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Volume 3 Issue 43… Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… November 3, 2000

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. The DISH © 2000

by John Burl Smith

A very humane look at the troubled Middle East by Richard Gladstone CNN (10-27-00) foreshadows the next millennium. Gladstone's video-account centers on Palestinian children throwing rocks at heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Looking not much bigger than my 7-year-old grandson Trévius, a little one wearing a red scarf to cover his head and face is right down front alongside men forty years older. Gladstone's video essay shows the dichotomy. He is a brave one. Yet, he is so little, one doubts the rocks he hurled, if they struck someone flush standing twenty feet away would prove life-threatening, yet he continues hurling like a starter in the World Series at armed Israeli soldiers.

Panning to another little fellow firing a slingshot just before ducking and scurrying for cover near his buddies, bullets whiz and bombs explode as they play tag with "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." No football after school for these aspiring Davids; they gather each day to "throw rocks at the Israelis." Responding to the question why he was here and not at home, he said, "I am fighting for my country."

A snapshot in time, teary-eyed images of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike flooded my consciousness. That struggle was nothing like what people remember, because of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Losing such a powerful person, as well as, such a dynamic leader under those circumstances overshadows the story of the people, who were fighting to change a slavish oppressive system called segregation.

Viewing striking garbage men from a community perspective, they were fathers, brothers and sons. Their children were kids with whom we went to school. Everyone knew and understood their circumstances. All they wanted was to be treated like men. The city's refusal to respect them was a refusal to respect black people. Although very meager, their paychecks represented survival for many families, yours today, mine tomorrow. The community was under attack.

Leading the Invaders, I organized youth with the idea they must be kept out of the line of fire while trying to stop sanitation trucks making pickups. That is until one day, I saw this little kid hurling rocks and bottles like grenades at tanks as a convoy of sanitation trucks escorted by police passed. I called for him to get out of there, instead of running he shouted back, "I'm fighting for my people." Unlike Palestinians, we only had each other, not a homeland to fight over.

Gladstone closed out his lesson with a youngster saying goodbye to his friends as he folded his slingshot and headed home just like thousands of others, after another day of "throwing rocks at the Israelis." Looking at Trévius, I wondered what games were little Israeli boys his age learning. For some children, growing up has no childhood. John 2000

Politics 2000

Turnout 75% poll of likely black voters showed 2% plan to pull the lever for Ralph Nader. The majority of those say, "it's a protest vote." None of those polled expects him to win. But, they say they do not like either of the major party candidates. So, rather than not voting or voting for the lesser of two evils of Bush and Gore, they will cast a protest vote for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Among The DISH focus group, this viewpoint engendered a lively discussion about all that is riding on this presidential election. The majority of likely black American voters felt we could ill afford to "waste" a vote to protest.

Goring Gore

In cyberspace, some Tennesseans are circulating an e-mail citing things Vice President Al Gore has done that do not endear him to locals. During one of the national presidential debates, as well as at certain campaign stops, Vice President Al Gore proudly took credit for downsizing the federal government. The more than 300,000 former government employees fired do not see this as a plus for supporting his candidacy.

The fact that a disproportionate number of those losing their jobs were African Americans does not endear him to this group either. Some contend, it is all the more reason to look on Gore with suspicion. He must have known the way it was done rolled back affirmative action. It amounted to the same last hired and first fired game that has always crippled African American efforts to advance economically. Yet, knowing his record is "dismal," some Tennesseans, including this one, will still vote Gore for president. The alternative is just that alarming!

Pro se, last week I responded to briefs IRS filed in federal court in the employment discrimination lawsuit Smith v Department of the Treasury. Details can be found in The DISH web pages at http://home.att.net/~yicim. Click on Crushed Horizons and read this latest installment. These pages include a description of the hostile work environment at the Atlanta Service Center (ATSC), a chronology of five weeks of abuse in IRS' Chamblee, Georgia facility, and the steps taken to exhaust all administrative remedies, a must in federal employment discrimination cases. Crushed Horizons is a valuable resource for victims of employment discrimination. It gives those who have been victimized the available options, if you decide to do more than accept being crushed like dirt beneath the tyranny of the southern plantation style of management.

When I returned to college, my career aspiration was to conduct research, write and teach on the university level. My life's ambition was to say something useful about the human condition. After acquiring a master's degree, I ventured into the "real" world of work where theories gleamed in my studies could best be observed. Crushed Horizons is an autobiographical look at those experiences, which tested the academic theory that "America's economic framework is intricately tied to its Constitution (laws), which shapes the attitudes that dictate outcomes in America's marketplace for goods and services." When all Americans understand institutionalized racism is law, then we can begin to change that law or provide tools for individuals that explain the prevalence of discrimination in American society.

While Crushed Horizons is written from my black woman's perspective, it is not a black-white thing. It is about people being crushed because management exercises unchecked prerogatives that violate human rights. Court documents describe how hostile work environments affect everybody. Crushed Horizons documents incidences of employee rights violations. Everyone from African Americans, Hispanics and the physically challenged to white men are victimized in the hostile environment at ATSC.

Eventually, I wish to publish Crushed Horizons as a doctoral thesis. For now, enjoy this intriguing look at IRS from the inside, while learning about the southern plantation style of management that creates a hostile work environment.

News You Use

In the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) and TV with BET's Tavis Smiley, a smiling Johnnie Cochran declared himself the go-to guy. Cochran stated a preference for fighting the big battles. Those cases where the little man is pitted against a giant oppressor . . . a David versus Goliath confrontation played out on his favorite turf - the courtroom. Sure he is the one, I called all his offices, faxed and e-mailed them all. I e-mailed askjohnniecochran@bet.com as recommended for getting in touch with Johnnie by Johnnie. Nothing! I am beginning to think he is not real, just a media creation, another overnight sensation.

Help! Johnnie has not responded. This is an all-points bulletin to see if Johnnie is real! APB, calling Johnnie Cochran! All DISH readers be on the lookout for the go-to guy. If you know this David or see him in your favorite places, tell him about Dot and the Goliath that crushed her horizons.... Text of Email to Johnnie Cochran

It was Sunday night, October 22, 2000. Escaping Crushed Horizons' depressing subject, I flopped down to watch television. Claiming the remote, I flipped through the channels before landing on Tony Brown's Journal.

Already in progress, I must have missed something, because, like a sidebar, Brown mentions the angst of blackness in America. You know, that constant every hour of every day reminder that you are black and therefore less.

Brown's statement reminded me of a passage written by yours truly in a letter to some official about ATSC abuses. Hoping somebody was listening, my lament went something like: "It is so much a part of our daily experience, we hardly notice the mundane acts of racism. We protect ourselves from the slings and arrows of disparate treatment by developing hard outer shells that repel the commonplace attacks. Only some extraordinary event compels us to act. So, we make do to avoid the stings of arrows of the constant reminder that no matter what you do, how hard and better you work, you are still black and nothing can change that."

Brown made his statement as though it was no big deal, while touching me deeply. I suppose his hard outer shell allows him to sail past American institutionalized racism to talk about its absence in other countries. Then, Tony Brown's Journal is a television show. We can always flick the remote. I did not. At the end, an announcer said, "The Tony Brown Journal is brought to you by Texaco."

American black athletes try to be non-political to avoid the race issue. Feigning impartiality makes them more attractive to prospective buyers - sponsors.

Athletes vying for Olympic gold want sponsors. The American dream, everyone wants a logo across the torso, storefront, shoe or cap. Brand name affiliation spells success, which is measured in money amounts.

From golf masters and sports car drivers to Speedo clad divers, the more you win - depending on your skin - the more money comes pouring in. Look at Tiger Woods. Better yet, look at Anna Kournikova, the tennis player. She has not won a major singles tournament, but she raked in more sponsorship dollars than her competitors. In a world where good, bad and ugly seek sponsors, this is no oddity, since those making brand name decisions favor white people.

Everyone is looking for a sponsor; even the ugly wants to sport brand names. The most impartial person in the country, Jim Lehrer, has sponsors. One is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the dominant player in agribusiness.

Kudos are our flowers. These are given to salute a slave, Hosea, who worked to free his people. One of the principal organizers of demonstrations that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was none other than Atlanta's own local hero, Reverend Hosea Williams. On the first march and demonstration to gain black access to the most basic right of citizenry, marchers attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On that March 7^th Sunday, peaceful demonstrators were met by police, state troopers and white citizens bent on maintaining blacks in a state of second class citizenship.

The marchers were attacked with clubs, tear gas and dogs. This was 1965. Those who witnessed the event call it Bloody Sunday, because blood flowed across the bridge. Undaunted by this public lynching, Reverend Hosea Williams organized a second and third march across the bridge. His acts of heroism are legendary. Kudos to Hosea for his leadership in the struggle for black voting rights, freedom and equality.

Disgruntled says: Trick or treat? Since we don't produce what we eat, if they decide to close the grocery store, where would we be with no food. I don't know about you, but to me that is scary.

Disgruntled feels: Supporters of George W. Bush, Jr. do not recognize it is their hatred of President Bill Clinton, not their love of America, that motivates them! Unable to help themselves, they disguise it as compassionate conservatism.

Disgruntled wants to know: Dubya does not cite case history for strict construction, because it makes him a divider rather than a uniter. Question is why does the fair and balanced media allow him to get away with claiming to be just the opposite?

Bit of History

The most divisive law in the American Constitution is Article 1 Section 2, which assigns different economic values to persons occupying the country at the time the law was written. In the 1857 case of Scott v Sanford, the Supreme Court strictly interpreted the Constitution to declare Dred Scott a slave and not a citizen, therefore he could not bring suit in federal court.

In writing the majority opinion of the Court, which was composed of seven Democrats, a Whig and a Republican, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the lone Republican, declared that in so far as the Constitution was concerned, "Negroes had no rights that white men were bound to respect." The Scott ruling nullified the Missouri Compromise and reaffirmed Article 1 Section 2.

Following in the strict construction tradition of divisiveness, case law includes Plessy v. Ferguson, separate but equal, and Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down Plessy making separate inherently unequal. Since that 1954 Supreme Court ruling, strict constructionists have sought to minimize and overturn the decision.

by John Burl Smith

Police murders of Tyisha Miller and Amadou Diallo prompted The DISH to ask, where are we headed with police killings? In that regard, an incident in Beverly Hills on October 29, 2000 raises grave concerns about citizens' rights. The Associated Press reported LAPD officer Tarriel Hopper responding to a disturbance call shot Anthony Dwain Lee to death. Unannounced, Hopper walked through the crowd of costume-clad Halloween partygoers. When he saw an individual he thought had a gun in his hand through a glass door leading to a hallway, he shot nine times killing Lee. Every American should be deeply troubled that a citizen could lose his life in such an absurd fashion and the LAPD would seek to justify the killing based on a perceived "threat."

According to LAPD, "Hopper fired in self-defense. If you feel your life is threatened, you react in the way you are trained." This confirms LAPD officers are trained to deal with threats, rather than enforcing the law based on constitutional protections laws are suppose to provide citizens. Thanks to the NRA, elementary school students know the Second Amendment gives citizens the right "to keep and bear arms" in their homes. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects," is granted by the Fourth Amendment. LAPD says an officer's concern for his life, whether real or imaginary, supercedes any constitutionally guaranteed rights; if an officer feels threatened, he can act with extreme prejudice. Therefore, badges make officers judges and juries.

Such "strictly constructed" logic replaces Article 6, which designates the Constitution the Supreme Law of the Land, with some totally subjective individualized standard resting on perceived "threat." As the "Law of the Land," the Constitution gives citizens the right, not only to have a gun in their homes, but it allows them to walk about with it in their hands. Nowhere in the Constitution can the LAPD find justification for shooting through doors and killing citizens based on feeling "threatened." LAPD claims officers are entitled to act based on what is going on in their heads and citizens are obliged to read their minds to prevent getting killed. Mr. Lee, were he alive, would humbly submit, as would Diallo, Miller and so many others, he had no way of knowing what someone outside his door would be thinking nor should he be expected to as the only means of preserving his life.

This killing comes down to clear constitutional grounds on which citizens stand inside their homes and "threat" training. Police training is not the "Law of the Land" and does not carry the force of laws police are sworn to uphold. For all the policemen knew, Mr. Lee could very well have been the owner of the house, licensed to carry the fire arm and may very well have needed it for the disturbance to which the police were called. Totally within his rights, Mr. Lee was not responsible for the officer's feelings. If such claims by police are allowed to justify shooting through doors into homes and killing citizens are given precedent over the Second Amendment to the Constitution, police will have more power over citizens than the British, a situation that lead to the Revolutionary War. John 2000

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