Volume 6 Issue 14…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…April 11, 2003

Cosmic Hope

By John Burl Smith

Interpreting the cosmic drama of life, heroes beat bad guys, get the girl and save the world. In that cosmology, finding one's soul mate is like catching a shooting star streaking across the heavens. Sometimes spirits that move heavenly bodies cause paths to intersect at points that allow them to merge, rather than collide. Their union becomes a new direction and both attain things neither could alone. In that regard, people come together and chose each other, everything else is added unto them as a result of their union. Children are only one such enrichment Dot and I received as a result of that splendor. Our ecstasy became a living hope we named Yohannes Sharriff.

Equally difficult is finding one's calling or destiny in life. Parents often fret and fuss over these aspects of their children's lives. Cosmologically, children must choose their path, if their endeavors are to be rewarding. Consequently, the search for one can lead to finding the other provided one learns to trust their feelings and let truth to be their guide.

Moving in concert with universal forces, this week Yohannes' first solo compact disc, The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time, hits the streets. A supernova for ATL spoken word, Yohannes fuses hip-hop, jazz, blues and history into an urban contemporary poetic drama. This CD is another stanza in the blues blacks began singing 400 hundred years ago. The divide slavery created is so wide that for a black man to find and touch a black woman is like reaching across the cosmos. Poignantly as Waiting to Exhale, Yohannes bridges the "sour and surreal" heartbreak between young love and unfulfilled expectations.

Artfully, as a sculptor chiseling granite, Journal Entry begins a "bitter nigger" scenario embellished by a hostile slave oriented system bent on his destruction. Giving expression to the dilemma and legacy that dogs black men, like a curse from beyond the grave, Yohannes offers a poetic refrain with Hands. Accepting that pain is a distinct possibility, Hands acknowledges Yohannes' hope for love is tethered to a black woman. Hands comes on like a soulful moan, a kind of guttural howl across that universal divide as he calls for a mate. Yohannes' forlorn cry is more a wish than reality, until Sunflower answers.

Like most heavenly bodies, Sunflower is only restrained by laws of her galaxy. Her gravity is so strong objects attracted by her force escape only at her choosing. However for Yohannes, escape is not his plan. This is that one opportunity to find a harmonious orbit in a celestial sphere or crash and burn from the heat. The hope for love is always a risky challenge because it is about the future not the past. Finding such rapture with one's soul mate lingers long after the experience is gone. It leaves one relishing the past, while hoping Sunflower is the future!

Distribution determines shelf life with CDs as will as food and clothing. Subject to market forces, The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time is available online at www.undergroundepics.com/yohannes for those wishing to stay on the cutting edge with the hottest sounds on the hip-hop scene. Come to the source, rather than wait for distribution pipelines to fill. For more, email The DISH at thedish@surfglobal.net. Atlanta Vibe Homepage Other Essays by John Burl Smith

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro will be a year older in a matter of days. Relaxing on spring break this week, he is working on changing his ways, particularly being more patient with his younger brother. When asked what he wished for his tenth birthday on April 16^th, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro remarked far too seriously, "I wish I had a sister instead of a brother!"

Back to the Bat Cave

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer (1917-1977)

Born October 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Townsend was the granddaughter of slaves. The last of twenty children born to sharecroppers, she contracted polio, which left her with a limp. Her mother always told her to "stand up no matter what the odds." And, she did.

Reared in poverty, she picked cotton at age six. After the sixth grade, she dropped out of school to help her family. In 1944, she married Perry "Pap" Hamer. The couple moved to Ruleville, Mississippi and became sharecroppers on the Marlow plantation, where she grew increasing "sick and tired" of the plight of black people.

In 1962, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) came to Mississippi to register black voters. On learning blacks had the right to vote under the U.S. Constitution, but were being denied the franchise by local laws and biased officials, she became outraged. Whites used an array of intimidations from cross burnings, beatings and false imprisonment to lynching to prevent blacks from voting. Aware of the danger, Hamer volunteered to try to register to vote.

To register to vote, the Ruleville blacks had to interpret the state's constitution. They failed, and on the trip home, their bus was stopped for being "the wrong color," and they were jailed. When Hamer finally got home, her landowner told her to either stop trying to vote or leave his property. Hamer left; her husband remained behind. She lived with friends and neighbors, but everywhere she went nightriders brought terror.

In 1963, on her third attempt, Hamer passed the test and became a registered voter. As a SNCC field secretary, she traveled across the South helping other blacks. On June 9, 1963, the workers were arrested by the Winona, Mississippi police. Hamer and others were beaten unmercifully. Hamer lost sight in one eye and suffered kidney damage. Black prisoners were ordered to do the beating in the presence of the police. SNCC lawyers bailed them out and filed suit against the police. All the whites charged were found not guilty.

In 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). It challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. In a televised proceeding, Hamer spoke before the Credentials Committee. She described how blacks were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation in many states.

In part of the speech she asked, "Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we are threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings?" A compromise was reached in which two seats were given to the MFDP and the others were seated as honorable guests. The Democratic Party promised never to have an all-white delegation again.

Hamer became a popular speaker and worked to better economic conditions in Mississippi. In 1965, "Mississippi" magazine named her one of six "Women of Influence" in the state. In 1967, she published To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography. She helped create a cooperative in 1968 to help the poor improve their diet. The following year she founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative in which 5,000 people were able to grow their own food on 680 acres of land. In 1972, she helped found the National Women's Political Caucus.

During the final years of her life, Hamer worked on a range of issues from school desegregation to low-income housing. She actively opposed the Vietnam War. Fannie Lou Hamer died on March 14, 1977. Her Ruleville tombstone reads, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." (Sources: www.britannica.com, www.greatwomen.org and www.ibiblio.org) Bits of History

By William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

About Me: English poet, critic and journalist, W. E. Henley edited several popular magazines, wrote poetry and collaborated with Robert Louis Stevenson on four plays. Invictus is a pledge to fight the unfortunate circumstance of change, which in his case was illness; it is required reading for students of English literature. Venue for an Artist Homepage

Diluting the Black Vote

Election 2000 heightened black awareness of the right to vote, its value and the importance of counting every ballot. More importantly, it raised questions about the role of the Electoral College and the power exerted by small states in the presidential selection process.

The 15^th Amendment to the US Constitution adopted in 1870 gave all citizens the right to vote. Backed by federal troops, former slaves voted and were elected to public offices, even the US Senate. After the election of 1876 and the withdrawal of troops from the South, large numbers of blacks continued to vote. According to one source, as late as 1890, Mississippi had 71,000 more blacks than whites registered to vote.

As Jim Crow laws, discrimination and intimidation effectively disenfranchised blacks, the 15^th Amendment became meaningless. By 1960, few blacks were registered to vote. Moreover, in states where there were registered blacks, the value of their vote was substantially diluted. For example, Baker v. Carr (1962) found that Tennessee had not reapportioned legislative districts since 1901; a rural white ballot was worth more than sixty times a black vote cast in urban Shelby County. The Supreme Court ruled 6-to-2 that failure to reapportion was unconstitutional. Similar inequities were found in Georgia and most states across the country. The few black votes cast were worthless.

With blacks, such as Fannie Lou Hamer, agitating for civil rights, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan extended it for another 25 years, which means that in 2007, it will come up for consideration again. Blacks are wondering will Congress extend the Voting Rights Act, and more importantly, will it matter?

The history of efforts to deny blacks the right to vote is extensive. Efforts to dilute the value of their votes and Election 2000 in which their votes were just not counted make one wonder about the effectiveness of ad hoc legislation such as the Voting Rights Act. With efforts to roll back what progress has been made in the last thirty years with the appointment of conservative judges to the courts, blacks must learn, as did Hamer, there are different ways of interpreting the US Constitution. Without a specific repeal of Article 1 Section 2, which defines blacks as less than full citizens and establishes the foundation of the Electoral College, equal rights, and therefore democracy, are impossible to achieve even with the passage of legislation, including the Voting Rights Act under the 15^th Amendment.

On April 29, the US Supreme will hear the case of Baker v Ashcroft. Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert Baker is asking the court to define how far the percentage of minority voters in a district can be reduced under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In reapportioning the state legislature, Democrats, including blacks, sought to spread out black votes so as to maximize the number of (white) Democrats elected to office. When Republican Sonny Perdue defeated Roy Barnes in 2002, some white Democrats switched to the Republican Party, giving Republicans a slim majority in the state senate.

Diluting black votes and switching parties are par for the course in Southern states like Georgia. With conservatives interpreting the Constitution, not only will black votes be diluted, they will remain worthless in accordance with Article 1 Section 2. Today, there are no black US Senators, and the few black representatives seem oblivious to the nature of the problem. Not only does this unfortunate situation leave blacks with the bane of diluted votes, but with inept representation. PoliticsY2K3 Homepage

Disgruntled wants to know: Rumors are rife that the US stock market is manipulated by a secretive "plunge protection team" that is charged with providing cover for unpopular policies. With the US blocking the assets of foreigners from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, investors are worried. The US is the world's premier capitalist economy. Thus, investors who believe in laissez-faire wonder, are these proper roles for government?

Disgruntled feels: Odd! The numbers are funny! In February, about 40,000 jobs were added to the US economy. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of one percent. More than 100,000 jobs were lost in March. Odd, the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged. Similarly odd is the popularity of George W. Bush. As more protestors take to the streets, his favorable rating goes through the roof.

Disgruntled says: Before Bill Clinton, who had sex in the Oval Office and sold sleepovers in the White House Lincoln bedroom to big campaign contributors, and George W. Bush, who became chief executive on the heels of a coup, US political assassinations were covert operations. What was once clandestine is now aired on television in prime time. Cheered by reporters and commentators, their routine enjoyment of death and destruction may well signify the end-time for humanity. More Disgruntled Moments

License to Kill: Contemporary Lynching

With 24-7 news coverage of the war against Iraq, little attention is paid to what is going on at home. Like wars of the past, blacks are dying to liberate strangers in a foreign land. On the domestic front, their freedom and the promise of democracy remain unfulfilled dreams.

Under the radar, cops that killed unarmed black men got off scot-free. Remember Patrick Dorismond? Unarmed, the black off-duty security guard was killed by a New York undercover narcotics cop. The Dorismond murder came after Bronx police fired 41 shots at unarmed Haitian immigrant Amadou Diallo and a spat of other questionable homicides by New York cops. The US Justice Department called Dorismond's murder an "accident." Although Dorismond is dead, his civil rights were not violated by Detective Anthony Vasquez.

On December 5, 2002, Louisville, Kentucky detective Michael O'Neil shot James Taylor twelve times. According to O'Neil, the victim attacked him with a "box-cutter type knife." For the record, box-cutters were the weapons supposedly used by the 9-11 hijackers. Oddly, Taylor's hands were cuffed behind his back. On February 24, 2003, a grand jury decided not to indict O'Neil in Taylor's death. Taylor was black.

The Diallo, Dorismond and Taylor killings are not unusual. In every urban center, indeed everywhere black people live in the USA, the use of deadly force and unarmed black men killed by police are common occurrences. Cops have a license to kill and black men are the usual victims. If we were honest, we would call murdering unarmed black men contemporary lynching. Hood Notes Homepage

On Barbershop Redux

By Dot

My family recently rented the movie Barbershop. Remember all the fuss about comments made in the movie by the character played by Cedric the Entertainer? I watched the movie twice to understand the arguments.

First, the movie is entertaining. Since the entire family saw it for the price of a rental, it was well worth the expenditure. It is not slapstick, although it has humorous moments. Sure, there are stereotypes, but what movie has ever been made with and about black people that does not include some oversimplifications?

Second, the comments about Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were not that far off the mark. By all accounts, Dr. King loved the ladies and they returned his affection. Jesse Jackson has shown and continues to show an affinity for doing things that best characterize him as a poverty pimp. Rosa Parks was tired and did not want to stand, while a white man sat down. Plenty of black people did what Rosa Parks did, i.e., refused to give up seats on buses after paying their fare. They were arrested, beaten up by police and then chided by other blacks for causing trouble. One of those blacks was a young woman by the name of Ola Mae Quarterman; she is one of the unsung heroines of the Albany civil rights movement.

Third, the barbershop conversation included comments about reparations. I noticed in all the hoopla over disrespecting Parks, Jackson and King, not a thing was said about the treatment of this subject. Did black folks miss how it was dismissed? The very thing we should all be talking about got drowned out by all the noise over nothing. If you have not seen the movie, check it out and let me know what you think. DISHing It Up Hot! Homepage

Email www.thenation.com Because of the war against Iraq, a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the impact of its policies on African economies is receiving little attention. For the first time the IMF has admitted that forcing developing countries to open their markets to foreign investors could increase their risk of financial crises. This has been said before, but not by IMF. It raises questions about African nations that rush to the IMF for economic prescriptions.

The report at www.imf.org says that in some cases the process of liberalization has been accompanied "by increased vulnerability to crises," an issue when raised by advocacy groups was dismissed with a wave of the hand. And to twist the knife, the IMF report says there is "little evidence" that its policies on liberalization encourage economic growth in poor countries. More Mailbox

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