The Mandella Markets And A Community In Crisis.
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
The strategy of Divide and Conquer is still in effect, and it is working in our community. Here we are bad mouthing one another when we should be working together on issues confronting the two Mandella Markets and other stores in our community. We still have this mentality of mistrust and thinking that all who are out here are trying to restore stability and peace, while we address the concerns, want something for our personal selves, out of the deal. All this writer wants to do is to have us work together for permanent solutions.
Let us not get totally distracted by this community issue and forget about what is happening on the national stage. The enemy, who is none of we African Americans, wants to sow doubt, mistrust and lies, so that we become too fractured to be effective. Don’t look at your community activists with eyes of mistrust or slander. Keep your eyes and mind on the Wizard/Man behind the Washington, D.C. curtain, and what he is planning for black, brown and poor people in America, especially those in urban areas.
To those of you who are ‘stirring the pot’ but have not put any action, marches, or resources toward our shared goal, or offered words of encouragement to those of us, who have, please stop it. We have old people, young people and their children, out in front of these stores, pro testing the criminal treatment of our people, and trying to affect positive outcomes for an immediate, ongoing crisis.
So, please, let us tone down the divisive dia logue, stop bad mouthing or outright lying on any of us who answered the call that was sounded when a female member of our community—and the man who came to her aid— were viciously assaulted. At the end of the day, we still have a deficit of fresh fruits and vegetables in our com munity because most of the corner delis do not keep these items in stock because most shoppers would rather grab a bag of chips instead of an orange or apple.
We need the residential community to work with the storeowners or business community to sit down together and come to a conclusion, which is fair and just, something that the collective com munities can be both involved and can live with.