The Help 2: "I did not apologize!" Starring Jackie Clarkson

Below, excerpts from the Library Chronicles Blog, which posted some excellent commentary today on the Jackie Clarkson Controversy:

Even if we were in the mood to be charitable toward Jackie...we still have to point out just how easy it could have been for her to better handle this situation. All she had to do was say something like, "You're right. It's true that New Orleans in the mid 20th Century, like much of America, experienced a tremendous economic expansion, but we still had a long long way to go to make the benefits of that expansion available to everyone. Just like today we face these same kinds of challenges... blah blah."...

A statement like that would have clarified her "40s and 50s" remarks while also acknowledging the underlying reason why what she clearly believes is a misinterpretation of them would rub people the wrong way. Unfortunately she made it too difficult for us to tell just what her intentions were because she chose, instead, to root her rebuttal in an increasingly embarrassing appeal to #standing.

Rather than attempt to show she understood where her critics were coming from, she stubbornly whipped out just about every cliche from the Stereotypical Aging White Guilt Travel Purse she could grasp at from "My family once owned property in this neighborhood!" to "Some of my best friends are..." to "Haven't I always treated you so well?" It was so cringeworthy, it was like watching Steve Carrell's character in The Office address a "conference room meeting" on diversity....

But there comes a point beyond which our sympathy will extend. When we arrive the next day at ”I’m sorry that there were a handful of people in the crowd that didn’t appreciate what I’ve done for them,” it's pretty obvious that someone isn't even trying.

The blog also quotes from a Gambit article on NORD from last year:

"It didn't matter if you were Uptown, downtown, rich or poor," Clarkson recalls. "You either volunteered, coached a team, or wrote a check. NORD was public and private, it was black and white — though separate — and it was athletic as well as artistic.

"My father never built a white playground without building a black playground," she adds.

The Library Chronicles blogger rightly notes the logical conclusion to draw from these comments:

That looks to me like Jackie is having trouble with more than just choosing the right words. It sounds more like she still doesn't, after 60 years, really agree that there was a problem in the first place. Which might explain better than anything why she's been less than pliable on the matter, even when others step in to speak for her.

Though Landrieu, upon recovering the microphone, said that Clarkson had apologized, it is unclear if she did so.

After Landrieu commends her for apologizing, she can be heard on video saying, “I didn’t apologize.”

You Must Show Your Work: NORD Reform and NOLA Civic Engagement

By Tracie L. Washington, Esq

For several weeks now, LJI has been wrangling with the NORD Charter change proposition issue. Whether NORD needs reform (we don't know if NORD needs "reform" as much as it needs to be a priority commitment of everyone in city government as well as all of us who care about all children and our future) is not in question, and truly is a non-starter to any informed conversation. Everyone understands NORD is not functioning adequately for our kids and for our community.

For LJI – a non-profit civil rights legal advocacy organization and law firm that fosters and supports social justice campaigns and issues for poor communities and communities of color – we needed a better understanding of how this proposed charter change would affect voting rights, race relations, stakeholder equity and the role of government for our clients. Those issues had not been addressed.

On Wednesday we convened a Kitchen Table conversation with proponents and opponents of the charter change, and other stakeholders from the community who were still struggling with how to vote. For the remainder of the week, we listened – at the barber shops, at schools and playgrounds, at council chambers, through our web and email and voicemail. Here’s what is clear: Folks are angry and frustrated that, once again, they weren’t included in the process that developed this proposition they have been asked to approve. Just telling this community you studied best practices, and researched models, and involved a select group of organizations to assist you wasn’t good enough, no matter how well intentioned.

The fact of the matter is, however, poor and a fair representation of black & brown folks were not seated at the table to (1) make the decision a charter change is necessary, and/or (2) hammer out the terms of a new NORD/quasi-NORD (private-public) structure, and/or (3) have an informed conversation about how this change affects their communities.

Stakeholders in this vast New Orleans community have begun screaming the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund mantra: Nothing About Us, Without Us, Is For Us. These stakeholders are LJI’s clients, and they will no longer stand for the “urban laboratory” treatment that left them pushed out of decisions concerning public education, public health, public housing, and public works. For LJI, this is a beautiful thing. Public engagement and equity through full inclusion in public decision-making is often an arduous process; but the result – that is, when communities build consensus around a project/development/proposition – is nothing less than magnificent.