Dot=s Information Service Hotline

 AUnbossed and unbought news and information you can use@

Volume 2 Issue 23… Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… June 18, 1999

by John Burn Smith

The DISH covered The National Summit on Africa (NSA) and submitted an evaluation to Mr. Timothy J. Bork, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Other NSA Board members are Ms Alison Rosenberg, The World Bank, Mr. Percy Wilson, Coca-Cola and Ambassador David C. Miller, Corporate Council on Africa. NSA proposed holding several conferences to develop a consensus on African policy. A shady operation like Atlanta=s courtship of the OIC to win the >96 Olympic games, NSA rejected African American efforts to establish relations with African nations independent of government sponsorship. Their repudiation rebuffed attempts to build African trade policy from an African American perspective.

Across the Atlantic, South African elections revived calls for reparations. White South African genocide resulted in at least as many deaths as Germany=s holocaust. Jewish victims and their descendants were compensated. Conversely, victims of apartheid and slavery are denied claims for suffering. Juxtaposed, the plight of American slave descendants foreshadows South Africa=s future. The American attitude towards reparations is one of denial of all responsibility for slavery, even though America profited greatly from African servitude. Following Reconstruction (1887), life for former slaves and their descendants mirror Serbian atrocities against ethnic Albanians. During segregation, black women were raped for sport. Sharecropping reduced black families to farm animals. The judicial system robbed blacks of property and money. Across, the country, black men were lynched by the thousands.

Just as freed slaves stood at the precipice of freedom in 1865, South Africans must decide whether to accept limited freedom or completely throw off apartheid=s shackles. Unlike South Africans, slaves and their descendants had no choice about freedom. Not covered by the Constitution, amendments failed to change their second class status. Institutionalized racism controls African American economic development, educational attainment and the exercise of civil rights.

Apartheid revealed the insidious nature of institutionalized racism. Similarly prevented from gaining rudimentary educational skills, slave descendants were restricted to learning from out-dated and substandard material. Even today, access to graduate studies and professional degrees is tightly restricted. Collectively, such restrictions reduce black median family income and economic potential. Controlled access to education maintains whites in power. Advancing the next generation is impossible without opportunities to learn skills and gain experience.

Comparatively, South Africans differ from black Americans only in terms of time and technology. South Africans are on a fast track down the same slippery slope into the Chasm of Inequality. Unemployment, crack cocaine, AIDS and infant mortality rates will reduce South Africa=s population, like slavery along the Gold Coast. Whites in South Africa hold all economic power. They control all institution and demand black South African support of the status quo. If black South Africans accept less, they will always be less. Essays by Mr. Smith

Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has grown concerned about the condition of his cave. The Dark One/Ninja/Zorro told his sidekick- Boy Wonder, AThis bat cave is too dirty. We need to find some brave warriors to clean up this one.@ Back to the Cave

Like the rash of shootings that punctuated the end of this school year, there is plenty of blame to spread around in the China spying and technology transfer boondoggle. If we look closely, we will find links in this chain of blame that extends even farther than former President Reagan to include Richard Nixon. With avarice of forethought, successive Democratic and Republican administrations have aided American businesses in getting a foothold on China=s lucrative market. The prospect of selling things to a billion consumers is too attractive a proposition for capitalists to resist. For a promise of a piece of China=s market, respected entrepreneurs would sell their mothers. So, we exported all kinds of products and services, and collaterally, we imparted knowledge. Duh!

Based on most standards of measurement, the Chinese are smarter than the average American, which explains why Americans, as projected by the media, seem surprised to learn the Chinese learned things from the exchange and used what they were sold to their advantage! U.S. Intelligence is an oxymoron. Phantom Scribbler...the pen that writes and moves on. Phantom Scribblers

Disgruntled wants to know: When will the U.S. honor its moral responsibility and pay reparations for the most heinous act ever committed?

Disgruntled says: Two groups of white youths in Newtown Park beat each other with sticks, bricks and bats, and it is portrayed as Aboys being boys.@ But, when blacks act like that, it is criminal behavior, the results of gang activity.

Disgruntled feels: With the Southern Baptist Convention in town, there are more devils in Atlanta than the bowels of hell! Disgruntled

ICIM Boycotted Places & Things: Death penalty, white psychologists, psychiatrists and other legal drug pushers, Georgia=s state flag, hormone-treated meat, churches with fences, Barr, Newt, Lott, The Marriott and other weapons of mass destruction.

by Starr Pickens

Truth is, there is no real truth....

Everybody is deceitful, so who am I to believe?

I can=t believe you - you lie as a way of life.

You make your living off lies.

You sit on that pulpit and preach to us,

Giving us what you call the blood of the lamb,

Which is really the gut of the beast.

Got the nerve to tell us that some white man

Who came from an immaculate conception

Is gonna save us from this damnation.

What is it that you think I am? Some kind of a fool?

Everybody know that Jesus was black,

So was Judas, Moses, Noah, Adam and Eve...

Even Barnabas, but that book we don=t discuss

Because they took it out like they wanna take us

You know who we are, but you and other brothers

Assist in their mission to make

The Gods and Goddesses extinct, just to make a dollar

But, you are nothing more than their token

To keep us confused.

They know we have the power to dig ourselves

Out of this damnation that we=re buried in

And, so their goal is to keep us head deep in sin.

They=re afraid and they got you shook.

The beast strikes again, but if you look deep within

You will find the truth

It shall set you free and through your knowledge.

You may find peace but as long as you settle for

Your physical wealth and not your spiritual...

You stop preaching of the beast,

But now instead you=ve become one.

About Me: Starr Pickens, author of The Nakedness of a Poet, hales from Virginia. For the past six months, she has been performing on the ATL spoken word scene. Ms. Pickens truly lives up to her first name; Starr is one of the six finalists in the Jomandi City Wide Slam held earlier this year. All those interested can peep her shine at local spoken word spots like Yin Yang Café and The Patti Hut. Starr is definitely on the rise, so keep your head up and you won=t miss the shine. Contact Info: E-mail: starr1@ecompare.com or V-mail: (404) 896-4781.  Venue Home Page

Intuit=s Weekly Vibe

 Journey

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Journey, journey..the seeker=s soul,

Traveling down that long road of life.

The constant search for purpose and meaning

Gleams so bright.

Guided by some undeniable force,

Working from within

Driving us to unknown destinations.

Each mile a new experience to cherish,

Every town a new treasure to be claimed

And, it is the voyage

Which fills the wealth of the reward. Intuit's Home

To Abner Louima who told the truth about officer Volpe and the other cops, who rammed a broom handle up his rectum, then shoved the feces-laced bloodstained stick down his throat. KUDOS to Louima for speaking out and breaking the code of silence, which surrounds New York police brutality. Thanks brother for taking it in the ass for the rest of us! KUDOS! KUDOS! To Rosa Parks, who took heat from blacks and whites for her refusal to give up her seat on the bus. She awakened a nation to an unjust system and launched an ongoing struggle for human rights. Parks deserves more than the Congressional medal of honor for her bravery, she deserves full reparations!

Blahs! On the Education Commission board members who think mandatory PTA membership is a solution to parental involvement. PTA membership does not equal involvement. At the beginning of the school year, many parents of elementary students join the PTA. During the year, they attend a few programs, which double as PTA meetings. Little parental involvement is allowed in the day-to-day education of children; parents are not even involved in the most basic decisions made by the PTA, like how dues are spent. Making PTA membership mandatory will not change this. Other Kudos

On Choosing a Candidate for President

by Dot Smith

Of late, I have been looking at candidates for President, mainly because the press keeps thrusting the top three candidates at us. Granted, it is early days yet for making a choice, but I do not care for any of the three top presidential contenders. Elsewhere, I indicated a distrust of George Bush, Jr., based on his and his family's history. (Covert Action; The DISH Vol. 2 No1). As for Dole, I do not think she sees the big picture; at least, I do not believe people like me are included in what Libby does see. A fellow Tennessean, Gore is a neo-Dixiecrat. More important, his recent efforts to secure a place for faith-based organizations at the federal trough left a bad taste in my mouth. Personally, the person for president must be someone with vision; his pandering to the conservative right and playing the God card leaves Gore out. In general, I distrust politicians who feel they must continuously declare for public consumption what good Christians they are. Some politicians who do this are simply sanctimonious hypocrites pushing pious propaganda.

An individual of vision, my choice for president is someone who acknowledges the most important problem facing our country, not in code words, but in terms we all understand. A plainspoken man, my choice for president is someone who speaks forcefully for the kind of changes needed to resolve this problem. At this early juncture in the run for the White House, my choice is Bill Bradley.

Bradley is the only presidential candidate who sees race relations in America as the country's number one problem. Candidly, Bradley has acknowledged his experience with the racial prejudice that is so much a part of everyday American existence. Bradley has promised to do more than merely engage the nation in a race dialogue; he is committed to doing whatever is necessary to right an historic wrong. I believe Bradley's willingness to tackle this difficult issue will endear him to many more voters in the weeks and months to come. Bradley is a man of vision for the new millennium. More Hot Dishes

Reparations

Slavery played a key role in the economic development of the United States. Free labor made possible the accumulation of great national wealth. The possibilities of amassing riches in southern fields led to the legalization of human ownership. More than 100 years after slavery's abolition, the economic system that evolved over several centuries still influences America's economy. The present system is best described as neo-slavery; it is based on institutional racism, which assures relatively cheap African American labor.

For more than 100 years, the descendants of slaves have sought reparations. And, for just as long, the U.S. government has refused to honor their claims. An email from ladyd@dnaco.net sums up the sentiment of many African Americans. AMy great aunt died in 1962. For years, she petitioned the courts for reparations. Each time it was thrown out of court. Even when threatened to be placed in a mental institution, if she kept it up, she kept asking for her just reparations. She did so until her death. Now, they have me to deal with. As a group, we can do more on this issue. Everyone in this country has received something, except African American's. I want my 40 acres and a mule.@

Efforts to secure that 40 acres and a mule date back to the 1860's. According to www.directionblackaction.com, H.R. 29, The 1867 Slave Reparation Bill, proposed to give Aeach liberated slave who is a male adult, or the head of a family....a homestead of forty acres of land.@ This bill recognized the need to compensate slaves for depriving them of their labor and robbing them of their human rights. Reparations were never considered. More recently, H.R. 40, reintroduced by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) every year since 1989, seeks a governmental investigation into the effects of slavery. While it does not specifically call for reparations, Congress has steadfastly refused to debate Conyers= bill. According to www.cultural-expressions.com, supporters of Conyers= resolution are encouraging people to writer their Congresspersons to urge them to support this proposed legislation.

Independence Day!

 Why We Won't Celebrate the Fourth of July is a reprint from The DISH Vol. 1 No 25. AIn the 1950's, July 4^th was a special day. We celebrated with a feast of barbecue and watermelon. The day ranked high on a shortlist of holidays. When possible, my parents splurged on new clothing to celebrate. In the early 1960's, I asked why? AIt=s Independence Day; we got our freedom,@ my parents said. AFrom whom?@ I asked.

My folks just celebrated the day. As former sharecroppers, it was a tradition. I told my parents the history behind July 4^th. Ironically, my folks almost spanked me for the educating them. But, having always been taught that the truth is the light and it will set me free, I explained that Adarkies,@ the term used in referring to colored people, were slaves in 1776. More important, we are still shackled by a system that values us as less than other humans. For blacks to celebrate gaining liberty is sheer stupidity. Thankfully, my parents were simply uneducated and not stupid; I was spared the hypocrisy of a beating! They agreed, it is foolish to celebrate the day the master declared his freedom from Great Britain!@

AOn 3 June 1906, Josephine Baker was born in the slums of St. Louis, Missouri. By age 13 Baker had run away from home. In the 1920s, Baker she sang and danced her way into the hearts of the French people, receiving the name AThe Toast of Paris.@ Ahead of her times, Baker left her mark on stage by appearing topless, wearing only a skirt of rubber bananas. As ornate offstage as on, BAKER owned pet leopards that she would walk along the Champs-Elysees. During World War II, she worked as a spy, for which she was later awarded the French Legion of Honor. In the 1950s, BAKER adopted children from many nationalities, she called them her ARainbow Tribe.@ Peace.@ HCHAPS2@aol.com. Other History Notes

AThe trap of American democracy is stratified interest and money pressure on candidates. Once money gains control of the political process, the people lose control of democracy.@ E-mail DDawn@hotmail.com

AThe Year 2000 issue concerns the BIOS, which recognizes both the date and time each time a computer is booted. If the clock is incorrectly dated when the computer boots, then all dependent software will process information with the incorrect date. This affects individuals who use their computers to keep time and date sensitive information, such as customer database or financial packages. For more about the Year 2000 issue, visit http:// www.year2000.com. Mailbox

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