Jackson Jambalaya

Our old friend, Adofo Minko, had so much to say about Mayor Lumumba's indictment that his screed against the Mayor had to be split up into two parts.  

Believe it or not, Mr. Minko considers the Mayor to be a sellout: 

Is presiding over a police state that has killed at least a dozen Black people (I’ve lost count) since his rise to office one of the marvelous things the mayor has done for Jacksonians? Is collaborating with President Donald Trump’s political appointee to the United States Attorney’s Office, Mike Hurst, in his criminalization of Black people in Jackson for non-violent gun offenses through Project Empowering Jackson Eliminating Crime Together (EJECT) one of the marvelous deeds of the mayor? How about laying the groundwork for and gradually expanding Jackson’s surveillance state through spending millions on a Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) that allows for ordinary people, not just criminals, in Jackson to be surveilled as they go about their lives not bothering anyone or doing anything wrong? ...

How marvelous was Mayor Lumumba’s false claim of victory after he filed a lawsuit against the multinational Siemens Corporation and its Black subcontractors for providing faulty water meters to the city only to settle the lawsuit for less money than the city lost on the contract? The mayor allowed the Black subcontractors to walk away without repaying any of the monies received for work, they either never performed or performed in a subpar manner. The mayor and his tools might call this ‘Black unity.’ I am certain of one thing; Black may be beautiful, but it is not very historical

The essay continues along those lines for quite a few paragraphs before turning to the subject at hand: The Mayor's indictment:

In describing his role as the Hinds County District Attorney Owens was allegedly recorded saying, “This is the part time job to get the conversations and the access. Access equals the other shit we are trying to do.” Now some people are still under this false notion that he sought office to fight crime and do justice and by his own admission he got that position to build wealth for himself at the expense of the multitudes in Hinds County. If this is not the case, what business does a District Attorney have allegedly seeking out developers to get into the door with elected officials to secure money for himself?

Owens, according to the indictment, said more than this. That he uses the surveillance state to coerce city council votes to support development projects. Further, there was a tone of arrogance where the District Attorney said he had almost a million dollars stashed, money he laundered, and that he could not be bought. This was so as he volunteered to be the distributor of the payoffs to various people, that he knew how, for he had done it before. Further, that the Jackson community, overwhelmingly Black is so ignorant, they have no idea what his office actually does. They are fools enough to think the office is there to fight for justice and fairness.

Now Mayor Lumumba, according to the indictment, did take action to fix and carry out favors for these same developers, in this business meeting. His answers were largely brief, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as he appears to take part in this crooked path. While he is innocent until proven guilty, he is documented in a transaction that someone else equally took part, and has admitted to guilt already, and another has been recorded as being very arrogant and heinous in contempt for the law he administered and the citizens of Jackson.

Bypassing Every Opportunity to be Recorded Standing for Justice

Though he made himself available for the bribes, according to the indictment, Lumumba had every opportunity, despite not knowing he was being recorded, to say to the apparent developers they were meeting in the presence of everybody, something refreshing.

Mayor Lumumba could have said in the meeting that was recorded: ‘I am for the legal economic development of Jackson. But I categorically reject D.A. Owens statements about how business is done, what the law is really for, and most importantly, his obvious contempt for the intelligence of the ordinary Black people of Jackson.’ He did not say anything like that.

Now if FBI investigations and its recordings can be manipulated, they did not place him saying anything as vividly disgusting as his apparent associate in pursuit of graft as D.A. Owen. Further, Mayor Lumumba appears perfectly comfortable around degenerate people who spoke of stealing and the ignorance of Jackson citizens in his presence. It was as if this is how Black capitalists think, act, and talk among themselves all the time.

If Mayor Lumumba was not present when D.A. Owens was recorded blabbering, and did not affirm the over-the-top illegal strategies he placed forward, and he was caught off-guard, meant well, and was entrapped, he has had every opportunity to clarify to the public (after the indictment was unsealed) that D.A. Owens’s scheming outlook on politics and economics clashes with everything his Jackson city administration stands for.

After the Unsealing of the Indictment, No Credible Public Address

Mayor Lumumba could easily have given a public address about the myth and irrationality of Black capitalism and how those who go into public life with such propertied individualistic mentalities on their mind are bound to possess decrepit worldviews and dispositions that have no respect for cooperative or democratic development. He could have discussed how they will even falsify pursuit of private wealth as a cooperative endeavor. For it is the only meaning of ‘black power’ they know or can relate. But Mayor Lumumba, the false cultivator of the popular will, who couldn’t positively pursue raising consciousness even if he tried, did not even do that. For raising awareness against the current of the dominant socialization brings little reward in the short-term.

What makes it worse for Mayor Lumumba is that he is accused of this corruption after operating for many years under the false pretense that he is some type of ‘radical’ fighting for the liberation of people. Far too many times, the only thing people pay attention to is what white politicians have gotten away with in the past.

Not long after the mayor announced that he was going to be indicted, many people began talking about how white politicians take bribes and get away with it all the time. It is clear that a significant section of the Black popular will, even those who don’t have a pot to piss in, believes when Black elites above society come to power, it is alright if they scheme and take something for themselves beyond the law. Ethical community organizers must teach against this trend but also must first be aware that this contradiction with liberating strategies to bring the new society closer is present among us.

Why should what white people do or have done in the past have any bearing on what values and ethics Black people place on themselves? Do people propose a type of race to the bottom toward degeneracy in the name of being able to get away with the type of criminality and graft that certain white people have been able to get away with? Have all white people gotten away with corruption above society in the past?

This type of ‘we have arrived’ and ‘it’s our turn now’ thinking among Black folks is sickening and counterproductive. It lacks integrity and principle, and it is employed by people who only care about themselves and their own circles who will do anything to get rich or die trying. It is disturbing when such thinking is prevalent among the Black masses because it is a barometer that shows the aspirations that many Black people have is to be exploiters and thieves while talking out of both sides of their mouths about racial injustice and fundamental unfairness.

Read the rest of it all. Enjoy.