Aubry Stone

A Man for All Reasons
Posted: 8/7/2010

To his parent’s delight, Aubry Stone occurred in Brooklyn NY in 1944. After high school the Air Force joined him. They were close for 25 years. Along the way he found a woman bold enough to marry him, work with him building a business and tend a family. Aubry Stone reminds us there’s an East Coast. It’s nice. He gets to the point even when he’s trying to evade your question. He’s cursed with honesty.

Stone is the president of the California Black Chambers of Commerce headquartered in Rancho Cordova, and director of the US Black Chambers of Commerce in Washington DC. He’s a big guy who seems as if he’s not paying attention, but hears and sees more than you. Among Stone’s many cherries, two of the sweetest are riding down to Harlem in the Fresh Air Cab Company cab with his family on Saturdays, and he’s a proud lifetime member of the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge. This interview took place May 27, 2010.

Hartline: Who are you, where are you from and what do you want?

Stone: You already know who I am so let’s dispense with that. I come from one of the five boroughs of New York, which is to say Brooklyn, and I want to succeed at what I’m doing. Now ask your questions, I might answer them.

Hartline: Okay tough guy, expound at length on Kevin Johnson and the “strong mayor” push.

Stone: One of things I’ve noticed here in California is that everyone’s highly educated, but lacks sophistication. There are things we take for granted on the East Coast that are like firestorms here. I say that in the context that the mayor’s been getting counsel from other city mayors in the Midwest and East, but their style of politics is vastly different from California. You don’t just drop something like the “strong mayor” idea on the people without preparation. I don’t think he did enough groundwork. He comes from pro sports where decisions are made instantly, as you play, as the games moving. He doesn’t understand that you don’t just take office and take charge of the team, in politics.

Hartline: What about his goal of making Sacramento a World Class city?

Stone: A perfect example of the mindset before Johnson is [former mayor] Heather Fargo. All she wanted to do is talk ‘green’ and plant trees and let things run themselves. When she realized someone was running against her she only had $28000 in her campaign box. Now that tells you something about attitude, right? She hardly campaigned and thought she’d win because she was the incumbent. If that’s not small town, small mind, minor league thinking I don’t know what is.

Hartline: It’s also arrogant.

Stone: Yeah, maybe. But even if you’re a shoo-in a good politician knows you raise a ton of money and you give it to other politicians running for city council or whatever. Twenty-eight grand? Man, that’s chump-change for the most powerful office in the city.

Hartline: You landed on it. But bottom line is can you get things done.

Stone: The difference is in understanding why we ought to have a pro team in town rather than another library. If you did a straw poll of, say, a hundred people they’d say a new library. But they don’t understand the money impact of a pro team. A library is a nice thing to want. It’s a feel-good gesture, a gesture to the past, present and future, and to art and learning. Okay, fine. But bring a major league team to town and the money follows, then you get the library or maybe two libraries, without raising taxes, then you can make any kind of gesture you want at anyone you like.

Hartline: Proposition 8, what do you think?

Stone: Ummm…Very, very divisive. Personally, I believe in live and let live.

Hartline: Then you support homosexual marriage?

Stone: You mean am I in favor of gay marriage? Yeah…yeah, I was...I didn’t go public, but I supported it. I couldn’t from my position as chamber president because there’s a lot of animosity in my community, particularly among the pastors, the African American pastors, which a lot of people don’t realize, are ve-r-r-r-r-y conservative and completely traditional.

Hartline: In terms of the foundation of civilization they’re among the staunchest defenders of the traditional family and basic morals in America, and possibly the world. They understand it’s the foundation of society.

Stone: Yeah, that’s true. But you don’t discover how committed they are until an issue like this arises.

Hartline: The Black churches and congregations made the difference in Prop 8’s victory. It’s clear that without the support of Black pastors and their flocks it probably wouldn’t have passed. The African American community voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 8. The “progressives” hate that, but are afraid to condemn the community because of the negative reaction they’d get. Now that’d be a firestorm.

Stone: One of the things that I’m…I’m. You know, it may simply come down to me being African America. I’m sensitive to people laying requirements on other people. Historically there were people who felt just as strongly about keeping my people enslaved. And they too talked about society and the social fabric, and in that case slavery was what Southern society was basing its economy on. So I get very cautious, very cautious, about denying anyone rights. I don’t want anyone stepping on anyone’s personal rights.

Hartline: That’s an emotional reactive response, but not necessarily negative. In fact it’s vaguely understandable – but too often an excuse.

Stone: I’m just very, very sensitive. I’ll give you a case in point: Proposition 209. There’s another one.

Hartline: The Bakke Case? It was intended to end race-based preferences and quotas, to level the playing field again by declaring from now on people would win on merit rather than point-spotting minorities for race or income or whatever. Put another way, no more handicapping Euro-American and Asian kids.

Stone: I believe it hurt people and created obstacles. But about the gays: if you’re my next door neighbor and you got a gay partner and everyone sees you coming and going…

Hartline: How do you explain it to the kids?

Stone: Talk to your kids! Just explain it to them. What else can you do? The kids aren’t going to say anything until they’re 7 or 8 or 9 anyway. Then you sit them down and speak to them. And don’t come up with some hallucination or fantasy statement. You tell them straight-out this is what they do, and this is what me and your mom do. You don’t tell them that gays have horns and tails, or they’re treating their kids bad, or that they shouldn’t have kids at all.

Hartline: Okay, let’s say they’re homosexual and married, and they want children. They can adopt because once you’re married you have the rights and privileges of marriage.

Stone: But you know Hartline, one of the things that causes me anguish are hypocrites. You come to me as you are, and I accept you as you are. It doesn’t matter whether you’re gay or straight. I either accept you or I don’t. It doesn’t matter whether you’re gay or straight, whether you cheat on your wife or you don’t. I don’t really care. I like you, we have good intelligent conversations, but don’t get into the verbiage of family values, for God’s sake. There’s always the outside woman, secret episodes in bathrooms and parks, come on, man!

Hartline: I get it, you don’t like hypocrites! But you’re okay with homosexual adoption?

Stone: No, I just don’t like hypocrites.

Hartline: Well that’s symptomatic of most that’s wrong in society. It’s lying and leads to larceny, corruption in politics, and withdrawal of trust and…

Stone: What grinds me the most is lack of integrity! No integrity, no honor.

Hartline: I believe if God demands anything of us, it’s exactly that, integrity. You can name anything else you like, but that’s first.

Stone: Exactly. We agree.

Hartline: Give me your thoughts on abortion.

Stone: It’s a woman’s choice. That’s it.

Hartline: Yes. Yet abortion’s constantly denounced by African-American pastors and the faithful as a Holocaust for the Black community.

Stone: It’s true.

Hartline: They’re the highest aborting group in the US. The numbers are supported by sociologists and demographers. But the crisis is never mentioned by African-American politicians, Reverend Jesse, Brother Al, Charles Rangle, Maxine Waters for example. In fact I’d say they’re frightened to address it.

Stone: Maybe. But irrespective of the numbers: it’s still a woman’s choice. If there’s a husband involved then it’s between the man, the woman and God. End of conversation. End of conversation.

Hartline: Are you doing anything about it?

Stone: We have the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The foundation’s agenda is to change the African American community from the ground up. One major category is health. We’re looking at childbirth, disease among men, and lifestyles. We’ve have epidemics in our community. Too many African American men are in prison doing whatever. They come out and give girls AIDS because of sexual activity in prison. I’m highly aware of the statistics in our community. We’re attacking low health education levels and high-mortality at childbirth. Our childbirth numbers are near that of a Third World country. That’s unacceptable.

Hartline: Yes, plus the absence of a man in the household.

Stone: Yes.

Hartline: I’m sure you’re aware of what life was like for Blacks in America between 1920 and 1960. There were at least 450 Black daily newspapers and countless numbers of Black-owned businesses - and a thriving, vibrant society in every major city.

Stone: Uh-huh…I was born in Harlem in 1944. I was a part of it. I grew up in it.

Hartline: And you saw how much crossover over there was, the white Manhattan mob coming into Harlem to soak-up culture…

Stone: Of course, of course! That’s still happening and will continue for an indefinite period. You know the impact of integration on our race has had pluses and minuses. One of the minuses is that there was a whole subculture that existed during segregation that thrived within its own parameters. Integration brought a new playing field with new rules. It ended the Negro Leagues in baseball, and guys like Robinson and Mays and Aaron went into the majors. But bottom line is I’m looking at things from the business perspective, when there were nightclubs and cab stands and tailors and other countless small business owners. I want to take that almost-forgotten, vibrant and highly creative thinking, retool it and say, “There’s a new playing field again! Let’s get out there and win!”

It’s like retrenching. You tell folks the things you used to do, like keeping receipts in your drawer or in a shoebox someplace, is a no-no! It’s time to fast-forward to the 21st Century, folks. This is the way it is now if you want to be a player. If you’re just doing something for a hobby, then do it for a hobby. Don’t pretend to be in business. But if you’re going to be a business person, this is how it’s done. They say, “But this is the way my father did it…” I say go get a CPA or an accountant, a tax advisor; and you get yourself certified and do your best for everyone, white, black or puce.

Hartline: Wait! I keep my receipts in a box…

Stone: Ha! Then you understand what I’m saying. When I get people asking why a California Black Chamber of Commerce, that’s why.

Hartline: The point being that you’re doing more to encourage business and aid upstart businesses than anyone, including the state and other chambers…

Stone: Yes, and we’re bigger than they are. I’ve got over five-thousand members…

Hartline: Right, but this is headquarters for the State Chamber, right?

Stone: Yeah.

Hartline: Looking at the sunrise, what are your goals?

Stone: I want to make a great impact. I want to be part of the solution. To as much a degree as possible I must ensure that my people are not the problem. I’ve got to figure-out how to create new and dynamic businesses, small, micro, whatever kind, it doesn’t matter.

Hartline: The most muscular and determined in America are the Blacks. They’ve had more to overcome. I’m not patronizing you by saying that. Patronizing is pandering, it's lying and overt hypocrisy. It demeans the struggle and the honest accord the races have reached.

Stone: Yeah, I’ve see it and I feel it every day.

Hartline: African Americans have proved their courage and strength through work and initiative under the most ironclad limitations.

Stone: I agree, but up to a point. After the second or third-generation, whether you’re Asian, White or Black, you have a different attitude. Even my daughter, she’s seen her mother and father work two jobs on a continuous basis. She’s learned to work by watching and by doing, you know? But with any group of people who’ve had to struggle for their place, identity, respect or whatever for so long, they usually hit a plateau, a plain of almost…what I’d call relaxed stress. Never, “Ha, I ain’t got a worry anymore!” It’s relaxed stress, an acceptance of current conditions. We’ll figure that out and work through it though, we’re family.

Hartline: The other group of determined strivers I’d point is the first Europeans.

Stone: Yeah! Yeah! They got their tails stomped at first! I often think about that. Reading early American history, the Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact; one more winter and they’d’ve been skinned by the Indians or starved to death. And Jamestown, it’s still a mystery. There was disease and starvation, but they had a purpose and everyone kept on keeping on. But we’re in a different place now. I see the kids, the Asian gangs, and the tears and pain in the eyes of their elders. Black kids killing each other on the street, young Latinos doing drive-bys, and on and on.

Hartline: What’s the second goal? You said you had two.

Stone: That’s my first, second and third. There are so many elements involved. Create more business! That’s first. I want that to be the engine that drives us to employment. I want to create jobs that are real, jobs that produce something, do something that’s quantifiable and can be paid for based on their value to people. Lastly, the end run on that idea, is to create wealth in the community. I’d like to develop a series of credit unions or banks, or be in partnership with major banks, and keep the money in the community.

I’m not a Black separatist or anything, but at the end of the day one of the things I told you that prevent us from taking advantage of Obama’s Stimulus money was not having shovel-ready projects on the boards, and no capital access. We know the lack of businesses and money means we go outside of our community to buy, and the money’s gone (snaps fingers) just like that. It didn’t even turn over one time in our community.

By the way, Merrill-Lynch did a study on linkage. It was phenomenal. It showed that every Monday morning in LA $20 Million from African American churches leaves our community because there’s no place to hold it. It goes to a bank in North Carolina, Chicago or New York. The next time we see the money it’s on a 28%-interest credit card. That’s got to stop! It’s very simple: economic community, economic stability. That’s what I’m trying to build. I want sustained stability, community sustainability.

Hartline: Grade Obama.

Stone: Based on the traditional A, B, C or D?

Hartline: Yep.

Stone: B-.

Hartline: What’s he done well? What’s he done poorly?

Stone: I think the first thing he’s done well is have a positive psychological impact on America. No matter how he’s judged by history, good or bad, he’s our first Black president.

Hartline: I understand and agree. Tangibly what’s he done?

Stone: Nothing! Somewhere along the way he’ll make his bones. But most things start between our ears: how we feel about ourselves, about our neighbors, about what we want to do and what we can do. He’s been positive psychologically. Let’s hope it lasts. He communicates extremely well. He communicates trust. What you hear is what it is.

If he can pull us out of this economic mess I’ll call him President Houdini. Things are terrible, and I don’t see a quick end. I think things may get worse before it’s over. But he walked in as the banking system collapsed and mortgage loans blew up, and as Europe’s bill came due after 40 years of loafing. Let’s see what he does. I’ve met the guy. I like him. But I’ve lived too long to hero-worship a guy just because he’s Black. Deeds, not words, you know?