Volume 4 Issue 44…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…November 9, 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 Unknown

They take my kindness for weakness.

They take my silence for speechless.

They consider my uniqueness strange.

They call my language slang.

They see my confidence as conceit.

They see my mistakes as defeat.

They consider my success accidental.

They minimize my intelligence to "potential."

My questions mean I'm unaware.

My advancement is somehow unfair.

Any praise is preferential treatment.

To voice concern is discontentment.

If I stand up for myself, I'm too defensive.

If I don't trust them, I'm too apprehensive.

I'm deviant, if I separate.

I'm fake, if I assimilate.

My character is constantly under attack.

Pride for my race makes me "TOO BLACK."

Other than the above, I am treated like everyone else.

(Note: Arablesr@aol.com sent this poem and the quote: "He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass." -George Herbert).

Before the Civil War, many lynchings - mob violence or domestic terrorism - took place mostly in the southern United States. Initially, the victims were mainly white abolitionists or others working to end slavery. After the war, lynching became a weapon against black advancement. During Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) lynched blacks accused of committing offenses against whites. Journalist Ida B. Wells' research showed most of the time no crime had been committed.

Between 1900 and 1910, blacks made few gains, though the percentage of blacks who could read and write increased slightly. In the South, despite the "separate but equal" theory of Plessy v. Ferguson, black schools were far inferior to white ones. In 1910, only about 8,251 Negroes attended high school.

The plight of blacks worsened after WWI because Southern whites feared "Negro domination." Even progressives joined in the demand that blacks be completely removed from politics. Some 400,000 blacks served in the army in WWI. Returning to the US with their newfound sense of dignity and respect, these veterans were determined to improve their status. Having fought in a war on foreign soil to "make the world safe for freedom and democracy," they sought to enjoy those values at home. Instead of finding freedom and democracy, black WWI veterans and civilians faced violent resentment throughout the United States.

In order to intimidate blacks back into their former subservient position, whites resorted to the domestic terrorism of the KKK. Lynchings increased from thirty-four in 1917 to more than seventy in 1919. In most Northern cities, race riots broke out. Beginning in July of 1919, twenty-six towns and cities were sites of racial riots in which mostly blacks were victimized. No white American has been punished for this terrorism.

Lynching records, beginning in 1882 through 1951, show 4,730 persons were lynched; 3,437 or 73% of these victims were black men, women and children http://blackhistory.eb.com/micro/362/22.html. Most lynchings occurred in the South. The largest number in a single year (230) occurred in 1892. By the end of WWII, lynching had declined considerably, although several persons were lynched during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. http://encarta.msn.com

by John Burl Smith

Deciding to enter a classroom does not make one a teacher. While it is true, everyone is capable of teaching lessons, which enlighten and edify, teachers facilitate learning; they are knowledge givers. Not only dispensing information, they possess requisite skills that empathetically cognize its impact at the appropriate level. Moreover, knowledge givers possess unique abilities to motivate intrinsically as information is internalized. In other words, they make learners feel, "learning is their own idea." Observing facilitators at the Lifting the Veil of Silence Workshop on Racial Violence & Reconciliation, October 26-28, 2001, grapple with the question "Where do we go from here?" reminded me of the knowledge givers' paradigm.

Held at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia, the confab laid the groundwork for the Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America Exhibition of author James Allen's collection of lynching photographs. Facilitators groped for relevance and tried to establish community roots against a backdrop of controversy, denial and pessimism. A monumentally audacious task, depicting America's violent and terror-ridden history against blacks, the exhibit is scheduled to run May 1 through December 1, 2002. Lynching photography from this dark period challenges America's sense of justice and restoration. An educational tool, the exhibit explodes like a lighting rod amidst the national cult of pessimism and cynicism, which denies any need for "reconciliation and reparations" in America.

The DISH's coverage of the first search for the unmarked graves of Georgia's 1946 lynching victims George and Mae Murray Dorsey and Robert and Dorothy Malcolm, his pregnant wife, sponsored by the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee in 1997, began a personal involvement with Women of Walton County. The DISH joins the effort to answer the question "Where do we go from here?" in preparation for the Without Sanctuary exhibit.

Unforgettably illustrating the unspeakable pain and horror of America's racist past, Allen's collection exposes the dehumanizing process that replaced individual humanity with group anonymity and made bloodlust rituals status symbols. All Americans hoping for a better nation and a safer future for our children should embrace Allen's courageous task. The DISH proposes using theater, spoken word, music and other artistic expressions to educate Americans regarding the lynch-mob mentality that encouraged otherwise well-meaning, God-fearing pillars of the community to commit heinous acts of terrorism.

As knowledge givers go, The DISH feels Allen's exhibition has the potential to become America's portal to healing and reconciliation. His photographic collection provides Americans the opportunity to recognize a hideous time in this nation's past. On a personal level, Americans will know some of their family members were not merely faces in the crowd but leaders of the mayhem and murder captured in the lynching photographs. The DISH believes, through the Without Sanctuary exhibition, Americans can "learn about their past, come to understand the present and work to change the future." The exhibit offers a means through which America can approach the future with an empathic understanding of its need to atone. T.H.I.N.C.! John 2001

Disgruntled says: Prescott, the Bush family patriarch, bankrolled the Third Reich. George Herbert Walker Bush, the father, is former President and CIA Director. Expert in covert operations to maximize personal fortunes, greed is the only family value!

Disgruntled wants to know: Unemployment rose and the Dow Jones soared. The economic forecast down the road is gloomy. Consumer confidence and production fell, signaling the anticipated recession. The Federal Reserve is expected to lower the discount rate further. It hovers around 2% at present. Can war be a solution for more than terrorism?

Disgruntled feels: Outraged! During the Election Night 2000 Massacre, mainstream media aided Bush in asphyxiating 'democracy.' Destroying America's facade as the world's greatest democracy, Dubya in office exposes America as the republic built on slavery!

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has been missing in action with nothing to share with his audience. When asked for his comments this week, he stared at the ceiling and then the floor giving us only stoic silence.

Dr. E. M. Beck, professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, participated in the conference "Lifting the Veil of Silence: Workshop on Racial Violence and Reconciliation" held October 26-28, 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. In conjunction with Stewart E. Tolnay, Dr. Beck has written a book entitled Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930.

Dr. Beck's scholarly review of 2,805 southern lynchings draws some noteworthy conclusions, which dovetail the economic analysis of the chasm of inequality. His research supports the thesis that the 3/5 Compromise of Article 1 Section 2 of the US Constitution is the root of American racism that continues to dictate outcomes in America's marketplace for goods and services, which include labor.

Beck's four lynching functions - elimination of specific offender, social control of the black community through terrorism, strengthen solidarity within the white community and divert aggression away from white elite are economic. So too are his conditions conducive to racial violence - racist ideology, permissive state and local governments, competition for scarce resources, such as jobs and land, and a threshold event either real or imagined, which triggers the actual violence.

Beck's conference abstract included this description of a lynching that appeared in the New York Tribune. "On April 23, 1899, a huge mob from Coweta, Co., Georgia and surrounding area, including Atlanta, lynched Sam Holt (a.k.a. Sam Hose) for the alleged murder of Alfred Cranford, Holt's white employer.

"Sam Hose...was burned at the stake in a public road, one and a half miles from here (Newnan). Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the Negro was deprived of his ears, fingers and other portions of his body with surprising fortitude. Before the body was cool, it was cut into pieces, the bones were crushed into small bits and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate was torn up and disposed of as souvenirs."

"The Negro's heart was cut into several pieces, as was also his liver. Those unable to obtain ghastly relics directly, paid more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of bone went for 25 cents and a bit of liver, crisply cooked, for 10 cents." American free enterprise in action!

by Dr. Rodney D. Coates

For centuries, racist policies produced segregated socioeconomic, political and cultural institutions throughout American society. In cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, etc., these policies helped create black enclaves on valuable land.

When transportation costs and racist fears of black intrusion into white preserves were highest, whites fled to the suburbs. As pseudo race neutral attitudes run high, blacks are squeezed out through urban policies typically called 'gentrification' or 'regentrification.' As blacks flee to the promises of the suburbs, gentrified whites take over formerly black communities.

When blacks do not move fast enough, the agents of racist social policy - the police - work overtime. Their pre-occupation with racial profiling and getting tough on crime (particularly in black zones) is only matched by their willingness to kill innocent black males. These murders go unabated in cities like Cincinnati, where police have killed 15 black males in the last 7 years. White police are shielded by U.S. Supreme Court rulings which argue all a police need do is "fear for their life." Such "fears" justified and exonerated police in all these murders. For those who wonder when these killings will end, they will end when Blacks again learn their place.

In October, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. denied Mumia's July request to suspend his two-year-old federal appeal proceedings while his lawyers try to reopen his state post-conviction appeals on the grounds that his original legal team misrepresented him. A corresponding motion to open Mumia's state court appeal is pending before Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.

Mumia, a journalist and radio commentator, was sentenced to death in the December 9, 1981, shooting of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner during an early-morning car stop by Faulkner of Mumia's brother. Earlier this year his new lawyers released a confession to the crime by a self-described hit man. Mumia's federal appeal is the first stage of his third and final round of appeals to reverse his death sentence. For more about the struggle to save Mumia's life and end the racist death penalty, log on to http://www.refuseandresist.org.

John Burl Smith

My great-grandfather, the Circuit Rider, Rev. Burl Lee was an itinerant Methodist minister. He saw his calling as a messenger of truth. Idealistically, he described his fate as a tripartite lesson reflecting the lives of Job, Jeremiah and Amos.

"Job's life is a message of personal truth one teaches with their life." Metaphorically, Job's plagues reflect lessons about personal perspectives and the attitudes that determine one's actions. Existentially, Jeremiah teaches social truths of responsibility for commitments to justice and equality. He challenged "authority's right to force behaviors on people that violate the covenant of truth." Then, there was Amos, a man who was not raised as a prophet, nor was he the son of a prophet, nevertheless his message recapitulated the other two. Amos reiterated perils awaiting transgressors, who disregard those lessons. Three very different visionaries rising from totally different circumstances, however revealing similar spiritual truths that individuals, societies and worlds must value or reap the bitter harvests sowed from broken covenants.

The Circuit Rider saw himself connecting far-flung communities isolated in backwashes of humanity. A lone voice crying in America's southern wilderness, Rev. Lee railed against the terrorism of lynching, road gangs, sharecropping, and the use of debt to enslave black tenant farmers. During those dark times, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the Church helped crush truth to the ground with segregation and institutionalized racism.

Remembering the afternoon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis TN, America witnessed a national lynching. Meeting with the Invaders, a black power group supporting striking Memphis sanitation workers, Dr. King envisioned the Invaders as organizers for his "Poor Peoples Campaign" and his second march on Washington, D C. He wanted us to recruit other black power groups as organizers in America's urban centers. Dr. King's strategy was to build a national platform using mass action to raise issues of American injustice, genocide, discrimination, white terrorism and other forms of violence against blacks. Dr. King's lynching stopped his vision before he could show the world clearly his dream.

Extending the struggle of visionaries like David Walker, Marcus Garvey, Ida Wells, Kwame Nkrumah, Omar Al-Muktar, Malcolm X and Richard Kirksey, Jr., King kept his covenant with the Diaspora with his life. Police killing blacks, Palestinian assassinations and cluster bombing defenseless Muslim peasant families in Afghanistan are lynchings, America's acts of terrorism designed to oppress poor people of color for the oil and gas in their homeland's hills. Those in the Diaspora with a vision of a future without struggle are obligated by truth to press our case for reparations for the victims of slavery, institutionalized racism, colonialism and Zionism in the United Nations. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

by Dot

Throughout the Diaspora, we worked overtime to put the scourge of our time, i.e., racism, on the front burner of international discourse in order to bring about its demise. At the third World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, the Third World and African Americans stood steadfast against the West, headed by the US, to declare slavery and its offspring of racism human rights violations. As such, the guilty parties to these crimes against humanity must pay suitable reparations. Racism and reparations are what Americans should be discussing in the wake of WCAR.

Instead of working to end racism, the world is engaged in war against an oily barbarian called terrorism. Terror trained and financed with US tax dollars, the main target is Osama bin Laden, scion of Islam. International legal scholars say the evidence against him is less than circumstantial, meaning it would not stand up in a court of justice. While most of those named 9-11 suicide hijackers hailed from Saudi Arabia, America is carpet bombing Afghanistan. Daily; it showers peasants with food rations and cluster bombs in look-a-like containers.

On the road to WCAR, we came a long way. Though many blacks remain too afraid to say 'slavery,' much less seek reparations for our collective injury, some of us can now say the word and not break out in cold sweats. We can even say lynching and discuss its human rights abuses without feeling the need to bite our tongues or flee from the terror of angry white mobs.

America is at war; black welfare is pushed to the back burner again. Yet, racism is rampant at Ground Zero in New York and in the treatment accorded anthrax victims. Demanding patriotism, America's propaganda involves democracy and freedom, the things African Americans sought at WCAR, making burial premature.

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