The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 11 Issue 20…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…May 18, 2008
Intuit's Vibe
Racism Is Around Me Everywhere
By Francis Duggan
Of human ignorance I am almost in despair
For racism is around me everywhere
But like they say sheer ignorance is bliss
Just like Judas
betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
Some people carry their honor in a flag
And of their Nationality they brag
They feel superior and they differentiate
And against those who are different they discriminate.
So many people still judged by their race
For such there never ought to be a place
'A fair go' those untruthful words I do recall
There is no such a
thing as a 'fair go for all'.
Though we live in a so called democracy
Of racism we never will be free
They judge you by where you come from and the color of your skin
For many equality and
respect seems impossible to win.
It's been awhile since the days of Martin Luther King
His name to it has a familiar ring
If against racism he did not choose to strive
Today the great man
he would be alive.
So many holding the reins of power not spiritually aware
And racism is around me everywhere
And racism only leads to division and war
Just goes to show how
ignorant some are.
Understanding Race
and Education Study
Tackling Racial Segregation One Policy at a Time: Why School Desegregation Only Went So Far by Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Awo Korantemaa Atanda and Anita Tijerina Revilla (2005) provides an overview of the major findings from the "Understanding Race and Education Study," a 5-year research project conducted by the authors at Teachers College Columbia University and UCLA.
The study is based on 540
interviews with graduates, educators, advocates, and local policymakers who
were directly involved in racially mixed public high schools in six different
communities in the late 1970s- some of the peak years of school desegregation
implementation. In trying to understand the impact of that experience on the
first group of students and educators to go through desegregated schools after
the federal courts finally forced districts to desegregate in the late 1960s,
242 members of the class of 1980 from the six schools were interviewed.
According to the authors, the "central finding is that school
desegregation faced enormous political obstacles, which compromised its effect.
At the same time, this fairly radical policy fundamentally changed the people
who lived through it but had a more limited impact on the society as a
whole....racially diverse public schools were extremely challenged during the
late 1970s because educators either tried to or were forced to facilitate
racial integration amid a society that remained segregated in terms of housing,
social institutions, and employment. This context compromised many of the goals
of desegregation as politically powerful whites resisted meaningful equality
within desegregated schools, and blacks and Latinos were often angered and
frustrated by this resistance. Nonetheless, desegregation made the vast
majority of the students who attended these schools less racially prejudiced
and more comfortable around people of different backgrounds. After high school,
however, their lives have been far more segregated as they reentered a more
racially divided society."
Available online at http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=12156,
this frank examination of the impact of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown
v. Board of Education should be required reading.
Brown v. Board of
Education 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
On May 17, 1954, the United
States Supreme Court unanimously declared that it was unconstitutional to
create separate schools for children based on race. At the time, seventeen
southern states and the District of Columbia required that all public schools
be racially segregated. A few northern and western states, including Kansas,
left the issue of segregation up to individual school districts. While most
schools in Kansas were integrated in 1954, those in Topeka were not.
The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S.
483 (1954) was the culmination of years of work by a highly skilled National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal defense team
and courageous petitioners and parents to challenge racial segregation in
public education. By 1952, the Supreme Court had five cases on its docket
challenging the constitutionality of public school segregation. The cases, from
Kansas (Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), Delaware (Belton
v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart), Washington, DC (Bolling v.
Sharpe), South Carolina (Briggs v. Elliott) and Virginia (Davis
v. County School Board of Prince Edward County) were consolidated by the
Supreme Court under the name Oliver Brown et al. v. the Board of Education
of Topeka.
Named for plaintiffs Ethel Belton and Shirley Bulah, the Delaware cases of Belton
v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart, first petitioned in 1951,
challenged the inferior conditions of in two schools designated for black
children. Prohibited from attending the local high school in the suburb of
Claymont, black children had to ride a school bus for nearly an hour to attend
Howard High School in Wilmington. Located in an industrial area of the state's
capital, Howard High suffered from a deficient curriculum, pupil-teacher ratio,
teacher training, extra curricular activities and physical plant. In rural
Hockessin, no transportation was provided for black students forced to attend a
dilapidated one-room school house, while white children in the same area were
provided transportation and a better school facility.
In Briggs v. Elliott, which was named for Harry Briggs, Sr., court
records show that for the 1949-1950 school year, the average annual expenditure
for white students in Clarendon County, South Carolina totaled $179. The per
pupil expenditure for blacks was $43. The county's 6531 black students attended
school in 61 buildings valued at $194,575. Many of the black schools lacked
indoor plumbing or heating. The 2375 white county students attended school in
12 buildings with superior facilities worth $673,850. On average, teachers in
the black schools received salaries that were one-third less than teachers in
the white schools. The county provided free buses for whites and none for
blacks. While the lower court found schools designated for blacks grossly
inadequate compared to the schools provided for whites, its order to equalize
the facilities was virtually ignored by school officials and the schools were
never made equal.
In the Washington, DC Bolling v. C. Melvin Sharpe case, which was
named for Spottswood Bolling, eleven black junior high school students were
taken on a field trip to the city's modern John Phillip Sousa school for whites
only. Accompanied by local activist Gardner Bishop, the students were denied
admittance and ordered to return to their grossly inadequate school. A suit was
filed on their behalf in 1951.
Named for Dorothy Davis, the Virginia case, Davis v. County School Board of
Prince Edward County, involved Robert Moton High School, one of the few
public high schools available to blacks in the state. Located in Prince Edward
County, it was built in 1943. Too small to accommodate its student population,
the hastily constructed tar paper-covered buildings added as classrooms only
highlighted its gross inadequacies. In 1951, students organized a strike to
demand a new building with indoor plumbing. The NAACP joined their struggles
and challenged the inferior school facilities in court. Despite the U.S.
District Court order to provide plaintiffs with equal facilities, they were
denied access to the white schools in their area.
In the Kansas case, which was named after Oliver Brown, parent of Linda Brown,
the Topeka NAACP, led by McKinley Burnett, organized a legal challenge to an
1879 State law that permitted racially segregated elementary schools in certain
cities based on population. The local NAACP assembled a group of 13 parents who
agreed to be plaintiffs on behalf of their children. On advice of legal
counsel, they attempted to enroll their children in segregated white schools
and all were denied. Topeka operated eighteen neighborhood schools for white
children, while black children had access to only four schools. In February of
1951 the Topeka NAACP filed a case on their behalf.
The Supreme Court first heard arguments in the Brown case in 1952. It failed
to issue a ruling and scheduled a rehearing for 1953. However, it was not until
after Earl Warren, the former governor of California, replaced deceased Chief
Justice Frederick Moore Vinson that the Court reheard arguments in the case and
handed down its ruling
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion, declaring Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896) a constitutional violation of the 14th Amendment's
equal protection clause. The May 17, 1954 Warren Court decision stated that
"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
In April 1955, the court heard arguments on how to end segregation in the
public schools. Ultimately, in what became known as Brown II (1955), the Court
turned the implementation of desegregation over to the federal district courts
in the South. The district courts were ordered to desegregate schools with
"all deliberate speed," a phrase traceable to Francis Thompson's
poem, The Hound of Heaven. Its ambiguity allowed many southern judges to avoid
desegregation for years. (Sources: http://brownvboard.org/summary/,
www.aaregistry.com, www.nps.gov/brvb/
and http://en.wikipedia.org)
From Brown to Dumb Down!
By Dot
A lie told often enough becomes the truth. Lenin
(1870-1924)
On Saturday, May 17, 2008, we quietly commemorated the landmark Supreme Court
decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which struck down the Plessy
v. Ferguson (1896) "separate but equal" doctrine. We quietly
celebrate, because in the intervening years, the foes of the court decision
have tirelessly worked to delay, frustrate and hamper Brown's full
implementation, while claiming to support equality and oppose racial
segregation.
Yet, Brown remains important to blacks in America. We collectively
demanded better educational facilities for our children and access and
opportunities for them as citizens equal to those enjoyed by white Americans,
and the US Supreme Court agreed. Unfortunately, the problems Brown
sought to address did not end with the court's ruling. Today, most public
schools, like churches and neighborhoods, remain highly segregated.
While the Brown decision did not demand integration, it became the
avenue down which the country supposedly moved to provide black children with
improved educational facilities and access to higher education and equal
opportunities. After more than half a century of desegregation efforts, folks
across the skin color spectrum pretend the US has miraculously become a society
of equals, as if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream has been realized.
Let the advocates of this lie tell it, we have overcome. Jim Crow is dead, as
are his racist relatives! Some blacks, most notably Ward Connerly, staunchly
oppose any type of affirmation action to remedy past discrimination. His
opposition to affirmative action in contracting and higher education is
particularly asinine. Whites receive the vast majority of contracts awarded by
local, state and federal governments. The percentage of contracts awarded to
blacks under affirmation action is paltry in comparison. While arguing against
affirmative action in higher education, Connerly is silent on legacies, the
advantage in admissions white students enjoy as a result of relatives attending
public colleges and universities, in many instances during segregation. Whites
account for most enrollment in public colleges and universities; the few slots
awarded to qualified blacks is meager in comparison.
Even more troubling than thinking we no longer need Brown or
affirmative action to level the playing field is the fact that we are being fed
a constant diet composed of this pabulum that contains the lie that black
children prefer being dumb to learning. I recently read another article -
"Nearer to overcoming" (Economist, May 10, 2008, page 33) that cites
research by Roland Fryer, a young black economics professor at Harvard
University, which makes the claim that black children think it is
"cool" to be dumb. Sure, there are some blacks that do not value
education; just as there are people of all colors and persuasions that think
they can succeed without degrees, including high school diplomas. However, like
some white children, some black children may think it is "cool to be
dumb," but that does not make it a black cultural norm.
To place that stigma on the backs of blacks is utter rot and must be soundly
rejected and denounced whenever and wherever it is repeated as though it has
some scientific basis in fact. Sure some black children may fall into that
sorry slot. Repeat that lie often enough and some will believe it, like those
idiots out there that think it is "cool" to sag until their trousers
indecently drop. However, sagging is not a black cultural norm. Not all black
children are stuck on stupid. And, not all black children think it is
"cool" to be dumb.
Zero-Tolerance Makes Zero-Sense
In public school systems across the
south and in most urban centers with large black populations, parents are
complaining about the school systems' application of zero-tolerance policies
that have resulted in a growing number of school suspensions. Across the
country, hundreds of thousands of students are suspended each year for
relatively minor infractions from absenteeism to insubordination.
School suspensions and expulsions are not inexpensive remedies for misbehavior.
Parents must pay for childcare for very young students serving suspensions or
miss days away from work babysitting. Either way, there are costs associated
with these suspensions. Days spent by students outside the classroom hurt
academic performance. The students, schools and the society bear added costs in
the long run, as suspensions increase dropout rates, which in turn lead to
lower lifetime earnings and an increase in the crime rate.
According to Jane Sundius of the Open Society Institute, a nonprofit
organization that has studied suspensions and expulsions in the Baltimore,
Maryland school system, "What we see is that suspension and expulsion are
overused and actually push kids who need education the most out of
school." Based on 2004 data, Maryland ranks in the middle of states
nationally for the percentage of students receiving suspensions.
With boys twice as likely as girls to get suspended and blacks 2.3 times more
likely than whites to receive suspensions, questions about the roles of race
and gender in discipline abound.
According to statistics compiled by the Maryland Board of Education for
the 2006-2007 school year, statewide total student enrollment was 825,966.
There were 88,519 students suspended or 10.7% of the student population. Blacks
accounted for 38.1% of total enrollment (324,500). However, 57.3% (50,726) of
students receiving suspensions were black. White students, 47.8% of the student
population, accounted for 34.8% of student suspensions (30,840).
With zero tolerance, students, especially those of color, face some of the
harshest disciplinary guidelines of any modern generation. Today, one lapse in
judgement brands a child for life under zero tolerance. Gone are the days when
"children will be children" and "boys will be boys." Our
young people are not allowed to make mistakes; they are expected to exhibit the
judgement of adults, even in kindergarten.
To add insult to injury, these enforcing the zero tolerance policies do so in a
discriminatory fashion. Children of color are punished more often and more
harshly than their white counterpart for similar code violations.
It is time for school systems nation-wide to re-think zero tolerance. As it is
currently applied, it is a costly approach to discipline that makes zero sense.
If the goal is to educate our children in order that they become productive
citizens, we must employ commonsense approaches to discipline that keep them in
a learning environment.
School Funding '08
As property values in many
communities decline nationwide, and the price of everything else rises, school
systems are finding it increasingly more difficult to balance budgets and
improve services.
The DeKalb County, Georgia Board of Education is considering several options
that are unlikely to make anyone happy. The first involves decreasing the size
of its workforce. Layoffs are particularly onerous during an economic downturn,
when it is far more difficult to find other gainful employment. By not filling
vacancies created by retiring personnel and existing vacancies, layoffs may be
averted. The other options on the table include delaying pay raises for
teachers and other staff and a millage increase.
DeKalb property owners are bracing for the real possibility of a millage
increase. Assessment change notices were mailed to thousands of DeKalb
residents earlier this month. In some cases, the proposed property assessments
increased, which mean increased property taxes. A millage rate increase by the
DeKalb School Board will mean an even greater tax burden for these property
owners.
Adequately funding the public school system is mission critical for any
community. However, the school system must be fiscally responsible in how it
employs the available resources. There are always, nearly every budget, items
that can be trimmed or deleted to reduce waster and abuse. Before raising its
millage rate in an economic downturn, the DeKalb School Board should explore
all options to tighten its fiscal belt first.
Disgruntled feels:
Apropos! Here's hoping that the adage, "As California goes, so goes the
nation," holds true in this instance. A California group --the
Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco- has launched an initiative
to rename a waste facility the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant." The
group is collecting the 10,000 signatures needed to put the question to voters
in November. According to its co-sponsor, activist and ordained minister John
Rinaldi, "the initiative would turn every toilet in San Francisco into
basically a shrine for George W. Bush and all his great achievements in his
eight years as our commander in chief." What a fitting tribute to the man
that has single-handedly stunk up the world with his warmongering imperialism
to dominate global oil and natural gas resources, as proposed by the Project
for a New American Century (PNAC). Every waste water treatment facility in the
entire country should be renamed in his honor. Then, at least, the citizens
outraged by his policies can have a certain measure of satisfaction, especially
since Congress has shown a remarkable degree of constipation when it comes to
holding Bush accountable for his many unconstitutional actions and crimes
against humanity.
Disgruntled wants to know: In good and
bad economic times, blacks are the last hired and first fired. When a black man
applies for a job, he must overcome a number of barriers to gainful employment.
He must possess a valid Social Security number, a credit score that makes him
credit worthy or at least current on any outstanding obligations. He must have
a high school diploma or equivalent (GED) and/or related job experience. He
must pass drug, aptitude and psychological tests and background check. And, the
black applicant must speak English. With so many obstacles faced by native born
black sons, one wonders, why is it so relatively easy for illegal immigrants
that barely speak the language, who cannot prove their educational achievements
or credit worthiness manage to obtain gainful employment?
Disgruntled says: I must admit, I am
somewhat conflicted about the ruling by US Federal Judge Ryan Cabrera forcing
poor black mothers to obtain the approval of at least three white people before
naming their children. The judge's ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by a
13-year-old whose mother created her name using Incan hieroglyphics. Preferring
not to stand out in this fashion, the child petitioned the court for a name
change. I could not agree more with the judge when he called some of the names
blacks give their children "ridiculous," especially those with
pronunciations that bear little resemblance to the string of nouns and
consonants used to spell them. Nevertheless, I do not agree with singling out
black mothers in this manner. Immigrants that come to this country seeking
citizenship are not forced to change their unusual sounding names to fit into the
American mainstream. In my mind, the question of freedom comes into play in
choosing an offspring's name. Subjecting poor black mothers to the indignity of
having whites approve the names of their children harkens back to slavery when
blacks were forced to accept the master's surname. If we cannot name our
children, regardless of economic status, then we are not free.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Call
Email http://campusprogress.org ... At this point,
Nir Rosen doesn't have much hope. As someone who has traveled extensively in
Iraq, Rosen is one of a handful of Western journalists familiar with the
on-the-ground conditions in the country. He says that for most Iraqis, life is
worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein...His groundbreaking article in
Rolling Stone, "The Myth of the Surge," chronicled the
lawlessness beyond the gated-off Green Zone of the American forces. His recent
book details the violent civil war that has emerged in Iraq between various
sects and militia forces, and illustrates in harrowing detail some of the
realities that the mainstream media have been unwilling to portray.
Email www.legitgov.org...While delivering an address before the Israeli parliament commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel, President [sic] Bush said that Sen. Barack Obama and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. CNN reports that Bush was comparing Obama to "other U.S. leaders back in the run-up to WW II who appeased the Nazis." In his speech, Bush said, "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939 [much like shock & awe in Iraq in 2003], an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history." [Speaking of appeasing Hitler, are the DemocRATs going to give more money to Bush for the Iraq occupation this week?]