by John Burl Smith

Humanity recognizes ethnic cleansing as a form of genocide, hence, the need to fight it when and wherever it rears its ugly head. While nationalism is used to justify cleansing, the resulting crime is always an affront to human kind. Historically, going back to European discovery of the Western Hemisphere, one nation stands out as the worst offender.

Manifest Destiny made the eighteenth century America's bloodiest. At its conclusion, every indigenous nation within its borders boarded on extinction. From Tippecanoe to Wounded Knee, America slaughtered whole villages of women and children to extend the red, white and blue "from sea to shining sea." Comparatively speaking, President Andrew Jackson's forced march of the Cherokee on the "Trail of Tears" is similar to Slobodan Milosevic's forced evacuation of ethnic Albanians; it is deja´ vu.

Estimates of African deaths crossing the "Middle Passage" are as high as one hundred million. Most were bound for slave plantations in America. Slave deaths on American soil before emancipation in 1863 is unknown. However, for former slaves, the period after Reconstruction, which ended in 1887, mirrors Yugoslavia today. Like Kosovo Albanians, former slaves were terrorized by white lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan well into the 1960's. Black women were raped at will, land and money taken. Black men were murdered for sport. Lynching was a real picnic.

Ethnic cleansing, manifest destiny, slavery, segregation or Jewish settlements, in the final analysis, no matter the philosophical justification, history's judgement is genocide. The war in Yugoslavia has revealed America as the racist nation that African Americans have always known it to be.

During President Clinton's dialogue on race, whites steadfastly refused to see any need to apologize, let alone consider reparations for slave descendants. Today, in the name of humanitarianism, America is not only fighting to liberate Kosovo; it is planning to build its economy, by rebuilding homes and farms. America will give foreigners the kind of assistance it refuses to provide its genocide victims - Native and African Americans.

Ironically, African American tax dollars will fund this Marshall plan for rebuilding Kosovo. African American communities do not have such access to their own tax dollars to build schools and businesses. America will do for Kosovo what it refuses to do for its native and African American citizens. This is taxation without representation.

America's public concern for human rights is a hypocritically cynical ploy to divert attention away from its domestic human rights issues. Leaders like Slobodan Milosevic and Benjamin Netanyahu are no different from American presidents who pursued manifest destiny and enforced segregation. Ultimately, all desired to possess land or other resources belonging to someone else. Will NATO demand America returns land to Native Americans, and pays reparations to the descendants of African slaves? Check out the Genocide Chronicles. Other Essays by John Burl Smith

Last week the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro made 100 on his spelling test. As a reward, he went to the movies to see "The Mummy." According to the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro, "It was awesome, but a little scary." Bat Cave

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Like the color, Red blows my blues until I'm purple

Blazing like sirens,

Red's captivating symmetry screams,

Throw down your weapons

Come out with your hand up!

I am arrested by the succulent invitation.

Red... Intense and sensitive

Like my freshly healed scars that sometime

Wrap me tight like a straight jacket

Call me a patient of African American insane asylum

Casualty of war looking for refuge.

Red...Catch me before I fall

Talk me down from the roof

Now that we called a cease fire

To discuss all the rules

Is it cool if we make blue love purple? Red

Since this chemistry feels like 100 degrees

The landlord won't fix the AC

And we sit here half naked,

Sweaty, and I can smell you getting closer

To the proper consistency needed to add my fillin...

To add my flame to your fuel.

To add my sugar cane to your bowl...

To sweeten the soft soul center

Red...The only description I could give you is...

Flammable...Red... Bite my nipple hard

I am electric blue vertical.

I saw Red tremble until purple and was that pleasure?

Already hot enough to rush me

I got to pour some more love on the fire...

Red... let's drip the water of life?

Blue in a thousand colors comes melting down

Like ice cube cool piano keys

Tickling the ivory of your spine.

Blue velvet rose petal fingertips play,

And Red, you are my art...my canvas...my mind's eye

Truly blessed and inspired by your gift of peace

Electric blue paint my feelings on each goose bump

Until they glow purple, like a sun rise

Over the coast of Africa.

Laughter and conversation

Sets the mood like fine wine and good food

Marinating in Afromantic interludes.

It is the chase... the taste

It is my hands around your waist as we salsa...Intuit

On Thomas Jefferson

By Dot Smith

"Some things we just don't talk about in this house." (The House © 1999)

Born in 1743, the third president of the United States was very much a man of his day. During Thomas Jefferson's lifetime, men profited from pandering in pounds of human flesh. Master of the art of slavery, Jefferson epitomized the vocation. His plantation, Monticello, is a testament to the success of the institution. The attitudes that shaped that success are found among Jefferson's descendants today, just as they are echoed in the larger society.

In Jefferson's day, a slave owner did as he willed with his property; unregulated, slaves had no rights. On plantations, like Monticello, it was commonplace for children born to slaves to be by-products of the master's loin. The master rarely recognized his dark offspring; they were merely more hands to man the plantation. A plethora of oral history and birth documents identify this as a reason for the amalgam of African American skin shades. White men fathered countless black babies during Jefferson's time. A man of this era, Jefferson was no exception. People gossiped, but few spoke openly or wrote about the founding father's liaison with his slave- Sally Hemings; the affair escaped the history books.

Today, some members of Jefferson's clan do not want to expand the meaning of family to include descendants of Hemings' children. DNA evidence and oral history are insufficient to remove the walls of discrimination that bar access to the family cemetery at Monticello. The current argument over plantation burial rights interestingly highlights a common American attitude. This family feud is just more evidence of ongoing institutionalized racism, the canker infesting every aspect of American socio-economic and political intercourse. DISHing It Up Hot! Bits of Black History

Disgruntled says: With weapons of mass destruction available wholesale, it's no wonder America is still the homicide capital of the world!

Disgruntled wants to know: How can Jefferson's blue blood descendants hope to continue ignoring a biological link to the slaves that made Monticello a success?

Disgruntled feels: disenchanted. Disgruntled

Check It Out

"Put your ear to my hull you can still hear the sounds of human cargo." HENRIETTA MARIE SLAVE SHIP 1697-1700. In the summer of 1700, the English merchant slave ship Henrietta Marie sank thirty-five miles west of Key West, Florida, shortly after unloading a cargo of 190 enslaved Africans in Jamaica. An exhibition of historical artifacts recovered from this ship will be on display in Milwaukee. This represents the largest and most significant source of tangible early slave trade objects ever discovered. The exhibit will run from May 15-August 19, 1999 Monday-Saturday 9AM-7PM. Adults $5- Students $3- Seniors $4. Location: America's Black Holocaust Museum at 2233 North 4th Street Milwaukee, WI 53212. (414-264-2500). Contact LeRoy Goines via e-mail at lgoines@execpc.com ,visit Goines' website www.execpc.com/~lgoines/goines , phone 414-554-1539 or Fax: 414-554-6733 for more information. News You Use

The DISH contacted Tom Black, DeKalb County's Director of Public Works for his response to U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney's letter, which is provided below. In a nutshell, Black does not share McKinney's concern about any Seminole Landfill ground water contamination impacting South River. According to Black, "Of greater concern is the dumping by the city of Atlanta of raw sewage into the river." To answer public concerns, the county is planning a community meeting for some time in the next sixty (60) days.

The DISH spoke with the company that conducted the study cited in Rep. McKinney's letter; the Project Director would not verify McKinney's conclusion regarding ground water contamination, rather Mr. Krascow directed us to the study's introduction and concluding statements.

Letter to : Mr. John Hankinson, Jr., Regional Director

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

"My office is in receipt of numerous complaints from constituents regarding the alleged pollution (as well as the smell) coming from the Seminole Landfill in DeKalb County, Georgia. My office initiated inquiries regarding these complaints and spoke with the Director of Public Works for DeKalb County, Mr. Tom Black. My office has also contacted the Georgia Environmental Protection Division regarding these complaints as well.

It is my understanding that DeKalb Country hired a consulting group (Ground Water Environmental Management, Inc.) to study the landfill. The consulting company began sampling in January, 1995. According to reports filed with DeKalb County by the consulting firm, it has been confirmed the landfill has contaminated the ground water with organic chemicals. These findings were published and the most recent report was as of May 4, 1999. Though these reports have been released to the county by the consulting firm, no efforts have been initiated by DeKalb County Government to correct or abate the contamination.

It would be greatly appreciated if your office would look into this matter. Because of the landfill's proximity to the South River, I am gravely concerned the potential damage to the river and the surrounding water table. My office would like assurances that everything is being done to immediately stop the ground water contamination. The neighborhoods nearest the landfill are very concerned about the overall impact this may have on the health of their children.

Your immediate response to this request would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Cynthia McKinney. Funky Hood

Hip Hopping at 4.0 Café

Online and in the house, The Atlanta Vibe's, Yohannes Sharriff Smith ignited a cataclysmic aggregation of poets, rhymers, free stylers and mic rockers at the Pattie Hut Kafé Thursday in his home coming breakout. Dropping knowledge, like a B-1 bomber over Kosovo, he zeroed in on American hypocrisy. " Ironically white kids get all the advantages in the best schools, while black kids are pushed to the back of the bus with education from the 1930s. They use their minds to bomb schools, while we attend bum schools that blow up minds."

This Saturday May 22, 1999 at Soul Vegetarian's 4.0 Café 879 Ralph D. Abernathy Blvd., Yohannes will hookup with DJ Jamal of WCLK-91.9 FM to blow the doors off the spot. Righteous Vibes will lay down some mad acid jazz, rare grooves, soul, Latin, drum `n bass and funk. Hosting this hip hop inferno, Yohannes will torch the place with a volatile mixture of poetry, rhymes and free style. Throw down time is 9 PM. $ 5.00 will break you off a blast ATL style. Atlanta Vibe

According to Dan the shoe shine man, George W. Bush, Jr. is like a boxer, who has been declared champion by the boxing association without ever entering the ring. Not having fought any contenders waiting in the ring, he refuses to mix it up because he wants to save his strength for the big money fight. Having cut a deal for a title shot, Jr.'s handlers hope he can duck all the way to Philly.

Dan laments the current state of affairs for the Dumbocrats with their sad Keystone Cops imitation. Crawling around on their knees looking for issues, shrubbery seems to tower over them like "moon light through the pines." On race, they are afraid to stand taller than Republicans, for fear they will be noticed.

by LaTonya McNeil

Okay, this is gross. If you haven't heard, a little girl in Monroe LA is dead. The cause of her death was a spider bite in the head. She had braids in her hair for about 3 months; her mother neither washed nor tended the child's braided hair. For several weeks, this little girl complained about having headaches. Her mother did not pay this complaint any attention, so the little girl told her teacher that her head hurt. The teacher examined the child's head and discovered a spider had laid eggs that were surviving off her scalp. Keep in mind that the little girl's mother did not take the braided ponytails down to comb or wash her daughter's hair.

The little girl was taken to the hospital. Unfortunately they could not save her; she later passed. The spider's eggs had poisoned her. This is to let you know you need to examine your children closely. If they complain about having pain, take heed and determine what the problem is, instead of not paying close attention. TIP: "Don't hesitate, because it may be too late!" Hood Notes

"On a recent trip to Fredericksburg's courthouse, I obtained a copy of Mary Washington's will. Here is an excerpt that mentions slaves...

'...to my son General George WASHINGTON all my lands on Accokeek Run, in the County of Stafford, & also my Negroe boy George to him and his heirs forever...Son Charles WASHINGTON my Negroe man Tom...grand Son Corbin WASHINGTON my Negroe wench Old Bet...grand Son Fielding LEWIS my Negroe man Frederick...grand Son Lawrence LEWIS my Negroe wench Lydia..grand daughter Betty CARTER my Negroe woman little Bet.." Email from Denise: Bnjourbaby@aol.com

In the aftermath of Littleton, CO, there is enough blame to spread around to just about everything. Originally, I suggested checking out the assassins' parents, in addition to the other things being suggested. It has been suggest that ICIM's boycotted items "white psychologist and psychiatrists and other legal drug pushers should be investigated for their role in school violence...The DISH Mailbox

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