I heard about the CBC raising money for the victims of Katrina.
Lately I've been hearing that the CBC has yet to give out any of the funds. For example, read this
According to Marc Morano it would appear at the time bodies (the allegations being black bodies) were floating in the waters of Hurricane Katrina, the Congressional Black Caucus was floating tax-free charitable donation dollars. (See: "Bush-Bashing Black Charity Sits on Katrina Cash," CNS News, Marc Morano, Dec. 22, 2005).
Morano's investigation found the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation not only has not distributed any of the estimated $400,000 it raised for the black victims of hurricane Katrina, but as Patty Rice, spokesman for the CBCF told Morano, "The distribution of the money would not begin until January or February at the earliest." My guess is that unless shamed into doing so, they will not have dispersed one dollar toward the stated urgent need this time next year, but I digress.
This is quite a haul for CBCF, and if one were inclined to question the integrity of a group that proudly comport itself as what could be construed as available to the highest bidder, it could also be seen as quite a con game – one that should be looked into.
I was ready to slam them.
But I went to the CBCF website and read this:
On December 9, 2005, CBCF issued a $290,000 grant to the New Orleans-based Community of Faith for Economic Empowerment (COFFEE). COFFEE is right on the front lines providing crisis assistance to supplement rental payments for dislocated families and emergency food and clothing assistance. They also offer construction and rehabilitation assistance and loss mitigation counseling among other vital services such as, insurance claim filing assistance and foreclosure abatement assistance for those who have been unable to meet their mortgage payments. For more information on COFFEE, visit their website at www.coffee-neworleans.org.
Help me out here? Are people talking out of their behind or did they give up the money is response to critics?
Well, read this
Bush-Bashing Black Charity Sits on Katrina Cash
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 22, 2005
(CNSNews.com) -The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which slammed the Bush administration for its allegedly slow and racially insensitive response to Hurricane Katrina, has yet to spend any of the estimated $400,000 that it raised for the victims of the Aug. 29 storm.
"We are collecting all the way up through the very end of the year and then our board has set aside a committee who is going to administer the funds," Patty Rice, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday. The Foundation is an offshoot of the Congressional Black Caucus and was founded in 1976.
...
Ken Boehm, chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a group that monitors charitable giving, was quick to criticize the CBCF.
"It sounds like the CBCF has been stressing the immediacy of the [victims'] needs when they raised the money and yet for some reason when it comes time to dishing it out they can't seem to get organized," Boehm told Cybercast News Service.
:The author wrote an article near Dec. 22 saying the funds haven't been given. Funds were given on the 9th.
Interesting.
More coverage of positive things African-American males do
What happened to the media when 425 young black men from local middle and high schools . . . assembled at the University of Louisville on March 16 for the Men of Quality Initiative's 9th Annual Lifestyle Choices Forum? There were no reporters asking these young men: What is your role in closing the achievement gap? Why is this forum important to you? What did you hear that made you begin to look at things differently from how you have before? How important is this forum to you as a young black man? All these questions were asked at the forum.
No media were there to observe the nine workshops that covered issues concerning health, careers, college life, media influences, money management and investing -- all of which are pertinent issues to these young men. These workshops were presented by volunteers from the business and nonprofit sectors, students, educators and administrators from U of L and Jefferson County Public Schools, all of whom showed they have a personal commitment and investment in the future of these young men.
Teaching black teens to be men
Men of Quality promotes leadership, provides support
By Wayne Tompkins
wtompkins@courier-journal.com
The Courier-JournalAbout 20 African-American teenagers at the Brown School in Louisville sat transfixed as a group of successful black men challenged them to cast aside stereotypes and take a more positive view of themselves and their futures.
The men had too many negative examples themselves when they were young. Now the members of Men of Quality visit Jefferson County schools to help develop youths' leadership and social skills, as well as their self-esteem.
The school visits, which started 10 years ago, don't end after one day. The adult volunteers are available to the students around the clock.
The youths, many of whom are being raised in homes without fathers, may look to the men for help during crises or simply for someone to talk about the turmoil of adolescence.
"Growing up in the West End, we had the same challenges that you have now," Kevin Wigginton, a former college football player now with the American Red Cross, told the students. "I have friends who are not around anymore for various reasons. Some are in jail -- or in the grave."
About 300 Jefferson County middle school and high school students are involved in the program, which has 14 chapters in the district. Organizers hopes to expand the program throughout the system and start chapters in other school districts.
Since I had some long time to myself, I decided to change the look and feel of Black Self Help Info website. I was going to try a new theme, plus put the organizations/websites into categories and have each category selectable.
Well, first I decided to do the "easy" thing and update the theme. It turns out I did something wrong and totally messed up the configuration.
Say it after me ladies and gentlemen: backups are a good thing.
Since I had backups of the information, and since I would have had to uninstall the content management system and install reinstall, I decided to try out a new one. So, I did and I like the look of it right now. So, it's now open to the public.
The "new and improved" Black Self Help Info website: http://blackselfhelp.info/postnuke/html/index.php
It's still being adjusted, but I think it's close to being ready.
Human minds serve “fitness” – not “truth”. Since every individual is programmed to pursue personal fitness and lie about intentions, no civilization has ever been able to convince its members to cooperate enough to survive the depletion of the energy resources which gave it birth. When confronted with ever-declining resources, the preservation of civilization requires more-and-more cooperation, but individuals are genetically programmed to reduce cooperation. This genetic program sets up a positive feedback loop: declining common resources cause individuals to reduce cooperation even more, which reduces common resources even faster.
IT’S HUMAN NATURE by Jay Hanson –10/08/05
(permission to reprint expressly granted)
Our behavior derives from genes and environment (lifetime environment, but mostly present environment). Our present genes are the product of earlier genes and earlier environments. We are born with different genetic programming for self, family, and social group (“tribe”). Although few of us are consciously aware of it, we swim in politics like a fish swims in water.
INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION
Men evolved to compete with other men for resources – especially breeding partners. The most-desirable women selected mates who were perceived (genetically and socially) to offer the best opportunities for their children’s survival (“sexual selection”). Those men who were able to accumulate the most social power tended to produce the most children.
Men evolved to form tribes and cooperate with other men (“reciprocal altruism”) in order to obtain more resources than they could as individuals or families. Tribal society provides the rules for competition, but an individual’s goal is always based on a genetic drive for “inclusive fitness”.
TRIBAL COMPETITION
Tribes serve each member’s fitness by competing with other tribes for resources. Tribes form political alliances and cooperate with other tribes in order to obtain more resources than they could as individual tribes. Tribes that fail to individual serve fitness become unstable and subject to fundamental change (e.g., revolution).
When tribal leaders “feel” that fitness is better served by violence, they will attack other tribes and take that tribe’s resources. The tribes with the most resources and largest populations usually win.
DO THE MATH
Why do so few people know or care about “peak oil”? It’s because evolution doesn't conserve “individuals”, it conserves “genes”. What type of behavior will evolve? Do the math!
Assume that two fundamental “genetic sets” (strains of people) exist in a tribe of primitive people. Each group is represented by ten pairs. Further assume that this tribe loses 30% of its population every twenty years due to war, disease, and famine.
Members of gene set #1 are intelligent, honest, and forward looking. The mating pairs in this set only have two children and limit personal consumption because they know the tribe is over carrying capacity (many die of starvation every twenty years). After 20 years, this set has 20 adults + 20 children = 40 members.
Members of gene set #2 are stupid, corrupt, chronic liars, and only care about the present. The mating pairs in this set consume ten times as many resources as the first group and have an average of ten children before the females die. After 20 years, this set has 10 adults (females dead) + 100 children = 110 members.
A famine kills 30% of the tribe. Now, set # 1 has only 28 members, while set # 2 has 77 members. The tribe now has total of 105 members. The fraction of gene set #1 will continue to shrink till it dies out.
What kind of people will be selected? Obviously, it’s people who are stupid, corrupt, chronic liars and only care about the present. The ancestors of everyone alive today was selected by a process something like the one described above.
DOPAMINEIACS
We are all addicted to “dopamine”. Dopamine is a drug produced by our body which makes us “feel good”. We buy things because the “buying” (more than the “owning”) gives us a dopamine rush. That's why we never get enough stuff. It's like an orgasm. No matter how many orgasms we have, we want to have at least one more.
MR. HYDE AND DR. JEKYLL
Deception is common in nature: animals evolved to look like plants, birds pretend injury to lure predators away from nests, and lizards inflate themselves pretending to be more dangerous than they really are, but humans are by far the most accomplished liars in the animal kingdom. Two separate personalities live inside each of us: a Mr. Hyde who makes all the decisions and a Dr. Jekyll who makes all the excuses. Mr. Hyde is only interested in sex, money and power, while Dr. Jekyll is only interested in how Hyde’s decisions look to the neighbors.
Mr. Hyde’s decisions are not based on calculation; they are based on subconscious image comparison, and he will select the choice that “feels best”. About ½ second after Mr. Hyde makes a decision, he invents a socially acceptable excuse for Dr. Jekyll, and then Jekyll tells the neighbors. Unfortunately, Dr. Jekyll has no way of knowing whether Hyde is telling the truth or lying. This makes it literally impossible for anyone to know for certain what Mr. Hyde is up to.
Human minds serve “fitness” – not “truth”. Since every individual is programmed to pursue personal fitness and lie about intentions, no civilization has ever been able to convince its members to cooperate enough to survive the depletion of the energy resources which gave it birth. When confronted with ever-declining resources, the preservation of civilization requires more-and-more cooperation, but individuals are genetically programmed to reduce cooperation. This genetic program sets up a positive feedback loop: declining common resources cause individuals to reduce cooperation even more, which reduces common resources even faster.
LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, RAPE, AND KILL
Tribal society only directs our behavior when we perceive that it is able to reward or punish us. A “collapsed” society has no influence over our behavior. That's why cultures disappear and people revert to more primitive ways of life. Our society has been in the process of collapsing for several years because of falling “net energy”.
Our tribe expands for mutual defense when our genetic drives are satisfied, but it will shrink when our genetic drives are frustrated. We invent excuses to kick minorities out of our tribe when resources are insufficient to support growth for all. Allies can become enemies almost overnight. The collapse of Yugoslavia was a good example of neighbor slaughtering neighbor.
When our subconscious feels our fitness is best served by lying, cheating, stealing, raping, or killing, then we will do so. It’s human nature.
The Red Cross took in about 1.2 billion dollars for Katrina relief. The Red Cross spent about 2 billion dollars for Katrina relief. Now they want a loan to cover the shortfall.
After the Red Cross was caught hoarding money sent in for 9/11 relief, and accusations of mispending money, is it now safe to say the Red Cross is shady for other than handling blood supplies?
Oh, wait... There's still that HIV tainted blood thing...
Begin VC PSA;
How Do Your Energy Suppliers Help You Give Back?
They don't. You're reading this because you want to improve the odds in Black communities. Our energy co-ops help you do just that. blackEnergy co-ops are only available where energy suppliers are fighting for your business. We negotiate energy deals with suppliers in your area who contribute part of your bills to local nonprofits working on K-12 enrichment, HIV/AIDS education, prison services, entrepreneurship training, adoption services, basic literacy, or economic literacy in Black communities. As a member of your co-op, you help decide which organizations get contributions from the co-op. Also, your rates go down as your co-op grows. That's cooperative economics!Enter your zip code below to find a co-op near you, then grab your latest power or gas bill and sign up now. You'll find our current offer for your city, including rates, contract length and other terms. Rest assured you're getting the lowest residential rate offered by our suppliers. When you join your local co-op, we'll send you one email to confirm your enrollment and another when your service begins. You don't have to call your current supplier, and we guarantee you won't lose service during the switch. That's all there is to it. There's absolutely no cost to join, and we'll send a piece of your bill each month to organizations working for Black communities. There's simply no easier way to give back.
End VC PSA
Enclosed is CEO of Black Energy, Dr. Sonja Ebron's prescient and profoundly insightful 2.5 year old article On Why African Americans Should Oppose the War in the Black Commentator. This article is suitable for framing and gifting to republicans formerly known as black. It is particularly apropos for those deeply conflicted few - who mendaciously cheerlead the loony, losing, and incompetent neocon buccaneers in their catastrophic away game defeat at the hands of Iraqi irregulars to the incongruous strains of odd turettish noises about nationalism, morality, philosophy and spirituality.
"... the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," April 4, 1967 at New York City's Riverside Church
"If we don't have boots in the Iraqi desert by spring, we have to wait till winter because of the heat," says conventional wisdom. Don't believe the hype: our soldiers can handle the heat, but gas and oil prices can't stand the cold. Heavy demand makes winter fuel prices the highest of the year, and prices spike when an oil producer like Iraq is attacked. Best to fight in the spring and summer when prices are low. That's just the first lesson in the nexus between oil, money, time and the taking of other people's property by force. As the U.S. government rushes to invade and occupy Iraq, people around the globe ask Why, Why now, and Why so alone?
Look all around you. Plastics, carpets, asphalt, paint, fertilized soil. Look how electrified our lifestyles. All of it based in oil and gas. Transportation systems, the glue of our economy, needed for centralized workplaces and the economic cohesion of our nation, dependent on oil. Agriculture, pharmaceuticals, a host of other industries all critically dependent on oil. Globally, one's personal income is more closely related to the amount of energy one consumes than to any other factor. Oil is the most liquid energy, the form most easily transformed to others. The more oil you use, directly or indirectly, the richer you are. As the richest country on the planet, U.S. oil consumption is more than 20 million barrels a day and rising. We produce less than half those barrels, importing the rest largely from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, Nigeria, and Iraq. Within 20 years, we will import 6.5 barrels out of every 10 we consume.
U.S. oil production peaked in 1971, enabling OPEC's 1973 oil embargo and the deep economic recession that resulted. Jimmy Carter changed our country's policy toward Arab nations in 1980 by designating the supply of cheap oil from southwest Asia (the "Middle East") vital to national security. Our policy in the region quickly evolved to prevent the rise of a hegemonic power, like Iraq was becoming in 1990, able to influence use of the region's oil. The world's oil production will peak this decade, bringing with it a permanent change in oil market control from those who consume to those who produce. This change will occur at a time when our economy is far more dependent on imported oil than it was in the 1970s. With deep roots in the oil industry, the Bush administration rightly seeks to diversify our sources of imported oil. Large oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea (circumscribed by Iran, Russia, and the -stans in central Asia), South America (including Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil), the South China Sea (circumscribed by Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia), and West Africa (primarily Nigeria, Angola and Gabon) are consequently drawing sober U.S. interest.
Black Americans have historic and cultural ties to Africa, as illustrated by our concern with the continent's poverty and HIV/AIDS rates, its terms of international trade, and its continuing struggles against colonialism. Many of us cheered last year when all 53 African states vowed to increase trade and to cross national boundaries as necessary to implement the mandates of a new African Union. Few of us know that Africa produces one-seventh of the oil consumed in the U.S., a figure that will rise to one-quarter over the next decade. Even fewer know that oil discoveries in Africa have outpaced those of every other region for several years. "West Africa's oil has become of national strategic interest to us," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner declared early last year. "African oil should be treated as a priority for U.S. post-September 11th security," added Congressman Edward Royce, chair of the Africa subcommittee in the House of Representatives. Discussions are ongoing at the highest levels of our government to formally designate west Africa a region vital to national security. Those of us with interests in Africa - African Americans, in particular - must understand the implications of this. With the size of Africa's oil exports growing to rival Saudi Arabia's, we must assess our government's war plans against the U.S. need for oil.
Our country is the largest consumer of the world's oil, but our economy is tied to oil in more ways than one. Since the 1940s, oil has been denominated in U.S. dollars only, making our dollar the world's preeminent reserve currency. Nations buy and hold dollars like they buy and hold gold because they can't purchase oil without dollars. With this support for our currency, U.S. foreign debt has grown to $2.8 trillion, or $10,000 owed to foreigners by every man, woman and child in our country. Last year's trade deficit alone was more than $500 billion and shows no sign of slowing. Any other country with our lack of fiscal discipline would see its currency and stock market crash hard. But the dollar's value is essentially backed by oil, which allows our Treasury to simply print money as needed to finance our debt. Since accounting makes no allowance for fiat money, the General Accounting Office has been unwilling to certify our nation's financial statements for several years. We can operate this way only while our dollar is the world's preeminent reserve currency; without dollar preeminence, there is hell to pay.
Enter the real "weapon of mass destruction," the euro. Eleven European countries formed a monetary union around this currency on January 1, 1999; Britain and Norway, the major European oil producers, were conspicuously absent. Due to the strength of European economies, the euro now presents a serious challenge to the dollar in its role as key reserve currency. The rise of the euro also threatens to hobble the British pound's eventual entry into Europe's monetary union. Britain and the U.S. have mutual interests in oil to match their interests in the euro. Of the five largest oil companies in the world, two (ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco) are U.S.-based, two (Royal Dutch/Shell and BP) are based in Britain, and one (TotalFinaElf) is French. U.S. and British oil companies are all but banned from exploration in Iraq, while French, Russian and Chinese companies have contracts waiting for the lifting of sanctions. France and Germany, the largest economies in the Euro-zone, can diminish U.S. credibility and keep the euro on track to become the key reserve currency by preventing war with Iraq.
Under U.S. and British military attack for the last decade, Iraq has had its exports restricted to oil through a United Nations oil-for-food program that deducts war reparations from the receipts. Iraq has used smugglers to trade its oil for goods and services, minimizing official oil sales as a way to influence prices and punish its attackers. Labeling the dollar "the currency of an enemy state," Iraq switched its oil denomination to the euro in late 2000, risking the loss of $270 million to the dollar's strength at that time vis-à-vis the euro. But the dollar lost 15% of its value against the euro last year. Iraq's move to the euro - and Iran's expected move - are placing tremendous pressure on OPEC countries and other oil producers to drop our dollar as the main transaction currency for oil. With a looming global peak in production, consuming nations must switch currencies when oil-producing states do so. For instance, Jordan began using euros to buy oil as soon as its major supplier, Iraq, began using them to sell, and North Korea switched to the euro late last year to protest the U.S.' halt in fuel aid. Given the highly leveraged and fragile state of our economy, an OPEC switch from the dollar to the euro would bring a quick and devastating dollar and Wall Street crash that would make 1929 look like a $50 casino bet. Iraq's currency action adds urgency to the coming oil price and supply crisis, so our leaders have moved to control both the flow and the currency denomination of oil.
The U.S. strategy to destroy OPEC is twofold: pressure non-OPEC producers to flood the oil market and retain denomination in dollars in an effort to weaken OPEC's market control, and change the leadership of any country switching oil denomination from the dollar to the euro (hence, the "axis of evil"). The strategy requires that the U.S. military assert our interests in oil and gas deposits worldwide. U.S. interests in the Caspian Sea have been secured through regime change in Afghanistan and a deal for a new pipeline through that country. U.S. interests in South America, despite the failure of the coup in Venezuela (an OPEC member), are being secured via military aid to neighboring Colombia. U.S. interests in southwest Asia are being secured through the planned invasion of Iraq, then Iran (both OPEC members) if it switches oil denomination. U.S. interests in the South China Sea are being secured through military deployments in the Philippines and off the Korean coast (near OPEC member Indonesia). But what of West Africa?
While most African countries import oil from outside the continent, Africa is a net oil exporter. That's because nearly all African oil is produced for export to Europe and North America. The vast majority of foreign direct investment in Africa is in the energy sector. In the largest project to date, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco have invested $3 billion in a pipeline project to bring Chad's oil through Cameroon to the west African coast for export; the oil could flow by the end of this year. Yet the primary goal of the African Union is economic, political and military integration. In a nod to the continent's internal needs, ChevronTexaco is building a gas pipeline from Nigeria to ports in Ghana, Benin and Togo. Until OPEC lowered production quotas last year, Nigeria was selling large blocks of oil to South Africa and Kenya. As the African Union succeeds in integrating the continent's economies, Africa's oil exports will be turned increasingly to internal use. Does U.S. policy in Africa mirror our policy in the Persian Gulf, a policy designed to prevent the rise of a hegemonic power with influence on the use and denomination of the region's oil?
Sao Tome and Principe, an island nation 150 miles off the West African coast (triangulating Nigeria and Angola), agreed last year to host a U.S. naval base in exchange for protection of oil in its territorial waters. Nigeria has claimed exclusive licensing rights to an oil block in these waters for many years. The U.S. base could also be used to protect Cameroon's claims to Bakassi, the oil-rich island off its coast long claimed by Nigeria. A new deployment of U.S. Special Forces to Djibouti, a tiny country bordering Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, could likewise check national autonomy in the Horn of Africa. This troop deployment, designed to catch terrorists in east Africa, adds to the 3,000 French and German troops already present in the area. Our State Department has openly threatened Zimbabwe as that country puts its land back into Black hands. Like accusations levied against Somali "warlords" a decade ago, President Mugabe is charged with exacerbating Zimbabwe's famine by distributing food aid only to government supporters. Our country has numerous opportunities - and perhaps an incentive - to violate African sovereignty. The upshot is that African Americans could soon experience repression of the sort felt lately by our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters.
What are we to do? Recognize that Black well being in the U.S. and around the world will be adversely impacted by our government's war for oil. Recognize that an oil war, by increasing the costs of energy, threatens oil-importing developing economies everywhere, especially those in Africa and South America, as well as Black America's. Recognize that the war to control the world's oil is in the late planning stages but is early in its implementation and can be stopped. Recognize that Martin was killed because of the moral authority he brought to the Vietnam anti-war movement, drawn from his use of the "race card," and that the African American community retains that authority. Recognize that our ability to drive domestic response to an immoral foreign policy is what keeps the warmongers up at night. Recognize that thoughtful Black people, from Nelson Mandela to your next-door neighbor, are against this war for two reasons: because it is against Black interests - in the U.S., in central and South America, in Africa - and because it is so very terribly wrong. Talk to your friends and family about your opposition to the war. Stick an anti-war poster in your yard and a bumper sticker on your car. Join or help organize a local or national protest. Call, write, email and visit your congressional representatives. Take a few "sick days" from work, and don't buy anything you don't absolutely need. Get behind the anti-war movement now, before it's too late.
We must also work on root causes with those in other communities. It may already be too late for a smooth transition from oil dependence to sustainable energy use, but we must begin now. If we are sensible, we'll invest in solar and wind technologies, human-powered and public transportation (bikes and buses), public agriculture, and other requirements of sustainable communities. We must get our economic house in order and rebuild our manufacturing base. "Made in the USA" means we'll have more jobs, even though they may be difficult and may not pay very well. Our lifestyles will change dramatically. Our standards of living will decrease, but the quality of our lives will improve. We'll be forced to depend more on each other, to communicate more with each other, to build stronger families and communities. And just maybe we won't have to kill people to maintain our economy. We can only suspect that, had the people's will prevailed in 2000, our president-in-exile would have begun this transition.
On September 20, 2001, President Bush declared, "The war will be fought not just by soldiers, but by police and intelligence forces, as well as in financial institutions." Hmmm. War is not the answer. It's a shortsighted desperation play that is doomed to failure. Our military forces may take but cannot hold Iraq's oil, as they have failed to tame Afghanistan's land. Far from staving off disaster, our arrogance may instead compel OPEC to "go euro" en masse, taking many oil-consuming nations with them by force of economics. And a trade war with Europe will lend the coup de grace to our economy. In the meantime, many people will be hurt and killed, research and development on fuel efficiency and renewable energy will be slowed, the necessary policy and tax initiatives on energy consumption will be delayed, and our country will be far worse off when intelligent leadership finally prevails.
Sonja Ebron is the chief executive of blackEnergy, the place to practice Black cooperative economics. blackEnergy brings the benefits of deregulated energy to Black communities everywhere.
Do you and yours have the wherewithal to respond effectively in the event of a natural or man-made disaster?
Do you and yours have the wherewithal to systematically and progressively alter the extent of your dependance on proven unreliable infrastructures?
Do you and yours the weirdos you know who actually trouble themselves to consider what Iraq, Katrina, and Rita signify in terms of reduced net energy and its consequences belong to a community with the adaptive mechanisms necessary to cope with what's in store?
Talk among yourselves..., after making your lists and checking them twice - you will find it necessary to organize a local community systems group. Be sure to be inclusive. It is imperative that you think and act outside your ritual habitual comfort zone.
Kunstler keeps it severely real...,
There are two things that the newspapers and TV Cable News outfits are not covering very well. One is that the Port of New Orleans is not functioning, with poor prospects for a quick recovery, and with it will go much of the Midwestern grain harvest. Another thing that has fallen off the radar screen is the damage done to the oil and gas infrastructure around the Gulf Coast, especially the onshore facilities for storing and transporting stuff, and for marshaling the crews and equipment to fix stuff. The US is going to run short of its customary supplies for a long time. The idea that these things will not affect an economy of ceaseless mobility is not realistic.
Take a good look at America around you now, because when we emerge from the winter of 2005 - 6, we're going to be another country. The reality-oblivious nation of mall hounds, bargain shoppers, happy motorists, Nascar fans, Red State war hawks, and born-again Krispy Kremers is headed into a werewolf-like transformation that will reveal to all the tragic monster we have become.
What we will leave behind is the certainty that we have made the right choices. Was it a good thing to buy a 3,600 square foot house 32 miles outside Minneapolis with an interest-only adjustable rate mortgage -- with natural gas for home heating running at $12 a unit and gasoline over $3 a gallon? Was it the right choice to run three credit cards up to their $5000 limit? Was I chump to think my pension from Acme Airlines would really be there for me? Do I really owe the Middletown Hospital $17,678 for a gall bladder operation that took forty-five minutes? And why did they charge me $238 for a plastic catheter?
All kinds of assumptions about the okay-ness of our recent collective behavior are headed out the window. This naturally beats a straight path to politics, since that is the theater in which our collective choices are dramatized. It really won't take another jolting event like a major hurricane or a terror incident or an H4N5 flu outbreak to take things over the edge -- though it is very likely that something else will happen. George W. Bush, and the party he represents, are headed into full Hooverization mode. After Katrina, nobody will take claims of governmental competence seriously.
The new assumption will be that when shit happens you are on your own. In this remarkable three weeks since New Orleans was shredded, no Democrat has stepped into the vacuum of leadership, either, with a different vision of what we might do now, and who we might become. This is the kind of medium that political maniacs spawn in. Something is out there right now, feeding on the astonishment and grievance of a whipsawed middle class, and it will have a lot more nourishment in the months ahead.
There are two things that the newspapers and TV Cable News outfits are not covering very well. One is that the Port of New Orleans is not functioning, with poor prospects for a quick recovery, and with it will go much of the Midwestern grain harvest. Another thing that has fallen off the radar screen is the damage done to the oil and gas infrastructure around the Gulf Coast, especially the onshore facilities for storing and transporting stuff, and for marshaling the crews and equipment to fix stuff. The US is going to run short of its customary supplies for a long time. The idea that these things will not affect an economy of ceaseless mobility is not realistic.
These serious problems on-the-ground are going to affect the more ephemeral elements floating around in the financial ether: the value of the dollar, the hazard in hedge funds, the credibility of institutions. By October, the hurricane season will be ending and the stock market crash season will be underway. It is hard to imagine that companies like WalMart really believe they will keep their profits up when their customers are paying twice as much as they did a year ago to heat their houses and fill their gas tanks.
Meanwhile, does anybody remember a place called Iraq? A bomb that killed thirty people was reported on page 12 of the Sunday New York Times. That's how important Iraq has become. But, I guess, a nation can hardly pay attention to a bullet in the foot when it has a sucking chest wound.
Invisibility Kills
The infrastructural consequences of Katrina were understood well ahead of time. Municipal emergency response procedures document this fact. Unfunded 2004-2005 New Orleans Corps of Engineers plans for the levees document this fact. Homeland security plans and drills document this fact. Why even a recent made for television mockumentary documents the consequences of a category 4 or 5 hurricane strike on the Gulf Coast to our energy economy. What took America by surprise were the unintended social consequences of a wholly predictable disaster intersecting a previously ignored and effectively invisible populace.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
30% of New Orleans residents were living without transportation and 40% were living below the poverty line. Did the city of New Orleans or any of its millions of visitors not notice this fact? Can any level of American governance - municipal, state, or federal, or, any level of social organization - racial, political, religious, and familial - plausibly deny that long time before Katrina ravaged the Gulf Cost, within our midst, we have a large and growing population of American refugees? Katrina forced us - along with the rest of the world - to abruptly come to grips with the shamefully ignored reality of the American refugee.
Media Coverage
Recriminations are flying fast and furious about biased media coverage of the natural and human consequences of Katrina. I say nonsense. This is standard American media coverage. Racial stigmatization, careful news selection and omission, distortion of complex and multifaceted situations - are all established media best practices. We have been inundated for so long by the hard rain of biased media representation that these standards are imprinted on our collective unconscious. The media has taught us what and how to think and feel. Having grown accustomed to doing the better part of relating to people via media's representations - the shock to our system comes from the sudden visibility conferred to previously invisible American refugees
For weeks now we'll be busy trying to process and reconcile this "new reality". We're already well along with the process of picking sides, laying blame, and drawing conclusions consistent with our preferred belief about how the world works. One such hardening perspective from a young black man really caught my attention;
While good God-fearing Black people were stuck on their rooftops, the rescue crew could not get to them because elsewhere in the city, dumb and lawless Black folk were preventing them from getting help because resources had to be diverted to bring the looters to heel.
The Blacklash. This could potentially set race-relations back 150 years or so. Rape, lawlessness, violence, disease, suicides, and general stupidity. White people across the country are turning on the TV and saying, "Typical nigger shit."
The Economic lessons learned. This is why more Black people should have saving accounts, with money in them. The only thing I would have looted is my savings account.
Black Social Economy or Am I My Brother's Keeper
These remarks underscore the impoverished state of a once wealthy people. This young brother literally cannot see he's talking about poor relatives that nobody's willing to claim. Katrina is only the first of still bigger storms coming our way. If we are to minimize additional unintended consequences, it is imperative that we begin doing everything in our power to recover and accumulate the social capital we've squandered over the past 30 years. Not only is this a goal easily within our reach, it is an effort that nobody else can undertake on our behalf.
If a drop of rain falls here in the heartland, my mother-in-law will call from Connecticut to ask if we're getting wet. Though dispersed from New England down to the Panhandle and out west as far as New Mexico, my wife's family stays in remarkably close touch with one another. If a blip appears in a family member's forecast, mothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and aunts light up the phones. As you can imagine, the lines were on fire for a few days and didn't cool off until after Katrina bypassed the Florida panhandle.
In her family, out of sight is not allowed to degenerate to out of mind. As much as some individuals have struggled to become refugees, no invisibility is allowed. As an only child raised by older parents, whose ties with their own extended families succumbed to geography, apathy, and death - I deeply appreciate the immense social wealth I've married into. Though my parents weren't adept on the extended family front, they understood the imperative of social capital. Substituting business, neighborhood, church, and identity bonds for blood bonds - they managed to form and maintain a powerful "savings" portfolio. Call me sentimental, but I believe the brother and sister salutations from back in my day were valuable coin. The central lesson of Katrina, if we're wise enough to take it, is that decent people don't deny the many invisible refugees in our midst.
As we all tortiously and systematically apportion blame for the massive societal failings made evident in the wake of hurricane Katrina, let's please not forget the hemorraghing of black social capital over the past 40 years resulting in the usually invisible status of the American Refugee's whom we've Left Behind.
I reminisce for a spell or shall I say think back...
Sometimes when events like this hit like a ton of bricks, I find comfort in this hip-hop classic from Pete Rock and CL Smooth.
"I strive to be live 'cause I got no choice....and run my own business like my aunt Joyce."
Life will go on and let's do what we can to improve the quality of that continuum. One love peoples.
Black help with Katrina:
[Update]
So, if anyone cares, tell Jesse Lee Peterson about these activities. See if that race hustler will accept the facts presented or will he continue to say Blacks aren't doing anything.
For Baldilocks.
[Update]
...
Operation SOS needs volunteers, and cash, ASAP! Until an online merchant account is set up, you can send your donation t New Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Hurricane Relief Fund PO Box 714 Greenwood MS 38935. For more information, contact Bishop Milton Glass at 662-458-2918.
...
Southwest Community Church in Houston Texas is set to establish evacuation centers. They need donations ... money, doctors, nurses, volunteers, antibiotics, toiletries, heart medication, diabetes medication. Send donations to Pastor Greg Patrick, Southwest Community Baptist Church, Hurricane Fund, 14880 Bellaire Blvd. Houston TX 77083. Phone 281-983-5683.
DR Ed Montgomery, of the Abundant Life Cathedral of Houston Texas also needs help. Cash donations are needed. He is also coordinating evacuation centers in Houston as well via the Gospel Community Hurricane Relief Effort. Call 281-893-8200, www.abundantlifecathedral.org or Edna & Bruce Sims at 310-827-9727 or email: esppr@aol.com.
For additional info contact Blackmon Entertainment Media: 818-349-0364 or email: gospelinsider@aol.com
[Update]
This is an email I received from someone who lived through the disaster of Katrina.
I was going to post only a part of the email, but after I read it again, I decided to post the entire email.
Jesse means what he says he believes and shows it. Xavier University students were rescued by Operation Rainbow. They had run out of food and water. Xavier is about 12 blocks from our house. THe area floods ona regular rainy day. Add to that, Bayou St. John is merely six blocks away and so is City Park (our 1000 acre park) that can be renamed City lake.
I have not cried yet. None of us have. I am joyful for the best of humanity that have reached to to my family and many. many other families from the city. I deeply appreciate prayers, good thoughts and more materials things such as money, clothes, showering and food that people are doing for survivors like us. I don't know if you realize how real our gratitude is. Even if you left the Friday before the hurricane the majority did not take enough stuff tro tide them over for tyhhis extended period. By the time we had agreed to leave, I packed my mother and myself in about two minutes with the intent to be gone away from home for 3 days at the most. We were entirely prepared for structural damage, roof, siding, windows, feld trees...but we aboslutely never expected that the canals would breeech the levees. We never expected the 17th Street canal to be damaged. That is the canal that cause the extensive damage to the city. The Lower 9th Ward or the Industrial canal levees cau! sed major flooding in a old working neighborhood that has only three bridges that allow you to exit the area. That flooding wiped out the entire 9th ward and the west side of St. Bernard Parish. The Lake and Gulf hit St. Bernard's eastside. That people survived is a true miracle.
Now, you might understand most true urban black New Orleanians aversion living near water and owning ranch styled homes. Flooding is always on our minds. This time we simply "did not believe all of these things would happen at one time.
I was glad that Jesse Jackson was there. I was glad that he said what he did. It made me proud of him. I haven't felt proud of him for a long time.
Finally, most black men stood up. My nephew was our family leader and he successfully got us to his cousin's house. It was agreat feeling to have a young black man do his thing. He decided we would leave and he choose the route and we made it well ahead of the storm to Jackson. There were more black men like him who did whatthey had to to help people other than themselves get to safety or get help. It was to me better than the Million Man March to see them taking charge. My hat is off to you black men regardless as to whether you were in such a situation but by example I know that each of you would do the very same given the circumstances.
Rev. Jackson to help evacuate New Orleans
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived in Louisiana Thursday to help people evacuate the storm-ravaged New Orleans and to see the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought on the city.
Jackson headed into New Orleans with state Sen. Cleo Fields and three buses to move 450 students from Xavier University to safer locations outside the city and then make repeated roundtrips to help others escape.
----
Previously on the 'net, I've written that Jesse Jackson let Clinton punk him. I've also written that Jesse Jackson uses Black support of Democrats more for his benefit than anyone else's benefit.
But right is right. I've heard from someone who lived in NOLA that Jackson followed through on this. OK, since this is the case, I have to say good job.
Luke 10 25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
Hasn't Katrina revealed the answer to this question for each of us according to the level of our understanding?
In a nutshell;
While stating that she “didn't have a personal relationship” with Johnson, Oprah told Martin of several stories the highlight her regard for the visionary publisher.
Complete gossipy coverage of the snub but the bolded words above tell the entire story as far as I'm concerned about a catastrophic failure of leadership and commonality of interests.., how could the two most powerful black folks in MSM - both operating out of Chicago -NOT have a close professional relationship at the very least?
thinking about the pink slip issued to Julian Bond by Ted Hayes on an episode of America's Black Forum in May..,
My 6 year old son starts first grade this week. He lost his first baby tooth this summer, swam like a fish just about every day, {the only little kid by a two-year margin with a green wristband and free run of the pool including the deep end and the diving boards} and for the first time in his life, he finally got free run of the neighborhood in the company of a pair of little wild boys, one 7, one only 5, and both seriously latchkey independant. In retrospect, my son achieved the milestone of emancipation from full-time parental vigilance. For my part, I found the resolve to trust the modulus of boy-in-world so that he could begin the process of becoming strong as he must on his own. It is with a mixture of pride and regret that I watch this summer draw to a close, regret at seeing my little boy morph into a mayne-mannish boy, and pride in his often surprising displays of autonomous control over aspects of his world.
One of my neighbors invited my son and I to join he and his two sons on a little camping and fishing excursion this weekend that turned into a much bigger than expected adventure - of the very best possible sort - the kind that teaches life lessons. Friday, we packed up our gear and made a little junket out into the southeastern quarter of kansas and into Leavenworth county. {yeah, home to Ft. Leavenworth, and the U.S. Penitentiary} Turning off 7{73} and onto a country road, we go several miles and into a completely different world, a black farming community with roots stretching back nearly to exodusters and going forward as far as we personally are able to do something to help make it so.
Understand, much of this world is lost, and was lost a long time ago. However, there remain sizeable pockets of black agricultural community which must not fade out of existence - and which I believe - will determine our future collective strength and viability as a people. Holding onto what little remains of our control of the land - and growing that into something new and completely different - is the only sure way for black folks to ensure control over our cultural and political future. Unlike this summer's right of passage for my son - which I regretfully know will never pass this way again - the political right of passage that black folks went through a long time ago, is a right of passage to which we must return with a Work-man-like seriousness.
Singleton's Colony The first of several colonies to be established under the leadership of "Pap" Singleton. Settled in 1874, this successful colony had an initial population of 300 people and was located on 1000 acres near Baxter Springs in Cherokee County. By 1878, the settlement included adequate housing [cabins], livestock and fruit trees to sustain the community. In 1881, the Agricultural and Industrial Institute for the Refugees was founded on 400 acres of land near Columbus and continued to operate until 1885, when it closed due to a lack of funds. Singleton challenged the need for highly educated "political Negroes" stating, "it was the muscle of the arm, the men that Worked, that we wanted."
So friday night, we went fishing, set up camp, and then got rained out of our tents and back into the farmhouse. No, we didn't go soft on the great outdoors, there was actual flash flooding and the boys decided by unanimous decree that they didn't want to be THAT intimate with any more prairie big sky weather. Yesterday morning, my neighbor's mother - came over and prepared a serious farm breakfast - which should've been my clue that we were about to put in some serious work. You see, we'd planned on going to collect some eggs, feed some hogs, and then go do a little more fishing that morning. Well, it didn't quite turn out like that.
Instead, we got to experience a walking the creek adventure.
So we drive out to a dilapidated farmhouse with a sizeable hog pen and wallow - and then we boot and bugspray up and head off across the cow pasture. About a half-mile out from the farmhouse, we hit on the creek that runs through and part-way round a very large collection of family-owned farmsteads. Now the brother who's taken us out on this adventure, is an attorney in Kansas City. He hadn't planned on this either, but the flash-flooding necessitated it. Instead of the light county-fair duty we'd planned on for the boys that morning, we were going to have to walk the creek to check on the condition of several patches of barbed-wire fencing that serves to keep their cows on their property.
"fine rolling prairie, plenty of stone and water and coal within twenty-five miles."
You absolutely have to see it, to believe it. On his grandfather's property alone, homeboy's grandfather and his grandfathers 6 brothers were all homesteaders, we passed through two former rock quarries. The limestone, shale, and other sedimentary rock formations in some points jut up to a height of nearly 30 feet from the creek bed, studded with fossils and green with moss in areas - most of the creek walk consisted in negotiating muddy water interspersed with broken rock and quickmud {think quicksand but with mud} and trees and tall foliage that looks a lot like temperate jungle. You pretty much have to keep a switch swinging in front of you in the forested and flora'd areas, or just try your luck with the big orb webs you go through every 30 seconds or so, and while most of the spiders are small even though their webs are quite large, occassionally you run into some nightmarishly successful {big fat hairy frikkin} individuals - with whom you really don't want to tangle.
Now remember, you're not just out there for the sheer adventure of the thing, you've actually gotta take note of all the broken spots on the fencing and fix all of those you can fix. There are cow patties and cowbones and other relics indicative of the extent to which the cows will get down in that creek bed and do their cow thing, including getting under broken barbed-wire fencing. In the course of our walk, we came across one forelorn gray calf knocking on deaths door, it had been flyblinded {fly's can do a lot of damage to young cattle} and not eating and was effectively lost from the rest of the herd.
We had walkie talkies {which were all but useless unfortunately} Since there were three 650 acre farms (640 acres is a square mile) through which the creek traversed, and it took us ~ five hours to traverse the creek and then make a diagonal overhill and cowpasture back - I believe we wound up walking about 6-7 miles. If it takes you 3+ hours to walk about 3 miles, go figure, those are some hard, hard miles.
it was the muscle of the arm, the men that Worked, that we wanted.
I'm not going to bore you with a more detailed walk travelogue other than to say that neither my son or I have ever been as dirty and as tired as we were when we finally finished that walk. It is to his great credit that he made it. As the smallest, with the shortest legs and no prior experience with a challenging haul, he made it through in great good spirits and with a determination to do it again, as soon as possible, only next time with different footwear. {forget about the boots, just wear sneakers and pants that you don't give a damn about} As for myself, I managed to hang onto my keys, wallet, and other necessities and only experienced one drenching mudbutt fall. [those are the breaks when you're making sure your child is able to get across spots you yourself are uncertain of being able to traverse]
We're committed to going out again sometime in the next couple weeks. I suspect we passed the test of earnestness - and maybe next time we'll actually get to do a little more restful sport fishing and county fair type chores. That all depends on the weather and necessity of course. The good thing is that my 6 year old has decided that he loves the country, fears nothing in it, and wants to master every aspect of it. For my own purposes, our host was in complete agreement with me about the urgency of making every effort to keep control of the land, transfer knowledge across generations - so that those remaining black master farmers - who've managed to keep the farms and to maintain black farming communities can pass on their skills and expertise.
It was even apparent how black digerati might be useful
I feel very blessed to be situated in the right place to identify and have a relationship with all the players - even more blessed to have been moved by the spirit to even attempt to do so. It was purely by grace that this came to pass. I had no idea of my neighbor and friend's connection to the black farming community, we had never talked about anything like that, instead talking about the kids, and 9-5 type stuff.
Now, based on this little adventure, and some our discussion over the weekend, Work is going to proceed on a whole different level. I can see clear and tangible ways in which we can DO some things across an expanse of interpersonal blackness that have never previously been attempted. I see a rural-urban interpolation in which worlds practically separate for the time being, but spatially and culturally proximate - can be brought together for mutual benefit and flourishment.
I'm really looking forward to more boys in the hood having a regular creek walking experience of their own....,
How interesting that another August 17 should pass on our collective calendars with nary a mention of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, born on this day in the province of St. Ann, Jamaica in the year 1887.
I would like to invite you all to share thoughts, feelings, etc. regarding Garvey and his legacy - especially as it relates to the legacy of Booker T. Washington and Cruse's reflections in Crisis.
I look forward to hearing from you all and I hope to provide some interesting links in the coming weeks.
History:
Malika Saada Saar (our Executive Director), founded the Rebecca Project for Human Rights in 2001 while she was a student at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. The Rebecca Project for Human Rights is a national legal and advocacy organization for families struggling with the intersecting issues of economic marginality, substance abuse, access to family-based treatment, and the criminal justice system.
Our Method:
The Rebecca Project roots itself in the lived experiences of parents, who are mostly single mothers in recovery, and works to create openings and forums for their agency, voice, and leadership on the national level regarding policies that affect the lives of families battling with substance abuse. Through Rebecca Project's two civic action and leadership development programs, "Crossing the River" and "Sacred Authority," we frame the condition of parents denied access to treatment and the plight of substance abusing parents incarcerated for their addiction as human rights violations. The Rebecca Project unearths, documents and challenges those human rights violations that deny mothers the opportunity to raise their children, and indeed to raise their children with dignity.
Our Vision
Our vision is to create a community of civic-minded national leaders by educating, organizing and training low-income parents recovering from substance abuse. In turn, those parents advocate on behalf of their families and communities for sensible substance abuse treatment and social-welfare policies.
I don't have the answer to this question, but think it is one worth posing. A decent place to start on co-ops.
One love peoples.
Simply, Blackness is not a singular way of being, but it is a way of being because it is a metaphor for identity; and identity is lived (dynamically, and in relationship to other identities) - and not a literal expression of culture. We should really move beyond these discussions of whether or not blackness or "authentic blackness" or "blacker than thou blackness" is monolithic or even subject to the dictates of any one of us. We arrived from a multiplicity of places...we arrived speaking a multiplicity of languages and embracing a multiplicity of beliefs.
For me, the primary legacy of slavery was that Africans lost the power to provide security. In the absence of security, we have been unable to stabilize our institutions, build wealth or reinforce culture through indigenous ownership of media (newspapers, television, film, radio, etc.). Hence, there is not a single industry that is dominated by blacks, nor are there sufficient wealthy individuals to begin to institutionalize the cultural practices espoused by the likes of Cosby. Wealthy folks like Cosby do not provide enough jobs to black folks to modify behavior in the manner of a Henry Ford or a John D. (pimpin' hoes like John Dewey).
In the absence of internal coercion or external pressures (read pre-1965 Jim Crow stuff), folks splinter and seek individual benefit or go for self, as it were. Those actions and the resulting diversity are not necessarily expressions of blackness, but I believe those are VALID expressions of ways of being black - precisely because being black is about context - identity is about context. The question of authenticity or validity or right or wrong seems misplaced - because what are we to do? It seems the choices are to become a self-conscious agent in your life or to proceed along a continuum of pre-selected options that may or may not serve you, that may or may not connect you to other black folks, that may or may not connect you to white folks, that may or may not compel you to live abroad, etc. That is the life we all lead - some choose a Cartesian approach to life that puts it all in play as a question...that is atypical - regardless of "racial identity." And so, this self-selected group of blog heads appears to have found one another through a somewhat Cartesian approach.
I read through the NR piece about a thing to be vs. a way of being and I can't get there. I understand the concept...but blackness is about the multiplicity of ways of being...and besides, I believe you are what you say you are. If you say you're black, then you are - regardless of "how you act" because we've got it all in the collective...and if you say you aren't, then you aren't regardless of your actions and your phenotype...because if you don't vibe with someone, that is the end of the ballgame...if you do vibe, then it's all good. I don't vibe with Sowell and negro apologists because I think they're hired guns with small brains, but I like my man Stanley Crouch - not word for word, but I don't like my daddy word for word - and I don't have to.
I would define blackness as the manner in which people create(present-future), use(past-present-future), and reinforce(past-present) or reject(past-present-future) shared elements of a collective identity, embraced in whole or in part by members of the African diaspora and continent. This manner of creating, using, reinforcing and rejecting is a way of being that is manifest in millions of different ways - but there are many appreciable "singularities."
A final share: I went upstairs in my office building to grab a bite to eat. I starting talking to one of the brothers working in the cafeteria and the conversation got around to Magic Shave. He starts talking about how his father kept a butter knife in the bathroom - and of course, I knew what he was talking about because my father keeps a butter knife in the bathroom, as do I. This is one item of shared identity between black men that would never be a topic of shared conversation across "racial" groups. It is unique - but obviously not all black men shave their heads...not all black men have a runway atop the dome...that does not marginalize my experience or make it any less real - just as my cousins proficiency in physics, calculus and writing should not marginalize him - it will only do so to the extent that he becomes less than the man he is supposed to become. Academic excellence did not push Paul Robeson to the margins. It didn't push me to the margins.
Blackness is a metaphor for our shared cultural identity - some elements we share to a greater or lesser degree. To the extent that one does not identify with any collective of black folks on any cultural level (ie. doesn't like black men or women as partners in romantic or social relationships; prefers white performers in music, dance, art and theatre; filters phenomena through various white lens, etc.) what is the point in claiming blackness...it becomes an intellectual exercise - an affirmation of phenotypic resemblance - but it has no value...That is an extreme example, but the point, simply is that few people live at the extremes of any opposition.
Life has never been about "a thing" - it's always been about "humans being" more or less humane to one another and their "surroundings."
Based on a model developed by the East Harlem Employment Service, STRIVE Baltimore is an intensive job readiness and placement service. The three-week training blends self-examination, critical thinking, relationship building, affirmation, learning and teaching with practical skill development and two-year post-graduation monitoring. Since the program began, 75 percent of STRIVE Baltimore participants have graduated, and 79 percent of graduates have maintained employment. Through STRIVE Baltimore, more than 300 clients have found jobs with area companies.
STRIVE is the name of thirteen community based organizations in New York City that employ STRIVE's attitudinal training methods and job placement and retention components. Together they comprise the STRIVE Employment Group (SEG). STRIVE Baltimore also includes national centers in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia, each of which are independent, non-profit organizations. Together, STRIVE centers annually secure employment in the public and private sectors for over 3,000 people.
THE MISSION OF THE ALGEBRA PROJECT
The Algebra Project is a national mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low income
students and students of color--particularly African American and Latino/a students--successfully
achieve mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence
in high school full citizenship in today's technological society.
Founded by Civil Rights activist and Math Educator Robert P. Moses in the 1980's, the
Algebra Project has developed curricular materials, trained teachers & trainers of teachers,
provided ongoing professional development support, and community involvement activities
to schools seeking to achieve a systemic change in mathematics education.
The AP reaches approximately 10,000 students and approximately 300 teachers
per year in 10 states and in 28 local sites, with a particular focus on the Southern U.S.,
where the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project is directed by David J. Dennis, Sr. ,
and on the Young Peoples' Project (YPP), which recruits, trains and deploys
high school and college age "Math Literacy Workers" to work with their younger peers in a variety
of math learning opportunities and engage "the demand side" of mathematics education reform.
The Young People's Project is directed by Omowale Moses.
Increased AP student performance in mathematics, as well as greater numbers of AP students
enrolling in college preparatory mathematics classes, is a well documented outcome of the
project's work. Please contact Ben Moynihan at The Algebra Project Inc. for Evaluation Report data.
For more organizations, see Black Self Help Information.
I'm guessing that the MMM of 2005 will not look like a march. In fact, I would imagine that the format would have to change to move away from speeches - and should take on the character of a "loosely organized" opportunity for brain-storming and action planning.
Instead of standing for eight to ten hours and listen to the usual cast of unaccountable characters, the day might allow for genuine action planning, networking and follow through. I am envisioning CIRCLES of five to nine brothers and sisters (from all over the world) speaking proactively about SOLUTIONS to two or three issues identified throughout the day - and then convening in the afternoon in larger groups - organized regionally or locally to facilitate plan implementation...table for fundraising...table for technology capacity...table for audit/fiscal management...table for PR...table for this&that,etc.
I stumbled onto World Changing last week and quickly added it to the list. I think Dorsey's blog might have been the first step that led me to it. Anyway I remember talking to George Kelley a long time ago about an idea of a blog dedicated to workable outside the box Afrofuturist solutions to global problems in general, and black problems specifically.
I heard about The Index Awards through World Changing. Whether you are a diehard socialist or a hardcore capitalist, one has to be impressed with any effort to make automotive plants green.
Lebron James recently fired his agent Aaron Goodwin. What's made news though is Goodwin's replacement--James' childhood friend. While some of my people are tripping--some of the same ones that worried about him getting a Hummer before his deal was cut--there are other opinions out there. Me?
I created a new category here entitled "Cooperative Vision." And I think James' decision (and James isn't the first to employ this tactic successfully) fits here. The value of group cooperation, group initiative, and group loyalty can never be overstated. We've got to start using the social capital we accumulated to build institutions of value. Bron, the boy-king, may be a worthwhile model to emulate.