KWAME: THE ID GONE AMOK

2008-09-08
By DeAngelo Starnes

Over the past two weeks, we’ve witnessed some significant tidal waves in politics involving African Americans.  A week and a half ago, Barack Obama experienced a euphoric moment during his historic run at the U.S. Presidency.  Last Thursday, Kwame Kilpatrick (uniquely African American name if you think about the inner contradictions) experienced a low Marion Barry and Richard Nixon can relate to.  One politician symbolizes an epiphany of the ideals of Black America while another experienced the eulogy wrought by niggerization.  Within a two-week span, Black America has experienced a high high and a low low. 

Not here to bury Kwame.  He did that to himself.  Not here to recount his history.  The Detroit Free Press can do a far better job than I could hope to accomplish.  In fact, we might have had President Pelosi if the press dogged Bush/Cheney like the Detroit Free Press did Kwame’s various missteps.  But I digress.

There is always tension between the ages.  Between parent and child.  Between teacher and student.  Between the up and coming and the established. 

Youthful energy can be unbridled and sometimes it creates brilliant results.  Youthful energy charges ahead and sometimes blazes paths.  But when it speeds towards speed it often skews its accomplishments.  It doesn’t see defeat.  It doesn’t recognize the utility of mistakes.  It doesn’t see signs.  It just seeks another triumph.  And in so doing, it often misses the ditch that derails it.

But then there’s wisdom.  Wisdom is scarred youthful energy.  It has the same drive, but not driving with the pedal to the metal. Wisdom knows where the potholes are.  Wisdom studies signs.  Wisdom knows how to slow down when necessary and when to speed up.

Barack is at that optimal point between youthful energy and wisdom.  However, Kwame was pure youthful energy.  And the gas that powers youthful energy is the Id.  And the Id is like crack, meth, and adrenaline mixed together.  The Id is like cancer – unrelenting in eating up what’s next to feed on.  The Id has no conscience, it just does.  When you are solely driven by the Id, you need to check yourself.

Power and Id are a combustible combination.  You can kick ass and then think you’re invulnerable.  Marion Barry is an immediately relatable example.  Henry VIII a more remote one.  And lest you get fooled, Sarah Palin is going to be the next high profile example.

We often mistake ego for Id.  When we say ego is too big, it’s actually the Id that got carried away.  If you understand Id, you expect that. 

Kwame’s Id got lost in superhero mode.  It embraced “Hip Hop Mayor” and “Thug Official Number One.”  It got lost in the fantasy of BET’s asses at the Manoogian Mansion.  It mistook posse for pus, er, police.  It watched George Bush do what he wanted to do so it thought it could do the same on a smaller scale in a major city.  It forgot that Kwame was the role model as opposed to modeling his role for the up-lookers.  It forgot leadership has responsibilities rather than responsibilities searching for leadership.

But that’s the beauty of the African American woman.  Cuz a sista will check your Id when it has lost control.  Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy pursued Kwame’s Id and checkmated it.  She was relentless.  High-powered white lawyers playing o-line?  She was the Giants in the Super Bowl.  Forget resignation and four months in jail.   She squeezed a million dollar fine outta him?!  That’s Michael Milken fine territory.  More important, that’s sista negotiation, which ain’t negotiation. It’s “this is what’s best for all involved.”  It’s you’re wrong and you need to recompense.  That ain’t the wink wink we’re used to seeing.  That’s because sistas are America’s conscience, and it continues to prove that sistas are the strongest component of our society. 

The sista tried to restore the Blackstyle in politics.  Because there’s Black politics and nigga politics.  Wisdom runs Black politics; the Id nigga politics.

It’s beyond past time for nigga politics.  Nigga politics is inevitable but it shouldn’t be the rule.  We started off with Black politics after Black folk bled, sweat, and cried their way into the mainstream.  But power corrupts and nigga politics got paid.   We can’t win or turn this thing around with nigga politics.  And if we didn’t learn that from Marion Barry, we need to learn it from the Barack/Kwame dichotomy. 

Detroit should be a haven of Black genius.  It once was in a musical sense.  I’m sure someone pulled Kwame’s coattail about his shenanigans.  The minute that happened he would have done well to look over to Newark, another potential haven of Black genius, and studied Cory Booker’s effort to make it happen.  If he did, he didn’t emulate.  So a sista made him sit down.  Hopefully, his time off will help him use that dynamism he possesses and convert that Id to Wisdom.  We can use all the help we can get.

Don't Call It A Comeback 

DeAngelo Starnes is a writer and attorney living in Denver with his wife and son.