Page 2 The Skanner February 1, 2017
Challenging People to Shape
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Opinion
Activists Can Learn from King’s ‘Creative Disruption’ Tactics
W
hen Dr. Martin Lu-
ther King envisioned
the Poor People’s
Campaign in 1968, he
envisioned all kinds of people
descending on our nation’s
capital, bringing demands
to federal agencies. He envi-
sioned people pushing for af-
fordable housing, for quality
education, for better health
care, for minority business
development programs, and
more. He envisioned them
demanding these things, and
occupying government of-
fices until these things were
produced. Unfortunately, Dr.
King’s death and the curse of
disorganization
prevented
the Poor People’s Campaign
from being exactly what Dr.
King imagined. But it still
made a difference, and people
still refer to its conception as
brilliant.
The Poor People’s Campaign
was a paradigm shift in our
manner of protest. It wasn’t
just marching, and it wasn’t
just protest. It also involved
the creative disruption that
would come if thousands of
people sat in federal offices
and demanded change. Can
this kind of creative disrup-
tion be useful in the age of
Trump? After all, Mr. Trump
has already told us what he
thinks of most of the Ameri-
can people. His nomination of
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
as Attorney General is a flash
of the middle finger to men
of color, especially the Black
men who have been tossed
around as cavalierly as the
term “law and order.” It is a
“
they should have to release
their financial information,
and they shrug off the notion
of conflict of interest. Con-
trast them with Dr. King who
only got a big paycheck when
he won the Nobel Peace Prize,
and he gave “every penny”
of the $54,000 that he won in
1964 to the civil rights move-
ment.
Dr. King was extremely
clear about those he identi-
fied with. He once said:
for Me, Myself, and I.” Absent
a sense of service or of social/
public consciousness, Mr.
Trump seems to believe that
his own personal richness
makes America great again
(hate again, sick again). His
swaggering dismissal of any-
one who dares ask a question
that challenges suggests that
he thinks he is ascending a
monarchy, not leading a de-
mocracy. And the tone-deaf
lemmings that surround him,
some (like Kellyanne Con-
way) called “Trump
whisperers” must
be
whispering
sweet
nothings,
because the behav-
ior
modification
so many expected has not yet
happened.
Still, we who are progres-
sive play ourselves cheap
when we respond to his smug
tweets. We play ourselves
cheap when we moan and
whine. The time for whining
is over now. This is the time
for a paradigm shift in the
way we respond to institu-
tional stupidity. This is the
time for us to consider cre-
ative disruption whenever,
wherever, and however. What
does that mean? Let’s channel
the energy of the Poor Peo-
ple’s Campaign. Let’s show up
in those federal offices. Let’s
carry demands; let’s ball up
our fists. Let’s get it on!
Trump seems to do little more than create
a cabinet of billionaires who are as far re-
moved from the way ordinary people live
slap in the face to the immi-
grants and women who have
already seen what Sessions
stands for. And it is not as if
other Trump appointments
are better.
Indeed, not a single Trump
appointment passes the cen-
trist smell test or suggests a
willingness to reach across
the aisle. Indeed, Trump
seems to do little more than
create a cabinet of billion-
aires who are as far removed
from the way ordinary people
live that the public policy they
attempt to create will be little
more than self-serving.
None of them seems to un-
derstand the concept of pub-
lic service. They don’t think
“I choose to identify with the
underprivileged,
I choose to give my life for the
hungry,
I choose to give my life for those
who have been left out of the
sunlight of opportunity…
this is the way I’m going.
If it means suffering, I’m going
that way.
If it means dying for them, I’m
going that way,
because I heard a voice saying
DO SOMETHING FOR OTH-
ERS.”
Our President-Elect has also
heard a voice, but the voice he
heard said: “Do Something
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It’s Time for the Democratic Party to Wake Up
E
veryone appears to have
figured out that a danger-
ous, stupid fascist with
no knowledge of how the
federal government works is
now the President of the Unit-
ed States. Everyone, that is,
except members of the Dem-
ocratic Party, now serving in
the 115th Congress.
You have to wonder how
many dangerously incom-
petent, racist and blindly
ideological decisions the ex-
ecutive branch have to make
before the Democrats in the
United States Congress, who
are supposedly in the oppo-
sition party, wake up. What
is the strategy? What is the
plan?
Be certain to take note of the
Democrats who vote in favor
of Trump’s cabinet nominees
for Treasury, Education, La-
bor and Health and Human
Services.
Senate Democrats have uni-
fied against exactly zero of
Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) who is allegedly a
progressive leader, voted in
favor of Dr. Ben Carson to lead
a department he has no quali-
fications to run. Senator Cory
Booker (D-N.J.), who has great
Instagram posts of food, voted
with Republicans to raise pre-
scription drug prices.
Senators who have no
re-election fears whatsoever
Lauren
Victoria
Burke
NNPA
Columnist
in 2018 are lying down and
showing no signs of resist-
ing Trump when the easiest
show of resistance is a simple
“thumbs down” on the Senate
floor.
“
ership. The decision between
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
and former Labor Secretary
Tom Perez for Democratic Na-
tional Committee Chair will
be a crucial benchmark for
the party.
Over a million people took
to the streets to participate
in marches around the world,
the day after Trump’s Inaugu-
ration, which drew far low-
er numbers than President
Obama’s historic inaugura-
tion in 2009. Protesters fig-
nelly granted a temporary
stay so those in transit taken
into custody could continue
their travels.
On the evening of January
28 it was learned that Trump
had installed his racist, an-
ti-Semitic political advisor
Steve Bannon as a member of
the National Security Council
(NSC). The Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford
was removed from the NSC.
This happened a day after
the Trump White House
released a Holocaust Re-
membrance Day state-
ment that omitted the
words “Jewish” or “Jews”
from it and avoided men-
tioning that of one of
the worst mass murders in
history happened because of
the faith of the victims. Then
Trump officials said that not
mentioning Jewish people
was intentional because “oth-
ers were killed too.”
On the day of Barack
Obama’s first inauguration
on January 20, 2009, top Re-
publicans met for dinner to
discuss strategy against his
agenda. That strategy was
eight years of obstruction
against Obama’s agenda and it
worked. Whether Democrats
in the Senate and House like it
or not, they are the first line
of defense against the Trump
Administration.
Take note of the Democrats who vote
in favor of Trump’s cabinet nominees
for...Treasury, Education, Labor and
Health and Human Services
Sen.
Chuck
Schumer
(D-N.Y.), who took over as
Democratic Leader from re-
tired Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.),
so far, has decided to vote in
favor of almost all of Trump’s
nominees. What makes this
even more confusing is that
the messaging of Democratic
leaders is the opposite of the
action. The Democratic Party
is at it’s lowest point in four
decades in terms of seats held
in the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives, governors’ houses
and seats in state legislatures.
With Trump’s arrival and no
strategy to be seen, there has
never been a better argument
for younger and newer lead-
ured out there needed to be
resistance to Trump before
he took office, but Democrats
standing on the floor of the
U.S. Senate and House remain
asleep.
Last
weekend,
Trump
signed an executive order
that blocked entry of all ref-
ugees to the U.S. for 120 days
and barred Syrian refugees
from entering the U.S. indefi-
nitely. The order also blocked
entry to anyone from Iran,
Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria and Yemen — all Mus-
lim majority countries. After
confusion and protest at sev-
eral major airports across the
U.S., federal Judge Ann Don-
