Just Listen to Me

By Louis R. Avallone

With the swearing-in of the 114th Congress last year, there are more African-Americans in the legislature than in any other period in history. And as you know, America elected its first African-American president in 2008, and then re-elected him in 2012. During this time, Eric Holder became the first African-American to hold the position of U.S. Attorney General, and then last year, Loretta Lynch became the country’s first African-American woman to serve in that role. More significantly, the number of elected officials who are African-American has risen nearly 10-fold what it was in 1970.

And yet, there are too many in the African-American community who don’t feel heard. Maybe that’s because anyone can talk (especially a candidate asking for your vote during an election year). But not everyone can listen, or knows how to, at least.

Is it any wonder, then, that this frustration – this anger – is expressed by protesting in the streets, staring down law enforcement, bringing traffic to a stop by standing in the middle of a freeway, or by looting businesses in our own neighborhoods and then setting them on fire? Most Americans – white or black – can understand the anger, whether it’s the seeming lack of equal opportunities or the high incarceration rates, or racial profiling – there’s plenty that needs to be cleared up. But why so much violence, and why now?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in history. Even so, he was urged by many, during the 1950s and 60s, to use “any means necessary” to achieve the civil rights changes needed in our country. He refused. And while the protests he organized gave rise to the viability of black elected officials for the very first time in history, the connection between ordinary black voters and black elected officials, pretending to represent them, has seemingly eroded away completely.

What other logical explanation could there be after Congress has now spent $15 trillion dollars over the past 50 years on poverty, yet the poverty rate today is virtually the same as it was in 1964? In fact, we are now spending close to $1 trillion per year on government assistance, yet 46 million Americans still live below the poverty line?

This hardly sounds like a representative government, regardless of skin color.

And America then elects the first African-American president 8 years ago, but almost one-half (1/2) of Americans believe today that race relations in this country are still getting worse, and that it has been the President himself who has driven us apart? Really?

But the numbers show it too: During the past 8 years, the percentage of black Americans struggling below the poverty line has advanced, real median income among black households declined, and black food-stamp participants increased almost 60%. The number of black Americans owning their own homes has decreased, and black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment.

Yes, there’s a lot to be frustrated about, no doubt. And we could go on and on, but you must keep in mind that government cannot “fix” all things for us, whether you are black or white. Government (however big you make it) cannot make you happy, make you feel respected or accepted, confer achievement, build your self-esteem, or eliminate life’s inevitable ups and downs.

Yet we still need to be heard. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “[O]ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” and he was right. Violence was just never an option for him. He believed, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”

So, as we prepare to elect our next president in November, all of us would do well to remember that we must elect candidates who don’t confuse doing something with actually accomplishing something. Or talking, when we just want to be heard.