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Volume
10 Issue 6…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…February
9, 2007
Intuit’s Vibe
I Call to My Brothers!!!
By Yohannes Sharriff
From metro ghettos to the bloody Congo,
I call to my brothers!
On the wind with Mandela, Biko,
Dubois, Malcolm, Martin and Nat,
I recognize the shame.
Now, truth’s pain makes me scream
With a voice of reason.
Please hear my impassioned plea.
Shed the shackles of an imprisoned
mind.
Stand freely!
Let your ascension honor the
family’s sacrifice.
For centuries, ancestors gave their
lives
To save their seeds from the same fate.
History has been laid; do not be afraid
Turn the page. Gain your conscious
state;
Define your own fate!
Do not accept the reflected
Negative self-image of the European
deviant!
Why hesitate to find strength in aware
intellect?
Let your life represent the sheer
magnitude,
The miracle of your existence!
We have faced seas of time and space,
Rising to swallow us in an endless tide
of sorrow.
While the cracker’s complexion of
culture
Would have crumbled under the pressure
We persevere! Riders of the storm
Finding those dim shallow waters
Of Anglo-Saxon insecurity and
inadequacy
Only lap against our base.
Our summits and peaks
Continually caress infinite
possibility.
Comprehend this fact:
Your determined power radiates from
within your skin.
MELANIN is a gift!
Reveal the magnificence of your natural
African attributes,
Emancipating spirit! Unite under this
truth:
The beauty we possess and express are
without bounds.
The eternal force is purely exemplified
In children we bring forth. The
evolution is our seed
They inherit the richest culture and
most inspiring legacy
That has ever been witnessed.
Even the heavens quake with their
infant cries.
Our BEAUTIFUL BLACK BABIES
Embody such divine energy.
Mary’s son must have raised a
BLACK fist!
Backwards Edmund Pettis
Presented
by Black History Celebrations, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, founder of The Ordinary
Peoples Society (TOPS) and Lacey-Boyd, founder of Better Opportunities for Our
People, this year's re-enactment of "Bloody Sunday," February 25,
2007 at 2:00 PM, will call on marchers to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge
(Selma, Alabama) backwards.
Marching
backwards symbolizes the need for the nation, especially blacks, during this
Black History Month, to remember the past in order to embrace our present and
move forward on the numerous socioeconomic and political problems that plague
black people today, including disparities in crime and punishment,
overpopulated and over-represented prisons, poor public education, and
widespread voter disenfranchisement. Forty-two years ago, blacks crossed Edmund
Pettis to gain voting and civil rights. On Sunday, marchers will cross the same
bridge to remind us that the struggle to acquire those rights is far from over.
This
event will feature national and local speakers, area bands and choirs. For more
information, contact Carolyn Boyd @ 334-262-6260 or Kenneth Glasgow @
334-791-2433. For more about The Ordinary People Society (TOPS), visit www.wearetops.org.
The Man in Mississippi
Named after his great
grandfather, a former slave, Medgar Wylie Evers was born on July 2, 1925 in
Decatur, Mississippi to James and Jessie Evers. Medgar's parents believed their
children needed a good education, if they were going to rise above their meager
status at birth. Unlike many black parents who took their children out of
school to help harvest crops, Medgar attended school full-time. During his
early childhood, whites lynched a black man he knew. They said he disrespected
a white woman. Profoundly affecting Medgar throughout his life, the emotions
and pain from this incident resurfaced years later with the lynching of Emmett
Till.
Although
his parents wanted him to graduate from high school and attend college, Medgar
had other ideas. Big for his age and ready to see what lay beyond the cotton
fields of Mississippi, he followed his older brother Charles, entering the
draft for WWII at seventeen. Drafted into a segregated army, he soon learned,
no matter where he was, Mississippi or France, a black man had to fight for
every inch to advance. Medgar was like thousands of black men sent overseas,
"field hands in uniforms." White commanders did not want black
soldiers in combat units; they used blacks like "ditch diggers."
Fortunately,
Medgar was sent to Europe, where Gen. George S. Patton was advancing so fast
that the army had to create a new unit to keep him supplied. Considered
expendable and doing jobs no white man wanted, thousands of blacks were thrown
into a hastily organized unit to re-supply Patton at the front. Dubbing
themselves "The Red Ball Express," farm boys and city slickers alike
saw their opportunity to prove they were soldiers worthy of respect. Banding
together, the Red Ballers played a key role in liberating France, winning
praise as the most famous support unit of WWII.
A
hero, Medgar was sanguine about institutionalized racism and discrimination in
the army which did not change, even after black soldiers proved themselves.
Yet, the respect he experienced in a "foreign" country changed the
man returning to Mississippi. Determined to hold onto his dignity, after facing
death daily rolling with the Red Ball Express, Medgar resolved to end segregation,
discrimination and institutionalized racism in the US.
Evers
got his high school diploma and enrolled at all black Alcorn A & M College.
An athlete, while in school, he played football and ran track. A lover of
music, he sang in the choir and also edited the campus newspaper. Medgar met
and married Myrlie Beasley, and after graduating, the couple moved to Mound
Bayou, Mississippi, where T.R.M. Howard, owner of Magnolia Mutual Life
Insurance Company, one of the state's only black-owned businesses, hired Medgar.
Howard was also the president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership
(RCNL), a civil rights and self-help organization. Now, all of Evers army
training helped him organize and plan tactics to support RCNL boycotts.
Despite
fighting for the US to help restore freedom to people in Europe, at home in
Mississippi, Medgar and five friends were turned way at gunpoint when they
tried to register to vote. Following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board
of Education (1954), Evers applied and was refused enrollment at the University
of Mississippi Law School. Evers' fight to enroll at "Ole Miss"
became the focus of NAACP desegregation efforts.
"The
Man in Mississippi," Medgar became the NAACP's first field officer in
Mississippi. He organized boycotts and worked with James Meredith to
desegregate the University of Mississippi in 1962. Leading voter registration
drives, he helped to elect black officials. He pushed authorities to
investigate Emmett Till's lynching and supported Clyde Kennard, who tried to
enroll at Ole Miss in 1960. Hated in the US by whites, as Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., obviously, some whites wanted them both dead.
Assassinated
on June 12, 1963, nearly two years after Malcolm X, Medgar Evers is one of the
best examples of the leadership needed by blacks today. Medgar, like Ron Brown
(Bill Clinton's Secretary of Commerce), enjoyed the black community's support;
he reflected its values and it provided him a political base. Medgar epitomized
the good that is in all of us. We owe it to him and all the others to merit
their sacrifices. The tragedy for the US is that so many like Medgar Evers were
killed, but the tragedy for blacks in the US is that they are still dying
today.
Increasingly,
the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is called upon to be the "man of
the house." Mainly charged with babysitting his younger siblings, he has
taken these extra duties in stride. When asked how it felt to shoulder the
responsibility of being the man, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro replied, "Grandma,
it's hard to be a man when everyone treats you like one of the children!"
Building a Political Base
By John Burl Smith
United States (US) politics are
about building coalitions. Political parties grew out of the need to garner
votes and represent interests. Parties pressure government to address their
particular needs. Blacks, US slave descendants, were denied representation and
legally barred from political participation by the Founders until after the
Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the Thirteenth (1865), Fourteenth
(1868) and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments.
Whites
had been exercising the franchise eight-nine years before slave descendants
were allowed to cast their first ballot. The 3/5 Compromise (V9 no34), the basis of institutionalized
racism- Jim Crow segregation, discrimination and disparate treatment --severely
limited black political access and their ability to build and exercise
political power. President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" offered
blacks the first opportunity as a group to begin building political structures.
By
the 1950s, blacks recognized the "New Deal" as a "raw
deal." Blacks could organize within the party, but even when their party
was power, they could not pressure it to address black issues. Efforts to
mobilize blacks to pressure the government, like the original "March on
Washington" (1939) proposed by A. Phillip Randolph, were viewed as
disloyal. Convinced white politicians would not work to end institutionalized
racism, the NAACP, Urban League, A. Phillip Randolph Institute and others built
coalitions outside political parties.
Ward,
precinct and block clubs became the black political base in urban areas and
churches in rural areas. Organized around their shared needs, most black
communities endured poor or no schools and high unemployment. Disenfranchised,
blacks lacked opportunities and were victims of lynchings. Such organizations allowed black leaders
to give voice to their desperate plight. While whites ignored blacks' needs, at
election time they came courting.
Trapped
in a "votes for favors later" relationship with Democrats, a
grassroots movement led by Rev. Hosea Williams (SCLC) after Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s assassination called the "Poor People's Campaign" (V7 no3) held a political convention in Gary,
Indiana in 1969. Creating the National Black Agenda as a political platform,
they selected US Rep. Shirley Chisholm, as their "catalyst for
change!"
The
most successful effort ever by blacks to field a presidential candidate, Rep.
Chisholm's name was placed in nomination at the Democratic National Convention
in Miami (1972). She became the first black nominated for president of the
United States by a major political party. Unfortunately, the black leadership
that emerged from 1972 fractured and has not build a viable black presidential
campaign since (Ghost of Campaigns Past V7
no33).
Unlike
in 1969, black people today do not have to reinvent the wheel. The Covenant with
Black America is a document that blacks have debated since it was introduced by
Tavis Smiley in 2006 (Reflections: The Chisholm Trail V9 no9). Unveiled at the annual State of the
State of Black American last year, the 2007 gathering could serve to galvanize
black communities around it as a platform for a black candidacy or a candidate
that will adopt the Covenant as part of her/his platform. Such a bold move
would motivate black voters to "Turnout 75%" in 2008.
The
"Chisholm Trail" and "Red Ball Express" await any young
Hamlet or Hamleritta willing to climb aboard the challenging ride that
engineers and conductors like Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev.
Hosea Williams, US Rep. Barbara Jordan and others provided. If one does not
identify with the battle waged by these intrepid men and women, who, up from
slavery, gave blacks today the opportunity to play to the media, it is because
they are unaware of the beauty and power of the unrelenting struggle required
to create something out of nothing.
Disgruntled says:
The House Committee
on Oversight and Government Reform examined the days after Baghdad fell and the
14 months L. Paul Bremer III and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
ruled Iraq. Bremer's CPA doled out up to $12 billion of Iraqi money without
accounting or oversight. The Iraqi money, which came from the United Nations
oil-for-food program and seized Iraqi assets, was converted to dollars, held in
the New York Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. Then, somebody in authority
decided that it was a good idea to send tons of cash to Baghdad while the CPA
ran the country. According to CPA-leader Bremer, millions of dollars went to
pay "ghost" payrolls. Obviously, not all of those getting paid were
Iraqis. Since the US failed to send in sufficient troops to pacify the city,
some of this Iraqi money probably went to CPA officials and mercenaries that
provided security.
Disgruntled
wants to know: The
congressional wrangling over passage of a non-binding resolution on the Bush administration's
proposed troop escalation is a joke. The public is being led to believe that a
handful of Republicans can employ clever maneuvers to ensure the Senate does
nothing on this issue. Is this democracy at work, or is it a republic
rubber-stamping George W. Bush's failed Iraq policy?
Disgruntled
feels: Dis-credited! It
never ceases to amaze me the lengths certain institutions will go to
discriminate against consumers and employees. Invariably, institutional
processes that most negatively impact the public fall disproportionately
against people of color. This is certainly true with the growing use of credit
history checks in hiring. Historically, the last hired and first fired, blacks
are unlikely to have blemish-free credit histories, which have no bearing on
job performance. Checking them is one more way to diss or dismiss black job
applicants. So, blacks can be educated, have relevant job experience and skills
and still be dis-credited.
America's Perfect Storm
On
Monday, February 5, 2007, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) released its
study, America's Perfect
Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation's Future, at the National
Press Club in Washington, DC. The report looks at three socioeconomic forces,
i.e., disparities in skill levels, particularly math and reading, increasing
wage and wealth gaps and demographic changes that result in an increasingly
less-educated and lower-skilled workforce, and projects them twenty-five years
into the future. Its dismal prognostications for certain segments of the US
population do not bode well for the society as a whole, should these trends
continue.
According
to ETS researchers, "these forces will turn the American Dream into an
American Tragedy - putting our nation at risk- unless we act to increase
reading and math skills and narrow achievement gaps" between students from
different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Calling the forces'
convergence "the perfect storm," ETS researchers warned, "If we
maintain our present policies, it is very likely that we will continue to grow
apart, with greater inequity in wages and wealth, and increasing social and
political polarization. If, however, we recognize the power of these forces as
they interact over the years -- and we change course accordingly -- then we
have an opportunity to reclaim the American dream ...."
At
a time when public education policy is wedded to test-taking, rather than
creative thinking, the ETS report is another strident alarm calling for a
course correction. For more information about ETS, this report and its
recommendations, visit www.ets.org.
Mailbox: E-Mails,
Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=558
STOP HIM BEFORE HE KILLS MORE!...There is a serial killer living in the White
House. He has spent the past six years successfully plotting the deaths of
thousands upon thousands of people. Like others who kill without conscience, he
remains unmoved by the ongoing bloodshed and destruction he has caused. And
now, he is about to do it again. Someone has to stop George W. Bush before he
kills more! Serial killers sometimes respond to inner voices telling them what
to do. George Bush gets personal messages from his God and PNAC. His wars with
Afghanistan and Iraq were panned and orchestrated by the war profiteers and
ideologues who placed him into office in 2000. The regional chaos they needed
to justify American military action in the region is going according to plan,
and now the next stage is ready for launching. Any day now, the Bush Doctrine
will be used to justify a killing machine that is gearing to attack Iran.
Someone has to stop him before he triggers Armageddon.
Email
catowilds@aol.com Democratic
presidential contender General Wesley Clark, an advocate of diplomacy,
expressed concern about what he sees as a Bush administration planning to take
military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. When asked to explain how he
knew such a thing, Clark said, "You just have to read what's in the
Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure
being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers."
Across the US, Jewish groups screamed anti-Semitism. It is forbidden to
criticize Israel and the neocons running the Bush administration.
Email
samjjones@gmail.com I must admit that
I find the prospect of a Barack Obama candidacy exciting. At the same time, I
have reservations about the black vote and the tendency of Democrats to take us
for granted.
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