocateurs to infiltrate the various civil rights groups and disrupt their activities. The operation was called "Cointelpro." One tactic that was used was to have loud and disruptive Judas goat "super-militants" join the groups and divide the membership by accusing the groups' leadership of being weak, or "Uncle Toms." When I read the 2UrbanGirls article Cointelpro immediately came to mind.
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But, unlike them, I’m not going to accuse them of having that motive for two reasons - first, I try to be a good journalist, so I don’t make accusation that I can’t back up with facts; and secondly, I recognize that there’s a third group among us who mean well, but who are just ignorant. The primary intent of this third group is just like the rest of us, to promote the interest of the Black community. But the problem is, they’re so ignorant that they don’t realize that everybody who don’t think just like they do are not the enemy, so, good intentions not withstanding, they end up hurting the community by stirring division.

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Cornel West, Najee Ali, Tavis Smiley

With regard to Najee Ali (the Los Angeles representative of Al Sharpton's "National Action Network") and Earl Ofari Hutchinson, I have unwavering faith in both of these brothers - and with good reason.  I believe what makes me an effective journalist is my cynicism - I don’t trust nobody - if my son came to town, but looked a little too thin, I'd want to see some I.D. before I let him in the house. But these two brothers are rare exceptions to my innate distrust of others. If Najee Ali was out to feather his own nest, he had the connections, and the opportunity, to do just that. When he started reading what I've written about Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, he contacted me and seriously questioned what I was saying - until he reviewed the facts.  Thereafter, he had a choice - he could have either cuddled up to Tavis Smiley and benefit from the media exposure that Smiley could provide him, or put his own interest aside and work to promote the best interest of the people. Najee didn’t even hesitate to think about. He spun on a dime and immediately began organizing demonstrations against Smiley - and this was prior to Cornel West's criticism of Al Sharpton. In fact, it might have led to it.  Considering his previous admiration for Tavis Smiley and Cornel West - and the fact that at the time, he didn't know me at all - I couldn't believe how swiftly he swung into action. Even though he didn't know me from Adam, and I couldn't do a thing for him, but was armed with irrefutable facts. After reviewing those facts Najee became outraged, and he was on it within a week. That's the kind of selfless commitment we need in the Black community.
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And Earl Ofari Hutchinson has been a solid rock of good, common sense in this community for decades, and his father, Earl Hutchinson, Sr., worked tirelessly on behalf of the community before him (A Colored Man's Journey Through 20th Century Segregated America). I’m a lifelong musician and grew up fully expecting to spend my life following in the footsteps of Dexter Gordon. I was so in love with his horn that when I was a youngster many of my friends CALLED me Dex. I was GROOMED to be a jazz musician.  My father thought the only reason the Sun came up was to keep Charlie Parker's reeds warm, so he put a horn in my hands as soon as I was tall enough where the horn didn't scape the ground, and then he moved a homeless dope fiend in the back house to teach me to play it (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/01/one-for-jimmy.html).  But I was also drawn to people who had the eloquence of pen to speak to the suffering within our community. Earl Ofari Hutchinson was one of those people. I didn’t always agree with the way he connected the dots (but then, I’m so arrogant that I don’t always agree with anybody), but I did always agree with, and admire, his intelligence, integrity, commitment, and eloquence. As a result, he’s one of the primary reasons I’m a writer today. The very first article I ever had published, was based on an article written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
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So I have every reason in the world to have unwavering faith in both these gentlemen. Actually, it's a misnomer to even call it faith. My attitude toward these two men is based upon a direct and personal knowledge of their character. I'm not one to go by what I "feel"; I base my assessments on FACTS. And I never base assessments on what a person says; I watch what they DO, and both of these men have done enough in my eyes where I would trust the well being of my family in their hands with complete confidence.  On the other hand, with respect to the journalism that I’ve seen displayed in 2UrbanGirls (whoever they are), I don’t have any faith in them at all - because I remember the sixties, and I’ve been there, and done that.
 

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
[email protected]
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.