Letter to the Editor from Clifford Jackson
Next month will mark the 34th anniversary of our move to Larchmont. It was a part of the conditioning that many of us are impacted by consciously and subliminally to have a better life in this country by moving to suburbia. Larchmont at that time was a racially homogeneous community and it to a great extent it still is 34 years later. I grew up in public housing like Congressman Jamal Bowman. I was raised in Wagner houses in East Harlem, Congressman Bowman was raised in the East River Houses in lower Manhattan. People should keep in mind that Congressman Bowman and myself have lineages that from the racist history of this country, especially when it comes to housing, relegated his family and my parents to live in housing projects. Where all of the racist and vile definitions are sanctioned and promoted by ‘ white America”.There are whites who have grown up in housing projects in this country but there is a more of a class definition that will define them hierachically. When Black and brown people live in the same milieu the subhuman and evil defintions will be applied to them by white America. These caterogizations impact on the mores of the very people who live in these housing projects that produces some of the very behavior that lends legitimacy to the racism that produced these environments in the first place. Self-hatred in these communities continues to this day that lies directly in the hands of white America with their nefarious erasing of the histories of black and brown people. So those reading this should understand congressman Bowman and I have gone through alot more to get to the point that we both are today than our white counterparts especially those that live in suburbia. That is not ” victimization” that is racial reality and as Malcolm X said ” a by product of the American Social order”.
When we moved here my lawyer , who represented us in our real estate transaction, she was Irish said ” You sure you are going to be happy living here ?”. Then I met someone that i had gone to high school with in coop city who was Jewish , who was living in the coop in Larchmont that we were looking to move to, who said when I apprised him of our move, ” You sure you are looking to do this ?”. At the time I did not think much of the two same exact questions that my lawyer and fellow truman high school mate were asking. As time went on living in Larchmont I saw exactly what they both were talking about. The same year that I moved here I started to to do my martial arts training , that I would do for the next 30 years. When practicing in ” turtle park” in Larchmont I was stopped and accosted four times in less than three weeks by the Larchmont police. In each case I was just doing my Kata’s, shadow boxing, dressed in work out fatigues. In one case the Larchmont police officer had his gun out asking me what I was doing ? I realized that all of these incidences were instances of racial profiling that were precipitated by the people living in the community more than the police themselves.
I wrote a scathing letter to the Chief of the Larchmont Police at that time and he met me at my home and we spoke for an hour and a half and I knew from that conversation as well as the racial profiling that racism was a major part of the village of Larchmont. I begin to see “white entitlement” and a psuedo air of superiority from my white fellow Larchmonters that was almost suffocating. Also a level of ” Archie Bunker” ignorance and racism in many of my conversations with people in the community. The ” liberal Larchmont” label was a canard as I begin to understand and certainly see today. This level of racism was particularly present in the attitudes of doctors and lawyers here. The very people who are looked as pillars of the community in suburbia. This aspect of Larchmont as well as what I have seen in the surrounding communities of Scarsdale, Rye, Harrison and briar Cliff helped to not only confirm what my lawyer and high school mate had said but propelled my social activism that has led me to contribute to this publication and others here in westchester county for the past 28 years.
This level of a racism impacted me because as the years went by and people in this community as well as the town of mamaroneck who know me and my journalism told me about a local website called “Lynda larch”, and said that I was being attacked on this site because of journalistic contributions. I saw some of the comments from people in Larchmont on this site and they were some of the most racist and offensive comments about people of color. In particular these people would make disparaging comments about black and Latino people living in the housing project next door on fifth avenue. The people on fifth are the same people who work at the local stop and shop and shop rite making sure that people in Larchmont have their food shelved in these stores, as well as working for the local sanitation department ensuring that their garbage is picked up. They also work at the local schools making sure the children of Larchmont are supported in their development.
This kind of mentality has led to the groundswell of support for George Latimer in his efforts to unseat two term incumbent Jamal Bowman especially here in Larchmont. The Latimer signs that say” results not rhetoric “ on many lawns here in Larchmont are not just about Latimers prior years of service. This is about Jamal Bowman’s stance on condemning the slaughter of Palestinian men women and children daily. Everyday Palestinian children are having their limbs amputated as a result of the bombing of their homes, mosques, schools and areas that supposedly they would be safe. These people are literally starving, and the emaciated bodies of Palestinian children that the world is seeing daily makes me sick to my stomach. This is not a civilized society or village that supports this kind of barbarism. Jamal Bowman is obviously categorically against this but has said “ Hamas is a terrorist group and that we should fight for a two state solution where Israelis and Palestinians will be safe and we have satisfied the objective which is peace “. Latimer has ignored what I just delineated about what has happened to Palestinians and contorted what Bowman has said about the ultimate objective which is peace.
When Latimer says ” that the killing of Palestinians is a direct result of Hamas and they are the cause” is like saying in the case of the Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre of 1921 ,and all of the other thousands of cases of white mob violence, that a black man allegedly attacks a white woman and therefore in the case of Tulsa it gave whites the right to burn every black business available and slaughter hundreds of black people over three days. The difference between Tulsa and Palestine is that there was no attack on a white woman and the pathological white violence was unprovoked. In Palestine the tragedy and massacre of October 7th by no stretch of the imagination justifies the killing of more than 40,000 palestinian men women and children and the injury and mutilation of more than 70,000 others. Latimer seems not to understand that !
This publication, along with Latimer, has distorted Bowman’s record. These are the facts, besides his position on Palestine that he called for peace right after October 7th he has brought 1 billion dollars to the bronx, Larchmont, scarsdale, Mamaroneck , Rye funding the hiring of new teachers, violence prevention which is the number 1 heathcare crisis in this nation, affordable housing as well as green house jobs. He is also against bringing another casino to westchester because he understands the human cost financially to people and the high suicide rate attached to gambling. Latimer supports casino gambling because of the economic windfall and once again ignoring the human costs that it will bring.
The difference Bowman and Latimer is that Bowman is not a corporate big money lackey that Latimer is, he also is resigned to the fact that he may lose this race being on the right side of history going against the evil in Palestine. He is no different in this respect than shirley Chisholm or thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. These three individuals are all congressional heroes that are all role models to us all.
Black and Brown people in this district need to get out the vote . They are a key part to a Bowman victory besides ” Jews for peace “and “Jews for Bowman “. If my Jewish Brothers and sisters in those organizations can come out and support Jamal Bowman than so can my black and latino brother and sisters who live in my district..
Cliff Jackson, Larchmont
