UPDATE: Garvey & The Abolition Commemoration Farce.
By N Oji Mzilikazi
September 20, 2012
“Garvey & The Abolition Commemoration Farce” prompted a “100, 000 word” rebuttal – Letter to the Editor.
Published in the Community Contact, September 6, 2012, it was signed by Clarence Bayne, Fred Anderson, and Julian McIntosh, the three speakers at the event, Mervyn Weeks, who was the moderator/M.C., and Gordon Weeks, the brother of Mervyn Weeks, and who was simply a member of the small audience.
Missing – the signature of Randy Pierre, President of UNIA.
Clearly, Mr. Pierre knew better than to attach his name to a silly and rather duplicitous missive, rife with hissy fits, tendentious arguments, and ad hominem attacks from Clarence Bayne, and solely written by him. (His style is easily recognizable.)
Is it any wonder the editor of the Community Contact didn’t make it available online?
While the letter also bristled at my mentioning “the cliquishness and cronyism” that colour many Black organizations, Gordon Weeks as a signatory makes the case. (Neither at the event nor in the letter was Gordon identified as an organizer or an executive member of UNIA.)
For all its verbosity, personal attacks, misinformation and misrepresentation, and deflection by including comments from the floor, the letter never once showed through direct quotes of any of its speakers, or itemized by power points, that the event, billed as “A Critical Discussion of the Garvey Model of Education and Development of the Black Community,” lived up to its name, was indeed that – addressed my central point of contention.
The letter was simply that of bruised egos.