Volume 4 Issue 20…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… May 25, 2001

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. The DISH © 2001

by John Burl Smith

It was like watching someone with a huge dog on a leash being dragged along, while pretending they enjoyed the experience of walking the dog. Seeing a perplexed George W. Bush, Jr. mutter in disbelief at Israel's refusal to stop pounding Palestinians in their homes was not indicative of great diplomatic skills. Appearing befuddled, America has responded with only hand-ringing and head-shaking to Israel's use of tanks, helicopters, rockets and now F-16 fighters against Palestinian children throwing rocks.

The truth of the matter is, Israel is following in America's footsteps when it behaved like a mad dog bent on taking Native Americans' land. The ancestors of those who dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese drove America's indigenous people to the brink of annihilation. They believed in Manifest Destiny. Therefore, the death of millions of indigenous people was seen as acceptable collateral damage in achieving their mission.

A toehold in the Middle East, Israel sees destroying Palestinians as its Manifest Destiny. The question is, will the international community stand idly by and watch Israel commit crimes against Palestinians the world condemned as ethnic cleansing in the Balkans?

America subsidizes Israel to the tune of billions of dollars annually. If President-select Bush really controlled the leash and wanted to stop the slaughter, he could tighten or sever the purse strings. But, white Americans support Israeli ethnic cleansing of Arabs in general, particularly Palestinians. No American official, Democrat or Republican, white or black, will speak against Israel's slaughter of children. Intelligent people know why America will not rein in Israel. It is America's most viable avenue through which to control Middle Eastern oil, should the Arabs now controlling it become too independent. Israel has reputed Egypt's peace initiative, which began under Anwar Sadat. Now, it seeks appeasement in the slaughter of rock-throwing children, while Iraq is bombed as a terrorist-rogue nation to teach it an object lesson. Like the lynching of black Americans, the US's dog, Israel, intimidates the region.

The Nazi mentality has come calling again on the world and Europe is poised to be sucked into another Cold War arms race. This time it knows exactly where this is all headed. All the signs are present. "The frost is upon the pumpkin." If the international community does not harvest fruit from the western alliance immediately, their crop will rot in the field. As it withered before Adolf Hitler's mad dog rage over the Rhineland and the Sudetenland, Europe lays ripe for raping. What the world has yet to learn is, just because you have a hold of the leash does not mean you control the dog on the other end. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

Comments from the Bat Cave

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is eight. It is a strange age with lots of changes from one day to the next. Convinced he knows everything, he is too young to know that the little he thinks he knows amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things. After telling him that he must learn much more to know anything, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro wondered aloud, "Since I know nothing, why do you keep asking me to say something?

Disgruntled says: US support of the United Nations is in question. Congress voted to withhold some dues in retaliation for being voted off the UN Human Rights Commission. Clearly, the US is acting the spoiled bully. This sort of behavior is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. The international community must not be coerced into acceding to US wishes, i.e., freedom from scrutiny and punishment for its human rights violations.

Disgruntled wants to know: The United States of America is the only nation to develop and deploy atomic weapons of mass destruction. Now, it plans to create a missile defense shield to protect Americans and their allies from possible attack by 'rogue' nations. Wouldn't it make more sense for the rogues and the rest of the world's nations to build shields against US aggression?

Disgruntled feels: Outraged! Poetic poverty pimps bamboozle blacks. If we continue to fall for their empty rhetoric, which maintains the status quo, we deserve the crap we keep getting!

Politics Y2K1

DeKalb County, Georgia is predominantly black. It is one of the richest black counties in America. Along with Fulton, it has the dubious distinction of being the only Georgia counties where the MARTA sales tax is levied. The MARTA sales tax is used by the state to qualify for federal matching public transportation dollars. In 2000, the state legislature voted to continue levying this tax on these counties until 2047. Simultaneously, local and state agencies responsible for planning public transportation announced plans to spend public transit funds in counties where the MARTA tax is not levied. To say DeKalb and Fulton residents are victims of taxation without representation is an understatement. DeKalb residents are also victims of racial profiling

Last year, DeKalb elected its first black chief executive, Vernon Jones. Before electing its first black CEO, DeKalb elected a black sheriff. The current sheriff, Tom Brown, is the third black elected to this position. Usually, the sheriff is a county's chief law enforcement official. As you know, that is not the case in DeKalb County, where the second black sheriff elected, Derwin Brown, no relation to Tom, was gunned down outside his home days before being sworn into office.

We are no closer to finding Derwin's killers today than we were the night it happened. Some DeKalb residents are convinced Derwin's assassination will remain an unsolved mystery! We see Brown's death as just the latest Georgia lynching. Derwin was lynched for 'stepping out of his place;' he planned to reform DeKalb's criminal justice system. Derwin pledged an end to racial profiling. Had he gone along to get along, like his successor and predecessor, Derwin would still be alive, so say his supporters. Derwin cared about black people; he wanted to better their condition. He wanted to end racial profiling, which meant fundamentally changing DeKalb's law enforcement.

Our new sheriff has not mentioned Derwin's reform. More than strange, Tom gave up the Public Safety Director's position, which runs the police, fire and 911 services, to become sheriff, an office that only controls the jail and other administrative functions. Basically, all the power rests in his former position, rather than the one Tom Brown now holds as sheriff.

Odder still, a black man, Tom should want to end racial profiling. Either he represents the status quo or he embraces Derwin's reforms to make the sheriff the chief law enforcement official in DeKalb. If the latter is the case, then it is time Tom spoke out against "Operation Blue Flame," which epitomizes the worst kind of racial profiling. It robs the black community blind as resources are drained away to pay traffic fines. DeKalb's blacks are being farmed by the justice system. As with the MARTA sales tax, DeKalb residents are left to wonder who represents their interest? They also wonder where is our newly elected black CEO on DeKalb racial profiling?

by Dan La Botz

As you are well aware, the police killing of Timothy Thomas in April and several days of protest have made Cincinnati a focus of national and even international attention. A coalition of organizations and individuals are organizing three days of education and peaceful protests to demand justice in Cincinnati from the police department and the city government. We plan to hold a series of educational events June 1 - 3, with a mass, legal and peaceful march for justice on June 2 as the centerpiece of these events. We invite all residents of Cincinnati and people from around the country to join us in protesting the murder of Timothy Thomas.

The March for Justice calls for an end to police killings, abuse of power and racist patterns and practices. It seeks to build social and economic justice. We invite all that agree with the protest and its goals to join in this effort. Activities proposed for the three days include a major educational program and rally Friday June 1st, March and Rally June 2nd, and an organizing conference June 3rd. Speakers, times, and sites to be announced. For more information, email iacenter@iacenter.org

Bit of History

Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska May 19, 1925, Malcolm X experienced racism as a child. In 1931, his father, a Marcus Garvey follower, was murdered. Malcolm believed white racists were responsible. At age 12, his mother was committed to a mental hospital. He spent several years in foster homes.

In 1941, Malcolm moved to Boston. Nicknamed 'Red', the youth became a street hustler. His criminal activities got him arrested for burglary in 1946. He was sent to prison, where he joined the Nation of Islam (NOI), commonly known as Black Muslims. He adopted the messenger Elijah Muhammad's rhetoric, which included, 'white people are devils." After his 1952 prison release, Malcolm changed his last name to "X," for the unknown name of his African slave ancestors.

A dynamic speaker, Malcolm X rose within the NOI ranks preaching the gospel of Elijah. Some resented his rapid ascent. The US government feared his radical racist rhetoric and charisma. In 1964, Malcolm X severed his ties with NOI. Malcolm blamed the split on NOI's avoidance of political activity and Elijah's adultery; he found it hard to reconcile Elijah's teachings with his sinful existence. On the split, he said, "I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel that what I'm thinking and saying is now for myself. Before it was for and by the guidance of Elijah Muhammad. Now I think with my own mind, sir! (New York Times, Feb. 22,1965).

Malcolm took a holy pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. When he returned home, he was El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. El Hajj sought to internationalize the black human rights struggle. To that end, El Hajj felt it was time "we declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the right of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."

Initially, he criticized Martin Luther King, Jr. and other moderate leaders, causing King to become more radical to keep students from following Malcolm. Eventually though, El Hajj sought cooperation with King and other civil rights activists in keeping with his overriding desire to better the black human condition by "any means necessary." But by then, some Black Muslims had condemned Malcolm X as a hypocrite and traitor for criticizing Elijah Muhammad. A week after his house was bombed and just before Malcolm was to bring the US before the United Nations to charge them with the denial of human rights and for committing genocide against black people, El Hajj was assassinated.

Three members of the NOI were arrested and sentenced to life-imprisonment. Though members of the NOI were charged with the crime, NOI's leadership, including Minister Louis Farrakhan, denied playing a role in planning Malcolm's murder. Farrakhan did admit to helping create a climate of hatred and hostility towards Malcolm X due to the bitter feud between Malcolm and NOI founder Elijah Muhammad. Many accused the FBI and CoInTelpro of killing El Hajj, "the shining black prince," leader of the masses living in America's ghettos.

Best known as Malcolm X, his birthday is a holiday in Harlem, New York. A role model for children all over the world, he preached self-sufficiency, self-discipline and love of mankind. He sought to establish a strong alliance between Africans and African-Americans. To that end, he formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in June 1964. Unfortunately, shortly afterwards El Hajj Malik El Shabazz was assassinated while addressing an OAAU rally at the Audubon in Harlem, New York in 1965.

Following Yohannes' appeal to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to assist slave descendants in their efforts to bring America before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide, cruel and inhumane punishment and denying of self-determination for blacks, The DISH became a clearinghouse for building that legal case. This file "The Genocide Chronicles" is now being made available to the U N Human Rights Commission to examine our claims for reparations for crimes committed against slaves and their descendants. Those who believe blacks are confused about the root of our problem, that we lack a strategy and leadership to address those problems, the Genocide Chronicles will get you up to speed. Log on http://www.thedish.ws and click on Genocide Chronicles.

Hood Notes

by Robert Lederman

Rudy Giuliani's wife, Donna Hanover, recently moved to the top of the list of people the Mayor and his underlings have smeared with lies, insults and misinformation. The lesson to be gleamed from the latest twist to the Giuliani saga has nothing to do with divorce. The cruelty, self-serving lies and utter lack of decency displayed by Giuliani and his surrogates in dealing with Hanover is the exact technique they have used throughout his administration.

It is easy to feel sorry for Ms. Hanover - by all accounts a decent woman and good mother - and most New Yorkers have readily moved to her side in this struggle. For most of us, it was harder to understand things from the viewpoint of Giuliani's previous targets and victims. Squeegee guys, homeless people and panhandlers did not have Hanover's telegenic good looks; most of us felt little sympathy when Giuliani crushed them. His blitzkrieg attacks swept them from our streets with little outrage or opposition.

Few cared when vendors and cabbies were demonized in the name of quality of life. They were marginal people, immigrants, and according to the Guilani, a public nuisance. For most Whites, there was little outrage when unarmed innocent Blacks were gunned down by the police or hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino youths were illegally arrested for loitering outside their own apartment buildings. As long as we imagined ourselves 'safer,' we approved of the blatant racial profiling.

The price of Giuliani's quality of life is steep. The non-criminal children of hundreds of thousands of hard working minority parents were illegally stopped and frisked by the police and will never feel at ease around a police officer again. Many were falsely arrested and put through the criminal justice system, making it impossible to get a decent job or go to college.

In this one-time center of dissent and free speech, New Yorkers have become afraid to attend a lawful demonstration or to even make a protest sign for fear they'll be falsely arrested. Thanks to Rudy Giuliani we've been gassed in our homes with poisons invented by the Nazis. Malathion and Anvil permanently degrade our environment and circulate throughout our bodies.

Hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens of all races have criminal records thanks to this Mayor which will follow them for life based on jaywalking, smoking a joint or drinking a can of beer on their front stoop after work. The decent police officers that make up much of the NYPD will have to spend 20-year careers working in a city where millions view them as the enemy rather than as enforcers of the law and protectors of public order. Giuliani's Legacy? Just ask Donna Hanover. At least she didn't vote for him. Email comments to robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net

DISHing It Up Hot!

by Dot

After the Supreme Court selected Bush President, Rev. Jesse Jackson called Dubya to discuss his role in the new administration. Jesse thought he would do for Bush what he did for Clinton. He helped Clinton snooker the black community into thinking Clinton was their President and that his 'dialogue on race' meant something. With Jesse's assistance, Clinton played the race card to perfection. He gave Jesse national attention. The spotlight proved to be an addiction. But, Bush already had a bushel of house niggers clamoring to fill that role. Moreover, at Jesse's steep price, Dubya could afford a bushel more. Jesse threatened unrest among the natives; he believed himself to be the black messiah.

Stunned by Bush's rejection, Jesse screamed 'President-select.' Basically, Bush said 'shut up' and 'screw you.' Jesse disobeyed, and Bush's boys proceeded to drop tidbits from the dossier of dirt the FBI and the CIA compiled on him. When the story hit the newsstands that Jesse's extra-marital affair produced an offspring, he was advised by big names in black religion and their white handlers to take a hiatus. Fornication and adultery are nothing new among these characters. Rev. Henry Lyons personifies the good reverends that prey on the gullible. With more visibility and a larger national following than Lyons, Jesse's love child and adultery could tarnish his image. A vacation was recommended; Jesse said NO!

Leader of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Jesse cuts deals for African Americans with corporate America. Remember Texaco? Never mind the rope de dope and no hope inherent in these lopsided deals, the one-mind media still call Jesse a black leader. Go figure why some blacks agree with this designation! Under the circumstances, the leaderless black masses do not know whether to be angry with Dubya for dissing Jesse or thanking him for putting the old poverty pimp out to pasture.

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