CW Political and Social Thought

I'll Take on the Whole United States If I Have To

We have frequently printed the word Democracy, yet I cannot too often repeat that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted.
~Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1871)

To be an Afro-American, or an American black, is to be in the situation, intolerably exaggerated, of all those who have ever found themselves part of a civilization which they could in no wise honorably defend-which they were compelled, indeed, endlessly to attack and condemn-and who yet spoke out of the most passionate love, hoping to make the kingdom new, to make it honorably and worthy of life.
~James Baldwin, No Name in the Street (1972)

I have been regularly contributing to a forum on possible constitutional amendments. Here is my latest post.

The last gentleman's comment illustrates my point. He does not want to see the importance of race because doing so would challenge his privileged status as a (presumably) white male. Moreover, how dare he use Oprah and Bill Cosby as indicators that Black people have somehow overcome! He has no clue what it means to be minority in this country. Even for minorities like myself who graduated in the top of their class in high school, attended a prestigious university, and managed to overcome the odds, we are subjected to the white supremacist notions that our people are never good enough and that white folks are always a "little bit" better. Though I took more A.P. courses than any other kid in my class, my white peers in high school gossiped behind my back and said that I was only admitted to U.Va. because I was black. This is the reality of being a minority. We constantly have to break people's stereotypes of who they assume we are. I make a concerted effort not to let my hair grow too long, my pants be too low, or my speech too 'black' for fear that someone may stereotype me. White supremacist ideology has gone unchecked for much too long. We can't even imagine the damage that has been done and the millions of Americans, white and Black alike, who have bought into this.

Related Links
My Posts on A More Perfect Constitution

In the Ghetto

I have had Elvis Presley's In the Ghetto in my ipod for many years, so I was glad to see that Lisa Marie Presley used this song for her newest single, which so happens to be the first song she's ever released with her father. Unfortunately, her version wasn't available on YouTube, so here is the King himself.

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way

Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

Then one night in desperation
a young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car,
tries to run, but he don't get far
And his mama cries

As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man
face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto

As her young man dies,
on a cold and gray Chicago mornin',
another little baby child is born
In the ghetto

The Ghetto Has Not Always Been Urban

Bayou Bourbeaux Plantation operated by Bayou Bourbeaux Farmstead Association, a cooperative established through the cooperation of FSA; Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, August 1940.

 

Children of sharecropper, near West Memphis, Arkansas, 1935

A 12-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister picking cotton; the former worked 12, the latter 8 hours a day.

Black family living in crowded quarters, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941.

What Would Be Your Constitutional Amendment?

Professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia is leading an effort to generate discussion for calling a constitutional convention. In his latest book, A More Perfect Constitution, he is advancing 23 proposals that will "consider the very real possibility: that the failure of the nation to update the Constitution and the structure of government it originally bequeathed to is is at the root of our current political dysfunction."  I challenged him on one glaring omission in an e-mail I sent to him and he encouraged me to make that correspondence public.

September 27th, 7:03 p.m.

Professor Sabato,
I can't say how excited I am that the Center for Politics is calling for a constitutional convention. I have discussed this issue many times with my peers and my professors since I came to U.Va. On the issue of the number of representatives in Congress, I am so baffled that the world's third largest nation has less national representatives than France, Britain, and many other western democracies. A professor of mine, who actually teaches American constitutionalism, in fact justified these numbers by saying that adding more representatives would lead to more instability or turnover, but my question is, "What is so bad about forcing those in power to share power?" And if we were willing to continually expand the size of Congress well into the twentieth century, why should we stop now given how diverse and complex our nation has become? This is one of many important issues that I am glad that you are addressing.

But I have to say this Professor Sabato, I am troubled by the absence of any clear message about race in your proposals. For Americans and white Americans especially, race has always have been the pink elephant in the room that no one is willing to talk about and when we do, it's explosive, divisive, and sometimes very violent. Here I am thinking about: the Founding Father's compromise on slavery, the denial, which only in the recent past began to abate, that Blacks were negatively impacted by slavery and the support for the theory that slavery in fact 'modernized' African Americans, the idea that race is not as important in the post Civil Rights era, so on and so forth. Will we continue to pretend that the United States is a just and equal society for all when Black kids, and sadly now Hispanic kids suffer immensely and disproportionately from unequal education, unequal access, unequal chance, and, dare I say, unequal citizenship. I believe it was Al Sharpton who put it best, "When America catches a cold, Black America gets the flu."

It is to the white majority's advantage to not bring up race, so I am not really surprised that your proposals make no explicit statement in this regard. It is to the advantage of minorities and particularly African Americans, whose ancestors by and large did not choose to immigrate to the United States, why this question of race still must be kept on the table, because honestly Professor Sabato it's not just about the racial bias of our justice system, our educational system, or our political system. It is about the totality of being a minority in this country, from the small things like all the white male statues in Charlottesville to Hurricane Katrina. Moreover, American society does not accept African Americans on their own terms. When American history is taught there is no effort to define African Americans independently of their relationship to whites. There is no talk of the culture that my enslaved ancestors created; the music, the institutions, and the religion.  Instead we hear of the "master" and his objectified 'slave'. I have a picture of one of my great, great, great grandfathers who was born into slavery in the 1850s and who lived well into his 90s. I would never call him a slave. Though his society thought that he was an object to be traded, I believe that he was a human being who never deserved to be treated like chattel. I prefer the term enslaved person because this captures his humanity and his dignity.

But the fact that even now we treat Black folks who were victims of that good ole American institution as just people who did as they were told and that's it, shows me that we still got a long way to go. The greatest two moments of revelation came to me when a white friend of mine, who graduated from college, had no clue who Frederick Douglas was and when a Black friend of mine didn't know if Clarence Thomas or 'that other Black judge' was the 'Republican, like the conservative one'. I believe that calling a constitutional convention is a very good idea, but I believe that now is our opportunity for us to get it right.  Racial inequality and injustice will not be tolerated and we must make every effort to raise African Americans and all minorities, their history, their culture, and importance to a level that is honorable and just.

Respectfully Yours,
CW

September 27th, 7:10 p.m. A reply to Professor Sabato's reply.

Professor Sabato,
The constitutional amendment that I have in mind would spell out our values in terms of racial equality. I know that constitutional amendments tend to be rather short and sometimes vague, but I think that Virginia's resolution on slavery is what I have in mind, especially the message of reconciliation. I don't understand why we must think so technically on this issue. It's our constitution for God's sake! I think that such an amendment should assert a commitment to making sure that no one race is left in the cold or sleeps near the fire. That all Americans, poor, rich, Black, White and everything in between deserve a society that is just and equal, not just in terms of rules, which themselves have yet to be realized, but in terms of intangibles. Racial minorities deserve the same right to claim ownership of American history, culture, and politics, as well as the right to believe in the U.S.'s commitment to our foundational principles. As such, racial minorities must be given representation and recognition in ways that are politically, educationally, and culturally proportionate.

Professor Sabato, if the United States could say this I would be very proud to be an African American, but I know that as long as people like a white liberal friend of mine, believe that this is a 'white country', we can't close the books on what W.E.B. DuBois called 'double consciousness'.

The Great Iraq Debate

I have a love/hate relationship with my alma mater. On the one hand, the University of Virginia is a thoroughly racist place for a minority like myself. As an undergraduate, I confronted everything from flyers telling Blacks to "go back to Africa" to professors who did not care to acknowledge African Americans' contribution to anything other than their own history, to even a Black female student being violently attacked for no other reason than because she was a Black person running for president of Student Council. On the other hand, the University of Virginia is undeniably a reputable institution of higher learning and academic integrity. Despite its many shortcomings, related to both its southern roots and its emphasis on emulating a corporation, rather than emulating a university that serves its students, I must say that the University of Virginia is not all name and no substance. In particular, The University of Virginia's Miller Center has done what no presidential debate or Sunday morning news show would ever attempt to do. On September 18th, it held the first debate in a series that they are calling the 'National Discussion and Debate Series' that seeks to ground nationally important issues like Iraq in fact instead of in political rhetoric, in order to create a more honest and productive discussion. I believe that its success with this first debate attests to not only how the University sees its role in engaging the public, but also in how it wants to play a national role in being an academic institution that invites opposing parties to come together outside of the political arena.

This debate was moderated by the News Hour's Margaret Warner and featured Reuel Marc Gerecht, Frederick Kagan, as the affirmative, and Jessica Mathews and Chas Freeman, as the opposition.

The resolution was , "Keeping troops in Iraq is vital for America's national interests in the Middle East." The reason why I am calling this the 'great debate' is because the important interests to both sides are  clearly presented, argued , and defended. There are of course different interpretations for what is really happening in Iraq, but there is a consensus that Iraq is not an easily comprehensible issue. The speakers did a remarkable job in laying out a more reasoned and practical approach to Iraq.

Listen to The Great Iraq Debate By Clicking Here

Important Questions That Were Raised

To what extent is Al-Qaeda  fueling  the violence is Iraq?

What does a withdrawal or continuation in Iraq mean for the US's role in the Middle East?

Is there a civil war happening in Iraq?

If so, how should the US  militarily and politically engage Iraq?

Is Iraq keeping the US from focusing on or being prepared for other potential security threats in other parts of the world?

What is the role of Iran in Iraq, presently and in the future if the US does withdraw?

Is the al-Maliki government hurting or helping?

Do Iraqis  want compromise?

Has Iraq taken a toll on American prestige and leadership in the world?

How would a political or diplomatic solution work?

How would a strictly military solution work?

Can only the US rebuild Iraq?

What would a withdrawal from Iraq  mean for Islamic fundamentalism?

Is there such a thing as withdrawing with honor?

Being Black on the Opposite Side of the Color Line

"If you live in an AP world, you live out of reality"
~Black teacher, Little Rock Central

"Central is no longer segregated, but is not integrated"
~Brandon, Little Rock Central

Tonight, HBO premiered Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, which delved into that school's segregated reputation as being "two schools under one building." Like many racially mixed schools around the country,  white students made up the vast majority of the students in advanced programs, while African Americans constituted the majority in regular and remedial classes. Despite Central High being lauded as one of the top twenty-five high schools in the country, there is a stark contrast between the level of achievement between these two groups, even more so because the white students generally come from highly affluent families. On the other hand, African American students faced the inherent challenges of poverty, violence in their families and communities, high teen pregnancy, and broken homes. 

Unfortunately, Central represents the rule rather than the exception. Even my high school, which was was mostly a 'middle-class high school' in Lynchburg, VA, experienced unequal distribution among whites and minorities. It was very common for me to be one of a handful of Blacks in my advanced classes, especially as high school became more challenging with Advanced Placement opportunities. I often noticed this difference, but I attributed it to a lack of motivation on the part of these students who I deemed underachievers. If I could deal with my home situation, which involved at times not having a bathroom, heat, hot water, or food, I concluded then that these students certainly did not have any reason for not taking advantage of the classes that were being offered. I found myself on the opposite side of the color line, looking outward I did not understand that my isolation from the peer pressure and their shared experiences, eased my ability to thrive in a predominately white world.

It's a shame to say now, but I did not know many Black students in my high school. Not that I thought that I was too good for them, but I was afraid that attitudes about being average would somehow influence me.  Besides, to them, I was 'proper' and 'acted white.' I was accepted in my advanced world, even loved. When I came out to my friends in twelfth grade, all my friends were instantly more interested in me. They wanted to know what it was like to be gay and when had I known I was gay. I felt that Black folks, who had not even known about my sexuality, found me to be threatening, especially Black males. Every time I was called 'faggot' or 'sissy' it was usually hurled by a Black male. Ultimately, it did not bothered me that much, because I did graduate top in my class with the class record for having taken the most A.P. courses, but it did force me to separate myself more from Black students who were not in my classes.

However, what I have learned while in college is that students who don't succeed are not just influenced by their own ambitions, but are shut out purposefully by institutional racism that assumes that they are 'regular' until proven otherwise. In other words, white students are often given the benefit of the doubt, but in order for Black students to be placed on an advanced track, they have to show exceptional potential. Black students, who don't come from wealthy homes or even moderately wealthy homes, are assumed to be less  ambitious and less talented.  They are often  not encouraged to apply to college, to take rigorous course loads, and to want to make something better of themselves. Sadly, if they are, it is often related to athletics. I don't want to say that Black achievement does not exist in high schools, but that achievement takes on a different meaning for African Americans. The dominant culture for African American students emphasize sports over academics, studying playbooks over studying textbooks.

Part of this has to do with this whole racist sports culture that we have in the United States, with Black athletics and even rap artists being the models of success for young Black men, particularly today. When I grew up I remember watching the Cosby Show. Theo was never praised for being an outstanding quarterback; Theo was praised for doing well in school, going to college, and be an respectable young adult. You never saw Theo wearing his pants below his buttocks, or flaunting his athleticism as his ticket to freedom.  I consider myself a part of the Cosby generation. Not because I believed that the Cosby Show was the reality for Black families, but because the Cosby Show was an ideal that I wanted to emulate as the child I was, the father I wanted to be, and the family I wanted to created. Black kids don't have these positive images today and again part of that has to do with institutional racism. Though BET is advertised as a channel for Black teens, there is nothing juvenile about that channel. Everything from the rap videos that  parade  half naked women across the screen to sexually overt humor on ComicView, the fact remains is that we as a society do not value our Black youth enough to expect any better.   

Inverting World History

The eurocentric leanings of our collective conscious denies Black people a place in world history, besides being the unassuming victim of white imperialism, slavery, and exploitation. Never has one work captured the African diaspora as the subject more than Lerone Bennett's Before the Mayflower. Here are some powerful excerpts.

"For a long time, in fact, the only people on the scene were Africans. For some 600,000 years Africa and Africans led the world...Civilization started in the great river valleys of Africa and Asia, in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East and along the narrow ribbon of the Nile in Africa. In the Nile Valley that beginning was an African as well as an Asian achievement. Blacks, or people who we would consider blacks today, were among the first people to use tools, paint pictures, plant seeds, and worship gods.

In the beginning, then, and for a long time afterwards, black people marched in the front ranks of the emerging human procession. They founded empires and states. They extended the boundaries of the possible. They made some of the critical discoveries and contributions that led to the modern world.

Looking back on that age from our own, one is struck by what seems to be an absence of color counsciousness. Back there, in the beginning, blackness did not seem to be an occasion for obloquy. In fact, the reverse seems to have been true, for whites were sometimes ridiculed for "the unnatural whiteness of their skin."

During this critical period in the evolution of man, blacks were known and honored throughout the ancient world. Ancient Ethiopia, a vaguely defined territory somewhere south of Egypt, was hailed as a place fit for the vacation of the gods. Homer praised Memnon, king of Ethiopia, and black Eurybates:

Of visage solemn, sad but sable hue
Short, wooly curls, o'erfleeced his bending head...
Eurybates, in whose large soul alone,
Ulysses viewed an image of his own.

Homer, Herodotus, Phily, Diodorus and other classical writers repeatedly praised the Ethiopians. "The annals of all  the great early nations of  Asia Minor are full of them," Flora Louisa Lugard wrote. "The Mosaic records allude to them frquently; but while they are described as the most powerful, the most just, and the most beautiful of the human race, they are constantly spoken of as black, and there seems to be no other conclusion to be drawn, than that at that remote period of history the leading race of the Western world was a black race."

(I)t is established beyond doubt that blacks from somewhere were an important element among the people who fathered Egyptian civilization. Badarian culture proves that blacks camped on the banks of the Nile thousands of years before the Egypt of the Pharaohs . Bodies were excavated at El Badari amid artifacts suggesting a date of about eight thousand B.C.  In the intestines of these bodies were husks of barley  which indicated that the dark-skinned Badarians had learned to cultivate cereals.  The beautifully fashioned Badarian pottery was never surpassed, not even in Eygpt's days of greatest glory....

During the early Christian era, black were scattered to the four corners of the world. For many centuries black merchants traded with India, China, and Europe. Other blacks were sold as slaves in Europe and Asia. By the beginning of the Islamic era, blacks -as merchants and merchandise- had integrated Europe, Asia, and the Far East. By that time Blacks were well known in Venice in Europe and in the deserts of Arabia. Perhaps the best known of the Arabic blacks was Antar, the impassioned lover-warrior-poet....

In the same period (as Islam was spreading into Europe) three powerful states- Ghana, Mali, and Songhay- emerged in the western Sudan. The extent of (Muslim) influence is debatable, but it seems probable that the upper classes and leaders, especially in the large cities, were black (Muslims).

As political entities, Ghana, Mali, and Songhay do not suffer in comparison with their European contemporaries. In several areas, in fact, the Sudanese empires were clearly superior. "It would be interesting to know," Basil Davidson wrote, "what the Normans might have thought of Ghana. Anglo-Saxon England could easily have seemed a poor and lowly place beside it." ...The economic life of these states revolved around agriculture, manufacturing, and international trade. Rulers wielded power through provincial governors and viceroys, and maintained large standing armies..."

BUY THE BOOK, BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER by Lerone Bennett Jr.

White Men Are Not Going Down Without a Fight

Don't get me wrong; I love my white brothers, but white men will not give up their privileged position in society without a fight. No one can challenge the idea that white men are the embodiment of power in this country because everywhere you turn they are overrepresented (media, politics, academia especially higher education, share of the economy, etc) and overexposed even, though ironically, within the gay community. So it comes as no surprise that they don't want to see the advancement of women and minorities if that means they have to lose out on the perks of being a white man in America. They have been extremely clever in making sure that they hold onto their power by creating rules and by delineating issues that assure that they remain in power. Take affirmative action for example. Basically, affirmative action is a means of redressing the severe limitation placed on women and minorities, in particular, and promotes the philosophy that these underrepresented groups must be given a seat at the table. But when Allan Bakke challenged this policy (vis-a-vis Regents of the University of California v Bakke), he gave every White male a rallying cry by coining the term 'reverse discrimination', which basically boils down to this.

White men don't want women and minorities to get  preferential treatment at the expense of stripping them of their undeserved and universal status as the most powerful group. Unfortunately, too many people, white women and minorities included, have been persuaded by their rhetoric because these groups can't imagine any other way. They can't construct a picture of what a pluralist society looks like because they have become accustomed to and dependent on white men running things. I feel that Black folks are all too susceptible to this. Look at the lukewarm reception that Barrack Obama is being given by the Black community. You would think that Black folks would support Obama, being that he is the closet shot that we have ever had to the presidency, but Black folks have a hard time reconciling their hate of white men with their love for him. They hate him because he represents the greatest challenge to racial equality, but they love him because they can always use him as a scapegoat. If Black folks were to gain their proper share of political and economic influence, the tenuous assumptions about 'Black identity' would be lost or necessitate fundamental restructuring. Even so, that day will not arrive until the institution itself allows for that possibility. With states having the sole authority to redraw congressional and state districts that are invulnerable to real competition, an abatement of white male privilege seems nearly impossible. But this represents  one of the  less obvious ways that white men have handicapped the democratic and inclusive policy that  resulted from the Civil Rights Movement. On a more individual level, white men have taken upon themselves to act as deputies, such as with the case of Jeremiah Munsen, 18 and his 16 year old cohort who were recently arrested for hanging nooses on the back of the truck during the protests in Jena, Louisiana on September 21st.

Video Credit: Keith Boykin

Men Kissing, A Beautiful Thing

Being African American and gay, I am constantly being told to hide who I am. I can't talk or dress or act too "Black". Neither can I be too "flamboyant", "effeminate", or "gay". But I have reached a point where I don't care anymore. I have never hidden who I am, though I have been tempted to do so, but now I really don't care. If someone does not like me because of who I am, then I'll tell them to kick a can and move on. I've got no tolerance for homophobes, racists, and people who want to use hateful language and violent actions against me. If I can befriend someone who has never met an openly gay person, who is a religious conversative, or even oppose  gay marriage, then there is no reason why people who are situated on the opposite position can't do the same. What's the harm? You afraid to find out that there is no basis for your hate and prejudice?

Men Kissing, Francois Sagat and Francesco D'Macho

This is a very good piece by Michael Moore from This Divided State

What's the Point of Having an Election if You Don't Have Any Choices

It's an election year, but for quite a few Virginians they don't have much of a choice for who will represent them. 17 out of 40 State Senate seats and 65 out of 100 House seats are unopposed! What does this mean? I believe that this means that the Virginia General Assembly has drawn its electoral maps in such a way that only a handful of districts are competitive. Both my state Senator, R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County and House delegate, David J Toscano, D-Charlottesville will have no opposition come November. This is a problem because incumbents without opposition cannot be held accountable, barely are they held accountable when they have to defend their record every two to four years. One might say that the Republican Party's unwillingness to put up a candidate is a response to popular opinion that the incumbent is doing a good job, but I take issue with this. Assuming that silence signifies approval is a recipe for disaster in that legitimacy is introduced as a non-action, rather than an action, by the people. I don't think that anyone would say that it is more valuable to a functioning democracy to have the people express their approval by not showing up at the polls and only doing so when they want to express complete dissatisfaction. Democracy requires not just responding to government, but actively engaging with policymakers, such that the 'ownership of governing' lies within the people, not their representative body. I am assuming that the best form of government is that form which is able to include ideologically and substantively diverse voices, yet be able to construct rules and institutions that can filter those voices so as not to overwhelm government efficiency. What we have here is a system that has but a few voices. The vast majority of them are white men, well-off, and with hardly any appreciation for Virginia's cultural and racial diversity. Otherwise, they would try to increase representation of women and minorities. I have met enough of them to know that this is absolutely the case. In fact, one state Senator told me that a separation of the races was perfectly acceptable, because as he put it, government could not regulate interpersonal relations. Then, I had a House member to tell me that he had no clue that Black Virginians were not confident with their state's handling of racial issues. He, of course, played the blond and pretended that this was news because 'his family didn't have slaves'.

The problem with incumbency is a problem of representation because there is no way to understand an ever-changing constituency unless that representative makes a concerted effort to reach out to voters, however diverse or even homogeneous they may seem to be.

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:429

"What government [a nation] can bear depends not on the state of science, however exalted, in a select band of enlightened men, but on the condition of the general mind." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1817. (*) ME 15:114

"The government of a nation may be usurped by the forcible intrusion of an individual into the throne. But to conquer its will so as to rest the right on that, the only legitimate basis, requires long acquiescence and cessation of all opposition." --Thomas Jefferson to ----, 1825. ME 16:127 [1]

Subliminal Messages about White Male Supremacy

These are all the statues in the City of Charlottesville, Va.

"The Aviator" about James Rogers McConnell

Thomas Jefferson

George Rogers Clark

View The Back of This Statue

Lewis and Clark

Robert E. Lee

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson

Frederic William Scott, Erected 2007 at U.Va.

Why aren't there any statues in Charlottesville that feature a woman or minority as the subject? And why isn't anyone doing anything about it?

Here are some pathetic examples of how minorities and women are given public recognition (Click on Image to Enlarge)

Political Heroes

Bayard Rustin

Barbara Jordan

Shirley Chisholm

Maxine Waters

 Doug Wilder

                Who Are Yours?

Black Folks Really Get on My Nerves

Black folks really got some nerves. We'll march until the cows come home in protest against a white person who has done some immoral or unlawful crime against a Black person as in Jena, but when our community is at fault for being the criminal and victim, mum's the word. Whatever happened to marching against thugs, which of course the Jena 6 were not, who ruin our communities, kill our children, and somehow make it fashionable and cool to become part of this prison culture? Whatever happen to making our Black parents accountable for not teaching their children what it means to dress honorably, to talk intelligently, and to be respected? I am not saying that Black folks should not be in Jena right now (because they absolutely should), but they need to get their head out of the clouds. When it comes to more pervasive questions...

Can parents feed and shelter their children?
Will a Black child fall victim to the streets?
Why are Black people half of all homicide victims and criminals?
Do Black folks live in safe and uplifting communities?
Will Black children learn of their people's history?
Do Black people care enough about their history?
Why Do Black people vote in such low numbers especial given our minority status?

What do they have to say to that?  I don't see any Black people marching over these issues and it's a shame!

Here's something to march about!

• From 1976-2005, 94% of black victims were killed by blacks [3]
• Thirteen percent of all adult Black men- 1.4 million - are disenfranchised (which is related to the first point), representing one-third of the total disenfranchised population and reflecting a rate of disenfranchisement  that is seven times the national average. [4] 
• The prevalence of diabetes among African Americans is about 70% higher than among white Americans. [1] 
• Infant morality rates for African Americans are twice as that of the white population [2]

We Are Considered White-Americans

The U.S. Government defines white as...

"White- A person having origins in the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." [1]

What is strange about this definition is that none of these men in the picture would be considered white in any respect by ordinary Americans; Whites, Blacks and Hispanics alike. I wonder why the government has such a loose definition of "white"? I personally believe that race is constructed in the United States to give the appearance that Whites have a right to power when, in fact, they distort their numbers as a form of tyranny of the majority. There is nothing scarier for a White person than this country falling into the hands of another group or another group gaining more strength and legitimacy. I've heard the most liberal whites talk about how they don't like how they are becoming the minority. This paranoia has in source in white supremacy, that this country is a 'white' country that should be governed by 'white' people, which of course warrants suspicion. Then again, whites have a hard time thinking about race, which is to their advantage. If they don't have to realize their own white privilege, then they don't have to do anything about it.

 

Minorities, on the other hand, are always talking about race because it is to their advantage to point out racial inequalities and injustices. Otherwise, minorities will go blindly about their business without any understanding of the roadblocks that inhibit their achievement, however, white privilege is more than that. It's more than having members of your race widely represented in textbooks, or political bodies, or socioeconomic classes; it's about a state of mind. White privilege is like a debit card with an infinite amount of money. Anytime a white person is in need of anything, they can always count on white privilege. Need a self-esteem booster? Just use your debit card. Think you're stupid? Use your debit card. Need to feel special? Use your debit card. Want to degrade someone? Use your debit card.

There is a famous article written by Peggy McIntosh called "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

Here are a few of the questions

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is

 

A Man Who Brought a Nation to Its Knees

As we prepare for a permanent King memorial on the National Mall, I recollect January 15, 1992, Dr King's birthday and holiday, when I recited  "I Have a Dream"  in front of my whole elementary school. I was seven years-old, loquacious, and gregarious. In fact, the only thing I worried about was whether my energy level would go over well with the audience. I said my speech clearly and passionately, as if I were King himself. When I finished, the audience cheered loudly and gave me a standing ovation. I'll never forget  that day.....just as I'll never forget the man to whom I owe so much.

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

But No One Can Say It Like Dr King

This Makes Me Cry Every Time!

Photos from the 'Dream Concert', which was held on September 18th at Radio City Music Hall

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds

The Queen of Soul

India Arie and Stevie Wonder

CREDITS: MLKMemorial

Strange Fruit Indeed

If you were fortunate to take Julian Bond's class at U.Va. on the history of civil rights in the U.S., then you would know that he plays this song in discussing the history of lynching. It's a remarkable song not just because the incomparable Billie Holiday sings it, but that the metaphor is so disturbing.

Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

The Black Church, Oh How I Love Thee!

The Bishop's Council of 1892, Philadelphia, Pa.

During church service in Heard County, Georgia, April 1941.

Church service, Woodville, Greene County, Georgia, October 1941.

A meeting of African American ministers of Macon County, Alabama.

Officers of Baptist Woman's Missionary Convention, 1915

Credit: New York Public Library 

Highlights from the American Idol Tour

Here are some video clips from the Virginia leg of the American Idol Tour, which was held on Sunday

Lakisha Jones
"I Will Always Love You"
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Jordin Sparks
"I Who Have Nothing"
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Blake Lewis
"She Will Be Loved"
Download Here

Yeah I Said It. And I'll Say It Again!

In my first year of college, I asked a few white friends of mine if they believed that there was such a thing as 'African American culture'. Despite the fact that these students were educated, came from families that were well-off, and seemed to be culturally competent, they denied that African American culture existed. I don't think that they meant to imply that African Americans didn't generate any cultural outputs worth valuing. Rather, they wrongfully assumed that such outputs merely constituted 'American culture'.

This reasoning is endemic to the white population at large in that they deprive African Americans of ownership of African American authentic forms of expression. In terms of the power dynamic at work here, there is little benefit to the white population in assuming that Black Americans assert an equally deserving historical place separate from them. Acknowledging the significance of the nation's most important minority population would be in some respect denying or downplaying whites' own importance, which has been treated as the only such source of legitimacy and pride. Dare I say that an African American presence in the United States has without question contributed to the most fundamental questions of American identity. What would the Constitution be had it not been for the struggle of African Americans to call upon white Americans to make that document come alive? What would American cuisine, and in particular, Southern cuisine be without African Americans' creative use and preparation of meats and vegetables to create all-American comfort foods? What would American culture be had it not been for gospel, blues, jazz, doo-wop, R&B and rap? In one word, boring.

Of course, I can say this because there is nothing that can make me tap my feet or clap my hands like a Black gospel singing "Praise the Lord Everybody" or Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin". There is absolutely nothing that could evoke more emotion in me that a Black Baptist minister preaching on Sunday morning. Sure I may walk away asking myself, "Now how did that sermon relate to those scriptures?" But my church experience, which I have had a lot of being the child of a minister, was never really about following the Bible to the letter, it was about the experience. Was it possible to join others in a democratic spirit to praise God, to worship him with all the vocal sound I could muster, with all the energy I possessed? The spirited nature of African American worship has left its imprint on politics in that African Americans want to inject conviction into the debate, especially convictions that attest to the common humanity and interconnectedness of all humans, the secular and divine equal standing of all Americans, and the right of all groups to participate in the governing of these United States, with Martin Luther King being the epitome of this. No one will tell you that of course, but when I listen to Barbara Jordan's speech from July 25, 1974, I know that she is not an aberration. I do not doubt that any African American would have appealed to the same ideals. Unfortunately, a woman that I think is one of the most tragic and influential politicians has been long forgotten. Even when I ask my African American friends about her, they have no clue who I am talking about. That is not to say that I was not shocked when a white friend (a college graduate might I add) told me that he didn't know who Frederick Douglas was. The dangerous thing for all Americans is to buy into this white ideology that we all are just 'American' because we really do miss out on the richness of African American and American culture.

Chicago Mass Choir, I'm Gonna Praise the Lord

If Only Shirley Chisholm Were Alive Today

What Black Person Doesn't Know This Poem

The Fire Has Come and Gone, Now What?

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement and continues to be one of the essential works of African American literature. Given the visceral nature of race politics and, and more generally, the American sociocultural dynamic today, how much can an account of the United States from the 1960s explain attitudinal realities, both individual and social, and remain relevant despite political and economic shifts? I have provided what I think are some contemporary and timely excerpts.

Excerpt from My Dungeon Shook

"Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is no limit to where you can go. The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you. Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what you do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear....There is no reasons for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for immunerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. Many of them, indeed know better, but, as you will discover, people find it difficult to act on what they know. To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. In this case, the danger, in the minds of most white Americans, is the loss of their identity."

Excerpt from Down at the Cross

"Neither civilized reason nor Christian love would cause any of those people to treat you as they presumably wanted to be treated; only the fear of your power to retaliate would cause them to do that, or to seem to do it, which was (and is good enough)...but I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be "accepted" by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don't wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this- which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never- the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed."

"Negroes in this country...are taught really to despise themselves for the moment their eyes open on the world. The world is white and they are black. White people hold the power, which means they are superior to blacks (intrinsitically, that is: God decreed it so) and the world has innumerable ways of making this difference known and felt and feared. Long before the Negro child perceives this difference, and even longer before he understands it, he has begun to react to it, he had begun to be controlled by it."

"But I had been in the pulpit too long and I had seen too many monstrous things. I don't refer merely to the glaring fact that the minister eventually acquires houses and Cadillacs while the faithful continue to scrub floors and drop their dimes and quarters and dollars into the plate. I really mean that there was no love in the church."

"White people were and are, astounded by the holocaust in Germany. They did not know that they could act that way. But I very much doubt whether black people were astounded- at least in the same way...a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless."

"And, in fact, the truth about black men, as a historical entity and as a human being, has been hidden from him, deliberately and cruelly; the power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions...Why then, is it not possible that all things began with the black man and that he was perfect- especially since this is precisely the claim that white people have put forward for themselves all these years?"

"In any event, the sloppy and fatuous nature of American good will can never be relied upon to deal with hard problems. These have been dealt with, when they have been dealt with at all, out of necessity- and in political terms, anyway, necessity means concessions made in order to stay on top."

"White Americans find it as difficult as white people elsewhere do to divest themselves of the notion that they are in possession of some intrinsic value that Black people need, or want...It is the Negro, of course, who is presumed to have become equal- an achievement that not only proves the comforting fact that perseverance has no color but also overwhelmingly corroborates the white man's sense of his own values....The only thing white people have that black people need, or should want is power- and no one holds power forever."

"Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality"

There is No Evidence That You Loved Me

             THE VERDICT
      &n