Have I mentioned before that our Justice and Beyond children are amazing? Our corner for the children is the latest addition to our 4:45 Monday night meetings, a gathering of justice-seeking organizations, at Cafe Istanbul in the Healing Center St. Claude Avenue at St. Roch. We pulled back the curtain so that the children’s area, which consists of art supplies, books, and Lincoln logs, could be more a part of the group as a whole.
We weren’t sure that would work, but the children have spontaneously created their own norms. Many prefer to eat their red beans and rice in the children’s area rather than with their parents. They are quiet and remain engaged in their various creative endeavors for the whole time the program lasts. They take it upon themselves to pack things away when the time comes.
The program for this evening is on youth organizing. Sonny D Strong, his brother David Strong, and Ashley Moon Walker are on stage, interspersing their organizing strategies with songs and poems. Sonny and David are black. Ashley is white. Just when I think the children couldn’t care less about what’s going on on stage, they ask me to take the art work they have made to the presenters, a beautiful, colorful poster that says, COLOR DOESN’T MATTER. Most of what we talk about in Justice and Beyond is how color does matter, when it shouldn’t. But the children remind us that the centuries-old, politically-constructed, specious, concept of “race” doesn’t have to matter or even exist forever. Bless their new and innocent eyes.
As Sonny is talking, David’s 6-year-old Derrick (I’ll call him, so he won’t develop a media profile well before the age of consent), says, “That’s my uncle talking.” “I know,” I say. “You must be very proud of him.” Derrick: “Yeah. I’ll be on stage some day.” “Maybe sooner than you think,” I respond. A little while later, Sonny, as if reading or minds, calls him up and Derrick talks about his football team, pointing out his coach in the audience. As he’s finishing up his red beans and rice he asks me, “Did you see me on stage?”
I have to say this too about Derrick: He’s in first grade and a great reader. Without any prompting he brought me a Dr. Seuss book and read the whole thing, cover to cover, without getting distracted by all that was going on the room. His Dad, David, runs a mentoring program. It must be very effective.
The music this evening, though new to some of the older adults, was well-received by all. The youngsters in their spoken word, tried to clean up their language, but didn’t entirely succeed. The next day in the pillar’s meeting, the steering committee for Justice and Beyond, we had a discussion about that. We agreed that it was part of their artistic expression. Some said, the little ones probably didn’t notice.
It’s my experience that the little ones notice everything, even when we think they don’t. In fact I would consider their little blanketed area the true conscience of the room. The second poster they send to the stage says, “Love each other – by children section.” I think we had better clean up our language and a whole lot else, as we prepare them to take over the world from us. Orissa Arend is a member of Justice and Beyond and author of Showdown in Desire, the Black
It’s my experience that the little ones notice everything, even when we think they don’t. In fact I would consider their little blanketed area the true conscience of the room. The second poster they send to the stage says, “Love each other – by children section.” I think we had better clean up our language and a whole lot else, as we prepare them to take over the world from us.
Orissa Arend is a member of Justice and Beyond and author of Showdown in Desire, the Black
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu