In my understanding of the sadness engrossed in incipient racism, it came as no surprise to me that for the past two weeks, media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s pie-in-the-face incident was buried in the New York Post, a paper he owns, coupled with the paper’s hiding the front-page investigations of News Corp leaders and relegating this international story to its back pages.
Nor did we expect to read a mea culpa about the paper’s erroneous report last winter regarding the alleged refusal of union workers to plow streets after a severe blizzard. It has been emphatically documented that there was no evidence of “lazy New York City union workers.”
The Post, it appears, would rather sidestep stories featured internationally by the worldwide media in one instance and fabricate local ones in another.
With this in mind, we should determine what we are to make of two recent hatchet job stories about the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce and its respected leader, Lloyd Williams. How much validity can be attributed to the wild and undocumented accusations against the Chamber when no sources are named?
And where is the evidence that the Chamber spent public monies for Chamber board members to travel to a Caribbean conference sponsored by NY Carib News, attended by respected professionals such as Harry Belafonte, David Dinkins, Carl McCall, David Paterson, Susan Taylor, Inez Dickens, numerous corporate presidents, international ambassadors, college presidents and senior members of the press, including our own Amsterdam News publisher, that the Post reporters chose to characterize as “crooked”?
They also assert in their most recent attack article that the Chamber spent $70,000 on a website that “does not function.” However, I directly checked the site this week and found that significant portions of it were functioning very well, though there appears to be a problem with the server being down on other sections. These server problems are being experienced in different sections of our community at this time. Those of you familiar with operating a website know the hazards of servers being temporarily down.
These charges can be readily refuted by Williams and others at the Chamber, but they refuse to even give credence to the lack of credibility of the Post and thereby allow for the publication to take them on a wild goose chase of self-destruction. The larger question is why the Chamber/HARLEM WEEK and its leaders are being targeted at a time when both institutions are truly serving the interests of communities of color throughout New York City.
So many positive things can be discussed as the city eagerly anticipates and enjoys the intergenerational annual events related to HARLEM WEEK.
Well, Williams and company should not feel like Lone Rangers. He and his associates are just the Post’s Black and Brown attack “flavor of the month,” so to speak. They can consider themselves in good company on the Post’s hit list, which includes stalwarts such as Nelson Mandela, President Barack Obama, former Mayor David Dinkins, Council Members Inez Dickens and Charles Barron, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Amsterdam News’ publisher Elinor Tatum, NAACP leader Hazel Dukes and such local institutions as UMEZ, the Carib News and Carver Bank, to name a few.
It is absolutely baffling that Williams would currently be the one under attack. All the paper and its reporters would have to do-though it would completely nullify their attempt to demean and impugn his character-is to check with hundreds of persons on and off the hit list. With limited if any exception, they would vouch for Williams’ integrity and the remarkable contributions he has made to New York City, his beloved Harlem and the Harlems of the world. Of course, the paper has already maligned many of his celebrated friends and associates.
What becomes very clear to any discerning reader is that the Post has no interest in people who are making substantial differences in their communities. It would rather disparage individuals such as Williams, the product of five generations in Harlem and was mentored by Malcolm X, Harry Belafonte and Percy Sutton, to say nothing of his continuing role in community betterment and empowerment.
The recent gala at Gracie Mansion and the massive attendance at last Sunday’s “A Great Day in Harlem” at Grant’s Tomb are testaments to his peerless leadership that, by virtue of these events, extends his influence from the White House to City Hall and to the late, great Gil Scott-Heron-to whom Williams and his associates, including Imhotep Gary Byrd, Assemblyman Keith L.T. Wright and Felipe Luciano, paid homage during “A Great Day in Harlem.”
However, there is no need to sing Williams’ praises, though one feels compelled since he is so reluctant to toot his own horn. It should be understood that an attack on Williams is an attack on all of us, particularly those who stand firmly behind him. In many ways, these attacks are a red herring and basically an assault on Rep. Charles Rangel, who is also implicated in the Post stories.
In effect, assailing Williams and the GHCC is done perhaps merely to distract the public from the welter of wrongdoings by the paper’s parent company, News Corp. Such a ruse is a waste of time. It will not be a waste of time, however, for the Black media, especially our local newspapers, to challenge these nefarious and demeaning attacks on our leaders. Such a stance would be consistent with their overall stated mission.
What the Post should realize is that Williams and the Chamber are longstanding community beacons, and no amount of castigation will reduce their legacies or current status. Both are irreplaceable.
What the Black community needs to know and understand is that if they come for Williams and the GHCC in the morning, they will be coming for you and us in the evening. Let’s stay close together. The family, people of color, is under attack.
Stay strong, Lloyd, we’ve got your back!