Perspectives (Get to know Dick Gregory) to be continued....

Lets us discuss some of the issues put forward by Dick Gregory.

Perspectives (Get to know Carter G. Woodson)

When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his own benefit. …. Carter G. Woodson (1933). Mis-education of the Negro

To be free, or not to be free (by Ya'qub Shabazz)

To be free, or not to be free
Navigating the long road to freedom and redemption
By Ya’qub Shabazz

With one in three of our men incarcerated or on probation or parole, the prison industrial complex affects all of our families and communities in ways that no others are affected in America. We are faced with a state of emergency when our men are being shipped to far away prison in numbers that rival South Africa’s incarceration rates at the peak of the racist apartheid government. Where do we turn when our men come home socially, economically, and politically disenfranchised? Do we continue to support and promote a system that has effectively eliminated a third of our men’s voting rights and ability to participate in the political process? I move that we begin to dialogue about our political alternatives considering that we (Black men) have been effectively reintroduced to the relationship that our sharecropping forefathers had with the U.S. Government. We return from prison seeking employment, freedom, and opportunities but only find rejection, discrimination, and stereotypes. Black men who are convicted felons (which are not a minority mind you) face a type of stress that would drive the average American insane. The fear and self-esteem issues alone are enough to destroy a person’s ability to succeed in under this system not to mention the trauma associated with his inability to find (and maintain) stable employment or political status has on his relationships in the community whereupon he lives. Upon release the prisoner is set free from one prison and transitioned instantaneously into another by which he is intended to fail and return to the other.

The solution: well the solution is multi tiered and requires the returning prisoner to first begin a process by which his self-esteem is rebuilt and strengthened. This man returning from prison must educate himself in the science of self; meaning that he must build his self esteem and courage by studying examples of other Black men whom overcame tremendous odds to find freedom and success. Imagine a man whom studies and molds himself after the likes of men such as El Hajj Malik Shabazz, W.E.B. Dubois, Huey Newton, and David Walker and the phenomenal potential that this man will possess after such study. We must remember that the society in which we live There exist a void in the spirits of Black men that we can never fill with jobs, money, or Black presidents. This void is what exists after generations of men and women are destroyed and subjugated to the extent that they develop a hatred for their own Black selves. In order to find liberation, justice, and freedom outside of the prison walls we must explore and exploit all political resources including Nationalism, Socialism, and other means that alert the international attention of the conditions under which Black men live here in America. Ultimately “to be free or not to be free” should be the political statement for Black men in 2009. With Barak Obama winning the Presidency and the political scene “appearing” primed for change, it is to be seen whether or not the change that is awaited will affect those who struggle to survive at the bottom a nation that appears to ignore the severity of their situation.

Cancer Among Black Men

Cancer rates have increased slightly for Black men, who remain the group most likely to get and die from the disease, according to a study by the National Cancer Institute. The study found that Black men had a general cancer rate of 560 cases per 100,000 people and a cancer death rate of 319, the highest for any of the measured groups.

Prostate and lungs are the most common cancers and the most common causes of death among all of the male groups studied. Black male had the highest rate of prostate cancer at 180.6 per 100,000, while lung cancer was the most frequent cause of cancer death among Black men, at 105.6 per 100,000. Non-Hispanics males are second to Black men in getting cancer. Cancer struck this group at the rate of 481 cancer per 100,000 people. Hawaiian men were second to Black men in the death rate of the disease with a rate of 230 per 100,000.

Among women, White non-Hispanic had the highest rates of all cancers with 354 cases per 100,000. Alaskan women were second at 348 per 100,000. Alaskan native women also had the highest death rate at 179 per 100,000. Black and Hawaiian women were second, both with cancer mortality rates of 168 per 100,000.

Death from cancer can be prevented. Approximately 35% of cancers are caused by the things we eat, and the others are treatable if caught early during routine physical exams and routine screening. For example, since prostate cancer is a slow growing tumor, it may take many years before someone can find out or have symptoms of the disease. And it is easy and practical to know if there are any evidence of disease by doing a physical examination and a simple blood test called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). Black males by virtue of their failure to seek preventative medical care, can succumb to this form of cancer and many other types of preventable diseases very easily.

As a result of the aggressive anti-smoking campaign, fewer people are smoking now than ten years ago, but the incidence of smoking in the Black community remains exceptionally high. This contributes to the prevalence of lung cancer among Blacks.

Here are some tips for early cancer detection and prevention:

a) Visit your doctor regularly for routine examinations and screening.

b) Learn the techniques involved in breast self-examination. Obtain mammogram when indicated.

c) Males, have your doctor obtain indicated examinations and tests for Prostate Cancer. Watch for difficult, painful or bloody urination.

d) Have abnormal bowel activity ( fresh blood on the stool, excessively dark stool, frequent constipation, painful defecation, and unusual diarrhea) investigated by your doctor.

e) Report chronic vague pains that seem to have no identifiable cause(s).

f) Investigate abnormal vaginal bleeding. Obtain regular PAP smears as indicated by your doctor.

g) Investigate abnormal light headedness, numbness or weakness in the extremities.

h) Investigate abnormal lymphadenapathy ( lumps or bumps on the neck, groin, arm-pit and other areas of the body).  We can take control of our health by seeking preventative medical care and being aware of physical changes in our body.

-- Rawle F. Philbert, DDS

After 35 Years, 'Black Book' Still Strikes A Chord (by Michele Norris)

When I first saw the big, shiny 35th anniversary edition of The Black Book, I was snatched back to 1974. That's the year when the book arrived in our household. It was big and mysterious, covered with a dizzying collage of images: cowboys and slaves, showgirls and dandies. One of those brown faces jumps out. She's the girl with the bobbed hair and the haunting eyes. I thought then, as I do now, that when I stare at that same book, she's staring at me, daring me to go ahead and open the front cover.
An Unvarnished Look At Black History
It's sort of the approach my parents took with the book. At a time when paperbacks cost about 2 bucks, they shelled out $9.95 for The Black Book, because they'd read a review in The New York Times, and they were intrigued with the idea of a book that would offer an unvarnished look at the history of black Americans. My parents were strivers, the first black family to buy a house in an all-white neighborhood on the south side of Minneapolis. Mom was a native Minnesotan. Dad hailed from Birmingham, Ala., and though both had to overcome steep racial obstacles, they never talked much about it at home. They kept their pain and frustration to themselves, and they told their kids that they should do the same and just keep moving forward toward some distant prize.
'You Need To Read This'
One day, my mother came home with The Black Book, and she just left it out on the dining room table — not the coffee table, not the shelf with her book-of-the-month selections. It was about the size of a math workbook, and she casually plopped it down on the dining room table because that's the spot where I did my homework. She knew that I would pick up that book and devour its contents just as surely as if she'd set down a plate of hot cookies.
When I cracked open the cover, I found a little note from my mother. It was written on one of my sheets of three-ringed ruled paper. It said, "You need to read this."

Dear Mrs. Morrison,
Someone sent me a copy of The Black Book and if at all possible I would like to have two more. I need one copy to give to a friend, another to throw against the wall over and over and over. The one I already own I want to hold in my hand against my heart.
— A letter from a prison inmate to Toni Morrison, the book's editor, upon the book's initial release in 1974.

She was right. She's always right.
Understanding Slavery
For the first time, I understood what slavery really meant when I read an ad for the public sale of Negroes and saw that a woman with four children could be sold with only two her young ones "if it best suits the purchaser." I read about white slave-catchers and black men who earned their freedom, and then turned around and purchased slaves themselves. I saw pictures of black men in shackles and hanging from trees, and I experienced a cauldron of unfamiliar emotions when I discovered the picture on page 58. It was a photo of a black man burned to a crisp, stretched out over a stack of smoldering planks. His arms are tied behind his back. His neck is arched backward, and he's surrounded by a circle of white men with suits and ties and smiling faces.
A Rich, Complicated Story
At first, I just scanned the picture and the ads, and found relief in the latter half of the book when bondage gave way to more bountiful shots of church folk and jazz hepcats, and beautiful women with shining Marcel waves.
I pored over the book day after day, and eventually went back to actually read the text. The letters from servicemen and the inventors' patents; the poems and the dream books; the legislation that determined whether blacks could vote or own land or serve as witnesses in cases before a court; the announcement in 1919 that a black physician, after a bitter struggle, was placed on the staff at Harlem Hospital and allowed to serve a predominantly black clientele.
Even a kid could see the irony in that.
With every page, I learned that the story of blacks in America was rich and complicated and painful and triumphant, and ultimately, a lot more complex than the version I was offered in my middle-school classroom.
I was 13 when my parents purchased the book. It was before Roots lit up our television screen and before slavery was a topic that could be discussed in my Minnesota classroom without great discomfort for teachers and their students — a condition that was usually remedied by cruising through the lesson with great haste.
A Bold Statement
Thinking back, we did not talk about The Black Book much at home. My parents kept quiet and let the book speak for itself. But through their actions, they made a bold statement. They shelled out another $9.95 to buy a second copy of the book for my school and insisted that it be placed in the library where students passed it back and forth and pored over the pages. The book was handled so much and so often that the large paperback started to fall apart. At that point, Belvin and Betty Norris — though never quick to part with their cash — decided to purchase a replacement copy.
The original copy of The Black Book now sits on a bookshelf in my home. Its spine is fragile, and its pages are dog-eared, and a few are marred by greasy fingerprints — evidence of a rueful episode when I ignored my mother's warning to put the Fritos down. Shame on me.
I now try to imagine what I would say or do to my own two young children if they did the same with the original Black Book or the new 35th anniversary edition that I also plan to add to my bookshelf. This time, it's a hardcover edition that's a bit glossier and a good bit sturdier. All the better to withstand being passed around and prodded over by my own kids a few years from now when they approach their 13th birthdays, because I, too, plan to pass the book to both of them.

And just inside that front cover, they'll find a note — written by me — but in my mind whispered by all the people whose stories are told inside the pages. It will say, "Trust me — you need to read this."

Justice Dept. won't support Jack Johnson pardon

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is refusing to back a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.
In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the department's pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, told Rep. Peter King that the Justice Department's general policy is not to process posthumous pardon requests. In cases like Johnson's, given the time that has passed and the historical record that would need to be scoured, the department's resources for pardon requests are best used on behalf of people "who can truly benefit" from them, Rodgers wrote.
The letter was in response to one that King, R-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had sent to President Barack Obama in October urging a pardon. In that letter, the two lawmakers noted that both houses of Congress has passed a resolution calling for a presidential pardon and said they hoped the president would be eager to "right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison."
Rodgers wrote that notwithstanding the department policy, Obama still has the authority to pardon whomever he wishes, "guided when he sees fit by the advice of the pardon attorney."
And he did cite two cases of posthumous pardons: President Bill Clinton's 1999 pardon of Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the Army's first black commissioned officer, who was drummed out of the military in 1882 after white officers accused him of embezzling $3,800 in commissary funds; and President George W. Bush's 2008 pardon of Charles Winters, who was convicted of violating the Neutrality Act when he conspired in 1948 to export aircraft to a foreign country in aid of Israel.
In Winters' case, Rodgers said, the pardon request was not processed by Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney, due to the department's posthumous pardon policy.
King said in a telephone interview that he and McCain probably will continue to urge Obama to issue the pardon.
"What they're doing here is bucking it back to President Obama," King said. "So I would respectfully urge him to grant the pardon. This is the president's call."
The White House had no immediate comment on whether Obama would consider the request.
When he unveiled the resolution in April, McCain said he was sure that Obama "will be more than eager" to issue the pardon.
A hundred years before Obama was elected the nation's first black president, Johnson, a native of Galveston, Texas, became the first black heavyweight champion, on Dec. 26, 1908, after police in Australia stopped his 14-round match against the severely battered Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns.
That victory led to a search for a "Great White Hope" who could beat Johnson. Two years later, Jim Jeffries, the American world titleholder Johnson had tried for years to fight, came out of retirement but lost in a match called "The Battle of the Century," resulting in deadly riots.
In 1913, Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. After his conviction, he fled the country, but agreed years later to return and serve a 10-month jail sentence.
In 2004, the Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson, which filmmaker Ken Burns helped form, filed a petition with the Justice Department that was never acted on. His 2005 documentary, "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," explored the case against the boxer and the sentencing judge's acknowledged desire to "send a message" to black men about relationships with white women.

Black Male and Female Relationship (Dr. Naim Akbar)

His name is Dr. Na'im Akbar and his ideas have penetrated most aspects of progressive thought affecting the minds of African people throughout the world. Dr. Akbar's insight and analysis of the social concerns affecting African-Americans in particular and humanity as a whole is soul stirring, superbly rational and highly informative. He is what they call a "Black Psychologist," an "Afrocentric Scholar," sharing his thoughts on national issues with the entire population through books, articles, lectures, seminars and radio talk shows. This scholar, psychologist, author, and lecturer was acclaimed by Essence Magazine as "one of the world's preeminent psychologists and a pioneer in the development of an African-centered approach in modern psychology."

Black Male and Female Relationships Part One

Black Male and Female Relationships Part Two

Black Male and Female Relationships Part Three

Black Male and Female Relationships Part Four

Ten worst places to be (if you are Afrikan)

Wisconsin leads the nation in the percentage of its black inhabitants under lock and key.  Just over four percent of black Wisconsin, including the very old and the very young of both sexes, are behind bars.  Most of the state’s African Americans reside in the Milwaukee area, and most of its black prisoners are drawn from just a handful of poor and economically deprived black communities where jobs, intact families and educational opportunities are the most scarce, and paroled back into those same neighborhoods.  So Wisconsin, and in particular the Milwaukee area justly merit the invidious distinction of the Worst Place in the Nation to be Black. 

Iowa, with only a small black population, is not far behind.  The crime control industries in Wisconsin and Iowa seem to have learned to make the most efficient use of the preferred human material available to them, locking up the few black inhabitants of those states at a rate 11.6 times higher than whites.

Texas, the nation’s second largest state, is the third worst place to be black in America, and is in a class by itself, first because its extraordinary rate of black incarceration affects such a large population.  Only New York has more African Americans than Texas, and only the two relatively small states previously mentioned lock up a higher percentage of their black citizens.  Though California has 50 percent more people, Texas has a slightly larger prison population and only a 5 to 1 ratio between its black and white rates of imprisonment.  We may safely assume that since very few of its wealthy Texans are behind bars, Texas is just a very bad place to be poor, whether you’re black or not.

A total of 900,000 African Americans live in Oklahoma, Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, Oregon and Colorado, and another 2 million-plus in California, where the proportion of prisoners among total African Americans hovers just under 3 percent.

How Much Better is Better? How Much Worse is Worst?

The answer in both cases is, unfortunately: not much.  Only one hundredth of a percentage point separates Iowa’s 3.30% rate of black incarceration from that of Texas, with 3.29%.  Twenty-seven more states manage to lock up between 2 and 3% of their African American inhabitants, and only Maine, Hawaii and North Dakota fail to incarcerate more than 1.55% of blacks.  For whites, the national average ratio of prisoners to the general population is less than 4 tenths of one percent.

The damning truth laid bare once again by this fact, is that America’s policy of racially selective policing, prosecuting and imprisonment of its black one-eighth is a truly consistent and national one, even though it is implemented with arbitrary severity by countless state and local authorities.

BC’s Dishonorable Mention is reserved for those states not already enumerated which have the highest disparity between black and white incarceration rates.  Wisconsin and Iowa belong here too, with disparity rates between 11 and 12 to one, but they have already been mentioned.  This dismal category is especially significant because black populations in three of the states with extraordinary disparity rates fall largely within the New York City Metropolitan Statistical area, the largest concentration of black people in North America.  Suffice it to say that for practical purposes, New York City and its environs are not that much better a place to be black than Texas.

STATE...........BLACK-WHITE DISPARITY

New Jersey............13.15 to one

Connecticut...........12.77 to one

Minnesota.............12.63 to one

Pennsylvania..........10.53 to one

New York.............. 9.47 to one

The second largest concentration of African Americans in New Jersey lies within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Statistical Area.  Note Pennsylvania’s fourth place ranking on the Dishonorable list.

The “enlightened” state of Minnesota has two more peculiar distinctions.  First, it commits one of the nation’s largest percentages of offenders to community corrections, the generic name for “non-prison” sentencing alternatives.  With one of the nation’s highest rates of disparity between its black and white inhabitants, it appears that Minnesota’s white offenders are disproportionately funneled into alternative sentencing situations, but we have no data to support such a conclusion.  Secondly, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, which together with the US Census Department is the source for all numerical data in this article, Minnesota had the fastest growing prison population in the country as of mid-year 2004, the latest date for which stats are publicly available.

(Excerpt from the Black Commentator)

Cornel West: The "Brother West" Interview

One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Dr. Cornel Ronald West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood. His writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist Church, progressive politics, and jazz.

Though currently the Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University, Dr. West first burst onto the national scene in 1993 upon the publication of his best seller, Race Matters, a searing analysis of racism in American democracy. In his long-awaited autobiography, BROTHER WEST: Living and Loving Out Loud, he now offers a compelling exploration of his heart behind the human mind.

Here, he answers questions from readers and talks about the book which explores such themes as Faith, Family, Philosophy, Love and Service.

Kam Williams: Hi, Dr. West, nice speaking with you again. I loved your autobiography. But do you know how hard it was for me to track you down for another interview?

Cornell West: I appreciate your deep loyalty and commitment.

KW: Why did you decide to write your memoirs?

CW: Tavis Smiley, my dear brother, raised the question of my writing one when the prostate cancer hit 8 years ago. I thought and thought about it and decided maybe I could tell my story to help somebody, so they could see how the power of love and education in my life had transformed me from a gangster with raw rage.

KW: Where did that thug you refer to in the book as “Little Ronnie” come from, and how did you get past that phase?

CW: I was just mad, a born rebel. I had loving parents, a loving church and loving friends, yet I was mad, and I needed constructive venues to express that rage. I was able to find them owing to the power of love and education. So, it became a righteous indignation against injustice. It became a holy anger against unfairness. And I’ve had it ever since.

KW: Reverend Florine Thompson asks, where should we look to reclaim the prophetic voice regarding the war in Afghanistan? Should the Obama administration send thousands of more troops there?

CW: No, no! Obama can’t get the Nobel Peace Prize and be a war President. He’s got to be able to promote peace in an international, multilateral way. We don’t need an American occupation; we don’t need more American troops there. If he does send more, then we’ve got to take to the streets.

KW: Reverend Thompson also asks, with the rise in black-on-black teen crime, what should the religious community be doing differently to address this issue? Is "The Church" merely irrelevant in the lives of our youth? Many have said that our youth have little or no regard for God, church or religion since prayer was taken out of public schools.

CW: No, I don’t think taking prayer out of schools was the cause of young people being suspicious of religion. That goes back a long way. It has more to do with the fact that older folk did not exemplify the kind of love and justice that the young people would like to see. Therefore, they saw old people as hypocrites more tied to Church-ianity than Christianity. So, a lot of it has to do with the failings of the older generation which led to the younger generation’s going off to look for alternatives. Unfortunately, a lot of times they turned to ugly things like guns and drugs, given the easy access to guns because of lax gun control laws, and to drugs because the government can’t keep them out of the country. In addition, the youth don’t have too many alternatives to the decrepit housing and disgraceful school systems which provide very little opportunities for those in the urban ‘hoods. So, I think the whole issue of young people and churches has much more to do with social forces than it does with just not having prayer in schools.

KW: How do we save our young men, then? Where are the black male role models?

CW: There’s only one way to save young black people, and that’s to love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em, care for ‘em, attend to them, embrace them, target them, concentrate on them, and make them feel as if they’re somebody, because that’s the only way they get self-respect and self-confidence, which are the two prerequisites for flowering and flourishing in life.

KW: The good Reverend has a question about healthcare: What should the church be doing to foster healthcare reform?

CW: Hmm… A lot of churches need to bear witness for the least of our brethren… for the weak, for the poor, for the orphaned, for the widowed, for the children. And the only way you get set on fire is you gotta be Born Again. You have to undergo fundamental awakening and conversion and metamorphosis.

KW: Reverend Thompson asks about the outcry of "You lie!" to President Obama by a Republican Congressman Joe Wilson. Was it a slip of the lip or confirmation that race matters?

CW: Well, it certainly was an act of disrespect. The very act of disrespecting the President of the United States in that manner on national television is a very serious matter.

KW: How would you say President Obama is doing on a scale of 1 to 10?

CW: It depends on which issue you’re talking about. On ecology and the environment, I would give him a 7. On war, I’d give him a 3. On the economy, a 2. In terms of his trying to sustain a new atmosphere and new ethos in the country and around the world, I’d give him an 8. So, it goes up and down, relative to each issue.

KW: Children’s book author Irene Smalls says, you recently launched a spoken word or rap career. How does that jibe with your academic pursuits?

CW: Oh, it’s quite consistent, because I’m an educator. When I write books, that’s textual education. When I do spoken word, that’s singing education. When I dance, it’s dancing education. All of it has to do with trying to awaken people to become more courageous to bear witness to love and justice in the world.

KW: Our mutual friend, Ila Forster, who was at Princeton when you were there as a grad student, asks if you like how jazz pianist Robert Glasper recast one of your musical pieces in an inaugural tribute. It included parts of speeches not only by you but also by Obama and Dr. King.

CW: This is the first that I’m hearing about it. Tell Sister Ila thanks so much for letting me know about it.

KW: Although Ila didn’t make it back to campus, she says she heard that your speech at the recent black alumni reunion conference at Princeton was excellent and unusually personal.

CW: Oh, we had a wonderful time.

KW: Jimmy Bajan says he agrees with you that we haven’t turned a corner just because we have a black president. He asks, what will it take to see a level playing field? With so many blacks and whites still living in poverty in this country and so many children without healthcare, how far are we from seeing an equitable society realized where there's coverage for everyone comparable to Europe?

CW: I agree with Brother Jimmy. We certainly haven’t turned a corner. Not at all. And we’re a long way from there being a level playing field, just like we’re a long way from poor people enjoying the same opportunities as the well-to-do. It depends on the quality of our struggle, the quality of our commitment and the quality of our conviction.

KW: Lester Chisholm asks, what can people do to avoid spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical compliancy?

CW: They’ve got to hang around folks who are on fire with a love for justice.

KW: Lester also asks, what movie do you recommend for people to begin empower themselves?

CW: Tell him to watch The Matrix.

KW: How about that film you appeared in this year called Examined Life? That was a very powerful documentary.

CW: I appreciate that. I had a great time working with Astra Taylor on that. She’s a wonderful sister.

KW: Why do you refer to everyone by either brother or sister, even if they’re not black?

CW: All human beings are vanishing creatures and disappearing organisms trying to find a little meaning and love before they die. In that sense, we’re all trying to work it out. And when I say “brother” or “sister” to every person without regard to color, or culture or civilization, I’m just paying tribute to their struggling.

KW: well, Sister Laz Lyles says, I just want to know how he keeps his afro so tight.

CW: [LOL] well, I haven’t had a haircut since 1984. So, it tends to just fall in place every morning. I don’t know how long it’ll last. I might be baldheaded in a coupe of years if the crisis hits me. You never know.

KW: On a more serious note, Laz wants to know if you consider W.E.B. Du Bois’s idea of double consciousness still relevant with the Obama presidency.

CW: Oh, absolutely. It’s deeply relevant, because there’s still a veil between the black and white world when it comes to cultural, religious and other divides.

KW: Laz’s also asks, after healthcare, what is the next area of major reform you’d like to see Obama address?

CW: We need reform in the military, both in terms of military policy, and in terms of its internal dynamics.

KW: Tale grad Tommy Russell asks, do you think Barack Obama is being treated less fairly or with less dignity than previous presidents?

CW: Yes, by Brother Rush [Limbaugh], Brother Sean [Hannity] and Brother Bill O’Reilly. I think they hardly respect him at all. In fact, I think they are very demeaning and disrespectful. On the other hand, the liberal press has been so deferential, that they haven’t engaged in the criticisms that they should. So, it cuts both ways. Barack Obama needs to be protected, and he needs to be respected, but he also needs to be corrected. Criticisms are important when they’re based on principle, man, because in the end, it’s not about Obama, it’s about poor people and working people.

KW: Do you think inheriting the nation in the state it was left behind by Bush is dragging on Obama’s efficiency?

CW: Absolutely! He came in under catastrophic conditions. George Bush had handed him a multi-layered mess. He’s been trying to get out from under that mess. However, the War in Afghanistan will be Obama’s war. And the increasing unemployment will be Obama’s unemployment, owing to his economic team that puts very little emphasis on the plight of working people and poor people. So, yes, Bush handed him a mess, but after a year he’s going to have to begin to take some real responsibility for what he’s headed towards.

KW: Sue Doran asks, if you’ve read anything by Chris Hedges?

CW: Yes, the author of American Fascism. He’s a very important, prophetic voice in the culture.

KW: Postal clerk Ron Clark says, you’re one of his regular customers at the Princeton Post Office, and that you always take one of the Tootsie Pops he gives out.

CW: Brother Ron! He has such a wonderful spirit about him. Just to see him uplifts you, and helps make your day a better day.

KW: Ron asks, where did you develop your oratory skills?

CW: Probably in the church and on the block.

KW: Ron follows up with, have you had any interaction with Angela Davis?

CW: Oh Lord, yes! I was just with Angela not long ago. She introduced me at a lecture at the University of California at Santa Cruz where she’s a distinguished professor. She’s my dear sister.

KW: Tony Noel, a Muslim brother, says that he and you share a common challenge in life besides being of African descent. “We are both survivors of prostate cancer.” He asks, how do you feel that we can best spread the word to our brothers in the human race about this disease?

CW: Well, first let me say a prayer for my dear brother… Secondly, we need to lift our voices. That’s why when I travel to conferences I encourage black brothers to get a PSA exam to catch it early, so they can live longer.

KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What music are you listening to nowadays?

CW: I start off in the morning with gospel, with James Cleveland, and often end with George Clinton’s “One Nation under a Groove.”

KW: Thanks again, Dr. West, and best of luck with the book and all your endeavors.

CW: I appreciate you’re taking this time, and I deeply apologize about how hard it was for you to find me, but I’ve been on the run lately. You just stay strong, my brother.

KW: No problem, Brother West.

(From Black News.com)

If Black English Isn't a Language, then Tell Me What It Is. By James Baldwin (1979)

The argument concerning the use, or the status, or the reality, of Black English is rooted in American history and has absolutely nothing to do with the question the argument supposes itself to be posing. The argument has nothing to do with language, itself, but with the role of language. Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker. Language also, far more dubiously, is meant to define the other --and in this case, the other is refusing to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize him.

People evolve a language in order to be able to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality they cannot articulate. (And, if they cannot articulate it, they are submerged.) A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would all have great difficulty apprehending what the man from Guadeloupe, or Manique, is saying, to say nothing of the man from Senegal --although the "common" language in all these areas is French. But each has paid, and is paying, a different price for this "common" language, in which, as it turns out, they are not saying, and cannot be saying, the same things: They each have very different realities to articulate, or control.

What joins all languages, and all men, is the necessity to confront life, in order, not inconceivably, to outwit death: the price for this is the acceptance, and achievement, of one's temporal identity. So that, for example, though it is not taught in the schools (and this has the potential of becoming a political issue) the south of France still clings to its ancient and musical Provencal, which resists being described as a "dialect". And much of the tension in the Basque countries, and in Wales, is due to the Basque and Welsh determination not to allow their languages to be destroyed. This determination also feeds the flames in Ireland, for among the many indignities the Irish have been forced to undergo at English hands is the English contempt for their language.

It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity. There have been, and are, times and places, where to speak a certain language could be dangerous, even fatal. Or, one may speak the same language, but in such a way that one's antecedents are revealed, or (one hopes) hidden. This is true in France, and absolutely true in England: The range (and reign) of accents on that damp little island make England coherent for the English and totally incomprehensible for everyone else. To open your mouth in England is (if I may use black English) to "put your business in the street": You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your parents, your self-esteem, and, alas, your future.

Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound. Jazz, for example, is a very specific sexual term, as in jazz me, baby, but white people purified it into the Jazz Age. Sock it to me, which means, roughly, the same thing, has been adopted by Nathaniel Hawthorne's descendants with no qualms or hesitations at all, along with "let it all hang out" and "right on!" Beat to his socks, which was once the black's most total and despairing image of poverty, was transformed into a thing called the Beat Generation, which phenomenon was largely composed of uptight, middle-class white people, imitating poverty, trying to get down, to get with it, doing their thing, doing their despairing best to be funky, which we, the blacks never dreamed of doing --we were funky, baby, like funk was going out of style.

Now, no one can eat his cake, and have it, too, and it is late in the day to attempt to penalize black people for having created a language that permits the nation its only glimpse of reality, a language without which the nation would be even more whipped than it is.

I say that this present skirmish is rooted in American history, and it is. Black English is the creation of the black diaspora. Blacks came to the United States chained to each other, but from different tribes. Neither could speak the other's language. If two black people, at that bitter hour of the world's history, had been able to speak to each other, the institution of chattel slavery could never have lasted as long as it did. Subsequently, the slave was given, under the eye, and the gun, of his master, Congo Square, and the Bible --or, in other words, and under these conditions, the slave began the formation of the black church, and it is within this unprecedented tabernacle that black English began to be formed. This was not, merely, as in the European example, the adoption of a foreign tongue, but an alchemy that transformed ancient elements into a new language: A language comes into existence by means of brutal necessity, and the rules of the language are dictated by what the language must convey.

There was a moment, in time, and in this place, when my brother, or my mother, or my father, or my sister, had to convey to me, for example, the danger in which I was standing from the white man standing just behind me, and to convey this with a speed, and in a language, that the white man could not possibly understand, and that, indeed, he cannot understand, until today. He cannot afford to understand it. This understanding would reveal to him too much about himself, and smash that mirror before which he has been frozen for so long.

Now, if this passion, this skill, this (to quote Toni Morrison) "sheer intelligence," this incredible music, the mighty achievement of having brought a people utterly unknown to, or despised by "history" --to have brought this people to their present, troubled, troubling, and unassailable and unanswerable place --if this absolutely unprecedented journey does not indicate that black English is a language, then I am curious to know what definition of language is to be trusted.

A people at the center of the Western world, and in the midst of so hostile a population, has not endured and transcended by means of what is patronizingly called a "dialect". We, the blacks, are in trouble, certainly, but we are not doomed, and we are not inarticulate because we are not compelled to defend a morality that we know to be a lie.

The brutal truth is that the bulk of the white people in America never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It is not the black child's language that is in question, it is not his language that is despised: It is his experience. A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black, and in which he knows that he can never become white. Black people have lost too many black children that way.

And, after all, finally, in a country with standards so untrustworthy, a country that makes heroes of so many criminal mediocrities, a country unable to face why so many of the non-white are in prison, or on the needle, or standing, futureless, in the streets --it may very well be that both the child, and his elder, have concluded that they have nothing whatever to learn from the people of a country that has managed to learn so little.

Weathering the Storm: Black Men in the Recession

The recession is taking a toll on most Americans and has resulted in job losses not seen in almost 25 years, but black men have felt its effects particularly hard.

Black men have long faced limited employment prospects and disproportionately high rates of unemployment. Even as the economy thrived and the participation of low-skilled women in the labor force increased over the last two decades, many black men remained largely disconnected from the labor market. While the unemployment rate among black men has declined dramatically over the last few decades, the level of workforce participation among African-American men has not increased and remains stagnant. The current degree of job loss among black men is particularly alarming. These losses will likely only increase as the economic crisis deepens.

To address this crisis, policymakers must address the root causes of black men’s difficulties in the labor market, including high rates of incarceration, limited education, child support arrearages, and discrimination. Policymakers can take several steps to ensure that all communities have fair access to jobs, and that particular communities do not suffer more than others as a result of mounting and widespread job losses. The policies we propose will reduce inequities and promote equal opportunity in the labor market and promote access to meaningful employment opportunities for black men.

Racial equity and equal opportunity must be at the forefront of policies that will promote economic recovery and create jobs. Policymakers should not only assess the actual and anticipated effects of policies and budgets on disadvantaged communities like low-skilled black men, but also identify ways to maximize equity and inclusion—especially in the context of the economic recovery.
Soaring unemployment among black men

In good times and in bad, the African-American unemployment rate tends to be about double that of whites, and in tough economic times, it rises higher and faster. In this recession, as in previous economic downturns, the effects on the labor force are not evenly distributed among the different demographic groups. In fact, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that African Americans had a higher rate of job loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 than did whites, Hispanics, or the catch-all category “other.”

What’s more, the recession overall has hit men much harder than women—so far, four out of every five jobs lost has been held by a male worker. Black men lead the unemployment surge, with an unemployment rate of 15.4 percent. This comes as a result of a range of barriers to employment, including disproportionate employment in vulnerable industries and labor market discrimination. Over a third of young black men ages 16 to 19 in the labor market are unemployed. In fact, a recent report found that 8 percent of black men have lost their jobs since November 2007.

March was one of the worst months for layoffs on record. The current recession has been particularly difficult for the manufacturing and construction industries—two industries in which black men are disproportionately employed. Many workplaces have also implemented hiring freezes, a more important and less acknowledged contribution to sharply rising rates of unemployment. Black men’s unemployment rate of 15.4 percent in March 2009 was more than twice that of white men and up almost 7 percentage points from a year earlier. One recent study called African Americans’ economic situation “a silent economic depression,” in which soaring levels of unemployment impose significant social costs on black families and entire communities.

Unemployment insurance, or UI, helps cushion the impact of the economic downturn for workers and their families, and brings economic stability to entire communities. African Americans are less likely to receive UI than whites when they lose their jobs. Restrictive state UI policies that exclude many part-time and low-wage workers place black workers at a particular disadvantage. And many African Americans are still looking for employment long after UI benefits run out. A study from the National Employment Law Project found that black workers make up 25 percent of the long-term unemployed.
Black men face exacerbated labor market turmoil

The current recession is exacerbating long-term trends in black men’s employment. Black men’s ability to access high-paying jobs in the manufacturing sector played a significant role in building the black middle class after World War II. Yet those jobs have steadily declined in the past several decades. A study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that the share of African Americans in manufacturing jobs fell from 23.9 percent in 1979 to 9.8 percent in 2007. Blacks were actually 15 percent less likely than other groups in 2007 to have a job in manufacturing. These jobs have also been among the first cut in this recession, accelerating the decline of available positions with decent pay for black men.

Black men have also been disproportionately affected by the instability in the automotive industry. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that African Americans have above average employment and earn much higher wages in auto industry jobs than in other industries. If one or more domestic automakers were to file for bankruptcy, more than 3 million jobs could be lost within the next year, a result that would be especially devastating for African Americans.

Black workers have not only suffered from a severe decline in decent employment opportunities, but they have also faced decreasing rates of unionization related to the shrinking manufacturing industry. Unionized African-American workers on average earn higher wages than nonunion black workers with similar characteristics. From 2004 to 2007, the median unionized black worker earned about $17.51 per hour, compared to $12.57 per hour for the median nonunion black worker. Unionized black workers were also more likely to have health insurance and pension plans than nonunion black workers.

Black men have traditionally held the highest union memberships rates of all demographic groups. In 2008, 15.9 percent of black men were members of unions, the greatest participation of all groups and higher than the national average of 12.4 percent. However, black union membership has been declining at a faster rate than membership among whites since the 1980s.

The employment rates of African-American men remained stagnant even during the economic booms in the 1980s and 1990s. The group’s continued high unemployment rates and inability to achieve prior employment peaks even after many years of a strong economy are influenced by multiple factors, including high rates of incarceration, limited education, child support arrearages, and discrimination.

What’s more, persistent racial discrimination has enhanced the effects of various factors that have limited the employment opportunities available to black men over time. A cross-sectional analysis of employers by Harry J. Holzer of Georgetown University found that employers are generally more averse to hiring black males than those from any other racial and gender group, especially in jobs that require social or verbal skills and in service occupations.

Another study from Princeton University of nearly 1,500 employers in New York City found that black applicants without criminal records are no more likely to get a job than white applicants just out of prison. The statistics from the study also suggested that employer discrimination against people of color and ex-offenders has significantly undermined the job opportunities for young black men with little education and training.
Social costs of high unemployment

Soaring unemployment rates among black men mean that increases in the number of black households in poverty are sure to follow, and poverty will only deepen for those households that are already poor. Some estimates, such as Mark Zandi’s on Moody’s Economy.com, forecasted a rise in the unemployment rate to upward of 11 percent in 2010, meaning that several million more Americans will be living in poverty in the coming years.

The marginal and faltering ties that many black men have to the labor market are devastating entire families and communities. Rising unemployment adds to the difficulties already affecting vulnerable families that live in communities plagued by poor educational outcomes, declining neighborhood quality, and high rates of incarceration. A study from the Economic Policy Institute found that during the strong economy of the 1990s, falling crime rates were in part attributable to the decrease in unemployment and rising underemployment. Some research suggests that many communities are likely to see an uptick in crime—if they have not already—as joblessness grows.

Incarceration is a factor that is often overlooked in research on employment inequality, and it is even more important now that incarceration rates have reached record high levels. When taken into account, it significantly reduces estimated employment rates for African Americans—especially younger and less educated males. Black men are about seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white men, and they serve sentences that are about 10 months longer on average than those of white men. A study from the National Urban League linked these higher rates of incarceration of young black males to increasing urban crime rates, and other recent studies have found that by their mid-30s, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of high school had spent time in jail.

Now, with many states facing major budget crises, state governments are releasing thousands of prisoners to save taxpayer dollars. The potential surge of ex-offenders re-entering society in addition to the more than 700,000 who return each year will pose major challenges not only for communities already lacking sufficient jobs and resources, but also for cash-strapped government and nonprofit agencies tasked with preventing recidivism. These ex-offenders, many of whom are low-income men of color, re-enter their communities and face significant barriers to successful returns. CAP’s Poverty Task Force report observed that for ex-offenders, “Lower levels of employment before incarceration and lack of job experience and skills acquisition during incarceration compound employment barriers.”
Recommendations

Black men’s dire employment situation demands a targeted and effective policy intervention to counter the negative trends in workforce opportunities and behaviors that have developed over time and that are currently on the rise. Policymakers should adopt a range of policies—many of which are race neutral—that will have disproportionately positive impacts on black men.
Adopt policies that reduce inequities and promote equal opportunity in the labor market

Combat racial discrimination by employers

To promote equal opportunity for job seekers, active protections must be in place. These include vigorous enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, increased support for affirmative action policies, and tax incentives for employers to promote workplace diversity.

Modernize the Unemployment Insurance system

Removing inappropriately restrictive requirements for UI eligibility will greatly benefit low-wage and part-time workers, a number of whom are black men. The Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act is a key portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which became law in February 2009. The UIMA provides $7 billion in financial incentives for states to close the major gaps in the unemployment program that deny benefits to many working families. Policymakers should also ensure that unemployment benefits can continue while workers are in appropriate education and workforce training programs and extend benefits to allow for completing such programs.

Support the Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the choice to organize unions, raises penalties when the law is violated, and promotes good-faith bargaining so that employees can negotiate a first contract. Strong unions promote income equality and raise wages for all workers.
Adopt policies that promote access to meaningful employment opportunities for black men

Improve education and early links to the labor market

A broad set of community-based youth development and mentoring efforts targeting teens and young adults, in addition to high school-based programs that lead more young people to college or directly into the labor market would improve the work outcomes for young black men. More importantly, programs like the Harlem Children’s Zone that begin early in the lives of black children could help counter the achievement gaps that develop early and follow young men through life.

Support the creation of “green jobs” in low-income communities

It is imperative that black men have access to meaningful employment opportunities in thriving and sustainable industries. Many jobs in the renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building fields are middle-skill jobs that require more than a high-school education but less than a four-year degree. And these jobs are well within reach for lower-skill and low-income workers as long as they have access to effective workforce training and support programs. Green jobs also pay decent wages and can provide opportunities for advancement and high-level skill development.

Develop comprehensive re-entry services for ex-offenders

Prisons coupled with high rates of incarceration have actively widened the gap between poor black men and everyone else. States and local communities must develop policies and programs across agencies aimed at reintegrating former prisoners into their communities with full-time, consistent employment and developing a continuum of services and supports from prison to the community. Prisoners also need access to job preparation and education programs, since research suggests these programs lower recidivism rates. Employment discrimination and legal barriers against ex-offenders who do not pose a safety or security threat must be redressed. More importantly, policymakers must examine ways to break the cycle of incarceration and prevent initial entry of black men into the criminal justice system.

Recessions hurt us all, but they hurt poor and marginalized populations the most. A conscious and careful analysis of the actual and anticipated effects of economic and spending policies on communities of color and low-income families is critical to ensuring an economic recovery that will “lift all boats” and provide sustained income growth and employment opportunities for all communities.

The Sacred Village of Sankofa

As usual the Sacred Village of Sankofa had yet another fruitful and exciting youth study and discussion session. The famed teacher and Psychologist from the University of Florida, Dr. Naim Akbar once wrote that "In addition to the cultivation of identity, education has the responsibility to transmit the legacy of competence." In order to properly reach our youth, we must reintroduce them to their Afrikan roots and histories because the traditional teaching of post colonial Afrikan values, and the culture and values systems developed during our experiences on American plantations have left us in dire straits. It is no surprise to us how receptive our youth are to traditional Afrikan histories, language styles, music, and culture when presented to them in an uncompromising, affectionate, and disciplined manner. The Sacred Village of Sankofa (or SVOS) teaches more than the contemporary pre-packaged “Black History” diet fed so haphazardly to our children in the public school system; conveniently omitting figures that fail to meet the current days’ standard of political correctness. SVOS puts emphasis on individuals such as Bobby Hutton, a teenaged member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense who was gunned down by the Oakland Police Department. Or Steven Biko, a noted South Afrikan youth activist who founded the Black Consciousness Movement and eventually was murdered while in the custody of the vicious South African Police because of his desire and activities in the struggle for justice and freedom. These examples of courage, resilience, dedication, and strength are very appealing to SVOS youth and have served to forge a new Afrikan identity, pride, and knowledge that have developed some very desirable outcomes. In order to transmit a legacy of competence and strength we must identify whatever evidence of our particular greatness that can be harvested, and use it to our benefit and The Sacred Village of Sankofa is doing just that for our youth.
If you would like to get more information about The Sacred Village of Sankofa or to submit a donation to our cause (we are always in need of school supplies) please feel free to write:

The Sacred Village of Sankofa
P.O. Box 14481
Madison, WI 53703

Or visit our SVOS blog and meet some of the participants at:

http://sacredvillage.spruz.com/

UHURU Comrades!!!