Commentary
dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
I don't often write the opening comments to Black Kos, but the last month or so of Daily Kos diaries and this site's tone compelled me to do so. In many ways, I'm more of the "speak when you have something important to say" type. What's "important" for me to write about are some of the personal attacks leveled at members of this team.
A great team is always stronger than the sum of it's part. That is what makes the Black Kos team so special we each bring a collection of experiences and talents that compliments and strengthens each other. Different life experiences in age, geography, background, gender, and temperament. These are differences that gives this crew strength. But lately, maybe because of the health care war, maybe the inertia of Congress, maybe something else. There is a clique of people who want to try and turn these differences in our team into points of division and strife. Make no mistake although we may have different writing styles, when it comes to policy ideas, and approaches, this team speaks with one voice. Anyone who feels that not to be true is sadly mistaken.
We here at Black Kos, welcome an open discourse and debate. What we don't welcome is open derision and a lack of just plain old politeness. Yes talking about race is hard, no make that very hard, but when you take a position and others point out how it can offend others, why persist? Yes this is a free country and a basically free site, but with freedom comes responsibility. Why not tone down the language and try to explain yourself, why escalate? I'm not writing this from the top of a mighty pedestal. I myself have offended people (inadvertently of course) but that's the reason I'm here. To learn together, to grow together, and yes maybe laugh and cry together. I try to always give other the benefit of the doubt and think that any offensive comment is "inadvertent", and I hope the other returns the compliment.
I have written before that the greatest problem in frank discussion is the fallacy of the absolutes. We all have said or done some degree of racist, sexist, homophobic, etc behavior at some point in our life. For most here it may be in the past, or few and far between but its there. Yet the attitude that "I'm not a (insert racist, sexist, homophobe, etc)" is a real impediment to progress. As if there are only neo-naziz KKK members on one side of a divide and everyone else "doesn't have a racist/sexist/homophobic bone in their body" it has gotten so bad that even a judge who refuses inter-racial marriage claimed with a straight face "that I'm not a racist" presumably because he hasn't donned a white robe. Sorry people we may all be more evolved than that turd, but no one here has a set of wings and a halo (OK maybe Amazinggrace but that's a long story...)
I know that family fights are always fiercest because people care more about each other. People who care about each other know how to get on each other nerves better, also people always expect more from those whom they care about. But let's not forget we are all on the same side. Never confuse differences in methods, with differences in goals.
I truly don't know why people thought change would be easy? I think Senator Harkin said the most powerful committee in Congress is the status quo committee. But as soon as things get tough we shouldn't turn on each other, we need to band together tighter. That is the saddest lesson from this "season of our discontent" how quickly the knives started to come out. Black Kos was one of the few "sanctuaries of sanity" on this site, but many battles were fought many between people who were former friends to maintain it. Many avoidable scars were formed because of this.
So for the New Year I want everyone to start out fresh, remember the the "warrior queens" may be fierce advocates but they are still lady's and should be treated as such. The Black Kos brothers maybe more be more quiet but don't take calmness for weakness, we are here fighting just as fiercely for change. Let us leave last years battles in last year, and start out this year fresh and with a new perspective. As scarily fast as the time seems to fly by, we are only 11 months away from the next election cycle when progressive values and change will be surely tested. Because as a great leader once said "if we don't learn to hang together, we will HANG together"
==========================================================================
Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor
With the coming of the New Year, the blackwoman takes stock of herself, her life, her goals and dreams. I ask myself the tough questions. You know, like what do you want to be if you grow up? For a long time I have understood myself as a child. There is always so much to do, learn, see and experience. Adventure is my experience of choice. At this point in my life, adventure involves me stepping into new places in my mind. In my heart.
I have to fight for it sometimes. This stepping into the mind and heart business can make for a rough ride. Knowledge can be a cushion for a bumpy ride. Wisdom when you can find some is even better.
I’ve been asking myself what I can do to make sure that my seven little bi-racial and my two other grandbabies don’t have to scratch and claw their way through walls built by racism and maintained by privilege.
Soon perhaps it will dawn on my daughters-in-love that many people will not see them when they look at their children. They will see Africa. Their sons and daughters, my grandbabies will identify with Africa. The world will see in them children of the Diaspora.
I hope someday to have a conversation with them about all of this. For now, I smile when my three year old grandson notes that I am brown. " Like my Daddy." He told me he was white like his Mama. I looked him in the eye and said "No you are not." My son, his Daddy chimed in "You will grow up to be a black man. Like me." My grandson seemed pleased at the prospect.
Things have not changed enough to let them grow up thinking they are white.
Two of my sons married into Republican families. I shamed one family into voting for Obama. Reminded them that Obama was just like our grandchildren. I feel no remorse and since they are both pleased with their choice, all’s well that ends well.
The other family consist of one dead on the inside woman and her little mean spirited, watches Fox and think Rush is the shit husband. He thinks that the kids could ‘pass’. Wishful thinking. He loves them. Of this I have no doubt. He just wishes they didn’t have a black father. I wish I could pull his head out of his ass. Neither of us will get what we wish for it seems.
I had to talk to my eleven year old granddaughter because her Republican grandfather had filled her head with nonsense about what a wonderful job Bush did with Katrina. I have never loved anyone as deeply as I loved her the day she was explaining all of this to me. I loved her enough not to tell her that her grandfather was a sawed-off sorry assed excuse for a human being (my first impression of him is holding true). Instead I told her what really happened and then we both got on the computer where I showed her news articles that disproved her "Papa’s" bullshit.
I will never forget the look on her face as she asked me "Why would they leave those people to die?"
"Because most of them were poor and black."
When she asked which was worse, poor or black, I told her that both were merely life conditions. We are born as we are born. Nothing wrong with being born black. Or poor. I told her both imposed varying degrees of challenge. I told her neither was an impediment to happiness. Then I told her what I had been told. Education is the key. Though it won’t make you immune to racism, it will likely keep you from poverty.
Thing is, I want things to be different for my grandchildren. I want them to grow up in an America where racism and racist are gone. Disappeared. Vanished.
This is the same thing my parents, and their parents and the parents before them wanted. Generation after generation has held this prayer. Spoken. Unspoken. It is the thing held sacred in the hearts of my people.
I’ve been fighting racism most of my life. I’ve marched, cried, shouted. Rang not a few doors, talked to people, passed out flyers and sat down in protest. I’m getting too old to do that stuff anymore. It’s somebody else’s turn.
When I looked at my life and asked what I planned to do with this year, the first thing that came up is raise hell. Raise hell with racist and racism. Cry out against the cancer that truly threatens this society. Thrust my truth saber into the faces of those would be racist. For my grandbabies. All nine of them.
Funny thing. About the time I came to a decision I heard a voice clearly ask "So what’s new about that?"
The answer is simple. Nothing new except the adventure of it all. To someone who is an advemture junkie, ‘tis enough.
Happy New Year!
Now run and tell that.
==========================================================================
Commentary
Sephius1, Black Kos Editor
To start this new year off right, I thought I would present a jack of all trades, including being an inventor. He is an all-star athlete, Olympic competitor, and physic's engineer. His name is Meredith Gourdine.
Meredith Charles "Flash" Gourdine was born on September 26, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey. His father worked as a painter and janitor and instilled within his son the importance of a strong work ethic. Meredith attended Brooklyn Technical High School and after classes he helped his father on various jobs, often working eight hour days. However, his father believed that education was more important than just developing into a hard worker and he told him "If you don't want to be a laborer all your life, stay in school." Meredith minded his father's advice, excelling in academics. He was also an excellent athlete, competing in track and field and swimming during his senior year. He did well enough in swimming to be offered a scholarship to the University of Michigan, but he turned it down to enter Cornell University. He paid his way through Cornell for his first two years before receiving a track and field scholarship after his sophomore year. He competed in sprints, hurdles and the long jump. Standing 6' and weighing 175 lbs., he starred for his school, winning four titles at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America championship and led Cornell to a second place finish at the 1952 NCAA Track and Field Championship (The University of Southern California won the meet but boasted 36 athletes while Cornell had only five c). Gourdine was so heralded that he was chosen to represent the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland. He received a silver medal in the long jump competition, losing to fellow American Jerome Biffle by one and a half inches. "I Would have rather lost by a foot," he would later say. "I still have nightmares about it."
After graduating from Cornell with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering Physics in 1953, he entered the United States Navy as an officer. He soon returned to academia, entering the California Institute of Technology, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received a Ph.D. in Engineering Science in 1960. During his time at Cal. Tech., he served on the Technical Staff of the Ramo-Woolridge Corporation and then as a Senior Research Scientist at the Cal. Tech. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After graduation, he became a Lab Director for the Plasmodyne Corporation until 1962 when he joined the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, serving as Chief Scientist.
In 1964, Gourdine borrowed $200,000.00 from family and friends and opened Gourdine Laboratories, a research laboratory located in Livingston, New Jersey and at its height he employed 150 people. In 1973, he founded and served as CEO for Energy Innovation, Inc. in Houston, Texas which produced direct-energy conversion devices (converting low-grade coal into inexpensive, transportable and high-voltage electrical energy). His company's performed research and development, specifically in the fields of electrogasdynamics. Electrogasdynamics refers to the generation of energy from the motion of ionized (electrically charged) gas molecules under high pressure. His biggest creation was the Incineraid system, which was used to disperse smoke from burning buildings and could be used to disperse fog on airport runways. The Incineraid system worked by negatively charging smoke or fog, causing the airborne particles within to be electro magnetically charged and then to fall to the ground.....Read more
==========================================================================
This weeks News by Amazinggrace and dopper0189, Black Kos Editor and Managing Editor
________________________________________________________________________
==========================================================================
Archaeologists have discovered a monumental statue of an ancient black Egyptian pharaoh of the Nubian 25th Dynasty in Dangeil, Sudan, about 350 kilometres northeast of the capital, Khartoum. Digital Journal: Monumental Statue Of Black Egyptian Pharaoh Found.
==========================================================================
Archaeologists have discovered a monumental statue of an ancient black Egyptian pharaoh of the Nubian 25th Dynasty in Dangeil, Sudan, about 350 kilometres northeast of the capital, Khartoum.
The granite statue of the warrior pharaoh Taharqa weighs one ton, according to its discoverer, Dr Caroline Rocheleau of the North Carolina Museum of Art, who added it was: More than life-size and weighs over one ton.
The statues of two other Nubian pharaohs were also discovered. Rocheleau’s blog is quoted on the DNA website describing the statues as having:
Great muscular bodies with an inscribed back pillar... and lovely feet on the statue base, but we are missing their heads and their lower legs.
Taharqa was ruler of both Egypt and Nubia (Kush) during the 25th Dynasty, which was based in Nubia, which had a long history of pyramid building, apparently independent of Egypt. His reign is dated from 690 BC to 664 BC. The pharaoh is mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Kings under the name "Tirhakah." 2 Kings 19:9 says:
Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:
"Kush" refers to areas south of Egypt, including Nubia.
A website dealing with ancient Nubia says it was the homeland of Africa’s earliest indigenous black culture, reaching back over 5,000 years. The site has a wealth of information and photos of this ancient kingdom. read more here -->
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
==========================================================================
This will take many people by surprise. New York Times: No Longer Majority Black, Harlem Is in Transition.
==========================================================================
For nearly a century, Harlem has been synonymous with black urban America. Given its magnetic and growing appeal to younger black professionals and its historic residential enclaves and cultural institutions, the neighborhood’s reputation as the capital of black America seems unlikely to change soon.
But the neighborhood is in the midst of a profound and accelerating shift. In greater Harlem, which runs river to river, and from East 96th Street and West 106th Street to West 155th Street, blacks are no longer a majority of the population — a shift that actually occurred a decade ago, but was largely overlooked.
By 2008, their share had declined to 4 in 10 residents. Since 2000, central Harlem’s population has grown more than in any other decade since the 1940s, to 126,000 from 109,000, but its black population — about 77,000 in central Harlem and about twice that in greater Harlem — is smaller than at any time since the 1920s.
In 2008, 22 percent of the white households in Harlem had moved to their present homes within the previous year. By comparison, only 7 percent of the black households had. read more here -->
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
==========================================================================
Rest in peace. Chicago Tribune: Eunice W. Johnson, 1916-2010: Widow of Johnson Publishing founder gave Ebony magazine its name.
==========================================================================
Eunice W. Johnson gave Ebony magazine its name and for almost 50 years produced an influential traveling fashion show that brought haute couture to African-Americans while raising millions of dollars for charity.
The widow of Johnson Publishing Co. founder John H. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, 93, died of renal failure Sunday, Jan. 3, in her Chicago home, according to a company spokeswoman.
A close business partner of her husband's since the beginning of Johnson Publishing in 1942, Mrs. Johnson remained the company's secretary-treasurer at the time of her death and for years wrote a monthly fashion feature for Ebony magazine.
Johnson Publishing's flagship, conceived as an African-American version of Life magazine and published since 1945, was named by Mrs. Johnson to reflect the mystique of fine black ebony wood, said Wendy Parks of Johnson Publishing. read more here -->
________________________________________________________________________
==========================================================================
Medical folk have wondered for years why some racial groups have a greater tendency for diabetes than other groups. Recently a University of Carolina study found for African Americans diabetes is in the genes related to their history. Digital Journal: Is Diabetes in African Americans a Consequence of Slavery?
==========================================================================
Scientists considered a number of factors for racial disparities, including cultural patterns. But researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine observe that inherited genetic variations exist between whites and blacks in the United States. This leads African Americans to have a less effcient metabolism of glucose. It presents them with the predisposition to diabetes.
Researchers looked at blood samples taken from both black and white patients undergoing treatment in the cardiac catherization lab. Those with problems in glucose metabolism were found to be more frequently of African-American descent than white.
"We found gene expression profiles that suggest that carbohydrate metabolism should be different in the African-Americans in our population compared to Caucasians," said Cam Patterson, M.D., chief of cardiology and director of the McAllister Heart Institute at UNC.
Why does this happen? Scientists hypothesize by looking at the history of certain populations observing the movement of African populations to environments outside of their countries of origin. Their observations suggest the problems arose from response to an environment where food was scarce and diet significantly different than that consumed by whites.
Cam Patterson, M.D., chief of cardiology and director of the McAllister Heart Institute at UNC. said with respect to this hypothesis "In essence, although African populations moved geographically as they came to the United States, their genes retained a pattern more suited to their ancestor’s home, becoming maladaptive as African populations adopted a Western diet," Patterson explained.
This controversial finding isn't a first since years ago researchers also found genetic variations in the same population with respect to red blood cells. They found G6PD deficiency, most common in African American males, evolved in some groups to protect them against malaria. read more here -->
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
==========================================================================
I would argue the bigger divide is social justice churches versus social conservative churches but race is so much easier to quantify. Time: Can Megachurches Bridge the Racial Divide?
==========================================================================
One Sunday last fall, Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor at the Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago's northwest suburbs, was preaching on the logic and power of Jesus' words "Love thine enemy." As is his custom, Hybels was working a small semicircle of easels arrayed behind his lectern, reinforcing key phrases. Hybels' preaching is economical, precise of tone and gesture. Again by custom, he was dressed in black, which accentuated his pale complexion, blue eyes and hair, once Dutch-boy blond but now white. Indeed, if there is a whiter preacher currently running a megachurch, that man must glow.
Yet neither Hybels' sermon, nor his 23,400-person congregation, is as white as he is. Along with Jesus, he invoked Martin Luther King Jr. Then he introduced Shawn Christopher, a former backup singer for Chaka Khan, who offered a powerhouse rendition of "We Shall Overcome." As the music swelled, Larry and Renetta Butler, an African-American couple in their usual section in the 7,800-seat sanctuary, exchanged glances. Since Hybels decided 10 years ago to aggressively welcome minorities to his lily-white congregation, Renetta says, few sermons pass without a cue that he is still at it. "He always throws in something," she says. She's been around long enough to recall when this wasn't the case.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared that "11 o'clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week ... And the Sunday school is still the most segregated school." That largely remains true today. Despite the growing desegregation of most key American institutions, churches are still a glaring exception. Surveys from 2007 show that fewer than 8% of American congregations have a significant racial mix. read more here -->
________________________________________________________________________
==========================================================================
Was slightly skeptical of this experiment until I read how it was conducted. A new study reveals white characters display far more negative body language toward their black peers. The Toronto Star: TV clips reveal racist body language, study finds.
==========================================================================
Racist body language comes through loud and clear on television, even when the sound is off, a new study shows.
Through a set of ingeniously concocted experiments, reported Friday in the journal Science, researchers show that white characters in television series display far more negative body language toward their black peers than to members of their own race.
The bias conveyed by these body clues is not only recognized subconsciously by people who watch the shows, but significantly influences their feelings about the black characters.
"Sadly, we observed that non-verbal race bias is a typical pattern on scripted television shows," lead study author Max Weisbuch said in a release on the paper.
"White characters are treated better across the board and this has an impact on viewers," said Weisbuch, a post-doctoral psychologist at Massachusetts's Tufts University.
In the first experiment, researchers used clips from 11 television programs – including Bones, Grey's Anatomy, CSI and Scrubs – and digitally removed one of the characters participating in the scenes.
They then muted any onscreen conversations and recruited college students who had never seen the episodes to watch.
"We took out the target character, who was either black or white, and the (remaining) character was always white," senior study author Nalini Ambady said in an interview with the Star.
"Then we just showed people and said `how much does this person like the person they're interacting with?'" said Ambady, a Tufts social psychologist.
The viewers, it was found, consistently judged the body language expressed by the visible white characters as more negative whenever the unseen character in the scene was black.
Ambady stresses that the black characters in the scenes selected were not criminals or impoverished, as often seen on television.
Instead, the scenes came from enlightened series that portray blacks as social and intellectual peers.
"Take a medical drama for example, both the black and the white characters were doctors," Ambady said. Yet while the negative body language is certainly not scripted, she was not sure if it reflects innate reactions by the white actors, is directorial in origin, or a combination of both. read more here -->
________________________________________________________________________
=========================================================================
There is new film out on the work of Afro-Cuban artist Celia the Queen. VirirLatino: Mala’s Monday Morning Movie : Celia the Queen
==========================================================================
Celia the Queen by Joe Cardona
Celia the Queen is a loving look at the amazing life and legacy of a woman whose voice symbolized the soul of a nation and captured the hearts of fans worldwide. Erupting onto the Cuban music scene as the lead singer for La Sonora Matancera, Celia Cruz broke down barriers of racism and sexism. With the powerful weapon of her voice and the warm tolerance of her heart, Celia soon became all things to all people. The film shows the diversity of the people whose lives she touched, from stars like Quincy Jones, Andy Garcia, and Wyclef Jean to ordinary people all over the world who loved not only her music but her incredible spirit. A co-presentation with National Black Programming Consortium.
What I found most interesting was how Afro-Latino and Pan-Latino Celia was in terms of the kind of music she sang and with whom she worked with while remaining rooted in lo Afro-Cubano. The film features other musicians she worked with like Johnny Pacheco, Oscar De Leon, and Willie Colon. What I also found interesting was how apolitical the film attempted to be. Not once was Fidel Castro mentioned and in a clip of Celia, she herself refuses to call him by name, but rather just speaks of how she worked even harder outside of Cuba post-Revolution to make sure her sick mother could get what she needed. read more here -->
________________________________________________________________________
=========================================================================
The implications from this ruling this ruling potentially could be enormous. NewsWeek: Federal Appeals Court Strikes a Blow for Racial Equality, Even if No One Wants to Use the 'R' Word.
==========================================================================
In the 24 hours since the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Washington’s law barring felons from voting violated the Federal Voters Rights Act, the story has been widely broadcast as allowing felons to vote in prison. But the issue of prisoners participating in our democracy buries the real news in the decision. The court threw out Washington's law because its criminal-justice system is biased against minorities. The problem isn’t with disenfranchising prisoners, it’s with a state legal system that unfairly throws so many people of color in prison that their voting power is diluted. These are the court’s words:
"The expert reports, which were not refuted by the State, provide compelling circumstantial evidence of discrimination in Washington’s criminal justice system. [University of Washington sociology professor and plaintiff witness] Dr. [Robert] Crutchfield's report states that criminal justice practices disproportionately affect minorities beyond what can be explained by non-racial means. For example, African Americans in Washington State were over nine times more likely to be in prison than Whites, even though the ratio of Black to White arrest for violent offenses was only 3.72:1, suggesting that substantially more than one half of Washington State's racial disproportionality in its criminal justice system cannot be explained by higher levels of criminal involvement as measured by violent crime arrest statistics."
Such a damning report should be front-page news all over the country, especially in light of all the talk of racial progress since Obama's election. But news cycles being as short as they are, the part about voting in prison is probably the only part of this story that will reach the public consciousness. read more here -->
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
==========================================================================
Enough people have spoken up on this issue, that it can no longer be dismissed as trivial. Daily News: Use of word Negro on 2010 census forms raises memories of Jim Crow.
==========================================================================
The census form for 2010 features a word more often heard in 1966: Negro.
For many New York blacks, the word conjures visions of Jim Crow and segregation - even if the Census Bureau says it's included to ensure an accurate count of the nation's minority residents.
"It's a bad vibe word," said Kevin Bishop, 45, a Brooklyn salesman. "It doesn't agree with me, doesn't agree with my heart."
Pamela Reese Smith, visiting the city yesterday from Rochester, said the term was outdated.
"I don't think my ancestors would appreciate it in 2010," said Smith, 56. "I don't want my grandchildren being called Negroes."
Question No. 9 on this year's census form asks about race, with one of the answers listed as "black, African-Am. or Negro."
Census Bureau spokesman Jack Martin said the use of "Negro" was intended as a term of inclusion.
"Many older African-Americans identified themselves that way, and many still do," he said. "Those who identify themselves as Negroes need to be included."
The form was also approved by Congress more than a year ago, and the word has appeared on past forms.
The use of Negro began disappearing elsewhere with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as black or African-American became the preferred terms.
Although Martin noted that some older blacks still use the term, younger blacks feel it's a term that's passe. read more here -->
_________________________________________________________________________
==========================================================================
A Malawian judge has rejected a bail application by two gay men charged with public indecency after getting engaged. BBC: Malawi gay wedding couple lose bail appeal.
==========================================================================
Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa said Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza would be safer in custody while they wait their trial - expected to start next week.
The pair, believed to be the first gay couple in Malawi to start the process of getting married, pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.
Homosexual acts carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years in Malawi.
Denying them bail, Mr Usiwa-Usiwa said: "The accused have the right to bail but considering the public interest their case has generated it is the view of the court that they are safer in police custody than out there."
He said the pair would be given bail on 10 January if prosecutors had not finished investigating by then. read more here -->
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
==========================================================================
We always shed a tear for Haiti, for most of it's history western nations colluded it it's failure, as a show case of "this is what happens when black self govern" getting her right should be a major cuas eof the Africa diaspora. South Florida Caribbean News: Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition (HAGC) Symposium To Put Spotlight On Haitian Migration in 2010.
==========================================================================
The problematic of Haitan Migration is a topic of interest for several countries in the Western Hemisphere such as the United States, the Dominican Republic, the Republic of the Bahamas, and at a lesser extent some of the lesser nation-states in the Caribbean Basin.
Last year, in the context of the Organization of American States (OAS) XXXVIII General Assembly meeting in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, HAGC submitted and proposed a draft resolution to the (OAS) Permanent Council to urge member states impacted by chronic Haitian Migration to open a dialog and seek possible resolutions on the matter. The regional organization instead opted to spend its energy on Cuba alone and ignore the Haiti Problematic.
Western media outlets, for the past four decades, have tagged Haitians fleeing their homeland as economic refugees and placed little attention on the sporadic political turmoils that have engulfed Haiti since its creation by Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines. For many of its inhabitants, Haiti is like a house on fire that must be vacated at all cost. Mass migration is certainly not the panacea capable of healing Haiti's ailments. Structural changes are imperative and necessary to take Haiti from its precipice. Money alone is highly likely not to be the answer in transforming the country in ways that the governed must feel and experienced that they are participants in the public policy process. read more here -->
==========================================================================
Going back two weeks to cover the holiday period.
[] DKos: Bigotry breakdown by Morus
[] Daily Kos NOLA-Mayor: the lack of a "black" candidate by YatPundit
[] I TOO have a serious "black people" problem. (UPDATED, with even more delicious outrage! by JeffLieber
[] Blacks Need Not Apply: Modern-day Segregation, Greek Organizations, and the University of Alabama by Inoljt
[] Tavis Smiley to end "State of the Black Union" Conference by dlh77489
[] The Re-Emerging Threat: White Power USA by Vyan
=============================================================
FRIDAY'S WAKE-UP MUSIC
Bon Bon Vie by Thelonious Monk, Jr. (son of legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk)