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August 13th, 2009
Written by DC Fab
I was more than excited to see the HBO documentary The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, a detailed look at the life and legacy of Washington, D.C.’s former mayor. At first I was a little apprehensive to share my thoughts on the documentary, which are in essence my thoughts on Marion Barry‘s life. One, because it’s hard to judge someone with a serious problem like addiction; and two, because my mother told me when I first put something up on my blog about Marion Barry to “not talk about him like that”.
Still, I owe it to @TedDboy84 who expects a good write up. Well, Ted, I’ll do by best:
I give it to filmmakers, Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer, both from the District, who painted an amazing picture of Washington, D.C. and all it’s complexities in the 1960s and 1970s. Washington, D.C. was a hotbed of change. A city that consisted of majority African-American residents but was ran by Congress, a predominantly white-male political body.
With the Civil Rights Movement in full swing, it was only right that D.C. wanted a political voice (a voice that some say D.C. is still fighting for).
It was inspiring to see a country boy like Marion Barry, who as a child picked cotton, establish a local chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Washington, D.C. It was even more inspiring to see him establish Pride, Inc., which not only gave back to Black men what it seemed like the ‘system’ stripped them of, but if you watched how Marion Barry interacted with people, you could see it was a true gift. He looked into every person’s eyes, he seemed to listen to exactly what their needs were, he seemed to connect to them.
His rise to political power seemed inevitable, as this talented and gifted young man would lead Washington, D.C. to define it’s own voice instead of allowing Congress to establish it for them.
That was the fulfilling part of the documentary and I suppose the fulfilling part of Marion Barry‘s political career.
Still, watching him kiss women on the lips as he’s campaigning or making mayoral appearances made my stomach churn. Watching him tell kids that they shouldn’t do drugs when he knew good and well that he was doing drugs, disheartened me. I was disgusted really…but could I blame him? Was I blaming the victim? :shrugs: I don’t know.
Also, listening to his beautiful wife, Effi Barry, who describes his decline in controlling his addiction to alcohol, drugs and women, was even more disheartening, especially since she lost her battle with leukemia two years ago. It’s definitely not the legacy she wanted to leave; this beautiful yet quite shy ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
The documentary fell short in describing the complexity of why people supported Marion Barry‘s political career. It seemed too black and white, literally. While the Blacks blindly supported Marion Barry in any seat he chose to run for, the Whites in D.C. grew more and more enraged. We only see perhaps three people hate on Marion Barry who were Black. Larger crowds and even his poor, disillusioned God-child, supported him even until the end of the documentary.
Well, if you’ve been keeping up with D.C. politics then you know the latest girlfriend-gate scandal that Marion Barry is going through. I would have liked to see a note at the end of the documentary with updated information on the state of Marion Barry‘s political career; one that is still in shaky waters due to his womanizing ways.
Overall, the documentary, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, was a piece that showed the mindset of a public figure who struggles in the limelight and a public who supports said figure and possibly enables his detrimental behavior.
I couldn’t agree more. As a resident of ward 8 i felt there could have been/should have been more coverage of the changing face of the ward that Marion Barry represents….there are more African American’s who dislike Marion Barry than the documentary shows…but again a very well written piece that covers both sides of the coin.
by AC
You know the one line that jumped out @ me,being a Washingtonian and now a ward 8 resident as of last summer, is when one of the white journalists said “it was almost like his decline with drugs mirrored the city”, and that is so very very very true…..Folk esp not from this area, really don’t get it, just so glad they finally did some balanced reporting on the man.
by OrangeStar616
How exactly does the public enable his behavior? By continuing to vote for and support him? We’re all entitled to our opinions… but Barry’s choice to use crack or his poor choice of women are his personal choices. They don’t have anything to do with his career. Say what you want about him, but he was voted into office. Over and over and over again.
Also the recent event with the girlfriend who called the police on him was just a classic case of a woman scorned trying to get back at someone. Barry did not commit any crime. Even his hiring her as a consultant for the city council was completely legal. The most he is guilty of is dating a colleague. I don’t see how this event would have been relevant to the documentary and its focus.
He may be a foolish man, he may be a liar (what politician isn’t), but he is definitely very smart and resilient. As crazy as he may seem, he chooses each step carefully before taking it. He plays around with the ditzy women but married the intelligent ones. And most importantly every time he falls down, he gets up.
The complexity of why people have supported his career is quite simple: we see ourselves in him.
by mcsquared
Malika,
But just because the public voted for him doesn’t mean he was the right person for the job (that’s an argument one could say). I actually don’t know if Marion was the right person for the job because I don’t live in that Ward and wasn’t around to vote when he ran for Mayor.
His accomplishments speak for themselves but when his personal choices then affect the constituents he vowed to serve, then his personal choices have crossed the line to ‘professional distractions’ and that to me is a poor choice of a political leader…
The truth of the matter is being a politician means being a PUBLIC servant; meaning when you run for office your entire life is to serve the public…until your term is over. And even after you’re out of office, former Presidents, congress people, mayors etc. feel an EXTREME responsibility to live ‘upright’ whatever that means for them because they made a promise to the people a long time ago to be a public servant.
Now, like I said, it’s very hard for me to judge anyone with an obvious problem (re: addiction in Marion Barry’s case) but I’d like to encourage my people to do better…and not just make excuses, which I feel people continue to do to and rationalize behavior that you wouldn’t want your kids to do. Seems foolish to me…
(Sorry, I feel sorta’ kinda’ passionate about this) And this is precisely why Black people have GENERATIONAL CURSES because instead of breaking the cycle; we rationalize it.
Whew! K, I’m done! 
by DC Fab
I think you make a valid point about personal choices being distractions and [negatively] affecting his career. You call my sentiments rationalizing… I look at them as being realistic. Could he do/be better? Sure. But he didn’t. There are plenty of Washingtonians who LOVE Barry and would fight you for talking about him. I’m not one of them. I was quoted in the USA today in 1990, at the age of 9, speaking about my disappointment in Barry for telling kids not to use drugs (literally visiting schools, spreading the message) but then getting caught doing the very same thing. I believe the word I used was hypocrite.
“The truth of the matter is being a politician means being a PUBLIC servant; meaning when you run for office your entire life is to serve the public…until your term is over.” Really? Politicians don’t get to go home to their spouses in the evening, weekends off, summer vacations with families, etc.? I feel that is an unrealistic rule the people try to beat these politicians over the head with and then when said public servant doesn’t measure (more often, than not), they’re ostricized, scolded, publicly humiliated, told to resign, or threatened with impeachment.
I totally agree that deciding to become a politician (or any public figure) basically means inviting the public into your business. Every day, all day. But we all know people can get carried away, especially the media. Boundaries get crossed and suddenly anyone who can read a newspaper thinks they’re entitled to tell you how to live your life.
No need for me to make excuses on behalf of another grown person. But one cycle I’d like to see broken are expectations of politicians’ poop to smell like roses. Just because they’re public servants.
by mcsquared
That’s wassup about USA Today. Still, what I said about being a public servant stands. Listen, I didn’t make the rules…but in our society everyone knows that, including the politicians or people who choose to run for office. You know that they’re going to look at your past tax records, if you smoked weed in college, if you have bad credit…they’re going to look and interview your relatives to see if you have mental health issues etc. etc. That’s the only reason why the Washington City Paper reported on Barry’s dealings with his girlfriend or why the press reported President Clinton’s infidelity or any other Senator’s infidelity…so no, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say that their lives are lived in the public eye and if you ask most politicians, they will tell you that they’ve dedicated their life to serving their constituents, which is a fancy way to say ‘the public’.
And no, I don’t expect any human being to be perfect but I do expect my leaders to have some sort of accountability and just plain ole’ common sense…and I think that Barry has lapses in it all the time.
by DC Fab
I agree with DC Fab. I really don’t think that it’s asking to much for politicians not to get engaged in illegal and highly immoral behavior as some of them have: Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Kwame Kilpatrick, Mark Sanford, Marion Barry, etc. I mean really, how hard is it not pay for prostitutes, abuse tax payer dollars, and use illegal drugs?
by City Girl DC
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My sentiments exactly. Great write up.
by PHZ-Sicks