WEEK IN REVIEW 3-21-08

Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor

It’s been a tough week for a blackwoman. If my sons had not already done so years ago, the media and its relentless harping on Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama would have tap-danced on my very last nerve.

Then I look up today and see this.

Talk about open season on black males, this is the week that was. I love my brothers and this has been a pretty big dose of black as boogie man manic trying to be depressive. It’s been a week of you can do anything you want to my brothers. I’m not having it. Not any of it.

(SistahSpeak con't.)

I’m working real hard not to get mad. And no, I don’t mean angry, I mean mad. A little anger can be the impetus to change. Mad just makes you lose focus. If there is anything that I need right this minute now, it’s focus. My whole life has lead me to the fierce urgency of this moment in time and I intend to be razor sharp moving into tomorrow. Make no mistake, we are moving into tomorrow but not it seems before we have a chance to stroll down memory lane and the glories of yesteryear when we didn’t have the real possibility of having an African American man as the POTUS.

I just need to take a moment and cry foul. Very foul. Foul most.

So I guess Jeremiah is scary because he is not bound to the narrative of the good white man. Looking at the so-called news coverage, I’m having these Roots flashbacks where the language has been updated but the meaning is essentially “Yazza Bahss.” “I’se musta loss my mine whad wid thinkin’ fo mysef.”

You see any other story puts you in the Kunte get your foot cut-off club. Movement must be restrained. At any cost. This week the forces of darkness tried to claim a two-fer. Wright and Obama. Or more accurately, Obama through Wright. The framing has been a subtle house vs. field. The good vs. the angry. Except that the good might as well be the angry since they know each other. Everybody’s getting’ a whipping. I’ve not allowed myself to forget that this original framing of black men and women during slavery was an attempt to offer those offspring of rape a greater legitimacy. It was an effort to separate into even smaller divisions, the divisions of race. A sub race within the black community. All sorts of black folks were trotted out to confirm the suspicions and affirm the fears of white America this week.

How could this man be a friend to such as Wright? Wright they say is angry. Bad black man.

They kept telling us that it was just wrong for Obama to even know him. Obama shoulda this, he shoulda that. For days on end folks been shoulding on Obama like they win points for who can should upon him most often and with the most creativity.

How dare Rev. Wright suggest that America is anything but the most wonderful place on earth? Everything done by this country has been wonderful and the few, very few mistakes (I’m being sarcastic jus’ so you know) ought not be discussed.

Certainly the folks with 1st Amendment rights don’t look like Jeremiah Wright. Pat Robertson can say anything he likes. Ditto Jerry Falwell and Rod Parsley. Jeremiah Wright...not so much. Hell, not at all.

To hear some of the punditz you would think it outrageous for anyone to suggest that the good folks of the U. S. of A. would ever intentionally harm black folks. Not one of the so called intelligentsia while they were savaging Jeremiah Wright, bothered to mention a forty year history of doing just that.

For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama , were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,”1 their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”

It was called the Tuskegee Experiment. It happened.

Too bad no one remembered to bring it up.

I ‘m feeing some Amistad right about now. See myself standing on the shoulders of all my relatives since the beginning of time and together we are all shouting... Give us free! Give us free! This is a moment of fierce energy.

I don’t know how to work roots or cast a spell. Wish I did. I’d love to have a magic wand that I could wave across the faces of those who hate without reason in this season of silly. I would like to think that my fundamental human decency would use my powers for good and I would turn those cowardly, hate-filled mongrel carbon units into sentient, compassionate beings. I would too. Second wave. First time I don’t trust myself not to turn them into the texture of their humanity... Rocks. Not grand glorious mountain rocks, but the kind of pebbles that get in your shoes and annoy you. Small, mean, hard rocks

‘Bout the only thing I know how to invoke is the law of Backatcha. It always works. Whatever you have sent out comes Backatcha.

This law guarantees that planting orange trees does not grow cherry trees. What is sown is reaped.

Backatcha!!! All y’all that mean harm. Your day is done. Leave my brothers alone or prepare to meet thyself a little further down the road. Backatcha! Backatcha! Backatcha!

Ah! A blackwoman feels better. Much better.

Political Commentary
Dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor

Sen. Obama's much anticipated speech on race was made this week. Ironic isn't it that mass culture that for years told Black people just get over it can't seem to get beyond this issue? Yeah, the Black guy who wants to get over it, keeps on getting dragged INTO IT by the media, pundits, talking heads, and yes ex-presidents. Who needs to get over it? I find Reverend Wright's talk inflammatory, don't get me wrong. I was "schooled" in the economic self help, proud of African heritage, universe of Black thought. I have over and over told Blacks people and progressive of all striped to do the following:

• Don't say "America supports Middle East dictators, supported Apartheid South Africa, and over through elected left-leaning governments in Latin America" say "American CONSERVATIVES America supports Middle East dictators, supported Apartheid South Africa, and over through elected left-leaning governments in Latin America."
  

The first sentence is easy to demonize, easy to look like you don't love this country. It also allows conservatives to hide behind the flag. Many Americans fought against those policies. Many more Americans didn't know about them, and when they are awoken to it fight them. Don't blame America, blame conservatives.

• Don't say "White America keeps Black people down", say "CONSERVATIVE policies and demonization of Black America keep them down"
  

I am angry every time I get pulled over by cops for DWB (driving while Black). I am a law abiding person but it has colored my view of police even though I know they are there to protect and serve. So I ask other balck people think about how a speech like that affects middle of the road Whites who should be our allies? When I'm angry of being profiled just because I'm Black, I can't then profile White people saying their all guilty. Yes we are all human, and we all generalize sometimes, we all blame "others", "them", "those other people" at times. But as leaders, whether behind the pulpit, political, parenting, or just in life we need to do better.

As someone who was once arrested (for being in the "wrong place" at the wrong time) and who later received a written apology from the police department. I understand Reverend Wright’s anger, I have felt it. But we can do better.
**************

NYTimes ≫ Assessing Race in America, Obama Calls Pastor Divisive

Senator Barack Obama renewed his objection to the controversial statements delivered by the longtime pastor of his Chicago church, but declared in a speech here Tuesday that it was time for America to “move beyond some of our old racial wounds.”

“It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years,” Mr. Obama said. “Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.”

In an address at the National Constitution Center, a building steeped in the nation’s historic symbolism, Mr. Obama delivered a sweeping assessment of race in America. It was the most extensive speech of his presidential campaign devoted to race and unity, a moment his advisers conceded presented one of the biggest tests of his candidacy....... More ►


Michael C. Dawson take "Was it Too Little, Too Late?"....More ►

Is he doing what's best for the city, or for himself?

NYTimes ≫ Stalemate in Detroit: City Council Asks Mayor to Resign, but He Refuses to Go

The City Council on Tuesday asked Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick to resign in light of evidence that he had lied under oath and plotted to cover up an extramarital affair with his former chief of staff. The 7-to-1 Council vote is not binding, and Mr. Kilpatrick has vowed to remain in office.

Nonetheless, the Council’s action is a political blow for the mayor, and support for the measure was greater than expected. Council members spoke highly of Mr. Kilpatrick but said he could no longer govern effectively, given the scandal that has enveloped Detroit for nearly two months.

“It is a vote of no confidence in the mayor’s ability to move the city forward at this time,” said Councilwoman Sheila M. Cockrel, who drafted some of the 33 reasons listed in the resolution for the mayor to step down. “It is a tragedy — an enormous talent that has been squandered.”

The mayor’s spokeswoman, Denise Tolliver, reiterated Mr. Kilpatrick’s determination to remain in office....... More ►

WashingtonPost ≫ Blacks Were Improperly Kept Off La. Jury, High Court Rules

Former Jefferson Parish prosecutor James Williams, who was known for persuading juries to sentence murderers to death, compared Snyder's case to Simpson's both in and outside court and told jurors during the sentencing phase of Snyder's trial that Simpson "got away with it."

The court's opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., did not mention the Simpson remarks but focused narrowly on whether Williams had improperly excluded blacks from the jury.

Snyder's lawyer, Stephen B. Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, said the decision is an important reinforcement of the court's position that judges have an obligation to scrutinize why lawyers reject potential jurors. "The court's decision saying you can't discriminate in choosing juries was really being ignored," Bright said. "The court very resoundingly told judges and prosecutors that striking jurors on the basis of race must end."

Lawyers have great leeway in eliminating potential jurors as unsuitable, including using peremptory challenges, which do not require a reason. But the Supreme Court held in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986, and has reaffirmed in subsequent cases, that race cannot be a factor. In the case at hand, Snyder v. Louisiana, prosecutors used peremptory challenges to eliminate all five of the 36 prospective jurors who, like Snyder, are black.

When defense lawyers protested, Williams said he had eliminated potential juror Jeffrey Brooks because Brooks had seemed "very nervous" and because the college student had been concerned that serving on the jury might interfere with his student-teaching responsibilities. The Supreme Court found the explanations "unconvincing" and said the trial judge gave no reason for accepting them....... More ►

This is an interesting and personal story, well worth the read.

Ebony/Jet ≫ Affirmative Action : A Personal Perspective

Question: What do Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer, Wolf Blitzer, Tucker Carlson, Anderson Cooper, Dianne Sawyer, Meredith Vieira, Campbell Brown, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh... etc...etc...etc...All have in common?

By now you get it. When it comes to race and racism in America, America’s landscape is sadly in need of balance. So when Geraldine Ferraro declared that somehow Barack Obama was about to be anointed the nation’s first affirmative action president I cringed, then doubled over in the type of pain only a thirty year wasted life on the affirmative action forefront could produce.

Affirmative action was anything but that. There is this belief in white America, and apparently in the house of Ferraro, that when blacks got jobs as a result of affirmative action, the heavens opened up, the chorus sang and all was right in the world. Let me remind the world of what the affirmative action reality actually was.

........ More ►

NYTimes ≫ Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith

Having grown up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Capers C. Funnye Jr. was encouraged by his pastor to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he became a rabbi.

His congregation on the Far Southwest Side of Chicago is predominantly black, and while services include prayers and biblical passages in Hebrew, the worshipers sometimes break into song, swaying back and forth like a gospel choir.

As the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and of numerous mainstream Jewish organizations, Rabbi Funnye (pronounced fun-AY) is on a mission to bridge racial and religious divisions by encouraging Chicago’s wider Jewish community to embrace his followers — the more than 200 members of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. “I am a Jew,” said Rabbi Funnye, “and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers.” ...... More ►

WashingtonPost ≫ The Rap on Whites Who Try to Act Black

It was a tale of sex, violence and a young girl crossing the color line. It was raw, gripping, sad and triumphant, tracing the heroine's successful escape from an environment of abandonment, abuse, poverty and gangs. It was supposed to be true. Not a word of it was.

The recent media frenzy over Margaret Seltzer's "Love and Consequences," yet another hoax memoir published by yet another respectable publishing house, has subsided, but the perplexing questions remain: Why would a writer take the huge risk of publishing an easily discredited story, and what enticed a respectable publishing house to buy and promote it?

As a former foster child who actually lived the reality of some of the kinds of black dysfunction that Seltzer put forth as her own experience, I find the answer in a long history of white Americans' voyeuristic fascination with -- and perhaps sometimes even envy of -- black people.

The appeal of Seltzer's work lay in the way she positioned herself between America's two races, black and white: She claimed to be a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up poor in a dysfunctional black world. In fact, she is the daughter of a white, upper-middle-class California family. And her story is only the most recent in a long line of literary narratives, entertainments and ethnologies in which white people put on blackface to act as messengers to their white brethren, telling them what life is or was like in the 'hood or on the plantation. The messages they bring back are of black dysfunction, crime and violence, but also of black sexuality, athleticism and soulful musicality. These stories may then reaffirm white audiences' perception of black dysfunction and allow them to use blacks as a negative counterpoint for their own images of normalcy and to affirm their sense of superiority....... More ►

WashingtonPost ≫ Hollywood's About-Face On Blackface

Blackface fades but never goes away, the greasy rub between the fingers of racial loathing. The insulting nature of it: No one turned out in blackface to play Scott Joplin's "Solace" or, as the 20th century slid by, Duke Ellington's "Solitude." No one used burnt cork to portray Romare Bearden painting "The Street." The joke is ignorance, the subject is black.

Time morphs. Swing, bop, civil rights, modern, postmodern, new century. Now things are complicated. Blackface has long been taboo, but now it's not all about insult. Now olive-toned whites play light-skinned blacks, without a sense of irony (Angelina Jolie darkened herself to play Mariane Pearl in "A Mighty Heart"). Since we're all supposedly post-racial, some white comedians feel it's allowable to use makeup to portray black characters with empathy or just for laughs. . ...... More ►

The Root ≫ Louisiana seeks to highlight its black history with unveiling of the African American Herritage Trail

Louisiana tourism officials have unveiled the first 26 sites on an African American Heritage Trail running from New Orleans to northern Louisiana.

"It will tell the stories of African Americans who have made contributions to Louisiana, to America and to the world," said Chuck Morse, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Office of Tourism. "It makes us proud, but it's not about pride totally. It's also about the economy."

There are 26 stops on the trail to begin with, although that will be expanded. Included are the expected — plantations with details about slaves' lives, and the early roots of jazz — and the unexpected — such as Melrose Plantation, built and owned and operated by a former slave, who in turn became a slave owner....... More ►

I often point to Brazil as a cautionary tale about "trickle down economics". If they worked Brazil should be wealthy with it's large class of wealthy people avoiding taxes. But Brazil points to another danger, lack of police protection as wealthy people huddle behind gated communities. This leads to the creation of large -deathsquads- "private security forces" that quickly grow out of hand -becoming deathsquads-

WashingtonPost ≫ Brazilians Look to Regional Force to Root Out Death Squads

The name was on the tip of Rosario Lapa's tongue, but it stubbornly stayed there. She tapped her forehead to try to shake it loose, then turned to her friends for help.

"What do they call the death squad here?"

Five middle-aged women, all of whom were visiting a church in their neighborhood's central square, answered in imperfect unison: "The Thundercats."

If you want someone killed in this working-class district, that's the name to remember. Almost everyone here in the Jardim Sao Paulo neighborhood has heard of the group, even those who have never had a reason to seek out its members.

Officials say that death squads in the murder-for-hire business are responsible for a majority of the killings here in the state of Pernambuco -- Brazil's deadliest, based on figures for homicides as a percentage of population. Because the rosters of those squads routinely include police officers and other prominent residents, talking freely about their influence has long been considered an invitation to trouble.

"I'm pretty brave, but it's scary to think about speaking out if you see them committing crimes -- they could do something to my son or my husband, and that would break my world," said Lapa, 63. "There's always a police officer involved, so if you have seen something, how can anyone be trusted?"

The presence of such squads has plagued many parts of Brazil for years, but growing public demand for justice last year prompted officials here to create the first large-scale, regional task force to combat them.

Now, authorities are working against authorities in what resembles an enormous internal affairs investigation. In the past year, about 200 people have been nabbed in several high-profile busts of various squads in Pernambuco, and many of those arrested have been police officers and other officials....... More ►

Ebony/Jet ≫ Afro-Bolivians, A forgotten people in South Americas poorest country

Giovanna is one of approximately 3,000 to 10,000 African descends living in Bolivia. The rough population estimate is just one of the problems plaguing Bolivia’s least recognized and most discriminated-against ethnic group, one of 36 different ethnicities in South America’s poorest country. Afro-Bolivian leaders are working to change the dire situation of their people, who say their communities sorely lack schools, health care, infrastructure, and basic services such as electricity and water.

Jorge Medina, director of the Afro-Bolivian Center for Community and Development (CADIC in Spanish), in La Paz, says lobbying for Afro-Bolivian rights to be included in the country’s new constitution is an uphill battle.

“The new (Morales) government was supposed to represent all the communities that didn’t have a voice. But it wasn’t that way for the Afro-Bolivians,” says Medina, thumping his fist on his desk and leaning forward in his chair. “For this government, Bolivia is indigenous. They don’t recognize us because we came here as slaves. But we worked day and night and now we have an article in the new constitution that recognizes us as an ethnicity of Bolivia.”

[snip]

Both children and adults dance the Saya, dressed in a combination of Aymara and African clothes and using only their voices and wood drums. Accompanied by homemade drums, women spin in their white Aymara-style skirts and petticoats. With a pastel blue shawl folded over their right arm and a black bowler hat in the other hand, the dancers sing about bringing their African roots and rhythms to Bolivia.

Barra wants to translate the Saya lyrics into an African language, saying that it was originally African but her ancestors were forced to sing it in Spanish. She and her neighbors want their children—and all children in Bolivia ideally—to learn the history of Afro-Bolivians. “It would be nice to work with an African-American from the United States. We want to hear how they fought for equality in the states. We want to learn how to do that too.”........ More ►

The Root ≫ Black Women Are Not Feeling the Feminists' Pain

Note to Geraldine Ferraro, Gloria Steinem, and complainer in chief, Hillary Clinton: Get over yourselves.

Your cries of reverse racism, your complaints about overt sexism in the campaign, your vocal protests about media favoritism being shown Barack Obama, ring hollow.

We are not feeling your pain. None of you are symbolic of female oppression. You are all well-educated and well-connected. You are influential and have ready access to the media. You have had more opportunities than most black women could ever dream of and we doubt you could ever relate to the level of sexism and racism we regularly face. We know you couldn't even begin to understand what it's like for black men...... More ►

The Root ≫ That's Why I'm a Linebacker

I hate her. I've never seen her before, and don't know her, but I don't need to. I see what she looks like. I see what she's wearing. I see who she's with. That tells me everything I need to know. She can't be trusted--her kind never can--and all she wants is to push her own agenda and obliviate mine. So, for the next hour, my sisters and I will do everything in our power to show her and her little girl gang how we feel about having to share our turf with them. They will leave here, battered and bruised, with their heads down and their tails between their legs. And we will remain superior.

[snip]

Women's football? I know, I know. A seemingly unfathomable mix of delicacy and draconian male ritual. The questions and looks I receive make me think people doubt not just my ability to play tackle football...... More ►

For Barack Obama: My Negro Problem by zwerlst...... More ►

Can we move beyond bungholery on race? by Xpatriated Texan...... More ►

African Americans View of the O.J. Simpson Trial by a Black Guy by CalexanderJ...... More ►

My thoughts on Obama, race, and the media by dopper0189...... More ►





WHY THIS IS MY LAST BLACK KOS WEEK IN REVIEW DIARY?

As you can see from reading this dairy, Black Kos is "going community" on you! Starting next week Black Kos will be a group effort, Robinswing,Sephius1, Terrypinder, and myself will colaborate on writing "Black Kos week in review" diaries. The new home starting next week will be at Black Kos. Thank you Markos and Meteor Blades for giving us permision to do so (and understanding this isn't a "sockpuppet" but a community effort). So in the future please hotlist "Black Kos". Thank you everyone who read and helped make this diary possible, I will still be around as dopper0189, but the week in review will now be done by the group ID Black Kos. Once again thank you everyone!