On October 6th, at the 101st Annual Meeting, the President of ASALH and the Vice President of Membership, the two senior officers of our organization, told the membership gathered at the Business Session that they–the members in session–did not have the right to direct the Executive Council. They opined that they were the elected officials and that they could govern ASALH as they pleased until they were voted out of office. This, of course, came in the context of a their shutting down the debate on a motion to continue self-publishing the Journal of African American History. Since then the Vice President of ASALH, visited the Detroit Branch of ASALH, and repeated this violation of the constitution and by-laws. It is time to consider taking constitutional measures to remove them from office. Here are the constitution and by-laws of ASALH, and the appropriate pages governing removal are on pages 5 and 6.
I just happened to have finished reading the biography of Pericles – the father of so called Athenian Democracy, he who was studied by many of the founding fathers of America in their formation of the young country. At the heart of the Athenians of the time was the fear of tyranny – any leader or leaders who sought to aggrandize or to suppress the voice and contribution of the people or the voice and contribution of the minority. One by one, the 5th century Athenians would banish and exile such leaders. Fast forward to today and we have Trump – without a doubt a tyrant in the classic definition, as our next president. And there is hardly a single voice (outside of the tiny few who hated Clinton enough to vote for him) in black America that is not busy accusing Trump, deservingly and undeservingly, of being a threat to our democracy. So then, why is it that within the African-American community, we often find leaders and those in positions who are ever willing and wanting to prove themselves tyrants, ever willing and wanting to suppress minority voices, ever willing and wanting to project themselves as as banana republic or demagogic African dictators? If a decision as such is to be made on this – the most consequentially historical black publication – then put it to a vote. Let the people’s voices be heard. Enough of the negro dictatorships. Quite the contrary to being virtuous, this “Head Negro In Charge Syndrome [Norman Kelley] is actually a despotic vice, that reveals the tentative and insecure nature of those so guilty as charged.
December 10, 2016 @ 8:29 pm
I just happened to have finished reading the biography of Pericles – the father of so called Athenian Democracy, he who was studied by many of the founding fathers of America in their formation of the young country. At the heart of the Athenians of the time was the fear of tyranny – any leader or leaders who sought to aggrandize or to suppress the voice and contribution of the people or the voice and contribution of the minority. One by one, the 5th century Athenians would banish and exile such leaders. Fast forward to today and we have Trump – without a doubt a tyrant in the classic definition, as our next president. And there is hardly a single voice (outside of the tiny few who hated Clinton enough to vote for him) in black America that is not busy accusing Trump, deservingly and undeservingly, of being a threat to our democracy. So then, why is it that within the African-American community, we often find leaders and those in positions who are ever willing and wanting to prove themselves tyrants, ever willing and wanting to suppress minority voices, ever willing and wanting to project themselves as as banana republic or demagogic African dictators? If a decision as such is to be made on this – the most consequentially historical black publication – then put it to a vote. Let the people’s voices be heard. Enough of the negro dictatorships. Quite the contrary to being virtuous, this “Head Negro In Charge Syndrome [Norman Kelley] is actually a despotic vice, that reveals the tentative and insecure nature of those so guilty as charged.