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Volume
10 Issue 40…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…October 5, 2007
Intuit's
Vibe
Someday We'll All Be Free
By Donny Hathaway
Hang onto the world as it spins around.
Just don't let the spin get you down.
Things are moving fast.
Hold on tight and you will last.
Keep your self-respect, your manly pride.
Get yourself in gear,
Keep your stride.
Never mind your fears.
Brighter days will soon be here.
Take it from me someday we'll all be
free (Yeah)
Keep on walking tall, hold you head up high.
Lay your dreams right up to the sky.
Sing your greatest song.
And you'll keep, going, going on.
Take it from me someday we'll all be
free (Yeah)
(Hey) Just wait and see someday we'll all be free. (Yeah)
Take it from me,
Someday we'll all be free.
It won't be long
Take it from me someday we'll all be
free.
Take it from me, take it from me,
Take it from me.
White Flight
White
flight is the term used to describe the movement of working-and middle-class
whites from inner-city neighborhoods, where non-whites reside, to all-white
suburbs. Historically, white flight has been facilitated by local, state and
federal government spending on programs, such as urban renewal or urban
revitalization and block grants, discriminatory and predatory practices by
banks and other institutions and industries, including retail and real estate.
White flight is also the subject of important research by Kevin Kruse, an
associate professor of history at Princeton University, who received his PhD in
2000. For his doctoral dissertation at Cornell University, Kruse looked more
closely at the civil rights movement. Rather than focusing on overt racism,
Kruse looked at the role played by the broader white middle-class, a group
largely ignored by history books covering the civil rights era.
In 1998, Kruse came to Atlanta, Georgia to conduct his research. Kruse chose
Atlanta, which the late mayor William Hartsfield dubbed "the city too busy
to hate," because the white reaction to integration in this Sunbelt city
illustrates the link between massive resistance to racial integration and
modern conservatism. According to Kruse, who relied on local archives, oral
histories and newspaper clippings to explain what he calls "the politics
of suburban secession," what happened in Atlanta was replicated across the
country. Thus, this is not just Southern racism.
His 2005 book, White Flight:
Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism, argues that while
"all the issues out there sound so good -- lower taxes, privatization of
government services, neighborhood schools, etc.," urban whites ultimately
thwarted desegregation not by opposing it but by leaving the inner city for
suburbia. Instead of overt displays of racism, middle-class whites hid behind
slogans, such as "Save Our Children" and "Freedom of Association."
Their covert racism proved quite effective in minimizing the impact of efforts
to end racial segregation.
According to historian Dan Carter, who teaches at the University of South
Carolina, Kruse's account is "one of the most important contributions yet
made to our understanding of the growth of Sunbelt suburbia and the triumph of
the anti-government, anti-tax, conservative agenda."
For more about
Kruse's work and his book, see this months special edition of the Smithsonian
magazine or visit their website at www.smithsonianmag.com/.
Donny
Hathaway (1946-1979)
The
son of Drusella Huntley, Donny Hathaway was born on October 1, 1945 in Chicago,
Illinois. At an early age, he went to live with his grandmother, Martha
Cromwell Pitts in the Carr Square housing project in St. Louis, Missouri. His
grandmother was a respected Gospel singer. Hathaway began singing in a church
choir with his grandmother at the age of three.
As a child, Hathaway played the ukulele and studied piano. Even before
attending high school, Hathaway began singing professionally as 'Donny Pitts,
The Nation's Youngest Gospel Singer.' He attended Vashon High School and was
known as a piano prodigy, earning a fine-arts scholarship to Howard University
(1964). While at Howard, he majored in musical theory before performing in a
cocktail jazz group called the Ric Powell Trio. While at Howard, he met his
wife, Eulaulah; the couple had two daughters, Eulaulah Donyll (Lalah Hathaway)
and Kenya Canelibra.
Without receiving his degree, Hathaway left Howard (1967) to pursue some of the
many job offers he had received. Initially, Hathaway worked at Chicago's
Twinight Records as songwriter, session musician and producer. He went on to do
arrangements for The Unifics, and later worked at the Chess and Stax labels
with The Staples Singers, Carla Thornas and Jerry Butler. After becoming a
"house producer" at Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records, Hathaway
recorded his first single (1969), "I Thank You Baby," a duet with
June Conquest.
Hathaway
released his first hit, 'The Ghetto, Pt. 1,' after signing with Atlantic
Records in 1969. In 1970, his debut album, 'Everything Is Everything,' received
critical acclaim. His other albums include 'Donny Hathaway,' 'Come Back
Charleston Blue' (a soundtrack) and 'Extensions Of A Man', including 'Flying
Easy', 'Love Love Love', 'Someday We'll All Be Free' and 'Valdez In The
Country'.
With his former classmate, Roberta Flack, Hathaway recorded an album of duets,
which received critical acclaim and was a commercial success. His collaboration
with Flack took him to the top of the charts and won him the Grammy Award for
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the duet "Where Is
the Love?" in 1973.
Along with contributions to some soundtracks, Hathaway recorded the theme song
to the TV series Maude. He composed and conducted music for the 1972 soundtrack
of the movie Come Back Charleston Blue. In the mid-1970s, he produced albums
for other artists including Cold Blood.
At the height of his career, Hathaway suffered from severe bouts of depression,
which affected his life, career and friendship with Flack. The duo ceased their
collaboration and did not resume singing together again until shortly before
the 1978 release of their R&B hit single 'The Closer I Get To You.'
Unfortunately, while they returned to the studio to record a second album of
duets, their work would not be released until after Hathaway's death.
On January 13, 1979, Hathaway was found dead on the sidewalk in front of the
Essex House in New York City, where he had been living. While there was no
note, his history of depression and no evidence of a struggle led investigators
to conclude he had committed suicide.
Hathaway's vocal sound, delivery, and quality have influenced singers from
Stevie Wonder to George Benson. His compositions have been recorded by an
assortment of artists. His daughter, Lalah is an accomplished R&B/jazz
singer. Kenya is a backup singer in the house band for American Idol. (Sources:
www.aaregistry.com, http://en.wikipedia.org and www.soulwalking.co.uk)
The
Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has still not located his school locker.
Stuck with the freshmen class in trailers out back, he thinks it is somewhere
in the main building off the beaten track where freshman are generally not
welcomed. Like his freshmen classmates, he maintains a low profile so as not to
attract the attention of upper classmates. Their attention is thought to bring
negative consequences. So, he manages without a locker. When queried about the
current state of school affairs, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro said, "High
school is rough! I'm overworked, underpaid and sometimes afraid!"
Disgruntled feels:
Intimidation!
Nooses are showing up in some strange places; they are sending messages of
intimidation. Whenever whites think blacks are escaping the plantation and must
be put in their place of second class status without complaining, nooses,
burning crosses, etc., show up promising a lynching. These symbols of hatred
imply, if blacks do not be quiet and comply, what happened before will happen
again -- some blacks will die. This is domestic terrorism American-style being
carried out by a new generation that supposedly does not understand the
historic symbolism of lynching. It is a hate crime, but the larger society
dismisses it as a prank that carries no repercussions. Throughout this nation's
history, whenever blacks demand the fruits of freedom and equal treatment, they
receive overt and covert racist intimidation. The twenty-first century is
proving to be no exception.
Disgruntled wants to know: Recently, news reports verified that
the US uses harsh interrogation techniques, a euphemism for torture. While
George W. Bush proclaims the US does not engage in torture, follows US laws and
honors international treaties, he has his own set of rules of engagement
created by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others who see the
Geneva Convention and the US Constitution as quaint documents that do not
address this new generation of warfare, i.e., the war on terror. Those with
wartime experience discount torture as useful in acquiring actionable
intelligence, while those with none embrace torture without reservations. After
years of fighting the war on terror in Iraq, there are still people in the US,
Bush included, that persist on calling Iraqis terrorists when their country
played no role in 9-11. To end the Bush reign of torture and terror, US
citizens and the world must honestly answer the question, who is the terrorist,
the invader and occupier or domestic forces trying to expel these infidels?
Disgruntled says: The first Monday in October marks the
beginning of the new Supreme Court session. Already, the Court under Chief
Justice John Roberts has established itself as a strict construction body. It has
put women in the workplace on an unequal footing with men doing equal work,
neutered the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) school desegregation
decision and basically telegraphed to the country its intention to roll back
the clock on civil liberties and equal rights. It never ceases to amaze me that
the Court's majority contains a person of color - Uncle Clarence Thomas - who
is willing to go along with strictly interpreting the constitution when that
means embracing the 3/5 Compromise of Article 1 Section 2. And, for all of you
who do not know, this is the article that legalized slavery and gave us the
Electoral College, which dilutes the black vote.
Demand
Congress Overrides Veto
As the governor of Texas, George W. Bush cemented his party's presidential
nomination and established his conservative credentials by overseeing the most
deaths of any state since the reinstatement of capital punishment. When he ran
for president in 2000, Bush needed to appeal to more than his right wing base,
so he became a "compassionate conservative," an oxymoron describing a
moron. This metamorphosis ignoramus went unchallenged by mainstream media,
which had unquestioningly embraced the Republican's candidacy.
Fast forward to October 3, 2007, Bush quietly vetoed the expansion of the State
Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The joint state-federal program
subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from
families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford
private coverage. Funded by increasing the federal cigarette tax, the vetoed
bill would cover an additional 4 million children for an added cost of $35
billion over five years. Bush only wants a $5 billion increase in funding.
Because the expanded coverage includes middle-class families, the bill's
critics claim it is a step towards socialized medicine, an argument to protect
the profits reaped by private industry.
A warmonger rather than a peacemaker, Bush willingly spends trillions of dollars
maiming, torturing and killing, while vetoing healthcare coverage for our
children. His specious socialized medicine argument ignores the plight of
middle-class families burdened by the rising cost of health insurance and
healthcare. Many families have been forced into bankruptcy, even some that had
health insurance with reputable companies, because there is so much these
companies do not cover. Calling these families, even those earning well above
the poverty level, middle-class does not alleviate the financial and
psychological devastation of a catastrophic illness. Expanding SCHIP is
compassionate.
According to recent polls, the vast majority of Americans support SCHIP. It is
time Congress acts to carry out our wishes. Call, write, fax or email your elected
representatives and demand they vote to override Bush's veto. If your
congressperson fails to respond favorably, then it is your responsibility to
work to remove that individual from office.
Crack v. Powder
This week, the US Supreme Court heard arguments concerning drug sentencing
rules and pondered the gross sentencing disparity between crack and powder
cocaine cases. Federal sentencing guidelines impose longer prison time for
possession of crack cocaine, which is generally associated with black
offenders. The two cases before the Court, Gall v. United States and Kimbrough
v. United States, are classic examples of the racial controversy.
In
Gall v. United States, Brian Michael Gall, who was involved in a drug ring,
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute "ecstasy," a Schedule I
controlled substance, a violation of federal law. The district court imposed a
sentence of three years probation and a $100 special assessment. The government
appealed the sentence, arguing it was an unreasonable departure from the
federal sentencing guidelines. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the
sentence, concluding that it was an extraordinary variation from the
guidelines, since Gall would receive no prison time for an offense the guidelines
recommend 30 months incarceration.
In Kimbrough v. United States, Derrick Kimbrough received 15 years after
pleading guilty to distributing 50 or more grams of crack cocaine, distributing
cocaine, conspiring to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine, and
possession of a firearm in connection with a drug-trafficking offense. The
prosecution successfully appealed Kimbrough's 15 year sentence because it fell
below the Federal Sentencing Guidelines' minimum of 19 to 22 years for a crack
cocaine conviction.
In the crack cocaine case, the policy at issue was the disparate treatment of
offenses involving cocaine in its crack and powder form. For years, the US
Sentencing Commission has agreed that the crack-powder disparity is misguided.
Unless blocked by Congress, its current recommendation for easing the disparity
by about one-quarter will take effect on November 1. But even that change,
leaves a sizeable disparity. For example, an offender in possession of 5 grams
of crack, about one-fifth of an ounce, receives five years in prison, while it
takes possession of 500 grams of powder, more than 1 pound, to receive the same
sentence.
Mailbox:
E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls
Email
www.cbsnews.com ...Texas Company Signs Iraq Oil
Deal With Kurds...Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government
signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in the Kurdistan
region of northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own
oil and gas law in August. Hunt's CEO, Ray L. Hunt is on the board of
Halliburton and a key fundraiser for George W. Bush, who named him to the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Email www.opednews.com...Loaded Language and
Loaded Guns: The Meaning of Opposites ...By Charles Sullivan....One can no
longer understand US governmental policy on the basis of conventional language
or traditional wisdom. Language itself and its long-established meanings were
long ago twisted and distorted in order to deceive the people. Now war is peace
and terror and occupation is liberation. In order to make sense of what is
happening, it is important to understand everything within the context of a
specific economic philosophy, and the distorted capitalist system that spawned
it. That ideology was crafted by a diminutive economist named Milton Friedman,
at the University of Chicago some five decades ago. The holy trinity of
Friedman's version of capitalism--privatization of the public domain, corporate
deregulation, and deep cuts in social spending--has resulted in enormous
societal inequity and socio-economic classes. It has given us the haves and the
have-nots, the haves and the have-mores.
Email levy@haaretz.co.il...Twilight
Zone / The children of 5767...By Gideon Levy...It was a pretty quiet year,
relatively speaking. Only 457 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed,
according to the B'Tselem human rights organization, including the victims of
Qassam rockets. Fewer casualties than in previous years… However, it was
still a terrible year: 92 Palestinian children were killed (fortunately, not a
single Israeli child was killed by Palestinians, despite the Qassams). One-fifth
of the Palestinians killed were children and teens- a disproportionate, almost
unprecedented number. The Jewish year of 5767…. Almost 100 children, who
were alive and playing last New Year, didn't survive to see this one. One year.
Close to 8,000 kilometers were covered in the newspaper's small, armored Rover
- not including the hundreds of kilometers in the old yellow Mercedes taxi
belonging to Munir and Sa'id, our dedicated drivers in Gaza. This is how we
celebrated the 40th anniversary of the occupation. No one can argue anymore
that it's only a temporary, passing phenomenon. Israel is the occupation. The
occupation is Israel.