[Ppnews] Troy Anthony Davis and Useless Leadership

[Political Prisoner News]

Troy Anthony Davis and Useless Leadership

http://imixwhatilike.com/2011/09/28/troy-anthony-davis-and-useless-leadership/
September 28, 2011 at 1:13 pm

The grotesque spectacle of Georgia’s final 
execution of Troy Davis may have been politically 
useful to the pretenders to the mantel of Black 
leadership, but in the end the misleadership 
class proved useless to Troy. “My last words 
would have been to spread out, break those ranks 
and let Sharpton, Barack and Jealous know, no 
more show time for you and the God you keep 
praising as all ‘capable’ when he can’t keep me from the poison.”

<http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/troy-anthony-davis-and-useless-leadership>DOWNLOAD/STREAM/RE-BROADCAST 
THE ENTIRE BLACK AGENDA RADIO COMMENTARY HERE!

Troy Anthony Davis and Useless Leadership

Jared Ball

Not long after the 4 hour additional torture 
imposed on Troy Davis by the Supreme Court, and 
after the final word came that Troy was dead, I 
got a phone call from an angry friend.  He began 
by asking, “what is the value in electing or 
investing support for a leadership that cannot 
stop even this?  What is the value in investing 
support behind these so-called ‘movements’ that 
benefit useless leadership more than the people 
they claim to be moving for?”  And then he said, 
“Troy was definitely a better man than me.”

“Word?” I asked.  “That’s my word,” he said.  He 
took a breath to calm himself and went 
on.  “First of all, his last words were praise to 
his supporters and all those gathered around the 
world.  Then he had words of encouragement for 
the family of the cop he didn’t kill.  No way 
man.  I would have been of no use.”  That line 
struck me.  “What do you mean, ‘no use’?”  I 
asked.  “Everyone knows he didn’t do it,” he went 
on.  “Everyone knows it and yet they all use him 
while he dies in convenient 
fashion.”  “Convenient fashion?  That’s deep my 
man,” I said.  “Did you watch the coverage on 
Democracy Now! last night?” he asked.  “Every 
minute,” I said.  “Then you know what I 
mean.  The cop’s family got polite support from a 
man from whom they gained closure, the activists 
got praise from a man they were too soft to save, 
and Amy Goodman’s people got love for doing what 
they should have been doing for at least 10 years.”

“I thought they did an ok job.”  I responded.  He 
laughed a little.  “You notice how it is on the 
night Troy is killed that they gave more 
attention to his case than during the entire 20 
years of his incarceration.  And how often do 
they talk about the associated issues of mass 
Black imprisonment?”  “Ok,” I said.  But he went 
on, increasingly angered, “What you saw was 
spectacle.  Amy Goodman used his death like CNN 
used Desert Storm.  You heard her say, ‘and we 
are the only ones here covering the 
moment.’  Just like CNN she was locking up 10 
more years of support from the Left as the major 
media.”  “She didn’t do some good with coverage?” 
I asked.  “Whatever good she did was useless to 
Troy and useless to the rest of us.  And look 
what she did the next day; went right back to her 
real top stories, Israel and Palestine and mainstream journalist book writers.”

“But that wouldn’t have worked with me,” he 
continued.  “Because I would have used my last 
words to tell them to go home, to go back to the 
stories you prefer.  I don’t want to become a 
fund-raiser for you.  You didn’t tell my story 
enough or in ways to get your audience to get me 
out, I am about to die anyway, so to me, you are 
useless.”  “In fact,” he said, with even more 
venom in his voice, “I would have told everyone 
gathered out front, everyone listening to 
whatever media was covering me, that they should 
go become a problem, the kind of problem that 
keeps me alive or gets me out.  Make them storm 
trooper cops need that gear they brought to the 
rally.  Tell them that I won’t be the only one to 
transition tonight.  But don’t use me to add to 
your phony activist credentials.  If those 
t-shirts you have on mean something and we indeed 
are ‘all Troy Davis’ then we all should be prepared to die tonight.”

He noticed my silent discomfort.  He sensed my 
fear of my own politics.  But he was angry and 
relentless.  “My last words would have been to 
spread out, break those ranks and let Sharpton, 
Brock and Jealous know, no more show time for you 
and the God you keep praising as all ‘capable’ 
when he can’t keep me from the poison.  Your God 
is useless.  We don’t praise the same one, if we 
praise one at all.  My God wouldn’t let me and 
mine suffer while others use that suffering to 
enrich and reposition themselves.”  “I feel you,” 
I said.  “And it was even more infuriating to 
listen to them apologize for Obama’s inability to 
inter
” I could not even finish the sentence.

“Obama’s uselessness was so evident and 
emblematic” he interrupted.  “His supporters want 
to let him off the hook but Davis’ case already 
had federal precedent and he could have applied 
the 8th or 14th amendments to halt the 
execution.  A Black president, a Black attorney 
general, a Black supreme court justice, two Black 
men on the Georgia parole board, all the Black 
civil rights glitterati and still nothing could 
be done.  It is final proof, if we still needed 
it, of the uselessness of what is called ‘leadership’.”

I agree but only wish I had the courage to say it myself.

For Black Agenda Radio I’m Jared Ball.  On the web go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

Dr. <http://imixwhatilike.com/316-2/>Jared A. 
Ball is an associate professor of communication 
studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore 
and is the author of I Mix What I Like! A Mixtape 
Manifesto (AK Press).  He can be found online at: 
<http://www.imixwhatilike.com/>IMIXWHATILIKE.COM.




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