Volume 4 Issue 21…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… June 1, 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 Current, Williams & Freidel

In his first term, President Richard M. Nixon sought to alter the direction of the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Earl Warren enlarged the sphere of both personal liberty and civil rights. The Warren Court's civil rights rulings antagonized conservatives, particularly in the South, and its decisions on personal liberty aroused advocates of "law and order" (one of Nixon's themes in the 1968 campaign) all over the country. They especially resented the Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) decisions, because the Supreme Court justices limited the power of local police to extract confessions from people accused of crimes.

As Chief Justice Warren approached retirement, President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to replace him with Abe Fortas, a liberal, who would presumably keep the Court on the same track it followed under Warren. Senate Republicans blocked Fortas' appointment, giving Nixon an opportunity to choose the chief justice. Nixon - who insisted that it was "the job of the courts to interpret the law, not make the law" - chose a conservative strict constructionist, Warren Burger, whose appointment received prompt Senate approval.

When Justice Abe Fortas resigned over the revelation that he received a salary payment from a foundation whose donor was under indictment for fraud, Nixon named C.F. Haynsworth of South Carolina. Numerous groups and individuals, including Republicans, vehemently opposed his nomination when it was revealed that he sat on cases involving corporations in which he had a financial interest. After the Senate rejected Haynsworth, Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell, a Florida federal appeals court judge, who had made racist statements in the past. When the Senate turned down Carswell, Nixon angrily charged the Senate majority with bias against the South. The Senate finally accepted the appointment of Harry A. Blackmun, who, like Chief Justice Burger, came from Minnesota and had a reputation as a conservative strict constructionist.

In less than three years, two more Supreme Court vacancies arose, and again Nixon had trouble filling the positions. The American Bar Association (ABA) refused to endorse his first two choices. Nixon then appointed and the Senate confirmed, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a former head of the ABA, and William H. Rehnquist, assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration and a Goldwater Republican from Arizona. Nixon later vowed, "I shall continue to appoint judges who share my philosophy that we must strengthen the peace forces against the criminal forces in America."

Disgruntled feels: Outraged! Dubya acts like he has a mandate to govern and from the far right no less. The majority of American voters did not even choose him!

Disgruntled says: The United States of America confessed it abused black and native American human rights. It acknowledged ongoing institutionalized racism. From an international perspective, it is wholly unacceptable for the USA to refuse to pay reparations.

Disgruntled wants to know: President Bush's energy plan calls for more nuclear power generation. Despite technological advances, how to safely dispose of nuclear waste remains a mystery. Before America buys into more nuclear energy, shouldn't we know Bush's plans for handling radioactive pollution?

Hood Notes

by John Burl Smith

Tuesday, May 22, 2001, a local news program aired a story about FBI surveillance of Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, successor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as head of SCLC. Based on documents obtained under The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for victims, this story made the secret war on black America seem like just a little eavesdropping. The files revealed little about the U. S. government's domestic counter-intelligence war in the late 1960s and 1970s, which destroyed the Black Power Movement by assassinating its leaders.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, an admitted racist, developed the Counter-Intelligence-Program (Co-Intel-Pro), which recruited blacks from the military and colleges for domestic counter-insurgency. These agents infiltrated black power groups, identified effective leaders and then entrapped them in sting operations. Brothers smart enough to avoid entrapment were marked for death. In choosing Dr. King as one of its principle targets, Hoover's FBI used the sanitation strike in Memphis, TN as cover for the dirty deed.

Elected in November1968, Richard M. Nixon's "law and order" speeches opened a floodgate of killing reminiscent of lynchings in the 1920s and '30s. Like Israel killing Palestinians, Hoover granted Co-Intel-Pro agents the kind of power given slave catchers under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. With a posse that included FBI, CIA, NSA, Army, state and local police, Hoover declared open season on black militants. Constitutional rights suspended, the body count of black militants grew from New York to L A, from Chicago to New Orleans and all points in between. Brothers, who survived Co-Intel-Pro hit squares, like Huey P. Newton, Geronimo Pratt and Mumia Abu-Jamal, faced long prison terms or death sentences. Prosecutors trumped up charges and withheld and/or destroyed evidence. Judges looked the other way, allowing the government to lock black leaders up for political reasons. Co-Intel-Pro replaced the KKK.

America's one-mind media knew then what they know today. One-mind media outlets embellished and fed the public false accounts of stories given them by the FBI. Chasing fame and glory, reporters manufactured stories to help cover up FBI and police murders of black power advocates. As then, the reporter of this story never mentioned Co-Intel-Pro or that it was a deliberate effort by the U. S. government to identify and target specific black leaders for assassination. The media are not only covering up FBI murders but also their complicity in American genocide. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

Today, more than 2 million adults are behind bars in America. More than one million are non-violent offenders. While the U.S. has approximately 5% of the world's population, it has a quarter of its prisoners.

One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are under some form of criminal justice control (in prison, jail, on probation or parole). Studies have shown that half the young men in Washington, DC, and more than half of those in Baltimore are under criminal justice control. A black male born in 1991 stood a 29% chance of being imprisoned at some point in his life, compared to 4 percent for a white male. 1.4 million black men or 13 percent of the black adult male population have lost the right to vote. In the states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40% of black men are permanently disenfranchised.

America spends 50% more incarcerating non-violent offenders than it devotes to welfare programs. The nation spends 6 times more to incarcerate its nonviolent offenders than it spends on childcare. In 1995 for the first time, states across the nation spent more to build prisons than colleges. There was nearly a dollar-for-dollar tradeoff between corrections and higher education, with university construction funds decreasing by $945 million (to $2.5 billion) while corrections funding increased by $926 million (to $2.6 billion).

During the 1990s, New York State's prison budget grew by $761 million, while its budget for higher education dropped by $615 million. From 1984 to 1994, California's prison system realized a 209% increase in funding, compared to a 15 % increase in state university funding. For more facts on America's criminal justice system, visit http://www.cjcj.org.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro feels liberated from his public school education. His plans include sleeping late every day and playing more with his little brother and friends. Asked what else he intends to do, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro promptly replied, "Get some new toys and take a long vacation!"

by Amadi Ajamu

The Malcolm X New Millennium Committee's celebration of Malcolm X's 76^th birthday was a tremendous testament to his principles of self-determination and self-defense. On Saturday, May 19, 2001, the forces gathered on 125th and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd; the battle lines were clearly drawn

On one side of the steel police barricades stood the grassroots soldiers carrying Malcolm in their hearts. Peacefully, they gathered and boarded buses bound for the 36th annual pilgrimage to the Ferncliff cemetery in Ardsley, NY to pay respects to their fallen hero. A contingent remained behind to prepare for the 12th Annual Black Power March scheduled to start at 1pm.

On the other side stood the 125th Street BID (Business Improvement District) all dressed up with the best Malcolm X buttons and posters Chase Manhattan Bank and Walt Disney could buy. Desperate to keep businesses open, they scurried about the Plaza of the Harlem State Office Building setting up a stage, sound equipment, banners and chairs with NY police helping.

Corporate sponsored BID welcomed Black elected officials and "celebrities" such as C. Virginia Fields and David Paterson, Manning Marable and Malcolm's daughters. Conspicuously absent were the masses of people that the corporate sponsors spent nearly $100,000 to booster attendance. Marchers chanted "No Compromise, No Sell-Out," "Shut 'Em Down," "Black Power" and "Malcolm Lives, " while BID played Malcolm's speeches, which it abruptly ended in the middle of "House Negro and Field Negro."

Against seemingly insurmountable odds, the people prevailed! Scores of businesses closed their doors. Though successful in shutting down most 125th Street businesses, a few refused to close, such as Harlem U.S.A., a mall which houses Walt Disney, HMV music store and Old Navy. The Malcolm X New Millennium Committee called for an immediate boycott. Marchers protested in front of these stores for at least two hours, turning 'would be' shoppers away. It is clear the 125th Street BID only represents white corporations and the few "house Negroes" they bring out to earn their keep. On May 19th the people of Harlem won. May 19th was a blow struck for all the Harlems across America.

About Me: Amadi Ajamu is a Freelance Writer/Journalist. He is a member of the December 12th Movement, a NY based human rights organization.

by John Burl Smith

Seeing the reflection of Saul of Tarsius in Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, one realizes the eye-opening encounter with truth on the road to Damascus was not his first blind side. A bounty hunter for the Roman government, Saul murdered people identified as Christians. It was "ethnic cleaning." Roman law protected its citizens from such treatment. As Sharon, Saul could have been in cahoots with Roman real estate agents and simply murdered people for their land.

Through grace, Saul was selected as the embodiment of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Saul's life of murder and mayhem brought him face to face with repentance and penitence. Sharon, having traveled this road, has yet to be struck blind, deaf and dumb by the error of his ways. Such a powerful blow would not have been necessary, had Saul acted the first time the spirit called. Like Saul, Sharon resists the spirit.

A world away in America, the image is not so stark, as a Senator walks in Saul's footsteps. Coaxed by the blinding light of truth, Jim Jeffords found himself on the road to Damascus. Paul teaches in Roman Chapter 11 what one must understand about grace, repentance and penitence, once one sees the light. Sen. Jeffords is not the only Christian in Congress who has been blind-sided by the awful truth of what is happening in America. The refusal of the U. S. Supreme Court to count legal votes in order to award George W. Bush, Jr. the Presidency poisoned the root of true democracy in America. Striped bare before the world, the United States' Congress is the only institution standing between America and all out Nazism. Sen. Jeffords reminds the world what America can be. We salute his bravery in the face of tyranny. Kudos Jim Jeffords! John 2001

ICIM Boycotted People, Places and Things: Death penalty, President-select Dubya, the Confederate states of Texas, SC, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida, Old Navy, MCI, milk, meat, AT&T, Disney, Chase Manhattan Bank, strict construction of the U.S. Constitution that leaves the 3/5ths Compromise intact, conservative hypocrites that promote it like Bob Barr, Jesse Helms and Trent Lott and other weapons of mass destruction.

by John Burl Smith

Authorized by the US House of Representatives' Committee on UnAmerican Activities through its Select Committee on Intelligence, Co-Intel-Pro was a surreptitious campaign designed to deprive slave descendants of natural leaders and replace them with government agents. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the linchpin for hundreds of less known lynchings. Killed in a secret war, brothers like Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago, Mark Essex in New Orleans, Elton Hayes in Memphis and many others have no crosses or monuments to mark their passing. Like the "Ark of the Covenant" in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, they are buried in government file cabinets, redacted out of existence and obliterated from history to protect those who set them up for death. Entrapped in a trumped up prosecution, I was imprisoned for five years for activities related to the Memphis sanitation strike. However, personifying Crispus Attucks, my friend Richard L. Kirksey, Jr. was the last black leader assassinated under Co-Intel-Pro. His death epitomizes the hideousness of these murderous plots. As leaders were killed, the U.S. government replaced assassinated leaders with either unprepared individuals or government agents. America's government selected most, if not every last one, of those the one-mind media call our "black leaders" today.

The shadow of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) falls long over all blacks in leadership positions today. The father of black power, El Hajj's assassination was a prelude to Co-Intel-Pro. His death stopped his United Nations partition charging America with genocide and other human rights violations based on its treatment of slave descendants. Black preachers attacked Malcolm, while promoting integration and civil rights, rather than human rights. They also are the ones whose rhetoric helped Richard M. Nixon paint black power advocates as "public enemies." They justified Co-Intel-Pro from their pulpits as the necessary extermination of "black rats in the ghetto."

Redacting Co-Intel-Pro files keeps the identity of blacks that fought on the front lines in the government's war to kill black leaders and select their replacements a secret. This continuing cover-up hides government agents placed in positions to help destroy our great struggle for human rights. Rather than advance that just cause, like agents from "The Matrix," they helped kill the dreamer and his dream! Malcolm's replacements refused to pick up his challenge and continue to press his human rights demands. John 2001

by Dot

Email from a list partial to Louis Farrakhan advertised a seminar on our "diseased heart." It began, "After Slavery we have had a diseased heart." In a response, I wrote in part, "Slavery never ended! The U.S. Constitution was amended to redefine the rules of enslavement. The problem blacks face in America has more to do with ongoing enslavement than any diseased heart per se. I wish we would stop blaming the victim. Whites love to hear the likes of Farrakhan blame us for the black condition, which is what this does. It says our self-hatred and diseased hearts keep us in a position of inferiority in this nation. Fact of the matter is, it is the law stupid! What do you think Bush means by strict construction? A black change of heart will not change the law! Sure, we can accept current conditions, but why teach our people to cope with inequality?

I suggested the list's participants challenge Farrakhan to address the role of the first law in determining the black human condition. When folks like Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson speak to legal inequality in America, they will become relevant. Until then, they are just poverty pimps. Needless to say, the Farrakhan fanatics threw me off the list. The mindless would rather listen to Farrakhan blame our problem on a 'diseased heart,' than deal with the fact that his empty rhetoric maintains the status quo. Blacks need to get real and stop listening to "house Negroes," a.k.a. poverty pimps.

Leekuk@yahoo.com I'm not in the discussion but you're correct. Farrakhan hasn't addressed the legal system in its black robes oppressing black people. You state your position quite eloquently. Your opponent seems ill-equipped to defend her argument.

SeptaSam@aol.com I agree. Minister Farrakhan is for Farrakhan. I have no problem with him being like that. But, I object to him acting like he is for the people. He is no leader of African Americans. Did he ever get his million dollars? What happened after the Million Man March? Farrakhan has large government contracts for security. This is called the fox guarding the hen house.

Back   ||  ICIM Home   ||  THINC  ||  The DISH || 2001 Issues