public intellectuals

i recently participated in tavis smiley's 10th anniversary state of the black union (sobu). each february, smiley assembles two large panels to discuss issues relating to black folks in the u.s. i believe there were 10-12 folks on my panel alone. most of us did not get to say much, so i had to make the most of my brief air time--a challenge for a seminary professor who is used to unpacking things slowly. it was a fascinating experience on a variety of levels as i saw some of the behind the scenes technical aspects of the broadcast (yes, i'm a bit of tech geek) and i also finally met folks whose work i respect and use like lani guinier, randall robinson, and julianne malveaux.

cspan still has the panels up at http://www.cspan.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-15942

however, it was a conversation i had a 2 fridays ago with one of the listeners to the broadcast that prompts my musings. she is a 70+ year old black woman who is a retired lawyer and lives in the atlanta area. when she finally reached me, she thanked me for my two sets of remarks on the panel (obama is not god and we should stop treating him that way and get to work helping him govern--this is what democracy is about--the active participation of citizens and the black church should stop preaching prosperity gospel and get back to the business of being prophetic and help black folks work together to face the contemporary challenges to and in black life today). she was, as many of us have experienced, a wise older woman who has seen much, done much, and has insightful analysis and critique about what's going on today. i enjoyed our conversation as she talked about organizing the women in her area and in her church to tackle the problems they face. in a message she left for me before we were able to talk, she said that "I'm having a meeting of women only at my house on Saturday evening to help
black folks stop believing that God works like the Pizza Hut delivery man." in short, she is a fired up mature black woman who speaks her mind with precision and then acts on her convictions.

one part of our conversation continues to resonate. she told me that she has watched the sobu each of the 10 years it has been on c-span. the broadcast is one of the most popular that cspan does and they devote 6 hours of programming to it each february. it reaches millions each year and there were 6,000 folk in the l.a. convention center this year where it is broadcast. my caller stated that in all her years of watching and appreciating what many folks had to say, i was the first person who took her phone call from all the panelists that she has tried to contact to thank them for their remarks. my first reaction, after being a bit stunned at this news, was to try to explain that after exposure like that, it's hard to sort out whose calls to take because all manner of folk call or write. she stopped me (are we surprised?) and reminded me in no uncertain terms that if any of us put ourselves out there in public spaces to speak our mind, we need to willing to listen to and respond to the reactions we evoke.

she has a point and i'm still chewing on it.