A Letter To The Black Community About Willie Wilson

This is an open letter to the Black community. Whites can read and take heed if they so desire, but this is a Black memo about Willie Wilson. I am a holder of a gold Black card with a rich legacy. That to say, I am assuming privileges with a realistic slant.

Whites won’t write this, neither will mainstream media. They simply laugh and try to figure out the total Black experience. They fear being called racist or insensitive or something. I don’t have those problems. They assume a politically correct posture as the fools act foolishly. But a spade is a spade.

We are living in the age of Covid 19. People are living in fear, with high tension and anxiety. We are living day by day like in a science fiction movie with no ending. People are worried and concerned. People are suffering from hardship and trying to avoid disaster.

This is not a time for ignorance or lunatic politics. This is a time for the utmost discerning. We have two problems; one is medical and the other is economics.

As you may know, Willie Wilson is a self-made millionaire with a very special brand of politics. He pulls together Black ministers, usually with small churches, and bargains and barters with them as he leverages their collective congregations for politicos.

I have witnessed this up close and personal, beginning with the former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s campaign in 2014. I saw Willie get a political fever from Bruce Rauner.

Willie donates to the ministers. He is a generous donor, from monetary gifts to fixing roofs, hiring electricians and plumbers, purchasing choir robes and the like. Willie uses his money for self-aggrandizement purposes. Willie plays Batman politics: he comes to save the day.

He seeks attention as he labels himself a “humanitarian.” He thinks and uses his money to buy favor. He wants you to be obedient to his will be done. He has even paid ministers to host his concerts on the church stage.

Willie has done good deeds, of course. He wanted to donate five million masks to the city, but had no plan for distribution and was denied. He then went to churches throughout the city for distribution. Job well done.

He tried to sell masks to the city and the state, but they said they would not pay him $1 million in cash upfront for the masks. Personally, I think a procurement officer could have worked out the business aspect of such a purchase from a minority vendor.

Wilson, The “Politician”
Willie might be angry at Lori Lightfoot, who beat him in the mayoral election. To his good credit, as some in the Black community were turning against Lori because of her gay status, Willie stood up and said sex and gender did not matter. He had his church following support her. She appointed him to the transition team, but after assuming office, Lori would not allow him to run City Hall and did not fall for his dictates.

Willie has run for political office before, including for Governor, Mayor, President and now the U.S. Senate. He will never obtain high office, because of the way he speaks, his limited appeal, and his lack of broad-based intelligence.

To his political credit, as he ran for mayor against Rahm Emanuel, Willie collected 43,000 signatures in a brief five days. In his last mayoral campaign against Lightfoot and others in the historic race of 2019, he garnered 50,960 votes, which was 10.7 percent of the total vote. If Wilson really wanted to serve in a public office, he should run for alderman or state senate, something that would be within his reach.

He is a hard worker, diligent in his approach, and is a genuine American rag to riches story. He has picked cotton in the South. He was a janitor at McDonald’s and rose to become an owner of five McDonald’s franchises and made millions. Willie is a serial entrepreneur and has a significant business brain. Today, he supplies medical supplies to medical facilities, with merchandise from China with tremendous markup margins.

Willie tries to dominate all things he participates in with his money as he seeks public acclaim. With his healthy donations, he seeks support and obedience. He tries to demand obedience. I was in a meeting with him once, a small office business gathering. I spoke without raising my hand and I was lambasted for speaking out of turn.

His base, that he hoodwinks mostly white politicians with, are small storefront churches that he can control and he propagandas that with representing the Black church, the Black minister, and the Black community at large. But this is not true. He attempts to leverage his political candidate support for political power from his church base in the pretense of Black leadership.

The white media falls for the gimmick, because they represent the Black community as a monolithic group, with a narrowly defined leadership. Some of Willie’s ministers are reputable, all are not. Some are just more dependent on Willie than they are true Willie devotees. Willie has no church of his own. He speaks for the ministers with the “Willie” voice.

Some ministers in structured organized religion are theologians. Some ministers are degreed, some ministers are studied. Because you raise your hand and know a bible verse or two, it does not qualify you as a respected minister that enables leadership beyond your church walls. Some ministers follow the pack of Willie. Some do not. Willie is headstrong and is not a listener as he reaches for civic leadership.

The point is simple; there is a difference in the ministry, in the Black church. Not all are the same. There is no one voice in the Black community. There are many, and they don’t always agree.

Re-Opening Black Churches

Willie is trying to embarrass Mayor Lightfoot. He does not like strong Black women with voices. I am among them; in fact, he has called me a monster. In his latest political foray, he is trying to embarrass Lightfoot, particularly, as he protests her and the Governor on behalf of not allowing the churches to open during this time of the pandemic. He suggests the churches are being discriminated against, as they are not considered essential.

The question of the churches not being essential is a thoughtful one. The liquor store is considered essential. Why? Cannabis stores are considered essential. What is missing from the argument is the economics of the church. The Black church in the Black community is its largest business. The smaller churches receive weekly offerings that are their economics. The churches, all of them, need money to operate.

This is a just argument. However, as the Mayor and Governor view churches, it is not the economics under consideration; it is the “gathering” of people that puts the minister and his flock in danger mode of contracting and transmitting Covid 19. On the other hand, the government should consider churches as non-profits and find creative ways to support, as they consider them “businesses.”

Willie wants the powers-that-be to allow the churches to open for service. At this time when the law of the day is “stay home” and limits gatherings to only 10, he is conflicted with the mayor as he directly challenges her authority and suggests that the Governor has total disrespect for the church community.

His game is “Willie Knows Best.” Unless you are on a suicide mission, this is not a good idea. Or is Willie on a Republican mission? You know, there is an election in November and the “divide-and-conquer” is a full-fledged strategic move. To divide the Black churches, where politicians come for votes, is a reasonable account, like no other.

Willie has shown disrespect for Lightfoot as he seeks a showdown with her to test to test her goodwill and her powers. The governor and the mayor tell us that the scientific evidence says at this time that we should stay home and social distance and wear our masks.

Many churches are broadcasting their messages and services on YouTube, Facebook, TV, and streaming services, and in doing so have produced new audiences. Many ministers are growing and developing new parishioners with donations.

This is a new way of receiving and delivering church. We miss the fellowship, we miss the choir, we miss the minister, from the podium to the handshake and big hug, but we have yet another church group experience.

There are too many cases of churches and ministers who have resisted the closing of the church after the minister and many of the congregants have contracted the disesesase and have been hospitalized and maybe died. Ministers get the virus, too. There are too many examples to point to. You don’t want to go to church to die.

Time To Remain Cautious
Covid 19 remains a mystery disease as the medical community tries to figure it out, from the origin to the spread, to the medical dynamic to the cure. There are no firm answers. Daily we have new information and speculation.

Early on it was thought children could not contract it; now we see children getting it in a new form that swells their organs. There was an early theory that Black people could not contract the virus because of stronger bodies. But now we find the Black community has it in greater numbers due to underlying health conditions. Now we find Latinos have it more than most.

This is a disease of discovery. Scientists all over the world are searching for answers and seeking a vaccine. Until then we are not safe in or out of church. The public is threatened with this curious, deadly disease.

Mayor Lightfoot has been patient and discerning as she deals with those who are defying the policies of stay at home and wear the masks. She is Mother Hubbard-like to the citizens of her beloved city. The Willie Wilson crew is forcing her hand at arrest and disbandment. There’s a new police chief in town who doesn’t know Willie Wilson from Little Willie and he might just enforce an arrest policy.

If I could stand in mayoral shoes and enforce policy, I would give the party goers and the church goers and the picnickers a red band, like the one used in the parties and the clubs that allow you access privileges.

The red band would allow all to go to a testing facility for Covid 19. If you tested positive, I would send you a personal card reading, “I TOLD YOU SO. GOOD LUCK AND GET WELL SOON”. I am reminded that the abolitionist Harriet Tubman had to shoot some of the slaves as she attempted to free them.

So, now what I am saying is simple: DON’T FOLLOW WILLIE WILSON TO CHURCH AT THIS TIME. NOT WISE. UNLESS YOU ARE ON A SICK OR SUICIDE MISSION. His limited abilities are showing. Don’t let ignorance kill you. Don’t let money fool you. Take the mask and the money, but don’t go to church, UNTIL THEY ARE OPENED BY THE MAYOR AND THE GOVERNOR.

You can pray from home. You can pray anywhere at any time. Religion is personal. Don’t you pray in the evening before you retire? Don’t you pray in the morning before you start your day? Connecting with God is quite personal. Personally, I am of the late Rev. James Bevel’s thinking. He was asked once by a reporter, “When do you start praying?” Rev. Bevel replied, “I don’t stop.”

God is everywhere. God created the virus. The world is changing for some reason, under God’s guidance. The elected officials are doing their best, but there is no rulebook, there is no guide, and there is no experience.

At the very best, they can study and reflect on pandemics of the past, which are mostly a century old. At this time, we don’t need to protest our public officials as they try to do what’s best for the greater public. We don’t need to take it personally. We need to rise to this critical occasion with calm, discernment, and good sense.

We are bored sitting at home. We are bored and afraid of the uncertainty. I tremble at the news reports that give us the Covid 19 score of testing and deaths every day. The count is staggering. I cringe listening to Trump suggest drinking bleach might help to clear your system.

Don’t be fooled, don’t be stupid, don’t follow Willie Wilson.

Yeah I said it. And I mean it! And may God bless us all.