A Public Lynching

Back in the day – way back – I was tangentially involved in civic affairs in Cleveland, Ohio. The city had been unfairly tarred with slogans like “The Mistake on the Lake.” It didn’t help that the Mayor had caught his hair on fire, the Cuyahoga River had caught fire, and none of Cleveland’s sports teams had caught fire.

The Greater Cleveland Growth Association (aka Chamber of Commerce) initiated a new branding (gawd, how I despise “branding”) campaign to reinvigorate tourism and convention booking. Among other silliness, they called Cleveland the “North Coast.” Ya know, the surfing and sunny brilliance of Lake Erie, which had not caught fire, but was trying very hard.

(Disclosure: I lived in Cleveland or thereabouts for 24 years and adore the underrated city.)

The centerpiece of rebranding was a short promotional film, funded by the Cleveland Foundation. The Growth Association and Foundation held a gala luncheon to preview the film for the press, all of Cleveland’s luminaries and a few not-so-luminary folks like me.

It was introduced with great fanfare. The high-gloss presentation made Cleveland look like Paris, Lake Erie like the Mediterranean, and the Cleveland Indians like the Yankees.

As the lights came back on, the Growth Association Chair, Cam Elliott, invited questions from the press. A reporter from the Call and Post, one of the nation’s last remaining Black newspapers, rose to his feet. As well as I can recall:

“The film is lovely. But why, when the city of Cleveland is 80% Black, was there not one Black person in the film?” You could have heard a flea fart.

To his credit, Cam Elliott did not stammer, stumble or deny. He immediately apologized and said the film would be remade to better reflect the whole city.

I recall this to contrast the brouhaha with the Colorado Board of Regents and its sole Black member Wanda James.

James recently reacted to a state-funded marijuana education campaign called “The Tea on THC,” produced by the Colorado School of Public Health at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus. The images embedded in Tea on THC were all Black faces. She was rightfully and righteously indignant that the dangers of high potency weed were associated so obviously with race. For background, consider that marijuana use is higher among us white folks, so the caricature was as wrong as it was offensive.

She complained to Governor Polis and the University. The images were pulled but a debate about the program’s funding yielded no significant change.

The germane point is that the Board of Regents is investigating her (!) with potential censure at stake. The claim is that she has a conflict of interest in that she is the pioneering Black founder of Simply Pure marijuana dispensary and that The Tea on THC would harm her business and thus clouded her objections and alleged efforts to stop or redirect the funding.

James is no shrinking violet. She has described the investigation as a “public lynching” aimed at her because, as the Denver Post reported,  “I called those images out and they’re upset. The Board of Regents at CU has decided to be judge, jury and executioner for the sole Black woman on the board for speaking out on racist tropes.”  As to “public lynching,” I can assure you that James is no fan of Clarence Thomas. The similarity stops there.

I know James only from news reports and one long conversation when I interviewed her for Yellow Scene Magazine during the Regents campaign. On both scores, I believe her to be highly principled, gracious, and uncompromising. The notion that she took this stance to make a buck is ludicrous and offensive.

CU Board of Regents Chair Callie Rennison and Vice Chair Ken Montera, who called for the investigation, are white. Oddly, Rennison is the Director of Equity, and Title IX Coordinator at the University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus. You might think she would know better.

So, James is investigated and the chain of decision-makers who produced the vile images fade into the background. That should be the story.

Almost 50 years later and here we are. In one case, no Black faces where there should have been many. In the other, only Black faces where there should have been few.

In 1976 Cleveland, Cam Elliott had it right. “I’m sorry. We should have known better.”

In 2025 Denver, it’s a Black woman getting the heat.