Gaffney, Lukes, and a Few Dollars More

A Few Dollars More

When thinking about Reverend Sarai Rivera’s church building controversy and the City Council of Worcester, Malcolm X, southern Black churches, and the White Citizens Councils come to mind. The Worcester City Council has given its support for the partial removal of Federal block grant money from the fund to demolish six condemned properties in Worcester. One of the properties is a building owned by Reverend Rivera’s church.

The controversy arises because Reverend Rivera is also a City Councillor.

Reverend Rivera is co minister of the Christian Community Church which is open to all races and serves a mostly Hispanic congregation. Reverend Rivera has been an outspoken critic of the Worcester Police in the past, especially after the police killing of Cristino Hernandez. Reverend Rivera has also shown support for the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.

To be fair Reverend Rivera has also express support for the Worcester Police, especially in its efforts to remove trail bikes from the streets.

The City Manager has defended his decision to include the property own by Reverend Rivera’s church in the Federal block grant for demolition of condemned properties.

The property met the same criteria as the other properties on the Manager lists.

The appropriateness of the money going to the church was originally raised by a blogger who is known for his racism. A White City Councillor who has been characterized as a racist, brought the issue to City Council.. It was alleged that a person in blackface attended one of this City Councillor’s fundraisers.

It is not the first time this White City Councillor has attacked Reverend Rivera. He wrote offensive electronic posts, as claimed by a Worcester weekly newspaper, against her several months ago. He has attackrd another woman of color when he sought to close Mosaic Center.

Malcolm X said that black coffee loses its essence if too much milk is added. For a long time some people in government and elsewhere said that they were “revolutionaries” or at least progressives. These people I suppose were well meaning, but they misled the struggle for racial and economic justice.

The southern Black churches during the old Civil Rights movement supported its ministers independently of the White community.  It was known that taking the “man’s” money brought ambiguity to whom the ministers were ministering.  A predominantly Black church’s minister was on the board of directors for Mosaic; he abruptly quit the board. It is known that he also serves on at least one committee run by the City with some funding involved. A reasonable person could conclude that instead of ministering to his flock, there is ambiguity in his responsibilities.

 A history of divide and conquer by the racists existed in the old civil rights movement. It seems to be extant in the new Civil Rights Movement. We have learned from the old Civil Rights movement that the strongest organizations have been multi racial organizations. Unfortunately many progressives still have difficulty grasping this; even the right wingers have their “tokens”.

 Wikepedia gives the following definition “The Citizens' Councils (also referred to as White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South. The first was formed on July 11, 1954 After 1956, it was known as the Citizens' Councils of America.”

Although the Worcester City Council is not anything like the so called Citizen Councils, they come to mind for this issue. The Worcester City Council to some extent is a representation of the old Worcester. The old Worcester was mostly White and seemingly comfortable to many White people. It was not so comfortable for many Black and Latino people then.

This nostalgia has allowed City Councillors like Michael Gaffney, Gary Rosen, and Konnie Lukes to remain in office. “BlackLabs Matter”.

Councillor  Lukes has recently sought a report of arrest records of recent immigrants to Worcester.  This is a form of terrorism as it has caused much anxiety and emotion distress for many law abiding residents of the City. She could have instead sought a list of hate crimes and harassment of the newcomers to the City in an effort to mitigate the racist Trump effect.

Reverend Riverai’s church’s board should say it did not ask for nor does it at this time want any Federal block grant money for the demolition of the condemned property. It should remain separate from government, especially when in the struggle for justice.

I suppose each generation will have to learn anew the lesions from the old civil rights movement, people with one foot in each camp will eventually mislead us and the bosses’ few dollars will be the downfall of some and the heartbreak for others.