Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou's blog

The recent controversy ignited by Cornel West’s critique of President Barack Obama and subsequent critiques of Dr. West reveal a fundamental crisis in black leadership. Traditionally, African-American intellectuals and activists have encountered the office of the president as outsiders with a nuanced understanding and repertoire of tactics including electoral brokerage, inside strategy, and social protest (organized and rhetorical).

I just returned home to New York from Selma, Alabama, where in the midst of a gathering of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists at the annual Edmund Pettus Bridge Crossing, I received a Keeper of the Flame award from my elders.

Here is the press release that was issued by the event organizers prior to the weekend, which honored the 46th anniversary of the historic March 7, 1965 march in Selma:

A racist web site has targeted me and our congregation for our support of the Living Wage campaign by positing a web link to NY 1 Queens (television) segment on our church. While there is no direct threat, the current political climate does not make me feel safe. [Ed. Note to readers: Do not click on the URL link below unless you are prepared for racist, hateful images and messages.]

God and democracy failed in New Orleans. While religious communities rushed to respond to Hurricane Katrina with charitable contributions and volunteers, some of the most powerful religious voices in the country used Hurricane Katrina to espouse a grotesque theology. Two days after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Columbia Christians for Life, a Religious Right anti-choice organization, put out a statement claiming that the satellite image of Hurricane Katrina looked like a six-week old fetus:

Gays Are the New Niggers: 40 years after the Stonewall riots, what Bayard Rustin means for American democracy Those who declare “Gay is the New Black” want to link the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement. Yet the slogan is full of internal contradictions and historical incongruities. Comparing the experiences of black folks and gay folks in the U.S. has outraged intellectuals, religious leaders, and politicians inside the black community. It has outraged, for instance, Rev. Irene Monroe. She identifies three cardinal sins of whiteness plaguing the gay-marriage movement:

I appeared on a recent episode of GritTV with Laura Flanders to discuss the Religious Left. Is our time finally coming? What will it take?

Please join me for this wonderful event:

On October 14, 2008 at 6:30pm , Middle Collegiate Church, 50 E. 7th Street, will host the book launch celebration of Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America-a ground-breaking collection of 19 essays by 22 leading progressive religious figures that seeks to launch a national conversation about how to create and sustain a far more politically dynamic Religious Left in America.

As you may know, I am the new Associate Minister for Mission, Social Justice, and Community Action at Middle Collegiate Church. I am pleased to announce that Danny Glover is supporting our mission by participating in a benefit for our mission. Our work includes a long-standing meal and community hour for those living with HIV, feeding the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, working with LGBTI homeless youth, a long-term commitment to the just rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and expanding justice works in the Middle East and Africa. Please purchase your tickets to support our mission today.

Until justice reigns,
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

Emmett, Down in My Heart featuring Danny Glover, Kathleen Chalfant, Kenny Leon and the Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir

October 6th, 8pm
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, New York

Below you will find an IM conversation between Shauen Pearce and myself. Shauen is the Co-Director of the Youth and Militarism Program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and was one of the first African Americans to go on a, FOR delegation to Iran. I am the second African American to lead a delegation [Ed.: Pat Clark was co-leader of FOR's first delegation in December 2005]. Given the politics of race in the U.S. — which seems to be different from my experiences around the world — I asked Shauen about the nature of experience of being Black in Iran and what I should expect when arrive in Tehran. I thought our exchange would provide good insight on what is means to viewed as an African American on foreign soil.

Sekou: sup. . . would like to hear your experiences as black person in Iran?

Shauen: yo!

Well, the most memorable is when people came up to me and yelled, "AFRICA" and I said yes, by way of N. America.

"I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive." —Albert Camus

"What"?!!!

"What are you going to Iran for?"

That is the response I get from friend, foe, and loved ones alike. The conversations take a more inquisitive turn when I say that I am leading a civilian diplomacy mission to Iran on the behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. "What do you hope to accomplish?" they ask.