I miss Amos Brown. I mean, I REALLY miss Amos Brown.
I miss our conversations and the way we would swap pertinent information or discuss the latest hot-button issues that impact our community and Blacks in particular.
This time of year leaves me in a reflective mood as I think about Amos because he and I would converse with one another about everything, including the crazy antics in this year’s presidential race, the ever-widening maltreatment and disparities that Blacks and other minorities are experiencing nationwide and we would definitely talk about Summer Celebration since it just concluded.
My thoughts about Summer Celebration aren’t much different than recent years: attendance was down, community support and morale continues to wane, and Indiana Black Expo officials (leadership, staff and board members) don’t understand or they choose to ignore the ills of the organization and the detriment it causes the community.
As is the case every year, community leaders and general members of the community readily shared their perspectives with me – even though I didn’t ask their opinions. Some of the most consistent things I heard was displeasure with the vendors (people said it seemed more like a flea market), concerns over the decreased attendance and that one “just didn’t hear much about Expo/Summer Celebration.”
Low attendance was not just something people perceived, the official numbers speak for themselves. On Friday, there were only 234 purchased tickets. Saturday resulted in 5,020 ticket purchases and Sunday – the day the event was free – only 5,514 tickets were scanned. As I stated, with the exception of Sunday, the numbers reflected are paid tickets — it does not include the individuals who attended the Corporate Luncheon and were able to walk to the exhibit halls for free, nor does it include folks who had complimentary tickets, VIP passes or the wristbands that are given to vendors/workers.
Decreased attendance and the lack of exposure can both be attributed to Indiana Black Expo’s irrational and highly emotional decision-making, or shall I say, decision maker.
Most people know that Expo President Tanya Bell severed the organization’s relationship with the Recorder a couple years ago because she was upset with the truths about IBE that Amos and I shared with the community in our weekly columns. It was Bell’s attempt at censorship, but that didn’t work because the Recorder and Radio One, whom Amos dedicated most of his professional career to, continued to be purveyors of truth by not only exposing the ugliness of IBE, but also offering solutions that could help the organization.
Because Expo, under Bell’s leadership severed its relationship with the Recorder, our level of coverage was reduced. We continue to be journalists with integrity and we report on IBE and Summer Celebration, but the amount of coverage is significantly less. Amped up coverage was a perk of the partnership.
To my dismay, I found out earlier this month that Tanya Bell did the same thing to Radio One Indianapolis. She attempted to censor the prominent radio station by prohibiting them from broadcasting live at the INShape Indiana Black & Minority Health Fair or any part of Summer Celebration. She blocked Radio One, a move that is unheard of because everyone who hosts an event the scale of Summer Celebration wants and needs publicity – especially from a media organization that has four stations and reaches over 400,000 people.
I learned that Bell wanted to sever the IBE/Recorder relationship from other people. She didn’t have the decency to tell me herself and I had to reach out to her several times before I actually connected with her to confirm the rumors. Tanya Bell did the same thing to Radio One. Rather than speak directly to Deon Levingston, Radio One’s regional vice president, Bell cowardly had an outside entity do the dirty work.
As I think of the state of the nation, the political, social and racial unrest that is occurring before our eyes, it saddens me to see such destruction occur in our own local community. Destruction by Bell and her board who has proven year after year to be silent participants who let her do as she pleases rather than what is good for the organization and community as a whole.
While so many of our people have to defend their Blackness to others, we have IBE ending relationships with credible Black entities like the Recorder and Radio One – all because of emotions that have more to do with personal feelings and less to do with professional business
But guess who the real sufferers are?
Well, not Radio One because they are still the premier Black radio company in the country. The Recorder isn’t suffering either because we have continuously been amongst the Top 10 percent of the more than 200 Black newspapers in the nation.
The real sufferers are the community and IBE. IBE has such a rich legacy. It’s a shame so much of what was established is now compromised. However, at this point, my main concern is the community. My community. Our community.
Blacks are disenfranchised from so many others and now because of entities like IBE, we are disenfranchising ourselves. It’s sad and truly unfortunate.
If Amos and I were talking right now, this would be the time when I would voice my frustrations to him about our disunity in the community. He and I would probably share some potential strategies for success, specifically as it relates to IBE, but before the end of the conversation, we’d get back to reality – the reality that Expo’s senior leadership consists of one person and that person is accountable to the board. If the board doesn’t want to see positive change and improvement, it’s a lost cause. That has been the case for several years now.
There are some new folks on the board – some who say positive change is coming, that accountability is coming. We’ll just have to wait and see, but from my experience of history being the best teacher, what we will see from the board is more broken promises.
