THE GANTT REPORT, by Lucius Gantt
Some of the most loyal readers and supporters of The Gantt Report have asked me why I don’t write about political misconduct and corruption every week. I don’t because I’ve been saying and writing about how local, state and federal governments have been treating all people of color for years.
If you’re thirsty about columns that mimic, parrot, imitate and intentionally copy the writings of their white colleagues, they are easy to find.
Guess what? I know who Leonard Pitts is and I know about Charles Blow, Roger Brown, Jonathan Capehart, Byron Dobson, Harold Jackson, Bill Maxwell, Clarence Page and other opinions and, believe it or not, most Black editorial columnists know who I am.
So, if you want their takes on what the world’s white columnists thinks are the hot topics, just go on the internet and you’ll find them.
Since TGR won’t be around forever, I’m going to touch on some subjects that our people need to know about.
Let’s go! Vamanos!
I don’t care where you live. If you live in a so-called urban area that has a predominately Black population, your community is being gentrified.
In other words, your community has seen changes. You, your parents and your grandparents are being forced to leave the neighborhoods where your immediate family has always lived.
No, you’re not being forced out with a gun and a whip. You are being forced out by development deals that always result in skyrocketing taxes, rents and home prices. The white “market rate” is not the rate in Black neighborhoods.
Why?
Gentrification in 2022 can only occur with the willing assistance of the people you voted for.
Let me explain. Jesus Christ, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, to name a few, were all sold out by informants, traitors and opportunists that were only concerned about how gentrification, for instance, would benefit them personally.
In Biblical days, people were bought out with pieces of silver, in slavery days you could be sold out for a “wood floor” to sleep on and today, urban residents are sold down the river for a one-game sky box seat at a professional sports event or a chicken dinner at [a] fancy restaurant, for example.
But compensation is not the worst part of it.
The people you’re represented by know, or should know, about government planning offices, commissions and agencies.
Your government, wherever you are, plans where development, gentrification, displacement and relocation will occur years and years in advance.
How easy is it for your elected official to tell you, “developers are building high rises, sports stadiums, malls and other projects in Black communities, so buy all the property you can in the hood”?
Instead, so-called leaders want you to march to state capitols and city halls on the day of the deciding votes to protest the impact on inner city residents and neighborhoods even though the decisions to remove residents and take properties was made five or ten years ago.
Your leaders, some of whom were bamboozled, allege the developers will bring jobs and economic prosperity to blighted areas.
Yes, it will but not for you!
After reading a page or two of a Malcolm X book, a few Blacks suggest that their urban philosophy is akin to Black Nationalism.
Who’s kidding who? You can’t claim nationalism if you don’t believe you have a nation. Also, Black nationalists believe the land, the money and the politics of Black communities should be controlled by Black people that live in Black communities.
Soon, Americans will go to the polls to re-elect officials or to get rid of the old and replace old politicians with new and better ones.
I won’t tell you who you vote for but I can tell you what to ask the candidates about what they will do for you.
I’m on a mission to inform my people in a way that other columnists can’t do and won’t try.
Many editorial columnists have syndication and distribution deals because they write what they are told to write. Oreos are good to eat but they may not be the best to read. I try to write about issues and events that can help and/or inform my people. I write the truth whether imperialist newspapers and websites want me to or not.
Some writers and some elected officials can’t be bought out.
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.