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Here we go again, another embarrassment of the internecine kind. Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Uhurus, is griping about progress in Midtown, the mostly black neighborhoods south of Central Avenue. This time, his target is Darryl Rouson, St. Petersburg NAACP president.
Let me acknowledge from the outset that I was among those who hoped that, when Yeshitela ran for mayor in 2001, he would join mainstream politics and become an effective leader. Our hopes were dashed.
Now, Yeshitela is mad because Rouson - cofounder of Urban Development Solutions, a nonprofit business group - is spearheading the construction of a shopping center in the heart of Midtown.
The centerpiece of the project is a sorely needed grocery store (Kash n' Karry), an amenity that is taken for granted in most other parts of the city.
Like unsupervised urchins, Yeshitela's minions are out calling Rouson nasty names. During their most recent Friday night demonstration at BayWalk, the Uhurus, referring to Rouson, chanted "Uncle Toms must go!" They also handed out handbills reading "Jesus had Judas . . . black folks got Darryl Rouson." Two weeks ago, vandals, apparently sympathetic to the Uhurus, spray-painted antipolice graffiti on NAACP headquarters. The colors were those of the Uhurus, red, green and black.
Yeshitela is mad that he - unlike Rouson, the lawyer, who is cultivating important business partners - lacks the economic chops to attract real money for his Garveyesque pipe dreams. He blames something he refers to as "police containment." In other words, an evil law enforcement apparatus prevents him and other blacks from collaborating and pooling their resources to build the businesses needed in Midtown.
Check out what the chairman said of Rouson's efforts: "When he becomes NAACP president, he immediately begins to attack the concept of police containment. Rouson has come out defending the police, saying the issue wasn't police containment. It was black crime."
Rouson responded appropriately: "Police containment assumes we are like ignorant, unlearned animals running around in neighborhoods and streets needing to be dealt with in a barbaric manner and that we'll put up with it. If you have self-containment, you don't have to worry about police containment." Yeshitela further suggested that Rouson is selling out his sisters and brothers for personal gain.
In an e-mail excerpt published in the St. Petersburg Times, Rouson replied: "Omali characterizes me as a sellout. I characterize (myself) as a collaborator of relationships seeking to benefit my people. But who would fault me for trying to make a living also to feed my family?"
While I like Rouson's response, I suspect that he, too, misunderstands the bottom line for economic success in Midtown. He should not apologize for wanting to profit from his endeavors. This blighted area needs entrepreneurs who want to make tons of money - who will make money by providing good services that residents need and want, by training and hiring competent employees from the community to deliver these goods and services and by reinvesting in the area.
Midtown does not need more charity. It's profit, stupid.
Rouson frets about perceptions of quid pro quo in his relations with the Sembler Co., BayWalk's developer, and other business interests. He needs to stop worrying on that score. I am not a businessman. But even I know that quid pro quo is essential to successful commerce.
Unlike Yeshitela, who spouts an outdated version of black separatism, Rouson understands the dynamics of establishing and sustaining at least a semblance of economic vitality in the community: "I don't believe black people can operate on an island of Midtown with such self-sufficiency that it makes no sense to build collaborative relationships with those who are in power."
What is Yeshitela's vision for black Midtowners? Listen for yourself, as he talked to the Times: "Do I believe that America has the will to free black people - Africans - through working through the system? Absolutely, definitely no. One needs the democratic space to do any other kind of struggle. There's something wrong with African people so dispossessed that the solution for being kidnapped and taken into captivity is not self-determination but to deepen your relationship with your captor."
Well, there you have it: summaries of two visions for Midtown's economic vitalization - that of Omali Yeshitela and that of Darryl Rouson. For Midtown's sake, we all should hope that the right vision wins.