Guest Columnist Sherman George
As I await the outcome of formal complaints I have initiated against Mayor Francis G. Slay alleging racial discrimination against me in my tenure as fire chief for the City of St. Louis, it is interesting – sometimes inspiring, sometimes upsetting – to see how the community continues to react to the mayor.
As many of us remember, there was a moment when the community was unusually united against the mayor. Activist groups, mostly made up of people who already had strong differences with Slay, stood up for my rights against the mayor. But so did much more mainstream and even conservative segments and leaders of our community.
Elected officials were more reluctant to support me publicly. I have learned a great deal about local politics during this ordeal, and it is now clear to me that politicians (whatever mild things they say to their constituents) operate in a vicious world of payback and vengeance. Other than state Rep. Jamilah Nasheed and (in her much more quiet way) Comptroller Darlene Green, very few elected officials were willing to defy the mayor openly for the way he handled my leadership of the fire department.
Even without much leadership from the people who are elected to lead, the controversy over the disrespectful, underhanded way the mayor treated me united our community. I know – from being approached by many people, from many walks of life – that it was the mayor’s cynical use of another black man, Charles Bryson, to enforce his administration’s plans for me that drove many people over the line. From male business leaders to little old church ladies, many African Americans have confided in me their disgust that the mayor resorted to a tactic that dates to slave times: raising up one black man to unjustly discipline another.
As time passes, I see some of the momentum behind me fade. That is understandable. Anger is draining and difficult to sustain while remaining sane, and we all have our own problems and burdens that seem to be getting worse and worse. Still, it upsets me to see some apparently self-respecting black people who call themselves leaders begin to treat this mayor as if he has done nothing wrong or appeased our community for the many things he has done wrong.
The mayor’s name is still very tarnished among the everyday people, but I have seen certain “civic leaders” and elected officials attempt to creep back into the good graces of the mayor. I understand that it is their right to forge whatever alliances they deem necessary or useful to their own efforts, and Slay remains the mayor, and as such the gatekeeper to a significant amount of power and opportunity.
However, I would like to do two things. I would like to ask the community to hold their “civic leaders” and elected officials responsible for whatever agreements they may be making with the mayor. Keep your eye out for who seems to be embracing this mayor, and ask yourself – and them – what they are getting out it for themselves, and whether that does any good for our community.
And I would like to ask those leaders and politicians who are now embracing Francis Slay: what makes you think you are any different than me? Are you aware that I tried to work with this man? That I tried to do my job thoroughly and with dignity? Yet, he undermined me the moment my sense of duty and public safety departed from what he wanted me to do.
You may be useful to Francis Slay today. But you’ll regret your alliance with him the moment you adopt any independence of judgment that benefits the people of St. Louis, but goes against whatever role is being created for you. Slay has embittered and cast aside a long line of productive black officials and civil servants. What on earth makes you think you are any different? Tell me, how do you know that you are not the next in line?