We need your help to get the word out about this great opportunity to build back up the enrollment of women in the CIS Department. More detailed information http://www.famu.edu/index.cfm?a=headlines&p=display&news=602&archive.You can also contact Dr. Black by email at jblack@cis.famu.edu
Peace, Leslye J Allen
Just in case you had not heard the latest pile of manure that has been brewing about Obama and HBCUs. Here is a short piece by Essence Magazine's Cynthia Gordy that sheds much light and is certainly worth taking note of just in case you need some talking points.
You may have heard grumbling this week about a funding cut for historically Black colleges in the 2010 federal budget. I've read the articles and outraged headlines, but held off on commenting until I’d taken a closer look at the budget myself. It seemed like there was some information missing.
The outcry is in response to the absence of $85 million in extra funding that has been given to historically Black colleges and universities for the past two years. This has been framed as a budget cut and, according to some critics, proof that “Obama doesn’t care about HBCUs.” One thing to note, however, is that this was a temporary two-year fund enacted by Congress in 2007, and already a done deal for 2010.
Rather than revisit the temporary idea of a pot of extra money for HBCUs, the administration instead increased spending in student aid. They also boosted direct discretionary funding for HBCUs from $238 million to $250 million. Now, the increase in direct discretionary funds isn’t much (especially when pitted against the $85 million that expired). But the administration argues that supporting students with more student aid—especially in the form of increasing the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students by $200, to a total allowance of $5,550—will help HBCUs.
“Half of students at historically Black colleges and universities receive Pell Grants, compared to 27 percent of students at other institutions,” Massie Ritsch, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Education told me regarding the boost in student aid. "We expect that over 10 years, students at HBCUs will receive $3.2 billion in increased Pell Grants, an average of $320 million a year. That money will directly benefit HBCUs by making it easier for the students they serve to attend."
The budget also increases the need-based Perkins Loan by $5 billion, up from the current volume of $1 billion, and offers $2.5 billion for programs that help low-income students enroll in and graduate from college. “This shouldn’t be seen as any indication that there’s not support for historically Black colleges and universities,” Ritsch said. “The budget and the Recovery Act provide more money for the students that disproportionately attend HBCUs, and provide additional funds for the institutions themselves.”
I’m not saying this is necessarily the better way to do it, but it’s a far cry from the idea that Obama is effectively saying, “To hell with you, Black students!” Let me know what you think. Should the President renew the fund that gives money directly to HBCUs, or do you agree with his emphasis on increasing student aid that goes directly to minority students?
This article available at:
http://essence.typepad.com/obamawatch/2009/05/obama-vs-hbcus-lets-review.html
Contact: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com
This post is a brief overview of the Automotive Industry which describes some of the fundamental problems that are rarely spoken of. In addition, you will learn of a few of my personal experiences growing up, an environment where I was surrounded by the industry; you will learn of a few perspectives that are shocking and that even only a few within the industry know of. At the end of the post, you will better understand what happened to American Manufacturing and where it stands. The Auto Industry is at the heart of all of American Manufacturing. It is an industry that laid the groundwork for many other types of industries to follow, deemed at one point in history to be the highest of successes. But now, it sheds light on what can become warning signs for other businesses that mistakenly try to imitate it.This months hot topic is whether to bailout/rescue the regressing American Auto Industry. The original owners and their successors abandoned that industry long ago. The auto industry was ravaged and plundered by the wealthiest Americans a half century ago and has been in decline ever since. Shortsighted greed from one generation to the next has been the culprit. Since autos were first mass-produced and America monopolized the world, it was only natural that the American percentage/share of the market would eventually be reduced. However, total growth was enormous and total size of the market continues to grow even through today. Therefore, American growth of exports should have continued to grow, but does not significantly due to pillage and poorly planted roots. In simpler terms, we originally owned the entire pie. The pie was split up. Since the entire pie has grown dramatically, our piece should have grown too. However, the Big 4, 3, 2, … have been loosing market dominance and lead since the end of World War Two. Here we are years later in crisis, and the real question remains whether or not to rescue the real victims of the auto industry, the workers. People were not retrained or re-educated; most were never afforded real education's to start. People are now in despair and hopelessness. From my vantage point now living in Colorado for the last two decades, I have seen the high tech industry follow the auto industry, but at a learned and accelerated rate. Other industries are also copying the auto industry and are laying similar foundations also headed for disaster. Going back to a brief history, the misguided roots show how the decay started and why it spread.Although I did not grow-up during the inception of the Auto Industry, its roots surrounded me. I spoke with a few who were there in the earliest days, and spoke with many who were of the following generation. I absorbed its history by studying it while attending school in Motown (Motor Town), by natural osmosis, and in my earliest career dealing with the car makers.Growing up as a kid I lived less than a mile from Henry Ford's first moving assembly line factory, with GM’s World Headquarters’ just three miles away, and with Chryslers World Headquarters at the end of our street. The first Ford plant (in Highland Park, a city now surrounded by Detroit) and the first of GM's plants were built on the importation of the next generation of former black slaves and white share crop workers from the south (whites similar to former slaves whose white necks were red from working in the sunny fields, hence the mean spirited term 'Redneck'). The joke that Henry Ford must have laughed at and that went around town was "each worker would get paid enough to buy a Ford" (Of course using infamous 'Ford Credit' which was a primary direct withdrawal from their pay checks.) Henry manipulated a built-in guaranteed customer base and tapped double profits, being profits on the cars and the profitable bonded interest. Those were scams that he copied from sharecropping. The remains of their wages were so low that they had to live in shacks; but after all Henry felt, they came from shacks near the fields in the south. So much bigotry and repeated methods from sharecrop economic slavery. Instead of updating and rebuilding the original plants and without regard for the people who were the workers, the emerging auto giants left to go further to the suburbs. So, as they moved and grew they imported shipload after shipload of immigrant economic slaves from Poland (to Hamtramck, MI) and more economic slaves from the Middle East (to Dearborn, MI). There were other minorities imported as well, also imported for economic servitude to supporting industries such as mining, iron works, steel fabrication, glass works, textile, …. Astonishing how easily the game of 'divide and conquer' worked upon the variety of minorities; a game of keeping the workers pitted against each other using race and ethnicity; all to hold back the power of the people from truly uniting. WW2 caused the Automakers not only to retool but also to reevaluate their future directions.Soon, after the victory of WW2, came the Auto Giants grand visions for economically conquering the world via expansion outside the U.S. They quietly boasted that that would leave mainly world headquarters executives, designers, and engineers in the U.S. with the prestigious white-collar jobs. It was felt then (and these are not my bigoted opinions, not from me, yikes) that after all even 'the weaker sex' could do factory labor jobs as seen during WW2 (i.e. Rosie the Riveter). So why not have the 'stupid foreign workers' do the labor outside the U.S. What also gave way to the idea that manufacturing could succeed outside the U.S. was Mexico; since Mexican workers were also imported, but only temporarily during WW2. (By the way, the temporary Mexican workers were never fully paid back as promised during WW2.) A tremendous wave of pride about white-collar jobs became very popular in Detroit and in other automotive communities during the 50's. That vision sat poised on the back burner, but a pre-planted seed was already in place, which was Canada (Windsor) just across the Detroit River. Canada was a much-desired orchestrated precedence for the automakers; it set the stage for grace given by the government as an easily set up protocol for off-shoring jobs. Soon after, the automakers made a migration south to other states, then further south to Mexico, and finally overseas and on to economic slavery in China.Today we see the results of the destructive path the industry has taken. Layoffs, instead of being temporary situations reserved for pauses during new model changeovers, eventually became the mark of permanent labor plant closures. Obvious abandonment of people soon became the name of the automakers game. Along the swathed trail are - Highland Park, Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Marquette, Gary Indiana, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Cleveland, …, which became known in the early 80’s as 'The Rust Bowl’. Sort of a rape, pillage, and burn mentality, which continues to today. Amazing how well the reasoning of "that's the way it's always been" persists and grows from one generation to the next. Excuse after excuse gave temporary reasoning to incremental geographic movements for global conquer. Temporary excuses ranged from the need to originally amass large workforces, to the hindrance of union pressures, to American workers are lazy, to 'over' government regulation, to …, all straw obstacles as to why the auto industry needed to move as it did. No! Greed is not good. We see how those at the top of the industry have each come in, grabbed with their greed, and left. Now today, we see how greed has caused "what once was, no longer is". So in short, now we see the results of greed, poorly planted roots, and disregard, taking its toll on America. Equally, is the toll on the myriad of unrelated businesses, old and new, that have adopted the auto industries infectious habits of having little to no regard for individual people that make up the American workforce. People.While being raised in the center of Detroit, I experienced many situations involving the Auto Industry; the following although early was not my earliest, and is an actual example. Around 1963, when I was 11 years old, I remember George Romney visiting our house to exchange political favors. Our 23-room house was a rundown relic of a past era, but it cleaned up well as a phony front for wealth and pretentious power. I remember we kids had to pretend that we were Christian Protestants for the visiting Governor (former Chairman of AMC) who was doing his Christian Mormon tradition of visiting the homes of his new legislators. How ostentatious they both were with fraudulent humility of how they rose from their humble beginnings. But more to the point, I remember Romney sitting at our dinning room table and saying "The Big Four Automakers don't have to worry about giving the Unions what they want, as long as the benefits will not be due for decades. By that time the labor plants will be outside the U.S." That shocked my brother Jimmy and I, as we listened playing in the sunroom just off the dinning room. Later we were once again physically punished (beaten-up), this time for listening to adult talk. Jimmy a year older than I, and intellectually gifted, soon became a Page at the State Capital. The accounts he returned with were shocking as well. Growing up as we did would make your head spin and open your eyes to disgust. We continued living in those surroundings until we grew out of our teens. Then we moved on to make our own adult lives, creating better environments much different from what we were born and raised in.Recalling back to my teens, I realized back then the Detroit riots were not only about race, but was also about economic oppression. It was the minorities who were oppressed the worst, most especially African-Americans. Bad however you measure it is bad. (For a better understanding of the decline of Detroit and to better understand the riots, take a look at my other post: “DETROIT RIOTS OF 1967, A RECOLLECTION OF THE TRUTH.” You will also better understand how very close we came to seeing a nationwide repeat of the riots in the coming Spring of 2009.)Unions, workers, man-hours, laborers, …, are not people, they are burdens to be minimized and eliminated. While watching Lee Iacocca being interviewed on Charley Rose last year, I noticed Iacocca admit that he new all the way back during negotiations with the unions, in the early 80’s, that Chrysler would never have to pay off in full on long term commitments to the unions. As Iacocca danced around the issue he said "now the unions will have to face reality". And, as Rose went on to discuss it more, Iacocca was getting more uncomfortable, and eventually managed to change the subject away from discussing past union negotiations. Iacocca was a bit slicker than George Romney was, since Iacocca was on national TV. It made me ashamed that Chrysler World Headquarters was at the end of our street when I was a kid. And, that as a young adult I had so proudly in my early career returned while working for a couple of electronics companies to Chrysler's World Headquarters R&D operations. I thought it an honor to have paid Iacocca's in-house barbershop to cut my hair, even his same barber. Some honor.Following Chrysler, I moved up to deal with GM, and was puzzled. I listened to upper executives at GM complain that they constantly had to bribe Mexican government officials and border guards for GM plants. I guess they also assumed I already new and accepted that the plants in the late 70's had already begun their exodus to Mexico and other countries. I have always looked at bribery as disgusting and wrong, it was not for me or those who I dealt with, that's among the many good things that a mentor named Jack Bazzy taught me as a young kid. By becoming acquainted with other mentors as an adult, I learned to seek out highly reputable employers and quality knowledgeable friends. I learned how to educate myself, and moved up very high in the scientific and technical industries, all of which I enjoyed.Although I grew up in Highland Park / Detroit, that was not anywhere near my top focus in choosing Obama. But, it is a simple history for me to recall, amazing how many more details I can give, but the main points have been brought forward. In addition, from being a mutt of sorts myself, to being a self made man, be that what it may, I have no illusions of being great. What I do mean here is that I quickly recognize many of Obama's unique insights, although mine are different but a bit similar in nature. Like many Obama supporters, I have personal experiences on most issues Obama has raised. So, above is just one of many examples that I can personally give.To better understand manufacturing in America, you can read my other blog: WHAT SCREWED UP MANUFACTURING FOR AMERICA
Blog members can reply here, anyone is welcome to email me at: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com
We incarcerate more people than does any other Country in the World. Blacks and others of color are disproportionately represented in our jails and prisons. They are also disproportionately represented on the Probation and Community Control rolls. Being sentenced to Probation or Community Control is the first step on the path towards Prison. Thereafter, the ex-offender cannot vote or find a job, never mind a good job. They have no economic or political power. They can never achieve the American Dream, because it truly is only a dream for those who find themselves in and out of the Criminal Justice system regularly.
The Police stop blacks night and day at will for "Field Interviews", which is a euphemism for illegal detention - no probable cause. It is much more rare for a white person to be stopped for no reason. Black men are subjected to illegal searches under one guise or another more often than are whites. When stopped, they are not free to leave, no matter how many times the Police testify to the contrary. Once officially detained, the black man stays in jail for the duration, because neither he nor his family can afford to post the bond, no matter how low it is set.
The attitude in our Criminal Courts is that since a black man was arrested, he must be guilty, they all are. It is assumed that black men want to be drug dealers and thieves. Black men are given longer jail sentences than are white men. Through a lack of social services, racial discrimination, Policing practices and Court attitudes, we are driving young black men away from mainstream paths to progress and success. If the Defendant is sentenced to Supervision, the system requires the Defendants to pay various fines, costs and Supervision fees, and to participate in, and pay for various court ordered classes. It is usually the case that they simply cannot afford to pay for their Supervision, given their hand to mouth existence. Also, the transportation necessary for attendance at the required functions Ordered by the Court is assumed to be availabe. I have trouble getting to my appointments, and I own a car. What job can a man faced with these institutional biases qualify for other than drug dealing or petty crimes.
The term "Supervision" really means that you can be harassed at will, searched without a warrant and must comply with random drug testing, at the Supervisee's expense. It is to the advantage of the Probation and Community Control Supervisors to file a Warrants for Probation Violation that would reduce their case loads. Formality and Rules of Procedure don't exist in Probation Violation Hearings. Jail or Prison is the most likely outcome. The petty crimes add up, and then it's Strike Three, prison for life.
The obstacles that black men face every day of their lives are not acknowledged by any one who works in the System, and the Offender is never given the benefit of a doubt. So black men plead No Contest to charges that could have been beaten at trial by a good lawyer. The Defendants don't trust their Public Defenders since the APDs and ASAs all work for the same government. If the man goes to trial and loses, he is given a much stiffer sentence than he would had he pled out. A huge number of black men are either on Probation or Community Control, or are being housed in our many prisons and jails. In this way they are eliminated, for all practical purposes, from our society. A wide range of domestic dysfunction and hopelessness results from the existence of this double standard. The cycle of arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment goes on with no intervention, until the young man becomes imprisoned for most of his life. His children never have a Father at home, and the children live in poverty, leading them down the same paths trod by their Fathers. Injustice grows into anger and hate, causing young black men to become criminals and to follow in the tragic footsteps of their forebears.
take a forom
This is indeed a historic election, and for reasons more significant than its being the longest and costliest in U.S. history. Underlying it all is the almost palpable sense that after decades of abuse, we -- the people of the United States -- are reasserting our fundamental right to power. The pendulum, which swung to the Right -- and shifted the balance of wealth and power to the top -- with the election of Ronald Reagan, has begun to swing in a more liberating direction.
African Americans were first brought here in 1619 as cargo on slave ships. In 1653, they built Wall Street's wall. Starting in 1792, they built the White House. Ever since then, they have maintained, protected, and, from time to time, refurbished it. Now, after nearly four centuries of oppression, an African American will finally get to run the place. Speaking as a white American male who can still remember when African Americans were killed for trying to vote, this seems like real progress.
By the way, it is perhaps a touching irony that, whereas the conservative George Bush came to power surrounded by Developed World liberals, Barack Obama, a liberal, will come to power--especially if Mr. Brown is turned out next year--surrounded by conservatives. A dear friend of mine in Milano, lamenting being saddled with Signore Berlusconi again. speaks wistfully of the great American democracy where we are privileged to vote for Barack Obama. It is a privilege. God Bless America!!!
The dawning of a new day is here, both for America as a whole and for those who call ourselves "compassionate conservatives," a code name for politically active Christians.
It's a time when our nation has the opportunity to break from the tradition of the past--from racial and class division, from partisan politics, from us against them--and to ride into a bright, new future of unified effort for the good of all Americans, truly non-partisan policy making and cooperation in Washington.
The undeclared but clearly evident leader of this new effort is Barack Obama, an American of mixed racial background (half white, and half black), and of mixed socio-economic background, a recent graduate from the struggling middle class to the echelons of upper class America. He is the leader we need right now not just because of superior intellect, highly effective communication skills, and his high level of educational attainment, but also because of the character and the temperament with which he has been divinely blessed. Character he has demonstrated in this election in quite distinct contrast to his Republican contender, John McCain.
It is for this reason that I, a social activist at heart for the poor and for the good of all men, and a Christian conservative as it relates to the two most pivotal moral issues of our time--abortion and homosexuality--have decided to vote for Senator Barack Obama to become the next president of the United States.
Though the Republican party may attempt to portray it--God is not the God of one political party. He is not more concerned about small government than he is about helping those in need. He did not only send His Son to die for upper class and upper middle class whites. He does not want us to lock-up first time, young non-violent offenders for most of their young adult lives and throw away the keys. He does not want us to ignore the social causes of crime. He does want his people involved with both parties so that both parties ultimately represent His interests, which are the best interests of us all.
This is our opportunity. In this election, we have the ability to show the rest of America that "conservative Christians" can make a balanced, intellectual, and still spiritual choice for President. We can choose to vote for Barack Obama, not because we agree with him on every issue, but because we agree with him on many. And we can make our voices heard during his administration to affect the way he governs on issues with which we do disagree.
Make the change. Take the leap. Make a new choice, and encourage other like minded people to make this choice as well--praying all the way for Christ to grant Sen. Obama the wisdom to make the right decisions at the right time, not swayed by what's popular, but based on the right foundation--God's Word--at "such a time as this" in our nation's and the world's history.
--Pat Perry
The country is about to elect it's first African American president. It's a historical moment
The image of an African American as the leader of the US will bring deep social changes to our country. His presidency will be a subtle reminder to all of us that color has no correlation with intellect. He will be a role model for the African American youth, some who will most likely follow in his footsteps. His presidency will redefine and expand the meaning of being a US American, to include more deeply the African American culture
Nevertheless, amidst this historical time, we are leaving out a large constituency. Hispanics are part of this country’s mix and they are shaping the direction of the US. However, mainstream media does not show this fact, just like they failed to showcase the political voice of African Americans for many decades. There is a lag from when the media chooses to showcase an image of our country to what is really happening. African Americans have been part of our countries’ political make up for many decades, but I feel it’s until recently that the media began to project this fact. Hispanics are currently part of this country’s political make-up but this fact is not being presented to the public.
Must 30 or 50 years pass for the media to recognize the political voice of Latinos and just then finally showcase this fact to the world?
I must confess that I am a James Baldwin fan. Baldwin was one of those rare writers who had the capacity of speaking about race and racism while making everyone culpable and vulnerable to the pathology of racism. Black folks and white folks alike, according to Baldwin, had distorted visions of themselves due to the poison of racism.
In too many cases, we all were/are guilty of protecting and promoting our self-definitions and group definitions with a zeal that borders on the pathological. Never mind what someone says they are or what someone says they believe in. Someone will swear that the person cannot be telling the truth simply because that person defies the definition that has been created for them. Barack Obama defies many folks’ definitions.
Obama is from all appearances a devoted husband and father. America, black and white, is not accustomed to seeing black men in the media spotlight in that capacity on a regular basis. Many of us have not only grown up adoring our fathers, but were recipients of support from a steady supply of male relatives and friends. Obama is obviously well educated. Yet the current statistics on black male dropouts in some parts of the United States is frightening. Yet some of us grew up around black male scholars in every discipline. Obama is seeking the highest political office in the land. And if we tell the truth, none of us was certain, when he announced his candidacy in February of 2007 that he would win the Democratic Party nomination. For all of his credibility and decency, he has been called an elitist, terrorist, the pal of a terrorist, and a left-wing liberal. Do not expect the attacks to stop!
James Baldwin once said that, “You must embrace what you fear.” It took me a long time to figure out what he meant. The things that we fear most are not monsters hiding under our beds or bumping into a stranger in a dark alley. The things we fear most are those things that defy our comprehension and our definitions even when they have done nothing to us and even when they promise to do something for us. All of us have been (or will be) guilty at some point in our lives of avoiding that which we do not fully understand even when we suspected it would be beneficial to us.
YES, WE CAN.
Copyright © 2008 Leslye J Allen
It's a momentous time in the US. The possibility that Barack Obama will be the first African American president in US history seems more and more likely as time passes. His campaign exudes a sense of inevitable victory...like it's destined to win. I feel the media has picked up on this. It seems there are more African American commentators are on TV and the the media is giving African Americans more equitable time on TV to voice their opinions. It’s fascinating to watch this happen, however this should have occurred many years ago.
The US is no longer the black and white world, literally and figuratively, that existed 100 years ago. Today, Latinos are a big part of this mix. Latinos will, in the near future, become the majority of the minorities. English no longer holds a monopoly on the means of communication; Spanish has become a fierce competitor in the US. The growing use of bi-lingual education is testament to this fact. Favorite fastfoods such as pizza, hotdogs and burgers are now no longer the number one choice. It's now Mexican and other Hispanic foods that are seducing the palates of many around the US. We are now becoming "green" people a long past tradition of our Latin American "Indian" ancestors. I hope an Obama presidency will lead the country to recognize this reality and thus show the world that the US is more than just a black and white world.
So much for Sarah Palin. Let’s finish the Job Obama. McCain admits that Community Organizers are honorable and patriotic. This is the 4th quarter so bring it on home. And while you do that, all the Christian Sons of Issachar will pray: “Thy will be done and may God defend the right!”
http://www.crosscut.com/2008-election/17341/About+Sarah+Palin:+an+e-mail+from+Wasilla/
"The Moynihan Report"When Politics and Sociology Collide
PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Let this session of Congress be known as the session, which declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United States.
BEN WATTENBERG: But it was not to be an easy war, and there was more to poverty than just a lack of money. In 1965, a young academic in the Johnson administration began a serious study of how culture and economics were intertwined. Daniel Patrick Moynihan examined the data and wrote, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action." The report, published by the Department of Labor, used data to focus attention on the problems of black families.
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: These are accurate statistics, most of them government statistics. Most of them are available if you dig through those Census volumes. The issue is, what are we going to do about these facts?
BEN WATTENBERG: Scouring the Labor Department's statistics, Moynihan found, unsurprisingly, that when unemployment went up, more people went on welfare, and vice-versa. This correlation seemed to be set in stone. But Moynihan noticed that something was changing.
SENATOR DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN (D-NY): In 1963, that correlation had disappeared. Suddenly the unemployment for minorities, as well as everybody else, was going down, and the dependency rate, if you want to put it that way, was going up. Now, what was this all about?
BEN WATTENBERG: According to Moynihan, "at the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family."
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: It seems to me that there are a great many Negro Americans, perhaps half the population is securely in the middle class, doing very well, taking care of itself, needing no help from anybody, thank you very much. But the slums are also filling up with a lower-class people, unemployed, ill-educated, ill-housed, for whom the cycle of no jobs and bad education and bad housing just reproduces itself and takes its most pregnant personal form in the great tragedy of the family lives of these men and women and of their children.
GLENN LOURY (Boston University): The Moynihan report takes up the question of what would be necessary to bring African-Americans into a status of equal opportunity in American society and argues that a major impediment would be that the family structure among blacks was weaker and was becoming a major problem.
BEN WATTENBERG: Out-of-wedlock births among blacks had gone up from 17 percent in 1950 to 26 percent in 1965. By 1970, that figure would reach 39 percent. More children were being raised without the presence of fathers.
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: At any given moment, two-thirds of the Negro families are husband-and-wife families. But over the lifetime, only about a little more than a third of Negro children come of 18 having lived all their lives in such a family. And that hurts people. That deprives them of opportunities. Not to have a father, not to have a mother, you've lost something that helps you in life. And so this process feeds back into the cycle.
BEN WATTENBERG: For Moynihan, the issue was more than just one of dry social science. From the age of 9, he had been raised in a single-parent home.
JAMES Q. WILSON (UCLA): It was his view, a man who grew up in a female-headed single-parent family, quite sensitive to this issue, that without an intact family, the problems of manhood, of establishing true manliness among some black Americans, would prove to be very difficult, possibly insoluble.
BEN WATTENBERG: Moynihan's argument convinced his boss, President Lyndon Johnson.
PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Perhaps most important, its influence, radiating to every part of life, is the breakdown of the Negro family structure. And when the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged.
BEN WATTENBERG: The Moynihan report stirred the pot. Was the erosion of the black family the consequence of a culture that was broken or of discrimination or of an economy that could not produce enough good jobs?
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA (George Mason University): What Moynihan did was to notice that perhaps the family itself ought to be addressed as an explicit issue for social policy and not simply the economic issue of having enough jobs and opportunities.
BEN WATTENBERG: Opportunities had been growing for blacks during the 1960s. Civil rights legislation killed Jim Crow. The black poverty rate declined, and the black middle class grew. To many civil rights leaders, Moynihan's views were heresy.
GLENN LOURY: We had the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had been enacted, a great victory for the civil rights movement. We had the Voting Rights Act of 1965, bringing African-Americans fully into the body politic. Now along comes someone who says, "Yes, hold on, but wait just a minute. Have you noticed these social trends?"
JAMES Q. WILSON: Now, the reaction, of course, was "Moynihan is blaming the victim." The inundation of criticism of him in the early 1960s was ferocious.
BAYARD RUSTIN (Civil Rights Activist): The interesting thing is that if one considers the Moynihan report about the breakdown of the Negro community, one needs to look back to the Irish and to the Italian experience, which is really simple, that as the heads of families were permitted by this society to have economic independence, all of the so-called defects of crime, illegitimacy and the like disappeared.
BEN WATTENBERG: Another key study of the time looked at the importance of the family, this time in relation to education. Sociologist James Coleman's report was called "Equality of Educational Opportunity." It had been mandated by the 1964 Civil Rights Act to study the effects of school segregation.
CHRISTOPHER JENCKS (Harvard University): Coleman had two big expectations when he did his report. He thought he was going to find that the schools that black children attended got far less adequate resources than the schools that white children attended, and he thought that he was going to find that the resources that schools got made a big difference to students' achievement.
BEN WATTENBERG: To test these theories, Coleman and his researchers surveyed over 600,000 students and 4,000 schools. It was one of the largest social science projects ever undertaken. Working day and night on a tight deadline, holed up in a hotel room, Coleman and his team crunched the numbers.
CHRISTOPHER JENCKS: This was really a mammoth undertaking. The number of social scientists, some living today, who could claim to have ever written a major piece of work in three months is extremely small. In fact, it may be zero other than Jim Coleman.
BEN WATTENBERG: By looking at the numbers, Coleman ended up challenging conventional wisdom as well as his own previous views.
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: Early one evening, there was a reception at the Harvard Faculty Club, and Seymour Martin Lipsett, the incomparable Marty Lipsett, walks in, sees me, comes over and says, "You know what Coleman's finding, don't you?" I said, "No." He said, "It's all family."
BEN WATTENBERG: The Coleman report pointed to the family as the most important indicator by far of how a child would perform at school. And since the Moynihan and Coleman reports were published, the American family, black and white, continued to change, but not necessarily for the better.
CHRISTOPHER JENCKS: I think today most social scientists would agree with Moynihan's view that single-parent families really have adverse effects on children and that this contributed to the problems of African-American communities in the 1960s and since, but also now there are the problems of Latino and white and other communities.
BEN WATTENBERG: Not only did black out-of-wedlock birth rates skyrocket, but so did white rates. In fact, by 1999, the white illegitimacy rate was equal to the black rate when the Moynihan report was written. And black out-of-wedlock births reached almost 70 percent.
But there is some good news. The teenage birth rate is down. This may well lead to lower out-of-wedlock birth rates in the future.
GLENN LOURY: If we ask the question today of how the Moynihan report looks, now we look back 35 years later, I'd have to say it's looking pretty good. A fairly prescient piece of social forecasting would, I think, have to be a fair-minded person's judgment. I wish I could produce the document that would look as good 35 years from now.
BEN WATTENBERG: Out-of-wedlock births were not the only problem. Social scientist Francis Fukuyama has called the phenomenon "the great disruption."
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: I think that in many ways, a lot of the problems that occurred during the great disruption were the result of a much too expansive sense of individual entitlement and, you know, almost total absence of responsibility for your spouse, for your children, for your neighbor, country, all of the communities in which we're embedded.
BEN WATTENBERG: And we can measure that disruption. Here's just a sample. The nature of the family was changing. In the 1960s, divorce rates spiked. Once it was rare and called "living in sin." The number of men and women living together without the benefit of marriage went up six-fold between 1960 and 1970, and then another six-fold between 1970 and 1998. Today, about half of all those getting married have lived in a cohabiting relationship.
A third disruption concerned drugs. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the use of marijuana increased by over 400 percent; mind-altering hallucinogens by over 800 percent; cocaine, 2300 percent.
The worst part of the great disruption was crime. Pat Moynihan warned that if more children grew up without the presence of fathers, the result would be social chaos, including crime. Crime rates soared, and crime and punishment became one of the most important issues in American life.
MI GOP using foreclosures to block African American voters http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/michigan-gop-using-forecl_n_125446.html or
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote
**Please send out as you see fit**
Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters and I'm sure this tactic will be used else where...The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day."We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.State election rules allow parties to assign "election challengers" to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they "have a good reason to believe" that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a "true resident of the city or township."The Michigan Republicans' planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being "true residents."One expert questioned the legality of the tactic."You can't challenge people without a factual basis for doing so," said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. "I don't think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance."As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, "mean-spirited."GOP ties to state's largest foreclosure law firmThe Macomb GOP's plans are another indication of how John McCain's campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain's regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm's founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.The Macomb County party's plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan, according to a report issued last year by the state's Department of Labor and Economic Growth.Challenges to would-be votersStatewide, the Republican Party is gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign, according to Denise Graves, party chair for Republicans in Genessee County, which encompasses Flint. The party is creating a spreadsheet of election challenger volunteers and expects to coordinate a training with the regional McCain campaign, Graves said in an interview with Michigan Messenger.Whether the Republicans will challenge voters with foreclosed homes elsewhere in the state is not known.Kelly Harrigan, deputy director of the GOP's voter programs, confirmed that she is coordinating the group's "election integrity" program. Harrigan said the effort includes putting in place a legal team, as well as training election challengers. She said the challenges to voters were procedural rather than personal. She referred inquiries about the vote challenge program to communications director Bill Knowles who promised information but did not return calls.Party chairman Carabelli said that the Republican Party is training election challengers to "make sure that [voters] are who they say who they are."When asked for further details on how Republicans are compiling challenge lists, he said, "I would rather not tell you all the things we are doing."Vote suppression: Not an isolated effortCarabelli is not the only Republican Party official to suggest the targeting of foreclosed voters. In Ohio, Doug Preisse, director of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.Hebert, the voting-rights lawyer, sees a connection between Priesse's remarks and Carabelli's plans."At a minimum what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systematic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote," he said. "Nobody is contending that these people are not legally registered to vote."When you are comprehensively challenging people to vote," Hebert went on, "your goals are two-fold: One is you are trying to knock people out from casting ballots; the other is to create a slowdown that will discourage others," who see a long line and realize they can't afford to stay and wait.Challenging all voters registered to foreclosed homes could disrupt some polling places, especially in the Detroit metropolitan area. According to the real estate Web site RealtyTrac, one in every 176 households in Wayne County, metropolitan Detroit, received a foreclosure filing during the month of July. In Macomb County, the figure was one household in every 285, meaning that 1,834 homeowners received the bad news in just one month. The Macomb County foreclosure rate puts it in the top three percent of all U.S. counties in the number of distressed homeowners.Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Genessee counties were — in that order — the counties with the most homeowners facing foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. As of July, there were more than 62,000 foreclosure filings in the entire state.Joe Rozell, director of elections for Oakland County in suburban Detroit, acknowledged that challenges such as those described by Carabelli are allowed by law but said they have the potential to create long lines and disrupt the voting process. With 890,000 potential voters closely divided between Democratic and Republican, Oakland County is a key swing county of this swing state.According to voter challenge directives handed down by Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, voter challenges need only be "based on information obtained through a reliable source or means.""But poll workers are not allowed to ask the reason" for the challenges, Rozell said. In other words, Republican vote challengers are free to use foreclosure lists as a basis for disqualifying otherwise eligible voters.David Lagstein, head organizer with the Michigan Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), described the plans of the Macomb GOP as "crazy.""You would think they would think, 'This is going to look too heartless,'" said Lagstein, whose group has registered 200,000 new voters statewide this year and also runs a foreclosure avoidance program. "The Republican-led state Senate has not moved on the anti-predatory lending bill for over a year and yet [Republicans] have time to prey on those who have fallen victim to foreclosure to suppress the vote."
Reproduced from Dynamic Youth Magazine – August 08 (www.dynamicyouth.org)
Education of African Americans
TAIWANNA ANTHONY
To be deemed as educated is a state of mind; To be educated is a state of being.
As an educator, it saddens me to witness first hand how African Americans rely heavily on other races to educate and teach our offspring. Since slavery, the notion of division of the masses has been telepathically instilled into the thought process of African Americans. The sad part is that many of us still think with that mind set. Consequently, that leaves us where we are today. The problem lies within the African American community of educators, neighborhoods, and sanctions that are processed from the top of the educational food chain. “Education is the key to unlock the golden doors of freedom.” “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong; because, someday in your life you will have been all of these.”George Washington CarverIn order to create an educational system that works well for all children, it must be perceived from the prospectus of open thinking and being open-minded. In remembering the past, the African American community has been disenfranchised; since the industrial revolution. When the American industry became mechanized African Americans became manual laborers, nannies, as well enemies of their own social class. From a psychological perspective, the experience of African Americans has resulted in negative stereotypes, negative racial prejudices, and negative biases perceived from society. For this reason, the negative stereotypes have descended through generations of African Americans by indirect and direct situations, events, and experiences that are conditioned through mental stimuli. This has resulted in decades of African Americans or black Americans being racially negative, socially negative, prejudicial, as well as racially bias towards one another. In summation, as African Americans migrated from the Jim Crow south to the north to escape years of oppression, they found themselves engrossed in a new slavery. They found themselves living in squalid conditions, working in factories that exposed them to treacherous elements, while working more than ten to sixteen hours per-day. Other factors such as drugs, poverty, and gangs are primary in the African American community, and society. Oftentimes, education is in last place on the totem pole for African Americans. Societal pressures place many obstacles in the path of African Americans. When African Americans feel compelled to complete their studies, tasks, or basic occupations, oftentimes, they will not complete them due to lack of understanding the material, pressure from their environment and family responsibilities. In terms of being black in American, society has placed a stigma on the perception of African Americans, the black community and the fate of the African American race. Years of mental oppression has resulted in many African Americans being in a mental state of imprisonment, racial bondage, and a slave type mentality. No, there are no whips and chains, but there are laws, bi-laws, policies, and procedures. The time is now. We as African Americans must step up to build cultural cohesiveness as well as aid in closing this educational gap. Otherwise, in the future, African American youths will suffer more than they are suffering now. African American children are not being adequately prepared in regards to the future. If the African American community does not intervene to render services that will work parallel with the educational system, that promote the necessary programs that are geared towards the African American youths, adult education, and unemployment, we are doomed. Let us awake and act without wasting any more time or energy. Taiwanna Anthony may be reached through e-mail: taiwanna_anthony@yahoo.com
I went canvassing for the first time in my life for our candidate on Saturday August 2nd. It was so empowering and of course (HOT), but it made me feel great that I could take a little bit of energy to get out there and help make something happen. I didn't want to sit back and hope that OBAMA got elected. It was great talking to my people, seeing where they stand, and not taking their support for granted...because we can't. In talking with people I learned that some "haven't decided" who to vote for??!! I actually think that is code for I haven't decided if I'm going to vote. But at least through our efforts we got two more registered voters that Saturday afternoon and spoke to some others about their indifference, disenfranchisement, OR WHATEVER about this election. Make no mistake we cannot assume anything.
And to the point of Hillary Clinton's being "nominated" at the Denver convention. Puh-lease! If Al Gore didn't throw eggs during W.'s inauguration, then she should take her loss as an opportunity for betterment and introspection. Thats' a polite way of say, #@*!& sit down!!!!!
by Sonya Rose Author: Admin | Filed under: Politics
Comedian Chris Rock on former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell: “What do you mean he speaks so well? He’s an … educated man! How [do you] expect him to sound? ‘He speaks so well.’ What are you talking about? What voice were you expecting to come out of his mouth? … ‘I be Prez o dent!’.”
This is an old joke made by Rock in which he makes fun of onlookers who complimented, in all seriousness, how one of the [then] highest ranking Blacks in the Bush Administration, Colin Powell, “speaks so well.” As if to be African American and somehow have full use of your vowels when speaking is an enormous and wondrous feat. Of course, this would be insulting to any intelligent individual.
It is just as insulting to assume Democratic nominee Barack Obama is “presumptuous” because he appears presidential on the campaign trail. So what, he rides as part of motorcades, and seeks the counsel of world leaders. He is running for the world’s ultimate job — U.S. commander-in-chief. So, he may want to come off as somewhat confident, serious, intelligent, capable; and, as having strong leadership qualities. Obama and John McCain appear presidential in public, because we, as voters, must believe that they are qualified to lead our nation; we have to have faith in their abilities.
Therefore, we should be concerned if either of the two presumptives, Republican or Democrat, were to swing their heads low, muffle their words; and, not travel beyond comfortable borders. You have to dress for the job you want, not for the one you have. And, Barack looks pretty well outfitted to me.
http://blogs.uptownlife.net/sonyarose/
