Live Blogging the State of the Black Union Symposium -- Panel 1

I'm in Los Angeles today to blog the State of the Black Union conference. I'll be posting throughout the day with observations about event. Note: All times are Pacific Standard.

10:55 AM Q & A session: Morial gives "action items" for making sure that the stimulus money gets to the neighborhoods. He urges everyone to ask their elected officials to publicly state their plans for spending the stimulus money. Jackson calls for a squatters movement on foreclosed homes.

10:45 AM Michael Eric Dyson bypasses Raymond Brown's question about how we should measure Obama at the end of his first term to sermonize on other things.

10:29 AM Les Brown: "Recession, restores, resourcefulness." He emphasized the importance of studying success.

10:15 AM Michelle Singletary begins her remarks with a tribute to Jesse Jackson and her husband.

10:02 AM Iyanla Vanzant gave a personal twist to this notion of the tough time people are going through. She lost her house and two major contracts that left her unable to pay her bills, including health insurance. She emphasized personal accountability and gratitude for her life and used that to pull out of her troubles. She's a beast. I love her honesty and willingness to share her story.

9:38 AM Peter Harvey, former New Jersey Attorney General, lays out the fact that aggressive prosecution alone never eradicates social ills -- overemphasis on prosecution and incarceration will lead to greater destruction in Black communities. Harvey offers a clear, intelligent plan for dealing with social problems. He emphasized the importance of mentoring programs as a mechanism for addressing gangs and other problems. No bluster. Just real solutions.

9:21 AM Q. to Professors Ogletree and Rose regarding the negative narrative regarding Black youth. Tree identifies the importance of voting as a mechanism for changing the narrative. Black youth turned out for the November 2008 election and made change in many states in which Blacks have generally not been able to take the reins of power. Rose cites the role of commercial hip-hop as a driver of racial stereotypes. It's a particularly problem given that 70% of those that buy commercial hip-hop are not African American.

9:11 AM Jesse Jackson speaks to the governors around the country who are threatening to not take stimulus from the government. He believes that Bobby Jindal and others are posturing for political purposes. I've written about that. Jesse also argues in favor of greater expenditures for student grants (not loans).

9:03 AM Marc Morial lays out how the stimulus package provides funds for important initiatives that could have a positive impact on Black communities. He commends the Congressional Black Caucus for their work to make sure that money that was originally cut from the stimulus was restored. He emphasizes the need to hold local officials accountable to make sure the money gets into Black neighborhoods.

8:52 AM Maxine Waters takes out a stick and beats the banks on sub-prime mortgages when asked about the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP). She goes after Wells Fargo, a sponsor of the SOBU, for their unwillingness to re-do loans. A WF Executive Vice President told a gathering last night that their bank didn't do sub-primes. Either Waters or the WF rep got it wrong. The first two rows of people behind me include many WF staffers, virtually all of whom cringed and moaned when Maxine went off.

8:45 AM Michael Eric Dyson gets the first question and it is on this notion of "post-racial" America in the wake of Barack Obama's election as President. He associates "post-racial" with "post-gender" as lens put upon how we view race and gender.

8:40 AM Raymond Brown brings the heat in his introductory statements. He associates Obama's election as striking a blow against White supremacy. He further puts the beat down on this notion of a "post-racial" America. I've written about this before. Put me on the list with Brown and others who think "post-racial" is real. It isn't. In fact, it's bullshit.

8:33 AM Tavis introduces Tom Joyner, who been with SOBU from the outset. Joyner introduces the panelists: Maxine Waters, Charles Ogletree, Stephanie Robinson, Peter Harvey, Michelle Singletary, Marc Morial, Michael Eric Dyson (flashing hand signs!), Iyanla Vanzant, Les Brown, Jesse Jackson, Tricia Rose, and moderator Raymond Brown.

8:20 AM Tavis takes the audience through Accountable explaining its layout, which includes solutions for particular issues. He lists President Obama's campaign promises and how he is living up to them in office. The book includes similar lists for Congress, governors, legislators, corporations, community leaders, and individuals. At the end of the book is an "accountability check list" which allows us all to identify the extent to which elected officials are on their jobs.

8:13 AM Tavis discusses the Covenant with Black America, the Covenant in Action, and Accountable: Making America as Good as its Promise, and how it prepares an action plan for ensuring that the president, Congress, and other elected officials live up to their political promises.

8:08 AM Tavis introduces a video from President Obama who brings greetings from the White House. Obama lays out some of the policy changes he will lay out with is domestic economic agenda. Toward the end of his statement, he notes that the African American unemployment is five points higher than that of the rest of the country. I was hoping he would encourage the audience to keep him accountable for what he's doing as president. He didn't.

Comments

[monicaangela]

I watched both sessions, this should be required viewing for every American, I'm glad it was being watched throughout the world so that everyone can see how many centuries America has tried to hold down a wonderful, intelligent, innovative people like the African American population in the country.

Everyone on both panels appeared to be very intelligent, and explained their beliefs, the history of the community etc., in terms the average American can understand. They also spoke with wisdon and gave advice that could help many Americans that are suffering in this terrible economy.

I'm sure you can tell I enjoyed the program tremendously, and I wish there could be programs like this on television and in our local community townhalls at least once a month. The country, and the world would benefit.

Thank you for your article.

[Tanyars5]

Agree -

[mypov123]

"10:45 AM Michael Eric Dyson bypasses Raymond Brown's question about how we should measure Obama at the end of his first term to 'sermonize' on other things."

LOL That was funny.

[allonfla]

Mr. Fauntroy: Obama spoke plenty about holding him and other elected officials accountable throughout his campaign. Why should there be a different message for Black folks? In fact, it shouldn't take a Black president to tell us that. As much as the Black community has been screwed you would think that we would have gotten the message : Hey, we elected you now do what you promised! But no we sit on the sidelines with Bush and Clinton and Reagan and when a Black man comes along - "ooohh, he didn't say we should hold him responsible" - EVERY ELECTED OFFICIAL SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE - IT IS A GIVEN AND NO VOTER, BLACK, HISPANIC OR WHITE SHOULD HAVE TO BE TOLD THAT. Obama knew he was talking to extremely smart people in that video, they know this, we all should know this.

[HarlemFreeThought]

There seems to be a anthem of "Fix it Now!", but it starts at the local level. I hope every voter holds their local representative, down to city council accountable. Obama has inegreity, stuff that's lacking in many politicians.

[Tanyars5]

Agree - The representative from California stated she had to hold her own accountability meetings. We have to do better. Accountability is the key.

[Tanyars5]

Jade- I hear you on your criticisims. I did not watch the morning and will catch later. What I am watching has been one of the most diverse and intelligent panels discussions that I have seen.
Tavis is asking important questions about how the black community should criticize President Barack Obama.
I take the SOBU for what it is. I have watched them all. Where else can you see an intelligent panel of black intellectualls (in many cases) discuss our isses?

[jade7243]

It was all I could do to hang in with C-Span and watch this morning. By the time Prof. Rose started pontificating on the hip-hop culture, I had heard enough. I switched to golf.

Truth be told, Smiley's SOBU has not accomplished much in 10 years. If instead railing against the status quo, every PhD on the panel had banded together to form an internet-based open university, they could've been really been educating tens of thousands of young black minds, they could've prepared them for post grad education at the nation's Harvards and Howards.

Instead of posturing about how they'll hold Barack Obama "accountable," they (we!) need to hold ourselves to account. Jesse Jackson shouldn't be in a position to say much after his shameful utterance that he wanted to "cut Barack's n*ts off." Instead of blaming Wells Fargo, bring on Ken Chennault and Richard Johnson (former heads of AMEX and TIME WARNER among other powerhouse companies) to form a new generation of Black Enterprise Institute. Former BET CEO Robert Johnson should be held to account for his comments in SC during the primaries and as payback needs to mentor "Barack Obama Scholars."

If Smiley's event cannot show specific measurable achievements coming out the conference, then it is nothing more than an ego trip for him and the panelists and audience who join him.

In short, the SOBU is about the same as last year.

[Nommo]

Therein lies the whole matter of accountability. Who holds the all the talking heads accountable?
Barack is in office a little bit over a month. We need to have all these intellects make their own connection before looking to "criticize" the man. There are already forces about that are looking to destroy him and they are not going to give any quarter. They need to be talking about checking those forces of reaction instead of being them.

I'm sorry I missed Randall Robinson. His awareness is profound.

[Tanyars5]

Nommo- If you don't get to listen to anyone else please listen to Randall Robinson. He was incredible. He spoke about educating oneself. He spoke on the brillance of BO and how he is inspiring people to become more educated.
Lani Guiner- apologized for mispelling her name- that woman is brilliant.

I celebrate black inteligent people on TV discussing and debating black issues. I am sure we can find fault with TS and everyone else on that stage.

[Tanyars5]

Missed first part of this discussion. Randall Robinson..­......grea­t
Van Jones great....Al Sharpton-------man is on point .....Cornell West------great as usual.....the man is brilliant
Luv it .......I don't care if they are oldies but goodies ......all of these people need to keep talking ....lets hope those who are unaware of these voices will hear them for the first time today and are motivated to be part of the solution.

[HarlemFreeThought]

"lets hope those who are unaware of these voices will hear them for the first time today and are motivated to be part of the solution."

There in lies the problem. How is their message communicated? Not thru Black Urban Radio or BET or that other one. We are still losing black men to crime and violence and the host of other preventable catastrophes.

[Tanyars5]

Harlem- you are correct on the communication of the message. I am very dissapointed in some of the criticisim of SOBU. Did you see how Rush Limbaugh is getting all of this press on his speech at CPAC? CNN is still talking about it this morning. Did CNN cover the SOBU?
I have not seen any coverage of the SOBU. If all black people do is find fault with Tavis and don't speak about the specific issues that the panelist's discussed then we will continue to find communicating to other blacks stifiled.
The whole hate Tavis message in the blogoshere is disturbing to me. It is like we have some blacks who don't want to discuss the real topics........Tavis hate is more important.
Any suggestions on how to get the message out?

[Nommo]

If we have to be told to keep him accountable, then we are not participation in any process at all. But more importantly, Fauntroy, are there any new faces in the mix? Sounds to me like a "golden oldie" jam.

[Shanelle Smith]

This really is a gold oldie. It is always the same token people. I do appreciate their brilliant minds, but can we have something new?

As far as holding Obama accountable, I believe we understand the importance of doing so. Accountability should be a given!

[Nommo]

When I talk with folk, I get all kinds of interesting ideas. Real, work a day, family raising, trying to figure out how to pay for the house, or the rent, and how to make sure their kids get an education and all that kind of stuff, have real world ideas. They have real experiences that are beyond anecdote or dime a dozen political analysis.

I wish that more of them would write letters or call their elected reps and I wish that more of them would vote. On the last election day, I waited for almost 2 hours to vote. I have voted for over 30 years and never once before waited longer than 20 minutes. I just wanted to ask all those people where they've been all these years.

I know where all those panelists have been all these years and I just wish one of 'em would say something a little different.