Volume 5 Issue 34…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…August 30, 2002

Connecting the head bone to the backbone is an anatomical lesson U S Rep. Cynthia McKinney never learned. Anatomy is the science of identifying body parts and their articulation in order to ascertain their position, relations, structure and function in plants and animals. Autopsy is a detailed procedure, which provides clear morphology of corpus delicti and possible state of health upon demise. A case of atrophy, rather than vigor in the loss to Denise Majette, a deluge of negative media gave Cynthia brain cramps, and she drowned in her blues.

Requiring all fingers and toes to plug a leaky dike, "Storm Clouds Over DeKalb" (The DISH Vol. 5 No 4) forecasted a torrential downpour for McKinney. Disjoint, media pundits misdiagnosed Cynthia's speech as leftist. Wobbling like one leg was too short and cross-eyed, she double-talked hip hop. Uncoordinated as two left feet, she refused to recognize black artists building the Atlanta Vibe. Cynthia did not support their letter (The DISH Vol. 4 No. 45) to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce requesting economic assistance to develop and promote black entrepreneurs.

Anatomically correct in being at the UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, Racial Discrimination and Other Intolerance (WCAR), when speaking, Cynthia's cerebrum seemed connected to her coccyx. Gutting Malcolm X's effort to bring America before the World Court for genocide against blacks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Poor People's Campaign," McKinney lobotomized our argument for reparations (Terror in America, The DISH Vol. 4 No 37). WCAR provided the perfect forum to attack American racism as defined by Dot M. Smith's "Chasm of Inequality (Diaspora on WCAR, The DISH Vol. 4 No 36). Smith's analysis showed conclusively, "American racism is based in the U S Constitution Article 1 Section 2 (3/5 Compromise)," and it establishes slave descendant's legal claim for reparations (On Computing Z, The DISH Vol. 4 No 31). Like the body rejecting an organ, Cynthia refused to make the case. Adding insult to injury, she promised to host Poets for Peace's "International Speak Out Against Racism" (The DISH Vol. 4 No 27) prior to WCAR. Once the "stolen lives" effort needed life support, Cynthia pulled the plug.

Comatose for ten years on "funky hood" issues (Electioneering Dumps, The DISH Vol. 5 No 5), but desperate to bolster her malignant campaign, Cynthia complained about landfills and environmental racism. Too little too late, McKinney's overly optimistic prognosis metastasized into a full-blown Majette crisis.

A postmortem biopsy revealed DeKalb voters never forgave McKinney's betrayal on MARTA (MARTA Tax Sucks.Com, The DISH Vol. 4 No 7 and Vol. 3 No 21). Opposed to South DeKalb's I-20 MARTA train, Cynthia supported an inarticulate plan for an Emory-Atlanta-South DeKalb route. Ingratiating herself to the same whites that deserted her this election, Cynthia declared "I will not spend any political capital on an I-20 train." Moreover, she refused to support South DeKalb residents who filed a lawsuit against GRTA. Salt in our wounds, after Gov. Roy Barnes ordered MARTA to take back the agreed upon I-20 train and give it to Cobb and Douglas Counties, even though they do not pay MARTA's one-cent sales tax, Cynthia's re-election hopes ruptured. Managed by momentum (mo) killers, the patient hemorrhaged to death from self-inflected wounds. Cynthia was her own surgeon. John 2002

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is very involved with his studies. Without prompting, he comes home and immediately does his homework. When asked for his comments, an absorbed Dark One/Ninja/Zorro said, "I am too busy to talk now."

On August 28, 1963, one hundred years and eight months after US President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an estimated 250,000 people gathered in the shadow of his Washington, D.C. memorial to urge America to live up to its promises and principles of equality, liberty and justice for all. March organizer A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), opened the proceedings by declaring, "Fellow Americans, we are gathered here in the greatest demonstration in the history of this nation. Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers. We are not a pressure group; we are not an organization or a group of organizations; we are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom."

According to 1963 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the black unemployment rate was 10.8%, while the white unemployment rate was 5.0%. Last hired and first fired, blacks experience unemployment rates 2.1 times higher than whites. This disparity in economic welfare loss persisted, regardless of the nation's overall economic health. In 1980 dollars, the median family incomes of black and white Americans in 1963 were $5,581 and $10,547, respectively. Historically, black families received between .5 to .65 of the income of white families. These income and unemployment data lent credibility to the assertion that slavery never ended.

In addition to A. Philip Randolph, Eugene Carson Blake, Walter Reuther, Roy Wilkins, Floyd McKissick (who delivered James Farmer's address), Whitney M. Young, Jr. and others spoke passionately about the condition of black America. It is generally agreed that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), delivered the address that defined the moment. Filled with symbolism, his "I Have a Dream" speech poignantly captured the dichotomy between the promise and principles of America and the reality of black existence. (Source: The SCLC Story in Words and Pictures, Atlanta, GA 1964, pp. 50-51)

The marchers sought passage of "meaningful" civil-rights legislation, which President John Kennedy proposed prior to the march. They called for an end to public school segregation, protection of civil-rights demonstrators and an end to police "brutality." To reduce unemployment, they called for a public works program to provide jobs. To end racial discrimination, they asked Congress to pass legislation prohibiting such practices. To improve the standard of living of working people, the demonstrators called for a nationwide $2-an-hour minimum wage. With a 57% black population, the marchers called for self-government for the District of Columbia. (Source: U.S. News & World Report (September 9, 1963)

On August 17, 2002, blacks marched on Washington, D.C. Claiming the U.S. owes us, the march was eleven days shy of thirty-nine years since the historic "1963 March on Washington." A number of speakers addressed the disparities between the economic and political status of black and white Americans. While there have been cosmetic changes, the gaps in income, unemployment rates, wealth, healthcare, incarceration rates, etc. between black and white Americans remain.

One of the march's organizers, Dr. Ron Daniels called on blacks to wake up. He suggested that we cease those annual strolls through American malls trying to manifest Santa Claus and that illusive 'white' X-Mas to get America's attention. A Christmas boycott would accentuate our demand for reparations. Moreover, a X-Mas boycott would get black people out of that year-end programming of pursuing false images of success, when all year-long we struggle just to make end's meet to have a roof over our heads and food to eat.

Daniels' boycott proposal is on point. It is time we stopped celebrating meaningless holidays with icons like the Jolly Saint Nick and the Easter Bunny. Unconscious, some of us celebrate Halloween; we buy candy and send our kids into the streets to 'trick or treat' on the night of warlocks and witches. We think Christopher Columbus discovered America and July 4^th is the day blacks were freed from slavery! Wake up!

When the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, their demands for freedom did not include slaves and Indians. In drafting the nation's Constitution (1787), the founders dismissed democracy to establish a republic built on slavery. For this and more, blacks are owed reparations. Boycotting the fat man as Daniels suggested will bring attention to our demand! Everyone can participate in the X-Mas boycott!

Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free, and when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.

It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street; and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

The Negro baby born in America today, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is seven years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. One hundred years have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression, and this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste systems, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes? Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.

About Me: Elected the 35th US President in 1960, John F. Kennedy was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. On June 11, 1963, after Alabama Gov. George Wallace promised to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to bar two black students from entering the University of Alabama, Kennedy addressed the American people. He declared that the issues defining the Negro's position in American life was no longer merely economic and political, but also moral. (Source: Congressional Record, 88 Congress, 1 Session, pp. 10965-10966)

Disgruntled says: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has embarked on a land reform regime that has raised the ire of the U.S. and Great Britain. Calling his rule illegitimate and irrational, the U.S. blames the removal of white farmers from the nation's most fertile land for the country's food shortage. Conveniently ignoring the fact that white farmers produce mostly cash crops and that the country is in the throes of a severe drought, the U.S. is calling for Mugabe's removal from office. While Mugabe's methods may be criticized, calling the election that put him in office fraudulent is sheer hubris and the height of hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. State Department, given Bush's questionable elevation to this nation's highest office.

Disgruntled feels: Disgusted! In early August, students at Harvard protested against the exploitation of African workers by Coca-Cola, the largest private employer on the continent, and sweatshops run by the Gap in Central America. In addition to labor exploitation by private enterprises based in the U.S., IMF and World Bank policies are wreaking havoc on the economies of developing countries. It is disgusting the way developed countries and international institutions exploit the labor and natural resources of developing nations. Developing nations are not equipped to counter these entities or compete with their home countries in either the economic or military arena.

Disgruntled wants to know: In a replay of the historic 1963 march, black Americans returned to Washington, D.C. to demand reparations for slavery and the ongoing damage it inflicts on black Americans. Noticeably absent were the likes of Reverends Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young. Given blacks continue to struggle with injustice and inequality, why do 'black leaders' equivocate about reparations?

Conversations with Herbert "Cutlov" McNeail, the best point man George Washington Carver High School of Memphis, TN ever produced, inevitably turned to competition and mental toughness (Walnut Grove's Best, The DISH Vol. 3 No 34). Clearly, the hip hop generation can benefit from his insight.

"Cutlov" would say, "Games are never won in the first half, regardless of the score. Make every play as though it's the last two minutes. Old school coaches were not taught to beat white teams. They couldn't help losing the tough games." Demonstrating mental toughness as segregation ended, "Cut" faced hostile whites, threats, biased officials and intimidating white crowds, while still trying to find a way to win.

Black power advocates challenged segregation. Head-up competition between whites and blacks showed creativity, flexibility and motion could negate power and money. The old school generation, i.e., NAACP, Urban League, SCLC and preachers, fought young blacks for influence and joined forces with Co-Intel-Pro (Déjà vu Tonkin Gulf, The DISH Vol. 4 No 39) to destroy the black power movement. Old school momentum (mo) killers helped whites jail and kill black power advocates. Their ultimate betrayals were the assassinations of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hip hop generation faces the same old school mo killers. They killed the dream of black independence and self-sufficiency. Hip hoppers lived the empty illusion of freedom, justice and equality promised by old schoolers. Reaping the whirlwind, by 1990 hip hoppers saw through Tupac's eyes that being down for hip hop meant fighting whites to survive.

Beginning underground, hip hop educated and organized around blackness. Hip hop consciousness continued black power, but unfortunately like the 1960s, old school mo killers were called in to take control and destroy the movement. As "Cutlov" pointed out, old school mo killers are about a "beat," not "beating." Old school mo killers are stealing hip hop, like Elvis stole the blues. "They always kiss you before they betray you." Remember Malcolm and Martin.

Today, Alicia Keys and other hip hop artists are targets, just as Tupac, in the early 1990s. A natural leader at the point, Alicia has the power to take hip hop to a new level, as Otis Redding took soul in 1968. Otis recognized and embraced black power and black entrepreneurs. However, like Otis, Donny Hathaway, Billy Holiday, Marvin Gay and Aaliyah just the other day, old school mo killers earned their name. It is not a "Notorious B.I.G." secret, hip hop artists must build networks dedicated to their survival in a highly competitive society (The DISH Vol. 4 No 40). Hip hop is not about playing the game; it is about winning it all. If winning and survival are aims, the hip hop generation must break free of old school managers, who are happy to be allowed to get beat in a game that blacks created. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2002

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Phone Calls

Email IBSA@networksplus.net Check out McDonald's so-called McAfrica menu. What's African about greasy fries and processed meat? The only thing African about McD's is they pay us low wages and never allow us full-time workers' benefits. Again, white America sees us as consumers and is ready to play on our emotions. We must reject this food, this con and insult. They claim to want to tell about the plight of Africans, but do nothing to support progressive African or African American organizations. I hope we see this for what it is and boycott this big pimp'in move.

Email whirlwind@blackonomics.com First the Urban League and now the venerable NAACP. Who's next? The Black Panther Party? The war wages on in Cincinnapathy -- mostly against our own people. The Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP has decided to hold their October Freedom Fund Dinner, an annual event, in downtown Cincinnati, within the boycott zone. The Coalition for a Just Cincinnati (CJC) were informed that this decision will not be changed. The CJC is greatly disappointed at this decision. We urge you to join us in protesting the NAACP. If you are a member of the NAACP, or know members of the NAACP, please urge them to reverse this decision and support the boycott in solidarity with the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati.

Email blckwmn101@yahoo.com The US is having problems getting others, including its closest allies, to support its efforts to launch a full-scale war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. It is generally understood that the US wants to dominate the world's oil reserves, hence the war against Afghanistan. For years to come, US troops will be guarding the Caspian Sea pipeline.

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