Volume 6 Issue 16…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…April 25, 2003

Anthology on Gangsterism

By John Burl Smith

Hitting stores with a new CD The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time, Yohannes anthologizes consciousness for today's global community where might makes right. Based on unilateral unrelenting force, this form of gangsterism coerces and nullifies individual will. A menace to the world, the USA's "shock and awe" military power compels acceptance of democracy under threat of total devastation. Fighting this scourge of gangsterism with a new consciousness, Father Time shepherds the next generation.

Placing the onus squarely on American racism, Yohannes leads a crew of new millennium troubadours that bring fire to the wicked and knowledge to the unknowing. Pushed by jazzy blues guitarist Justin Benigno, the Madd Psyantist, beatbox artist Spankie, and vocalists Thirty, Yohannes targets slavery as the ultimate form of gangsterism. Slavery not only nullifies individual will; it nullifies the individual.

The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time jams that American ride them over, drive them out or kill them if they resist Wild Wild West mentality symbolized by George Bush. Imprisoned in a reality that has outlived slavery, Yohannes croons haunting melodies of thunderous rhythms growing defiantly in the hood.

A Diaspora of stolen people trapped an ocean away from their Motherland, maintained in total ignorance and bred like cattle to continue a hideous system long after the world outlawed and abolished it, America denies responsibility for slavery's impact on blacks. The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time is hip-hop/spoken word's "red pill" bringing a new consciousness that explodes the value of knowledge. Choose the "red pill, sleep not." Far too many awaken each day and tell themselves one more "blue pill" will make everything all right because the gangsters are on our side.

The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time grinds this angry bitter jaded cynical reality into a "text message" that takes consciousness from the rough edges of hip-hop to the heart of mainstream denial. Yohannes challenges fallacies and myths that paint today's youth as gangsters. He illuminates hip-hop's conscious side by showcasing talent over commercialism, substance over image, love over sex and mind over money. In the truest tradition of hip-hop, Yohannes takes consciousness to the next level. With this new joint, he moves beyond survival issues to new possibilities of prosperity for slave descendants and others in the Diaspora. Atlanta Vibe Homepage and Other Essays by John Burl Smith

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Three Decatur, GA record shops are spotted for pushing the "early bird special" breakout CD The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time. Get one and be first to blow your crew's mind with conscious hip-hop.

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404-284-6155

(2) Vibe Music & More...

145 B Sycamore/Decatur Sq.

404-373-5099

(3) Discover Music

120 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.

404-373-0524

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The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro goes to public school. This is the time of year devoted to taking standardized tests. When asked for comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro groused, "My brain needs rest." Back to the Bat Cave

By Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam

And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it? Can't you feel it?

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer

Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune

But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail

School children sitting in jail

Black cat cross my path

I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here...I don't belong there

I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me...I tell you

Me and my people just about due

I've been there so I know

They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble..."do it slow"

Washing the windows..."do it slow"

Picking the cotton..."do it slow"

You're just plain rotten..."do it slow"

You're too damn lazy..."do it slow"

The thinking's crazy..."do it slow"

Where am I going? What am I doing?

I don't know...I don't know

Just try to do your very best

Stand up be counted with all the rest

For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin'

Picket lines...School boy cots

They try to say it's a communist plot

All I want is equality

for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years

You told me to wash and clean my ears

And talk real fine just like a lady

And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies

You're all gonna die and die like flies

I don't trust you any more

You keep on saying "Go slow!"

"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble.."do it slow"

Desegregation..."do it slow"

Mass participation.."do it slow"

Reunification..."do it slow"

Do things gradually.."do it slow"

But bring more tragedy..."do it slow"

Why don't you see it

Why don't you feel it

I don't know...I don't know

You don't have to live next to me

Just give me my equality

Everybody knows about Mississippi

Everybody knows about Alabama

Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That's it!

About Me: The "high priestess" of soul, the incomparable Ms. Nina Simone was born on February 21, 1933. She died on April 20, 2003 at her home in France. Simone was 70. The out-spoken soul singer left America because of racism. A close friend of Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., she often sang at civil rights marches in the 1960s. Her 1963 Mississippi Goddam voiced her frustration with the slow pace of progress in obtaining equal rights for blacks in America. Other Artists in the Venue

Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979)

The son of an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister, Asa Philip Randolph was born April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida. His parents were slave descendants. In 1891, the family moved to Jacksonville. A. Philip excelled at the Cookman Institute, the first high school for blacks in Florida. He graduated at the top of his class. Since he could not afford college, he worked.

Randolph went to New York in 1911. He took classes at City College, met and married Lucille Green. In 1917, he teamed with Chandler Owen, a Columbia University student, to start The Messenger, "the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes." It became the vehicle to deliver their views on black American life. Randolph saw the plight of blacks as a symptom of a larger social ill, i.e., an unfair distribution of power, resources and wealth.

In 1925, a group of porters sought Randolph's help in securing better wages and working conditions. On August 25, they formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), which began the first serious effort to unionize the powerful Pullman Company. Striking back with threats and firings, Pullman bought the black press, which maligned BSCP. Ministers and politicians called BSCP's members "reds" and "Communists" for daring to attack Pullman, "benefactor of the Negro race."

For years, BSCP struggled to gain recognition. New Deal legislation forced Pullman to bargain in 1935. With a policy reversal by the American Federation of Labor (AF of L), BSCP became an affiliate and was granted an international charter. A dispute within labor led to the expulsion of unions that wanted to organize by industry. This group became the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1937, BSCP, which stayed with the AF of L, obtained a contract with Pullman, the first ever between a company and a black union.

With this success, Randolph became a national spokesperson for dispossessed people-- blacks, poor whites, Puerto Ricans, Native and Mexican Americans. To those who feared his power, A. Philip Randolph became the "most dangerous Negro in America."

Pressured by Randolph's proposed March on Washington, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order banning discrimination in government hiring and among defense industries with government contracts. The1947 call by President Harry Truman for a peacetime draft did not outlaw segregation. Coerced by Randolph, Truman issued an executive order on July 26, 1948 barring discrimination in the military.

Despite Randolph's successes, the plight of blacks worsened with the late 1950s recession. Under George Meany, the newly merged AFL-CIO ceased to aggressively organize black workers. When Randolph stood to make his annual address against racism at the 1959 convention, Meany angrily rebuffed him.

Randolph called for a Jobs and Freedom March on Washington. He shared the responsibilities for the demonstration, which drew more than 200,000 people, with Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and James Farmer. Within a year of the historic August 28, 1963 march, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Elder statesman of the civil rights movement, A. Philip Randolph died in 1979. (Sources: www.pbs.org, www.aprihq.org and www.templeton-interactive.com.) Bit of History Homepage

Mississippi Catfish Fight

Many Mississippi welfare mothers forced to leave the public dole work on catfish farms. These mothers are valued at a $1.00 an hour. One dollar is the employer's contribution toward the minimum wage former welfare mothers receive; the federal government provides the farmer a $4.15 per hour tax credit to bring the worker's wage to the $5.15 per hour minimum.

According to Reverend Ronald V. Myers, Sr., a medical missionary working to improve health and socioeconomic conditions in the Mississippi Delta, "the catfish industry is the new plantation in America." It makes millions of dollars of profit off the labor of blacks that work under dehumanizing conditions. The Catfish Workers of America, an organization of current and former catfish workers, has been boycotting producer Freshwater Farms in an effort to force the company to increase wages and improve working conditions.

Mainly located in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the industry returns little of its profit to the black community. Yet, blacks consume most of the catfish produced by the industry. Your can help! Stop eating catfish! For information on how you can support catfish workers, e-mail MyersFound@aol.com or visit the web sites www.buffalofishfestival.com www.njclc.com or www.myersfoundation.net. News You Use Homepage

By John Burl Smith

As the hush of silent guns settle over the battlefields of Iraq, casualties are known and destruction has ceased. To share in the spoils, most have declared victory. This is the lament and dread of the occupied. Although the shooting has stopped, the "war of words" goes on, and in this war of attrition, daily assaults go unabated. The voices of protest are as quiet as a nuclear sunset of gray corpses.

Do we simply fold our tents and steal away into the night? Do we sit around regretting it ever happened or pound our chests in triumph? Has the world capitulated to international gangsterism and is now sliding down the slippery slope of Chamberlain's appeasement that led to Poland's invasion? History has shown that in the face of silence tyrants grow bolder. It was Sir Winston Churchill's incessant warnings about the evils of Nazism that rallied a cowed world. Without such an inspiring statesman today, protest may be the only hope to avoid the horrible fate that awaited Jews as Hitler gobbled up Europe.

The United Nations turned its back on the Iraqi people and now plans to legitimize the rape and plunder of their country by the so-called coalition of the willing. There is no coalition; it is the USA. If the UN does anything before condemning the USA's unilateral action, particularly now that no weapons of mass destruction have been found, it should hide its face in shame. The General Assembly should demand a debate on the whole issue of the USA's unilateral aggression. With Iran next, if the UN does not provide the world such a forum, it is sanctioning street protests as the only voice of dissent.

The major questions before the UN are, does the demand or need for democracy justify unilateral actions such as war? If so, who decides what is a just demand or need? Moreover, if such claims are justified, then the systematic and legal denial of equality and justice for blacks by America that continue without reparations today, while it uses the denial of these same rights as justification for invading Iraq, should top the agenda. Without such a complete and open hearing on these matters, the UN is only a rubberstamp for international gunboat gangsterism disguised as diplomacy. Other Essays by John Burl Smith

Email matekopoko@aol.com QUOTES for today   "CNN said that after the war, there is a plan to divide Iraq into three parts -- regular, premium and unleaded." (Jay Leno) "President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war. I'm thinking, well, hell! He didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either!" (David Letterman) "In the time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." (George Orwell) "A lot of people have died worldwide over the last fifty years because some American Democrats didn't want to be called unpatriotic or weak." (Daniel Ellesberg)

Email epiphany@sc.rr.com From www.rediff.com/us/2003/mar/31iraq3.htm …The US and UK, which invaded Iraq ostensibly to strip that country of its weapons of mass destruction, now stand accused of using some of the worst WMDs to overcome the resistance of an army, weakened by 12 years of UN sanctions. Reports say the US used depleted uranium shells, a sub-nuclear weapon, in Al Kifl, a small town on the Euphrates river south of Baghdad. Several newspapers and Web sites reported their use.

Email MurphySmithC@aol.com We are being robbed by the Bush Administration. They are starting wars in order to use military equipment and make their friends rich at the expense of average US citizens. They are sending our young people to fight and die so they can make money. Isn't that a crime? In addition, they want to control the world and all its oil. They want to create a class society with the rich and the peasants. We will be the peasants. The sad part is they are using "our" tax money to do it. They are robbing us.

Email corvus.studios@verizon.net Bush's new Iraqi puppet is a convict. In 1992, Ahmed Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison for bank fraud after the 1990 collapse of Petra Bank, which he had founded in 1977. He has always maintained the case was a plot to frame him by Baghdad. The issue of Chalabi conviction was revisited later when the State Department raised questions about the Iraqi National Congress' accounting practices.

Email alef@g0lem.net The U.S. is a major sponsor of state-terrorism. In countries where human rights abuses occur, torture is used and people are arbitrarily arrested, the U.S. supports "freedom fighters," a euphemism for terrorists in those countries we do not like. It should not come as a surprise then when terrorism is used against the United States. Many of our so-called freedom fighters are Islamic fundamentalists. More Mailbox

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