Volume 2 Issue 35………. Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…….. September 10, 1999

Testing Slave Descendants

by John Burl Smith

"History precedes all future" was Richard L. Kirksey, Jr.'s favorite admonition. At first glance, it is an obvious recognition; however, American education proceeds from the opposite premise. In terms of learning, African Americans are the only citizens systematically kept ignorant for centuries. Barred from learning under penalty of death, a comparative few still developed higher intellectual abilities, such as reading, writing and mathematics, through sheer force of will.

Today, scientists know learning under stress reduces retention, interferes with recognition, blocks recall and limits generality. Animal and human research show that, in a hostile environment, survival clues direct attention. Furthermore, pain can produce aversive responses to even pleasurable stimuli. Deprivation studies have shown the drive to procreate can motivate the development of idiosyncratic behaviors. Moreover, avoidance experiments show punishment can imprint psychological clues, which produce reflexive behaviors. During slavery and segregation, learning was associated with such negative stimuli, and that has not changed.

Summarily, today descendants of slaves are expected to function as adroitly as whites, who have always had unrestricted access to knowledge and have never been subjected to stress induced learning. Educating blacks has always meant providing minimal levels of outdated information to restrict possible uses. Deliberately kept from developing rudimentary higher intellectual skills, slave descendants are judged as though they did not learn under stressful conditions induced by painful deprivation and avoidance techniques.

The corollary to Richard's maxim is "intelligence follows information." One must experience events actually or vicariously for learning to take place. Tests assess one's ability to recognize and recall aspects of current information, as well as abstract concepts of western civilization. If the knowledge pool of some test takers has been restricted at any point, one can predict lower scores for that population. Slavery and segregation had just such an impact on the descendants of slaves. One cannot relate to a possibility one never experienced, actually or vicariously, so that recall is possible. Testing a population on such information measures their clairvoyance and ability to levitate, rather than intelligence. Other Essays by Mr. Smith & This Issue

Disgruntled wants to know: The DeKalb School System plans to put thousands of new computers in its schools. How does it decide where to put them?

Disgruntled says: Drug use is as American as apple pie. We even give the kids Ritalin and other psychotherapy drugs that keep them high.

Disgruntled feels: a change in the air! Other Disgruntled Remarks

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro played a little football after school. According to witnesses, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro bit the opposition. The Bat Cave

by Dot Smith

Whether or not a technology gap exists among schools within DeKalb County's public education system remains a mystery. For several weeks, The DISH has been trying to obtain the data to examine a single component of the technology question, specifically, pupils per computer (PPC), a simple ratio of pupils divided by the number of computers. While this figure may prove unreliable, according to Georgia's Department of Education data on its website (www.doe.k12.ga.us), DeKalb's pupil per computer ratio is 7.06. This statistic is based on inventory information and pupil population figures provided by the DeKalb School System.

The DISH asked Betty Swilley, assistant to Dr. Edward Bouie, who is Director of Management Information Systems for DeKalb County Schools, for the pupil per computer for DeKalb schools. Swilley indicated "no such data set is maintained;" she provided The DISH the raw data given the state for its website information. According to Swilley, the data provided the state only contained computers that were generation 486 or above, so the state's report does not accurately reflect DeKalb's PPC, because its older slower computers are not reflected in the state's PPC numbers.

After compiling Swilley's raw data, The DISH identified discrepancies in both the state and county numbers. Until these are rectified, no reliable analysis can be made of the school system and technology. When The DISH receives more reliable information, it will answer the technology gap question. In the meantime, other questions are being asked. For example, given inventory data must be collected, why not use it to answer simple questions about the system's operation? With this data, spreadsheets can be created to assist in identifying resource gaps and aid in plans to eliminate them. That is, if doing so is a part of the school system's agenda for providing all our children with an equal opportunity to receive a quality education, which prepares them for occupations in the new millennium. Other Hot Dishes

The DISH agrees with Jim Wooten's "hypocrisy is the greatest sin of the modern age" (Myth drives left's 'remedy', AJC 9/3/99). Wooten unfairly chides the left for promoting the myth "that everybody uses drugs and that laws are written to sort out the users by race, some to the White House and some to the Big House, making criminals the victims and society the hypocrites."

As a journalist, Wooten must know a few stats that make this notion more than leftist mythology. Fact is few Americans are drug free. We drink alcohol, caffeine (coffee, tea and/or coke) to get the day started, use drugs manufactured from hallucinogens and sold under pharmaceutical labels, smoke cigarettes (nicotine), bulk up on steroids like baseball slugger Mark McGwire, shed pounds with speed (diet pills), ad nauseam. Drugs are big business for a reason. Too, the U.S. is the world's number one user of "illegal drugs," such as marijuana, cocaine and heroine. This is not myth; the U.S. is a "drugged society." The profile of the average "illegal drug user" does not jive with those most often imprisoned in the "war on drugs." Drug laws may not have been written specifically to disproportionately punish the poor and minorities, however, it is fact their enforcement has accomplished this travesty. Like any good hypocrite, Wooten ignores reality. Phantom Scribbles

"Hey Dorothy, I was wondering something. Remember when there was supposed to be an apology from the president (you know that guy named Clinton, I keep wanting to forget his name) for slavery and what it has done to the black race in the United States. But, you know, I think he tried to talk his way around that also. And, I think instead he apologized for the syphilis clinical trials done on black men. I am not totally sure of my facts, so could someone set me in the right? Thanks a bunch." Email: Apehangmon@aol.com

"As human beings, we are adept at denying reality. We hide behind our fears and tell ourselves all sorts of things that pacify our need to avoid the pain of admitting that things are not the way we have really wanted them to be. You can never get to where you want to be until you admit to where you are. It is not the truth that hurts; it is the lies we have believed that hurt when the light of truth shines into our darkness. Dr. Mark Chironna." Email forwarded by bro-ic@hotmail.com. More from the Mailbox

by John Burl Smith

The second principle of T.H.I.N.C., The Limit of Infinite Possibilities (The DISH Vol. 2 Issue 9), assumes a deterministic universe. Establishing predictability through cause and effect relationships, Copernicus lead Galileo to debunk flat earth orthodoxy. Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection made the physical world more understandable. These concepts freed the mind to speculate about possible alternatives to church interpretations for events in the physical world. Higher intellectual functions, such as curiosity, imagination, creativity and innovation stimulate the desire for knowledge. Motivated by such drives, early Homo sapiens ventured from the trees.

An allegory at best, Creationism is a giant step back to pseudo-science predating Galileo. By returning control of knowledge to churches, schools will revert to teaching flat earth center of universe orthodoxy to explain existence. God pushing bottoms and kicking levers determines physical events, which explains his unknowable plan for creationists. This non-science replaces testing scientific assumptions to develop knowledge with the antithesis of Societas Perfecta to guide public education.

At the dawn of a new millennium and birth of a global society, America can ill-afford to dull its developmental edge. In the information age, new ideas will be the currency in a world without borders. America's competitors are searching for ways to strengthen their knowledge base in order to lead the twenty-first century. What advantage will America enjoy by returning to the fourteenth century and flat earth science? Will America decide to burn books, which discuss evolution? This is the course Germany took in the 1930s. Hitler too believed in God. Al did you T.H.I.N.C. about any of this? Other Essays by Mr. Smith

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Look into the sky. It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's Angela Davis listening to the best of Bessie Smith,

While reading Nikki Giovanni to her beautiful Black babies.

It's Super Woman! Dressed in all black with braids,

She be that night before the first day

She spins sun light into life,

And, I am a furiously ferocious dandelion,

Growing wild and green through the cracked concrete.

A million women march-ing through the streets like graffiti.

Gathered there in Philly to represent the beginning of life

She be the never-ending line of the great mother

Come to teach her secret wisdom.

Hear it in the wind and through the trees from inner cities

Coast to coast to poor rural communities where she survives on not enough of.

In1999 making only two dollars a day picking peanuts

In Webster County Ga. "Let her cry for she's a lady..."

That pretty black girl in Afro puffs and yellow summer dress

Playing double Dutch with her sistas

I kissed her in the barrio on the train to the suburbs

In boardrooms of corporate America

Her rhythm is singing "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" her intelligence.

"RESPECT" every time she sits for hours

Carefully contemplating her children's future.

"RESPECT" each flash of her camera, every brush stroke.

"RESPECT" every sculpture and poem,

Every piece of handcrafted jewelry to match her head wrap and mud cloth dress.

"RESPECT" every accent of culture.

Witness the strength in every finely etched muscle

Flexing as she does West African dance.

Watch her talk with a drum,

Chanting defiant songs that burst into vibrant color...

Like, "the joy of my world is in Zion." Lioness

Speak with the thunderous tongue of a Goddess

Let your children know heaven is right now/right here...

If you will, feel, smell, taste and touch it in the plentiful fields,

From cornrows to the corn bread, collard greens and yams.

My Grand momma's banana nut bread

Be like a thousand hugs and kisses in each bite.

My moon, fly me through the womb and black again

So fly the way black women stand so gracefully

Amazingly complex architecture and simply put

She be art. Intuit's Weekly Vibes

A member of the noblesse oblige, from birth, Bush exalted in privilege with plenty of opportunities to learn from his mistakes. As governor of Texas, he advocates zero tolerance. In his state, some people do not receive a chance to redeem themselves after committing youthful indiscretions. Bush supports laws that are used to lock up thousands for youthful actions similar to those he committed. Bush's obvious hypocrisy enriches the security-prison industry, which makes billions annually off "youthful indiscretions."

An avowed playboy and party animal, Bush's "bad boy" antics are alleged to have gone well beyond the blush of boyish youth. Though he refuses to elaborate, he admits, "I've made some mistakes." Only hypocrisy allows him to reconcile receiving a bye with zero tolerance for today's first offenders. He applies a double standard, which implies some that make mistakes must go to prison for redemption, where, all too often, they become hardened criminals. Others, like him, go on to become world leaders and captain of industry.

Allowing this double standard to persist sends the wrong message for a democratic society. Basically, it says money and social standing counts for more than John Q. Public does. We can ill-afford to send such a hypocritical message at a time when so many are disillusioned and see violence as real conflict resolution. Bush must come clean for the sake of the democracy. Moreover, his confession must overcome the obvious hypocrisy evident in his handling of this matter to date.

More important, it is past time to release non-violent drug offenders and end the war on American citizens. The war on drugs, as it is currently being waged against the poor and minorities, allows Bush-types to consume the bulk of the illegal drugs in this country and go on to become President. The DISH supports New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. The Republican governor believes it is time to end the war on drugs. Like Prohibition, the drug war is doing more harm than good. In reality, it is a war on selective parts of American society. This reality jeopardizes the equity embedded in the whole notion of democracy. How can Bush remain silent by accepting a bye on this question? What makes Bush babies better than other children?

Now that the GOP's frontrunner and cash cow extraordinniare, George W. Bush, Jr., has proven himself to be no better than the baby boomer he hopes to replace, even the most conservative right wing radical talking heads, like Rev. Falwell, are making noises about youthful indiscretion and touting the need to end the politics of personal destruction. Oddly, these sane cries from the right were noticeably absent when the GOP dangled Clinton from a noose over his personal infidelities. If "Slick Dick Willie" is an accurate caricature of Clinton, then "Pious Peeping Pete" is on point for proselytizing right wing hypocrites.

Bradley on Race Relations

Bill Bradley says, "the most important issue facing the country is race relations." According to his official website, his views on this too is consistent with his upbringing in the small factory town of Crystal City, MO. "The town was filled with rich and poor rarely living more than a block apart. Bradley's basketball experience gave him an incredible insight into racism and how it impacts the life and livelihood of blacks."

The DISH has voiced its support for Bradley based on his statements on race. However, his views on reparations show he is still unclear on what is required to mend American race relations. According to a local newscast, Bradley is alleged to have said, "he does not support reparations for African Americans." Such a position runs counter to The DISH's stance on mending the racial divide. Only via reparations can the most pressing rip in American race relations be repaired. This requires more than trite political rhetoric.

l

"Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, Jr. recently sent waves through the black community, following a discovery that a Dallas house he sold in 1995 carries a racial covenant, which restricts the sale of the house to white people only, a remnant of the Jim Crow era when it was common practice to exclude blacks from buying houses and living in white neighborhoods." Excerpts from email forwarded by my-bidness@yahoo.com More Politics2000

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