Learning from Conscious Living

Clinton Health Plan to Garnish Wages and Other 2008 Surprises

HILLARY COULD GARNISH WAGES TO PAY HEALTHCARE

1. While Hillary Clinton has criticized Barack Obama for not offering truly universal health care (he makes it highly affordable, but optional for adults), enforcement of her plan could mean that millions of Americans could have their wages garnished because they refuse to enroll in the government's healthcare plan. [1]

RACISM AMONG HISPANICS AND BLACKS?

2. With the Democratic Hispanic vote overwhelmingly going to Clinton (65%+) and the Democratic Black vote overwhelmingly going to Barack Obama (70%+), it begs the question, "What role does race and ethnicity play in this election?" Barack Obama is quick to point out that in his senatorial race, he essentially "got the Hispanic vote",  but of course what he omits is that he ran against the self-absorbed  rhetorician, Alan Keyes, who had no chance in hell of winning that election. It's often noted that voters vote their interest. As such, I believe that there is nothing racist about the motivations of the majority of Hispanics who  support Clinton over Obama or anything racist about Blacks who are for Obama. In fact, it's the proverbial self-interest argument. For Hispanics, they are going with what they know. Barack Obama is rather new to national politics compared to Clinton. The Clintons have much deeper roots in Hispanic communities than does Obama for reasons that are obvious, but Obama is successfully wooing Hispanic voters. The number of Hispanic leaders, celebrities, organizations and newspapers (e.g. Hoy, La Opinion, Adam Rodriguez, US Congressman Xavier Becerra, California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, Culinary Workers Union, etc) supporting Obama clearly silence those who want to suggest that perhaps racial and ethnic identity are preventing racial groups from considering other candidates.

A MAN WHO SPARKED A MOVEMENT

3. There is no disputing that if a grassroots movement is measured by the number of individuals who vote, contribute their own money, and volunteer, then Barack Obama has a movement on his hands. Obama has collected more individual donations that any other candidate, Republican or Democratic. To be sure, some of these funds are 'bundled', but the personal investments that people are putting into Obama will undoubtedly pay high dividends for the senator from Illinois. My conjecture is that people who donate are more likely to better informed and, most importantly, more likely to cast a vote for their candidate.

SUPERDELEGATES WHO?

4. This is the first election that I have followed so closely that I actually know by heart those magic numbers that are important in order to secure the party nominations, 2, 025 for Democrats and 1,191 for Republicans, but what surprises me most about the nominating process is the fact that "Superdelegates" account for nearly 20% of the whole delegation body! Many political commentators have noted that they could in fact sway the whole convention if they voted as one body. Some the superdelegates include: the elected members of the DNC, Democratic governors, US Democratic Senators and House members, former Party leaders (ex-presidents, retired Senate and House leaders, and former chairmen of the DNC, etc).

MCCAIN WOULD STAY IN IRAQ UNTIL 2103!

5. In an election that hinges on the failures and progress in Iraq (as well as the economy and corruption in Washington), I could not believe that the leading Republican candidate would actually put forth an idea that keeps US commitment in Iraq open-ended. I think that it's reckless on the part of Republicans to not put forth a plan or timetable on Iraq, even if that timetable needs to be modified from time to time. This is not WWIII and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We went into Iraq on our own volition. We destroyed a country, wrecked the livelihood and sense of normalcy in people's lives, and we made Iraq a mess! We have a moral, military, and political responsibility to build the Iraq nation into a functioning democracy and economically viable country. Democrats do not believe that we need to occupy Iraq in order to do this. Republicans think that we do, but frankly they think that as long as we stay in Iraq, we can muddle around.

Bill Clinton Plays the Race Card

6. Politics brings out the best in people and, unfortunately, the worst. Bill Clinton showed his true colors in the aftermath of the South Carolina primary. He was trying to pin Obama as the "black candidate". This man will do anything to win. Oh, I'm sorry. He'll do anything for his wife to win.

The Right-Wing Character Assassination on Obama

While in most cases, the attacks against Barack Obama are mild and civil, there have been a number of allegations that are just plain lies and that seek to assassinate the presidential candidate's character. In fact, much of the traffic on my website involve people who are looking for information on Barack Obama swearing in on the Koran when he became a U.S. senator. Obviously, these people are terribly misinformed. They are confusing Obama with Keith Ellison, who as the first Muslim in Congress, swore in with the Koran in January of 2007.

Moreover, despite right-wing attempts to reconstruct the senator's life, Barack Obama has never been a Muslim.

Examples

Robert Spencer, "Our first Muslim President" [1]

Bryan Keelin, "His father instructed him on the ways of being a Muslim."[1]

Rush Limbaugh, "Occasionally got confused between Obama and Osama" [1]

Chain e-mails, "Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim" [1]

Finally, I receive this comment on my website today...

"Did you know 18 months ago Obama Converted to christianity (sic) from the muslim (sic) religion. Funny how that works. So when he was sworn into the legislater (sic) he WAS sworn in the Koran because at that point in time he was NOT a christian." -Kirtis from Park Rapids, Minnesota

The Truth

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. from Kenya and Ann Dunham from Kansas, who met while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Obama's parents separated, in which case, he stayed behind with his mother in Hawaii while his father went to Harvard University. When his mother and his new stepfather moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country, in 1967. Obama was enrolled in a public school for two years and a Catholic school for two years. Since this public school has been the topic of much debate. It should be noted that CNN recently sent a correspondent to this school to investigate the veracity of rumors that this public school was a madrassa, but, as their research uncovered, the school doesn't focus on religion neither does it give preferential treatment to any religion. Obama returned to the states after five years abroad. Let us not forget that Obama is a child at this point. Like any child, Obama had no choice for where his mother and stepfather chose to move their family. In any case, Obama's Christian journey is described as follows; "his movement from a 'reluctant skeptic' to a believer (occurred) during his 20s while he was working with black churches in Chicago as a community organizer." The rest of Obama's biography is less controversial, attending Occidental College, Columbia University, Harvard Law School, working as a community organizer in Chicago, practicing as a lawyer for three years, teaching constitutional law at Chicago Law for eleven years, and serving as a state senator for seven years and as Illinois senator, his current capacity.

Credits

CNN, Washington Post, Wikipedia

What BET's Gospel Talent Show Teaches Us About Race

There was a lot of controversy in the aftermath of Emily Gomez, a mixed Hispanic and white woman, being eliminated off of the gospel talent show, Sunday's Best on BET in November of this year. Here are some comments posted on BET's forum.

>"It because of her color that she was eliminated or because she does not shout like Shari. Whatever the case, this is a slap on the face of Sunday Best, and I will not watch the program again....When will black people learn to do right?  I am becoming ashamed of being called a black person."

>"You are right. This is a case of bad judgment and reverse racism. Shame on the judges."

>"I am so shocked Emily Gomez was kicked off" [1]

Most of those who defended the judges' decision to send Emily home believed that Emily was less of a Black gospel singer than she was a contemporary Christian artist. I am not interested in this argument because there are underlying assumptions about the nature or importance of Black racial and cultural authenticity within the Black community. Though I had only been keeping up with the show from a distance, I first got wind of this controversy when my sister told me how she thought the results were racially based and how the judges felt the need to justify their decision in the subsequent episode. What I had seen of Emily was remarkable, possessing almost a textbook talent for Black gospel music, but I have come to realize that what Emily faced as a contestant on the show is perhaps the most hypocritical aspect of Black identity. On the one hand, Black people want full and unconditional acceptance in the "white world", but are not willing to extend that same level of inclusion within their own community. This sort of rank and file behavior, indicative of power politics, not only affects those who are racially different from African Americans, but those who might not share in the same cultural or educational experience of African Americans. For instance, being a Black person who is not particularly religious and having musical and educational interests that lie outside of Black culture has often put me on the margins of Black life. I have even been accused of "being white",  "acting white" and "not looking Black".   

This problem really involves a question of Black identity, that is, how can African Americans sustain their identity while at the same time engaging with the promise of equal opportunity in the "white world"? It's a  tough question and Blacks have basically said that integration in a wider context should not apply to  integration in a specific context.  Very few  Black churches (and of course white churches as well) have aggressively sought non-Black members, but when white churches don't have Black members, they are often looked upon as being isolationist and maybe even racist. It's a double standard. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are some of the least integrated educational institutions in the United States with  most schools having a smaller white population than in the 1980s.[2]

So as to resolving this issue, African Americans, as the most visible group in terms of civil rights, must model that which they expect of "white America", meaning that we, African Americans, must stop this terrible game of reducing Black people to this and that. Black people must define ourselves in terms our diversity and our inclusion.

Political Heroes

Bayard Rustin

Barbara Jordan

Shirley Chisholm

Maxine Waters

 Doug Wilder

                Who Are Yours?

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"

A Historical Moment in Time With the Late Oliver Hill: By One Virginian About Another

The year was 1959. The Supreme Court had rendered a verdict in Brown v Board of Education just  five years earlier calling for desegregation, which prompted one of the most vicious and racist campaigns to ever hit the public airwaves. On February 24, 1956, Virginia Senator Harry Byrd Sr. declared, and with which the Virginia General Assembly legislatively complied, that "Massive Resistance" was the policy through which Virginia would challenge integration. Through laws that stripped funding from integrated schools like Warren County High School and Lane High School, which was in my own city of Charlottesville, by granting tuition to students who chose to attend private schools, and by closing down school systems that did not comply, Virginia led the way in a final attempt to use states' rights as a way of subjugating the African American population, at least when it concerned equal education.

Then on January 19, 1959, the Virginia Supreme Court effectively ended Massive Resistance by ruling in Harrison v Day,106 S.E.2d 636 (Va. 1959)  that such laws and actions by the state were unconstitutional. After Governor Almond publicly condemned the decision on WXEX in Richmond (Audio), the Virginia branches of the NAACP and Oliver Hill, as their leading attorney, fought back. Oliver Hill would address the same WXEX audience, but his message appealed to the grandest of all American values. [1]

Faced with this history and these facts, there was no other logical or just conclusion that the United States Supreme Court could reach other than to hold racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The Constitution does not guarantee any right to any racial solidarity or to the protection or preservation of any race. Its guarantees go to the right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is impossible for me to conceive how any objective observer can logically contend that the action of the Supreme Court violated any right of the state. The contention that the fact that the Court had once passed on the question and was thereafter foreclosed from correcting a demonstrated error is as illogical as would be the contention of a motorist who, when charged with driving down the highway in a careless and reckless manner at ninety miles an hour, declared that the officers arresting him were out of order because peace officers had been observing him driving in this manner for the past quarter of a century and none of them had so charged him before. The contention is made that racial segregation in public schools must be maintained in order to preserve a way of life to which Virginians have been accustomed. I certainly make no pretense that the elimination of radial segregation will not change the way of life in many Virginia communities - -[2]

Hill's legal reasoning takes away any states' rights argument out of segregationists' hands because, as he rightly saw it, constitutional principles always trumped state "tradition" or "way of life". Interestingly, Hill does not end his analysis there. He believes that any attempt to deprive African Americans of equal status jeopardizes the equality of Whites as well, especially in terms of opposing Massive Resistance.

But I can point out to you hundreds of individual instances in Virginia wherein the totalitarian concept of racial segregation not only deprives the Negro of his constitutional rights, but similarly deprives the white persons their rights. One clear •cut illustration commonly known is the denial to white people who oppose massive resistance of their right to freedom of expression because of their fear of social, economical or political reprisals. There are even rumors of reprisals against the Justices of the Supreme Court Appeals of Virginia for exercising their honest judgment and declaring the massive resistance laws unconstitutional

He contended that this fight was less about how Blacks needed rights and more about how the United States and more specifically White America needed to find its soul.

The only severance in the lines of communication exists at the end resting among the white people and can easily be reunited once the white people of this state decide to work constructively upon the problems, real and fancied, incident to the elimination of racial segregation. The question is not whether you believe in racial segregation, for racial segregation is crumbling -- not merely because the Negro wants it eliminated, but because it is incompatible with the fundamental concept of the right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The only question, my friends, is whether you will continue to follow the false doctrine of evasion, resistance and defiance of the law and the principles of American democracy and suffer the change from segregation to desegregation amid the turmoil and tension of another lost cause, or whether you will repudiate the actions of your politicians and work cooperatively to bring the transition to pass with a minimum of emotional impact.

With this, the fight for equality was not over, though Massive Resistance did end. Oliver Hill, who already reached celebrity as the attorney for the Prince Edward County case which was subsumed into Brown, went on to become the first Black member of the Richmond City Council in 50 years, a partner of Hill, Tucker and Marsh , honoree of the Spingarn Award, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, confidante of many political leaders, and one of the greatest American legal minds to ever live. [3] [4]  [5]

Oliver Hill (1907-2007)

 

Image Credit : http://www.medaloffreedom.com/OliverWhiteHill.htm

http://www.brownat50.org/images/BrownCCF03Lecture/CCFOliverHill&.JPG

http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/owh.htm

 

The Michael Vick Trial: "A High Tech Lynching"?!

A Black female supporter of Michael Vick was on my  local news tonight and described the whole debacle with Michael Vick as a "high-tech lynching". Is this what Black people have become? Have we become so accustomed to being victims in a white racist society that we must always defend any Black person accused of committing a crime despite the fact that we have no clue as to their culpability? It's not just Michael Vick of course. I recently heard or read that the majority of African Americans still publicly defend O.J. Simpson's innocence. Even with the incident involving the Duke lacrosse team, the Black female was portrayed as the object of white violence and exploitation. I am not saying that the victim was truthful or a big fat liar, only that African Americans too easily buy into our victimhood as a people rather than protecting the rule and objectivity of the law. Personally, this paranoia is not altogether unfounded. We need only look at the Black population in U.S. prisons and jails (37%) [1] in order to question the equal applicability of the law, but this reasoning, that general Black injustice demands individual Black public support, is terribly flawed. It seems that these public outcries all are a response to a Black person being painted as the victim of a crime perpetuated by a white person, but how convenient it is for us forget that we are our own victims! We are killing more of us that white people are killing us. Black-on-Black homicidal crime made up for 42.3 percent of all homicides in 2005  and white-on-white homicidal crime made up 46% in the same year. [2] This seems to suggest that Black people need to speak out against self-lynching, not "high-tech lynching"! Of course, the reason why we won't do that is because we have not fully retired our slavery/Jim Crow mentality, i.e. victims whose identity is strictly defined by the need to combat white racism and violence. This mentality excuses us from properly attending to problems within our very communities, like the HIV pandemic that is sweeping this country and taking more and more Black people, especially young people. Also like the achievement gap between Black students and other populations. I don't think that the SAT is necessarily a good marker to judge achievement, because of its limited cross-cultural and trans-economic value, but I think that Black students' falling behind in the technology and higher institutional arenas warrant much more attention that they are presently being given. 

Much of the Black problem is not about trying to abate the color line, rather to dream it.

The Democrats Are Ready for Battle

I think that the Democratic presidential candidates demonstrated tremendous competence and passion tonight. Though they have had several debates in the past few months, with this being their first official party debate, they have finally conveyed that their approach to the War in Iraq, social security, healthcare, gay rights, racism, classism, and gender equality is a winnable platform. In fact, I found myself jumping up and down and applauding at the screen. This is a very exciting time for our country. We are not only reaching a milestone in terms of the type of representation (i.e. Obama, Clinton, and Richardson) but for the first time in a long time, I feel that the issues that I care about as a Black gay man are being represented on the national stage. The Democratic Party  is bringing about a change in the character of American politics in such a way that I and church-going Jimmy Bob of Kalamazoo, Michigan can rally around a party without engaging in a tragic and bitter face-off of who's the better American.

I really appreciated that Edwards was honest about his struggle with gay marriage because I feel that that agitation really resonated with most Americans. I was raised in the church, though I have no qualms or unanswered questions about my sexual orientation and my faith, but I fully understand that most Americans, especially those of the evangelical wing, have not come to terms with the issue of gay rights. As well, the candidates' candor about slavery reparations was very refreshing. I am no advocate of reparations, but the candidates, especially Obama, handled this question without conceding the legacy of white supremacy. Obama felt that investing in education and housing were better substitutes and I wholeheartedly agree with him. The candidates' response to health care could have put a smile on anyone's face. In fact, Clinton's passionate appeal to common decency and respect reminded me that she's not so cold and aloof as she leads on.

Overall, I think that the Party offered enough diverse views to cast a net over a sufficient number of potential voters while maintaining a relatively cohesive face and positive outlook.

Then again, the election is over a year away!

Let's not forget that.

Venus Joins Ranks of Billie Jean King