Volume 3 Issue 3… Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…. January 28, 1999

Note: The DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution. According to the President's Initiative on Race, "The issues that this book brings to the forefront are important in our efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the President for the Initiative. This work will serve as a solid resource for us as we begin to examine these critical issues." For your copy of T.H.I.N.C., The DISH or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023 or email us at icim@bellsouth.net. All rights reserved The DISH © 2000

Strategically located, South Africa is a rich nation; it is blessed with a warm climate and an abundance of natural resources, which includes diamonds, gold and platinum, as well as, fertile agricultural lands. Though it is rich, most of its citizens are poor and uneducated. Until the early 1990s, South Africans lived under apartheid laws, based on separation of the races.

Analogous to US slavery and toady's chasm of inequality, apartheid prevented non-white development. Roughly 75% of its citizens were confined to desolate areas called Bantustans. The non-white South African experience mirrors America's "manifest destiny" and the "Trail of Tears" left by Native Americans forced onto reservations. Like slaves and native Americans, black Africans had no rights their government respected.

After decades of domestic protests and international economic pressure, South Africa ended apartheid. In its first "free" election with universal suffrage, Nelson Mandela, a former political prisoner, was elected President. This political sea change did not alter conditions for the impoverished masses. If South Africa's transition from apartheid to freedom parallels America's experience, economic freedom will elude the vast majority. Without reparations, achieving physical emancipation is an empty victory, promising continued repression, racial profiling and economic conditions characteristic of contemporary America's chasm of inequality. (See Mr. Smith's experience at the GWCC brings American apartheid up close and personal. Click on GWCC Complaint for the full text).

By John Burl Smith

Symbols, like words are what people fight and die over. Confederate flag supporters claim freedom as a characteristic symbolizing their heritage. First, everyone who died on Confederate battlefields did not choose to be there. Slaves were forced to build fortifications, repair ramparts, transport munitions, cook, feed and, according to some accounts during hard times, served as food. Having never breathed a breath of free air, then dying defending those who enslaved them, make their deaths a mockery. This is heritage!

Then, there is honor. America represents an agreement, a statement of principles citizens agreed to honor and enforce upon them as the rule of law. The Constitution is America's agreement. Now, as during slavery, it only covers three-fifths of black Americans. However, it is still the only hope for justice in America. The Confederate flag represents a decision by traitors, who rather than honor that agreement, tried to destroy America. Confederates killed or caused the death of more than 50,000 whites and some equally gruesome number of slaves. Where is the honor?

Confederate flag supporters demand America honor men who betrayed America's agreement. They insist America fly the Confederate flag, even though, the Confederacy trampled on America's flag. How can America face and defeat the scourge of racism, if John Rocker-types practice their heritage of institutionalized racism? The Confederate flag symbolizes everything Sen. Ravenel and John Rocker hold dear, they are the antithesis of America. If as a people, we can not change a symbol, What can we change?

Georgia Groundswell

Thursday (1-20-00) 100 mayors, local officials, professors and business leaders gathered at the Buckhead Ritz-Carlton to discuss deepening racial problems. Dormant since civil rights protests rocked the South, the group huddled over massive marches across the nation during Dr. King's birthday celebrations. Protests against the Confederate flag and John Rocker mentality have blackened the bright race relations picture places, like Georgia, present the world.

S.C. Gov. Hodges decided to bring down the Confederate flag from atop his capitol. Mississippi is assuming a wait and see attitude. Seeing support for the Confederate emblem in Georgia' flag waning, Roy Barnes tried to appear noncommittal, saying, "I will not bring the flag issue up for a vote. Legislators will be blamed for blocking it. Reelection is three years away, by then, black voters will have forgotten the flag."

Mirroring President Clinton, white Democratic legislators, desperate to avoid a public vote, blame Barnes. They fear it would expose them to black opposition next year. Georgia polls show 69% favor changing the flag. Barnes and flag supporters believe by avoiding a vote now, the issue will die. Never must be our rallying cry! (Help create a Georgia Groundswell to change Georgia's flag. Email, FAX or phone the Georgia Rules Committee members. Demand they bring HB163 to the floor for a vote!)

William "Bill" Bennett, former Reagan Administration Secretary of Education and conservative guru earned DISH kudos for his millennial leap! Bill, a diehard conservative, advised George W., John McCain and the rest of the Republican presidential contenders who have not already done so, to come clean on this Confederate flag thing. Bill thinks, and we concur, it is hypocritical for candidates to maintain silence when asked their position on any issue, the flag included. Bennett sees evading the issue as a complication for the Republican Party during the general election. We agree these men should tell voters where they stand on all the issues from reparations to the death penalty. We need to know!

By John Burl Smith

Preachers and politicians listened as Vice President Al Gore and Gov. Roy Barnes vowed in the black church pulpit to fight for affirmative action. Elected with overwhelming black support, Gore praised Barnes' record. Courting blacks with pledges of inclusion, both suitors left brides at the church's altar.

A statement (9-6-99) addresses Barnes dismal inclusion record. Whites hold 83.9 percent of state jobs, blacks 13.8 and others 2.3, Barnes dismisses any need for change. Asked how he planned to insure African Americans overcome institutionalized racism, he responded, "Whatever it is, it won't be racial quotas, targets or set asides." Even after 190 years of whites holding 100% of state jobs, Barnes sees nothing unfair about such a huge white advantage.

Atlanta's black politicians and preachers, who sold Roy Barnes to African Americans as a reformed segregationist, should hide their faces. Retrospectively, Barnes is a disciple of Lester Maddox. He saw Atlanta, as "nigger town." In the legislature, Barnes fought Atlanta. As Governor, his development, education, health care, transportation and quality of life policies take tax money out of Atlanta and give it to Cobb, Gwinnett, and North Georgia Counties.

In only one year, Barnes' takeover strategy has created the largest State bureaucracy ever. Every time Barnes farts, he creates a board or commission. Taking money away from Atlanta's schools, his education reform ignores the learning process. It does not fund science and computer labs, cultural enrichment or creative arts. Georgia's Health care has declined. Rather than putting tobacco settlement money into financially strapped Grady Hospital, Barnes created a development commission to funnel money to his South Georgia cronies. Under the guise of air quality and sprawl, GRTA will control all transportation funds coming to metro Atlanta. Consuming MARTA, GRTA will put Barnes in control of rapid transit funds coming to Atlanta from the federal government.

Roy's takeover strategy keeps tax dollars flowing out of Atlanta into the suburbs. Lying from the pulpit, Barnes has left black politicians and preachers without a bone to fight over. Barnes and Gore are running the Atlanta playbook. Resembling jilted brides, blacks are left holding bags of empty promises and wilted bouquets.

Georgia State Senator Charles Walker (D) has earned DISH blahs for being a beast of burden's derriere! Black elected officials of his ilk maintain the status quo. Doing more damage than good to change conditions, they act ignorant of the issues. Rather than being part of the solution, they are part of the problem. For the world's Walkers, we offer the apropos words of Martin Niemoeller, Lutheran Pastor on the Jewish holocaust. "In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communists. Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Catholic. Then, they came for me...and by that time, there was no one to speak up for anyone."

A Republican, Alan Keyes is eloquent and articulate. Black, Keyes' candidacy lacks black support, a situation that goes beyond race and party affiliation. Keyes talks of upholding the law, then eloquently quotes the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Keyes never completes the call to revolution, i.e., "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government, laying its foundation on principles, and organizing its powers ...as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

America is built on laws, presidential candidates need to know them. Keyes shows he does not. The Declaration of Independence states "all men are created equal,"(x = y). If x = 1, y = 1, then x/y = 1, x-y = 0 and x + y = 2. The Constitution, law of the land, contains no such equality, a fact borne out by the national historic experience. Keyes' does not address the chasm of inequality. He is oblivious to what white candidates mean when they promise to appoint judges that will "strictly interpret the Constitution." Keyes must know this is code for preserving institutionalized racism, which promotes the status quo. We need candidates who will seek a constitutional amendment granting blacks equal rights and reparations. Keyes needs to learn this week's math lesson and spin it to garner a groundswell of black support. After all, it is all about economics dummy! Is Alan advocating a revolution? Now, that's a story! (Reparations)

News You Use

Smith's paradigm, which is based on the historic income chasm between black and white Americans, is now mainstream for examining everything from the esoteric to mundane issues, such as income and public education; it was designed to assess welfare issues and offer recommendations. Using income and unemployment data, Smith found that black and white income ratios mimic the Constitution's Article 1 Section 2, which is the Great Compromise; it is embedded in the American social fabric and is reflected in contemporary labor values.

Smith found that blacks do not equal whites (x y, where x is black and y is white). In fact, blacks are 3/5ths whites (x = .6y, where y = 1, a whole person). Whenever, x < 1, then x + y 2, rather x + z + y = 2, where z is the residual from the productivity of black labor not accruing to blacks as income. Since labor productivity is race neutral, Z then is a measure of institutionalized racism. It can be found by substituting values for blacks and whites into the equation x + z + y =2. (When x = .6y, then z = .4y).

Now, we can intelligently answer Al Gore's question, are we better off? Historically, the black to white income ratio fluctuated along the narrow interval of .5 to .65. In the mid-1970s it reached a historic high of .653. In 1996, with incomes of $23,482 and $38,787 for blacks and whites respectively, the income ratio was .61. With incomes in 1998 of $25351 and $40912 for blacks and whites, respectively, blacks received .62 of white income. Clinton/Gore policies did not change this historic relationship. Relatively speaking, blacks just ran in place during Clinton/Gore mired in the chasm of inequality.

"The Problem We All Live With" is Norman Rockwell's portrait of a young pigtailed Ruby Bridges. The portrait symbolizes US race relations after Brown v. Board of Education; whites protested. Armed with books and a marshal's escort, Ruby integrated public education. More telling than this art are real pictures of the era that capture whites protesting.

Rockers then, today's parents and grandparents either demonstrated against integration or silently supported segregation. A southerner, George W. Bush may well have been a demonstrator. The Confederate flag is not offense to Bush; it is his heritage! His silence on the flag is like his refusal to discuss alleged drug use. He supports zero tolerance for drug offenders whose crimes are no worse than his "youthful indiscretions." The most lethal governor in recent history, he claims to be a Christian. He coined compassionate conservatism, an oxymoron, to distance himself from his party's dismal record. The question we need to ask all candidates is, did you boo and hiss when Ruby Bridges walked the gauntlet to gain access to an equal education? (Reparations)

In the movie A Christmas Story, Ralphie, a little Orphan Annie fan, drinks gallons of Ovaltine to earn a secret decoder pen. After weeks of anticipating access to esoteric information, the pen arrives. Locking himself in the family's only bathroom, Ralphie busily decodes the secret, while family members bang on the door demanding entrance. The decoded message read, "Be sure to drink more Ovaltine." Feeling duped and disappointed, Ralphie, cursing like a sailor, declares the secret message is "a crummy commercial!"

Ralphie's assessment of Annie's decoder pen echoes sentiments about mainstream media. Analyze the Y2K commercial hype! Having failed every litmus test for impartiality and ethics in the separation of advertisement and news, many see the coverage as all hype and no substance. Venues for "crummy commercials" and government content programming to promote a single perspective, this is big brother Y2K. Masquerading as news, the airwaves are exploding with crummy CNN commercials.

Ted Turner briefly spoke on the Rocker. Nothing enlightening, he basically said, " Rocker was off his rocker...give him another chance...he has apologized...he did not commit a crime." True, no crime has been committed. At least, there is no current law criminalizing verbal bigotry. Rocker spoke, not acted on his biases, so his remarks should be protected free speech, though we do not appreciate what he said. More important than what Rocker said is how he came to feel as he does about everyone unlike him, and what does that mean for society? Though Rocker and Turner blame everyone and everything from the New York fans to the time of month for Rocker's verbal holocaust, no one believes Rocker's condition is temporary insanity, rather this is Rocker on a good day.

A hypocrite, Rocker does not like children, but believes in image building, so he makes these media savvy appearances where he acts the caring human for the young and impressionable. Rocker is neither insane nor criminal, though palming him off on the young as a "hero should be a crime. Rocker is the American norm, which is rewarded. Imagine living in a country controlled by Rockers acting out their bigotry throughout society. Then, you begin to capture the essence of this boiling cauldron called America. Rockers steeped in linear secularism make up the main ingredient for institutionalized racism.

Disgruntled wants to know: Gov. Barnes proposes to take tax dollars away from Atlanta for transportation and education. Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, the state's black legislative caucus, Fulton and DeKalb Commissioners and others are silent. Could it be they supported Barnes for Governor and are now helping him stab us in the back?

Disgruntled says: With a 100% success rate for getting legislation passed, Gov. Barnes plays the general assembly like a gifted musician. Creating boards and commissions that duplicate existing agencies for patronage and pork, Barnes is no magician, just an opportunistic politician.

Disgruntled feels: Turner and Rocker are prototypes for linear secularism.

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