I think someone read my mind on this. Can the New Leaders Get Some Elbow Room?
Watching Sen. Ted Kennedy on Monday pass the torch of his storied family to Barack Obama and a new generation, I couldn't help thinking maybe it's time for the Civil Rights generation to do the same in the black political community. More often than not, it seems, African American leaders are playing "keep away" with the next generation and the cool reaction of many Civil Rights-era leaders to the Obama campaign is a prime example.
African Americans are starting to move behind Obama in large numbers. The latest Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll shows that 66 percent of blacks support Obama, while 16 percent support Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. Yet the leaders of the Civil Rights generation seem just as likely to vigorously oppose the first black man with a serious chance to be president as to support him.
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH
INTERNATIONAL
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This situation is incredibly complex. It involves Sudan, Cameroon, the AU, France, China, and UN. There are several alliances of convenience going on.
Thousands Are Reported to Flee Chad’s Capital
Shelling and small arms fire erupted here in this on Monday, the third day of fighting between government troops and rebel forces, as thousands of residents fled the city in fear, the United Nations said.
U.N. Urges Outside Help for Chad (February 5, 2008) The Security Council demanded an immediate end to the violence, urging nations in the region on Monday to help thwart the rebels’ "attempt to seize power by force."
The fighting has raised the specter of deeper chaos in one the most war-scarred and fragile regions of the world. United Nations officials are particularly worried that the instability in Ndjamena could threaten major relief efforts elsewhere in the country.
Chad has become a temporary home to nearly a quarter of a million refugees from the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur, and tens of thousands more refugees from the Central African Republic, according to the United Nations.
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Don't forget Spain was at one time run by Fascist, although the current government is progressive, they still rear their ugly heads from time to time.
Racism Hits Formula One in Spain
A sad thing happened at Formula One testing last weekend outside of Barcelona. Fans attending the test spewed racist taunts at Lewis Hamilton, who last year became the first black driver in series history. A photograph from the Times of London showed four spectators in black face. They wore T-shirts that said "Hamilton’s Family."
Reports in the Spanish media yesterday indicated that Hamilton had been jeered whenever he made his way from the team motorhome to the back of the pits on Saturday, when he posted the fastest time in the new McLaren.
Hamilton, as he has been throughout his young career, was gracious in response:
The truth is that I feel somewhat sad, I am in love with this country, and especially the city of Barcelona and this circuit, which is one of my three favorites.
The people in Spain have always been very warm with me, and even though I imagined what might happen it has not been pleasant.
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CULTURE
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I must say Slate tackles issues of race and racism in refreshingly new ways that almost no other media source does. Such as this.
A study that shows the true stupidity of discrimination.
A recent example was carried out by economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Marianne Bertrand. They generated about 5,000 fake job applications and used a computer to add, at random, distinctively black or white names. The employers who received the applications systematically favored the Gregs and the Emilys over the LaTonyas and the Jamals. Perhaps even more perniciously, they paid attention to the qualifications of (apparently) white applicants, but did not notice the difference between mediocre black applicants and excellent ones.
But discrimination should also show up in another way. Employers who prefer not to employ workers because of their sex or the color of their skin are likely to lose money: Employing stupid white men when you could be employing smart black women is not a profitable human-resources policy. Employers might nevertheless do this, either because they do not realize that their prejudices are costing them money, or because they do not care. If so, discrimination is easy to detect in principle: Just note that the profitable firms will be the ones employing more women or workers from an ethnic minority.
Economist Stefan Szymanski realized that the English soccer league was a perfect testing ground for this hypothesis. There was excellent data available as to which clubs employed black players; soccer has a very clear measure of success, and unlike some sports leagues, the English game does not go in much for redistributing money from successful clubs to minnows.
Szymanski studied the game between 1978 and 1993, a time encapsulated by the image of Liverpool's Jamaican-born star, John Barnes, backheeling away a banana that had been hurled at him from the stands. But Szymanski's numbers suggest that it was the owners, not the fans, who were the worst offenders. Clubs that bucked the norm and fielded several black players did not suffer lower attendance or revenues as a result. But they did enjoy a higher league position with a lower wage bill than the typical club—clear evidence that black players were underpaid on racial grounds.
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Yes maybe it's wrong of me to find this funny, but I can't help myself, I love irony. Some Historically Black Colleges Are Recruiting More White Players for Football
Joey Christine spent two years waiting for a scholarship offer. An All-Met offensive lineman at Sherando High in Stephens City, Va., Christine was regarded as one of the best high school football players in Virginia. But when his senior season ended, he still had no college offers.
The problem was his height -- at 6 feet 2, he was considered short by typical standards for major college football linemen.
Then, in late December, Norfolk State University began pursuing him. Christine, who is white, had no idea Norfolk State is a historically black college or university. But after meeting the Spartans' coaching staff and spending time with the players during his official visit last month, it was clear that Christine had found a home.
"The whole black-white thing never even entered my head," said Christine, one of three white area players expected to sign with HBCUs on Wednesday. "I was just excited about the opportunity to play football in college, and to be able to play at a high level."
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Kind of cool A trio of young musicians found roots and rhythm inside country music grooves. The hills have soul.
"Half of American music is African... This banjo here is an African instrument, did you know that? The fact is, until 1830 no white man would ever even think about playing a banjo. Then this fellow Joe Sweeney started messing around with it, and in ten years it was the most popular instrument in the country." – musician Pete Seeger, in a 1960 televised interview with Hugh Hefner
If the Black roots of banjo music have been largely forgotten, it would be hard to fault Black folk for that. The Beverly Hillbillies, Ma & Pa Kettle and Hee Haw put the picture in the world’s mind that the music was other than ours. And the movie Deliverance sealed the deal – turning something fun and curious into the official soundtrack for moonshinin’, intermarriage and intolerance.
As much as one might have enjoyed the music itself, the image didn’t necessarily inspire a search for Black cultural connection.
But to the pleasant surprise of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, there are a considerable number of Black folk who, despite not seeing themselves, held onto their admiration for the skill and musicality of banjo, jug and fiddle grooves – even if they find it hard to admit. "A lot of people think Black people don’t like country music. That’s just not true. I think we have that perception because Blacks are not that present in the commercial sense of country and old time music. We get Black people who come up to us at shows and look around to see who’s looking before they whisper "You know, I really like this music."
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POLITICS
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I have always been a fan of his.
'Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times' by Willie Brown
Oscar Wilde observed the absurdity of dividing people into good and bad. As he saw it, people were either charming or tedious. By that measure, Willie Lewis Brown Jr. has few contemporary equals. He goes down as one of the most charming, least tedious politicians in modern California history.
This great-grandson of Southern slaves lost but one election, his first. After that, his remarkable life has been a celebration of guile, wit, grace, theatrics and -- yes -- the grandeur of public service. Winning was important. But how the winner conducted himself counted for plenty too. Too bad that Brown's loose-jointed memoir, "Basic Brown," lands on the wrong side of Wilde's maxim. Charming it is not.
Brown was a Democrat on his way up in the state Assembly when I arrived in Sacramento as a cub wire service reporter. He was my kind of politician: bold when others were meek, brash when his colleagues were measured. He was a pugilist, a dandy, a raconteur -- traits that frightened other politicians, but which never seemed to hold Brown back.
Face it, he was interesting in a business that perpetually suffers from aching dullness. He had a grin as big as a hundred-dollar bill and he spent from it freely. His renowned eloquence bestowed consequence on the subjects that mattered to him.
No wonder that his tenure as speaker of the Assembly became a standard for others. No wonder that after he was elected mayor of San Francisco, Newsweek put him on the cover to illustrate an article on the most dynamic mayors in the nation.
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Katrina should force the candidates to talk about race.
The Democratic nominee should make the plight of blacks and the poor in New Orleans the symbolic launching pad for a progressive political campaign in the same way that Ronald Reagan made the racist legacy of Philadelphia, Miss. his symbolic launching pad in 1980. First, the nominee should head to New Orleans and pledge – in the name of social justice and civil rights – the restoration of rights and resources of the many black residents there who still find themselves displaced. The candidate should also pledge to fight for the material resources and political brokering necessary to ensure the Katrina evacuees the right to return. This would entail providing the resources, (particularly jobs and housing) services and political clout that would enable all citizens in the Katrina Diaspora who wanted to return to do so. To further expand her or his credibility, the Democratic candidate should rail against the tearing down of public housing complexes and the lack of services at the key public hospital there that serves the poor.
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PROTEST and DEMONSTRATIONS
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Keep this in mind on Feb. 1Oth
Why some black cartoonists aren't laughing.
Comic strips inked by black cartoonists are about more than just being black. They muse about the angst of college kids, "bromance," even a rapping pitbull that's fallen on hard times. Yet their reach is limited. National syndicates, comics page and newspaper editors rarely allow more than two "black" strips on a funny page at a time.
The situation is so maddening to black cartoonists that ten of them have banded together to stage a "draw-in" of sorts on Feb. 10. Each cartoonist will draw their individual strips with an identical plot.
So, "Candorville"—a strip about culture clashes in the inner city and "Watch Your Head"—a strip about college students—will have different characters, but the same exact storyline. But will anyone notice? Will anyone care?
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ODDS and ENDS
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I agree with this article if only college football thought like this.
NBA still has work to do, but the color barrier has been erased
There is one area of representation for the Eastern Conference and Western All-Star teams that can never be questioned, though, and that’s the coaches. Head coach come from the teams with the best winning percentage in each conference though Feb. 3, and the previous season’s coaches are not eligible. And in the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker goes to the coach who has not coached in the game most recently.
And this year’s duo for the Feb. 17 game in New Orleans is no different with the inclusion of Doc Rivers from the East and Bryon Scott from the West – only the second time in NBA history that two African-American coaches have faced each other in the game and the first time since K.C. Jones and Al Attles did it in 1975.
It is too bad that we’ve reached the 21st century and race still becomes a story in a league that is about 80 percent black. Consequently, it’s impossible to ignore what the respective coaches have accomplished with their teams this season.
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The Arts
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From Hip-Hop's Paul D. Miller: New York City, Remixed
Many know Paul D. Miller, or "DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid," as the brainy musician from Washington who hit the national scene in the mid-'90s with his brand of experimental hip-hop.
But now, Miller, 37, would rather be known as "an artist who DJs." Based in New York these days, Miller signed last year with Irvine Contemporary gallery on 14th Street where his video, "New York Is Now," plays continuously on a flat-screen monitor.
The 35-minute, black-and-white video shows archival footage of New York, such as commuters cramming onto a train and the electric lights on Coney Island. Miller splices in clips from early avant-garde films by Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp and scenes from the 1933 film "King Kong." Bold political statements pop on the screen, as does a Walt Whitman poem and the proclamation "Charles de Gaulle was wrong."
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Diaries of Note
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Black Kos History why Lincoln's GOP abandoned Black's to Jim Crow by ME
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Ignoring A Crucial Black Issue by yankeeliberal
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Two related diaries by the same person.Black History Month-Honor John Brown of Harper's Ferry and Black History Month-Honor John Brown of Harper's Ferry by markin
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[Update: Added Links]From Negro History Week to Black History Month, Part 2 by LNK