The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 12 Issue 30…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…July 26, 2009
Intuit's Vibe
Booker T. and W. E. B.
By Dudley Randall
"It seems to me," said Booker T.,
"It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose
inside a book?"
"I don't agree," said W. E. B.,
"If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I'll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to
cultivate the brain."
"It seems to me," said Booker T.,
"That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save,
and buy a house."
"I don't agree," said W. E. B.,
"For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail?
Unless you help to make the laws,
They'll steal your house with trumped-up-clause.
A rope's as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you've got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I'll
be a man."
"It seems to me," said Booker T. -
"I don't
agree," said W. E. B.
Honoring Willie May Gray on Her Birthday
By John Burl Smith
On Saturday, July 18, 2009, my
grandsons -- Trevius and Tyrus -- and I joined the family in
The luncheon was held in a hotel banquet room to underscore the importance of
the occasion. Any gathering involving our family is marked by lots of hugs and
kisses, as well as picture taking. Without a theme to guide us, the proceedings
were a series of vignettes with each speaker providing glimpses into the past.
Our hope was to give the grands not only a feel for granny's early childhood
but also describe the historical backdrop of her life.
The day was July 14, 1920 when
her life began. Most African-Americans living in the South were sharecroppers
or tenant farmers, who faced a harsh isolated existence. The Emancipation
Proclamation had ended bond slavery in 1863 but blacks in the South were still
held in defacto slavery by black codes and Jim Crow system of segregation. The
US Supreme Court with its edit in Dred Scott -- "A black man has no rights
a white man was bound to respect"-- gave whites the power of life and
death over black people.
Operating in over 27 states, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) with over 100,000 members
was the driving force behind the overt system of racism that flourished in the
South. Lynching was the threat the KKK used to force blacks to obey the black
and white signs that marked the color line. Fearing for their lives, hundreds
of slave descendants fled northward to Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit,
Indianapolis, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Pittsburgh and
Boston.
This was a time of change, talking movies, jazz and the Harlem Renaissance --
Eubie Blake, Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. The 18th Amendment established
prohibition, which ushered in bootlegging and speakeasies, the National Negro
Baseball League was organized, and the 19th Amendment gave women the right to
vote. None of these changes improved the lives of blacks on lock-down in the
South. They were second-class citizens; their children could only go to schools
between cotton chopping and picking seasons. They were given the second-hand
books white schools no longer used. The only contact most black communities had
with the outside world was through the mail and circuit riding preachers.
The circuit rider was very
important because he was not only a messenger of Christ; he passed messages
from hamlet to hamlet, read letters from relatives, and warned leaders when the
KKK was targeting blacks. The grand daughter of circuit rider, Rev. Burl Lee,
mother was raised to be a leader in the church and in her community. Our first
teacher, she faced the hardest times one can imagine, which sealed her
character early in life. Fighting back tears, she told of cold hungry winters
growing up, having to fight back rage as white men handled her disrespectfully,
biting her tongue and not speaking as her father got cheated while making
purchases.
Enduring such outrage herself was
tolerable, but she wanted better for her family. Then blacks were not allowed
to move without a white man's written permission. Gangs of white men called
"night-riders," patrolled roads to prevent black sharecroppers from leaving
farms. Blacks caught on the road at night were lynched. Leaving
A proclamation from Shelby County Mayor A. C Wharton acknowledging mother's
contributions to her church, community, the city of
Up from slavery, we are descendants of people whose survival is marked by lurid
anguish and agony, yet they persevered against incredible odds. More than
education, privilege or wealth, remembering and celebrating the story of our
audacious and determined ancestors will sustain our children when all else fail
them. When discrimination blocks them, racism surrounds them or doubt assails
them, knowing they are descendants of people who showed such intrepid spirits
against what seemed insurmountable odds can lift them to heights where only
heroes reside.
Slavery and
Discrimination: More than Attitude
By John Burl Smith
Slavery and discrimination
against blacks are divides that cut across Americans psyche like the
An illustration of how the
continuing impact of slavery's legacy reaches out from the grave and pulls
individuals, families, communities and this nation back into that haunting past
is currently playing out at a small Georgia college -- Kennesaw State
University (KSU), which is located near Kennesaw Mountain where Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman fought a major battle against Confederate forces during the
closing days of the Civil War to capture Atlanta. This new skirmish is a sequel
to Gone with the Wind, and it
is exposing the hate filled legacy of a local icon - Corra White Harris -- a
true daughter of the Confederacy. A writer of serialized fiction and magazine
essays, Harris is also credited with being the first female war correspondent
during WWI. Along with publishing 19 books, her pseudo-autobiographical novel, A Circuit- Rider's Wife (1910), became
a movie starring Susan Hayward.
Recently, her 56-acre homestead,
which contains the oldest building in the county and the chapel where Harris is
buried, was donated to the university. KSU was so thrilled by the gift, which
is valued at more than 3 million dollars, the Georgia Writers Association based
at KSU planned to host a retreat on the site and name the event in her honor.
Although Harris is relatively unknown, faculty members wished to shower her
with accolades, hence they researched her history. Suddenly, a full-fledged
fire fight flared forcing foreclosure of the notion.
It seems, rather than a media darling for today, back in her day to build her
career Harris displayed vehement bigotry and flaming racist sentiment. The time
was 1899 -- the height of the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence when lynching blacks
was called "pick-a-nick." Lynching blacks was an entertainment event
attended by men, women, children, preachers and politicians. It was celebrated
in newspapers like rock concerts today. Harris was like a CNN anchor or a Rush
Limbaugh of her time, sensationalizing lynchings, like that of Sam Hose.
Today, Hose's lynching is
considered the most savage and gruesome, as well as notorious in
Exposing Harris' blatant racial
hatred prompted cancellation of planned events and brought calls for KSU to
return the gift. KSU Pres. Daniel Papp "expressed shock" that the
school did not exercise "due diligence" in vetting Harris'
background. KSU is a member of the Georgia Board of Regents, which signed off
on accepting the land donation and even after the big stink is reluctant to
give back the land. Mounting a counter-attack, supporters are saying,
"Harris should be viewed as a woman of her time." She and the land
are being compared to
The slavery denial system of
whites is so interconnected to their slave master complex; they continue to
justify heinous and egregious behavior by creating fictitious caricatures of
blacks similar to Harris'. Rather than admit their parents, through slavery,
are responsible for the system of discrimination that continues to limit
opportunities for blacks, they maintain the white supremacy legacy that grew
directly out of lynching blacks. Even Pres. Barrack Obama, who is not a slave
descendant, is caught in the cycle of demanding that blacks just get over it. No
one demands Jews get over the Holocaust or that Armenians forget about what
happened to them.
Everyone holds up the Holocaust
as an example of strength and endurance by the Jewish people. Their ordeal
lasted only about 15 years, whereas slaves and their descendants have endured
forced bondage and socioeconomic slavery for over 400 years. A far greater
number than 6 million blacks died crossing the "Middle Passage" and
there are no records indicating how many died after reaching the "
Obama Caught in the Gates of Racism
By John Burl Smith
If you are not a slave descendant
or a person of color living in
President Barack Obama was taught this painful lesson after comments regarding
the arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Gates. Responding to a reporter's question,
the President said, "I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would
be pretty angry. Number two, that the
The question was prompted by an
incident when police responded to a complaint that "two black men with
backpacks" seemed to be breaking into Mr. Gates' house. Prof. Gates was
inside when police arrived. One entered without permission and demanded
identification but refused to provide his name and badge number. An irate Gates
was arrested.
What qualifies this incident as
racial profiling? First and foremost, had Prof. Gates been on a dark deserted
street instead of in his home on Harvard's campus, he would probably be dead.
Second, police are obliged to give anyone they confront their name and badge
number upon request. Moreover, police are trained to remain calm under fire and
withstand verbal outrage from irate citizens without feeling threatened or
losing their cool. The over riding question is, if the policeman acted properly
and Gates broke the law, why drop the charge?
Thirdly, this brings us to the President's statement. Had George Bush made such
a remark, a police sergeant would never have dared call the President out
publicly. But more importantly, the President of the
That is why Obama ate "Jim Crow" on ABC News "Nightline"
Thursday, "I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job
that police officers do. And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between
the police officer and Mr. Gates, and that everybody should have just settled
down and cooler heads should have prevailed." Backpedaling as he did,
Obama has given tacit approval to the implication that in 2009 a black man
standing in his own house has to stay in his place and watch his mouth when
talking to white folks.
When the President, a black man,
must bit his tongue rather than speak the truth about racial profiling, it is
more than evident blacks are still second class citizens. It is obvious Prof.
Gates has more education than the white policeman, but which mattered more,
education or race?
Obama's Speech to the NAACP
By Tom Eley
The main thrust of president
Barack Obama's speech before the centenary meeting of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People was to blame working class
African-Americans for the social crisis engulfing them.
Obama alluded to the dimensions
of the social misery confronting black workers. African-Americans are "out
of work more than just about anybody else" and are "more likely to
suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance,"
the president said. Obama also made reference to the disproportionately large
number of African-Americans incarcerated in the nation's massive prison system
and affected by AIDS.
This truncated list, Obama might
have mentioned the foreclosure crisis, homelessness, the collapse of public
education in the cities, etc." offers only a glimpse of the dire
conditions confronting African-American workers, though by no means only black
workers. But what is the cause of this misery? And how does Obama propose to
alleviate it?
Here Obama adopted all the
right-wing nostrums about "personal responsibility" that have been
used to justify the gutting of social programs, exacerbating the crisis
confronting broad sections of the working class. "Government programs
alone won't get our children to the Promised Land," Obama declared. In
other words, black workers can expect no significant social assistance from the
Obama administration. Instead, Obama claimed that what is needed is "a new
mind set, a new set of attitudes."
According to Obama, "[O]ne
of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way we've
internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to
expect so little from the world and from themselves."
Obama is doubtless aware that this is a recapitulation of Daniel Patrick
Moynihan's widely discredited "culture of poverty" theory. In 1965,
the sociologist (later a Democratic senator) authored a study asserting that
poverty among blacks was essentially a social pathology perpetuated within
"the Negro family." These conceptions featured prominently in the
drive to gut the welfare system.
Obama made clear that dire social conditions are no justification for
government assistance to black youth. While there may be economic problems, he
declared, "That's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to
cut class, that's not a reason to drop out of school." "We've got to
say to our children "Your destiny is in your hands ' No excuses ' all
those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete." To
Obama, not only are hunger, homelessness, and police harassment, not 'excuses.'
These 'hardships' are actually a good, making black youth 'stronger, better
able to compete.'
The president even offered
parenting tips. To parents, “You can't just contract out parenting,"
he counseled. "That means putting away the X-Box, putting our kids to bed
at a reasonable hour."
Had a white politician made similar statements, there can be little doubt he or
she would have been attacked as racist. But because of the color of his skin,
Obama's words are hailed as 'tough love.' Obama recently made a very similar
speech in
Obama's lecture to
African-American workers closely resembles the position of Booker T. Washington
(1856-1915), a black educator who argued that the only way that blacks could
counter brutality and poverty in the segregated Jim Crow South was by improving
their position through 'self-help,' not through political action.
Ironically, it was his bitter
opposition to Booker T. Washington that led W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) to found
the NAACP in 1909. Obama claimed that the NAACP "was not founded in search
of a handout." Perhaps not! But it was founded, whatever its
limitations, in order to politically combat the repression of the black
population.
Obama disclosed the essential content of his perspective when he declared:
"Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500
companies. (Applause) Because civil
rights laws were passed, black mayors, black governors, and members of Congress
served in places where they might once have been able [sic] not just to vote
but even take a sip of water. And because ordinary people did such
extraordinary things led me to be here tonight as the 44th President of the
From his largely well-heeled audience, this passage received an enthusiastic
response. For this social layer, the essence of the civil rights movement was
to create a layer of 'black CEOs' and politicians. For the needs of black
workers, they have only contempt.
The progressive content of the
civil rights movement was based on the struggle for equality. However, as
social conflicts intensified in the 1960s, including the ghetto uprisings of
1967-68, a section of the political establishment sought to cultivate a layer
of the black middle class, through various affirmative action policies, and
integrate it into the capitalist establishment. Over the past four decades,
social inequality within the black population has increased enormously.
Obama is the outcome of this process. There is nothing in Obama's personal or
political history that has anything to do with the struggles of
African-American workers. He was very early on picked up by powerful political
and financial interests that ultimately shepherded him to the White House.
Because of his particular ethnic background, he was seen as someone who could
better sell right-wing policies.
Far from advancing the interests of the majority of the black population,
identity politics has become the vehicle for a sharp attack on African-American
workers and the working class as a whole. While his administration has handed
over upwards of $12 trillion to the big finance houses, Obama has manipulated
the bankruptcy of the auto industry in order to drive down the wages and living
standards of the working class. He has proposed health care reform that would
result in a system of compulsory insurance and rationed treatment. On
education, which in his speech he held up as the basic necessity for
advancement, Obama is supporting the shutdown of public schools, the expansion
of charter schools and an attack on teachers.
Obama's speech, and the entire
content of the policy of his administration, only proves that the fundamental
division in society is class, not race.
Colonialism is to BLAME for
By Righteous Noise
President Obama: 'Enough is
Enough! 'Young African American students are baffled by your audacity to
suggest that the contemporary problems of
As people of African descent and on behalf all those who embrace principles of
human equality from around the world, we go on record to express our outrage by
your words which the media is broadcasting around the world - African leaders,
stop blaming colonialism and Western oppression for the continent's manifold
problems.
We invite people of good will to
join us. We insist that you reconsider the basic assumptions, language and
values that you bring to critique and create
Your comments epitomize blaming
the victim analysis, and at the same time give a pass to those who are most
responsible for the conditions of Africa without benefit of a genuine apology,
much less reparations.
Your very words poison the spirit of balanced analysis of very complex issues
and suggest a tone of chastisement and condescension that is more than hurtful.
Your comments fuel the culture of entitlement and racism that has so permeated
the consciousness of people all over the world.
Words have power. As president of the
The African continent, consisting of diverse countries, many carved out by the
European interests of the 1886 Berlin Conference, has been devastated by the
centuries of slavery, human and material exploitation upon which western wealth
was built. This same kind of exploitation has led to the near extinction of
native people in the
We are not in a post-racial
We would expect you and your administration to exhibit a greater level of empathy
and understanding of the complexities and interconnections between how the
interests of western powers control the options and environment in which very
young African nations meet their global realities.
We expect no less consideration or respect than you give to the Middle East and
We expected more from you not only because you are the leader of the most
powerful nation in the western world, but also because you have
first-generation genetic linkage to
If you agree with the sentiments expressed in this letter, sign the petition at
www.thepetitionsite.com/1/colonialism-is-to-blame-for-africas-problems.
Disgruntled feels:
Neo-colonial! Earlier this month, President Barack Obama flew from the G8
summit in
Disgruntled
says: I have watched with growing horror the way in which the election
of "our first black" president has gone from being a triumph - the
partial realization of Dr. King' dream for American society -- to a certain
curse. With a half-black face and great oratorical skills, Mr. Obama can go
where no white man would dare tread, and it is with gleeful audacity that he
has accepted the task of doing just that. By-product of the union of a Kenyan
and a white woman from
Disgruntled
wants to know: My first teacher, my mother, charged me early in life to
learn something new everyday; I took it to heart. I have tried to pass on this
charge to my children and grandchildren the notion that learning is a lifelong
process; well after one has completed high school and college, learning
continues. On the other hand, education in
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email www.ap.com...Judge:
NYC unfair to minority firefighter recruits...By Larry Neumeister...The city
has discriminated against minorities in its hiring of firefighters, causing
blacks and Hispanics to comprise only 10 percent of the fire department's work
force even though most city residents are minorities, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S.
District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice
and a fraternal order of black firefighters in finding disparities among those
taking firefighter recruitment exams in 1999 and 2002 were so wide that no
trial was needed to rule against the city. "These numbers stand in stark
contrast to some of the nation's other cities, such as
Email www.blackcommentator.com ..Living While
Black in