07.16.09
Posted in black history, social justice at 9:58 pm by Travis
All this week we have seen the constant battering of the Supreme Court Nominee with racial overtones. Uncle Pat B. has come out with his usual tirade on affirmative action to say that she was not qualified to be at Princeton in the first place. Conservatives love it when President Obama or any black man or woman tell black folks they need to take responsibility for themselves, stand up and live the American dream. No one will give you a hand out and don’t expect one. Stand up and be counted! Some black folks hate talk like that and lose their ever lovin’ minds. Remember what happened to Bill Cosby?
I don’t think that conservatives know what they are really asking. Malcolm Gladwell spoke at a conference a couple weeks ago and talked about how effort trumps talent. When people go up against obstacle, they come out with skill sets that take them to whole new levels of success. You see black folks have be compensating for obstacles for years. We have a staying power that is often unmatched. Effort against obstacle has led us to fight in wars for and against people in this country who only saw us as servants. When we were denied education, we made sure our children were given opportunities even if we could never see it for ourselves. We were killed, maimed, beaten, bombed and hanged, we kept going. Now we sit at the head of the table, and some people not only can not believe, they can’t stand it.
So when President Obama tells people to stand up and take effort by the horns, it takes on a whole new meaning. It is more authentic now more than ever. I don’t think that the conservatives want a whole community of black folks coming into the revelation of what our ancestors knew. If our young people ever get the revelation of what effort really does for a person and that obstacles takes you to a whole new level, those who oppose our success will lose their minds. The notion of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is just rhetoric in conservative speech, but it truly holds power to those holding the straps. So when you start seeing people of color rising to new levels of success and people of color determining their own financial future, resisting the charms of narcissism and avarice, eluding the trappings of a one-side criminal justice system, be warned, you asked for it! Since we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, I will leave you with a quote from one of the founders of the organization W.E.B. Dubois.
W.E.B Dubois co-wrote “The Negro In The South” along with Booker T. Washington which was published in 1907 . In the chapter entitled, “Religion In The South” he states,
” If my own city of Atlanta had offered it to-day the choice between 500 Negro college graduates–forceful, busy, ambitious men of property and self-respect, and 500 black cringing vagrants and criminals, the popular vote in favor of the criminals would be simply overwhelming. Why? because they want Negro crime? No, not that they fear Negro crime less, but that they fear Negro ambition and success more. They can deal with crime by chain-gang and lynch law, or at least they think they can, but the South can conceive neither machinery nor place for the educated, self-reliant, self-assertive black man.”
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07.15.09
Posted in Education, social justice at 8:36 am by Travis
Regional Shift Seen in Education Gap – NYTimes.com.
According to the article,
Historically, the achievement gap between America’s black and white students was widest in Southern states, where the legacies of slavery and segregation were reflected in extremely low math and reading scores among poor African-American children.
Oh happy day! Test scores for black students have come up in the south! Bless my soul! Is it the Obama effect? Have black kids gotten the message? Were the conservatives right, personally responsibility is the key? Are the southern chapters of the NAACP more effective than the northern chapters? Who cares, right? Its all about the data, numbers and stats. Anytime you start talking about data, I am going to have to refer to Dr. Deming. Deming told us that we have to know what we are doing when we look to numbers for answers. He said that the purpose is not for us to use data to make determinations, but to ask questions. Ironically, no one has an answer although we are led to believe that the “dirty south” may have just come to its senses.
Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington that works to close achievement gaps, said principals in Wisconsin were “stunned” when shown the results.
Before we schedule the block party, let’s consider this. I remember hearing this Sunday night on the local news. During the same time as this event, another article from CNN for the Black in America 2 program states that black have been migrating back to the South from the North.
According to the NY Times article,
The study plotted the evolution of average scores of black and white students on the series of federal tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress that were administered every two to four years in both math and reading from 1992 to 2007. Nationwide, the average math score in 1992 for white fourth graders was 227 on a 500-point scale, compared with an average score of 192 for black fourth graders that year, resulting in a black-white gap of 35 points.
By 2007, the most recent year included in the new study, the average math scores for white fourth graders had risen to 248, but the average scores for black students had risen to 222, thus narrowing the black-white gap to 26 points, about the equivalent of two and a half years of schooling.
According to the CNN article,
Around 1970, many African-Americans began moving back to the South, historians and demographers say. The trend accelerated during the 1990s and this decade, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.
From 1965 through 1970, the South experienced a net migration loss — the number of people who moved into the region compared to the number of people who moved out — of more than 287,000 African-Americans.
Thirty years later, the numbers were nearly the opposite. From 1995 through 2000, the South saw a gain of nearly 350,000 African-Americans.
You don’t have to be a statistician to realize that although this may not be the cause, it definitely has an effect. What may have made the difference was the quality of life for the northern families who left the South in the first place. Poverty is and will always be a major factor in student achievement. It looks like we have a shift in those families who’s incomes were an advantage to those students which is reflecting in the scores down South. Just consider it.
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03.16.08
Posted in black history, social justice at 4:42 pm by Travis
If I didn’t know any better, after this past week I would have thought that Jeremiah Wright served that special “kool-aid” at his church in Chicago because that is how they played him in the media. I usually don’t write about this type of stuff, but it is a shame that as much access to knowledge we have through technology, we are so ignorant.
Rev. Wright preaches Black Liberation Theology which was started and given exposure by James Cone in 1968. This message of Christianity as it relates to blacks in American and the world preaches self reliance and empowerment. All things that you would think conservatives would love to hear black folks talk about except this message deals with empowerment and call into question those in authority who preach the gospel, but are not sincere in seeing justice and equality as Christ and the Bible preached. Since I said we lack information on the subject, check out this PBS video about James Cone and a speech he gave at the Havard Divinity School.
“For my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6
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12.17.07
Posted in social justice at 9:25 pm by Travis
Update: Harry Reid Bows to Pressure, Postpones Immunity | Electronic Frontier Foundation
How about this? If not giving the telcos immunity is unthinkable, what about a swap? The telcos get immunity if everyone gets immunity present and future for downloading music and movies?
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08.04.07
Posted in social justice at 7:51 pm by Travis
blackagendareport.com – Cynthia McKinney Confronts Corporate Media Malice in Court
“The Black masses have not undergone any political sea change; they have simply been abandoned by their representatives, who have been suborned or terrorized by money and concentrated media and lobby power. Corporations have embraced “diversity” as a weapon. About a decade ago, they realized that their vast wealth empowered them to create an alternative Black political structure, and that there were plenty of Black opportunists eager to be recruited. At this point, corporate victory is all but complete, having neutered Black electoral and traditional institutions in lightning speed.”
I believe that Glenn makes some excellent points especially “diversity as a weapon”. I have seen this personally myself in Arkansas. This is why it is so dangerous that Rupert Murdock is grabbing up the Wall Street Journal, Corporate Conglomerates grabbing up radio stations and the like. It’s not about diversity in the sense of having blacks in these companies, but what are their motives? I concur with him about Albert Wynn of Maryland. Mr. Wynn sided with the telcos on the net neutrality issue basically repeating their rhetoric of why they should take over the internet. We need to keep our eyes open on this one because the election is just around the corner.
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