Volume 7 Issue 5…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 30, 2004

By John Burl Smith

During the run-up to the UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance (WCAR), Poets For Peace, an Atlanta Vibe consortium of artists, declared a "war of words" to blow up its August 16, 2001 international speak out against racism. Despite disclaimers regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before the US-led invasion, the war continues. Nations believe, live and die by words. From speeches, judgements are made about the credibility, reliability, verifiability and comparability of things claimed against reality.

Obfuscation hides or obscures reality by minimizing the existence of contradictory facts or the impact of actions. Justification rather than explanation of facts or actions, obfuscation characterizes omissions as "unknowns or unknowables." They strip words of their context by reflecting obtusely from an oblique perspective. Obfuscation attempts to obligate listeners to accept the speaker's right to have held such a slanted view, which is now contradicted by facts on the ground.

Imminent threats from WMD filled the air, like bullets over a battlefield, as George Bush and supporters made specific claims to convince the world that Saddam Hussein "has weapons of mass destruction" and the only option in disarming him was "war." British Prime Minister Tony Blair was even more specific; he claimed Hussein could launch a WMD strike in "45 minutes." Unequivocally, Bush and Blair were so certain about the imminence of the threat, both defied world opinion, contradictory intelligence at the time and declarations by UNSCOM personnel that they destroyed most, if not all, of Iraq's WMD before 1998. Emphatically, Blair and Bush denied UN inspectors 60 additional days to find what everyone knows today did not exist. In total possession and access to the country, Bush now refuses to accept his search team's findings. It is clear, there was nothing Iraq could have done to avoid Bush's war.

The real victims of Bush and Blair's impulsively emotional "shock and awe" response to what they thought they gleamed from reading Saddam's mind are the thousands of innocent Iraqis that have died and continue to die under US occupation. Consider how many shopkeepers, health care workers, teachers, news reporters, bakers, taxi drivers, UN and other diplomats would be alive had Bush and Blair waited 60 days.

Lacking moral clarity, Bush and Blair seem oblivious to the reality their words alone are responsible for the deaths in Iraq. Without remorse, it is as if Bush and Blair were driven by their own impulsive emotional appeals. Even now, they do not seem burdened by their callous use of such awesome responsibility. Both appear to feel they can balance the scales of justice by using "regime change" to obfuscate the pain, death and destruction caused by their totally unnecessary war.

Summarily, the truth of this war of words hinges on whether or not the rush to war was justified based on what was known and knowable. Or, was it an impulsive decision based on revenge and greed calculated to gain control of Iraq's oil to enrich Bush's friends and family? In either event, the facts known then and now contradict rather than verify an imminent threat from Saddam's WMD. So, words cannot justify the rush to war. Consequently, "regime change" cannot be substituted for nonexistent WMD, like a footnote, as justification to minimize the deaths of thousands. Obfuscation cannot make the world safe from terror!

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is multi-talented. Artist, actor and all-around good guy, he was recently chosen to participate in his public school's Black History Month program. When asked about his selection for the choir, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro lowered his voice an octave and declared, "I am a bass."

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950)

"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.... If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated." --Dr. Carter G. Woodson

The "Father of Black History," US educator and historian Carter G. Woodson was born on December 19, 1875 in Buckingham County, Virginia to impoverished ex-slaves Anne Eliza (Riddle) and James Henry Woodson. Eldest of nine children, Woodson's formal education took a backseat to work. While his parents lacked a formal education, Woodson later credited his father with insisting that "learning to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your fellow man, or to betray your people, is to lose your soul."

After moving to West Virginia, where he hoped to attend the Douglass High School, Woodson was instead forced to earn his living as a miner. In 1895, he entered Douglass High School and received his diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, he taught school. In 1900, he became principal of Douglass High. Woodson received his Bachelor degree from Berea College in Kentucky and studied as an exchange student at Lincoln University. From 1903 to 1907, he served as a school supervisor in the Philippines.

On extensive travels through Asia, North Africa and Europe, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge led to proficiencies in Spanish and French. Woodson studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before earning his M.A. from the University of Chicago (1908) and Ph.D. from Harvard University (1912). While researching his Ph.D., Woodson taught English, Spanish, French and history at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

Before Woodson, history textbooks obfuscated and minimized black contributions to civilization. He realized, in time, black contributions would be forgotten and claimed by others. He devoted his life to ensuring the world understood the role blacks played in the development and prosperity of America. In 1915, he and several friends in Chicago established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The following year it published Journal of Negro History, a quarterly.

From 1919-1920, Woodson was dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University and West Virginia Institute from 1920 to 1922. He retired from teaching in 1922 to write, edit and promote black history. His efforts led to the development of African American Studies departments. In 1926, he founded Negro History Week; it became Black History Month.

In 1937, he published the Negro History Bulletin. Dr. Woodson authored more than 30 books, including Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915), A Century of Negro Migration (1918), History of the Negro Church (1921) and The Rural Negro (1930). In his famous The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), Dr. Woodson wrote: "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."

Dr. Woodson received an honorary L.L.D. degree from Virginia State College in 1941. He was working on a projected six-volume Encyclopedia Africana at the time of his death on April 3, 1950 in Washington, D.C. (Sources: www.chipulib.org, www.cwo.com and www.uh.edu)

Grassroots Campaign to Impeach Bush Cabal

According to www.democrats.com co-founder Bob Ferik (bob@democrats.com), President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 for lying about a sexual liaison. Lying about war is infinitely worse than lying about fornication. From David Kay, we learned Iraq 'all but abandoned' its WMD programs and destroyed its weapons after 1991.

There is a groundswell for impeachment of George W. Bush and his cabal for lying about the need for war. Unlike Clinton's lie, which was thoroughly investigated, Bush's lie has caused thousands of deaths and cost billions of dollars. A "self-investigation" by the Bush administration is wholly inadequate. On the ground, everyday people, family members of those killed in Iraq and others are calling for an independent investigation with an eye towards impeachment.

Support for the grassroots impeachment effort is growing. Many members of Congress have already been contacted. Many more will be urged to openly address and support the grassroots call for impeachment.

Classic While Black: NY Update

By John Burl Smith

Early Saturday (1-24-04) three young people ascended the stairs in the Louis Armstrong public housing complex in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant community. They opened a stairwell door and a shot rang out. The bullet struck 19 year old Timothy Stansbury in the chest, killing him instantly. Falling backwards, he and his companions rolled down the stairs. Lying at the bottom in total terror, the two survivors, Terrance Fisher, 19, and Shawn Rhames, 23, were shocked to see two New York City police standing at the top of the stairs, one holding a smoking gun.

The cop with the smoking gun was Richard Neri, an 11-year veteran of the NYPD. Neri said they were checking doors, stairwells and rooftops when the door swung open and he fired. He said guns were drawn, because menacing dogs attack police in stairwells. Neri did not shout any warning before firing nor were they responding to a reported crime. Neri fired before he saw who or what was on the other side of the door.

Classic! Instantly, the obfuscation began with NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who called the shooting "unjustified" and convened a panel of borough-level commanders to review tactical and training issues. District Attorney Charles J. Hayes of Brooklyn said he believes "there is enough evidence to support a charge of criminally negligent homicide" or "second-degree manslaughter." Neri was told to surrender his badge and gun and placed on paid restricted duty.

Skeptical of an indictment, Richard D. Emery, a civil rights lawyer said, "they almost always come up with something to justify the shooting of unarmed black men." When Officer Brian George shot and killed a 13 year-old black child holding a toy gun in the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn in 1994, Hayes did not seek an indictment. Gidone Busch, an emotionally disturbed black man, was killed in 1999 by police who said he held a hammer in a threatening manner. In March 2000, Patrick Dorismond was shot to death by an undercover detective, who said he mistook him for a drug dealer. The grand jury refused to indict him.

Last year a federal judge dismissed a first-degree manslaughter indictment against Jude Tanella, a federal narcotics agent who shot an unarmed drug dealer in the back. More recently in May, an undercover officer shot to death Ousmane Zongo, an unarmed Burkina Fuso immigrant. The officer has not been charged. The four NYPD officers acquitted of killing Amadou Diallo who stood in the vestibule of his apartment building, said they "mistook his wallet for a gun."

The hip hop terminology "while black" is a response to the obfuscation whites throw out to minimize police killing black men. Such obfuscation glosses over the fact white men do not die at the hands of cops as black men. A residual mind-set from slavery, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and black codes of the 1900s, whites see the deaths of unarmed black men as maintaining law and order. Whites dismiss as irrelevant the fact that the black victim committed no crime or the alleged infraction did not carry the death penalty. Obfuscation is a veil for racism.

Boston Update

Israel Vazquez-Robles, a 56 -year-old disabled Vietnam veteran, was fatally shot in his car outside the Villa Victoria (VV) apartments by a private security guard. Security officers claim Robles tried to run them down with his car, after being told he was parked illegally. There appears to be no witnesses to the incident at this time. However, VV residents complained to management about security guards' rough treatment. Anna Rivera, who has lived at VV for 15 years said, "Most mornings he buys a Herald and a cup of coffee, then sits in his car, listens to salsa music and reads. He feels alone, so he comes every day to talk politics and Red Sox baseball. Now he is dead. Classic!

Disgruntled wants to know: The US Juvenile Justice System is a microcosm of the nation. Statistics compiled by numerous governmental and private sector organizations tell the tale of two inherently unequal systems: one for black offenders and the other for white teenagers. From discipline meted out in public schools to application of the death penalty in capital cases, blacks are more harshly punished. Moreover, when innocent blacks are profiled and subjected to police brutality, there is no justice. In the case of Donovan Jackson, videotape served as eyewitness; a hung jury sets free the cop that slammed the handcuffed teen on a police cruiser and punched him in the face. What message does this and countless 'while black' cases send to young people?

Disgruntled says: In a recent New York Times' in-depth examination of Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5, 2003 intelligence briefing before the United Nations, a number of discrepancies were belatedly enumerated. Millions of Americans joined citizens around the world in vehement opposition to war. US media, rather than join the chorus for peace or behave as a neutral third party to counter government propaganda, acted as drum majors for a preemptive invasion. Just as history will not be kind to George W. Bush for his spendthrift warmongering, nor will it view with favor the lapdog tendencies of US media.

Disgruntled feels: Color-coded! Three teens went to the rescue of a Chinese woman being mugged on a Seattle street. Cops arrived on the scene. The teens were identified as the muggers. The woman could not speak English. Cuffed and carted off to jail, the boys, Yi Ming (Asian), Ken (mixed Asian/black) and Rico (black), received bails of $10,000, $20,000 and $25,000, respectively. No one who knew them believed the charge. The police put an interpreter on the case, and the victim cleared the teens; they received neither apology nor reimbursement for thousands of dollars in legal fees. This is typical in a color-coded society!

Criminal Justice: White and Black

"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die. And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal

A law and order advocate, Bill Janklow, a former state attorney general, governor and South Dakota congressman, recently received a 100-day jail sentence following a manslaughter conviction. Recklessly speeding, Janklow ran a stop sign killing a motorcyclist. The jury conviction for manslaughter could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence. However, the judge expunged Janklow's felony record and sentenced the former lawmaker to what amounts to 30 nights in jail, after which he will be released during the day to perform some unknown community service. There are literally hundreds of thousands of men, women and juvenile offenders that have not killed anyone spending more time behind bars than Janklow. See www.citizen.org.

A case in point is the statutory rape and aggravated child molestation conviction of teenager Marcus Dixon that resulted in a mandatory minimum 10-year jail sentence based on Georgia law. Dixon, a black Rome, Georgia honor student and star athlete with a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University was accused by a white classmate of rape. Since the sentencing, several jurors have confessed that they had no idea such a harsh sentence would be imposed. Based on trial testimony, it appears the sex was consensual, but the girl was a few months shy of her sixteenth birthday. Moreover, she apparently feared her father, an avowed racist, which may account for her different characterization of the encounter. In any event, rather than being in college, Dixon is serving time in prison.

Save Marcus Dixon has become a cause for any number of groups and individuals, including his white adoptive parents, Kenneth and Peri Jones, who have faced racism regarding raising this black child since age nine from members of their own family and community. Learn more about Dixon, his conviction and efforts to free him from prison at http:///www.act4justice.com. Get involved and help save a life.

Another case that highlights the dichotomy between black and white justice is the death sentence faced by Kevin Cooper. Convicted of the 1984 slaying of four people, Cooper maintains his innocence, which is corroborated by the only eyewitness that claims three men committed these murders and tried to kill him. Cooper is the only person brought to trial for the crime the witness said was committed by three white or Latino men. Cooper is black. For more about Cooper, his conviction, pending February 10, 2004 execution in California and what you can do to help save his life, log on to www.savekevincooper.org. Time is precious! To prevent another miscarriage of justice, act today!

Email www.msnbc.com A recent Newsweek poll had 26,158 responses to the question "Did the White House knowingly misrepresent intelligence on Iraq? Of the respondents, eighteen percent said No--The administration was misled, too. Six percent responded --- I don't know. The vast majority (76%) responded in the affirmative. Yes ----Bush and Cheney knew the intelligence was wrong.

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