Volume 4 Issue 36…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 14, 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

If this be God, then let this be a prayer.

i praise You in all Your infinite wisdom.

i have come far to find You,

and here i pray that i remain,

forever basking in the light of Your gentle embrace.

Oh, how i have longed for this connection,

shall it never end

pray it holds me for all my days.

May i forever look to the heavens and know

You smile down upon me.

As You call me "child," my Father,

i hear with perfect clarity.

(Reprinted from THINC (Teaching Humanity In New Conscious): The Chrysalis of Evolution, 1997)

by John Burl Smith

Tribalism is a natural consequence of Homo sapiens' evolution. Realizing group existence facilitates survival, family units developed into clans. Clans formed the larger tribe. Tribal membership makes one special. One can access community institutions and gain knowledge necessary to rise in status among one's peers. When membership is universal, all share equally in what their community offers. Tribalism is the most efficient social order because humans tend to seek their individual comfort levels, given choices that facilitate their inclinations.

Conversely, when some recognizable condition among members of a community is used to identify particular members and single them out over their objection for some special treatment, tribalism becomes bigotry, a form of racism. Moreover, when special treatment is directed at members of the community based on color, one has the kind of racism that exists in America today. There is a tribe of whites who run America and a group of blacks singled out for the special treatment of slavery. Slavery was based on one criterion - color. Whites in Africa did not have to fear being kidnapped by slave traders. It was understood that only black Africans were free enterprise.

America is a very special case. Even after Europeans ended slavery, America continued to build its economy on exploiting slaves and their descendants. After international law forbade slave importation and exportation, America developed an industry to breed slaves. And, while it fought a bloody Civil War to end bond slavery, America continued to support the social and political institutions built on economic exploitation. It erected legal barriers to segregate slave descendants and blocked their access to all institutions based on race. America conducted an extra-legal system of terror known as lynching, which forced second class citizenship on slave descendants over their continual objections.

American racism is so completely institutionalized, it goes largely unnoticed, unless you are an astute victim or progressive thinker. Environmental racism in South DeKalb County provides an excellent example of casual victimization. Blacks were lynched to accept and be silent about disparate treatment. So, they are continually victimized by the founding fathers' 3/5 Compromise (Article 1 Section 2 of the United States Constitution). The founding fathers codified American racism. Judges sitting at all levels in US courts believe in and support the 3/5 Compromise, just as judges supported segregation and slavery. American law schools teach strict construction, a racist interpretation of our laws. Laws are tribal rules! John 2001

Bit of History

According to www.encarta.msn.com, William Hubbs Rehnquist was born October 1, 1924 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Educated at Stanford and Harvard Universities, he clerked for jurist Robert Jackson (1952-53) and practiced private law in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1961, he was named assistant attorney general and head of the Office of the Legal Counsel. President Richard Nixon (1971) nominated him to the Supreme Court. His appointment was opposed because of his ultraconservative political associations. When Warren Burger retired in 1986, President Ronald Reagan named him the 16^th chief justice. The Rehnquist court decisions reflect his conservatism and support of constitutional strict construction or "judicial restraint."

Http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn2001212.html provides some Rehnquist moments. In 1964, he fought a Phoenix ordinance permitting blacks to enter stores. During the late fifties and early sixties, he participated in operation "Eagle Eye," an Arizona Republican attempt to challenge minority voting rights. His 1952 legal memorandum -A Random Thought on the School Desegregation Cases- claimed it was unconstitutional for the courts to order school desegregation. He asserted Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed. Official racial segregation might still be the rule of law, if his view had not been rejected by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Rehnquist's later claim that the brief reflected the views of the Justice he worked for has been rejected by historians as not credible.

The Rehnquist court halted the Florida vote recount (2000). Expanding the Constitution's equal protection clause in a manner not afforded black citizens in civil rights matters, the court made George W. Bush president and ruled its decision did not apply to future cases. The ruling has been hailed by numerous legal scholars as the decision of political partisans.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja Zorro learned about fables last week. When asked for his comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro said, "Pretend I said something, you know, create a fable."

Kmurphysmith@aol.com

On Friday, September 14, 2001, Shorewood High School plans to present a ward for "excellence to United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, an alumni of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin public high school. The decision to honor Rehnquist has come under heavy criticism. An ad hoc coalition of organizations, including Shorewood students, parents, the Milwaukee Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, National Organization of Women- Milwaukee and the Angela Davis CopWatch, will protest peacefully against Rehnquist outside the high school and the Pfister Hotel starting at 5:30 PM. Everyone is invited to join in. For more information, contact kmurphysmith@aol.com.

Icffmaj@aol.com

Free Mumia Abu Jamal and the anti-death penalty forces around the world encourage everyone to step up and take part in peaceful demonstrations around the world on Saturday, September 15, 2001. Demonstrations are planned in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. Everyone everywhere is needed to take up this cause to end the death penalty.

To ensure Mumia receives a chance at justice, the public must focus its attention on the injustice that surrounds Mumia's incarceration and the racist nature of the death sentence. Mass demonstrations are in order to step up the pressure on the state of Pennsylvania to free Mumia, and on America to enter the new millennium and end the death penalty. For more info, email icffmaj@aol.com . In Atlanta, contact Millions for Mumia at atlantaiac@aol.com. No justice! No peace!

The Block: Poetic Asylum

Fusing elements of a musical and improv theater, Aqiyl Thomas and Yohannes Smith take Atl's poetry scene to the next level with The Block: Poetic Asylum. This experimental play blends live music, dance and performances by some of Atl's hottest spoken word artists in an explosion of message driven poetry. Sept. 28 @ Davage Auditorium in the AUC. For more information about The Block, log on to www.Undergroundepics.com or call (404) 896-4260.

by Dot

For a fortnight in Flushing Meadow, New York, the best tennis athletes in the world took court in the world's largest tennis arena. The U.S. Open is the richest slam event of the year. Only the best play prime time in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Regardless of their professional tennis rankings, US Open winners are crowned the kings and queens of tennis.

Before flushing out this year's winners, racism reared its ugly head. The 2001 US Open ladies' singles finalists, Venus and Serena Williams, were prophetically featured on the cover of Time Magazine (September 3, 2001: The Power Game: With strength, athleticism and a whole lot of attitude, women's tennis has overtaken the sport). Written by Joel Stein, the writer suggests the player hater attitudes surrounding the sisters may simply be racism. Player comments removed all doubt of the racist attitudes prevalent in the sport.

The Leyton Hewitt incident punctuated the fortnight of intolerance. Winner of the men's single title, Hewitt had the black lines judge removed after he called Hewitt for two foot faults during his match against James Blake, an African American. Hewitt's remarks were racist, but he saw nothing insensitive in his comments. He stated, "I come from a multi-cultural country. I'm not racial in any way at all." Hewitt hails from Australia, a former British penal colony not known for racial sensitivity. The nation's indigenous people (Aborigine) are the victims of genocide. None should be surprised by Hewitt's bad mouth and lack of sensitivity.

Hewitt was not reprimanded for his outburst. The stadium crowd of mostly whites did not boo Hewitt when he next stepped onto center court. Ironically, Serena Williams was booed in a California match because her sister, Venus, pulled out of the contest. Obviously, double standards exist. America will flush the incident down the toilet along with other incidents of racism, but nothing can remove the stench.

A hastily called meeting by DeKalb County Commissioner Lou Walker on Thursday, September 6, 2001 at County Line United Methodist Church, told the story. Residents who happened to see the small notice in the paper learned not only did DeKalb County plan to enlarge Seminole Landfill and has submitted its plans to the US Corps of Engineers without public comment, they also learned work is currently underway to enlarge the Snapfinger Creek Treatment Plant in the general vicinity.

A representative from US Rep. Cynthia McKinney's office confirmed plans to enlarge Seminole had been submitted without public comment. Area residents complained that plans to enlarge Seminole Landfill run counter to development in the area over the past decade as the county zoned more and more of the land surrounding the landfill residential.

DeKalb County is guilty of environmental racism. Basically, its black residents are victims of a hostile environment in which the county government puts landfills and other funk factories in black areas. In addition, the county disproportionately spends more for all kinds of improvements in majority white communities. The record shows DeKalb County practices institutionalized racism.

Commissioner Walker suggested area residents form a community organization to deal with issues in the funky hood. It is obvious our elected officials are incapable of safeguarding our environmental welfare. Someone else suggested we file a lawsuit against the county. Anyone interested in forming either a community organization or filing a lawsuit against DeKalb County's environmental racism, please call Dot at 404-241-5942.

Update on questions: We continue to await responses from DeKalb elected officials on issues affecting quality of life in our neighborhood. The questions are posted on our website at www.thedish.ws. Click on Funky Hood. Our elected officials must answer these questions before we can move forward in DeKalb. When we receive their answers, we will publish them.

Disgruntled says: To give the appearance America did the right thing when it pulled out of WCAR, Bush deployed National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice to national television. Like Cypher in The Matrix, she betrayed her people, claiming reparations and slavery are issues of the past without merit. Neither Rice nor Colin Powell gets it, which is why they are in the Bush cabinet.

Disgruntled wants to know: President Bush calls racial preference in college admissions "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Until the 1960's, race was the sole criterion for college entrance. Do we call it the hard core bigotry of institutionalized racism?

Disgruntled feels: Co-Intel-Pro-ed! In the fashion of cowards, the United States turned tail and ran home when it could not bully enough UN voting members to get a bye on its racist history. America cannot explain genocide against its indigenous people and slavery. A dastardly deed, Co-Intel-Pro was black genocide.

Mailbox

Email: fboyle@law.uiuc.edu, "and further acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so." (See http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/02-documents-cnt.html for the entire document). This language is the EU position on slavery. It argued that they were prepared to recognize that slavery today is a crime against humanity, but not slavery in the past. So this is what happened:"... and should always have been so..."In other words, slavery practiced against Africans and African Americans by Europe and the US were not crimes against humanity at the time they happened. Europe and the US tried to avoid any legal liability for slavery and the slave trade by means of this circumlocution.

Nevertheless, the genie is out of the bottle thanks to Durban. During the past week, I have given a number of interviews on slavery, slave trade, crimes against humanity and reparations. Durban has clearly put these issues on the AGENDA. It has galvanized national and international attention. It has rendered these "legitimate issues," whereas before those of us arguing for reparations were considered part of the lunatic fringe. These subjects have arrived internationally. There will be a long struggle ahead, but from the perspective of this Irish American law professor, Durban is the first real blow against the world's slave empires.

Email: AlArkam@webtv.net : As-Salaam-Alaikum: In a press release, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney denounced U.S. attempts to divide Africans and African-Americans and re-affirmed her commitment to the battle for reparations.

by John Burl Smith

Personifying Kwame Nkrumah's historic action in 1957 raising Ghana's flag over the first independent black African nation, the world is again witnessing a black awakening. Passing unnoticed, Ghana foreshadowed Africa's lunge for freedom. In like fashion, during the run up to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance (WCAR), slave descendants across the Diaspora started a new wave of consciousness that has unified our perspective. For the first time since the African slave trade began, its victims came together over the need to address human rights violations their ancestors suffered under slavery and they suffer today under institutionalized racism.

An e-mail campaign by the Richard L. Kirksey, Jr. Memorial Foundation and the call for "International Speak Out" by Poets For Peace, a consortium of Atlanta artists August 16, 2001 developed into an intense and sustained lobbying effort by blacks to force Western nations to accept responsibility for slavery and its impact on its victims. Faced with its record, America turned tale and ran. Sisters and brothers in the Diaspora propelled us beyond our goal of a million messages supporting issues outlined in T.H.I.N.C. WCAR. Symbolic of Ghana in 1957, our unity during WCAR solidified our movement toward international freedom, justice and equality for all victims of racism. Europe 1957, like America today, showed little interest or respect for Dr. Nkrumah. They mused, what could one man do?

In a meeting the afternoon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, he shared his vision of the future with the Invaders. Describing civil rights as a southern movement, Dr. King confessed he had overlooked the value of black power and its impact on young blacks. Dr. King came to the Lorraine Motel hoping to recruit us for his "Poor People's Campaign." He needed the Invaders to recruit black power organizers in urban centers across America for the "Poor People's March." He believed this would give his march on Washington, D. C. some much-needed national grassroots support.

Co-Intel-Pro, the United States government Counter Intelligence Program under which FBI agents murdered black power advocates, like Israelis murder Palestinians, began with Malcolm X and refined with Dr. King. The federal government's assassination plot ended a brilliant strategy and slave descendants have languished ever since in the hands of Co-Intel-Pro assassins. Rising to the challenge at WCAR, T.H.I.N.C.ers across the Diaspora have brought unity back and now we must seize the moment. A sleeping giant stirs in Africa raising black fists throughout the Diaspora! John 2001

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