While
watching and waiting to see if our people were once again going for HISD’s okey doke,
under the guise of doing what’s best for our future generations, my mind started
sorting out and/or reviewing the proliferation of campaign rhetoric and naming and shaming
political ads that candidates paid big bucks for. Although it’s a moot point now, I
was praying for a crushing defeat of HISD’s bond proposal for several reasons.
However, the primary reason I worked so hard to convince the Black community to vote
against the bond was personal. I can’t speak for the entire Black community, but as
far as I’m concerned HISD disrespects minority voters and obviously think that
we’re stuck on stupid.
And the more I thought about it (after learning that HISD would once again come into our
neighborhoods and ask us to vote for more money to waste, although they have never lived
up to their promises in the past), the more insulted I got. Either HISD thinks we have
very short memories, or we are crazy enough to keep doing the same thing, but expect
different results. Yes, I know it’s very insulting to call people stupid, but like
that movie character Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is, as stupid does.” And
history, certainly, records that African-Americans keep doing the same stupid things
election after election, therefore it’s difficult to not believe that we’re
stuck on stupid.
I know you’ve heard our elders say many times, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice, shame on me.” So what else can we say, but shame, shame, shame on us for
even bothering to discuss the $808.6 HISD bond proposal? We Must Understand, if we
don’t draw a line in the sand at some point and tell HISD that we’re sick and
tired of them pimping our children or holding our community hostages with false promises
that are never fulfilled, they’ll never respect us. And that’s why I considered
the bond proposal a litmus test for Black voters.
Crushing the HISD bond proposal would’ve been a small victory in comparison to the
other important things we voted for, or against, on Nov. 5. But the Black community
desperately needs a small victory to jump-start our stalled political machinery that once
gave power to our people. Failing to remember our history aside, I refuse to believe that
a majority of African-Americans have become so politically apathetic until they no longer
care about participating in the process. I’m more inclined to believe that they are
simply tired of playing games with a losing team that’s getting worse, as we become
more politically divided and confused than we’ve ever been.
I certainly can understand why our grassroots, underserved citizens are tired of playing
political games. I know where politically-apathetic African-Americans are coming from when
they get tired of playing political games, because I am too. I’m tired of fighting a
losing battle for the dignity of a people who have no shame in their game when politicians
are able to tell them the same lie over and over. It’s time Black voters start
playing truth or consequences and that’s why I fought so hard to convince all who
would listen why we should vote against the HISD bond.
Promises notwithstanding, I think we should’ve crushed it, no matter what promises
were made to placate Black voters. Unfortunately, we have too many logical leaders who
tend to wait and see if politicians are going to do the right thing this time, although
they’ve never done the right thing in the past. As you might have noticed the Houston
Chronicle newspaper raised propaganda to a new level with its series of articles about
HISD’s most neglected schools that would benefit from the bond that they were asking
citizens to co-sign with them. Surely, as chairman of the Acres Citizens Chamber of
Commerce I was adamantly against the merging of M.C. Williams and Highland Heights student
population on one campus.
Yet, that was just one of several reasons AAN&I urged citizens not to vote for the
bond. Frankly, we considered the proposal a personal insult to Black Houstonians in
general. I paid close attention to African-Americans who bought into the Chronicle’s
series. The articles featured historical accounts of such storied Black schools as Phillis
Wheatley and Bruce Elementary in Fifth Ward. I wanted to put them on my list of suckers,
just in case I ever get stuck with some swampland that I want to sell. Some supposedly
politically-astute African-Americans applauded the articles.
They thought that they were being written in our best interest, rather than to con us into
voting for the bond. Especially, Lori Rodriquez’s article that took no prisoners and
revealed that power and money played a key role in why Houston’s elite backed the
bond. Something was lost in the translation, because the Hispanic Chamber endorsed the
bond. Nevertheless, the bond still translates to power and money, even after a politico
explained that only about 30% of the bond money would be used to improve schools in
predominately White neighborhoods, while 70 percent will be used to enhance the education
of children attending schools in predominately minority neighborhoods.
That sounds fair, until one realizes that White students comprise only 10 percent of
HISD’s student population. I’ll let you do the math, but in my mind that’s
the kind of devious and outright dishonest political rhetoric that turn our people off,
rather than turn them out to the polls. But, as I’ve already said, that’s a moot
point now.
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