Volume 6 Issue 50…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…December 19, 2003

Touching People Tour

Beginning December 18, 2003, spoken word artists Aqiyl Thomas, We One and Yohannes Sharriff will kick off the Touching People Tour with an appearance at the Lyrics Café in Charlotte, NC. Located at 3200 Monroe Road, Lyrics Café is the premier black urban arts forum in the South, featuring "only the best and brightest stars."

Fitting these criteria, the Atlanta Vibe artists are going on the road with a new concept for reaching fans. Working the last five years developing material based on their experiences, they built performances around their visions of the world. This time around, they are going directly to the people for inspiration. The trio will use a variety of formats designed to connect with the people and allow the people to share their visions of the world with them as the trio develops new material.

The trio's primary goal is to revive hip-hop's original purpose. Giving people an authentic means to express their frustrations, hopes and dreams is the motivation for this tour and kickoff performance at the Lyrics Café. In addition to performing at local venues, the trio will be networking with local activists, students, artists, spiritual and cultural groups, as well as, fans who simply want to vibe with them.

A work in progress, this evolving concept will utilize the Internet to build networks of sisters and brothers interested in being a part of the hip-hop revival. The DISH will host a Touching People Tour web page to inform fans of tour stops, what's happening, performance dates, people and places.

In an interview, Yohannes said of the tour, "Hip hop and spoken word continue Africa's oral tradition. We want to be like minstrels or blues singers during the 1920s and '30s. They not only entertained, they connected people and communities with information as they moved from place to place."

The DISH network will facilitate planning events that the traveling trio wants included in the tour or fans who simply want to hang out with Yohannes, We One and Aqiyl. For more info hit up Aqiyl on the road Aqiyl@aol.com or www.undergroundepic.com and Yohannes at thinc@surfglobal.net or www.thedish.org to visit the Touching People Tour web page.

By Crystal Cartier

Teach your children how to fly before they leave the nest

Then they'll be able to survive

and pass any of Life's tests

Teach them how to read

Teach them how to write

Teach them how to love and effectively speak

instead of having to physically fight

Children must be properly cultivated

to grow up wise, brave and strong

If not properly fertilized and supported

they may grow up twisted and wrong

So teach your children how to fly

before they leave the nest

insuring their survival...then you can take a rest

Be forewarned or watch them die

Pray teach your children how to fly

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is flying high. Filled with brotherly love and good cheer, he and his sidekick, Boy Wonder, a.k.a. Ty-Chi, anxiously count down the days until the school holiday recess is here. With plans complete for two weeks of fun and games, the Dynamic Duo would like to wish their fans, "Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year!"

Constitutional Equality in Public Education

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court strictly constructed the US Constitution and created a climate conducive for discrimination based on skin color (race). Plessy's "separate-but-equal doctrine" served as the legal standard of equality in every socioeconomic and political interaction between black and white Americans until Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). Before Brown, a number of court cases challenged the constitutionality of the Plessy doctrine.

In Cumming v. Board of Education (1899), the Georgia County board closed the black high school for financial hardships while maintaining the high school for whites. Black taxpayers filed suit to prevent the use of public funds to support the white high school so long as no public high school education was provided for black children. The state court denied the requested relief, and the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision.

The Court continued to sanction segregation and unequal treatment in Berea College v. Kentucky (1908) by ruling constitutional a Kentucky statute, which required public and private educational institutions to separate blacks and whites. Reinforcing Berea, the Court upheld Mississippi's power to exclude Orientals from white public schools in Gong Lum v. Rice (1927)

A decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals in Pearson v. Murray (1936) signaled a change in judicial philosophy. The University of Maryland School of Law denied admission to a qualified black applicant. In lieu of admission, the school offered him an out-of-state scholarship. Rather than uphold the state remedy of a future law school for blacks, the court ruled immediate equality meant admission to the white law school.

The Supreme Court adopted a similar stance in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). It rejected Missouri's "out-of state scholarship arrangement." In stressing equal treatment, it held that, "consistent with the constitutional standard of equality, admission to the white law school was the only appropriate remedy." The Court affirmed Gaines in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948).

Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas responded to Gaines by establishing separate law schools for blacks. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) raised the issue of comparable facilities in Texas' law schools. The Court ruled educational opportunities at the black law school unequal to those afforded whites at the University of Texas. Stopping short of overturning Plessy, the Court recognized law schools could not "be effective in isolation from the individuals and institutions with which the law interacts."

Announced the same day as Sweatt, McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950) further eroded Plessy. McLaurin, a black graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, was segregated from white students through special seating in the classroom, library and cafeteria. The Court found the seating policy in conflict with the equal protection clause, and it impaired McLaurin's "ability to study, to engage in discussion and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession."

After Sweatt and McLaurin, legal challenges to segregation turned to K-12 education. In December 1950, the first case challenged South Carolina's school segregation laws. Suits were filed in Kansas, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia (DC). All five cases raised the issue of equal protection. In each case, the lower courts upheld the separate-but-equal doctrine.

On appeal to the Supreme Court, the four state cases were consolidated in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, infra. The DC case, Bolling v. Sharpe (1954), was decided under the 5th Amendment's due process clause, since the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause is not applicable to DC policies.

On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled Plessy unconstitutional in public education. For nearly fifty years under the Brown edict of "all deliberate speed" in ending public school segregation, the country marched in place. The slow pace of implementation, efforts to stack the courts with strict construction judges to reverse Brown and legal challenges have mooted the landmark decision. Today, public schools are as segregated as when the Court handed down Brown. (Sources: Civil Liberties and the Constitution: Cases and Commentaries by L.K. Barker and T.W. Barker, Jr. and Law and Social Change: Civil Rights Laws and Their Consequences by H.R. Rodgers, Jr. and C. S. Bullock)

Disgruntled says: Hooray for the hip-hop revival! Calling on the Catholic Church hierarchy to "repent," hip-hop diva Lauryn Hill, getting in touch with her roots, blasted the church's leadership for its moral corruption, exploitation and abuses. Apropos, Hill delivered her damning indictment at a Vatican Christmas concert. Stunned by the vamp's vitriolic views, Lauryn's lashing left the Holy See speechless.

Disgruntled feels: Ensnared! News of the "surprise" capture of Baghdad bad boy Saddam Hussein has newsrooms buzzing. Cyber critics believe it is all hype. Most see this latest feather in Dubya's cap as a devious decoy deflecting attention away for the lies told to start this war and build reelection momentum. They see gullible Americans falling for the ploy. If that happens, the country will be ensnared in the neocon contraption, which means four more years of divisive politics, such as appointing strict construction judges to the courts, and the rest of Dubya's agenda of death and destruction!

Disgruntled wants to know: Since scientists generally agree there is only one human race, there is a push afoot to end all references to racism. As one would expect, Ward Connerly-type blacks are leading the move. Eradicating traditional terms of reference will pose its own problems. For instance, how does one describe the plight of black Americans, if institutionalized racism is not used? Should we say institutionalized colorism?

By John Burl Smith

Cincinnati lies just north of Dixie in Ohio and was a junction on the "Underground Railroad" for runaway slaves headed to freedom. Certainly better than the lash and lynch system of brutality that reduced Africans to beasts of burden in the Deep South, Cincinnati was not the "promised land." Following the end of Reconstruction, southern blacks began the greatest voluntary migration in US history. Leaving the South by three routes, blacks by the thousands went up the eastern seaboard as far as Boston, up the Mississippi River through Memphis to Chicago and the middle passage through Cincinnati to Cleveland into Canada.

The steel belt buckle, Cincinnati funneled workers into mills, mines and foundries throughout the Ohio valley. As long as cheap labor was needed, Cincinnati welcomed blacks with open arms. With foreign competition and cheap steel, the steel belt became the rust belt. Millions of blacks that dug iron ore, shoveled coal, pushed coke oven doors and fought heat in blast furnaces were obsolete. Cities and businesses found their policy of "last hired first fried" produced large numbers of unemployed blacks, which translated into huge welfare burdens.

Reminiscent of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and black codes after the Civil War, Cincinnati's police adopted get-tough-zero-tolerance policies toward crime and blacks. Aggressive policing accomplished two ends, a reduced number of blacks on the streets and prisons provided jobs for white former steel workers. Making black men the face of crime and the police saviors standing between law-abiding whites and lawless blacks, whites justify whatever police do to maintain control. There is no record of whites dying as blacks at the hands of police, which are supposed to protect and serve.

Today, Cincinnati is the poster city for police killing unarmed blacks. The untold story is about the ones who are routinely beaten but do not die. Black Cincinnati citizens organized an international economic boycott of the city in 2000. So, until the city demands police respect and protect the lives of all citizens, they ask people around the world not to visit Cincinnati as a lifesaving measure.

More than economic, Cincinnati citizens are concerned for the safety of blacks visiting or passing through their city, because "we all look alike." They feel blacks visiting their city with family or class reunions, senior trips, vacations, etc., will be putting their loved ones in harm's way, because Cincinnati police enforce black codes. They urge everyone to consider what may happen to their loved ones in Cincinnati alone at night on a dark street "driving while black."

Kudos! Kudos!

Predominantly black South DeKalb County, Georgia is a favorite destination of blacks returning to the South. Steered by realtors, unsuspecting newcomers often buy homes near landfills or other funk factories. Long victimized by environmental racism, South DeKalb is home to most of the waste facilities in the region.

Kudos to the South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition, Inc. (SDNC) for pressuring officials to close Live Oak Landfill. The largest funky factory in South DeKalb and the region, Live Oak is owned by Waste Management. Annually, it collects about 1.2 million tons of garbage from Georgia, Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee.

On last week, Administrative Law Judge W. Joseph Baird affirmed the 2002 order directing the facility to cease operations by December 2004. This ruling is an historical achievement for South DeKalb residents. Kudos to SDNC and the other activists that fought against the odds to improve the environment!

Campaign to Stop Honoring Slavery Advocates

In late October, George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of NNPA News Service, wrote a cogent column about the slavery advocates' names often found on K-12 public schools across the South. Curry's article was written in response to an email from Dr. Erenestine Harrison. She asked: "Would Jews send their children to Adolph Hitler Elementary School?" Dr. Harrison went on to tell Curry about efforts to rename two Hampton, Virginia schools. Named after slavery advocates, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis Elementary Schools have student bodies that are 95% and 67% black, respectively.

Dr. Harrison is mobilizing her community to make the change, not in anger or hate, but in recognition of the importance of names. Forcing black children to attend schools that honor men who wanted to keep blacks in slavery can be psychologically devastating. She is encouraging communities across the nation to join the campaign to stop honoring slavery advocates.

Stress on Health

Environmental factors, whether au naturel or man-made, play important roles in determining the state of the human condition. One environmental factor often overlooked is stress. Our fast-paced lifestyle and the pressure to succeed generate a tremendous amount of stress. Physicians are treating patients as young as five for stress-related health problems typically found in adults. These young people, self-driven or pushed by parents to succeed, have little time to be children.

Intuitively, the stress level for those burdened by artificial barriers to success, such as discrimination based solely on skin color, must be even greater. A 2001 survey conducted by Dr. Sharon Davis, chief of the Social Epidemiology Research Division at Morehouse College, found an empirical correlation between racism and stress. Other medical studies have identified stress as an important contributing factor in hypertension. There is an unusually high prevalence of high blood pressure and its related health problems among black Americans. While other studies will have to be performed, the Morehouse survey and the existing body of medical research provide ample reason for us to strive even harder to rid our environment of racism.

Inferred Racism

By John N. Smith

Just received my first 'issue' of THE DISH. Thank you for some very interesting reading. I would, however, like to comment on "institutionalized" racism.

The "Redneck", whether north or south, who by words or deeds makes his racism overtly known, can be avoided, challenged by the law and even voted out of public office. The subtle influences of a black hat/white hat culture which defines bad vs. good by color, i.e. prince of darkness vs. the prince of light, devil's food cake vs. angel food cake, even a reference to black moods vs. sunny dispositions are as insidious as the "buried-deep racism" we do not recognize. We wear black for mourning and white for baptism or marriage. And so it goes.....on and on.

One of the tragic truths of racism in the USA is that it is so ingrained in our culture that few can openly admit that we are a racist nation. The inestimable harm that is done to a black child by simply being seen through the acculturated screen of subtlety racist perceptions in a 'hidden' racist culture is far worse than most realize.

How many whites quickly click the door locks in their cars if they come upon a few Black kids on a street corner? How closely watched are Black shoppers in stores (any kind of stores)? How often do educators write off the potential of Black students without even realizing the damage done by their "hidden" racist perceptions?

My favorite defense of the institutionalized racist is "...I'm color blind." This simply says to me that they consider Black people so insignificant that they don't even see them. In order to eliminate this "hidden" racism, we would first have to admit it exists, it is wrong and, second, be willing to work at changing our perceptions and thereby raise a generation of Americans who will..."judge" people, "... not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

About Me: A septuagenarian civil rights pioneer and activist in the peace movement, I have lived, worked and played in a truly diverse environment, wherein all colors of the human rainbow were represented. "I consider myself very fortunate and indeed blessed to have had so many incredible people in my life." Send comments about this article to Jayes70@webtv.net.

THINC  || 2003 Issues || The DISH