Georgia Community Organizing Alive

Stacey Abrams.

They say democracy is for the people by the people. That is why it baffled me when opponents mocked Barack Obama when he ran for president, dismissing him as nothing but a community organizer. Americans voted for the Democratic Party and Obama became the 44^th U.S. President in 2008.

 I don’t know how you describe community, but for me, it is a collection of human beings in a place somewhere, trying to come up with ideas of solving their problems here and now. Before the White House, Obama won the Illinois Senate seat from 1997-2004, based on community organizing, driving around the state, talking to people.

Opponents ridiculed him because he immersed himself in various communities, some of them totally against each other politically. His opponents were on higher ground, they were campaigning. What is the difference?

Community. His opponents ‘campaigned’ while having a pint in restricted men’s clubs, playing golf, sailing, relaxing in Martha’s Vineyard, skiing in Switzerland, rodeos in Texas, fetching ‘au pairs’ for their kids from airports, donating money and resources to Ivy League colleges and attending Royal Ballet concerts.

This is community organizing, traditional community organizing validated by newspaper editors, that were part of the ‘community’. Well and good. Obama also organized in communities outside the fence looking in.

So is Stacey Abrams, Nse Ufot and the New Georgia Project and many grassroots organizations outside the Democratic banner, that regard their communities as human beings, born and raised in America and have the right to determine how America treats them.

Until America recognizes community organizers as human beings, representing human beings, who don’t ‘cut deals’ about human lives in  smoke-filled clubs, bake sales and shares in the stock market, American politics will always remain blue and red.

This is another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang.