My man Marcus Brown spits fire in his own right. Outside his own spoken word exposition, he puts in Work with creative and conscious folks nationwide. In Kansas City, he's known for exemplifying and making a way for young people to express themselves. It's in that context under the umbrella of the Dubois Learning Center that I've had the pleasure of making his acquaintence. Marcus put together a tight 12 minute podcast that beautifully demonstrates the power we can tap when we help our children BE THE MEDIA (BTM). This is the type of audio that will become a staple of the Frontline Media Network, a podcast Internet Radio show that will soon begin regular production at the Dubois Learning Center. I think this is one you'll really enjoy! Here's the audio file.
This week's Vision Circle Podcast features an interview with our own Craig Nulan. Check it.
The quantum aether was listening and responded in its own sublimely subliminal way. Just now kicking the dopamine can with Cobb about Roberts and the issue I believe his nomination underscores - when what should waft into my inbox but this sweet little tidbit from the Black Commentator.
Mass Incarceration and the Black Elite
Text of the audio inside;
When Black Commentator Associate Editor Bruce Dixon wrote his recent Cover Story, “The Ten Worst Places to be Black,” some people in Wisconsin and Iowa got very upset. In terms of the disparity in the rates of incarceration between Blacks and whites, Wisconsin and Iowa were number one and number two. Number three was the prison hell called Texas, but Wisconsin and Iowa’s racial imprisonment disparity was more than twice as large as even Texas. Therefore, Wisconsin and Iowa were placed at the top of our Ten Worst Places to be Black. Milwaukee seems to tattoo prison numbers on Black baby boys, at birth.
Dixon also pointed out that Milwaukee has the highest child poverty rate of any big city in the country. There is, of course, a connection. It’s very difficult to build two-parent families when such huge numbers of would-be marriage partners are in prison. The effects cascade throughout Black society, destroying the very fabric of African American life.
However, there is an historical current in Black politics that is more embarrassed than outraged at mass Black incarceration. Thus, we witnessed a long NAACP boycott of the state of South Carolina, because it refused to remove the confederate flag from the Capital Building – but then the NAACP stages its national convention in Milwaukee. The NAACP rewarded – with millions of convention dollars – the city with the highest Black incarceration and child poverty rates. Somebody’s got their priorities very, very wrong. These are the same people who care more about getting relatively small numbers of Blacks in prestigious universities, than punishing the localities that place far higher numbers of young Blacks in prison. They care more about getting contracts for a few more Black business people, than in destroying the savage, thirty-year old public policy of criminalizing whole Black neighborhoods.
I’m reminded of a petition sent to the white administration of New Orleans by an elite organization of Blacks, back in the 1880s. These community leaders were upset that Black women city jail inmates were set to work cleaning up the streets. Their concern was not for the well-being of the female inmates, many of whom had been sentenced for prostitution, and some of whom were probably glad to get out of the dungeons and into the open air.
No, the Black elite were upset that the sight of these unfortunate women on New Orleans boulevards made the “colored race” look bad. They were embarrassed. A century and a quarter later, much of the African American elite is exhibiting the same political behavior. Why else would they reward a city that treats its Black citizens as badly as Milwaukee. For Radio BC, I’m Glen Ford.
This is the last of the recordings from the 26th annual National Black United Front convention held in Kansas City July 14th-16th. Marcus Brown led a panel discussion which included Dead Prez speaking very candidly about the current state of black cultural production and black youth culture in its media and $$$ dominating embodiment as commercialized RaP {Rhyming and Posing}. About 45 minutes of that panel discussion can be heard on this 16 bit (slightly tinny) 5 megabyte file.
Left click here to listen, right click to download.
It was my privilege to interview Dr. Oba T'Shaka on June 16th 2005 at the National Black United Front (NBUF) annual convention held in Kansas City Missouri. Dr. T'Shaka is the Vice Chairman of NBUF, full professor at San Francisco State University, and former chairman of the Black Studies Program. I caught up with Dr. T'Shaka over the lunch hour, and we had to conclude after about 35 minutes - a discussion that I believe could have gone on much, much longer. Also in the discussion is Mr. Leon Dixon, founder and chairman of the Dubois Learning Center. Rooted in traditional afro-spiritual culture, and possessing a scholar/practitioner's deep knowledge thereof, Dr. T'Shaka confines this time constrained discussion to pragmatic cultural themes readily accessible to any audience.
Was the theme of the 26th Annual National Convention of The National Black United Front [NBUF] held July 14th-16th in Kansas City Missouri. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered the keynote address at the Opening Ceremony and Mass Rally Thursday night. FOI took the batteries out of my DVR, otherwise you'd be listening to the Brother Minister's riveting oration. Suffice it to say every black politico and church leader in the greater metropolitan sprawl was in attendance, and Buck O'Neil sat up in the deacon's row right next to Farrakhan.
Less exhilirating - but more informative - are the opening remarks from the leadership of NBUF at the convention's opening session the following morning.
The second part of our podcast on the Fryer-Torelli article can be found here.
A few of us through the web have been thinking about podcasting some of our conversations. To an extent this is part of a larger brand building exercise. It's also an attempt to put voices to our writings. And it's part of a much larger effort to build networks of trust, and to build a new grassroots media initiative. let us know what you think. there's more to come.