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The A-train
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Address Million Man March realities, not predictions**
Thomas Fabrin Matthews is neither moved nor inspired by many things--his children, his wife... a few songs, but not much else.
But he was inspired by the message of the Million Man March.
You can, for the most part, take these observations for granted because I should know. Thomas Matthews, you see, is my dad.
For most of the day I watched the march's side show--the media reporting. I watched interviewees and news reporters try to reconcile their pre-conceived notions about what would happen with what was actually going on--most were not very successful. Objectivity is a cruel figment of somebody's imagination.
They called it the "Black Muslim March." The vast majority of speakers there were ministers, bishops and reverends of Christian denomination. Of course, this could have been predicted since two-thirds of the organizing "triumvirate" made names for themselves in the study and preaching of Christian gospel. But that was all irrelevant because it was going to be a Muslim march anyway.
They said it was a "cultural" gathering unpolitically motivated--just good black men traveling thousands of miles to say "hello." This was no ballet in the park; it was a galvanizing, motivational and, yes, political event for black men. Yes, we all saw the coverage of the singers and dancers and kente cloth and gospel music, but what was missing were the voter registration booths with registration forms for all 50 states, the "Black electorate '96" banners, et cetera. Of course, this march said a lot about brotherhood and community responsibility, but it was also a wake-up call to black political power. One million people are a hell of a swing vote. There shall be no appeasing of congressional incumbent fears (you especially, Gingrich) by calling this march "cultural."
They said that the march was a selfish, self-centered type of thing for the black men who could go--the men were simply going to gather and nurse their personal wounds. But, there was a booth and a promise to adopt 250,000 parentless black children. There was a booth for an adopt-an-inmate program to share hope and solidarity with the brothers that couldn't be there. The whole purpose of the march was to awaken mutual responsibility.
They said it was anti-woman. Farrakhan's wife was there. Jesse Jackson's wife was there. Many women were there; we weren't turned away at Constitution Avenue. Moreover, the men there took a pledge to honor, respect, serve and protect women--but, of course, that in itself is chauvinistic, right?
They said it was anti-Semitic. But, there was a call for black-Jewish dialogue.
They also said there were only 400,000 people there. Don't believe the hype. At 2:30 that afternoon, ABC estimated the crowd around 1.6 million. No, I am not suggesting some giant park police conspiracy. The problem is that this was not simply a "march" where everyone gathered at one end of the Mall at the same time and moved to the other end en mass for the speeches. People were coming and going all day long; people were visiting the booths on the outskirts of the march area; some were late and got there at 2:00 p.m. while others were early and left at 12:00 p.m.; people were tired of fighting the crowds and moved to the outside areas for a seat. There are all sorts of variables which negate the accuracy of taking a couple aerial photos around noon, counting the people and being done with it. But one thing is for sure: The people who were jam-packed to standing-room only in an area 22 city blocks long by 6 six city blocks wide (with still others forced to rap around the periphery of the Capital) numbered a whole lot more than 400,000.
But I am not going to dwell on this. I refuse to play this "she-said, we-said, they-said" game. My grandfather used to tell my dad, "Son, if I tell you a pig weighs 10 pounds, don't waste half a day looking for a scale--find a man who wants to buy a 10 pound pig and sell it to him." The Million Man March was a success; it was unifying and it was political. It was not racist, exclusive or poorly planned and Farrakhan's speech was not the catastrophic event that the media predicted it would be--but I ain't going to waste no more time trying to weigh this march on the "American scale." I'm going to go out and find some folks ready to buy into the good news of a newly-motivated electorate full of new-found promise, power and hope for a cohesive, participatory American future for all... and sell it to `em.
And I suggest you do the same.
Tonya Matthews is an engineering senior and editorial page editor of The Chronicle.
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