Vision Circle

Randomness

• Award shows -- I don't care.
• Why should Jesse Lee Peterson be taken seriously when, IMO, a third grader can pick his logic apart in a minute?
• If "conservatives" ask why "Blacks need a leader", why are "conservatives" pushing people they like to be "Black leaders"?
• The Center for New Black Leadership was run by conservative individuals. It went under and the domain is now under control of the Republican party.
• When it snows, some fool is sure to clear a little spot on the windsheld for him to see through. The fool is sure to not clear snow from the hood, roof, or trunk of the car. While the fool is flying down the highway, snow is coming off and flying into the visibility area of drivers behind the fool.

  Such people must die.
  

• The Maryland House passed a slots bill. When it passed, local television news stations showed 2 Black delegates from Baltimore, both Democrats, jumping up and congratulating each other. I don't know why this would be the case.

  They successfully lobbied to exclude Baltimore from locations where slots would be placed. They claimed that minority businesses would get a "piece of the action" but the bill had nothing in it concerning minority business.

  Once again, the local "Black leadership" failed and has demonstrated they lack any political skills. Some Blacks in Baltimore are calling them on that very fact.

  They are rejoicing yet they got played.
  

• Girls loose their minds when they become teenagers.
  
• To get you to upgrade, thus helping their revenue stream, Intuit is disabling the connection feature of Quicken 2002 and older versions. If people use that feature to update stock and mutual fund prices, as I do, you are now faced with doing it yourself or upgrading.

  This type of forced update bites. Hello Microsoft Money, which I got for free.
  

Why AIDS matters and Black State of the Unions Don't

Two questions.

What are the top five leading causes of death among African American women aged 25-49?

What are the top five leading causes of death among African American men aged 25-49?

.....

I remember when Chavis took over the NAACP in the early nineties, and was blasted for trying to convene a secret meeting of black nationalists, radicals, and integrationists. Given Chavis' inability to keep his pants up (notice he's no longer down with the Nation either...some say for the same reasons) this was a bad move from the beginning. But I thought there was hope. When he held a number of public summits involving Min. Louis Farrakhan I had even more hope. Wow. Rev. Jackson and Min. Farrakhan AND Kweisi Mfume ALL ON THE SAME STAGE!

We're REALLY cooking now.

I ALMOST caught myself in making the same mistake as civil rights leaders did after Brown v. Board "We predict that segregation in all of its forms will be gone by 1963."

"Man," I thought. "If we get all these people together and on the same accord imagine what we could do?"

Now as I approach middle age? You've got to be kidding me. It's probably better to have them than NOT have them--emphasis on probably. But if I want edutainment I'll revisit The Matrix.

Tavis Smiley: State of the Black Union

Just woke up from a nap and the wife has this on.

After clearing my head, George Fraser started speaking. The man brought it and the man hit it.

Fight for freedom --- achieved.
Fight for right to public access --- achieved.
Fight for economic strength --- yet to be achieved and must be a focus.

He said that we are the only people to go for political access but not economic access. (I hope I got that right).

I've heard him speak a few times before and he always says things I agree with.

More coming for as long as I'm in the house...

Update 1:

If there is a contract/conventent with Black folk, the first section should be what the responsibility of Blacks, ourselves, is.

Update 2:

Bishop Eddie Long -- just because I was invited to the house, it doesn't mean we have intercourse.

His response when Smiley stated that Bishop Long was invited to the White House.

Update 3:

Al Sharpton, again, has aired Democrat dirty laundry. It appears the Dems told him and others the last week before the election, that there was no money for travelling. They found out a week after the election, there was millions left in the bank.

Last update:

In the end, this means nothing if nothing comes out of it.

And if the Black populace isn't held accountable, nothing comes out of it.

And given the lame state of Black Democrats at the national level, nothing should be expected of them.

Askin Questions

From the Black Commentator:

Instead, the BET founder, who was an early backer of Social Security privatization and organized fellow wealthy Blacks in support of George Bushs bid to repeal the Estate Tax, crafted an agenda designed to peel African Americans away from the Democratic Party

Every once in awhile BC fires off a good nugget.
This ISN'T one of those times.

So what if Johnson asks these questions? Is BC afraid that more Blacks will see things differently and give more consideration to the Republicans?

I'm not one for saying Blacks should go for Republicans because "it's not good to have all eggs in one basket" but this article makes me look and wonder they are afraid to leave Dems behind.

What good is giving the Dems the votes and having no power associated with the votes?

AIDS In The Last Decade

No comment necessary.

HIV Infection Rate Among Blacks Doubles Updated: Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 - 7:08 PM

By JEFF DONN
Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) - The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites _ stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday.

Other troubling statistics indicate that almost half of all infected people in the United States who should be receiving HIV drugs are not getting them.

Armstrong Williams FULLY VINDICATED!!!

Armstrong Williams is shiningly upright by comparison!!!

How surreal can the neocon three ring circus get?

Let the comedic explaining begin....,

Eulogy For Tony

A friend of mine died earlier in the week. One of Saint Louis' true house heads. When we think about black struggle, we often don't think of the people who are responsible for bringing us joy. For giving us the strength to go back and fight. More even than hip-hop, I think for a number of people born between say 1957 and 1987, house fulfilled that role.

.....

“House is our release, house is our sanctuary…can you feel it like I feel it?”

The quote above is taken from a track that I play every now and again. For those of us whose lives have been changed from exposure to house music, the quote captures a great deal. I am a father, a husband, a professor, a writer. But with the exception of the birth of my children, the closest I’ve come to God was on the dance floor.

When I moved to Saint Louis, I didn’t expect to find house here. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into a club on a Sunday night of all times, and found it. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how the scene developed the way it did, again in Saint Louis of all places. Best I can figure there were a couple of influential DJs, some promoters, and some entrepreneurs who’d realized that there was money to be made in bringing house music into the Saint Louis club scene.

But at the center of it all are the house heads. The people who fill the clubs. The people who raise their hands. The people who know when a DJ is on…and when the DJ is off.

Tony was at the center of this group, acting as kind of a reverse black hole projecting light outward. Projecting love for the music, love for the culture, outward. As far as I can figure it for the last ten-thirteen years Tony (and Luan) have been bringing up a generation of club kids. Different races. Different nationalities. Different sexualities. Different classes. People grew up and found their mates through hanging out with Tony. They became connected through Tony and Luan.

Saint Louis is one of the most segregated cities in the country. In the end, that’s one of the reasons why I am sending this from Baltimore rather than being there in person. In Saint Louis it was often harder for me to get water from a rock than it was to find a place where people from different backgrounds could come together.

One of the only exceptions was the space I found Tony and Luan in the center of.

In paying respects to him, it is important to realize that he wasn’t perfect. Far from it. MAN, did he gossip!

And in the end while house and the culture that grew up around it offers us sanity, love, light, life…it can also take much. Then having taken, it often moves on…like the groove we ride on. While some of us realized this, Tony probably came to this conclusion when he didn’t have a great deal of time left.

I, along with many others, am sad for his family, for his fiancé, and for the people who truly knew and loved him. But at the same time I feel blessed that I was able to come into his circle, albeit briefly. We’ve all come into contact in one way or another with the darker spaces in Saint Louis. What house music BRINGS us, what Tony BROUGHT us was a little more light. I am hoping that people who were touched by him realize what that light meant, and share it themselves.

Interpersonal Communion with the Poor, White, and Pissed

For the past couple weeks I've been indulging a guilty pleasure - no holds barred textual street fighting. It's what invariably happens when I go to visit a sleeply little listserve with an established pecking order and protectionist orthodoxy. Think Vin Diesel's character in Knockaround Guys, and you have a pretty clear picture of what I'm talking about. I'll watch the list flow for a minute, identify the toughest poster(s) - whose self-appointed job it is to enforce aggregate status quo by challenging and discouraging potentially upsetting ecclexia.

Posting something certain to draw a response from the local toughs, I then proceed to share with these hapless rubes (it's always doods too) the hard-earned monstrousness I've amassed over the course of the preceding 2000 textual brawls.

Just like your local divey tavern, listserves exist for socialization, validation, and transaction. Both lurkers and active posters alike are embarked on individual quests for *something*. Whether the urge to socialize, or, the basic shameful human primate propensity for rubbernecking gory altercations, the listserve ecology hosts no innocents - just experience and objective gradients running the gamut from newbie to seasoned regular.

My objective is twofold, first, I enjoy the mayhem. If I ever even attempt to say otherwise, I'm lying like a dog. Second, and more importantly, I long ago discovered the developmental value of friction. Basically, if you put somebody's beliefs and ego to the test, they'll either duck and fold, or, actually step up with their A-game and yield some deep thought you'd otherwise never hear in a thousand years of *civil* conversation. THAT is the scarce and precious commodity I'm trawling lists to harvest in the first place.

Ideally, the fight isn't staged simply to wreak devastation. Rather, the goal is to call out the resident champion of an aggregate pov and elicit from that individual the ideative first fruits of the collective he exemplifies. Every Fallujah I've left in my wake is a zero-sum game both literally and figuratively. [and a superb illustration of the absurdity of neocon mentality and policy to boot]

Having temporarily abandoned my afrostocratic haunts in favor of a little good old red-state neocon slumming and brawling - I'll admit I've left a few Fallujah's scattered across the digital countryside. I thought I was embarked on yet another one until yesterday, when a pitched battle finally resulted in pacification of a sizeable enforcer clique and a tentative detente with its champion. Make no mistake, it wasn't "hail and well met" it was straight up ugly and savage until the bell rang and my adversary said "no mas".

After vetting my old school conservative credentials, this individual shared the following gem with me - A Guide to the White Trash Planet for Urban Liberals. It is an eye-opening view into the next big job for Americans of good faith.

Not only must we Work hard on increasing and enriching the level of interpersonal engagement within our own communities, the next evolutionary push will have to involve education, outreach, and socialization - interpersonal communion - with and among the masses of the poor, white, and pissed. This will not be easy. But it is most definitely necessary.

Not only will this enrich both our respective communities, it will comprise a bulwark against the genuinely evil predations that the backers of the present administration have in store for America.

The Full Blown Oprah Effect, Reflections on Color, Class, and New Age Racism really drove home to me the necessity of enlarged, renewed, and full engagement on multiple fronts for any genuinely interested in seeing America politically work its way back out of the regressive nosedive that the neocons have engineered. We have all GOT to Work toward being on the same side, or, we will all surely lose.

"Covert racism may actually be deepened by these civil rights victories and by related partial black upward mobility into the middle and upper classes insofar as those victories and achievements have served to encourage the illusion that racism has disappeared and that the only obstacles left to African-American success and equality are internal to individual blacks and their community – the idea that, in Derrick Bell’s phrase, “the indolence of blacks rather than the injustice of whites explains the socioeconomic gaps separating the races.”

Open Letter From The Black Progress Network

(reprinted in full with permission)

We are the editors of the Research/Information Portal at www.blackprogress.net, which currently features several links to reports, papers, articles, commentaries, critiques, websites/initiatives, etc. that reflect all ideological & political perspectives on topics such as: Business/Entrepreneurship/Capital; Fostering Educational Excellence; The Cosby Indictment & Call to Action; Wealth-Building/The Wealth Gap/Financial & Economic Empowerment; Etc.

We are currently compiling similar information on Social Security Reform & African Americans but have yet to locate any rigorous research/analyses (empirical or non-empirical) that examine the issue -- beyond op-eds -- by black conservative economists and policy analysts. We are therefore posting this message on black conservative/centrist blog sites to seek your help in locating such analyses. (We have located a few by "liberal" economists/analysts such as those at the end of this post.)

It would, of course, be great to have more vigorous discourse on this and other economic issues that are important to African Americans by black conservative, liberal, and moderate analysts/economists alike--discourse that is backed by solid analyses and goes beyond recitation of the talking points of the respective ideological and partisan political groups.

For example, it would have been nice to see such black analysts join the recent debate (?) between Paul Krugman & the Heritage Foundation's David C. John and William W. Beach--see: "Consider A Few Facts About African Americans and Social Security" -- http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed012805e.cfm

This brings up a larger question: Why is there no vibrant black conservative think-tank that does rigorous research & analyses on critical issues such as black entrepreneurship and market-based approaches for fostering educational and economic progress in inner-cities, for example?

Such an organization would have been an obvious prominent player in President Bush's Urban Entrepreneur Partnership initiative -- http://www.kauffman.org/news.cfm/582

-- which, interestingly, includes the National Urban League, but not a black conservative organization.

If black conservatives do not think that a black conservative think-tank that counters the liberal Joint Center is necessary (in the way that a Project 21 is in general public discourse), are there black economists/policy analysts at top conservative/libertarian think-tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute, and the Hoover Institution (besides Dr. Thomas Sowell)?

If there are, we'd like to locate their publications. We have checked the websites of Dr. Sowell and Dr. Walter Williams of George Mason University and found no recent scholarly work by them on contemporary black economic development issues (entrepreneurship, wealth-building, etc.), which is perhaps understandable since they are close to retirement. And, of course, they do not have to do any work in this area just because they are black, but it would be nice to have a few black conservative intellectuals in think-tanks doing intellectually rigorous work on critical issues that impact black economic progress.

We recall that the Center for New Black Leadership was founded about 10 years ago for such a purpose, but the organization has yet to have a significant impact and appears to be inactive (the website -- http://www.cnbl.org/ -- currently has no information other than "The future home of the Centre for New Black Leadership").

Many critics of black conservatives wonder why wealthy black Republicans/conservatives, and/or the wealthy individuals and organizations that fund the big and influential think-tanks cited above, cannot finance one that focuses on African American issues.

Establishment of a think-tank that vigorously advances intellectual and policy discourse would be one way of heeding the exhortation by Black conservative & Bush supporter Robert Woodson [National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise], who reportedly noted in the May 1996 issue of Headway magazine:

"In general Black conservatives have not defined themselves in a positive manner. Too many have been reflexive "me-too" conservatives, merely echoing the views and opinions of established white conservatives and their stands against affirmative action, set-asides, and the welfare system?It is important for Black conservatives to offer positive alternatives to be originators of ideas that go beyond the bi-polar debates of the left and the right ... that Black conservatives should be less concerned about what they call themselves, but rather, be concerned how their actions define them in the eyes of everyday people, particularly their own people."

The recent Armstrong Williams debacle has only reinforced "the black-conservatives-are-sellouts stereotype", as blogger LaShawn Barber laments -- http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/01/08/armstrong/#more-861

As a research/policy/business-oriented entity that promotes discourse and innovative solutions to problems, we at blackprogress.net believe that establishing a vibrant black conservative think-tank that does independent intellectual and practical, action-oriented work to foster entrepreneurship and other market-based solutions for black economic and educational progress (parental education, academic excellence, etc.) will help to destroy these stereotypes.

This will be a potent way to seize the black leadership mantle rather than simply assailing the current black leadership. Perhaps the Heritage Foundation conference on Feb 24 ("Responding to the Call: The New Black Vanguard Conference" -- http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev022405a.cfm) will go beyond bashing liberal leaders (however well-deserved) and examine this and other ways.

We'd greatly appreciate any relevant information. Thank you.

editor@blackprogress.net
///////////////////

Changing Social Security: The Impact on African Americans
http://www.jointcenter.org/news1/NewsDetail.php?recordID=24

The Social Security Privatization Crisis: Assessing the Impact on African
American Families. Maya Rockeymoore, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation,
January 2005
http://cbcfinc.org/pdf/CBCFSocialSecurityPrivatizationReport4.pdf

African Americans and Social Security. Why the Privatization Advocates Are
Wrong. WILLIAM E. SPRIGGS
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/1104spriggs.html

Social Security Privatization and African Americans: A Comparative Analysis.
Nwafor. Journal of Black Studies. 2005; 35: 248-266
http://jbs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/35/3/248

Taxes, Women's rights, and In Between Politics

I think I've talked about the necessity of in-between politics, the type of mid range actions that we have to engage in between now and the revolution. What stories like this and this indicate not only why it matters and what the consequences are (diminishing services in cities, and increased stress placed on families), but what types of policies we can fight for. sorry.

SHOULD fight for.

So for those not familiar with the Detroit area, the Detroit News story isn't focusing on cities like Detroit--cities that are basically dinosaurs filled with poor residents and those too loyal to consider leaving. This story is focusing on the almost tony-suburbs. Plymouth? The center of the town looks almost exactly like the town in Back To The Future. Has a beautiful Ice Festival every year. If it wasn't pretty much all white, it'd be a decent place for a black family to live and raise a family in. Good public schools too if I recall. No history of waste or mismanagement.

And they are considering cuts.

Livonia is probably the whitest suburb in the Detroit area. They've pretty much zoned out their working poor. Recently built one of the plushest recreation centers in the area. No history of waste or mismanagement that I'm aware of. Good solid families (again with the exception that they are pretty much all white and have a history of being racist). And they're cutting back on library hours...and I thikn they're thinking about adding more volunteer policemen and firemen. This is the natural consequence of anti-tax conservatism as applied to government.

The story about moms reflects the life I live now. Because I am the sole income provider, and my job has unique requirements (there are only three times i don't think about my work--while playing basketball, while sleeping...make that two times) the bulk of the care for my children is provided by my wife. Now that we've finally gotten our heads above water financially (fingers crossed) i can begin to give her some of the things she needs in order to stay sane. But what we're seeing is a scenario in which women like my wife are pulling their hair out trying to make sure their kids are powerful enough to live in a regressive future.

I am not familiar with abortion politics...but I wonder where or even IF there was an opportunity for the women's movement to focus more on bread and butter issues related to child care and parental leave. An opportunity that they missed in order to wage war to protect a woman's right to choose? I don't know. All I know is that we're either going to see a marked increase in suicides, in patricides, or in infanticides if something isn't done.

Governors asked to overhaul high schools

Story here. I don't think they'll be successful. What stands out to be are the national drop out figures. I'm pretty sure these figures are driven by urban dropouts. But what happens in cities usually end up bleeding into suburbs.

Black Voices and Cosby

My bi-weekly column has moved to Black Voices. Last week's column dealt with Rosa Parks.

I read a book called CULTURE AND AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICS by Charles Henry some years back. Due for an update...but one passage struck me. What would we call people who slough their kids of on strangers for the majority of the week, who don't have jobs, and move from place to place with the change in the seasons?

We call them shiftless if they are poor. We call them something else if they're rich.

This is what upset me more than anything else about Cosby and about attacks on the poor in general. The cultural arguments that are used against the poor are based on the fundamental reality that the poor are different because of the way they BEHAVE.

Take away Paris Hilton's last name, put her in a trailer park, would she have her own tv show?

This is one of the best stories I've seen written about the Cosby revelations as they relate to his smackdown quest. And even IT doesn't get the story quite right. Folks forget (xcept for Jimi) that Cosby has a long history of both smacking people around who aren't black like him (see: Eddie Murphy) and a long history of problematic behavior himself.

A Black Republican, Dean, and Michael Steele

Shannon Reeves gives this account in an open letter.

When I travel to speak at Republican conferences and events around the country, wandering through hotels, convention centers and social clubs, as I approach the rooms where I'm scheduled to speak, I am often told by Republicans that I must be in the wrong place. While boarding a shuttle bus to a national convention a few years ago, an attendee who was already on the bus introduced himself to another white guest who was boarding, took one look at me and, in an attempt to be helpful, told me I was on the wrong bus. As a Bush delegate at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia, I proudly wore my delegate's badge and RNC lapel pin as I worked the convention. Regardless of the fact that I was obviously a delegate prominently displaying my credentials, no less than six times did white delegates dismissively tell me to fetch them a taxi or carry their luggage.

Imagine how our Republican women would have felt if they had been mistaken for hotel maids. These people didn't see that I wasn't wearing a uniform; all they saw was a black face and they made an assumption. I am a proud Republican, one who has traveled this great country from Harlem to Honolulu to promote the Republican message. I've campaigned from Inyo to Siskiyou. Wherever I've been asked to go, I've shown up for this party, speaking to literally thousands of groups. And through it all, I've met thousands upon thousands of grassroots volunteers who have welcomed me, given me good advice, prayers, love, and support. They've taught me a lot, and I've always been grateful for their support. No one has treated me better than Thaddeus Taylor, Inyo County's chairman, who opened his home and treated me with such love. This is not another inter-party squabble of moderates versus conservatives, or rural versus urban. These are grassroots Republicans for whom the principles of inclusion and the big tent are an intrinsic part of their very fiber.

Dean was wrong for what he said. The Black Democrats who were at that meeting were stupid to laugh, in my opinion.

Michael Steele needs to back up a bit. I called into a radio show where Steele was the guest of the hour. I raised the comment by Shannon Reeve. He knows Reeve and said he was a good man. Steele did not address the comment by Reeve. He went off on a tangent.

You want to put Jesse and Al on the unemployment line?

...support and extend this effort by teachers. A snippet:

Eighth-grader Michael Clark knows all about civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall. But he also can give you the rundown on Jo Ann Robinson and Charles Hamilton Houston, who worked behind the scenes to fuel the movement.

He knows all about the slaying of NAACP field officer Medgar Evers in 1963, but he can also describe how the killing of black 14-year-old Emmett Till -- who flirted with a white woman -- stirred protests nine years earlier.

When to put the American in African American

I've been watching the recent PBS series on Slavery off and on. I haven't paid a great deal of attention to it because sometime during the first episode I realized that I'd taught this class already. My syllabus for African American history going back some seven years now touches on many of the same themes.

One of the central theoretical questions I posed in the course is one I still don't have an answer to. At least not a good one.

When do the African Americans actually become African Americans? To hear Morgan Freeman tell it, even the enslaved are "African Americans." But of course this can't be true can it? They don't have any of the political, cultural, OR economic rights. Yet and still at the same time come 1880 it doesn't make sense to call them African either.

I refer to the enslaved as enslaved Africans. Do they then become African Americans when they are freed? When?

Black Press Alert!

Out here in the boondocks of deliberative reason, aka the blogosphere, there are extraordinarily deep and complex conversations going on. They are civil and insightful, often humorous but always worth reading. To my eyes, they are much better than those one could get just about anywhere else.

Not everyone thinks so, but that's probably because they are adrift seeking wisdom through the power of search engines. Some fortunate few of us have years of experience to lead us over the proper hyperlinks and know how to get to the right places. I think we owe it to them to lead them here. So all of you within earshot should note that Poynter Online has an article which merits your comments.

Do the right thing.

Wishing Wiley was Here (Again)

Every now and then something happens in the sports world that causes me to reflect on what Ralph Wiley would say if he'd been here.

Last week, ESPN began airing spots in commemoration of Black History Month. The first spot I saw had Queen Latifah talking about the 1968 Olympic protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. In order to protest the treatment of African Americans, Latifah noted, Smith and Carlos raised "black love fists."

What the *!&% ??

Black LOVE fists?

Do a google search on Tommie Smith and 1968. Is there ANY mention of "black love"? I know that we've got a long way to go. I know that Aberbach and Walker showed in their 1970 piece "The Meaning of Black Power" that whites and blacks have very different conceptions of the term.

But here we are 37 years later, and we're still changing history to soothe supposedly troubled souls. And Latifah bought into it.

.....

Spring training is about to begin, and already the call has been made to Bonds to quit. Nothing like sour grapes. You want him to quit? Remove the record of every major league player that played before blacks were allowed in the majors.

The Question of 2005

Taken from Dr. DeLong:

Can anyone... give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration

It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)

It wasn't in some important way completely f***** up during the execution.

Oh. Now I remember.

Nope. Lost it again.

A Leninist Strategy

Almost forty years ago, when it looked like the American Left had taken hold of every institution worth fighting for, a number of conservatives thought seriously about fleeing the country. A small few decided to wait it out, thinking that by adopting the long view, and planning for it...the conservatives could become ascendant.

The current battle on social security reflects almost thirty years of planning. And it also reflects the conservative adoption of leninist principles. Interesting reading. So while we're talking about freedom dreams and black power inc. somebody else has got an entirely different ballgame in mind.

Jr. High

Thinking Negative

The general thrust of this piece is what I've been writing for years in the ether that is the internet.

It appears that if we hear something negative about ourselves we are quick to take ownership. “Black people are drugs addicts and drug dealers,” and our response? “Yep, that’s us.” “Most Black folks are lazy and on welfare,” and our response? “Yep, that’s us.” It seems that we don’t challenge, we won’t question and we do ourselves a great disservice.

...

...

If we are so ready to condemn, then why are we not equally ready to commend? Where was the “well done” for our young black sisters when the press release from the National Center for Health Statistics (dated December 17, 2003) stated that teenage pregnancy had gone down by 30 percent in the past decade and that the sharpest drop of any group was African-American teenage girls – 40% in the last decade and 50% since 1991? Where was the collective “bravo” for our young people when the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census acknowledged that the African-American dropout rate (as of 2001) was at 10.9% - the lowest it’s ever been? Also, it was almost identical to the national average (meaning all students) of 10.7%. Most of us appear to be unaware of this information – so it appears that our youth aren’t the only ones who need to study more. Yes, I’d love to see the dropout rate down to 0%; but that shouldn’t preclude us from celebrating what we have achieved. I think it would be wonderful if none of our young women became pregnant in their teenage years, but I am proud of what they have done. The high-profile prophets of black negativity, who are so geared up to impugn our youth, could not be found to herald their triumphs just as enthusiastically.

The Washington Times

I read the online edition of The Washington Times to get a conservative presentation of the news that they deem is fit to publish.

I remember reading about the Times firing Sam Francis for comments he made at a conference held by American Renaissance. I've read the Times coverage of the American Renissance bi-annual conference and never have I read where the conference is a gathering of individuals to promote white superiority and eugenics.

So, whenever I read something in The Washington Times, I know what to expect when they have coverage of events that may have race involved.

That brings us to this:

Feb. 9, 2005 -- Marian Kester Coombs is a woman who believes America has become a "den of iniquity" thanks to "its efforts to accommodate minorities."

White men should "run, not walk" to wed "racially conscious" white women and avoid being out-bred by non-whites. Latinos are "rising to take this country away from those who made it," the "Euroamericans." Muslims are "human hyenas" who "smell blood" and are "closing in" on their "weakened prey," meaning "the white race." Blacks, Coombs sneers, are "saintly victims who can do no wrong." Black solidarity and non-white immigration are imposing "racial revolution and decomposition" in America.

Coombs describes herself as just "a freelance writer in Crofton, Maryland." But this is one writer who's a bit more well-positioned than she lets on.

Marian Kester Coombs is married to Francis Booth Coombs, managing editor of the hard-right newspaper The Washington Times. Fran Coombs has published at least 35 of his wife's news and opinion pieces for his paper, although his relationship to her is not acknowledged in her Times bylines.

And that's not all. Fran Coombs has presided over the Times' republication of articles taken from white supremacist hate groups, not to mention allowing a key employee at the paper to write fawning pieces about the same groups.

Enough said.

Alan Keyes, Politics, Values, and Kinship

OK, this is something that I don't really understand:

Maya Keyes loves her father and mother. She put off college and moved from the family home in Darnestown to Chicago to be with her dad on a grand adventure. Even though she disagrees with him on "almost everything" political, she worked hard for his quixotic and losing campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Now Maya Keyes -- liberal, lesbian and a little lost -- finds herself out on her own. She says her parents -- conservative commentator and perennial candidate Alan Keyes and his wife, Jocelyn -- threw her out of their house, refused to pay her college tuition and stopped speaking to her.

Maya, 19, says her parents cut her off because of who she is -- "a liberal queer." Tomorrow, she will take her private dispute with her dad into the open. She is scheduled to make her debut as a political animal, speaking at a rally in Annapolis sponsored by Equality Maryland, the state's gay rights lobby.

I can't see kicking your kid out of the house because of political differences.

I can't see kicking your kid out of the house because your child has said they are gay.

I can see kicking your kid out of the house if your kid is not living up to your moral standards and is doing so in the home. For example, being caught having sex in your home.

But even then, not speaking to my child would not be an issue. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is something I often heard while I was being raised. Also, it seems that when you close the door of communication, you close the chance of affecting a positive change.

IF this is being reported accurately, it's a sad state of affairs.

A parent isn't obligated to pay for their kid's college tuition nor are they obligated to house their kid past the age of 18. But it's RIGHT to do so if your child is being productive.

Not speaking to your child because he is a sinner in your eyes, is wrong.

If this is being reported accurately, someone of moral authority needs to publically say this to Alan Keyes.

This is foul.

Home Ownership, Self-Determination, Restrictive Covenants, Redistricting....,

Home ownership is absolutely essential when we talk about self-determination. If we don't have some control over the real estate in our communities then we can't ever realistically hope to control our destiny. NO LAND = NO BLACK POLITY.

Quoting from PTCruiser's real estate knowledge drop on the So What? thread at P6, inspired by Spence's most refreshing hardline on measuring representation, and angling off my recent quip about the apparent hostility of redistricting...., today's headline article in the KCStar about the enduring legacy of ubiquitous restrictive real estate covenants...., looks like yet more fertile ground we'll need to mine in order to understand the full parameters of the continuing symptomology of contemporary American apartheid.

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

“IT'S RIDICULOUS”: Kim Wrench calls it “a form of ignorance and stupidity” that the Greenway Fields homeowner's association rules still contain a section that prohibits black owners or tenants.


THE POWER OF LIQUID PAPER: Restrictive covenants so offended Harriette Handley when she worked for the Homes Associations of the Country Club District that she covered them over.

Kim Wrench loves the 2½-story modern colonial he bought in the Country Club District more than 15 years ago, but he hates its dirty little secret.

Buried in Section 10 of the Greenway Fields homeowner's association rules — tucked between sections on outbuildings and pergolas — are these words: “None of the said lots shall be conveyed to, used, owned nor occupied by Negroes as owner or tenants.”

Wrench, who is black, tries to ignore the words that are known in legal circles as a “restrictive covenant.” But he can't.

“It's ridiculous that it even has to be on there,” Wrench said. “I look at it as being a form of ignorance and stupidity.”

Although many Kansas City area residents are not even aware of them, more than 1,200 documents involving thousands of homes still contain racist language banning blacks, Jews and other ethnic groups. For the first half of the 20th century, racially restrictive covenants were routinely recorded in plats and deeds and placed in many homeowner's association documents not only here, but nationwide.

Yet many of the covenants never were removed, even after being ruled unenforceable by the U.S. Supreme Court as long ago as 1948 and banned by the Fair Housing Act of 1968. And their vestiges of discrimination — a kind of “curse of the covenant” — still linger locally, The Kansas City Star has found.

Indeed, the latest U.S. census figures show that, while some of the metropolitan areas that had racial restrictions are now integrated, many of those neighborhoods still have few, if any, black residents living in them today.

“The major legacy is the racial separation we still see,” said lawyer Arthur A. Benson II, who researched the covenants as part of Kansas City's landmark school desegregation case. “While there is a lot more integration now than there was 20 years ago, Troost (Avenue) is still a major dividing line in our community. And that's a direct result of the racially restrictive covenants, together with other real estate practices and school practices.”

While society still struggles with racial separation, critics say something should be done to rid housing documents of the illegal covenants. Although unenforceable, the language can be psychologically damaging, reinforcing old fears and sending a message that racism is alive and well in America.

“It's a very insensitive message, one that says although we acknowledge that black Americans can own real estate, we won't go to the energy and the effort to have everything removed so they can feel better about it,” said Ron Branch, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the nation's oldest minority trade association.

But legal experts say the covenants are very much like a curse in that they are almost impossible to get rid of. And historians trace some of that difficulty to Kansas City, where the covenants were perfected by one of the city's most prominent developers, J.C. Nichols.

Nichols was among the first developers in the United States to promote the restrictions. From 1908 through the 1940s, the J.C. Nichols Co. built dozens of subdivisions in the Kansas City area that prohibited housing sales to blacks.

Creators of the covenants crafted them in such a way that they would be around for a long time. One way to remove them is by state legislation. Other ways are not as easy.

“It can be done, but it's very time-consuming, and it can get very expensive,” said Pete Heaven, a lawyer who drafts rules for new neighborhoods in Kansas and Missouri.

Widespread restrictions

Most of the restrictions — including those in more than a dozen subdivisions in the Country Club District — prohibit ownership by blacks, but some Johnson County covenants are even more exclusionary.

The “Declaration of Restrictions” for Leawood Estates filed by Kroh Bros. in 1945 prohibits ownership or occupancy “by any person of Negro blood or by any person who is more than one-fourth of the Semitic race, blood, origin or extraction, including without limitation in said designation, Armenians, Jews, Hebrews, Turks, Persians, Syrians and Arabians.” An exception is made for “partial occupancy by bona fide domestic servants employed thereon.”

Racial restrictions were common in other Johnson County communities as well, including Prairie Village, Roeland Park and Fairway.

In a document recorded with the Johnson County register of deeds in 1939 titled “Johnson County Development Company et al. vs. Negroes,” a group of homeowners declared that the property was “to be restricted against use or ownership by Negroes.” The property included lots in South Park, which now is part of Merriam.

Those restrictions are still on the books.

Such restrictions were so widespread that in the 1940s three U.S. Supreme Court justices had to excuse themselves from ruling on the covenants because they owned property that contained the exclusionary language.

Even John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan lived in racially restricted neighborhoods before they became president. And the North Dallas home sold by George W. Bush in 1995 had a deed provision that restricted ownership to whites. A spokeswoman said the president was not aware of the covenant, which was put in place in 1939.

But the enduring racist language — which continued to be added to local housing documents as late as 1962 — sends an outdated message that must be changed, said Kevin Fox Gotham, a Kansas City housing historian who now teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans.

“It illustrates the things that people would do to reinforce and create racial segregation,” Gotham said. “It also illustrates that it's not that important to people to remove this racial language. So it's telling of race relations, not only in Kansas City, but around the United States.”

Even though they cannot be enforced, covenants continue to keep minorities away from certain housing developments, said Sherry Lamb Schirmer, an associate professor of history at Avila University and author of A City Divided: The Racial Landscape of Kansas City, 1900-1960.

“I have been told by black people that they're aware of what neighborhoods were once restricted, and often they still see those as hostile zones, so that they'd be more likely to purchase a house in one neighborhood versus another because of that,” Schirmer said.

“So these covenants then have more than simply symbolic meaning. They still have an impact.”

Covenants die hard

Experts say removing the covenants is possible, especially if homeowner documents can be amended.

“If you're lucky enough to have that (an amending procedure) in the document, then you merely need to get an amendment signed by at least 51 percent or two-thirds of the landowners,” Heaven said.

But he said it gets far more complicated when the restriction is in the plat because to amend a plat every property owner has to agree. A plat is a map that shows the boundaries of a piece of land or subdivision.

“A plat is very, very difficult to change,” Heaven said.

John Sheets, executive director of the Homes Associations of the Country Club District, said restrictions written for the J.C. Nichols Co. require that a notice to amend be filed five years in advance of its renewal date — usually every 20 to 25 years — and that all homeowners must agree to the change.

“There's a lot of expense to get every single signature of every homeowner notarized in a timely fashion and then submit that,” Sheets said. “You'd have to have an attorney working on it for two to three years. It would be extremely cost prohibitive. And if one person holds out, the whole thing is off.”

Among the homeowner's associations that still have such restrictions in their covenants, Sheets said, are Armour Fields, which includes the Romanelli Gardens and Meyer Circle subdivisions; Armour Hills; the Country Club District; Country Club Homes; Countryside; Crestwood; Greenway Fields; Stratford Gardens; Westwood Park; and Wornall Homestead, all in Missouri. Those in Kansas include Indian Hills, Mission Hills, Prairie Village and Tomahawk Road. All are J.C. Nichols developments.

Sheets said that while the restrictions have not been officially removed from the documents, a few of the homeowner's associations have crossed them out.

Some had help from Harriette Handley, an employee of the Homes Associations of the Country Club District.

For 30 years she put together welcome packets for new residents. The packets included the homes association rules. But the racial restrictions bothered Handley so much that she took matters into her own hands.

“Anything referring to Negroes, I would white out,” she said. “I just did it on my own. I don't know whether it was legal or not, but I don't think anyone would complain about it.”

Removing the restrictions from deeds and other documents filed with the county would be more difficult because county officials have no authority to delete them, said Shawn Henessee, assistant director of the Jackson County Records Department.

John Bartolac, director of Johnson County's Department of Records and Tax Administration, said the language also remains in plats and deeds there. Removing the restrictions, Bartolac said, would be “a paperwork nightmare.”

Stephen Todd, regional counsel for the Chicago Title Insurance Co., agreed.

“In Jackson County, most of it's on microfilm,” Todd said. “Or it's in these big old bound books. And that wouldn't be very feasible to snip it out of the book.”

Yet in the 1980s the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began requiring title companies to cross out the restrictions on copies of covenants or note in the margins that the provisions were to be considered deleted, Todd said.

States, however, can require the removal of racial restrictions. In 1999, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers launched an effort to purge discriminatory language from property-related documents nationwide and was successful in California.

In that state, homeowner's associations must remove the racist phrases and individuals can strike the language from their own deeds. But since the law went into effect in 2000, only 24 property owners have gone to the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing seeking the removal of the language, spokeswoman Jacqueline Wagner said.

Last year, California amended the law to allow homeowners to go directly to their county recorder to make the changes, Wagner said, but the department has no information on whether any did.

State Sen. Yvonne Wilson, a Kansas City Democrat, was flabbergasted to learn that the restrictions remained in many Missouri documents. “I had no idea that those were still in there,” Wilson said. “It's an embarrassment. That's offensive language, and it sends a terrible message.”

Wilson said she intended to sponsor a proposal to get the exclusionary language removed.

“I'm going to look into it next week and start the legislative research,” she said Thursday. “If we could legislate it and get it off, that's the best approach to take.”

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver called the covenants “a national embarrassment” and agreed that the legislature needs to address the issue.

“I think the Missouri General Assembly should entertain legislation that would remove the racial covenants,” said Cleaver, a former Kansas City mayor who now represents the 5th Congressional District. “And it should be an easy bill to pass, because both sides of the aisle would vote for it, even if some of them didn't want to.”

But state Sen. John Vratil said he did not see the issue as one the Kansas Legislature should get involved in. “It's a local issue, and a homes association issue,” said Vratil, a Leawood Republican.

For racial restrictions in homes association documents, association members could vote to remove them, Vratil said.

“It's a question of, is it offensive enough that you're willing to pay $50 to $100 per homeowner to get it removed?” he said. “And I think I know what the answer is. … It's one of those issues that politicians love to talk about because it resonates, but when you get below the surface, most people just aren't interested in going to the time and expense to deal with it.”

Time for change?

When Marsha Ramsey wanted information last summer about her subdivision's regulations on swimming pools, she called the homeowner's association and requested a copy of the restrictions for Greenway Fields.

Ramsey said she did a double take when she read the section prohibiting blacks.

“I was shocked,” she said. “It's just so barbaric I can't even believe it. It's almost beyond my comprehension.”

For Ramsey, it does not matter that the covenants are unenforceable. “That's immaterial,” she said. “This is insulting to a number of people. I'm a white woman, and I'm appalled that it was there a hundred years ago, let alone today.”

Ramsey also does not think it would be too difficult for her homeowner's association to lift the curse once and for all.

“Last week, we got a letter wanting to accumulate $5,000 to fix a wall,” she said recently. “Well, what about sending out a newsletter saying, ‘Let's get this changed'?”

That is what residents of Red Bridge Estates did in 2001.

“We took all of those restrictions out,” said Kenneth Green, who was president of the homes association at the time. “They hadn't been enforced or even looked at for years and years, but somebody did recognize that they were still in there, and we decided to clean them up.”

Green said the process was not that difficult. “It was brought up at the annual meeting, and we voted to do it. Fortunately, we have a lawyer in the association, and he handled it.”

Wrench said he only learned about the racial restrictions in the Greenway Fields subdivision when he bought his pale yellow colonial house in 1989.

But it was just one in a series of surprises, he said.

“I never really met the owner until I showed up for the inspection,” Wrench said. “And when she found out that I was a gentleman of color, she made a big deal out of it. And I heard her tell my agent that she never would have sold her home to me if she'd known she was selling to someone black.”

Still, Wrench never considered moving.

“Moving would just let them win,” he said.

Gregory S. Reeves, The Star's database editor, contributed to this report.

Measuring Representation

A couple of comments on the side have left me realizing that I should probably talk a bit about race and representation. Do black people need to be represented by black candidates? I won't deal with the other question (if black people feel the need to be represented by black candidates are they prevented from having that need met?). It is germane as it represents the degree to which whites are unwilling to vote for black candidates, but I'm not going to deal with that right now.

The central theoretical work in this area is Hannah Pitkin's REPRESENTATION. Pitkin deals the various ways we might think about representation. Most focus on the distinction between symbolic and substantive representation, as blacks could be more effective at one than the other...or black citizens could want one more than they want the other.

Starting with Carol Swain's BLACK FACES BLACK INTERESTS, a number of scholars have tackled this question empirically. Rather than going through their works I'm going to talk a bit about measurement.

So what exactly do legislators do? They draft legislation, vote on legislation, sit on committees, alter amendments, visit with constituents, deal with constituent issues, vote in committees, give speeches on various issues, meet with President, negotiate with their parties...and some other stuff on top of that. And black mayors actually propose and implement budgets, hire officials, create rules regarding contracts, often negotiate contracts, etc.

There is a comparative question implicit in the black representation issue right? The real question is do black representatives represent black people better than non-black ones? Again, I'm not dealing with citizen preferences here, but not because they aren't important.

So the way to do this is simple. We've got rollcall records, voting records, committee meeting records, legislation records, we have some idea of how much time constituents spend at home, we've got records of their speeches, we know how much money they raise, and we know how they spend it. Most of these things would be coded and used as dependent variables. Then we'd need to know the race of the legislator, his party (it could be party rather than race doing the heavy lifting), the region (southern legislators are usually different), perhaps the type of district (urban vs. rural), and probably percentage black.

There are still areas that can be mined here. But what the literature says is pretty clear. Black legislators spend more time on issues that black citizens care about, their voting record is better, their behavior in committees is better, and i believe they spend more time on legislation than their non-black counterparts. Off the top of my head I cannot recall whether black representatives get more of their legislation actually PASSED. But this should be a start.

Meth destroys town

"If we had a brothel move into town, people would close it down instantly," said the Rev. Jon Pearce of the First Baptist Church here. "If we had an X-rated movie house come, it'd be gone within a week. But this has been here. It is a monster. We didn't know what kind of monster it was."

The right Reverend is referring to meth labs. The full story can be found here. (Thanks George!)

This has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS

...but trust me, you're gonna love reading this. i think we've built a nice little niche devoted to old school discussions of politics, economics, and culture, from a foundation of black love.

i'll be damned if this isn't hilarious.

Redistricting Battle in California

Schwarznegger has been a lot better as governor than I thought he would be. Heads and shoulders above. He's been talking about the necessity of changing how districts are drawn in order to bring democracy back to state legislatures. Here's one way to think about it. Compare re-election rates in the former USSR and in the USA? Do you see any MEASURABLE differences?

He faces an uphill battle. No one wants to have to actually FIGHT for their office. I'm not quite sure what effect if any this would have on black candidates. If Maxine Water had to run on the south side of Inglewood (excuse my west side ignorance), rather than on the north side, it isn't clear to me that the results would be any different.

Thanks to Prometheus 6 for the original story.

The Super Bowl

The Patriots won, as they should have. They have experience in the big game and a damn good defense. It was this group's first time, so I figured the bug would get to them, and it did.

But forget about the game, let's cut to the commericals.

The top three commericals were Go Daddy's commerical, the parachute commercial, and the cat in the sauce commercial. Go Daddy's commerical was a parody, and when taken as such, it should go down in history as one of the best parody's the media has done in the current age.

People miss that when they moan and groan about the commerical. PLUS, there is a definite gender gap in the appreciation of that commerical. ;-)

Black Intra-Racial Politics

[ Edited to fix some glaring mistakes ]

In this blog entry that I made, Cobb and P6 launched into an interesting discussion concerning politics and self interest.

It's wrong for me to ever try to be concise in evaluating anything that Cobb writes, but I think this sums up his view of the Republican party: "The Party is what you make of it. ... Republican party doesn't have to change much, it has to go ahead about its ordinary routine, and blacks who get with the party will benefit because their self-interest will coincide with the self-interest of the party"

I think this sums up P6's response to Cobb accurately: "I agree the Republican Party is more pro-business than anti-Black. But they are both. And they are attempting to shape the landscape the landscape such that both agendas are fulfilled.

"Now you're saying accept the anti-Black aspect for the sake of the money?"

When I was living in the Maryland side of the D.C. suburbs, a private organization sent out teams of Black people and white people to apply for an apartment lease. The published results of the test pointed to discrimination by some of the apartment managers.

Around this time, the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives. Newt Gingrich said that the EEOC would face a cut in funding. When this brought a lot of heat, he backed off and said that the EEOC will receive an increase in funding. However, the EEOC would not be allowed to do testing like that done by the private organization. I thought that it was interesting that during this time, the EEOC was receiving more age discrimination complaints than racial discrimination complaints.

Later, when the Republican party gained control of both halves of congress, Sen. Phil Gramm became the head of the banking committee. He made it clear that he wanted to change the rules concerning the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA required banks to service loans in the same area that they have bank branches.

Black activists believed that the CRA helped the underserved minority areas that banks may have had branches. One person I know who worked in a bank in the Chicago area, told me that bank executives didn't want to open branches in Black areas. When they were compelled to do so, they opened a branch in a run down office. Additionally, the branch did not provide the full range of services that other branches provided. That branch turned out to generate much more business than the executives anticipated. They then opened another branch in the area, in an office that was up to the standards of other bank branches.

I go into that to lend some support to the idea that P6 is making, or at least the point that I believe he is making.

The two examples I gave may point to an anti-Black bias. But, I can also point to the support for giving government money to Black religious organizations or the support for small business that may show a support for Black business and the Black community.

Frankly, I think they both make excellent points. From my experiences, I find some of the race related aspects coming from some people within the Republican party to be a bit much. But I find some of the Democratic party positions one that will harm me, and others, in the long run. For example, the willingness to raise taxes is something that I can't support.

However, I address each individual politician on their individual merits. For example, when Robert Ehrlich ran against Kathleen Townsend, I voted for Ehrlich, the Republican, because I knew Townsend would propose raising taxes and the Democratic state house would willingly respond. I also knew that Ehrlich would create a better climate for business in the less than business friendly state of Maryland.

It helped that his running mate was Michael Steele who both said would play a big role in the administration. Michael Steele, amoung other things, is heading reforming the Minority Business Enterprise set aside program. (A post on that is coming later).

Since Ehrlich has gained office, he raised taxes for people who take advantage of individual resources, only he called it usage fees instead of taxes. He has not raised general taxes. He has also increased the amount of funding given to HBCUs in the state of Maryland. He is pushing for reform of sentencing so that drug abusers get treatment instead of jail time.

He's a Republican, but in this individual case, he doesn't appear anti-Black. In fact, I'd say he's not anti-Black and he is pro-business.

I'll contrast that to Ellen Sauerbry. When she ran for governor, she accepted an invitation to speak to a Black group. After her advisor told her that she risks getting her base mad, she decided not to speak to the group. Even though she ran against Paris "Spenddenning" Glendenning, I pulled the lever for Glendenning because she gave me no indication that she would be, at least, race neutral or non-racist.

I look at the individual politician. I try to avoid looking at the party. On the local level, that's very easy. But when it is on the national level, the consideration of party may become an issue if I get the idea that the politician is just going to follow the party line just to get along and get ahead. Then, I consider if that person may have the strength of conviction to vote in my self interests even when it's against the party norms.

So, I see nothing wrong with Cobb's point of view. And I see nothing wrong with P6's dislike of Cobb's view.

When Cobb wrote,

"If you are pro-black in that you look at what the average black person is doing, or the majority of whatever black people are doing and you support and defend that, it is a different animal than saying you are pro-black with a specific agenda that you think blacks ought to pursue. I am of the latter persuasion, and what I think blacks ought to pursue is getting a grip on the higher echelons of this society in terms of the unique opportunities that our social capital could get us",

But being the realist that I am, I look at the average group and I look at what we should be doing, and go from there. In fact, when the "political elites" say "we" should be doing this, supporting this, or thinking like this, and it's something I agree with, I generally respond, "I agree. So, what are you doing to get this to the masses instead of pontificating among the elite?" This, I think, is where the "Black right" camp falls behind the "Black left" camp. The "Black left" camp appears to be speaking TO the Black community, though they treat the Black community as if we are all in despair. The "Black right" appears to be speaking AT the Black community, as though the Black community is lying around doing nothing.

Look, we know that most Blacks have no problem with the idea of starting a business or making money. We know that most Blacks will support the idea of Black churches helping out in the community. We know that most Blacks will support the idea of locking up criminals, as long as the justice system is fair. We know that most Blacks will support the police if they police are not behaving in an antagonistic manner.

That's not Republican. That's not Democratic. A Republican who supports those ideals can get a substantial number of Black votes. But that Republican has to make it clear he's not anti-Black.

Politics is a game of "feel" and Republican politicians don't have a problem getting white voters to "feel" comfortable with them. They do have a problem getting Black voters to "feel" comfortable with them.

J.C. Watts said that the Republican party has a problem with image and getting its ideas across to the Black community. Black Republicans giving the impression that Black voters are stupid for voting Democratic, doesn't help the image. Black Republicans giving the history of Republican support for "civil rights" throughout their history, while ignoring the Southern Strategy or saying that Goldwater's anti-civil rights bill support was principled and not racist, doesn't help the image. The Republicans apparently staunch support for the confederate flag, doesn't help the image.

Some ignore the image, some don't. I have no problem with anyone ignoring the image and doing their thing. Just don't insult the Black masses in the process. (Not saying that Cobb does that).

Change the image or at least greatly modify the image and watch what happens. I think Michael Steele understands.

When Is A Government Handout Not a Government Handout?

When it's a government handout for something you believe in.

Conservatives have castigated the Black community for "relying on government handouts." However, those same conservatives, for the most part, support the idea of giving money to Black churches, and churches in general, to fund programs that the church may offer.

Personally, I really don't have a problem with the idea. It should be up to the individual church to decide if they want to deal with the regulations involved with getting money from the government.

But, rhetorically speaking, I find it interesting that NOW it's okay to accept the government handout.

White Voters Deserving an Attractive Black Candidate

This morning, a respected new rhetorical racketball partner made the following interesting assertion about an article written in `92 by Lani Guinier ;

She simply doesn't explore the potential for a black candidate being attractive to white voters.

After questioning examples, more particularly conservative examples one could cite, I made the following malthusian pronouncement;

The hypothetical black candidate with cross-over appeal hasn't really existed. Considering where the economy and the nation are headed, I don't expect that she/he ever will.

Of course Cobb had preemptively made a liar out of me by identifying THE potential chimeric huckleberry...., Though we've all heard calls to draft her for the position, I've seen no indication of interest on her part. I imagine, however, that if Oprah would or could run for president, we'd really be onto something, wouldn't we? Oprah is an extraordinary binnis-woman who has mastered the media and interpersonal relational style that American women favor, and, truly and magnificently succeeded on her own in a Galtian quest which no American men dare disrespect.

All that, and unlike the current and prior two scrubs who laid up in the White House, she did it without any hand up from popi's friends, or hookups from nasty auntie Pamela.

Here's the quantum thread collapse [epiphany] that occured to me on the road to Damascus.., unless America figures out how to meritocratically embrace the attractions of an unimpeachable black candidate like Oprah Winfrey or Colin Powell, with all the requisite stateswoman/gangsta cred required to silence any and all detractors, AMERICA WILL FAIL!

Here's the rub. It's not about what an Oprah or a Colin might personally bring to the office, they're superstars without a doubt. Rather, it's about what the POTUS exemplifies about the collective American unconscious that matters here. Until and unless the American collective unconscious evolves considerably beyond its current state, it's simply not fit to imperially preside over the rest of the world in the manner Cobb describes here.

The Other Side of Ossie Davis

My father told me that the Detroit News ran a story about Ossie Davis that reveals his more progressive side. Now most of us in the know KNEW a bit about this side. We knew for example, that Davis eulogized Malcolm X at his funeral ("he was our shining black prince", Davis noted). But this story gets a bit deeper. Earl if you're checking this out you should link this to your post. As an aside, I have written about Grace Boggs before. She's one of the last true revolutionaries left. Her Center is powerful and needs support.

If you can't beat 'em....

The White House has come under scrutiny during the last four years for its relationship with various non-conservative media outlets. Over the last three weeks it has been revealed that the administration has been paying pundits to spout the party line. This newest news is part of a troubling trend. Thanks to Scott. Some legislators have been talking about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine in the form of legislation. I'm not sure that's going to do it.

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

A friend of mine sent me this article about Detroit. It's about to disappear soon, so I'll provide a snippet:

In the decade after he finished law school, Dan Varner watched with mounting exasperation as his black, middle-class peers defected from Detroit, beloved city of his birth.

He was the relentless city booster telling college-bound teenagers to come home after graduation, the one urging far-flung friends to move here, the man always talking about rebuilding the city while others abandoned it.

Then, one day, Mr. Varner said he realized "there was really no one to have dinner with." He said he "could count on one hand in the four blocks around me the number of men my age who had families." Enough became enough one spring day when he drove his children home past a band of teenage boys chanting profanity.

"As a dad and a husband, you have an obligation to try to provide the best life possible," said Mr. Varner, 35, who in August moved his family to Ypsilanti Township, 45 minutes away. "That was just something we couldn't find in Detroit."

The Varners are emblematic of the exodus that is plunging Detroit's government and school system into a fiscal nightmare, resulting in not just the slashing of staff and services, but also, for the first time, a fundamental right-sizing for a new, shrunken reality. The 139-square-mile Motor City now has a population of 911,000, less than half its 1950's peak.

[Edited to add--George is brilliant. He gave me a permanent link to replace the temporary one. You might not even need a subscription to check the story out.]

Dan Varner is a friend of mine. We went to Michigan together. Though he spent most of his formative years in Southfield (a suburb outside of Detroit), he returned to Detroit after law school, and started Think Detroit when he found that simply being a lawyer wasn't enough. There are few people our age (we're both going to be 36 this year) putting more work into ANY city, than Dan.

And now he's out. Not out of Think Detroit...I just left a message on his answering machine. But out of the city as a homeowner.

We call this the exit option. See, in any institution that has "inefficiencies" people within them have three options.

They can stick with the institution and keep their mouth shut.

They can exert their voice and try to change the institution from within.

They can jet.

Exit. Voice. Loyalty.

Dan hasn't totally chosen the exit option. He is still the CEO of Think Detroit, and I expect him to remain in that position. But he has the means to exit, and recognizes that his voice simply isn't enough. I think this New York Times piece is a hack job designed to get Kwame Kilpatrick voted out of office. The problems of Kilpatrick are the problems faced by Dennis Archer Sr. before him, and by Coleman Young before him. Someone wants Freeman Hendrix in office and is pulling chits to get him there.

BUT with that said, the article still speaks to a fundamental truth that affects urban areas in general, and black urban areas in particular.