The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol.
8 Issue 12…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…March 25, 2005
Atlanta Vibe
By John Burl Smith
April is Poetry Month and The DISH uses
the occasion to spotlight poetry venues and significant events and discusses
the latest happenings on the spoken word scene. One of the oldest forms of entertainment,
oral presentations have deep roots in African culture.
For centuries, especially in the US, spoken word
was the only means for blacks to communicate family heritage, customs, folklore
and accounts of our desperate struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
Without this tradition, blacks in the US would have no knowledge of their
connection to Africa that was maintained by griots, shamans and oracles that
passed on their wisdom through the spoken word. Consequently, Poetry Month is
an excellent time to emphasize reading poetry and oral events for family
entertainment and information.
Continuing this tradition, Yohannes Sharriff has
emerged as an outstanding spoken word artist. His 2004 tour of Europe, which
began in Amsterdam, introduced the Atlanta Vibe to the world. Beginning 2005,
as a member of Smooth As Kappuchino's Fifth Element, Yohannes toured Japan with
Zapp and P-Funk. As a prelude to Poetry Month, Yohannes offered his
international perspective on spoken word to our readers.
After eight years performing, Yohannes tell us
what has been your most significant realization? "It is vital to maintain
your identify as an artist and as a person. Sometimes, for good or ill, fans
and people in the entertainment business expect things of you and want you to
live up to their expectations. Such expectations are mostly fantasies. Artist
can't live out their own fantasies, let alone those of others. Remembering who
you are and hanging on to that keep one from getting lost in the show business
shuffle."
Considering success, what would you say is most
important? "That's easy - opportunity and experience! Without opportunity,
one never acquires experience. The pressure of doing reveals flaws that may be
personality quirks, which can get in the way of success. Opportunity and
experience reflect flaws like a mirror."
Although a successful poet, you moved to stage
productions in chancy plays like Soul Journey, produced by Leatrice
Ellzy and The Dance of Fatherhood, produced by Jeanine Hightower. Why
do you take chances with unknowns? "First, working with those two very
talented and dynamic women was not chancy. As I said, opportunity and
experience are musts. Next, I work with people who want to work with me and who
are willing to allow me to develop new skills. More importantly, black men have
some real issues when it comes to our women. Such issues may play out
humorously, but they are definitely not funny. Both productions dealt with
positive messages in that regard."
Last question, since collaborating with Aqyil
Thomas to write, direct, produce and perform in The Block, you and he
have toured together (Touching People Tour) and now are part of Smooth As
Kappuchino's new spoken word/hip hop collective "Fifth Element," have
the two of you found a special bond fans identify with and appreciate?
"Well, I hope so! It is great working with Aqiyl. He is not afraid to try
new things that elevate spoken word. That was what The Block was all
about. Now about Fifth Element, this is a project that involves other poets and
it requires more of both of us. We must have the right chemistry with other
poets. The Tokyo tour was a first and the fans were great. The group experience
has allowed me to develop more skills, like MC and beat box. We are even
working on some dance routines. Fans in Japan responded so enthusiastically and
receptively to our new concept that we feel we are definitely taking spoken
word in a new direction. Such a prospect is a great way to kick off Poetry
Month."
Intuit’s Vibe
Where There’s
Smoke
By Yohannes Sharriff
Where there’s smoke
Arms and alarms
police the scene
The media sling fear
and we crack like fiends
Homeland security
encoded like DaVinci or Sufi text
Blessed by these
Decatur streets; they raised me
So crazy on the
chessboard of life ain’t no crystal stair
Where there’s smoke
I know it’s either
pass or fail,
‘Cause these times
are tests
Like ESPN replaying
Ron up the stands
To man handle
hecklers slinging ice in the face
It’s all fun and games
when the animals are
locked behind bars
And zookeepers guard
against another Armistad
Or Spartacus marching
against Rome
The Roman Catholic
Church not only condoned
But drew income from
the slave trade
While some feel safe
in their homes,
choirboys get raped
by priests
While devils play
Ebay for angel wings,
I’m wining off
Internet porn with a poem
Where there’s smoke
So artificial, cut
this life and it bleeds silicon
Breast and ass
implanted white bitches
Get fucked by niggas
like it’s the big pay back
While the slave
revolt of 1811 fries my synapse
Mashing thru windows
and doors
Minds foam at the
mouth
Spouting prime time
propaganda
Robber barons drove a
pipeline thru Persia
Electorate for
purchase
Bechtel, Carlyle, and
Halliburton
Bin Laden’s been a
part of their circus
So why would armchair
murders ever look nervous?
Where there’s smoke
Ex‑heads of CIA
leave that for soldiers,
Surgeons and
insurgents
Virgins and beheaded
hostages
Shell shock refugees
and Abu Ghraib detainees
Indeed Krs‑One
said, “Love’s gonna get you!”
And, I do believe
karma monitors every step, every deed
Death savors every
breath we breathe
So be careful what
sows your seeds
Since we control no
outcome intention is everything
Besides there’s no
escaping the reaper
So even if life is a
bitch, you better know how to treat her
Where there’s smoke
Hungry minds read the
encyclopedia
And find Afghanistan
used to grow walnuts and olives
Now only poppy
harvested for profit with pockets deep enough to cop hits
of US terrorism
dripping military polish
To cut thru the
politics masked men kidnap foreign operatives,
chop off heads of
state, and plot twist post doctorate
knowledge copped at
western colleges
Surprise! It’s rebels in white shirts
and blue collars with
degrees
High enough to set
the city aglow like phosphorus
Ready to cock pis and
pop it like it’s hot
Cause when it’s time
you exploit all options
whether toting
exploding objects
or locking down
cockpits
Battling a proxy
govern‑mint established to benefit the occupiers
And I’m a little
tense
as British petroleum
pumps American Oil
Air fills my tires
The detail employs
fiends for hire
Homeless and hunger
huddle around the pyre
The sounds of sirens
and shots blend in with the choir
The fat lady dressed
in her best attire
Ready to tie up loose
ends at the register
Press “yes” on the
keypad to pay for petro and a bag of peanuts
Scan the radio and
NPR discusses medical implants,
Cell phone self
checkout and homeland security on the wire
And, know just down the road is the pied piper
‘Cause where there’s
smoke
The Dark Knight-Batman\White Ninja\Zorro is rapidly maturing into a real super
hero ready to take on some young adult responsibilities. He was recently placed
in charge in our absence. On assuming the reins of power, he immediately
commanded his sidekick, Tychi, who is known far and wide to be something of a
pest, to "Shut up!" When chided for being so rough, the Dark
One/Ninja Zorro groused, "You said I was in charge!"
Charles Hamilton
Houston (1895-1950)
On September 3, 1895, Charles
Hamilton Houston was born in Washington, DC. At age twelve, he entered M Street
High School (later Dunbar H. S.), the first black high school in the United
States. On a partial scholarship, Houston enrolled at Amherst (1911), where he
felt the sting of racism and alienation as the only black in his class (1915);
he graduated with honors.
After Amherst, Houston taught at Howard University in Washington, DC. In 1917,
when the US entered WWI, Houston sought officer training to avoid becoming
front-line cannon fodder like most draft age blacks. He served in France and
came away from his Jim Crow army experience resolved to fight racial injustice.
According to Houston, "The hate and scorn showered on Negro officers by
our fellow Americans…convinced me there was no sense in dying for a world ruled
by them."
In 1919, Houston enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he became the first
black editor of the Harvard Law Review. After earning his Bachelor of Laws
(1922) and doctorate (1923), Houston studied at the University of Madrid. His
graduate studies also took him to Algeria and Tunisia, before he returned to
Washington, DC to join his father's law practice (1924) and teach part-time at
Howard University.
Under his leadership as vice dean (1929-35), the Howard University Law School
earned its American Bar Association accreditation. Houston's efforts to elevate
the status of Howard attracted many promising black applicants, including
Thurgood Marshall, who had been denied admission to the University of Maryland.
Houston also served as special counsel to the NAACP; he became its first
full-time, paid lawyer. In 1934, he convinced the NAACP to concentrate its
legal efforts on ending discrimination in education. Believing
"discrimination in education ..symbolic of all the more drastic
discrimination which Negroes suffer in American life," Houston focused
first on segregation in the graduate and professional schools of state
universities.
Cases fought by Houston and the NAACP legal team included Pearson v. Murray
(1936) and State ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1939). In Pearson,
the Court ruled the University of Maryland could not exclude blacks. Gaines
extended this ruling to the entire country when the Court held that Missouri
could not exclude blacks from its state law school since no comparable school
existed for black students. Announced by the Court on the same day, Sweatt
v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
brought down more barriers to black higher education.
In its landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which
outlawed racial segregation in public primary and secondary schools, a unanimous
Court declared that "in the field of public education the doctrine of
'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal." Houston died before the Court handed down this
decision, but he is recognized as the legal mind behind the strategy that
overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
Houston championed many causes, always on the side of underdogs. He suffered a
heart attack and died April 22, 1950. Posthumously, he was awarded the NAACP
Spingarn Medal (1950) and the main building of the Howard University Law School
was dedicated as Charles Hamilton Houston Hall (1958). (Sources: www.aaregistry.com, www.law.umkc.edu and www.brownat50.orgBrownBios)
News You Use
Improving Student
Achievement
In late 2004, the National Collaborative on
Diversity in the Teaching Force, which is composed of the American Association
of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), American Council on Education (ACE),
Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), Community Teachers Institute (CTI),
Recruiting New Teachers (RNT), and National Education Association (NEA),
published Assessment of Diversity in America's Teaching Force: A Call to
Action. Available at www.nea.org/, this report
examines the relationship between educational achievement and teacher
diversity.
This report found that increasing the percentage
of teachers of color in classrooms is connected directly to closing the student
achievement gap. Students of color perform better when taught by teachers from
their ethnic groups. Underrepresented, there is not a single teacher of color
on staff in 38% of US schools.
Other conclusions of the study include the role
of high-stakes tests in impeding efforts to expand the pool of prospective
teachers of color and the barriers to their recruitment in implementing the No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Collaborative is proposing solutions that
include revising NCLB measures and removing obstacles to minority teacher
recruitment.
Hood Notes
Racism in Public
Education
May 2004 marked the 50th
anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of
Education, which supposedly ended segregation in public primary and
secondary schools. Yet, racism and inequality remain. A number of recent
studies on school desegregation show public schools are as segregated as they
were prior to Brown. Politicians and apologists for the lack of
progress blame housing patterns. Indeed, armed with political might and
economic wherewithal, whites opposed to desegregation left the inner city and
the public school system. But, white flight is not the entire story. Whites
endlessly litigated desegregation proposals and, in general, frustrated efforts
to educate black and white children in the same classrooms.
Moreover, white families that chose not to flee the inner city placed their
children in private and parochial schools. Even white families that remained in
the public school system found ways to circumvent desegregation. A two-year
study by the Manhattan-based Center for Immigrant Families documents a classic
case of hiding public school racism in plain sight. Its report Segregated and Unequal:
The Public Elementary Schools of District 3 in New York City, which can be read
at http://www.c4if.org, identifies a
longstanding school policy that allows principals of high performing schools to
handpick students from outside their school zones to fill vacant seats left by
students that attend private and/or parochial schools.
This unofficial policy and its built-in legacy favor wealthy white families
that are knowledgeable about the practice. According to Center for Immigrant
Families, even though District 3 has a diverse student population that is 38%
black, 33% Latino and 22.8% white, this diversity is not reflected in the
racial makeup of its schools. In a number of the district's elementary schools,
the percentages of whites range from 38.6 to 64.4 percent. The highest
concentration of whites is found in the highest performing schools, while the
least sought after schools have high concentrations of students of color, some
as high as 95 percent.
To quell its critics, the school system has suggested using a lottery to fill
vacancies in the highest performing schools. Already, there are indications
that the past practice will continue as wealthy white families oppose any
changes that would jeopardize the legacy the current policy affords younger
siblings. The Center for Immigrant Families has been exploring legal action
against the school system. If past practices are any guide to future actions,
parents and organizations desiring change will have to do more than complain.
(Sources: www.nytimes.com and http://www.c4if.org)
Disgruntled
wants to know: While the publicly stated reasons for the attack
against Iraq have all proven to have been falsehoods, there are those who
suggest the US wanted to control Iraqi oil and protect the petrodollar. Under
the oil for food program, Saddam Hussein wanted to permanently dump the dollar
and accept only euros in payment for Iraqi oil. Had the UN sanctions been
lifted, a lot of Iraqi oil going for euros would have wrecked havoc on US
economic standing. Enter Iran and its plan to establish an international oil
exchange denominated in euros. Could Washington's saber rattling be less about
Iran's WMDs, nuclear ambitions, terrorism, etc. and more about its desire to
prevent Iran from disrupting the petrodollar status quo?
Disgruntled says:
More than half a century ago, the US Supreme Court declared unconstitutional
racial discrimination in public education, accommodations and housing. Yet,
according to studies by a wide variety of organizations, racial discrimination
continues unabated. Just as US citizens and local, state and federal
governments continue to violate the rights of US citizens of color, the US
government under George W. Bush has made ignoring international law a
cornerstone of the nation's foreign policy. As it openly violates international
law, the US claims to promote freedom and democracy. It is no wonder the US
must spend millions of dollars producing propaganda to improve its image.
Disgruntled feels:
Deadly deception! Weeks before the judicial decision to remove the feeding tube
that has kept Terri Schiavo alive for fifteen years, doctors in a Texas
hospital took a premature infant off life support. There was no public outcry
when this poor black baby was allowed to die. Only his mother mourned his
death; she lacked political connections and wealth to command media attention.
US Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the “pro-life fanatics" that excuse his
illegal antics have used Schiavo's pending demise to whitewash DeLay's
tarnished image. It is a game of deadly deception that will fool none except
the most gullible.
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