Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor

I’ve been thinking lately that the framing of this election needs to change. For one thing I’m weary of hearing about winning and fighting for the nomination. Battleground 2008. That is the old frame that has been rejected by Obama. Its so twentieth century.

This election is not about winning. It’s about leadership.

Winning and losing are a part of the old paradigm. Leadership is new only because we haven’t seen much of it in the last fifty years.

Obama is showing through his example what leadership looks like. It is so unfamiliar that many people see it as his weakness. It is not.

(SistahSpeak con't)

What an extraordinary man he is. He has shown himself unwilling to be baited into combatant status in the blood sport of politics past. Those of us who support him must be willing to recognize the quantum leap this represents in the body politic.

How eagerly some have been to see him strike back at Hillary. Months ago this was the discussion of a NYT article before one of the million debates. The media sharks and sharkettes were salivating at the thought. They were disappointed. I wasn’t. I saw the revolution being telecast.

Make no mistake; whenever you refuse to play by the old rules, you are being revolutionary in every real sense of the word. Obama is a revolutionary. Not fighting is a revolutionary concept in the world of American politics.

We have become so accustomed to violent terms for the political process that it is easy to forget that it is not necessary to speak of elections in terms of fighting and winning and losing. I’ve heard residual anger expressed at John Kerry because he didn’t fight after 2004. Truth is residual anger has become the fuel of the body politic. This anger has morphed into the cancer of our national dialogue. So much talk about fighting and fighting back. Battleground states. Firewalls. There are those who are disappointed in Obama’s refusal to participate.

For the most part many have rationalized his refusal to ‘fight’ back. We have said things like it would only make him appear to be an angry black man and so he can’t. He must appear to be docile in order to gain the trust of white America. This idea supposes somehow that fighting back would be the correct thing to do. This in spite of the fact that the lives and works of King and Gandhi have shown us otherwise.

I have found myself wrestling with the sense of betrayal that none of his surrogates have really stood up to support him. They have not cried foul in unison at the antics and the misbehavior of the so called media as they focused on the idea of derailing this man. I believe it has been his leadership that has restrained those voices. If so, then he has already had an effect on the way business has always been done.

Some people like the idea of continuing the battles that have left our nation bereft of real leadership. I’m not one of them. I want a leader. I want someone who is willing to stand on his principles. I want someone who is willing to speak truth to power and who seeks to hold the reins of power with the help of the people. I want someone who is willing to lead us into self governance. You remember, of ,by and for the people.

I’m tired of the same old same old.

For those asking how he is going to implement the change he talks about I say, watch him. He is already doing it.
Watch him and observe the ways in which politics has already been changed.

Look and learn. We are watching the revolution. It is being televised. Obama is leading.

Obama has more courage and grace in his nail clippings than any other candidate in the last forty years.

Let a leader lead.

Now, run and tell that

The Urban Educational System
Sephius1, Black Kos Editor

Last week we took a look at the people resources that an inner city kid comes in contact with. We also looked at the family dynamics, and school dynamics, pointing to how different links along a child's development, if broken, can cause irreparable harm to a child psyche.

This week we'll take a look at solutions for the 3 areas covered over the past weeks. Just to rehash where we are at:

Safety, Health, and the Environment - this includes drugs and other substances that can be abuse, sexually abuse, bullying, dilapidated housing, school buildings and community infrastructures.

Financial Resources - this includes the poverty levels of the students, surrounding community, and the resources the school has available.

People Resources - this includes the identifying the different learning levels of students early, their socio-economic status, those who play parental roles, inter-personal relationships, self-image. This also includes hiring compotent teachers, having a reward process in place for teachers who do well in the classroom, instead linking a teachers livelyhood to the number of students they pass, getting teachers to think out of the box, and have more robust training for teachers to keep their skill up to date.

Solutions - I will propose solutions in this section to help develop a strategy at the school level.


1.4 Solution

- Safety, Health, and Environment -

In the first installment of this multi-part series we delve into the issue of safety, the welfare of the child, and the physical surroundings of the child. On of the first things we need to do is start with a grounded home. Kids that are in unstable homes, aren't that productive once they get to school. I think there needs to be an onsite psychologist at the school. Someone who can help a child work through the issues so that they don't express themselves in other ways. There is so much a child is exposed to that they can not process it all. Abuse at the home, walking through rundown neigborhoods, teachers abusing student (whether mental, or physical) all have lasting effect on the child psyche.

Another thing that can help with the sense of saftey is having a cop, or two, come to school once a week and meet with the young students. There's such a mistrust of the police in the inner city that crime flourishes because neither side talks to each. The cop may need someone in the community as an eyewitness, but the community won't help because law enforcement will only provide basic security. But at the same time the community wants the cops to be there to protect them. There must be a mutual respect from each side and it begins at young age, when the child is beginning to understand the authority hierarchy and beginning to place different levels of trust within that hierarchy. By allowing a relationship to develop between school kids and law enforcement it will do two things, (1) it establishes a safe zone with cop, and (2) the kid would be more likely to go to the cop with something that they see a disturbance.

On the health side an onsite nutritionist would be essential. Kids each so much chunk food because it is cheaper for their parents to buy. An it doesn't help that corporation you schools as billboards in exchange for giving money to the school -- usually in the form of vending machine with sugary soft drinks and candy. Then the child goes home and the cabinet is filled with chips, soda, and sugary cereals "fortified" with vitamins. In the inner city you, are more likely to see a liquor store than a good grocery. Although some in the community are taking on the task of growing fresh vegatables.

On the environment tip, and actually creating fun teaching moment, you could have the young students help keep the school clean. Have a day once, or twice a month, where the student and teachers go out pick trash around the school. Of course care should be given if the child happens to walk upon a syringe, drugs, or god forbid a condom. But barring that, it will teach the kids responsibilities and get them involved early in caring for the environment.

- Financial Resources and People Resources -

I'm joining these two together since they meld well. Obviously, if everybody made more money alot of problems probably could be solved, but that is a discussion far bigger than this one. The first thing we need to confront is the self image of the child. Since most inner city schools are public, you are going to have children of different socio-economic status attending the same school. And because some may be better off financially than other, the way they dress will reflect that. And if you are the lonely kid who can't afford the trendy shoes, and clothes, you already see your self as unequal. Therefore, I think school uniforms are needed as an image equalizer. You're not focusing on who's the "it" boy/girl. And while I value free speech, the elementary and middle school years should be about learning and absorbing the world around. They are already going to have cliques -- jocks, cool girls, "geeky guys", etc.

Of course, more up to date books and better teacher pay always help, but when you have different graduation statistics across racial lines, and class lines, you soon see that there may be differences in the way some are learning. I going to propose something I'm calling Continuous Academic Verification, Evaluation, and Reporting, or CAVER, Statistics & Best Practices. This would be a document that would track a childs entire educational track from kindergarden to finishing college. Now, when I say document, I mean a database that captures statistical information. And while I'm sure every state has something similiar to this, that, in it self, is part of the problem -- no consistent narrative. So below I breifly break down what a CAVER is, it's methodolgy, how it is compile, and managed, and some areas where a CAVER statistic can be tracked:

• CAVER System
  
  In the simplest of terms, a CAVER statistic is defined as the smallest trackable unit of information. This could be a test question, the test itself, teacher evaluations, overall learning ability, classroom size, information that spans several categories, etc. Along with capturing this information you want to be able to compare and contrast, and produce reports that students, parents, teachers, education administrators, commercial entities, and politician can use these report to provide corrective action early before the child slips through cracks.
  
  The deployment strategy for the CAVER system would be brand-able, web-based, password protected, with user groups and user group administrators. User accounts will be created based on form submission of certain information, since we don't want just anybody seeing student information. However, an area of the CAVER system will be available to the public (the media, researchers, average citizens) to view summary reports since part of the goal is to keep the public informed about the potential workforce.
  
  Some other areas where gathering CAVER statistics could be beneficial are from mentorship programs, after-school programs, from parents at PTA meetings, or tracking those students that will be the first to go through the CAVER system and become teachers themselves. They will add a new dimension because now you will begin developing a knowledgebase within the CAVER system itself.
  

The CAVER system is the best way, in my opinion, to coral people resources as well. You can see how mentors and teachers effect the childs learning. However, as it stands right now, CAVER is still in draft white paper form, but once it is done I will be soliciting feedback. This concludes Part I: Strategy At The School Level

Next week >> Part II: Strategy At The Commercial Level

The Root ≫ Making sense of hip-hop's most recent crime wave.

The recent spate of rap stars making criminal justice news will come as a surprise to no one, especially those of you who equate hip-hop culture with prison culture. Nor will it surprise those of us who have accepted the fact that, in the black public sphere, record sales (or any sales for that matter) are often bolstered by an association with criminality.

Clearly all of hip-hop culture is not about criminality. Most rappers do not have rap sheets. If you consider Akon to be a hip-hop artist, think of the irony inherent in the sensationalism surrounding the recent expose of his criminal career. The fact that he has exaggerated his prison status in order to sell his artistic persona (and millions of records) only begins to hint at the promotional potential of prison sentences in popular culture.

That said, it might be worth revisiting this recent string of cases to understand the issues and what they mean for both the African American community and the Hip-Hop Generation(s)....... More ►

To continue with the Hip-hop theme.

Slate ≫ What's behind the great rappers lame rock band combos?

Why do rappers whose work I hold in such high regard have such terrible taste in rock? The answer started to become clear when I gave "Birthday Girl," the Roots-Patrick Stump song, a courtesy listen and was greatly disturbed to discover that I liked it. It's catchy; Stump has the right voice for the mellow hook, and the Roots' estimable rhythm section gives a sharp edge to what otherwise would have been a straightforward mid-tempo rock song:

Upon searching my soul, I realized that I had to admit that I in fact liked almost all the songs that I named earlier. "Let Me Blow Your Mind" is an unjustly forgotten club grinder; "Homecoming," "Heard 'Em Say," and "Sacrifice" all get stuck in my head from time to time; "Numb/Encore" is a staple of the various Workout Mega-Jam mixes that I've made over the years. I was a bit taken aback; cultural snobbery is such an integral part of my personality. I'd have to rethink a lot of things if it turned out I liked listening to Fall Out Boy, Maroon 5, and Linkin Park.

Fortunately, a quick zip through the iTunes store reassured me that I don't. Those bands have recorded some memorably hummable singles but don't have much musical range and seem to almost purposefully employ instrumentation and vocal effects indistinguishable from all the other bands working in their already well-trod genres. (Fall Out Boy seems the most promising—I could see them making an album I really liked—and while Linkin Park is never going to be my thing, they're not bad at what they do. Maroon 5 is elevator music from the depths of hell.) But these bands' songwriting and production tendencies, I realized, are beside the point. They're not in the studio to write and record a double album with a rapper; they're stopping by for a day to lay down vocals for a single....... More ►

I still am 50/50 on Cosby. But he is out there trying to do good works. He also has been a major donor for years for many good causes. Therefore He has earned my respect.

The Root ≫ Georgia judge who gave blacks-only lecture teams with Cosby

Bill Cosby says apathy among some black Americans about violence, drugs, profanity and teenage sex has sunk to a level of asking someone to "pass the salt."

The comedian, who has made waves by criticizing the black community in the past, appeared Thursday night with a Georgia judge who kicked whites out of his courtroom while he lectured black defendants.

Cosby and Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington spoke at a forum for at-risk youths from the Atlanta area. Both men are black. "Our children are trying to tell us something," Cosby said to the predominantly black audience at Benjamin Mays High School as he talked about the importance of education and family....... More ►

NYTimes ≫ Seeking the Key to Employment for Ex-Cons

Over the past two years, Peter Santos has hired 40 ex-convicts to help him build and renovate apartments here; 36 did not last, many of them doing unacceptably sloppy work or simply disappearing after a few weeks — or a few days — on the job.

One worker, Ronald O’Reilly, 41, had spent more than half his life in prison, for burglary, drug sales and weapons possession, when Mr. Santos last summer gave him not just a job but a cheap apartment and the furnishings to make the place feel like home. He even paid to repair Mr. O’Reilly’s neglected teeth. “I gave him my all,” Mr. Santos said. “I really thought Ron would be different.”...... More ►

Although you can count me as someone who doesn't put too much into Jeremiah Wright when I decided to support Sen. Obama. But given that fact, why wouldn't a person step aside for a moment if it means advancing many of the goals they say they support? But this continues to be news. (doppero189)

The Root ≫ Is Rev. Jeremiah Wright on the secret payroll of Barack Obama's political opponents?

It's a reasonable question, given the potentially catastrophic damage he wreaked on the Illinois Senator's White House aspirations with his bombastic performance at the National Press Club this morning. At the precise moment when Obama is facing questions about his ability to connect with white working class voters, Wright chose to put himself back into the spotlight, resurrecting the controversy stirred up by widely circulated snippets from his impassioned sermons. At the very least, Obama will now be forced to waste precious time answering questions about his former pastor's absurd views. At worst, Wright's provocative utterances could cost Obama the election....... More ►

I think Sen. Obama had no choice but to do this.

NYTimes ≫ Obama Breaks Forcefully With Ex-Pastor Over Fiery Remarks

Senator Barack Obama broke forcefully on Tuesday with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in an effort to curtail a drama of race, values, patriotism and betrayal that has enveloped his presidential candidacy at a critical juncture.

At a news conference here, Mr. Obama denounced remarks Mr. Wright made in a series of televised appearances over the last several days. In the appearances, Mr. Wright has suggested that the United States was attacked because it engaged in terrorism on other people and that the government was capable of having used the AIDS virus to commit genocide against minorities. His remarks also cast Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, in a positive light....... More ►

NYTimes ≫ Lincoln Journal: An Irascible Firebrand, Finally Quieted by Term Limits

The senior senator of Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature is going out just the way he came in nearly four decades ago: obstinately, and with a whole lot to say in his T-shirt and jeans.

“I have to remind people as they show great sadness that I’m not dying, I’m just getting out of the Legislature,” said the senator, Ernie Chambers, 70. “But a lot of people are going to be very happy when my absolute last day arrives. In fact, there will probably be so much joy in this corner of the world that it will be picked up on the Richter scale. I’m not liked at all.”

Liked or not, Mr. Chambers, a black, divorced, agnostic former barber from Omaha with posters of Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass decorating his office, managed to rise to an ultimate level of power in a mostly rural, white conservative state on little more than sheer determination to do so....... More ►

A word of caution to Democrats from theroot.com

The Root ≫ Don't Think Black Voters Won't Vote for McCain.

Just ask Kathleen Kennedy Townsend about the price Democrats pay for dissing black voters.
So my home state of Pennsylvania handed Hillary Clinton a win and a reason to keep fighting to be the Democratic nominee. As I write, Terry McCauliffe is probably on CNN pleading his candidate's case, facts about her low delegate and popular vote counts be damned.

But before Democratic superdelegates get too itchy to snuff the Obama campaign, they should consider the new animal that move might spawn: the Obama Republican.

I know: the notion of black folks and young folks and progressive white folks abandoning the Democrats en masse if the Wife of Bill is the nominee ain't exactly new; Right here on The Root, the writer William Jelani Cobb espoused a McCain protest vote in November, and has since accepted a ticket to Denver as a Democratic delegate in August. But that makes the threat no less real. Any Democratic honcho needing a lesson in the power of disaffected black voters need only Google "2002 and Clarence Mitchell IV."...... More ►

Imagine if Sen. McCain got to nominate Justice Stephen G. Breyer replacement?

NYTime ≫ Supreme Court Upholds Voter Identification Law in Indiana

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter-identification law on Monday, declaring that a requirement to produce photo identification is not unconstitutional and that the state has a “valid interest” in improving election procedures as well as deterring fraud.

In a 6-to-3 ruling in one of the most awaited election-law cases in years, the court rejected arguments that Indiana’s law imposes unjustified burdens on people who are old, poor or members of minority groups and less likely to have driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification. Because Indiana’s law is considered the strictest in the country, similar laws in the other 20 or so states that have photo-identification rules would appear to have a good chance of surviving scrutiny....... More ►

Kai Wright at the TheRoot.com doesn't pull any punches with this one.

The Root ≫ If They Are So Scared, How Come We're The Dead Ones?

The cops in the Sean Bell case walked because the judge said it was reasonable for them to be scared of three black men in a car. This paranoia defense has been used to forgive the murders of black people for a long time.

Ida B. Wells, at the turn of the 20th century, called it a "threadbare lie." She was talking about how lynch mobs masquerading as law enforcement justified their actions by claiming black men were raping white women. But Wells was on to a larger delusion, one that not only inspired sexual hysteria 100 years ago, but that continues to legitimize all manner of brutality against black men today. The simple and sadly lasting truth is this: We scare the shit out of America. And that fear excuses just about any reaction it spawns....... More ►

A sad day for Jamaica and the world.

The Root ≫ Mourners pay tribute to Bob Marley's mom

Thousands of mourners paid tribute Sunday to the late mother of reggae superstar Bob Marley, whose renowned music promoting social justice and "one love" made him one of Jamaica's most beloved sons.

Cedella Booker's casket was draped in blue, red, yellow and black cloths, the colors of the Rastafarian faith, and displayed in Kingston's National Stadium.

Booker died earlier this month in her Miami home at age 81. She will be buried Monday alongside her late son in his birthplace, the town of Nine Miles....... More ►

I have grown more callous as I grow older and keep hearing bad news from around the world. But every so often a story still finds a way to break my heart. This one is from Africa's broken heart.

NPR ≫ Rape Used as a Weapon in Congo's Civil War

There are reports that mutinous soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo raped women Bukavu after seizing the city earlier this month. Rape has been a part of earlier conflicts as well. During Congo's civil war, which officially ended in 2002, rape and the fear of rape often kept women from working in the fields. Crops failed as a result, and many children died of malnutrition. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports....... More ►

Ebony / Jet ≫ New Voices of African American Women Playwrights

Last year, I experienced a thought-provoking discussion with playwright/novelist/activist Pearl Cleage. The topic was the new generation of African American playwrights and what direction they were headed. Cleage believes that we are at a turning point in terms of the foundation set by the civil rights generation and the new path that current playwrights are forging.

“I’m a child of the 60s, I think in terms of the Black community and I don’t think we have that anymore,” she said of the current generation’s perspective. “I miss it but I understand it as part of our development as a people. We have been able to knock aside racism and sexism and we have dissipated our sense of community. Our sense of danger is lessened.”

With the international fame of playwrights such as Suzan -Lori Parks, the first African American playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize and Lynn Nottage, considered among the best of contemporary playwrights, the role of African American woman playwrights in particular, appears to be crucial. Both Parks and Nottage earned MacArthur “genius” grants for their productions that examine class and racism through unexpected perspectives....... More ►

Diaries by babeuf (dopper0189)
┗ Time to Rethink the Role of the Church in Black (and American) Politics......More ►
┗ America's Racial Porn Addiction......More ►




I love StromBear
Diaries by StormBear (dopper0189)
┗ Black History: Southerners Contemplate Manual Labor......More ►
┗ Black History: First Shots of the Civil War......More ►




So (black) people, do we have his back or what?......More ►
┗ by jazmen8 (dopper0189)



One black man's reaction to Obama yesterday......More ►
┗ by ella-h (dopper0189)



On Black-Blacks, and NotBlack-Blacks, and me......More ►
┗ by risingtide (dopper0189)



(DIARIES OF NOTE ON THE WEB)

There is quite an interesting discussion on the web with regards to how having a "black sounding name" effects a person life.



On Having a Black Name......More ►(Terrypinder)

Growing up White with a Black name......More ►(Terrypinder)

What If My Parents Had Named Me Tawana?......More ►(Terrypinder)

How do babies with super-black names fare?......More ►(Terrypinder)