European Union Diplomat Questions “Absence” Of Black Leadership

European Union Career Diplomat Questions The “Absence” of Black Leadership Amid U.S. Social Unrest

By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES

“WHERE IS BLACK LEADERSHIP?”

European Union career diplomat, former ambassador Herman Portocarero wants this question answered amid the current U.S. civil unrest that was sparked by the homicide of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. In his blog post “Another Country,” Portocarero, who served as the EU’s first full-fledged ambassador to Cuba in 2012 questions the absence of black leadership and the urgent need for new leadership during this point of crisis. Here are excerpts from the former ambassador’s blog – The Diplomatic Lounge:

“The title of James Baldwin’s 1962 novel often comes to my mind as summing up the collective feelings of alienation experienced by many African-Americans individually and Black communities collectively in the United States.” -Herman Portocarero

Portocarero reflects on the murder of George Floyd: “Speaking about the murder of Mr George Floyd by a White police officer in Minneapolis, Mr Joe Biden summed up all that the White House is denying: America never got over its original sin of racism. To deny that there is a systemic problem is just ridiculous,” Portocarero writes in his blog. Ambassador Portocarero writes that the “underlying racism” never healed since the end of slavery.

“The over-militarization of police forces throughout the United States always makes tensions worse, not better. No protesting civilian wants to be confronted with troop contingents equipped and behaving like an invading and occupying force,” Portocarero writes.

Credit: Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times / Herman Portocarero, former European Union ambassador to Cuba, speaks on future of the socialist nation at Columbia University political forum Nov. 12, 2019.

“Civilian policing in the US has been utterly perverted by the defense industries. Just like wars anywhere thrive on the arms trade, militarized police forces are a typical example of a solution creating its own problems. The manufacturing and sale of security equipment is a sideline to the indecent internal arms race in the US, and a billion-dollar industry in its own right, cleverly courting the police apparatus and public powers everywhere,” the diplomat adds.

Ambassador Portocarero On Police Training: “The next issue is training. I find it unbelievable that with all the tools of HR management to which we subject any candidate for any job, it still appears impossible to avoid recruiting police officers with the wrong basic instincts. Not people getting carried away in the heat of passion– although policemen and women should possess adequate self-control– but persons capable of cold-blooded murder by minutes-long strangulation like Mr. Derek Chauvin.” The former EU ambassador is likely to get a lot of flack from Africans involved in the struggle for social justice for his questioning of Black leadership in the current crisis in the U.S. They may say who does Mr. Portocarero think he is to question our leadership when the ambassador is far removed from the struggle living a privileged life in Europe. But it is a fair question. One has to admit that although the recent police killings of Black Americans have sparked massive protests in the U.S. not seen since the 1960’s, there really has not been a singular Black leader or Black leaders leading this contemporary Black Lives Matter movement for social justice like in the past with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Roy Wilkins, et al. But perhaps that is the point with this contemporary movement of Black social justice that a singular leader is not needed to distract from the message. “Why the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t want a singular leader” is an excellent POLITICO article published July 22, 2020 addressing this issue raised by Ambassador Portocarero.

“There is no chairperson or candidate calling the shots in private or serving as a public rallying point. With no singular person to attack in tweets, President Donald Trump instead directed his ire and threats of violence at mostly peaceful protesters.” -Laura Barrón–López writes in POLITICO. “In terms of strategy — and this is very real that we have to be honest about this — it makes it harder for those who are against us to do what they did in the ‘60s, which is to target one leader,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, a voter engagement nonprofit – POLITICO.

But let us now return to Ambassador Portocarero’s thoughts on Black leadership, who concludes his blog asking:

“My last point is a very delicate one, but it has to be mentioned -

“Where is Black leadership?”

“The worst vicious circle in all this will be the increased racism, with prejudices confirmed and reinforced by the burning and the looting. Yet this is the real message: too many poor Americans and especially Black people are indeed living in another country, long left behind by politics, no longer inspired by civic leaders with standing and credibility. Street violence has always been the language of the powerless. The breaking and burning looter reacts to the killer instinct of the bad cop. It will take time and a great deal of patience and intelligence to break those vicious circles, if that is at all possible. (Continued on Page 28)

U.S. Senators Call For Investigation of Racial Harassment Of Minority Diplomats at Borders

By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) are leading a call on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) to open a formal investigation into allegations of racism, racial targeting, and harassment of U.S. government officials by Trump administration Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at U.S. border crossings. Mendez and Booker are joined by Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (DVa.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) The Senators’ letter follows the disturbing account of former U.S. diplomat Tianna Spears, who was subjected to an inexplicable amount of inspections, intimidation, and other forms of race-based harassment by CBP officers at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration. Ms. Spears, a Black woman stationed as a diplomatic officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border for questioning and inspections approximately 25 times in a 6-month span. Despite repeatedly identifying herself as a U.S. government official and asking CBP why she was being subjected to additional layers of inspection without explanation, the incidents continued. In highlighting the State Department’s and CBP’s failure to guarantee a workplace environment free from discrimination and politicization, the U.S. Senators underscored that the unwarranted attacks and harassment of professional civil and foreign servants is corrosive for our diplomacy and damaging to our democracy. “According to the American Academy of Diplomats, an association of former U.S. ambassadors and senior foreign affairs government officials, this issue is not new; problems range from CBP officers not accepting standard diplomatic documentation to engaging in repeatedly hostile questioning and delays of Black and His-

U.S. Senators ob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) lead call for investigation into alleged racial profiling/harassment of U.S. Diplomats of color at border crossings.credit: menendez.senate

“Not only are these incidents unacceptable, they fly in the face of our American values of diversity, equality, and respect for fundamental civil rights,” the Senators wrote. “The vile legacy of racially profiling Americans simply based on their skin color, a quality they have no choice in whatsoever, has no place in our nation’s present nor our future.”

panic diplomatic officers,” the Senators added, referencing accounts from Black diplomats who experienced border harassment but were too afraid of jeopardizing their careers to make formal complaints. “We cannot afford to lose the best and brightest public servants our country has to offer to incidents that betray our American values. Agents responsible for this behavior must be held fully accountable and the practice of forcing minority diplomatic officials to bear the pernicious consequences of racial misconduct of other government officials must stop.” Committee Democrats are currently examining a pattern of systemic mistreatment of minority U.S. government officials by CBP agents. The investigation requested is just one step of a broader review, the senators said in their statement.

The Senators Letter Calls For:

-A full investigation into the allegations by Ms. Spears, including the basis for subjecting Ms. Spears repeatedly to secondary inspection at the U.S.-Mexico border and a review of CBP’s internal investigation.

-A review of all complaints to CBP and the Department of Homeland Security related to any targeting, profiling, harassment, abuse of authority, or improper treatment of U.S. government officials, particularly at U.S. border points of entry, including formal and informal complaints made to the Inspector General’s office, the Joint Intake Center, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; to employees in supervisory, managerial, or leadership positions; through any relevant hotlines; from federal agencies on behalf of other parties; at border stations and other ports of entry; and by any whistleblowers; and should include an assessment of whether race or ethnicity was a factor in any request for further inspection or inappropriate conduct; -A full accounting of all secondary inspections or screenings of U.S. government officials at border and ports of entry crossings since January 1, 2015, broken down by race and ethnicity.