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Volume 10 Issue 17…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…April
27, 2007
Hood Notes
ADHD Fraud
In the 1940's, over the objection of parents, many black public school students
were erroneously placed in programs for the mentally retarded. The system did
not want to expend the time, energy and resources to educate black children.
Today's parents face different challenges in insuring their children receive
quality educations. Many parents claim public school systems are overly
concerned with drilling students to take standardized tests rather than
teaching students how to use critical thinking skills to analyze and solve
problems. In addition, there is the disturbing trend in discipline. Black
children are punished for the slightest infraction, accruing records that
shadow them for life. Others are diagnosed by social workers and school
administrators with ADHD or Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
According to Dr. Fred Baughman, author of The
ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" Out of Normal Children,
"ADHD is not a disorder or disease or a syndrome or chemical imbalance of
the brain. It is not over-diagnosed, under-diagnosed, or mis-diagnosed. It
doesn't exist in 3%, or 5%, or 10 % of the population. In fact, it doesn't
exist at all. It is 100% Fraud." Yet, parents are being told to place
their children on Ritalin or Adderall, which are some of the most lethal legal
drugs, or their children will be placed in special education programs or
refused attendance. Unfortunately, parents are agreeing in large numbers to drug
their children.
Today, more than six million children have been diagnosed with ADHD and
prescribed these drugs. Many of these children are pre-schoolers. No one knows
the long term side effects of children so young being placed on such a drug
regimen. According to Dr. Baughman, "We are drugging normal children so
that they act less like normal children and forcing them to act like the docile
adults who are supposed to be teaching them. ADHD is a manufactured disease-an
invented disease that results in huge profits for psychiatrists and
pharmaceutical companies."
Education at a Glance
2006
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently
released its annual report on education in the world's most developed
countries. The study provides an array of comparative data that allows the
governments of the 29 nations that belong to the Paris-based organization to
see how they measure up against each other.
For the United States, "Education at a Glance 2006" contains some
disturbing statistics. While the nation spends more per pupil on education than
all other developed countries, except Switzerland, it has one of the highest
dropout rates. The US college and high school graduation rates are below the
international average. And, the income gaps between those who complete high
school and drop out, as well as high school and college graduates, are among
the highest in the world. Indeed, US high school dropouts earn 65 percent of
what those with high school degrees make, compared to 80 percent in Asia,
Europe and elsewhere.
While the US economy remains "strong," signs on the horizon show
other nations are gaining ground. Education at a Glance 2006 should serve as a
wake-up call. For more, see the report at www.oecd.org/edu/eag2006.
The annual round of school testing is over! The
Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro gave an audible sigh of relief when asked
how he felt about it. For most of the school year, DeKalb County, Georgia
teachers focused on the standardized tests, drilling students or teaching
testing techniques. With a month left in the school year, the Dark
One/Ninja/Zorro wondered, "What will they teach now?"
Mamie Phipps Clark
(1917-1983)
Born April 18, 1917 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Mamie Phipps grew up among the
area's tiny black elite. Her parents, Kate Florence Phipps and Dr. Harold
Phipps, who owned a private medical practice, managed a hotel and spa for black
patrons. While the Phipps enjoyed a relative privileged status, they did not
escape southern racism. Phipps attended a segregated school and was forced like
other blacks to used facilities reserved for "Coloreds Only."
In 1934, Phipps enrolled at Howard University, where she met her future
husband, Kenneth B. Clark, a master's student in psychology. Phipps changed her
major from mathematics to psychology. In 1937, the couple eloped, keeping the
marriage a secret so it would not interfere with her academic opportunities.
The following year, Mamie Clark graduated magna cum laude from Howard. She
received a graduate fellowship and began working with children in an all-black
nursery school.
With the nursery school students as subject, Clark conducted two tests, a
coloring test and a test with dolls, which resulted in her master's thesis,
"The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School
Children." Her research showed that black children became aware of their
racial identity at about age three. They preferred to play with white dolls,
frequently colored human figures a lighter shade than their own skin color and
viewed white as good and pretty, black as bad and ugly.
Between 1939 and 1940, the Clarks published three major articles on this
thesis, developed a proposal for further research on self-identification in
black children and created updated versions of the coloring and doll tests. In
1939, their proposal was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship, which was renewed
twice over the next two years and enabled her to attend Columbia University.
In 1943, she became the second black and the first black woman to receive a
Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University; her husband was the first.
Despite her publications and research, Clark experienced difficulty finding
work in her field. Through a colleague of her husband, Clark finally landed a
job (1943) at the American Public Health Association (APHA) analyzing research
data on US nurses. After a year at the APHA, she went to work with the United
States Armed Forces Institute. She also worked as a secretary at the office of
William Houston's law firm, which was involved in litigation challenging
segregation laws.
In 1946, the Clarks opened the Northside Center for Child Development,
"the first full-time child guidance center offering psychiatric,
psychological and casework services to children and families in the Harlem
area." While the stigma associated with mental illness kept community
members away initially, residents sought out the Center's intelligence testing
services. In the 1940's, many black public school children were placed in
programs for the mentally retarded over their parents' objections. Some parents
asked the Center to test their children. The majority of those tested had IQ's
that exceeded mental retardation. Parents requested the correct placement, and
the Center publicized the schools' illegal practice. Clark also instituted a
remedial math and reading program to better serve the black community.
The Clarks testified as expert witnesses in cases later combined into Brown v.
Board of Education (1954), which resulted in the landmark US Supreme Court
decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1892). Dr. Clark served as the
executive director for the Northside Center from 1946 until her retirement in
1979. In addition, she served on the Board of Directors of the American
Broadcast Company, Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and
the New York Public Library. She was an adviser to Harlem Youth Opportunities
Unlimited and the National Headstart Planning Committee. In August of 1983,
Mamie Phipps Clark died at her home in New York City. (Sources: www.columbia.edu, www.aaregistry.com,
and http://en.wikipedia.org)
Disgruntled wants to know:
US citizens were programmed post 9-11 to accept the "war on
terror" -- the expansive overreach of the military industrial complex. Two
wars, six years and trillions of dollars later, the nation is all over the
globe fighting an unknown enemy. With its more than seven hundred military
bases, secret special operations, especially in places where there are oil, gas
and/or drugs, and prisons where US agents torture "enemy combatants"
with impunity, it comes as no surprise that the world thinks the US is a major
source of terror. Unfortunately, some US citizens are still in denial about the
post 9-11 mass mis-education. The government, with media complicity, did it so
easily one has to wonder, are we now being programmed to accept wholesale
mental health screenings and mandatory drugging so one of George W. Bush's best
backers - Big Pharmaceuticals -- can sell more of its lethal products?
Disgruntled feels:
Disturbing! Over the course of several months, my in-box has been filled with
testimonials of Iraq war veterans and others opposed to the conflict. It is
preaching to the choir among those powerless to change events on the ground.
Some of these missives are quite sad; others are downright disturbing. In
particular, I was struck by the veteran that described in chilling detail his
mission in Iraq -- how civilians are treated with little or no respect. He claimed
the attitude of US soldiers suggests, "the only good Arab is a dead
one." More disturbing, some soldiers eager to return are "natural
born" killers that relish slaughterhouse Iraq.
Disgruntled says: In a nation where
dog-eat-dog capitalism reigns supreme, nothing is sacred. Its victims are
sedated with religion and other mass distractions. In such an environment,
anyone, not simply the poor and uniformed, can be targeted by capitalists
trying to turn a profit; even children are fair game. Take for example the
collusion among college financial advisers and those making loans to students
to finance their higher education. Sad thing is, those making the big bucks off
students inundated with debt will only receive a slap on the wrist; but, it is
the way the system works.
Contradiction
By Domino Ca$h
The world is too big, but it’s small
Contradiction
I mean I am a candle compared to the sun
a pin amongst syringes
Confined to the ghetto, may I dare to test my limits
I've watched many leaders turn into victims
with all the killing, but no one is yet to be convicted
coincidence? secret societies and organizations
with the government that rule as anarchy
and give hell to the ones living under it
do we live? or do we just exist because they let us
just breathing is not living, living is experience
we're free on all cost, at least that's what they tell us
but in reality we're trapped in the cellar
stuck in the belly of the beast,
showing paradises on TV
while surrounded by poverty and drug paraphernalia
How can I be a failure
in a world that's so big, but its small
Contradiction...declaring war on opposition
the bodies lay in the soil for oil and sport of competition
propaganda and scandals, politicians and vandals
called congress and mindless souls left in control
separate goals in a place that's united?
keeps us in fire, why would you ask for a loan
when you're already in debt
In my opinion, tell Iraq to keep their oil
and their in-grown prospects
How can you make them Utopia,
When you didn't fix home yet
Sending food to Afghanistan,
and industrializing US power plants
when there are homeless people in Washington
living out of garbage cans
Part of plans, lawless scams, never meeting our demands
regardless where scarred and bombarded
as targets from the evil heart of man
The World is so big...but it’s small
Contradiction
They never took the time to listen to black henchmen
Giving ghetto schools lack of wisdom,
our future is max security prisons
and now that single woman is raising a statistic
to be added to a census as a household with no father figure
expose not an image of poverty to the suburb
Leave us slain, and then complain about the crack epidemic
we act accordingly,
they see it and say that man acts like a menace
innocent lives being held captive to past they can't diminish
Some of us are taught endless,
buy a nice house, a couple Benz's
Then steadily pulled over by authority
because "we fit the description"
Well, if I told them my degree of education,
and my accomplishments from various colleges,
who's kidding, I know they wouldn't listen
Maybe I should tell them I like chicken,
listen to rap, and call women "bi**hes"
they wouldn't harass, they let me pass,
on the strength that they can call me a "ni**er"
this happens through any nation not just blacks but any race
economics is international language, tongue of currency
currently we are all living under rule, so who am I
To ignore the facts and forget about the lies just like its cool?
The world is big, but
it’s small...Contradiction
No Crony Left Behind
The Bush administration has been extremely adept at getting its way. With
remarkable acuity, it has handsomely rewarded cronies and punished its enemies.
No government agency has been exempt in its ceaseless pursuit of profits for
friends and family members. From no-bid Defense Department contracts in
prosecuting the "war on terror" to purchasing positive propaganda in
advancing its No Child Left Behind program, the Bush administration has left no
crony behind.
When its No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law came under fierce criticism in 2003,
the Education Department under Rod Paige entered into a $1.3 million contract
with the Ketchum public relations firm to spread positive messages about the
program in violation of the government's ban against the use of
"covert" propaganda. As part of the Ketchum contract, black
conservative pundit Armstrong Williams received $240,000 to promote the program
and encourage other blacks to do the same. Of course, no one went to jail for
violating the ban. Ketchum lost its lucrative contract and Williams agreed to
pay$34,000 back for failing to deliver on all his contract's requirements.
The No Child Left Behind program has also enriched members of the Bush family.
Ignite! Learning, a company headed by Bush's brother Neil and partly owned by
his parents, has placed its products in 40 US school districts. According to
press reports, some districts used federal funds available through the No Child
Left Behind Act (2001) to purchase Ignite's Curriculum on Wheels (COW). The
portable learning centers, which resemble cows on wheels, cost $3800 each and
are geared toward middle school social studies, history and science. Neil Bush claims
his company is not benefiting from political influence; foundations and
corporations that have purchased Ignite products include Rev. Sun Myung Moon's
Unification Church, oil companies and Middle East interests with long political
ties to the Bush family, including Aramco Services Co., an arm of the
Saudi-owned oil company, Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.
Federal funds for public education have proven lucrative for Bush cronies.
Revelations of a conflict of interest in the Reading First program, which
provides schools with $1 billion a year to improve reading in early elementary
grades, should come as no surprise. While the program may be helping public
school children learn to read, it has also been accused of being used by
"a handful of advisers" to railroad schools into buying textbooks and
other materials that they and associates developed." Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings, who until 2005 was a White House domestic policy adviser,
says the troubles occurred before her move to the Department. However,
according to Mike Petrilli, a former associate deputy secretary under Paige,
"Spellings micro-managed the implementation of Reading First from her West
Wing office."
While both Houses of Congress are conducting hearings on the Reading First
conflict of interest, do not expect the Justice Department to investigate or
prosecute Bush cronies or family members that have gamed the system and
profited so handsomely at taxpayers' expense.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email www.cnn.com...(AP) -- In the final months of
Rebecca Riley's life, a school nurse said the little girl was so weak she was
like a "floppy doll." The preschool principal had to help Rebecca off
the bus because the 4-year-old was shaking so badly. And, a pharmacist
complained that Rebecca's mother kept coming up with excuses for why her
daughter needed more and more medication. Rebecca -- who had been diagnosed
with attention deficit hyperactivity and bipolar disorder, or what used to be
called manic depression -- died December 13 of an overdose of prescribed drugs,
and her parents have been arrested on murder charges, accused of intentionally
over-medicating their daughter to keep her quiet and out of their hair.
Email myers@cyberone.com.au
Wolfowitz `gal pal' scandal nothing compared to charges of treason...By Michael
Collins Piper...American Free Press… It made the news when World Bank
President Paul Wolfowitz was caught arranging a sweet deal for his mistress
with World Bank funds, but the fact that Wolfowitz was once investigated for
spying for a foreign government has been kept under wraps by the mass media in
America. Those who make it their business to know about the doings of
intriguers such as the big man at the World Bank recognize that Wolfowitz is a
traitor who once engaged in espionage on behalf of Israel--and got away with
it. However, the much bigger scandal, dating back to 1978, has never been
plastered across the front pages of newspapers or slavered over by grinning
media personalities.
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