Auntie Maxine or Iya Maxine? Whichever You Prefer, It's Good Having Maxine Waters As Kin!

Auntie Maxine?

I beg to differ.

Rep. Maxine Waters loves -- and shows her love -- for her community like only a mother could.

And when they are wronged? She fights like a mother bear protecting her cubs.

No matter if the adversary is the government, law enforcement, or the media -- which once dogged her, but now treats her as their darling.

So, sorry, but I disagree with the title Auntie Maxine -- well-meaning and affectionate though it may be.

To me, and most of my racially conscious friends, she has been -- and always will be -- Iya Maxine.

"Iya" being the Yoruba word for 'mother.' And a title of respect used for older women who play the role of mother to a group or community.

And that’s what Maxine Waters is, in my opinion. A mother who takes very seriously the well-being of her tender off-spring — her constituents.

And in looking out for them she looks out of for all of us.

It’s good to have a mother looking at us.

Don’t get me wrong, I don't always agree with Iya Maxine, but I have always admired her, respected her -- loved her, even -- long before Trumpmania punched the entire nation in the gut.

I remember back in 1976, when she was first elected to the California Assembly, she advocated for the state to stop doing business with South Africa until they abolished apartheid.

She was also responsible for a state bill that prohibited police from strip-searching people suspected of non-violent misdemeanors.

Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1991, a lot more Black people began to know who she was after the Rodney King verdict in 1992. She pushed the government to quickly start sending aid to rebuild the ruined infrastructure that resulted because of the wave of violence after the reading of the verdict.

And Iya Maxine took to task people criticizing the spontaneous reaction -- calling it a riot -- without taking into consideration the underlying circumstances that contributed to the civil disorder.

If anything, she said, call it a rebellion.

"If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason," she said. "I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable."

But it was in the mid-90s that she fought one of her more memorable battles.

She accused the CIA of having something to do with the flooding of parts of Southern California with cocaine -- resulting in Los Angles, which included her district, having one of the largest crack cocaine epidemics in the country.

Of course the government denied it and she was called all kinds of crazies… but the San Jose Mercury News even published a series of articles (using anonymous sources) about the CIA involvement in Southern California's cocaine epidemic.

Still there were denials and harsh criticism from both government and law enforcement officials.

Iya Maxine was only a freshman congresswoman, but she didn't care, Iya Maxine went after them like an enraged mother fighting to keep drug dealers from her own vulnerable children.

Pressured by the relentless Maxine Waters, the government sought to appease her by conducting (what they called) an investigation which ultimately found no foundation for the accusations.

Waters angrily disavowed the findings, saying she still believed the CIA/government was responsible for the drug epidemic in her district.

She even managed to put a memo into the Congressional Record stating that the CIA was not reporting drug distribution that they knew about in Southern California.

(A side note: A few years after the story San Jose Mercury News was published, the reporter, Gary Webb. who wrote it was found dead in his apartment with two bullets to the head. It was ruled a suicide.)

Oh, she was ridiculed, by both politicians and in the mainstream media. But she didn't care… She was fighting for her community.

It wasn’t until almost two decades later, after the arrest of Freeway Rick Ross — a major drug dealer in the Lost Angeles area — that some began to admit the CIA, at the very least, knew about the

Go on, Iya!

It was in 1998 that she also wrote an open letter to Fidel Castro, the late president of Cuba, telling him she was against a U.S. resolution requesting the urging him to extradite Assata Shakur.

Shakur, born JoAnne Chesimard, was arrested in 1973, charged with first-degree murder after New Jersey State Trooper Wermer Foerster was killed in a shootout with Shakur and two male associates. Shakur and her associates were all known members of the Black Panther Party.

In 1977, Shakur escaped from prison, and for decades been openly living in Cuba, which has refused to extradite, despite demands by the U. S.

In May 2013 the FBI added Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorist List — making her the first woman to be on the list which once included Osama Bin Laden — and a $2 million reward was posted for her capture.

When a non-binding resolution was passed in the U. S. Congress, Iya Maxine — the head of the Congressional Black Caucus — boldly objected.

Shakur, Maxine Waters said in the letter, "was a member of the Black Panther Party, one of the leading groups associated with the Black Liberation Movement."

"The Black Panther Party", she continued, "was the primary target of domestic government political harassment and persecution" during the Black Power era of the 60s and 70s.

"This illegal, clandestine political persecution was wrong in 1973 [the year Shakur was originally arrested in New Jersey], and is wrong now."

Go on, Iya!

Impressive though her stance and accomplishments were, until the last year or so, Iya Maxine was not at all well-known outside of the Black community.

But then came Trump.

It was then that America learned that “shade” was not something used exclusively by people on housewife reality shows.

When asked if she was going to boycott Trump's inauguration because of his insulting remarks about civil rights leader and now Congressman John Lewis, Maxine Waters tweeted:

That’s right, Iya!

Some of her tweets are likely to go down in history.

Like this one:

Oh, and of course the tweet to beat all tweets was the one she posted after former FBI Director James Comey testified during this U. S. Senate hearing that he did not feel comfortable being left alone in the room with Trump, Iya Maxine reached her arm back all the way to October — when Trump’s sordid behavior toward women was revealed with the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tapes were publicly released — and slapped him in the face with at tweet that was carried in all the national papers.

OUCH!!!!

Now that was a Mama smacking the crap out of someone kinda smack.

So, no, to me she's not an Auntie… she's an Iya.

Yes, I do have aunts who have actually fought for me, however, it is a mother who is not just fighting defensively, but also offensively on behalf of her family. Making sure they get a fair shake, and always looking out for their best interests.

So call her may Auntie Maxine if you prefer . . . to my friends and me? She's our Iya.

Our Iya Maxine.