The DISH

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Volume 10 Issue 32…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…August 10, 2007

Venue for an Artist

Strange Fruit

Written by Abel Meeropol

Performed by Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

About Me: Jazz critic Leonard Feather called "Strange Fruit," with its haunting lyrics, "a significant protest in words and music -- the first unmuted cry against racism." Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish teacher in a New York City high school, wrote it. Known for her solemn ballads and heart-wrenching blues, Billie Holiday reluctantly debuted it before a stunned crowd at Cafe Society, New York City's only integrated club. Her performance sparked a much-needed debate about lynching and the repressive policies of Jim Crow segregation. Often upsetting club patrons, the lyrics became a weapon in anti-lynching campaigns. In a 1971 interview, Meeropol commented: "I wrote 'Strange Fruit' because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it." Used in 1972 Paramount film 'Lady Sings the Blues," Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit" on April 20, 1939.

News You Use

A Reader's Response

By Norm Kurland

You (Disgruntled) raised the question (The DISH Vol. 10 No 31): "What will it take to end institutionalized racism? The answer is to transform the economic system from that of exclusionary capitalism to a Just Third Way economy, leveling the playing field for the diffusion of future ownership opportunities from the bottom-up as described by Rev. Walter Fauntroy in his talk at the Lincoln Memorial on April 20, 2007. See www.cesj.org/authors/fauntroy/fauntroy-07-0420.htm. See also www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us/partyplatform.

Institutionalized racism is a disease that will be eradicated only when the economic system is restructured to provide equal access to future ownership opportunities. Concentrated ownership concentrates economic power, and concentrated power breeds corruption and abuse of fundamental human rights. The only solution to concentrated capital ownership is a Capital Homestead Act, connecting every citizen to ownership and profits from land, technologies and enterprises that locate on the land.

Political democracy can always be manipulated by money power, but it can be made to work if everyone has equal access to ownership power and government becomes dependent on all citizens, rather than where government perpetuates wage slavery and welfare slavery.
(Note: Send comments to Kurland at thirdway@cesj.org)

Bit of History

Benton Harbor, Michigan (1840-2007)

Founded by Henry C. Morton, Sterne Brunson and Charles Hull, Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the US State of Michigan. In its early history, the area was mainly swampland through which a canal was built. The settlement was renamed Brunson Harbor in 1863. Two years later, its name was changed to Thomas Hart Benton in honor of the Missouri Senator who helped Michigan achieve statehood. Benton Harbor was organized as a village in 1866 and incorporated as a city in 1891.

Benton Harbor is the administrative home of Whirlpool Corp. which acquired Maytag in 2006, making it the world's largest producer of appliances. Benton Harbor sites of interest include Jean Klock Beach Park on Lake Michigan. In 1917, town leader John Klock and his wife, Carrie, donated 90 acres of beach, dunes, forest and wetlands to the city to remember their daughter Jean, who died in infancy.

According to the 2000 United States Census, only 11,182 people reside in the city. It is the poorest city in Michigan; nearly half -- 45.6% -- of its households had incomes of less than $15,000 per year. Its unemployment rate, well above the national average, was 9.7%, based on the 2000 census.

With a per capita income of $8,965, approximately 39.6% of Benton Harbor's families and 42.6% of the population lived below the poverty level. In 2003, the city erupted in several nights of rioting after a motorcyclist died in a high speed police chase. The riot drew national attention to the race and poverty issues plaguing this city.

Demographically, the 2000 census showed the city was 92.4 % black, 5.48% white, 0.15% Native American, 0.13% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.14% from other races, and 1.65% from two or more races in the 2000 census. Hispanic or Latino of any race made up 0.58% of the population. There were 3,767 households with a median household income of $17,471 and average household size of 2.91. The median family income was slightly higher at $19,250 with the average family size of 3.53.

Benton Harbor and the City of St. Joseph, which is located across the river, are known as the "Twin Cities." The demographics of Benton Harbor contrasts sharply with those of St. Joseph, which is 90.31% white and 5.11% black St. Joseph's median household income of $37,032 is 2.1 times the median household income of Benton Harbor.

Hood Notes

Pickney's Plight

In 2005, Rev. Edward Pickney, leader of the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers (BANCO), spearheaded the recall of Glenn Yarbrough, an allegedly corrupt Benton Harbor City Commissioner. The successful recall effort led to election fraud charges filed against Rev. Pinkney by Yarbrough, who produced three voters willing to testify that Pinkney paid them $5 to turn their absentee ballots over to him. In addition to possession of the three absentee ballots, Rev. Pickney was charged with influencing voters with money and influencing voters while voting.

In 2006, the trial of Rev. Pickney ended in a hung jury. However, in March 2007, Rev. Pinkney was retried and convicted on all five counts of voter fraud by an all-white middle-class jury. Rev. Pickney could have faced up to ten years on the felony conviction. He received the minimum sentence of twelve months in prison and five years on probation, during which time he has been ordered not to participate in any campaigns for elective office.

According to Rev. Pickney's attorneys and supporters, all black prospective jurors were disqualified by a biased and corrupt court system that is only interested in maintaining the status quo. According to Greg and Amy Francisco, Pickney supporters, "Berrien County has a long history of 'doing what it wants' and what it wants is what Whirlpool wants. The court system is set up to keep the corruption and power structure in place and the people down." Pickney supporters see this entire episode as a miscarriage of justice, a modern-day lynching to silence one of Benton Harbor's most vocal activist and critic.

Politics Y2K7

Benton Harbor's Revitalization

Harbor Shores is a proposed multi-million dollar development along the shores of southern Lake Michigan. A coup for Whirlpool, it will provide upscale homes, a signature golf course and other amenities for its executives. Developers say the project will help revitalize Benton Harbor, provide jobs, improve the city's tax base and provide community groups with a share of the golf profits.

Critics say the plan mainly benefits well-off Whirlpool executives and golfers. It will take away much of the Jean Klock Park so that three holes of the Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course can have panoramic views of Lake Michigan. Harbor Shores will consume nearly a square mile of Benton Harbor, Benton Township and St. Joseph.

In 2003, Benton Harbor sold 4 acres of the park along the beach. The Friends of Jean Klock Park, a citizen group, filed suit. Citing a technicality, a judge ruled the city was free to do as it wished with the land. The case was settled when the city agreed to leave the remainder of the park undisturbed, if it could sell the 4 acres to raise revenue.

However, in December, city commissioners voted to lease 22 acres of the park to Harbor Shores. The beach still will be there, but a parking lot will be built on it. The city receives $30,000 a year for the 35-year lease, with 1% annual increases. The lease is renewable for another 70 years. Nearby lots are selling for up to $400,000 an acre.

Because state and federal tax money was used to develop park amenities, Harbor Shores must donate land to the city to replace lost parkland. The project is donating eight scattered parcels totaling 47 acres. According to appraisals, all but one are contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals. And, since federal money has been used for the park under a law aimed at preserving parkland, Harbor Shores must receive approval from the National Park Service before converting part of Jean Klock Park to a new use. If the park service blocks the plan, the three lake-view holes will have to go elsewhere.

The state of Michigan, under the leadership of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, has provided funding and tax incentives worth more than $120 million to help keep Whirlpool and its jobs in state; Gov. Granholm supports the Harbor Shores project.

Critics fear local children will feel less welcome at the beach. While people will be able to walk on boardwalks with overlooks, they won't be able to walk on it. Although just 25% of the park would be used for the course, all the rest -- except the sandy beach -- would be circled by golf holes.

City Commissioner Juanita Henry voted against leasing the park to Harbor Shores. She thinks the city will see little revenue from the project for 15 to 20 years because of tax abatements and because the jobs it offers are mostly low-paying, like golf course maintenance. (Source: Detroit Free Press)

Disgruntled feels: Unbelievable! On Wednesday, after a meeting at the US Treasury Department with his economic advisers, George W. Bush made a brief public statement touting the strength of the US and global economies. The next day, he held a press conference at which he entertained questions about the economy in light of the problems exposed by the subprime mortgage market. Again, Bush gave an upbeat economic assessment and put the kibosh on any notion of the government intervening to help those losing their homes. Taken together, the two events seemed to be aimed at trying to convince Americans and the world that the economy was doing great. This is the same old story we have been told even as the US economy hemorrhages middle-class jobs and homeowners' equity faster than the US dollar loses value. Bush has lost all credibility; his ability to jawbone anything, including the economy, is non-existent! Bush is simply unbelievable!

Disgruntled says: During the civil rights movement, the black church played a pivotal role. Black churches served as sanctuaries and meeting places for activists and black preachers were leaders in the struggle to achieve equal and civil rights for black people. When one examines the history of black America, the church is certainly one of its most stable institutions. The failure of this institution to serve the needs of the contemporary black community has been devastating. Too many are mesmerized by the ministry of prosperity. Hiding behind high fences, modern black preachers ignore the deteriorating black communities just beyond their guarded iron gates. These black churches no longer fulfill their traditional role in trying to uplift the people. Today, they are big businesses only interested in picking the people's pockets.

Disgruntled wants to know: In 2006, US voters went to the polls to throw Republicans out of office. In replacing Bush's yes men with Democrats in Congress, we thought things would change, especially an end to the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. Instead, the Democratic-controlled Congress has given Bush everything it wants relative to the war effort. The new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, even took impeachment off the table; so, no matter what this corrupt administration does, it can rest assured it will not be held accountable. While the Democratic Party presidential candidates claim they will end the war, if elected, they will more likely do what Richard Nixon initially did -- escalate fighting in an effort to win the Vietnam War. Who really believes Republicans or Democrats, who are inured of the system, will pull US troops out of Iraq before the oil companies that own them deplete Iraq's oil reserves?

Kudos! Kudos!

Barry Bombs 756!

By John Burl Smith

Barry Bonds' 756 homerun hit some sports fans like Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Bond's bomb blew up baseball history - a game which the color line was crossed for the first time when his father, Bobby, was a child. White sportscasters belittle this fact in order to pretend that it doesn't matter that before then their heroes were afraid to play against black men. Holding onto the only time when whites dominated the game, sports talking heads try to tear down black players, hoping to pave the way for a "great white hope."

An editorial in The Sudbury Star illustrates my point. "There have been many so-called 'personalities' in professional baseball. Many led personal lives that weren't so admirable. Babe Ruth was a womanizer and a hard-drinking man. Ty Cobb was an obnoxious individual. Pete Rose was into not much more than Pete Rose and gambling on Pete Rose. But they all had one thing in common: their exploits on the field generated a level of admiration that superceded their personal attributes."

If one is comparing Barry Bond's career to these baseball legends, they had one other thing in common that the editorialist overlooked; they were all white and most of them never played an official game against a black player like Bonds. The editorial continued, "Their on-field heroics were beyond dispute." The piece insinuated that "San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds now claims the all-time home-run record, but he does not fit the mold of the others, because his on-field heroics are indeed in dispute. Bonds hit home-run number 756 Tuesday to pass the revered Hank Aaron's mark set in 1974. But the adoration that Aaron receives to this day eludes Bonds amid allegations of steroid abuse."

Therein lies the true issue surrounding Bonds - the record, which was set by a man that wasn't revered when he crossed the color line a few years after Jackie Robinson. Whites today pretend not to remember how they tormented Aaron every time he took the field, especially at bat. Aaron, like Bonds, didn't hit his 755 home runs in the same atmosphere as Babe Ruth, a media darling whose womanizing and hard-drinking never showed up in print.

Whites have very short memories when it comes to how ugly they behaved at such times. There has never been a black man that dominated anything in the United States that the media embraced while they were still in the game. Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Mohammed Ali, Hank Aaron, Satchel Page, Willie Mays, James Brown and many others were assailed, threatened, arrested on trumped up charges and denigrated because they outclassed every white person that showed up. Those black professionals that achieved a small measure of notoriety received it after there wasn't any doubt of their domination, like Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods.

Racism is the problem in America not drugs, dog fights or bad attitudes on the part of young blacks. Steroids are a "red herring." First, steroids only help baseball players hit a ball farther. There are players taking steroids that have 256 lifetime batting averages and have yet to hit 200 hundred home runs in their careers. The ability to hit a ball comes with the individual. There are lots of things that enable one to hit a ball better - training, practice, inheritance, hand/eye coordination, size and so forth. Steroids may enhance these characteristics; they can't replace or supercede them.

Barry Bonds' ability and success hitting a ball began generation ago, when his ancestors were dragged aboard a slave ship. Bred for hard work- strength, speed, and endurance -- survival was on the line not a record. Unlike Ruth, Honus Wagner, Roger Maris, etc., discrimination, disparate treatment and the torment of a hostile environment figure prominently in Bonds' 756 home runs. Ignoring the impact of racism on slave descendants is the problem in the US not steroids. When Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Garick's (who never faced Satchel Page in his prime) ancestors were cooling it under a shade tree, Barry's ancestors were slaving for free in the hot sun building America. Moreover, when Honus Wagner, Hank Greenburg and Mark McGwire's ancestors got off the boat, they stepped onto the shoulders of blacks, who were still second class citizens, to become first class white people.

The day Mike Bacsik's (he threw the 756 pitch) folks set foot onto US soil, they were free and never spent a day suffering the Jim Crow restrictions that Bobby Bonds, Barry's father, suffered just trying to make a living, let alone get into baseball. However, the ultimate humiliation is, when Bud Selig's (baseball commissioner) ancestors arrived here, they were dressed in the latest European fashions, but Barry Bonds’ great, great, great, great, great grandparents arrived in America wearing shackles and chains. Selig is like most whites in the US. After doing everything in their power to keep black players out of baseball, whites look for any excuse to devalue black accomplishments when they endure and succeed. Currently, Selig is redrawing the color line in baseball. There are fewer black players today than when Barry's father, Bobby was playing! Steroids aren't doing that - white men are!

Congratulations Barry! Kudos! You showed 'em!!!

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls

Email krstone@verizon.com Shortly before 10 PM on Thursday, June 28, 2007, Wilson Chandler was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the New York Knicks. Chandler went to New York for the draft and is a 2005 graduate of Benton Harbor High School. That year he was selected as Mr. Basketball in Michigan. He is the first player from Benton Harbor to be selected in the first round of the NBA. What was Berrien County's response? Several people called him with death threats, i.e., "Mr. N--r, you will never sign that million dollar contract." When will the people of Berrien County admit to the worst racism since earlier last century in the South?

Email cb@peacebuttons.info August 6, 1945...The US dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on Hiroshima, Japan during WW II. An estimated 140,000 died from the immediate effects of this bomb and tens of thousands more died in subsequent decades from radiation-related illnesses. The weapon, Little Boy, was delivered by a B-29 Superfortress nicknamed the Enola Gay, based on the island of Tinian, and piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets.

Email www.pslweb.org...Gang report reveals: racist cops the problem, not youth...By John Peter Daly ...Democrats want more funding for police repression...The Justice Policy Institute, a D.C.-based think tank that studies ways to reduce incarceration, released a report in July entitled "Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies." The report was full of facts and analysis about police and gangs. "Gangs do not drive crime rates, and aggressive suppression tactics simply make the situation worse by alienating local residents and trapping youth in the criminal justice system," said Kevin Pranis, one of the report's authors.

Email jborsen@gmail.com Florida representative Bob Allen was arrested July 11 in a Titusville, Florida public restroom after he offered a black undercover officer $20 to let him perform oral sex. Allen was charged with a second-degree, punishable by a year in county jail and a $500 fine. Allen says he is innocent and that he will not resign from the legislature. He did resign late last month from the board of the Girls and Boys Town of Central Florida. He is scheduled to be arraigned August 23. Allen, 48, told police he was intimidated into offering sex. He said, "This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park." Allen said he feared he "was about to be a statistic."

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