Paul Robeson, speaking of the effort of black activists to rid American cinema of its stereotypes, referred to an “insistence that the Negro shall figure always as a clown.” These words were uttered by Mr. Robeson more than 60 years ago.

Sadly, City Paper’s designation of the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum as Baltimore’s “Best Spooky Educational Experience” (Best of Baltimore, Sept. 21) shows clearly that there is still a desire in this country to mock and belittle the history of people of African descent.

I am curious about the process by which the Great Blacks In Wax Museum was singled out for City Paper’s ridicule.

What exactly are the guidelines and criteria for selection? More specifically, how does an organization qualify for the title “spookiest”? Does it refer, perhaps, to “spooks,” a name used to mock black people in the past? If these were the criteria, does this mean that next year, some other black organization may be in the running for Baltimore’s “Cooniest”?

What other organizations were competing for Baltimore’s “Best Spooky Educational Experience”? Were the modern-day versions of the groups who came by night, wearing hoods and bringing terror and death, in the running for this distinction? And since they often came with the intent of “teaching someone a lesson,” does this qualify as an educational experience? Well, the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum must have had to go some to beat out this level of competition!

Who serves on the selection committee? Not knowing the answer, I have an image of a group of “good ol’ boys,” sitting around City Paper’s conference-room table having a high old time laughing it up as they came up with the title of “spookiest,” and downright guffawing when they came up with the idea to bestow this “award” on the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum. What is even more disconcerting is that City Paper is considered one of the more liberal newspapers.

Upon opening the package and reading the cover letter stating “You are a winner,” I took a little time, pulled back from my feelings of anger and insult to get some perspective on this. So, while experiencing the feelings that so many black people have had over the generations in this country—of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of having to fight against negative portrayals of African and African-American people—I remembered that ours has had to be a struggle of continual protest. From the mutineers aboard the ships that brought us to these shores, to the slaves who protested for freedom and the free blacks who spoke out on behalf of their enslaved brothers and sisters to the so-called militants (like my late husband, Elmer) of the 1960s and 1970s who demanded their full and equal rights “by any means necessary.”

My initial inclination was to send this “award” back with a few suggestions about where City Paper might hang it. Reason prevailed, however, as others pointed out to me that this “award” must be used as a symbol of the struggle that remains before us as a people, at long last recognizing the need to tell our own story; to no longer see ourselves through anyone else’s eyes; or to let others give voice to our struggles and triumphs. To do so would make it impossible for future generations of our children to challenge the notion that they have no history worth remembering . . . and that, indeed, would be SPOOKY!

Joanne M. Martin
President, CEO, co-founder, National Great Blacks in Wax Museum
Baltimore

Editor Lee Gardner responds: I assure you that any offense caused to you or others involved with Great Blacks in Wax was inadvertent and wholly unintended, and is much regretted. Each week myself and my colleagues at City Paper do our best to try to overcome the racism and misunderstanding that often divide our city, not to add to them. That we may have given offense is especially grievous considering the museum’s worthy work, and that, over the years, CP has devoted significant coverage (including a recent cover story: “Breaking the Mold,” Feb. 18, 2004) and media sponsorship to its endeavors.

I did not write the blurb in question, though the title did give me pause during my final read-through. Perhaps it was naive of me, but I decided that it would be difficult for anyone to take offense, given the writer’s praise of the haunting impact Great Blacks in Wax has on visitors. Far from ridicule, what we wrote in the paper was intended to express appreciation.

Nonetheless, if my oversight, or lack thereof, offended, then I humbly apologize.

Responible Editing

John Ellsberry’s photo feature on page 11 (“Whose Responible,” Mobtown Beat, Nov. 2) was great. But shouldn’t the title be “Who’s Responible?” (I am a proofreader by trade.)

Chris Toll
Baltimore

Jon Ellsbury respons: Thanks for your concern, but don’t you have anything better to do?

Like Government?

Brian Morton’s columns are the best thing since toilet paper: clearly written, well argued, and saying mostly what this melanin-deficient writer wants to hear. However, Morton seems to be off mark in his comments on Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (Political Animal, Nov. 2). To put it bluntly, Steele attracted black votes not simply because of the melanin content of his skin, but because he represents a type of a black leader that is in a rather short supply—an accomplished professional rather than a gangsta-rap hoodlum, a death-row inmate, or a throwback from the ’60s.

The biggest problem facing the Left in this country is not the dirty tricks played by Republicans, but its own lack of ideas and imagination. This is true of almost everyone left of Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The Left seems to be stuck in the rituals of the ’60s: juvenile countercultural contumacy, romanticizing criminals, making ruckus in D.C., and kvetching about the Right.

No vision capturing the mainstream imagination can be discerned among these rants. It is quite sad when firebreathing conservatives like Steele or Sun columnist Gregory Kane make more sense than most black (or white) leaders on the Left. It is even sadder when sensible mainstream voices like Bill Cosby are met with moralistic harangues from the Left. No wonder that the Left’s appeal to mainstream voters is waning, regardless of the melanin level.

The reason behind Steele’s popularity is his professional demeanor, with which mainstream voters can identify. The way to beat him is not character assassination but offering a better alternative and a more compelling vision.

Wojtek Sokolowski
Baltimore

Like Government?

Brian Morton’s mindless affirmation that “Americans like government” (Political Animal, Nov. 2) was about what I’d expect from a former assistant to Clinton-era “drug czar” Barry McCaffrey. Rob Cradle, founder of a nonprofit agency that aids the homeless and working poor, made a more accurate statement when he said he hasn’t sought government funding because “I would be so inundated with staying compliant that I would never get other work done” (“Haircuts for the Homeless,” Mobtown Beat, Nov. 2).

Jon Swift
Baltimore

Fishee for Compliments

On Oct. 27, 2005, my son Horatio Kitwala told me about a great new place to eat fried fish on West Baltimore Street. We left our house on Hollins Street and drove to Baltimore Street, arriving at Something Fishee at 9:30 p.m. Small packages do bring great surprises.

The black owner was warm and friendly. You could tell he was proud of his new seafood restaurant. Praise God he was not another black brother selling drugs on the streets, but a brother has to do what a brother must do to live in an apartheid economic system of America. Shame bears a blame in white racism’s democracy.

The owner of the restaurant had City Paper at the bar-designed seating area—no alcohol, just the atmosphere of a jazz club. He told me that there was an article about his place in the paper (“Broken Windows, Shattered Peace,” Mobtown Beat, Oct. 26). I glowed when I read about Something Fishee.

My son ordered two fish dinners, an additional side order, and the best carrot cake I’ve never tasted. We waited for our takeout dinners, listening to the sound of Anita Baker pleasingly creating an embracing mood in the restaurant. I watched young men buying food for black ladies who were not dressed with signature whorish attire. Voices were kept low, but people acknowledged and communicated with one another as black folks do. I saw a middle-class white brother inside of the restaurant. He did not appear nervous. He wanted good food to eat, and that is what his takeout bag contained.

In the kitchen, black young women fried fish like aged black big mamas who know how to cook grease in a pan—alone—without smoke rising to the ceiling.

Baltimore Street is adjacent to Hollins, and Gilmore, all points in between. Old money, new money, confused money, and racist money live in our area. Times have changed. Our community must change, too. We must watch the people who move into our community, but we should not impose our classism on people we think do not have our social standards.

As an Afrocentric feminist, I welcome Something Fishee to Southwest Baltimore.

Larnell Custis Butler
Baltimore

Shoring up the Schools

Regarding “No School Is an Island” (Mobtown Beat, Oct. 19), if Baltimore has over 50,000 drug addicts, most of them adults, many of them parents of children in poverty, then it needs to be said: It’s not just the problem of adults buying their children $150 sneakers, it’s a problem of adults diverting—stealing from their children would be a more honest way of putting it—money that they should be spending on school materials in general for their children. And the nonaddicted parents who buy flashy cars, flashy clothes, and fancy nail jobs are equally guilty of not spending their income, low though it may be, on what should be their priority: their children’s future.

If two leading thinkers on how to address lack of achievement by children in poverty believe that getting the children’s teachers involved in politics, communities, and organizations—presumably where their poor students live—can improve things, they need to be prepared for taking on the mantra of public schools: that they are either above, or separate from, the political realm. Taxpayers funding public education are not too keen on learning that the teachers whom they indirectly employ are active politically, and if the teachers’ expressed views contradict theirs, they may exact retribution. The public schools that are trying to educate children in poverty can’t afford any more victimization. The answer is not getting teachers involved in poor communities, it’s getting poor parents involved and putting children ahead of material things.

Martin French
Baltimore