Thanks to my new friend, Kenda Bell for letting me know about this exciting event. If you want to go and you’re comfortable paying online please leave a note saying that KENDA BELL notified you about the event. (I think they’re going to give her a free Happy Meal or something:)
And here are a few that I’ve been checking out lately.
Our resident scholar/theologian/cultural commentator himself - Rev. C. Solomon has just released a tribute to Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Here’s a piece of it:
The Wright Reverend ought to be America’s man of the year! And even though his presence is not welcome at the Democratic Convention in Colorado, he is a substantial part of the reason for America’s profound new hope, for it is he who gets much of the credit for producing Senator Obama and family. If only more individuals in the nation, particularly its former and current leaders had been shaped at Trinity United in Chicago! READ MORE
Hard-hitting Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report brings the FIRE again with his latest piece entitled, “The Age of Katrina - Not Obama.” Take a sip…
The more delusional Obama supporters behave as if “their candidate’s speech on Thursday will herald a crack in time, after which posterity will speak of Before-Obama (BO) and After-Obama (AO) eras, and the transcendental Age of Obama.” They draw straight lines from Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech to Obama’s nomination acceptance oration. However, the event that far more accurately defines the age is Katrina, the unfolding catastrophe that descended on New Orleans three years ago, this week. Katrina is “the most dramatic manifestation of an implacable racism coiled deeply in the ruling structures of American society, primed to remove concentrations of Blacks from places of value.” READ MORE
Then there’s the Chicken Bones Journal - a great online resource for independent African perspectives on world views. (They need your financial support by the way.) Check out this piece I found there. It’s a letter of support for Cynthia McKinney from the President of the Socialist Party of South Africa (Azania)!
To Sister Cynthia McKinney:
We were particularly and greatly thrilled by your nomination as the presidential candidate of the Power to the People Committee and also that of your vice presidential candidate, Sister Rosa Clemente. These are indeed critical times for the United States but much so for the world and most particularly Africa and its people. We are excited and also support the endorsement of this nomination because of how we have come to know you, Sister Cynthia McKinney, and what you stand for.
The people of Africa and Azania, better known as South Africa, are greatly heartened by the fact that it is not in your character and style to keep quiet or turn a blind eye to the challenges that face you. You have consciously taken sides a long time ago and have been outspoken about countries such as Zimbabwe long before other people discovered where they were on the world map. READ MORE
And Renita Weems asks the question, “What’s wrong with being Nappy and Happy?” In this thought provoking commentary, Weems, highlights the Obama girls to raise the question of why Black women perm their hair. Is perming one’s hair a sign of self-hate? Take a sip…
I guess there’s no place in the White House for little black girls with nappy hair, huh? I know many of you can’t tolerate any criticism of the Obamas. And I’m not criticizing the Obamas. Not really. I’m raising a question about a black girl’s hair. And public perception. We’ve talked about this topic before when it was Michelle Obama. You can be sure that when this month’s issue of Essence Magazine arrived in the mail with Malia (10) and Sasha Obama (7) with hair straightened and curled around their shoulders, some black mother lost a battle with her ten year old about not straightening her (just yet). Why do we perm or straighten our daughters’ hair at such a young age?
What other ethnic group does this to their children? READ MORE
Ok - that’s enough for now. I’ll share more great blogs a little later this week.
Don’t expect a play by play from me on the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I’ve long understood the convention to be more pomp and circumstance than anything else. I’m, for the most part, not interested in watching the extremely scripted theatrics though I will be popping in every now and then for history’s sake.
I tuned in last night after getting in from church. Kennedy was finishing up his speech which touched many in attendance and impressed the talking heads well enough.
A few other folks got up to speak after him, but the moment everyone was waiting for centered on the presentation of Michelle Obama. And boy did she deliver.
After a video montage of her life and a rickety speech by her brother, Craig (who happens to be the head basketball coach at Oregon State), Michelle stood tall at the podium and began the most important speech of her life.
She was passionate as she talked about her values, her upbringing, and what drives her. The video montage was narrated by her mother who sat in the audience and watched with pride as her daughter wooed delegates to tears and approving headnods. She spoke of her beautiful daughters who afterwards playfully came out to stand on a platform that to them was probably just another stage.
In my estimation, Michelle did what I expected her to do. She gave a heartfelt speech that showed America the type of intelligent grace that a First Lady should have. She opens her mouth and far outshines her husband’s oratorical skill.
I don’t know, man. I’m just very leery of a cozy relationship between the church and corporations. Not to say that it shouldn’t happen in all cases, but once corporate dollars enter the church’s purse at a significant level, the door is open for them to wield their influence.
For example, here in Maryland near the historic African American community of Turners Station, I know that Honeywell International, Inc., a diversified technology and manufacturing company, is responsible for cleaning up 3 million tons of toxic waste.
Its successor company, Allied Chemical dumped 3 million tons of Chromium near neighborhoods. Certain types of chromium is known to cause respiratory problems, kidney and liver damage, lung cancer, and a host of other physical diseases. This type of environmental racism is nothing new for Honeywell. Consider this excerpt about their environmental practices:
Honeywell ranks 44th in a list of U.S. corporations most responsible for air pollution, releasing more than 4.25 million kg (9.4 million pounds) of toxins per year into the air. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, no corporation has been linked to a greater number of Superfund toxic waste sites than has Honeywell. In 2001, Honeywell agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties and to perform $772,000 worth of reparations for environmental violations involving:
failure to prevent or repair leaks of hazardous organic pollutants into the air failure to repair or report refrigeration equipment containing chlorofluorocarbons inadequate reporting of benzene, ammonia, nitrogen oxide, dichlorodifluoromethane, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, and caprolactam emissions
(Daaang! Anybody got the number for Captain Planet?)
Poor folks and People of Color don’t have to go to Beijing to experience crippling pollution. We can find it right in our backyards!
Back in 2006, the State Department of the Environment agreed to give Honeywell 17 years or more to clean up the toxic waste. Since then, Honeywell has been cozying up to the locals down in Turners Station and the surrounding community sponsoring home renovations for residents, school renovation/construction projects, etc. through their Hometown Solutions program. I even hear that one church down in Turners Station allowed Honeywell to hang their corporate banner over their front door!
This type of “positive PR behavior” is not new for corporations. They will often throw out a few trinkets to the community in an effort to silence dissident voices and shade gross illegal or unethical practices. They figure if they throw you a bone, you’ll shut up. Not everyone will shut up, but enough will to essentially isolate the “troublemakers.”
How can the church utilize its prophetic voice on social issues if that voice is underwritten by corporate funding or sustained by government contracts? Is there a way to balance the church’s fiscal relationships with outside entities in a way that won’t compromise our divine mandate?
July 28, 2008
Laura Washington
Chicago Sun-Times
350 N Orleans St
Chicago, IL 60654
Dear Mrs. Washington:
I am writing you this letter in response to your July 28, 2008 column. In it you describe our mother, the honorable Dorothy Wright Tillman, as having a “dismal” record as Alderman of the 3rd ward.
Webster defines dismal as: 1. obsolete , disastrous, dreadful 2: showing or causing gloom or depression3: lacking merit : particularly bad, devoid of cheer or comfort. indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess
I stand to disagree wholeheartedly with your imaginative interpretation of her hard work and her history of accomplishment in our beloved community.
For the record, I think that CNN’s “Black in America” special was abysmal. If you missed it, believe me - you’ve seen it before. If you watched Dateline NBC’s special on Black Women in Nov. ‘07, Tavis Smiley’s State of Black America, Real Talk with Al Sharpton, or Upfront with Jesse Jackson - you’ve seen the CNN Special before. More of the usual suspects (for the most part) sitting around talking about how bad Black folk got it with a sprinkling of how some Black folks pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something of themselves in spite of their blackness. Not surprisingly, there was no talk of institutional racism and how that plays a part in the current situation. Of course the acrobat of adjectives, the ringmaster of run-on sentences, the prime minister of pronouns himself - Michael Eric Dyson represented us “Black folk” real good to massa ‘nem. And keeping in line with a growing trend in mainstream media’s depiction of Black Women, the CNN special made sure to talk about how more and more Black Women are choosing White Men as mates - in fact, mainstream media is so obsessed with separating Black Women from Black Men that they covered African American Women and Families on one night and covered Black Men alone on another night! (:sigh: I can’t do it again. I already dropped my thunder on this issue when NBC did it.) Sorry, Mr. Media Men - no matter what you do, there are still many Black Women who deeply love and cherish Black Men. Likewise, there are many many many Black Men like myself who not only see royalty in Black Women, but who see love personified in them. A grade for CNN’s WACK attempt at telling OURSTORY? D-
Here is a link to Dr. Maulana Karenga’s commentary on CNN’s docu-drama entitled “Peddling Pathology in the Media: Selling Dream, Drama, and Dread.” Thanks Bro. Jahi!
Now let me find out that the Sultan of Surveillance himself, Martin O’Malley, is outraged by the recent findings released by the ACLU that peace activists in Baltimore were monitored over the course of 14 months and 288 hours for planning lawful, nonviolent, protests against war and the death penalty. Those in Baltimore know that Overseer O’Malley led the way in hanging Blue Light Cameras like Christmas lights all over the city keeping Big Brother’s Eye on Bmore’s Black and poor citizens. Illegal arrests skyrocketed under O’Malley’s iron grip and in the run up to the gubernatorial election he had sections of the city barricaded to restrict movement seemingly to decrease the likelihood of an embarrassing criminal event that his political opponent Robert Ehrlich could take advantage of during the campaign. O’Malley cares about First Amendment rights?! Oh stop it - I CAN’T BREATHE - BWAH HAHAHAHAHA (BTW - if you are a part of an organization that has planned a march, rally, protest in Maryland, the ACLU is offering to help you find out if you were spied on. Click here for more info.)
In other news, Maryland’s Speaker of the House, Mike Busch, is in a bit of a tizzy right now being that his wife was arrested on DUI charges shortly after midnight for driving through two flashing red lights in Annapolis. Busch brushes it aside as a personal family matter. No worries, Busch - mainstream media has your back. Your wife was arrested on Wednesday, but the Baltimore Sun chose not to shine its light on the issue until Friday at 3:32 PM - you know…a time when most folks aren’t even thinking about politics, world affairs, or drunk drivers who happen to be married to the third most politically powerful man in the state!
Closing on a…good note? The House of Representatives passed a resolution (boy, they love those non-binding resolutions don’t they?) Tuesday apologizing for Slavery. Great. Maryland expressed profound regret (along with many other states) and the U.S. House apologizes - fine. Now make the apology mean something. Bring on REPARATIONS! A nationwide, institutional effort to level the playing field between Africans and all other nation groups represented in these so-called United States of America. For more about reparations check out Dr. Ray Winbush’s blog and book.
“Power to the People!”
“Power to the People!”
The crowd swayed and chanted in a thunderous roar pumping clinched fists in the air as if they were literally striking out at the oligarchical american government and its fascist functionaries that provide safe haven for racism, economic exploitation, discrimination, and ultimately an oppressive existence.
No, this crowd of dedicated change agents weren’t members of the Black Panthers. They weren’t members of the American Indian Movement. They weren’t Weathermen.
They were members of the Green Party - some would say they are the descendants of all of those forenamed revolutionary groups. The Green Party is founded on 10 key values:
The Green Party Convention was Saturday, July 12, 2008 in Chicago. I just happened to flip it on TV (Thank God for CSPAN) as I was on my way out the door. An hour and a half later, I hadn’t left the house yet, but I had watched the entire convention. It was really inspiring. I got a sense that I was watching the beginning of a movement. It had all the right ingredients: small, dedicated crowd of supporters, little notice from “mainstream”, progressive agenda that most people could identify with in some way.
And at the center of it all were two awe-inspiring women: Cynthia McKinney - the Green Party nominee for President of the United States, and Rosa Clemente, Afro-Buricua, Community Organizer and Hip Hop Activist for Vice President. (You’ve gotta read Clemente’s powerful piece, “Russell Simmons, you are not Hip Hop!“)
Barack Obama may have the momentum that inspires Black people, but Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente have the message that will uplift us. Obama as President will provide an infinite amount of symbolism to the Black community, McKinney as President will render infinite amounts of substantive policy shifts that will create a new type of country which will help usher in a new kind of world.
As I’ve shared many many times before on this blog, mainstream media works in cooperation with the government to control what you think so chances are most of you have never heard of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and if you have it’s because of how Big Brother sensationalized an incident at Capital Hill involving her hair. An incident that was blown up about a year after she grilled then Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, over 11 trillion dollars that went missing at the Pentagon, DynCorp’s slave trade, and the 9/11 wargames. (Note: There are always consequences for challenging Empire. She was soon out of office.)
Since “they” are working to keep you blind to it, I urge you to work to open your eyes to this Party and these two fascinating women. Talk to your children about the Green Party. As the two mainstream political parties are now controlled by corporate interest; it is incumbent upon the people to search out alternative political choices - or as Clemente said - the Green Party isn’t the alternative, it’s the imperative.
This does raise an issue though that I’d love your feedback on particularly as it relates to Black voters. What should Black voters do? Vote for symbol and help a Black man become the first African American President of the United States? OR Vote for substance and support a political party whose nominees most likely don’t stand a chance of winning (in the traditional sense) in this presidential election cycle? (Glen Ford, Executive Director of the Black Agenda Report chose the latter of those two options saying that McKinney deserves the Black Vote, Obama does not.)
Whatever happens - don’t sleep on the Green Party. They are not going quietly into the night. I sense that this is only the beginning.
Too tired right now, but my full take on this is forthcoming. Stay tuned.
According to the Baltimore City NAACP’s report card on the city delegation, Del. Jill P. Carter received a 95 out of 100 - the highest grade of all of her colleagues!
Without a doubt she is the principled freedom fighter that society usually celebrates only after they leave the scene.
However, I opt to give her her flowers while she can yet smell them so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Del. Carter and please continue to honor the legacy of your father and so many others who fought for positive social change for those on the margins of society.
I must admit that this year, I was feeling a certain way about Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union Roundtable. I’ve watched in previous years and have been inspired but this time around, I just wasn’t interested in the linguistic olympics featuring Dr. Mike Eric Dyson, Dr. Cornell West, Dr. Na’im Akbar and the other usual suspects. I think Tavis needs greater diversity…ideological diversity. It’s getting to the point now where you pretty much know how people are going to come down on the issues. I would like to see more grassroots-activist types, artists, OG’s from street oganizations…I mean let’s really shake it up! Allow the crowd to benefit from the wide variety of thought that is found within our rich culture. I feel like the panel is getting too academic…too “talented tenth”…too…dare I say - bourgeois. That’s not directed at any individual panelist, just the feeling I got from the event this year as a whole. (Disclaimer: to be fair I only watched the 2nd panel) I was thankful last year to see Min. Louis Farrakhan on the panel. In some respects he made the discussion for me with his fiery rhetoric.
This year, Dick Gregory’s participation made the discussion for me. He communicated his truth in lay language - down where the goats could get it and do something with it. He made great sense and though he was the oldest participant, he was, in my estimation, the most courageous. As he said himself - he was the turtle….hard on the outside, soft on inside, and willing to stick his neck out from time to time. I’m not sure I could say that about the others.
Enjoy this clip of Dick Gregory from this year’s State of the Black Union 2008. I uploaded the rest of his sharing to my youtube page.