The DISH
Unbossed and unbought
news and information you can use
Vol. 13 Issue
17…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…April 25, 2010
Venue for an Artist
A New Psychology and Philosophy
By John Burl Smith
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of
troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to
sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural
shocks
That flesh is heir to.......
William Shakespeare
Hamlet's Soliloquy is an
unresolved question pondered in response to his father's murder. Is it possible
to accept such an affront in order to maintain comfort, status and the possibility
of inherited power or is it more honorable to fly in the face of danger to try
to avenge what one knows in their soul is wrong? Unlike Hamlet, this question
for me was not about the trappings of royalty but everyday survival in
opposition to one of the most heinous systems ever devised by modern man --
slavery and its successor segregation in the
Segregation was a system that grew up in the South; it reduced black people to a level just above bond slavery, robbing them of dignity and whites of decency. It was a form of state-sponsored terrorism -- a kind of ethic cleansing that removed all legal protection for blacks by giving every white person the power of life and death over slave descendants.
Like young Hamlet pondered his
fate, I considered mine on returning home from
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was
on one side preaching non-violence, while H. Rap Brown was on the other
demanding black power. I chose black power, because I did not see non-violence
as a hauberk against white repression. My wake-up call came when I was
brutalized by
Again, like Hamlet, I took up "arms against a sea of troubles," when
the
The Invaders' militancy spread
like a contagion among young blacks. When Dr. King held his march, their anger,
fueled by years of repression, discrimination, racism, lynching and
exploitation, exploded. Dr. King, who was preparing for his "Poor People's
Campaign" headed for Washington, DC that summer, saw in the Invaders the
organizing energy he needed to get black power groups across the US to help
mobilize poor people for his campaign. He sent Rev. Hosea Williams to talk with
the Invaders and arranged a meeting to discuss joining his non-violent
movement.
Much like, the plot in Hamlet, tyrants never yield power, but Dr. King
understood the price of freedom. I met with Dr. King in a last minute strategy
session just two hours before he was assassinated. He shared with me his
regrets of the present and his perspective on the future. The most significant
of which for me was his view of us as future leaders.
Dr. King said it was our generation that must develop a new psychology to plan
future actions and a new philosophy to explain those actions. His admonition
was based on the belief that civil rights movement was basically a southern
effort and in order to reach the masses across the
Following that meeting, Dr. King was assassinated. So again, unlike young
Hamlet, who kills his nemesis before expiring, the Invaders became the hunted.
Several were killed by J. Edgar Hoover's counter intelligence program (Co Intel
Pro) agents. Most Invaders, including myself, went to jail and were
marginalized as leaders. However, I never forgot or gave up on Dr. King's
challenge to develop a new psychology to plan future actions and a new
philosophy to explain them.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
Originally
proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell under President Dwight D.
Eisenhower, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 marked the first occasion since
Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative
action to protect civil rights. Ironically, President Eisenhower had not been
known for his support of the civil rights movement. In fact, he never publicly
gave support to the movement believing that you could not force people to
change their beliefs; such changes had to come from the heart of the people
involved, not as the result of legislation from
While most school districts at
least gave the appearance of compliance with Brown,
some districts, especially in the
After its proposal by the
Eisenhower administration, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was primarily a
voting rights bill, influential southern congressman whittled down its initial
scope. However, it still retained a number of important provisions for the
protection of voting rights.
In an effort to prevent its passage, South Carolina Democrat Senator James
Strom Thurmond, who supported segregation and later changed his party
affiliation to Republican, mounted a one-man filibuster that became the longest
one-person filibuster in Senate history. His non-stop speech on the Senate
floor consisted of 24 hours and 18 minutes of readings from the Declaration of
Independence, the Bill of Rights,
Despite Thurmond's efforts, the bill passed the House with a vote of 270 to 97 and the Senate with a vote of 60 to 15. On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
established the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, and empowered
federal officials to prosecute individuals that conspired to deny or abridge
another citizen's right to vote. In addition, it created a six-member U.S.
Civil Rights Commission charged with investigating allegations of voter
infringement. But, perhaps most importantly, the Civil Rights Act of 1957
signaled a growing federal commitment to the cause of civil rights. (Sources: www.justice.gov/crt/activity.php, www.historylearningsite.co.uk and http://en.wikipedia.org)
Equal Pay Legislation
Forty-five years ago, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) into law, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. At the time of the EPA's passage in 1963, women earned merely 59 cents to every dollar earned by men. Although enforcement of the EPA as well as other civil rights laws has helped to narrow the wage gap, significant disparities remain and need to be addressed. Today, women make, on average, only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.
The wage disparities are of particular concern in light of the present state of the economy. A majority of Americans are worried about the economy; 85 percent believe it is getting worse. Women are feeling particularly anxious; they have had a greater loss of jobs and wages during this economic downturn than men.
Women working full-time, year-round
earn only about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, virtually the same
amount women earned in 2005. In 2006, the median annual earnings of women, ages
15 and older working full-time, year-round, were $32,515, compared to $42,261
for their male counterparts.
Minority women fare significantly worse compared to white men than white
women. In 2006, the median earnings
of African American women that worked full-time, year-round jobs were $30,352
compared to $48,420 for white, non-Hispanic men; the median for Hispanic women
was only $25,198. This means that an African American woman earned just 63
cents for every dollar earned by a white, non-Hispanic man, while a Hispanic
woman earned only 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, non-Hispanic
male counterpart. In both cases, this pay gap for women of color was only
marginally smaller than it was in 2004.
The National Committee on Pay Equity supports two bills in Congress aimed at curbing wage discrimination. The bills work on different aspects of wage discrimination, and both are needed to fully close the wage gap.
The Fair Pay Act (S. 904, H.R. 2151) is sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). It seeks to end wage discrimination against those who work in female-dominated or minority-dominated jobs by establishing equal pay for equivalent work. For example, within individual companies, employers could not pay jobs that are held predominately by women less than jobs held predominately by men if those jobs are equivalent in value to the employer.
The bill also protects workers on
the basis of race or national origin. The Fair Pay Act makes exceptions for
different wage rates based on seniority, merit, or quantity or quality of work.
It also contains a small business exemption.
The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R.12 and S.182) was introduced January 2009 by
then-Senator Hillary Clinton and Rep. Rosa DeLauro to strengthen the Equal Pay
Act of 1963. The bill expands damages under the Equal Pay Act and amends its
very broad fourth affirmative defense.
In addition to calling for a study of the data collected by the EEOC, the
Paycheck Fairness Act proposes voluntary guidelines to show employers how to
evaluate jobs with the goal of eliminating unfair disparities.
The bill was passed by the House
of Representatives on January 9, 2009. Under the lead sponsorship of Sen.
Christopher Dodd, action by the Senate is pending.
Behind the Pay Gap (Excerpts)
By Judy Goldberg Dey and Catherine Hill
Women have made remarkable gains
in education during the past three decades, yet these achievements have
resulted in only modest improvements in pay equity. The gender pay gap has
become a fixture of the
Individuals can, however, make choices that can greatly enhance their earnings potential. Choosing to attend college and completing a college degree have strong positive effects on earnings, although all college degrees do not have the same effect. The selectivity of the college attended and the choice of a major also affect later earnings. Many majors remain strongly dominated by one gender. Female students are concentrated in fields associated with lower earnings, such as education, health, and psychology. Male students dominate the higher-paying fields: engineering, mathematics, and physical sciences. Women and men who majored in "male-dominated" subjects earn more than do those who majored in "female-dominated" or "mixed-gender" fields. For example, one year after graduation, the average female education major working full time earns only 60 percent as much as the average female engineering major working full time earns.
The choice of major is not the full story, however. As early as one year after graduation, a pay gap is found between women and men who had the same college major. Female students cannot simply choose a major that will allow them to avoid the pay gap. Early career choices, most prominently occupational choices, also play a role in the gender pay gap. While the choice of major is related to occupation, the relationship is not strict. For example, some mathematics majors choose to teach, while others work in business or computer science.
One year after graduation, women
who work in computer science, for instance, earn over 37 percent more than do
women who are employed in education or administrative, clerical, or legal
support occupations. Job sector also affects earnings. Women are more likely
than men to work in the nonprofit and local government sectors, where wages are
typically lower than those in the for-profit and federal government sectors.
The gender pay gap among full-time workers understates the real difference
between women's and men's earnings because it excludes women who are not in the
labor force or who are working part time. Most college-educated women who are
not working full time will eventually return to the full-time labor market. On
average, these women will then have lower wages than will their continuously
employed counterparts, further widening the pay gap.
What can be done about the gender pay gap? To begin with, it must be publicly
recognized as a problem. Too often, both women and men dismiss the pay gap as
simply a matter of different choices, but even women who make the same
occupational choices that men make will not typically end up with the same
earnings.
The pay gap between female and male college graduates cannot be fully accounted
for by factors known to affect wages, such as experience (including work
hours), training, education, and personal characteristics. Gender pay
discrimination can be overt or it can be subtle. It is difficult to document
because someone's gender is usually easily identified by name, voice, or
appearance. The only way to discover discrimination is to eliminate the other
possible explanations. In this analysis the portion of the pay gap that remains
unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5 percent one
year after graduation and 12 percent 10 years after graduation. These unexplained
gaps are evidence of discrimination, which remains a serious problem for women
in the work force.
Making gender pay equity a
reality will require action by individuals, employers, and federal and state
governments. To read the entire executive summary of Behind the Pay Gap and the
complete report, visit www.aauw.org.
By John Burl Smith
Visited by the ghost of his murdered father, Prince Hamlet learns of the dastardly
plot responsible for his death. Speaking from beyond the grave, Hamlet's father
set the young Prince on a course of revenge and tragedy. The legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. has reasserted itself year after year to where those
Americans that hated him in life now laud him in death, as King Claudius did
his dead brother, whom he murdered. However, Dr. King's pleading challenge
during our April 4 meeting has lingered like a haunting apparition encouraging
me to "Develop a new psychology to plan future actions and a new
philosophy to explain those actions."
After I was released from jail, I met Dot who became my wife. Only after we returned to school and became researchers did I realize the power of Dr. King's statement. Similar in background, Dot and I were haunted by the same question, "How was it possible that black people, particularly the ones we knew, worked as hard and as long as they did, yet remained poor?" Whether as farmers or industrial laborers, the result was the same.
The justification research provided was that blacks had a poor work ethic. They were lazy, slothful, shiftless, dumb, wasteful, drunkards, unreliable and lacked initiative. This assessment in the literature was universal, but according to personal experience and antidotal information, that assessment did not fit the facts. We concluded that for the social exclusion, political disenfranchisement and economic deprivation black people experienced as a group to be so complete in the North and South there had to be some mechanism beyond white hatred of blacks which maintained blacks on the bottom and whites on top.
Dot was studying economics and I
was studying psychology and history. Dot published a paper in the Mid-South
Journal of Economics, Vol. 6 No 3 (1982), entitled Recession and Unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Economic
Welfare Loss. Her research on black and white unemployment and
median family incomes established consistent and stable relationships between
the socio-economic conditions of black and white Americans. Her work revealed
that black unemployment has historically been twice that of whites across every
business cycle since the
At the time, I was studying the
constitution and suggested she test her data to see if it was a good fit for
the 3/5 Compromise of Article I Section II of the US Constitution. Remarkably,
the data matched perfectly. The .5 to .65 gap mimics the 3/5 Compromise. Her
research explains why, on average, white median family incomes are consistently
40 percent greater than the median family incomes of blacks. She has labeled
the difference the chasm of inequality.
Other research has consistently shown that whites earn more than blacks over
their lifetimes, which allows them to attend better schools, reside in better
communities and exert greater control over other economic conditions that
impact their lives, while simultaneously blacks are relegated to the chasm of
inequality, where poverty is more prevalent. Moreover, blacks pay higher
interest rates, are more likely to live in communities with an abundance of
fast food venders, liquor stores, predatory lenders and high crime rates.
Consequently, they are far more likely to get arrested, receive longer prison
sentences and upon release get rearrested. It is all tied to the 3/5
compromise.
Dr. King's admonition was like a voice from beyond the grave, prodding us as we developed this new perspective. Unfortunately, most black leaders fail to see our research as a new way of analyzing the chasm of inequality in which blacks have been mired since slavery. Myopically, they remain wedded to the old civil rights paradigm, which considers discrimination, disparate treatment and the hostile environment it engendered to be a moral problem.
When Dr. King and I talked 42
years ago, he lamented that his contemporaries would reject his change in
tactics which brought the Invaders into the leadership of the Poor People's
Campaign. Although he was right about their rejection of the Invaders as
leaders, we have continued to develop a new perspective that places the
responsibility for maintaining the socioeconomic and political disparities of
the chasm of inequality squarely on the shoulders of the federal government in
terms of the 3/5 Compromise.
A major part of this new perspective is keeping the Poor People's Campaign
alive through the efforts of the Dialogue on Race International Network at www.thedish.org. Presently, we are building an
international coalition which has petitioned the United Nations for the right
to present evidence during the Universal Periodic Review conducted by the Human
Rights Council to support our charges that the
Court Ordered End to School Segregation
On Tuesday, April 20, 2010, US District Judge Tom Lee gave the Walthall County
School District 30 days to amend its student transfer policy and halt local
school practices that allowed some of the district's schools and classes to
become racially segregated.
The court action stems from a
federal desegregation order issued in August 1970. The
In 2007, lawyers with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division contacted
the
After identifying these
violations, government lawyers petitioned the court to reopen the case. Twelve
(12) other
The
Judge Lee instructed the district
to take all necessary steps prior to the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic
year to "accommodate the shifting enrollment patterns in the district
expected to result" from ending the local transfer policy These included
sufficiently staffing each school and ensuring the physical condition of each
school facility is adequate "to ensure the effective delivery of
educational services to all students at the school to which they are
residentially zoned."
According to Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division, "It is unacceptable for school districts to act in a way that
encourages or tolerates the re-segregation of public schools. We will take action so that school
districts subject to federal desegregation orders comply with their obligation
to eliminate vestiges of separate black and white schools"
Lawyers for the
Disgruntled says: The
situation in the Walthall County School District is far from unique among the
more than 200 Southern school districts that receive federal scrutiny for their
historic failure to comply with desegregation orders. Many still hold separate
black and white proms and elect separate homecoming courts. We read about these
throwbacks every year in our local newspapers. Even in school districts that do
not receive federal scrutiny, racial housing patterns have largely rendered
Brown (1954) moot, because there are black and white schools, separate and
unequal, all across the country. Officials in the Obama administration are
investigating an array of practices nationwide that contribute to a present-day
version of segregation and racial discrimination that they say is no less
insidious. Federal officials are questioning whether in practice many black
students receive less access than whites to the best teachers, college prep
courses and other resources. Among other issues, Department of Education
lawyers are investigating whether minority students are placed in special
education classes without justification and disproportionately and more harshly
disciplined. If they really examine the data, federal officials will find
plenty of evidence to support these things as well as the contention of so many
black parents that our public schools are little more than weigh stations on
the road to the prison-industrial complex.
Disgruntled wants to know: The case for
equal pay for women is a compelling one. Likewise, the argument and statistics
on the pay disparity between black and white Americans present an equally
cogent case for ending this obvious racial discrimination. Without fear of
recrimination or suggestions that he is "the woman's president," Mr.
Obama has embraced arguments for ending unequal pay for women. As a Senator, he
co-sponsored the Fair Pay Act and found no political drawbacks in his advocacy
of equal pay for women. He has shown himself to be a strong advocate for the
homosexual community, even supporting the rights of gays to be in the military.
No one has called him "the gay president." Mr. Obama has even come
out in support of immigration reform, making him a friend of the illegal
immigrant community. His advocacy of immigration reform has not made him
"the illegal immigration president." Given all that, one has to ask,
what is so repugnant and/or politically detrimental about targeting and
specifically attempting to improve the black condition that is untenable for
Mr. Obama, whose wife is a bona fide slave descendant?
Disgruntled
feels: Stealth! Without question, Wall Street and the financial industry
are stealth operations. None of us know how they operate and they work
diligently to keep it that way. However, given what we now know about Enron,
particularly the revelations about its accounting practices, we know that these
"too big to fail" entities are not as solid as they would have us
believe. They employ off-shore entities and engage in off-balance sheet
practices that make them appear financially healthier than they really are.
And, when these stealth gimmicks and mainstream media propaganda fail to
persuade the public to believe their lies, they have the wherewithal to employ
thousands of well-paid lobbyists armed with campaign contributions to buy our
elected representatives to do their bidding, even when it goes against the
public's wishes. Stock prices go up; all is well with the world for now. But,
sooner or later, like a house of cards, businesses built on stealth come crashing
down, and no amount of gimmickry and dirty little tricks will stop their
downward spiral.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes &
Telephone Calls
Email www.newscom.com ...April 20th is Equal Pay Day, the day when the average woman has worked enough extra days in the New Year to tally up earnings equal to the average man's previous year's pay. When year-round, full-time workers are taken into account, the median income for women is just 78% of the median income for men. Thus, the average woman must work nearly 16 months to earn the same income that the average man earns in a year. In recognition of Equal Pay Day, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine issued the following statement: Equal Pay Day commemorates one of the clearest and most pernicious effects of gender discrimination. Despite decades of work to grow opportunities and reduce inequalities for women in the workplace, women continue to earn just 78 cents on the dollar when compared to men. The income gap opens when a woman takes her first job, and it often persists until she leaves her last. Unfair pay practices cost families thousands of dollars in lost income every year, money that could have paid for a home, for a college education, or for retirement. "President Obama and Democrats in Congress are working to address this problem. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gives women the power they need to challenge unequal pay, was the first piece of legislation the President signed upon taking office. That Act represents progress, but much work remains to be done. To that end, I commend the President and Congressional Democrats for their ongoing efforts to ensure that every American, regardless of gender, race, or age, is able to earn equal pay for equal work."
Email www.cbsnews.com
...Recipe Calls for "Freshly Ground Black People"...Australian
Publisher Orders Reprint of "Pasta Bible" after Typo Mixes Up People
and Pepper...An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a
recipe for pasta with "salt and freshly ground black people." Penguin
Group
Email www.informationclearinghouse.info ...Borrowing While Poor...By Moshe Adler...Congress is in the midst of investigating why Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve did not prevent the subprime fiasco, and now the SEC is suing Goldman Sachs for fraud. But neither the investigation nor the suit addresses the most repugnant aspect of subprime lending, which is the fact that poor people are charged higher interest rates than rich people when they purchase homes, and that this is perfectly legal. The justification that economists give for this is that the poor have a higher risk of default and must therefore pay a premium for presenting this higher risk. But it is not the borrower who is in default who pays this premium; it is the other borrowers--the ones who do not default--who pay the premium and thus cover the losses caused by the ones who do. Why should a poor borrower be held more responsible than a rich borrower for the default of another poor borrower? This discrimination against homebuyers based on income is produced by market competition. A rich family is less likely to default, so in order to attract such families lenders offer them a lower interest rate. But someone has to pay to cover the losses from bad loans, and if rich families are given a way not to pay for these losses, then poor families end up getting stuck with the bill. While the motivation for this discrimination may be totally innocent, the result is that it frees rich families from what should be a shared responsibility, shifting it all to the poor.
Email newhorizon_2008@yahoo.com ...The
US, the self-proclaimed protector of human rights, has failed to vote in favor
of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Speaking
to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) at the UN, Kenneth Deer, the
representative of US and Canada Mohawk Indians, said that