TIM HAYES' – Page 3 – TALES FROM POST-RACIAL AMERICA

The Mystery Of WHITESPLAINING

November 8, 2019 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

If I were a white guy and I commented on a fb thread where mostly black people were talking .and one or more of them said that I was commenting in a way that was patronizing and kind of sounding like I was trying to explain to them what the “real” situation was. And that this was one way that a subtle type of racism rears it’s head among so-called liberal and progressive white men as well as lots of women? Would I get angry and say NOT ME ! and deny that I was “whitesplaining” and say I was just expressing my opinion. And when the black people told me that they get this all the time and thought that because I was at least trying to be some kind of progressive they would try bringing the subject up and that I might even thank them for telling me. Instead when they told me that I got angry and said “ha well I see my thoughts are just not wanted here…so I won’t EVER comment here again.. even when they told me that my opinion is welcomed it’s just the way I approached them..I then act like I didn’t even hear that part.. ….Sound silly does it not . Well In the last year I have made a point of telling so-called progressive white people how we feel when they do this. I consider this the “last frontier” of racism …getting along with white people who at least SAY they want to work with us. Well my score has been 50-50..about half the time the white person …men and women have listened.. some even glad I pointed this out ..and many have made it a point to work at not doing this..the other half mostly end the conversation not me ! I was NOT whitesplaining okay I just won’t comment where my opinion is not wanted..I have several white friends with whom I have had this conversation and it really did enhance our relationship..I have had some people to thank me for doing this..I had one who managed to vandalize my Facebook account and got me shut down for two days..( how do those guys know how to do that stuff ) some who simply don’t comment and or turn away when I see them in public…but mostly they just get real mad…well I’m going to continue to do this when it’s fair and proper to do so..for me and that percentage of white people who have gotten something from it..
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Harriet the film…more than what most of us expected

November 4, 2019 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I guess the first time I heard the name Harriet Tubman would have been in the 4th grade..My teacher Mr. Cash was very serious about issues around race back then with awakening civil rights movement 1957. Even then he called her “Moses” This new film “Harriet” should in no way be just an introduction to Harriet Tubman..Like me most of us should have been hearing about her for our whole lives. But of course that’s not true. In these times when we are actually talking about honoring Tubman by putting her likeness on the 20 dollar bill. And with a person in the White House who seems to be determined to turn back the clock on race relations..This could be just the right time to remind this country that it belongs to African Americans as much as it belongs to any body else. This particular film “Harriet” ..directed by Kasi Lemmons …best remembered as director of “Eves Bayou” ( 1997 ) and starring Cynthia Erivo and Leslie Odum Jr. Opened last week BIG..First off by any standards it’s a beautifully shot film, that begins with a bang and never let’s up. The title character is first drawn in bold strokes…but they spend the rest of the movie filling in the details..We learn how in scene after scene just how the very real Harriet Tubman earned her place in American history. One area where the film walks over new ground is that there is no place in the film where slavery is romanticized or stereotyped ..Even the very first scene shows a slave preacher played by old friend Vondie Curtis-Hall who turns out to be nothing like who he seems in the first scene or what we may expect…In fact the best thing about this film is just how complex life as a slave was. It’s shown in ways no matter how well informed you think you were about slavery most of us would have never expected…YES there were actually times when running or escaping may not have been the best thing to do. Yes there were times when the worst enemy of an escaping slave was a free black person. And yes ..the fate of women in antebellum America was linked directly with the fate of the non-white..in good ways and in perverse ways. So yes this is a film that covers a lot of familiar territory ..but one of the best things it does is educates us to the fact that the current position of a lot of “newly minted’ black activists ..who love to say..”We don’t need to see any more slave movies”..well they are wrong totally wrong. We have not seen enough slave movies or heard enough slave stories..Because so much of the “slave” still haunts the way Black people think in America ..and the way we act in America..and how much of the western individualistic ..”me first” culture we learned from our masters is still there. That being said..for all Americans no matter what color…It’s long past time we learned about one of the great patriots in our county’s history ..and see that Harriet Tubman is not just the old lady picture we have all seen hundred of times ..but a vibrant, brave woman of action…Now here comes the “tricky” part.. this was a fictional movie based on the life of a very real person..But this story is an adaptation ..and it took many “liberties”..Harriet Tubman made many trips back to rescue slaves …just like anyone else she made mistakes ..many..but she learned from them and became with much effort one of the best conductors on the “Underground Railroad”…in the film they make a little bit of a stretch ..they give her what I like to call “spidey senses”..she in the film is sort of made to see the future, Tubman did have fainting spells due to a brain injury she suffered early in life ..but seeing the future ??…this is simply not true but I have to admit it did add to the drama…a cheap trick..made a GREAT story…The other even more strange thing is that all over the internet there are conspiracy theory people already saying that the fact that a couple of the bad guys in the film were black ..means that ..”they” are trying to “smear” black people …well the truth is just like now there were black good guys and black bad guys ..so…GO SEE THE FILM..don’t expect it to be perfect NO FILM IS ..help people raise funds to make another like it if you don’t like it. Timothy L. Hayes

Joe Biden throws his hat into the ring

April 25, 2019 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I’m using this picture because this is what Joe Biden looked like when I met him for the first time.. that would be 1975 or 76. I had been asked to come to Delaware to run voter registration workshops for the DNC..Biden was new to the Senate he had been in office about two years.(hey that shows how old I am ) I like Joe..he is honest.. you can turn your back on him and you won’t get a knife in your back..( Cory Booker )..his presence on the ticket was a big reason for Obama’s victory…BUT…Joe is what Joe is..maybe he won’t hurt us ..but he won’t help us move forward. Remember Joe during the Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas thing?…I actually would say the same thing about Bernie..He won’t hurt us..but he won’t move us forward, Bernie has what we used to call when I built rockets aerodynamic drag..So many of his followers are the worst of the “toxic white male” liberal..you know …the guys who think nobody is a “progressive” unless they do what I say guys. ( and a lot of them are white women too) I wouldn’t even ask a Black or Brown voter to follow those people to a dogfight..and this is a national election….And to Joe Biden ….with respect..I will say “thanks Joe ,,,but no thanks this time. Like I said two days ago I have not made up my mind who I will support in the primary.but it won’t be a white male..and it won’t be a chicken hearted asskisser like Cory Booker..But when the primary is over I will work for who ever gets the nod….you gotta keep your “eyes on the prize” …it’s about beating Trump right now..

Sen.-elect Joe Biden, D-Del., visiting Capitol Hill after being elected in 1972.

POST SUPERBOWL THOUGHTS 2019

February 7, 2019 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

POST SUPER BOWL THOUGHTS….The last time I watched an entire Super Bowl game was in 1998 when my son Will and I watched the Falcons lose to New England in 1998. But I didn’t watch last nights game and in fact didn’t know the outcome until just now…Monday morning 6:38 am..There were several reasons ..In December of 2016 I lost my beloved sister Mary..As the motorcade with her remains drove from one end of Atlanta to the other we passed by the Georgia Dome..and right next to it the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium at that time under construction..I have not lived in Atlanta since 1973…but as we drove past that site ..which is adjacent to the area we still called Vine City..I realized that both the site of the original “Free Breakfast program” originally opened by the Georgia Black Liberation Front in 1969 and taken over by me and that Black Panther Party in 1970 and moved to another church..as well as another location that ( according to current historians ) may have been the very first (1970) shelter for battered spouses if not in the country at least in the southern United States..It was also opened by the Atlanta Black Panther Party. Both sites were wiped out to build the Georgia World Congress Center Authority ..the site of both stadiums. If I had known this when the Georgia Dome broke ground in 1989 I probably would have tried to have some event to commemorate this. So I guess saying that here for Black History month will have to do. Back in June 2018 when I was in Atlanta for a week and lectured to three different audiences and got interviewed by several students and historians and journalists ..all these things were acknowledged and I made sure to mention the other people involved..I also didn’t watch because I was just a little mad at Gladys Knight…but I can’t stay mad at my “homegirl” for long..she not only went to my high school but .she has been making kids from Atlanta proud since she first gained national attention when she won a nation wide “talent search”.. Ted Mack’s The Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of seven in 1952..see the very “cute” Gladys in the picture..So while ya’ll were watching the Super Bowl I watched all of season one of Star Trek “Discovery” ..from what I’m reading today…it was a much better show.

Why Black People in America need to support Marc Lamont Hill

December 1, 2018 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

One of the silliest things about many people on the left today is the use of the word “woke”. One would think that this means one is “awakened” in thought and able to see past the various “propaganda” efforts of the “powers that be” and see racism, white supremacy, and imperialism for what they are. What this term today most often means is that a person is not “awake” to anything, just carrying on a new mantra that does not “rock the boat” I say this because not just on “facebook” but in the real world where I get to talk to a much larger audience ..calling yourself a “black nationalist” is as far as many of our people will go in terms of joining the fight for freedom and equality. Many love to quote Malcolm X who for much of his life considered himself that..The true arch of Malcolm’s life shows that he actually “out grew” nationalism and in his own words he said to me in January of 1965. “Nationalism is a good way to awaken the consciousness of oppressed people but if you stay in that place too long it leads to stagnation and a type of tribalism” Malcolm became truly dangerous to the power structure when he made this “Revolutionary” leap..I’ve never forgotten that. Marc Lamont Hill represents a big step in black activists bringing meaning to the term “woke”..none of us are free until all of us are free..when we say that we mean our sisters and brothers suffering under brutal occupation and Apartheid .The people of Palestine should have our total support…there is NOTHING anti-Semitic about calling for fair and just treatment of the oppressed..regardless of who the enemy is..But many people are quick to ask what right does a black man have to speak on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict ? As a long time truly “woke” activist and a person imprisoned and tortured in an Israeli prison ..I know that we don’t just have a right to speak up for Palestine ..but an obligation to..What the Marc Lamont Hill situation is, is a chance to stand with a brother who is truly walking in the footsteps of Malcolm..we should all be supporting him…if you need to know more here is one of many articles I read last night..https://www.nbcnews.com/…/marc-lamont-hill-fired-cnn-after-…

MURDER IN PITTSBURGH 10/27/18

October 28, 2018 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I had a lot of things to deal with Saturday and really did not get the facts about the murders in Pittsburgh until early in the evening. But after listening to the radio, and watching TV coverage and some newspaper coverage..I’m sorry but all I can think of now is the sad editorial I wrote the day after the election in 2016. Just about everything I feared then is coming to pass. The forces of hate have been emboldened by the Trump victory..of course they came for Black people first, Trump got harsher..those who have always hated felt like they could get away with more..racists stood up rather than stayed in the slime..Trump and his minions got harsher..they came for women, you see what happened with the SCOTUS hearings..Trumps legions got bolder..they came for the “LGBTQQ” community..Trump’s rhetoric grew worse, They came for brown people and immigrants. Just last week I had a meeting with Jewish people who voted for Trump..and were still going to vote Republican in Bucks county Pennsylvania..They literally thought I was being unfair saying that Trump’s speech was making people who hate us AND them come out of the shadows..sometimes I actually hate it when I’m right..I’m not going to go into all the things that happened to get Trump elected…and all the people whose actions made this happen..but I am staying “on message” the road to getting rid of this “hate mongering” begins with getting out the vote in November…mourn ..have vigils..do what you need to ..then get off your ass and get as many people to the polls as you can.

Aretha..there won’t be another Queen of Soul

August 23, 2018 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

Well..it’s been over a week since we lost Aretha, and a lot has been written by a lot of people ..some who actually understood her, some who didn’t have a clue..some who were touched by her..and many who pretended to be. I waited because wanted to dwell on her life a bit. Talk to some people I’ve known over the years..see how they felt.. I wanted to find the right words to say what Aretha meant to me..as well as what she meant to a whole generation. What I mean by that is this generation of Black people who were born and raised in the twenty to thirty years after WW II. She literally stood for everything we began to understand and to become in those years..Aretha was born not in her beloved Detroit but in the “Jim Crow” south …Memphis Tenn.. Being born in ’42 she was a little older than some of us..but she rode that train of hair relaxers and “skin tone” creams.. Rosa Parks and Martin..wigs and hair dye .of Stokely and Black Power..Viet Nam and All Power to the people right along with us. It’s true Aretha probably was the greatest singer of the later half of the 20th century..in much the same way as Ethel Waters..(who in her day had song writers waiting in block long lines to get her to sing their music) was to another generation..But what made Aretha different is not just the fact that some publicity person named her the “Queen” of Soul. But by becoming a part of all the change and seeming empowerment , and the new pride we had in just being Black Americans…for the very first time..embracing our new love of African ancestry..Aretha didn’t just live up to being the Queen of soul….she defined it …..herself. When civil rights workers needed her ..she was there…but that was safe. When many Black women were reluctant to wear natural hair and African influenced garb on stage or TV Aretha would strut her stuff with pride..causing many others to do the same..When Black Revolutionaries needed the “Queen” she was there…and for anybody else in show business that would have been a risk…when Aretha talked about her support of Angela Davis, record company people reminded her of Paul Robeson..another generations “super nigger” who stepped out of his place ..and how his career was destroyed ..according to Jerry Wexler her Atlantic records mentor..Aretha said “come on with it”…something sisters and brothers in the hood used to say when threatened “back in the day” she had no fear….Yes Aretha knew she had influence but she also seemed to know when to use it..and when not to..even saying the she knew the term “diva” was really a sexist insult for being a “bitch”..something most singers of her generation didn’t even understand.. but in later years she would admit “sometimes I can get my diva on….but I earned it”..Her life her career was a celebration of the joy and pride we gained as African Americans after centuries of being treated as well as behaving like third class citizens in our own country..oh yeah and the “respect”…not just the kind Otis Redding sang about …but the kind only another woman understood..There won’t be another Queen..because the times she lived in had as much to do with Aretha owning that title as anything else…and those times were unique…Aretha was not JUST the Queen of soul ..she also had messages for abused women and single mothers… women of all colors and cultures..well it took me a while to find the right words…rest in peace Aretha, “Detroit Diva”..or “Tennessee songbird”…Queen of Soul

Remembering James Baldwin

August 2, 2018 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

August 2, 2015…I have been lucky enough to have met a lot of the great thinkers and movers of the 20th century..Just out of an insatiable curiosity and the luck of just being there. I met Fidel Castro twice..got to have a good conversation with Muhammad Ali. worked for and got a chance to talk with Malcolm X .. twice got to talk with Yasser Arafat..Known Bobby Seale, worked for Shirley Chisholm and once met astronaut
Scott Carpenter..there are a lot more. But only twice in my life have I been so “star struck” as to be completely unable to even express myself. Once was when I was a journalist covering a Jazz festival and B.B. King introduced me to about a dozen of the greatest musicians of all time …The other time was in 1986.when I was working at the old artist hangout and great “dive” bar “Bacchanal” in Philadelphia ..My Band “Philly Gumbo” played there every Saturday night but twice a week I worked there as the Doorman..One day I walked in and sitting in a corner was James Baldwin himself sitting with “Beat Poet” Allen Ginsberg ..Baldwin had been in Philly all that week and had been to the club a couple of times..Loved the fact that he was able to blend in with the crowd two nights earlier when my band was playing to the usual packed house and nobody bothered him…Baldwin was there that night for a Poetry reading..seemed to enjoy himself..and even with my stumbling over my words ..he was just plain folks.And actually listened..was impressed that I was able to ..”decompress” From my former life as a political radical. And we talked about having both been in Selma in 1965…I still keep the glass Baldwin drank from in a book case in my house …For my money Baldwin is only equaled by Mark Twain as the greatest American writer of all time. James Arthur Baldwin was born this day August 2, 1924 and passed away on December 1, 1987..We are still learning from Baldwin ..both in race relations and matters of sexual preference..This film in the link at the end of this commentary is an excerpt from a Debate between Baldwin and William F. Buckley.. younger readers may want to
goggle the old fascist intellectual Buckley as he has been rotting in Hell for some time..if you have never heard Baldwin speak ..in that wonderful voice you are in for a treat..Happy Birthday James Baldwin.click on this link for the film….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkObXxSUus

THERE ARE STUPID PEOPLE IN EVERY ETHNIC GROUP

January 4, 2018 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER
L to R: Okoye (Danai Gurira), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba)
Credit: Matt Kennedy/©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER
Forest Whitaker as Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther/T’Challa, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Danai Gurira as Okoye, and Letitia Wright as Shuri photographed exclusively for Entertainment Weekly by Kwaku Alston on March 18, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kwaku Alston © 2017 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2017 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

..Next month is my birthday Feb. 16th..on that day a film about a fictional character I have loved for over fifty years gets a big budget film treatment…The Film “Black Panther” and no it’s not about me and my fellow comrades ..revolutionaries in the 60s and early 70s. It’s about a super hero. Who is the king of an ancient kingdom in Africa that has long isolated itself from the culturally and scientifically backward outside world..Their tech makes 21 century America look stone age. Their King steps out of the shadows for the sake of helping to save the planet…hey !! This character was imagined in 1966 ..long before the hopeful dogma of “Afro-centrists” Who wouldn’t love this.??..well I don’t have to tell you that there is an epidemic of stupidity in the America of today…At first it was STUPID white people who complained after seeing stills from the film ( and the pictures were magnificent) that the cast was much too black…and many threatened to boycott the film MUCH TOO BLACK..hello? it’s about an African country…Now we see that being stupid works on all races.. The latest Boycott threat comes from groups of Black people upset by the fact that one of the actors in the film ( not the star ) Michael B. Jordan.has been seen dating a woman who is white..I love my people…God knows I love my people. I have put my life on the line for my people on three continents..been shot, been beaten, been trampled by a Alabama state policeman on a horse, fought in two wars in African countries to end colonialism, been jailed and imprisoned over a dozen times….But I have to say.. that this just might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of…Now let me be completely frank here. In my life I have known a few Black men who have rejected Black women and will only date a white woman…I consider that some sick sh*t..but hey. I never would judge the brother. ..On the other hand I have known many, many people who have fallen in love ..married and have built beautiful families..with a person of another race..you find someone who shares your values and commitment and or intellectual interests ..you commit to each other and it can make no difference what race they are..To confuse one kind of relationship with the other is moronic…it sounds like a cliche but real love ..that old fashioned long lasting love is very hard to come by.. and if it’s a fucked up world we live in…Judging a person on the basis of the race of who they love is backward, ugly and ignorant …no matter who it comes from. And this group of intellectual midgets are going to try to stop millions of people from enjoying what my be a groundbreaking film over a silly concept that should have been put to sleep a long time ago…I HOPE THE LINES ARE AROUND THE BLOCK..

Return to political commentary ..Alabama election

December 13, 2017 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I am sorry I have been neglecting this blog lately I have had some medical issues to deal with….But I wrote this for face book today…I think it really belongs here…I have not been posting on facebook much lately ..I simply have some other issues to take care of. When people in my community asked what happened to me ..I tried to post just a few things about the kids and my family..just to show I was still around..last night a group of seniors who have done voter registration with me for almost thirty years..brought me food..and asked to come in. “It is your voice we miss” they said..”we know you are not well and can’t always show up like before”..Well first I let them know that I was not “that” sick , just going for some treatments..along with “pulmonary rehab”..I excepted the food…fried chicken (something I almost never eat anymore) and a huge salad. We talked until I had to leave to pick up my wife at the train station.SO….here is MY voice…What I need to say here is that these people …who have worked on every election in Philly for over thirty years with me. And knocked on thousands of doors .. and last night we tried to figure out just how many but we think we have registered at least 15 thousand voters just in the last few years. With the exception of me and a few college students who help us out every fall. This has been entirely a force of Black women…It was with Black women and Black college students that I began my life as a community organizer back in 1964. Black women have always been a major force in the conscience of America going all the way back to the original American feminist Sojourner “Ain’t I a Woman.” Truth. They were the
proof in the pudding who showed us that NO, Bernie Sanders would NOT have had a better shot at winning last years election..because the most consistent voters in the Black community for the most part had NO IDEA who or what he was ..and would not have voted for him. And last night it was the power of not just the vote of Black women but the “boots on the ground” Black women organizers who got out the vote..and totally upset the “red state” of Alabama.I have complained a lot in the last year about the white men who try to dominate both the opinions and the actions of the so called American Left..and even white women on the alleged left for the most part have shown the same arrogance..and general dismissive behavior when it comes to minority people and our voices…well while those people are in a “tale spin” over the Hillary crowd or the so-called Bernie crowd question….( love it when they try to call the Hillary crowd “corporate Democrat” …Ha..ha ha. they are ALL corporate Democrats.)..they fail to see that to us …you are all the same “not yet allies”…Congrats to the State of Alabama….and to the white alleged left….get over yourself and learn to pay attention.