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Volume
10 Issue 42…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…October 19, 2007
Bit
of History
Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (1880-1970)
"Davis's life raises questions about an important
topic--the extraordinary accomplishments of African-American soldiers on behalf
of a country that refused to grant them full rights as citizens or
soldiers."--Journal
of Southern History
Born into a middle-class family in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877, Benjamin
O. Davis, Sr. attended the all-black M Street High School. According to one
biographer, Davis may have been born in1880 and lied about
his birth date in order to enlist in the army without his parents' permission.
A student at Howard University at the outbreak of the War with Spain, he
entered the military on July 13, 1898 as a temporary first lieutenant of the
8th US Volunteer Infantry.
Discharged on March 6, 1899, Davis enlisted as a private in Troop I, US 9th
Cavalry of the Regular Army (one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments) on
June 18, 1899. After serving as a corporal and squadron sergeant major, Davis
was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army on February
2, 1901.
Davis was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30, 1905. His promotion to
captain came on December 24, 1915. He was temporarily promoted to major on
August 5, 1917. Davis received a temporary promotion to lieutenant colonel on
May 1, 1918, before reverting to his rank of captain in 1919. On July 1, 1920,
Davis was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He became a colonel on February 18,
1930. On October 25, 1940, Davis received a temporary promotion to brigadier
general. Davis retired on July 31, 1941 and was recalled to active duty with
the rank of brigadier general the following day.
Over the course of his career, Davis and his family moved around more than most
because his superiors did not want him to command white troops or mix with
white officers. He served as a commissioned officer of the Regular Army in the
Philippine Islands, Adjutant at Fort Washakie, Wyoming, Professor of Military
Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University in Ohio and at Tuskegee Institute
in Alabama, Military Attache to Monrovia, Liberia,
Instructor Ohio National Guard, duty officer with the Pilgrimage of War Mothers
and Widows, instructor and Commanding Officer of New York National Guard,
brigade commander with the 2nd Cavalry Division, Assistant to The Inspector
General, Advisor on Negro problems, and Special Assistant to the Commanding
General stationed in Paris, France.
General
Davis received the Bronze Star Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM).
He was awarded an Honorary Degree of LL.D. from Atlanta University. His foreign
awards and honors consisted of the Croix de Guerre with Palm from France and
the Grade of Commander of the Order of the Star of Africa from Liberia. He
retired in July 1948, after having served fifty years. Davis died on November
26, 1970. His remains are interred in Arlington National Cemetery. (Sources. www.aaregistry.com, www.army.mil,
and http://en.wikipedia.org)
On
Tuesday, the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro's high school received a bomb
threat. Students were evacuated to a nearby church, where they spent most of
the day. Parents were not immediately notified of the incident or informed of
the whereabouts of their children. Most parents first heard about the bomb
scare on television news at noon, the radio, from neighbors or friends via the
grapevine. The following day, school officials sent a letter home with students
advising parents of the incident. Several days later, when he was slow in
getting up to go to school, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro informed his mother,
"Didn't you hear? My school burned down!"
By John Burl Smith
Beginning
with the Revolutionary War, black men died first fighting to obtain then to
sustain freedom from colonial rule. After becoming the United Stated of
America, slaves, former slaves and free black men fought and died in large
numbers for their own freedom, during the Civil War. The Spanish-American War
saw black men fighting and dying on foreign soil for the first time, even
though freedom was not at stake. Imperialistic ambitions motivated the US to
take other people's freedom to establish control over their land and resources
in that trumped up war.
Then came "the war to make the world safe for
democracy." The Harlem Hellfighters of the gallant 369th regiment of the 93rd
Division of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was the first US combat unit
to arrive in Europe during WWI. Although they had to fight under the French
flag (Jim Crow policies prevented them from fighting under the US flag), they
fought with great distinction and were decorated as a division, regiment and as
individuals. Having shown their worth as fighting men in Europe to preserve
freedom and democracy for others, black servicemen returned home to the same
racism and Jim Crow segregation they left behind.
The red summer of 1919 greeted black veterans with riots and lynchings. The taste of freedom and respect black fighting
men savored in Europe became gall in their mouths, as the US government
abdicated its responsibilities to black citizens in favor of mob rule. Led by
the Ku Klux Klan, repression was total, as black and white signs sprouted like
cotton across the southern landscape from outhouses to the White House. Black
soldiers were lynched still wearing their uniforms, adorned with the metals
they won fighting for others' freedom.
WWII, the Korean, and Vietnam Wars, as well as all skirmishes in between,
reeked of the same racism. Although Jim Crow dressed up as the "sweet bird
of paradise," and black and white signs no longer said where blacks could
dine, blacks were still relegated to the back of the line. However, now blacks
were first in line when it came to dying. Today, still dying in foreign wars
for foreign causes, black soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are fighting to give
Afghanis and Iraqis freedom and democracy, something they still do not have at
home.
Ironically the bars to freedom for blacks at home are more deadly than IEDs for their families on the front line of racism in the
US. Nooses are the new black and white signs, Jena 6 symbols that are
psychological triggers of "learned helplessness" bred into blacks
during slavery. But, what is not being said in the US media is that nooses have
been showing up in Iraq just as they are on the home front.
The army has clamped a lid of "national security" on the issue and
black soldiers have been ordered, under the threat of court-martial, not to
discuss the matter. With embedded media, and all communications to families
back home censored, everyone from the Commander-in-Chief on down lie to cover up
the racism black soldiers face in Iraq. More
importantly, black elected officials, like Sen. Barack
Obama, US Rep. James Clyburn, Maxine Waters and
Charles Rangel refuse to undertake fact finding tours to Iraq in order to
investigate noose incidences.
Why
aren't former officers, like Gen. Colin Powell, speaking out to give black
soldiers on the front line cover and support. A disabled Vietnam era veteran, I know
the Jena 6 double standard that is applied to black servicemen from duty
assignments to awards for valor. CPL Henry Johnson who was wounded 21 times
during his heroic action in WWI was not discharged as a disabled veteran and
was only given a Purple Heart forty years after receiving his wounds. Johnson
deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism but George W. Bush,
who ducked fighting to defend America, still refuses to honor him. Medgar Evers, the intrepid civil rights leader murdered in
Mississippi, won medals as part of Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army's famous
"Red Ball Express," was killed by a white man, like Bush, who never
served a day defending this country, but enjoyed all of its privileges everyday
he lived fomenting hatred.
For
black men, dying for America is never enough. Institutionalized racism defines
a black man's existence in the US. Thousands of black men have died fighting
for and defending freedom for others but the US government refuses to extend
the same freedom to blacks. Black military officers are cowards when it comes
to standing up for and fighting for black people.
Nooses in Iraq
The
Jena 6 outrage, which has Mychal Bell back in jail
and five other black boys awaiting trial, has peeled away the thin veneer of a
color blind society and revealed a festering cancer of racism, oozing with
repressed hatred in the United States. Galvanizing the black community, black
leaders of all stripes are calling for a blackout day boycott, a march on
Washington DC and congressional actions to label such acts as hanging nooses
hate crimes. Missing in action and feared dead since his last posting,
deep-cover operative Peep City Barnabus is back in
Iraq. The DISH
received a dispatch in which the super sleuth tells a chilling and tragic story
that confirms racism is expressed as openly in the military as it is on US
streets.
According
to Peep City, black soldiers are finding nooses in bed rolls, duffel bags and
other personal belongings. Complaints to their superiors are dismissed as
overly sensitive of pranks, even though a black driver found a noose hanging in
his tank. Complaining soldiers that try to talk to the media are threatened
with court-martial. One soldier who had been placed under military detention
told Barnabus, a black soldier that was in the cell
next to him had been sucked up by "rendition" because he tried to
contact his congressman about nooses and racism in his unit. "The brother
disappeared into a black hole during the night and no one has seen him
since."
Peep City would not provide any names for fear of retaliation. He said,
"It is too easy for a black soldier to come up missing or dead." Barnabus warned further, "The rednecks are in charge,
so black soldiers have to go along to get along. Black soldiers' only hope of
making it out of Iraq alive is to keep their heads down." The current
increase in non-combat deaths adds weight to Peep City's report.
Dukes v. Wal-Mart
Plaintiffs'
attorneys filed the Dukes v.
Wal-Mart lawsuit in San Francisco federal court in June 2001. In
February 2007, a three-judge federal appeals court panel in San Francisco
granted the case class action status, making Dukes v. Wal-Mart the largest ever
class action employment discrimination case against Wal-Mart Stores, the
world's biggest retail chain and private employer.
The class includes the more than two million women who have worked at any of
the company's more than 4,000 retail stores nationwide since December 26, 1998.
Wal-Mart is accused of discouraging the promotion of women employees to
managerial positions and paying them less than men across all job positions.
Plaintiffs seek changes in the company's internal procedures, more than $1
billion in back pay and punitive damages.
Experts are expected to present statistical evidence that shows women composed
63.4% of Wal-Mart's hourly (non-managerial) workers, yet just 33.6% of the
store's salaried managers. Statistical evidence also shows that women or
minorities are, on average, paid less than men or whites. For example, even
though women, on average, had more seniority and better performance
evaluations, women hourly workers were paid, on average, $1,100 less per year
than men, while women managerial workers received $14,500 less.
In addition to the statistical disparities, the plaintiffs' attorney is
expected to charge Wal-Mart with a culture of "unconscious" bias.
Wal-Mart managers in charge of promotion and pay decisions unwittingly engage
in "spontaneous" and "automatic" stereotyping and
"in-group favoritism" that results in the most desirable jobs at the
company being filled by people who look like the incumbents, who are usually
white males.
Wal-Mart
denies any wrongdoing. It has appealed the class certification to the full
appeals court. For more about this case, see the October 15, 2007 issue of
Fortune Magazine's "The War over Unconscious Bias or visit www.fortune.com.
National
Black Boycott
Many
people marched in Jena, Louisiana last month in support of the 6 young black
men unjustly charged with attempted murder for a school yard fight. There are
many situations all over the nation that scream of injustice and unfair
treatment of people in this country. On last week, the House Judiciary
Committee held a hearing on the Jena 6 situation. Most of the white Republican
members of the committee boycotted the hearing.
On Friday, November 2, 2007, Warren Ballentine, the
"people's attorney" from Inspiration 1390, Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders are calling for a economic national boycott. It is time for action! This is
the new civil rights movement. We cannot allow the march in Jena to be only an
event. It MUST be a movement. Make this a day of solidarity. Wear black and
stop consuming for 24 hours.
Disgruntled
says: Every
time value voters show up, we invariably wonder, what values do they hold that
the rest of us do not share? Formerly called family values, they oppose
abortion and support strict construction judges. These folks opposed school
desegregation, moved to suburbia to avoid integration, embraced Nixon's
southern strategy and applauded Bush's promise to roll back the clock on civil
rights. They value the invisible hand of covert racism that negatively impacts
the socioeconomic and political status of black Americans. It is the
gentleman's agreement to honor the 3/5 compromise that assures black and white
outcomes in the marketplace for goods and services are never equal. It is the
ghetto tax, the reason behind blacks receiving higher mortgage interest rates,
insurance premiums and in general paying more when there is no objective reason
for doing so.
Disgruntled wants to know: Before 9-11, the Bush administration
used illegal wiretaps to gather information on US citizens. Since the wiretaps
began before 9-11, who and/or what was Bush looking
for? I have long believed the Bush junta maintained secret files on Democrats
and Republicans that are used to force them to cooperate with the Bush agenda.
It certainly explains why impeachment is off the table, why Congress pays
little heed to what voters want, the lack of investigation into pre-war
intelligence and the parade of politicians, such as Senator Lindsay Graham,
willing to argue against long held principles. To explain these oddities, one
has to seriously consider the possibility that members of Congress are being
blackmailed; it has happened before. Remember Tricky Dick's enemies' list?
Disgruntled feels: Inconsistent! George W. Bush and
members of his economic team have consistently claimed the administration
believes in market-based solutions to the nation's economic woes and a
"strong dollar" policy. Oddly, it was the US Treasury Department
under Henry Paulson that urged the nation's banks to create a fund to buy or
offset their worthless investments. There is little doubt the federal
government and the Federal Reserve are helping banks and insurance companies
contrary to their philosophy of free market capitalism, while doing little to
help homeowners facing foreclosure as a result of the bursting real estate
bubble. Then, there is the Bush team's strong dollar policy. Paulson and others
consistently testify before Congress that the country is pursuing a strong
dollar policy when doing nothing as the greenback sinks to historic lows against
most other currencies. The messages and actions are inconsistent.
Mailbox:
E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls
Email
www.foxnews.com Attack on President Bush
Continues Past SCHIP Veto Override Vote...Democratic Rep. Pete Stark launched a
shocking one-man assault on the Bush administration Thursday. A longtime war
critic, Stark said the president couldn't find $35 billion to expand SCHIP but
at the same time had requested an extra $200 billion to pay for military operations
in Iraq. "Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us
lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war?
You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it
to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old, enough for
you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's
amusement...President Bush's statements about children's health shouldn't be
taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that
Bush just likes to blow things up in Iraq, in the United States, and in
Congress. I urge my colleagues to vote to override his veto."
Email www.openleft.com ...The Pelosi and Rahm "Social Club" Neuters Conyers
Investigation...By Matt Stoller...House Democratic
leaders have decided to postpone a vote on a criminal contempt resolution
against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and
former White House counsel Harriet Miers for several
weeks, and possibly longer, according to top lawmakers and aides. The decision
delays any constitutional showdown, at least for the moment, between Congress
and President Bush over the extent of executive privilege and the president's
ability to fend off congressional investigations. House Judiciary Committee
Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said he is
uncomfortable with the delay and worries the House will be seen as toothless
unless it moves quickly to hold top officials in contempt for failing to
provide documents and testimony in congressional probes..."Otherwise, we
just become a [social] club," Conyers said...
Email www.huffingtonpost.com ....Why Do
You Need Immunity, If You Haven't Broken the Law?...By Cenk
Uygur...The Bush administration is desperately trying
to get immunity for the telecom companies inserted into the next wiretapping
bill. But let me ask a simple question - why would the telecom companies need
immunity if they didn't break the law? Isn't this an obvious admission that the
administration did ask the large telecommunication companies to break the law
for them? And if they did, why on God's green earth should we give them
immunity without investigating what they did? In fact, shouldn't somebody be looking
into doing the opposite - enforcing the law?
Email
www.reuters.com ...Voters unhappy with Bush and
Congress...By John Whitesides...The Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures the mood of the country, also
fell from 98.8 to 96 -- the second consecutive month it has dropped. The number
of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped four points
to 66 percent. Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's
record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry
11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low.
"There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this
government is to them," pollster John Zogby
said. "They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war
and immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it."
Email
www.ipsnews.com...Maternal Mortality Shames
Superpower US...By Haider Rizvi
...Despite its enormous wealth and highly advanced technology, the United
States lags far behind other industrialized countries -- and even some
developing ones -- in providing adequate health care to women during pregnancy
and childbirth. The U.S. ranks 41st in a new analysis of maternal mortality
rates in 171 countries released by a group of U.N. public health experts on
Friday. The survey shows that even a developing country like South Korea is
ahead of the United States.
Email www.buzzflash.com ...Federal
Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin
is secretly pushing for a vote to relax media ownership rules by December 18.
The FCC is reviewing longstanding regulations that forbid a company to own both
a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. According to
Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, which
coordinates the StopBigMedia Coalition.
"The public is being shut out of the process so that Martin can move
forward with his Big Media giveaway." Chairman Martin has a history of
working behind closed doors on behalf of big media companies. According to a
report by the Government Accountability Office, the FCC consistently leaks
vital information on sensitive votes and rules to corporate lobbyists and
stakeholders. In contrast, the report found that consumer and public interest
groups were left in the dark.