Volume 4 Issue 27…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… July 13, 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 Yohannes Sharriff Smith

From metro ghettos to the bloody Congo,

I call to my brothers!

On the wind with Mandela, Biko, DuBois,

Malcolm, Martin, Marcus and Nat,

I recognize the shame.

Now, truth's pain makes me scream with a voice of reason.

Please hear my impassioned plea.

Shed the shackles of an imprisoned mind.

Stand freely!

Let your ascension honor the family's sacrifice.

For centuries, ancestors gave their lives to save their seeds from the same fate.

History has been laid.

Do not be afraid; turn the page!

Gain your conscious state; define your own fate!

Do not accept the reflected negative self-image of the European deviant!

Why hesitate? Find strength in aware intellect.

Let your life represent the sheer magnitude in the miracle of your existence!

We have faced seas of time and space rising to swallow us in endless tides of sorrow.

While the cracker's complexion of culture would have crumbled under the pressure.

We persevere.

Riders of the storm, finding those dim shallow waters of Anglo-Saxon insecurity and inadequacy, only lap against our base, while our summits and peaks continually caress infinite possibility.

Comprehend this fact, your determined power radiates from within your skin.

MELANIN is a gift!

Reveal the magnificence of your natural African attributes.

Emancipating the spirit, unite under this truth:

The beauty we possess and express is without bounds.

This eternal force is purely exemplified in children we bring forth.

The evolution is our seed, for they inherit the richest culture and most inspiring legacy ever witnessed.

Even the heavens quake with their infant cries.

Our BEAUTIFUL BLACK BABIES embody such divine energy.

Mary's son must have risen a BLACK fist!

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is forced to make another critical adjustment. A work in progress (AWIP), the Batman/Ninja/Zorro will rise to the occasion. When informed school would be starting soon and that he would have to change his sleeping habits, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro replied, "Don't sweat it!"

Disgruntled wants to know: President-select George W. Bush celebrated his birthday playing golf and fishing with his father at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. One-mind media reveled in the symbolism. However, there were no family photos of GW with his wife and children. The absence of family moments makes one wonder what are the traditional family values on this important occasion, since his children, first daughters Jenna and Barbara, chose to be elsewhere?

Disgruntled feels: Reaffirmed! A statistical study of Nissan car loans found blacks consistently paid more than whites regardless of their credit histories.

Disgruntled says: In airing President Clinton's dirty laundry, the media set a precedent. Over the weekend the one-mind media provided blanket coverage of Rep. Gary Condit's admission that he had an affair with missing intern, Chandra Levy. A Blue Dog Democrat, Condit's affair gives the one-mind media an excuse for not covering Bush with the same blanket used to cover Clinton.

by Richard Muhammad

Actor Carroll O'Connor was remembered in a June 26 Roman Catholic funeral mass in Los Angeles. Friends and loved ones paid tribute to the veteran actor who died days earlier of a heart attack. He was 76.

His portrayal of TV character Archie Bunker in the 1970s CBS sit-com is part of America's twisted collective psyche. Archie Bunker is the embodiment of America's love affair with racism and penchant for downplaying its affects. Mainly referred to as a "lovable bigot" by reporters and media analysts, he was not lovable at all. He was another reminder that problems of race and status are not to be taken too seriously in America.

The ability to laugh at his crude insults, racist jokes and ignorant expressions was an escape valve. It was a chance for White America to collectively excuse the views and hearts of those it loved. But like the minstrel shows and blackface of yesteryear and the shuffling of Steppin' Fetchit, Archie Bunker was much more than an on-screen character.

Archie Bunker was a harbinger of later cries of reverse discrimination from white males, who control the majority of America's political, economic and media power. He was the forefather of those who bemoan feeling besieged by political correctness because they could not tell the old nigger jokes, limit membership at the country club nor keep Blacks out of their neighborhoods.

Archie was an old guy from the neighborhood, harmless and unable to change, caught in a time warp. Perhaps, the same time warp that engulfed Thomas Blanton, who was convicted of the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, or Mayor Charles H. Robinson of York, PA, who is accused of leading a mini-race war that claimed the life of a Black woman shot to death by a white gang in 1969.

The "Bunkerish" attitude allows for modern lynch mobs that target Blacks, whether in police departments, courts or social service agencies. Images matter. They help to legitimize, uplift and protect or dehumanize, violate and make expendable. So the world may miss Mr. O'Connor, but do not grieve for Archie Bunker, he is alive and well.

About Me: Richard Muhammad is a Chicago-based columnist, lecturer and managing editor of The Final Call newspaper published by the Nation of Islam and Min. Louis Farrakhan. All opinions are his alone. He can be reached at straightwords2@yahoo.com.

Kudos! Kudos!

Venus Repeats Wimbledon

When she won Wimbledon 2000, Venus Williams leaped in joy looking for the world to see like an ungainly and surprised young filly. Tall for a woman at over six feet, her limbs flapped in an unbridled display of amazement and delight on capturing the title. This year she reacted as if she expected to win from the moment she regally strolled onto Centre Court to the missed backhand by the Belgian teenager Justine Henin at match point. Venus Williams is the undisputed champ on grass. Wimbledon is her surface; grass was made for her athleticism. And this year, Venus knew it too. Her expression said, "this title is mine to win."

Conquering the butterflies that surely flap in the pit of every tennis player's stomach when vying for a championship, Venus came out taking care of business. It is difficult to do that, even when the crowd is behind you. Ask Tim Henman, the Brits' best hope for a champion at Wimbledon in nearly a century. The darling of the home crowd, there is no question among sports broadcasters and commentators, nerves sidelined Henman! Conquering nerves and winning are doubly difficult before a packed house favoring your opponent. Not the crowd's favorite, the champ won 6-1,3-6,6-0. Uncanny in her display, Venus overcame ugly fans again to repeat Wimbledon! Kudos to Venus!

E-mail to Conscious Rasta

by John Burl Smith

The major truth, realized during the Black Power Movement, was American public education consisted of propaganda, superstition, lies and damn lies. Obviously informed, I am surprised that in such a large discussion, you would respond to such a small point, "The Lynch letter is a fable." As a fact of history, lynching has been devastating to slave descendants' efforts to exercise the same rights and freedom as other Americans. Lynching was the instrument of white supremacy mob rule. It forced slave descendants to accept second class citizenship. Blacks refer to that period as Jim Crow.

Jim Crow is credited with drawing the color line separating black from white following Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise of 1895. No one has ever proven Jim Crow actually existed as a prerequisite to accepting segregation as a fact of history. No doubt mob actions by whites against blacks was an economic weapon. Most infamous among the massacres are Rosewood, FL and Greenwood, OK. No one has ever come forth and said Jim Crow harmed anyone. However, everyone agrees Jim Crow was behind the black and white signs that gave whites the right to kill blacks for entertainment.

Calling Willie Lynch a fable or urban legend reduces the value of the reality it represents. Mind-set determines how we order the realities of our world. Take the word picnic. Today, it connotes fun-in-the-sun, family gatherings, barbecues and fireworks. The word originated during the terror ridden days of Jim Crow. Whites would simply pick a Negro at random to lynch. Hence, "pick a nigger" became "pick-a-nick" and now we have "picnic."

Willie Lynch is not an urban legend for the thousands of blacks that were the main attraction for white families, gathered with lunches amidst screams of agony, the smell of burning flesh and the collection of body parts for souvenirs. Today, blacks readily accept picnic's association with an enjoyable outing. The psychological damage blacks suffered as a result of lynching elevates Willie above legend status. The only urban legend of which I am aware is that the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments made them equal to white Americans! T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

by Dot

Those who study American history know the nation has spilled much blood from shore to shore. A majority of Americans accept capital punishment. Simultaneously, these Christians believe killing is a sin. Beyond this obvious hypocrisy, when children began bringing bombs and guns to school to kill and maim, even Americans knew something was amiss.

Instead of uncovering the cause of the elevated violence, we closed our eyes and allowed the media to label these killing sprees aberrations. In a society that condones bullying as a rite of passage, a certain amount of mistreatment is accepted. Clearly, killing sprees by school children and mothers are perverse.

Barefoot and pregnant from 1996 to 2000, Andrea Yates killed her five children. Yates told police she drowned them. The media cornered anyone who would consent to an interview. Yates' spouse spoke while his children lay on slabs in the morgue. More shocking still, he delivered the eulogy for the cameras.

Seeing Yates' spiritless form all pale and drawn being led away in handcuffs reminded me of the dazed kids being lead from suburban schools after their killing sprees. Most of these kids were on prescription drugs for depression or academic enhancement. The killer mom had been treated for postpartum depression with drugs. We do not know what was in her bloodstream when she killed her five children.

This incident sends up more warning flags about depression and treating it with drugs. But, instead of looking at prescription drugs and dealing with the killing sprees from a humane perspective, we locked up the kids and this mother. The big question now is whether or not she gets the death penalty. Hello? Something is wrong here. These were not the acts of sane humans. If Yates is treated like a sane person, then something is more wrong than even these killing sprees suggest.

by John Burl Smith

The DISH has been asked by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) to help get the word out regarding the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), which will be held in South Africa August 31- September 7, 2001. Her concern is that too many blacks are unaware that issues associated with this conference will shape perceptions and determine the extent to which blacks in the Diaspora will be able to exercise self-determination in the new millennium. If the Bush administration has it way, there will be no discussion of America's liability for past discrimination based on the 3/5ths Compromise of Article 1 Section 2 of the US Constitution. This will allow America to dismiss slave descendants' reparations claim.

The Bush administration spent months trying to prevent the conference from taking place. In the meantime, Congresswoman McKinney and others, working to ensure diverse voices speak on racism in America at WCAR, encountered Bush representatives, who walked out of meetings or boycotted them altogether. Presently, the Bush team plans to speak for blacks, as the government did back during Jim Crow segregation. The White House is NOT returning McKinney's calls.

The number one problem facing America is racism and slavery is the root of that racism. The Constitution made slaves and their descendants 3/5ths of white people. It is this value that racism maintains in America. Research by Dot M. Smith shows that the gap in medium income of blacks relative to whites mirrors the 3/5ths Compromise value. Determined to hide such facts, the Bush administration is working to block any discussion of reparations for victims of racism and Zionism.

The first international forum to discuss racism in America, WCAR will provide an opportunity to reflect the realities of black American life. Those working with Rep. McKinney see this as far too important to be silenced by Bush. "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" was crucial in achieving a phenomenal turnout for Election 2000. This WCAR effort is no less important. We need dedicated brothers and sisters to help get the word out about our need to speak at WCAR. Poets for Peace, a consortium of Atlanta artists are calling for an "International Speak Out" by those in the Diaspora on August 16, 2001. They are asking everyone to send e-mails to WCAR demanding blacks be allowed to speak on racism in America. We ask local groups to develop venues to help educate and provide access to e-mail for those who do not have computers. Maybe, you and Tavis Smiley could host a WCAR educational forum.

We have moved beyond our people out in the streets marching or bringing millions to Washington, DC, only to return home broke and disillusioned. We can send a million e-mails to WCAR and show the world we are serious. Election 2000 showed when we understand what is truly at stake, we can move together. On behalf of many people around the world, who are already in the field working in their own ways, I extend our hope you can find a way to help us educate the world about racism in America. (Vol. 5 No 34) John 2001

Scoring Vieques Points

Conscious people are leery of the one-mind media's motive for reporting anything about black people. Naturally, we were skeptical about the report of bad blood between the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Allegedly, Sharpton criticized Jackson for wiping Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s blood on his shirt after King's assassination in Memphis, TN (1968) and declaring himself leader of the civil rights movement. Sharpton questioned this self-appointment or something equally insignificant. This disagreement among media-recognized leaders leaves those being led wondering, who is working to make Dr. King's dream reality?

Sharpton went to jail protesting US military bombing on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico. Instead of a letter from his prison cell, ála Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham jail, Sharpton sent Jackson a letter to discuss the bad blood between them. In a related incident, Jackie, Jesse's wife is arrested for protesting the US bombing on Vieques. Her arrest and refusal to submit to a body cavity search made the news and gave Rev. Jackson a reason to make the talk show circuit.

If this vigorous competition to lead black and brown people is real, when will they speak on the 3/5ths Compromise of contemporary economic slavery? Given these silent black leaders, Dr. King's dream will remain a nightmare for black Americans for another generation.

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