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Vol. 13 Issue 2…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…January 10, 2010
Venue for an Artist
Ain't I a Woman?
By Sojourner Truth
Well, children, where there is so
much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes
of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white
men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that
women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have
the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I
a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered
into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a
woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it -
and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I
have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I
cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then, they talk about this thing
in the head; what's this they call it? [Member of audience whispers
"intellect."] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's
rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a
quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as
men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did
your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made
was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together
ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me,
and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
About
Me: Remarks delivered in 1851 at the Women's Convention in
Tough on Kids
"President Obama may improve the image of African Americans, but being
black or brown in
The media is touting new films
about image and the African American experience -- Chris Rock's "Good
Hair," Oprah's "Precious," CNN's Black in America, Disney's
Princess and the Frog and Tyler Perry's films -- but talking about self-image
is a mission for Sandy Holman, director of the Davis, California-based Culture
CO-OP. Holman has dedicated the last twenty years of her career to boosting the
body-image and self-esteem of the nation's youth. Her focus is on diversity and
children who are disproportionately affected by negative messages such as
African Americans and Latinos.
Her first book --"Grandpa, Why Is Everything Black
Bad?"-- won national awards in spite of what her critics called its
"negative title." Holman reads this and her other titles,
"Grandma Says Our Hair has Flair" and "We All Have a
Heritage," to the nation's children. The children who read her books know
exactly what they mean, and they feel validated by the positive messages
inside. Holman observes that from age three, kids notice when their skin and
hair do not measure up to their role models in movies and television.
"Things have reached an
epidemic level for our children and the messages they internalize," Holman
said, "And still we debate why there are achievement gaps in education,
high dropout rates, high incarceration rates and worse." The negative messages
that children of color receive, coupled with insidious institutional systems,
are taking their toll.
Holman says it is vital to take
collective action because ultimately all of society is affected. By working
with schools, creating community conversations, giving presentations and
creating books, songs and other materials, she encourages individuals to
intervene in the lives of youth during their formative years.
Sandy Holman has degrees from the
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
The
youngest of Elizabeth and James Baumfree's 13
children born into slavery, Sojourner Truth began life as Isabella on Colonel
Johannes Hardenbergh's plantation in Swartekill, a Dutch settlement in
Even though her English improved,
Neely continued beating Isabella, while raping her
repeatedly. In 1808, Neely sold her to Martinus Schryver, a tavern keeper. Schryver
sold her in 1810 to John Dumont, and although he was kinder, his wife abused
her on numerous occasions.
Around 1815, Isabella met Robert with whom she experienced her only instance of
romantic love. A slave owned by a neighbor, Robert's owner forbade the
relationship; he did not want his slave to have children with a slave he did
not own; he would not own the children. Robert's master savagely beat him when
he did not break off the relationship. Robert later died from his injuries;
Isabella bore his daughter Diana that year.
The state of
On her own after escaping, Isabella wandered, praying for direction, until she
arrived at the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen
(Wagener).
After freeing Peter, Isabella had
a life-changing religious experience. "Overwhelmed with the greatness of
the Divine," she was called to preach. First she became a devoted
Methodist and left
Following the death of Pierson in 1834, Isabella became an itinerant preacher.
Nine years later (6-1-43) Isabella experienced another life-changing event.
"The Spirit calls me, and I must go," Isabella said and changed her
name to Sojourner Truth. She wandered in relative obscurity, living on the
kindness of strangers, until she joined the Northampton Association of
Education and Industry in
Truth purchased a home in
Truth hooked up with George
Thompson, an abolitionist and speaker in 1851 and in May attended the Ohio
Women's Rights Convention in
During the Civil War, Sojourner
enlisted blacks to join the Union Army and fight to free slaves. Her grandson
James Caldwell fought with the 54th Regiment,
Sojourner continued to help newly
freed slaves through the Freedman's Relief Association and Freedman's Hospital
in
Sojourner continued speaking
about temperance and against capital punishment in her latter years. Suffering
with ulcerous legs, Sojourner sought treatment at the Battle Creek Sanitarium
in July 1883. She returned home with her daughters Diana and Elizabeth, their
husbands and children and passed away on November 26, 1883, at 86 years old.
She was buried in
Sojourner Truth has been posthumously honored in many ways over the years: a
memorial stone in the Stone History Tower in Monument Park, downtown Battle
Creek (1935); a new grave marker, by the Sojourner Truth Memorial Association
(1946); a portion of Michigan state highway M-66 designated the Sojourner Truth
Memorial Highway (1976); induction into the national Woman's Hall of Fame in
Seneca Falls, New York (1981); induction into the Michigan Woman's Hall of Fame
in Lansing (1983); a commemorative postage stamp (1986); a Michigan Milestone
Marker by the State Bar of Michigan for her contribution (three lawsuits she
won) to the legal system (1987); a marker erected by the Battle Creek Club of
the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs (also
1987); a Mars probe named for her (1997); a community-wide, year-long
celebration of the 200th anniversary of her birth in Battle Creek in 1997, plus
a larger-than-life statue of her by artist Tina Allen; and the First Black
Woman Honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol (October, 2008). (Sources: www.feminist.com, www.kyphilom.com,
www.lkwdpl.org and www.pbs.org)
Arguments of the Past Foreshadow
Today
By John Burl Smith
During slavery former slaves,
such as Harriet Tubman, David Ruggles,
Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, were powerful voices forcefully arguing
the case for abolition. Sojourner Truth was a fiery abolitionist, who defied
all notions about women slaves. An imposing figure of six feet, Sojourner used
unsentimental straight-talk, riveting speeches and a spellbinding singing voice
to become a national symbol for strong black women. A complex woman with a
powerful intellect, Sojourner Truth's influence endured long after emancipation
and the Civil War ended.
Male domination, constant
beatings and getting raped repeatedly were issues that gave Sojourner common
ground with leaders of the women's suffrage movement, including Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. However, passage of the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments created additional considerations for Truth when Stanton
and Anthony took an all or none position on the Amendments.
Both Stanton and Anthony broke with abolitionists and vowed not to support the
vote for black males, if women were denied the franchise. They mounted a
lobbying campaign against ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to the US Constitution. Sojourner did not see the issue as males
versus females; rather she felt "half a loaf was better than no bread at
all." She felt black women
would gain more sooner if black men had the vote than to hold out in support of
white women. Consequently, Sojourner aligned herself with Frederick Douglass.
Couching her argument totally in
terms of males versus females,
Sojourner subscribed to Frederick Douglass' position that white women were
already empowered more than former slaves by their connection to white males
(fathers, husbands, sons and brothers), at least vicariously had the vote.
According to Douglass, their treatment as slaves entitled the now liberated
black men, who lacked white women's indirect empowerment, to voting rights
before women were granted the franchise. Black women, he believed, would have
the same degree of empowerment as white women, equalizing the situation, once African-American
men had the vote; hence, general female suffrage, according to Douglass, would
do nothing to equalize power.
Although this controversy
occurred 200 years ago, it implications as Truth and Douglass saw them have
proven correct. White women identify more with their fathers, husbands, sons
and brothers than with the goal of equality. They talk a good game to serve
their purposes, but the majority line up in support of white privilege. They
stood by their men during segregation and lynching to maintain the "color
line."
Consider affirmative action as it relates to white women, blacks and other
minorities. Similarly as during the suffragette era, white women were very
supportive of equality in getting blacks to support efforts to include them as
a minority under affirmative action. However, adding white women to the pool of
disadvantaged persons reduced the remedial impact for blacks. In general, the
socioeconomic and political advantage did not accrue to minorities. The
increased opportunities, access and wealth went overwhelmingly to white women.
White males gained by using the minority category to reward their wives,
mothers, daughters and sisters, which kept it in the family. Blacks, on the
other hand, were seen as receiving undeserved "racial preferences" or
"racial quotas."
White women did nothing to dispel the "racial quotas" or "racial
preferences" myth. They enjoyed the advantages of affirmative action and
then used the positions they gained to discriminate against blacks and other
minorities. They did not use their greater access, opportunities and wealth to
pry open the door they entered by stepping on the backs of blacks as they
became a part of the white establishment.
Quite to the contrary, as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth suspected,
white men and women joined forces to solidify white power and to keep blacks
out. Research shows that white women received the greatest benefit from
affirmative action. This pattern holds true whether in corporations, education
or government. And, wherever white women lost out to blacks, they filed
"reversed discrimination lawsuits" as white women disadvantaged by
affirmative action. They have it both ways, whereas black women have it in only
one.
Banjos Playing Through the Broken Glass (Excerpts)
By David Glenn Cox
The Alabama Slave Code of 1834
required slave owners to provide four walls and a roof for their
"property." They were further required to properly feed the slaves
and could be criminally charged if they didn't. If a slave were sick or
injured, the owner was required to provide a doctor for his or her property,
and if an owner maliciously injured a slave, the owner could be charged for his
action as if it had been done to a free man.
Having lived in
Well, no, it wasn't, not really; it merely morphed into a new capitalist model
without the protections to which even a slave was entitled. Sharecropper,
tenant farmer, apprentice, trainee, intern. If I had a nickel for every
time I've heard some conservative say, "We don't need those protections
anymore, people don't act like that anymore," I'd be living on my sailboat
in the
Come one, come all! This is a
great opportunity not to be missed!
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Until last
year, people in the Ethiopian settlement of Elliah
earned a living by farming and fishing. Now, they are employees. Dozens of
women and children pack dirt into bags for palm seedlings along the banks of
the
"My business is the third
wave of outsourcing," Sai Ramakrishna Karutuni, the 44-year-old managing director of Karuturi Global, said at the company's dusty office in the
western town of
Yes, management companies from around the world are jumping on the bandwagon to
take advantage of the "Last Frontier." Miro
Asset Management of Dubai has set up a $350 million investment fund for African
agriculture, and why not?
"African agricultural land is cheap relative to similar land elsewhere; it
is probably the last frontier," said Paul Christie, marketing director at
Emergent Asset Management in
How much does the land in
Best of all for investors, no
pesky slave code, no responsibility to care or feed the slaves, sorry,
employees, it's just so easy to get the two mixed up. I'll try to keep it straight
by remembering that slaves had at least a vestige of civil rights while these
employees have none.
"The project will give the government revenue from corporate income taxes
and from future leases, as well as from job creation," said Omod Obang Olom,
president of
I can hear the voices of ghosts from the antebellum verandas, "Why, we're
giving them jobs, and after all we pay taxes for these sorts of things!"
"This strategy will build up capitalism," Mr. Olom
said in an interview in Gambella. "The message I
want to convey is there is room for any investor. We have very fertile land,
there is good labor here, we can support them."
The government plans to allot 3 million hectares, or about 4 percent of its
arable land, to foreign investors over the next three years.
Only the president of the Gambella region forgot to tell the people who live there
about it. "Workers in Elliah say they weren't
consulted on the deal to lease land around the village, and that not much of
the money is trickling down.
"At a Karuturi site 20 kilometers from Elliah, more than a dozen tractors clear newly burned
savannah for a corn crop to be planted in June. Omeud
Obank, 50, guards the site 24 hours a day, six days a
week. The job helps support his family of 10 on a salary of $47 dollars per
month, more than the $35 dollars he earned monthly as a soldier in the
Ethiopian army."
Obank said it isn't enough to adequately feed and
clothe his family. "These Indians do not have any humanity," he said,
speaking of his employers. "Just because we are poor it doesn't make us
less human."
Karuturi said his company pays its workers at least
"We have to be very, very cognizant of the fact that we are dealing with
people who are easily exploitable," Karuturi
said, adding that the company will create up to 20,000 jobs and has plans to
build a hospital, a cinema, a school and a day-care center in the settlement.
"We're going to have a very healthy township that we will build. We are
creating jobs where there were none."
You know, they did the same thing
in
"Buntin
Buli, a 21-year-old supervisor at the nursery who
earns $50 a month, said he hopes Karuturi will use
some of its earnings to improve working conditions and provide housing and
food. Otherwise we would have been better off working on our own lands."
Mr. Buli is only dreaming. Those are the types of
things that only slaves are provided with and then only when mandated by law,
this is capitalism.
"Your Cadillac has got a
wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track." (Source: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Daveparts%20still/77)
2010 Voting Matters
While the US Constitution
guarantees US citizens the right to vote, it is still fairly easy to
disenfranchise certain voters. According to "Barriers to the Ballot: 2008
Ballot and Beyond," a report by the Advancement Project, the election
debacle of 2000 did not result in voter registration laws in
Newly implemented voter
registration laws championed by
Other issues the report cited
that discouraged voting included providing the minimum required early voting
sites, requiring voters to bring identification to the polls, discouraging
third-party groups from registering voters and Florida's early voter
registration deadlines.
On the other side of the country, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit
Court of Appeals in
The court basically agreed that
Disgruntled
says: Friday's Employment Situation jobs report painted a bleak picture.
The president sought to put the best face possible on it. But, putting lipstick
on this pig will not make it any less ugly. For instance, we know the national
unemployment rate is well above 10 percent. Millions of workers are not
counted. We lost more jobs in November, even though the official national
unemployment rate remained unchanged. Along demographic lines, the data get
downright frightening. Surprisingly, the unemployment rate for whites actually
fell .3% from 9.3% to 9%. It also fell for black teens from 49.8% to 48.4%. For
black adults, unemployment rose .6% to 16.2% and for white teens it also rose
.6% to 23.6%. For blacks, these are depression numbers. Add these horrific
numbers to rising credit card interest rates and home foreclosures, and we have
an explosive mix. The fallout is likely to be uglier than the pig on which
Obama is smearing lipstick.
Disgruntled
wants to know: While on his X-Mas vacation in
Disgruntled
feels: Distracted! The would-be X-Mas bomber
is an excellent example of how easily we are distracted, or at least how the
media distract us. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and we are
inundated twenty-four-seven with the failed airline bombing and the
implications for national security, which will, no doubt, usher in a ton of
measures likely to infringe on our civil liberties and justify bombing another
country back to the stone ages. While distracted, we seem to have lost sight of
what really matters, such as ending the wars on multiple fronts. I do not
simply refer to
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email ron@denvermediaservice.com
....Subject: C-SPAN CALLER "John" from
Email www.csmonitor.com ...Supreme Court drops
key case on limits of immunity for prosecutors...By Warren Richey...The US
Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a case over whether prosecutors who knowingly
procure false testimony that leads to a wrongful conviction can later be sued
for damages. The two innocent men, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, had
spent nearly 26 years in prison for a murder they didn't commit. After the
truth was discovered and they were released, they sued the prosecutors in
Email www.msn.com...Reid:
Sorry for 'Negro' remark about Obama...Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid
apologized on Saturday for saying in 2008 that Barack Obama should seek -- and
could win -- the White House because Obama was a "light skinned"
African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have
one." Obama quickly accepted, saying: "As far as I am concerned, the
book is closed." Reid made the comments in private during the long 2008
campaign, according to a new book about that election, which elevated Obama
from first-term