CW Political and Social Thought

Sicko! Yes, We Americans!

After seeing Michael Moore's Sicko, I am embarrassed to be an American and that is no unpatriotic thing!

A Day of Reading

It's going to be a day of reading for me. I love reading. I'm reminded of a quote by Thomas Jefferson who said, "I cannot live without books." I decided that I would find out the source of this quotation and apparently it comes from a letter that Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1815. In the aftermath of the British burning many public buildings in Washington including the White House and the Library of Congress during the War of 1812, Jefferson, who had the largest personal library in the United States, sold his library for $23, 950. In the letter, Jefferson is discussing this transaction with Adams.

[June 10, 1815]

I have met with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of reprocuring some part of the library treasures which I have ceded to Congress to replace the devastations of  British Vandalism at Washington. I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object. I am about sending him a catalogue to which less than his critical knolege of books would hardly be adequate.

Present my high respects to mrs Adams and accept yourself the assurances of my affectionate attachment. Th. Jefferson

Source:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/217.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflib.html

A Note of Caution from A Dear Professor

I am a big fan of Professor Larry Sabato. As a politics major at the University of Virginia, I felt that it was an unofficial rule to take at least one class with Professor Sabato before graduating. I did so in fact. I must say that his insight into  "real politics" was refreshing for its openness and honesty. We came to understand Virginia politics, in this case, as a mean business that definitely was not for the faint of heart. His own dealings with politicians gave us a rare glimpse into the motivations and tactics, sometimes scary and repugnant, of men and women who sought and secured political state offices in Virginia. As a way to follow his, more or less, realist approach to politics, I joined his Crystal Ball mailing list. Every week he gives a rundown of political happenings, particularly the ones that relate to 2008 presidential politics. I don't get to read his mailings every week, but I happened to read one from a week ago.  As usual, his discussion here is highly provocative, for it asks us to consider a very important question about the state of our democracy.

"...So much for the partisan considerations. Let's finish up this essay by broadening our critique, and offering a point that ought to concern all Americans. Every four years, observers pronounce the presidential contenders to be a "weak field," and that is as unfair as it is predictable.

A much more reasonable criticism is directly related to the dominating presence of Hillary Clinton in this election cycle. The population of the United States now exceeds 300 million, and the talent pool of the world's only superpower is deep and rich. How is it that the country is on the verge of filling its highest office for the sixth consecutive term from one of two families? That every President from 1989 to 2017 may be a Bush or a Clinton is a national disgrace. What has happened to the American Republic? How does it differ from a banana republic--where a couple of dominant families often run everything for generations? Have we driven the vast majority of the potentially best Presidents out of the contest because of the high personal and professional costs of running for office? Are we the voters responsible because we are too lazy to go beyond the simplistic attractions of familiarity and high name identification? Or, most disturbing of all, has our political system become ossified, so that we are too fearful of change to seek out the most outstanding leaders among us for the toughest job in the world?

We don't pretend to have the answers. But we are shocked and dismayed that more people aren't even bothering to ask the questions."

-Sabato's Crystal Ball June 21, 2007 - Vol. V Iss. 21 - THE HILLARY DILEMMA

Some Words of Wisdom For Young People........ .........(and Big People Too)

Oprah’s show today inspired me to say a thing or two to young people who might read my blog, particularly young Black men. I am a 22 year-old Black male who has graduated from one of the nation’s top public universities. I am not boastful, just very proud of this fact. You’ll soon realize why. Over many years, I have received numerous accolades, including the National Horatio Alger Scholarship, not to mention state titles in public speaking and awards of recognition for academics, leadership, and service. I wouldn’t describe my life as lucky because ultimately it is not coincidence or fate that determines our destiny but determination, hard work, and good people who are willing to walk with you, even if that sometimes means they’re having to push you from behind in order that you stay on the right track. I don’t mean to imply that life has to be understood in terms of work. After all, if I thought for a second that my life was strictly defined as work, then I wouldn’t be so motivated to get my Ph.D., write several books, do this blog, read constantly, compose poetry, paint or just live life! While hard work is necessary, I think it’s more the case that a sense of perspective is what induces that hunger to be successful and goal-oriented.

Unfortunately too many young people are seduced by our nihilistic and misogynistic culture while losing a sense of their own worth and their own truth. I think that one thing that enables me to stand proud and tall is that I never thought that I was less than what I could be. I think that part of that has to do with my parents and my family’s demands that my siblings and me be the best individuals that we could be. It didn’t mean that we all had to be lawyers or doctors, but it did mean that we could not compromise our self-worth or self-content to fit in, to be average, or to be nobodies. Though my father has been a minister ever since I can remember, he never once told me that I had to be straight or to like sports or to be anything other than myself. He and my mother gave me the freedom to be myself and that ensured that I could define myself in such a way that I didn’t need the outside world to define me. You never saw me with my pants exposing my underwear, hanging out with the wrong crowd, or being in any environment that could poison my self-confidence and my optimistic view about life. I never once thought that it was cool to like sexist and violent rap music or engage in that whole urban culture. I remember when Boys in the Hood and all those type movies came out in the 1990s. Even as a kid, I remember thinking that such violence and “ghetto-ness” were so foreign. I had been brought up on wholesome shows like the Cosby Show and Different World (of course, I was practically raised in the church) where it was possible and in fact encouraged to be respectful, respected, responsible, and successful. I couldn’t relate to using a gun as a way of proving my manhood or needing to be part of a gang to feel like I fitted it.

I knew that I wasn’t those images that I saw on television. I knew that I wasn’t those oft-quoted statistics about Black success that I had heard and read in the media. I knew that I was somebody. My parents didn’t have to tell me everyday, but it was through their actions that I knew that I was good enough, smart enough, and capable enough to be what and who I wanted to be. I knew they would love no matter what. If I wanted to be a lawyer or a stay-at-home father, I knew that my parents would accept that. My mother had told me this all of my life and I have never forgotten it, nor will I, “Chris, as long as you are happy that’s all I care about.” See, my parents weren’t fancy folks. They didn’t have doctorates or even college degrees. They both had high school diplomas and all they wanted for their children’s lives was the chance to live happily, not that my parents weren’t happy, but they knew that had they made better decisions they would not have to struggle so much, doing jobs that paid too little and demanded too much. I am grateful to them for their sacrifices. I would not be who I am without them.

Nevertheless, I am absolutely convinced that parents and a good head on one’s shoulders are not the only important tools. It’s so important that teachers take an interest in their students. Had I not had Mrs Swan in 6^th grade, Mrs King in the 7^th grade and 8^th grade, Ms Campbell, Mrs Currence, and Ms Wright in 9^th through 12th grade, there is no doubt in my mind that that seed that my parents planted and cultivated in me could have grown to its maturity. I wish that more students could have been as fortunate as I.

That’s why I am joining Essence Magazine’s mission to mentor one million kids. I think we all should do our part! Pay it forward!

I hope that I have said something encouraging to anyone who has read this.

You Can Take the Politican Out of Washington, But...

I was so excited to watch the All-American Democratic Presidential Debate Forum tonight on PBS. I even chose to miss my favorite show, So You Think You Can Dance, because I just couldn't miss this historical occasion, but to my dismay this was just another political debate. Being consummate politicians, the candidates managed to mock this forum by offering plenty of rhetoric, very little substance, and not a modicum of conviction. When they did manage to show some competence in one area or another, it was obvious that they gleaned their numbers from "The Covenant" which I'm sure they hadn't even read. Everything they said was so predictable: telling the audience what they wanted to hear, concurring with an opponent when he or she made a good point, and delivering axioms about race and racism and poverty. It's was all very nauseating because I had wrongly assumed that the Democratic Party candidates would be a little more prepared to talk to the most loyal voting bloc of their party.

Midway through this entry I decided to turn my television back on, only to hear Richardson say something about needles being a good way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among Black teens. I guess that explains everything.

Mommy, Why Are All the Black Kids in Another School?

I am not surprised in the least by today's Supreme Court decision that poses some major challenges to school systems that seek to diversify individual school populations by basing school districting on race. Bush and his "segregation-now-segregation-tomorrow-segregation-forever" Republicans got what they wanted. Though both Alito and Roberts seemed to support the spirit of the Brown decision and subsequent decisions that permitted the inclusion of race in school districting during their confirmation hearings, it now seems that they don't mind if our school systems revert to the pre-Brown era, when separation of the races was desirable and acceptable. But have we not learned our lesson? Discouraging school systems from using race is dangerous and unhealthy for a nation such as ours in which race and poverty are so intertwined. Not only will we potentially have a race and class-based education system or dual-track system, but the potential for greater disparities, both practically and socially, could even exacerbate  the delicate  balance of race and class; meaning that schools with more minorities and poor students  or even with  just middle and upper class students could be deprived of not only the quality of education that they might otherwise get with a diverse population, but the level of expectations might rise or lower, depending on the perceived value of those students. If the years of Jim Crow taught us nothing, it should have taught us that separate is not equal! Of course, we have the complete opposite logic coming from the Supreme Court. They are saying that since race is one of those factors historically used to deny certain rights and privileges to certain groups, then there ought to be a greater degree of justification by the government for using race, but I don't buy this. I believe that diversity in education is a compelling and necessary interest of the state. The state's proof that there is some benefit in such a policy is our society itself. The growing tolerance in our society comes as a direct result of different groups relating to each other. Simply put, racism, bigotry, discrimination, homophobia and the like all share one common feature, ignorance. Think about how tolerant our country has become when it concerns gay people like myself. Part of our success has to do with the fact that most people  know someone personally or have come in contact with a gay person. This occurrence on a local level has national implications, even with prominent Republican leaders having out gay people working on their staff.

The point is that this decision is hardly productive for our nation. Its basis is flawed especially because it tends to regard other social categories, like gender and sexual orientation, without such reservations. Why is it that race is getting such treatment? Women have suffered on account of their gender. Gays have suffered on account of their orientation. Why is race being singled out as a highly suspect category. Is it because our judges do not believe that this country is responsible for and to  some other group than  just the majority population? I think so. The inherent language of the decision is such that I can't put much confidence in the current Court's capacity to protect and promote the rights of the millions of citizens of color who will undoubtedly be disadvantaged by this decision, much more than any group.

Here is some interesting parts of Justice Breyer's dissent, which he took the unusual time to read during the rendering of the verdict.

These cases consider the longstanding efforts of two local school boards to integrate their public schools. The school board plans before us resemble many others adopted in the last 50 years by primary and secondary schools throughout the Nation. All of those plans represent local efforts to bring about the kind of racially integrated education that Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954) , long ago promised—efforts that this Court has repeatedly required, permitted, and encouraged local authorities to undertake. This Court has recognized that the public interests at stake in such cases are “compelling.” We have approved of “narrowly tailored” plans that are no less race-conscious than the plans before us. And we have understood that the Constitution permits local communities to adopt desegregation plans even where it does not require them to do so....

In dozens of subsequent cases, this Court told school districts previously segregated by law what they must do at a minimum to comply with Brown’sconstitutional holding. The measures required by those cases often included race-conscious practices, such as mandatory busing and race-based restrictions on voluntary transfers. See, e.g., Columbus Bd. of Ed. v. Penick, 443 U. S. 449 , n. 3 (1979); Davis v. Board of School Comm’rs of Mobile Cty., 402 U. S. 33, 37–38 (1971) ; Green v. School Bd. of New Kent Cty., 391 U. S. 430, 441–442 (1968) .

    Beyond those minimum requirements, the Court left much of the determination of how to achieve integration to the judgment of local communities. Thus, in respect to race-conscious desegregation measures that the Constitution permitted, but did not require (measures similar to those at issue here), this Court unanimously stated:

“School authorities are traditionally charged with broad power to formulate and implement educational policy and might well conclude, for example, that in order to prepare students to live in a pluralistic society each school should have a prescribed ratio of Negro to white students reflecting the proportion for the district as a whole. To do this as an educational policy is within the broad discretionary powers of school authorities.”  Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Ed., 402 U. S. 1, 16 (1971) (emphasis added)....

I describe those histories at length in order to highlight three important features of these cases. First, the school districts’ plans serve “compelling interests” and are “narrowly tailored” on any reasonable definition of those terms. Second, the distinction between de jure segregation (caused by school systems) and de facto segregation (caused, e.g., by housing patterns or generalized societal discrimination) is meaningless in the present context, thereby dooming the plurality’s endeavor to find support for its views in that distinction. Third, real-world efforts to substitute racially diverse for racially segregated schools (however caused) are complex, to the point where the Constitution cannot plausibly be interpreted to rule out categorically all local efforts to use means that are “conscious” of the race of individuals....

Courts are not alone in accepting as constitutionally valid the legal principle that Swann enunciated—i.e., that the government may voluntarily adopt race-conscious measures to improve conditions of race even when it is not under a constitutional obligation to do so. That principle has been accepted by every branch of government and is rooted in the history of the Equal Protection Clause itself. Thus, Congress has enacted numerous race-conscious statutes that illustrate that principle or rely upon its validity. See, e.g., 20 U. S. C. §6311(b)(2)(C)(v) (No Child Left Behind Act); §1067 et seq. (authorizing aid to minority institutions). In fact, without being exhaustive, I have counted 51 federal statutes that use racial classifications. I have counted well over 100 state statutes that similarly employ racial classifications. Presidential administrations for the past half-century have used and supported various race-conscious measures....

Regardless of its name, however, the interest at stake possesses three essential elements. First, there is a historical and remedial element: an interest in setting right the consequences of prior conditions of segregation. This refers back to a time when public schools were highly segregated, often as a result of legal or administrative policies that facilitated racial segregation in public schools. It is an interest in continuing to combat the remnants of segregation caused in whole or in part by these school-related policies, which have often affected not only schools, but also housing patterns, employment practices, economic conditions, and social attitudes. It is an interest in maintaining hard-won gains. And it has its roots in preventing what gradually may become the de facto resegregation of America’s public schools.  See Part I, supra, at 4; Appendix A, infra.  See also ante,at 17 (opinion of Kennedy, J.) (“This Nation has a moral and ethical obligation to fulfill its historic commitment to creating an integrated society that ensures equal opportunity for all of its children”).

    Second, there is an educational element: an interest in overcoming the adverse educational effects produced by and associated with highly segregated schools. Cf. Grutter, 539 U. S., at 345 (Ginsburg, J., concurring). Studies suggest that children taken from those schools and placed in integrated settings often show positive academic gains....

    Research suggests, for example, that black children from segregated educational environments significantly increase their achievement levels once they are placed in a more integrated setting. Indeed in Louisville itself the achievement gap between black and white elementary school students grew substantially smaller (by seven percentage points) after the integration plan was implemented in 1975. See Powell 35. Conversely, to take another example, evidence from a district in Norfolk, Virginia, shows that resegregated schools led to a decline in the achievement test scores of children of all races. Ibid....

    Third, there is a democratic element: an interest in producing an educational environment that reflects the “pluralistic society” in which our children will live. Swann, 402 U. S., at 16. It is an interest in helping our children learn to work and play together with children of different racial backgrounds. It is an interest in teaching children to engage in the kind of cooperation among Americans of all races that is necessary to make a land of three hundred million people one Nation....

Read Decision Here   

Articles
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/28/news/scotus.php

 http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1638327,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com

African American Global Influence

This is an amazing rendition of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by a South Korean group named Big Mama. Apparently, they get their name because they are considered overweight (and unattractive, might I add) by Korean standards. The arrangement of the song is clearly influenced by an African American interpretation of the song,  which is  deliberately methodical and deeply soulful. Honestly, if I'd had closed by eyes, I would have thought that they were Black women. I thinks it's so incredible  how underreported the global influence of African American culture is. It's not just music of course, but religion, politics (esp. the Civil Rights movement), art, and literature. I wish I could write a book on this fascinating topic, perhaps, one day I will. In the meanwhile, enjoy this clip.

Also, I'd like to say a thing or two about the way that we need to move beyond our racial paradigm. Especially here in the U.S., we always tend to think in terms of white and black, both literally and figuratively, but I think that we have it all wrong. Race is some social category that unfortunately we use to put people down instead of lifting them up. I don't think that we have to necessarily rid ourselves of race altogether, rather we should come to understand that our differences are just that. They aren't  "stereotypical" or hierarchical, this is the greater barrier to overcome. They are just differences. I just wish we would learn to appreciate this fact and realize that in our differences lie our collective strength. And in our unity, we solidify our humanity.

For those who question my assertion about an African American quality to this song, check out the second song below from Sister Act II, which just happened to be subtitled in Asian characters (not sure what language). I think that that in itself proves my point.

Ann Coulter Goes Too Far (Again)!

This is Ann on Monday

"If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

This is Ann on Tuesday

Elizabeth Edwards Confronts Ann Coulter

Gay and In the Military

Here is a very interesting short film on Stephen Benjamin, the Navy Arabic translator who was dismissed from the military on account of his sexuality.

Where Have I Been?

I have not written many entries lately because I have been too busy reading. With college now over, at least the undergraduate part, I finally have time to sit down and read all these books that I have accumulated over the past five years or so. In a matter of a month and a half since my graduation, I have read non-stop. I started with Cornel West's Democracy Matters, then I moved on to Neil Miller's Out of the Past, then to James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, and now I am reading the Cornel West Reader, all of this on top of my weekly Time magazine and whatever else I find in between. (And of course, my job has a permanent spot on my calendar). I have had little time to give my blog the attention that I once did, but my hope is that I will change all of this in the upcoming days. My plan is to feature all these books and articles on a sidebar, so that you can keep track of me. :) Maybe, I can inspire you to love reading as much as I do.

The Cosby Generation

I have also always thought that it was quite silly to use labels like "Generation X", ”MTV Generation", "Silent Generation", etc. The only purpose that it serves is either to give some author a tagline for his or her newest book or to give the media a useless cover story, which they quickly turn into trite and tired noise. Be that as it may, I could not help but to think about my generation's place in all of this. What best describes a generation of kids who have literally everything at our fingertips, from computers and the latest gadgets to the most equal education system our nation has ever known. Some would call us the “Internet Generation”, but I am hesitant to simply define us as AIM/Facebook/MySpace-obsessed due to delineation in not only the way that we’ve learned to communicate and to socialize but also in how we’ve come to view the world. READ MORE

American Realism Under Scrutiny

The present character of American foreign policy is without question based on what political scientists call realism, which upholds assumptions about the immutable state of “human nature, the importance of the state, (and) the struggle for power as the dominant feature of an anarchic international milieu”. Putting aside the smokescreen of political rhetoric, American realism espouses the fundamental tenets, as explained by Hans Morgenthau in Politics among Nations, of this morally bankrupt and thoroughly undemocratic approach to international conflict and struggle. Defined by the appeal to so-called objective laws, the first tenet calls for states to act according to reason and precedent, which exclude actions based on overt morality, ideology, or even loosely-substantiated presuppositions about weapons of mass destruction, as was the case with Iraq. Simply understood, states that claim to operate within a realist paradigm must meet challenges, not through emotionally-laden terms like Cold War communism or present-day global terrorism, but through careful examination of the risks, facts, and material interests at stack. Read More

Minorities in Politics

With minorities constituting a third of the U.S. population, I think it would be appropriate to examine the underrepresentation of minority groups in politics. Let me preface my remarks by saying that American political thought wrongly assumes that the right of the majority to rule over the whole is absolute. Of course, inherent in this notion of democracy is that the rule of the majority is beneficial to the sustainability of a government and is in fact the best alternative to all other forms. Thomas Jefferson wrote that, “This is not a perfect way of controlling government, but the alternatives--decisions made by a minority, or by one person--are even worse and are the source of great evil.” There is something striking about what Jefferson has to say about majoritarian politics. While he understood the potential of a democratic form of government in protecting certain rights and creating a system based on mutual respect, nevertheless he does recognize that democracy is not necessarily the best insofar as creating a political structure where all men are equally entitled and protected. READ MORE