Racist Republikkkans try to turn back time
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
After watching the whiter shade of pale primary in South Carolina which seemed like a pep rally for the Confederate States of America, where people of color were notably absent-from rallies and the voting... I am awash in deja vu.
They want to take us back to before the Civil War
They want to take away our ability to vote
They want women barefoot, pregnant and gagged
They want to pray away the gay
They want to eliminate unions
They want to rid the nation of immigrants who don't match their preferred color scheme -white on white
They want to sanitize textbooks and rewrite history
As a teacher I am particularly concerned by efforts to sanitize textbooks of all the history we have fought to get included, and have paid close attention to events in Texas, a state which has an inordinate affect on the content on texts distributed nation-wide.
The entire board is up for re-election:
Because of redistricting, all 15 seats on the Texas State Board of Education will be up for grabs in the November 2012 elections. The results of these elections will determine whether the religious right’s corrosive influence over public education will weaken or grow as the board considers what the next generation of public school students in Texas will learn about evolution, social studies, sex education and other subjects.
Meanwhile Tennessee Teadhadists are attempting to launch yet another attack on the education front:
NASHVILLE — Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.” About two dozen tea party activists held a news conference, then met with lawmakers individually to present their list of priorities and “demands” for the 2011 legislative session that opened Tuesday. Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.” That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”
The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculum's, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”
Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.
Intruding? Intruding? The mind boggles. Ethnocide is intruding? As if folks just waltzed in and said to native people, "um excuse me, but may we try to wipe you out and if you survive can we herd you off to reservations?
Made up history about President's having enslaved human beings?
Since some of my ancestors were owned by James Monroe I have always paid attention to the history of President's and the ownership of human beings.
Of the first five presidents, four owned slaves. All four of these owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next five presidents (#6-10), four owned slaves. Only two of them owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next five presidents (#11-15), two owned slaves. Both of these two owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next three presidents (#16-18) two owned slaves. neither of them owned slaves while serving as president.
The last president to own slaves while in office was the twelfth president, Zachary Taylor (1849-1850).
The last president to own slaves at all was the eighteenth president, Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877).
So twelve of our presidents owned slaves and eight of them owned slaves while serving as president.
Front Porcher Yasuragi sent me this to read:
Ghost of Christmas Past: Racism & Divisiveness in the Republican Party
which echos my dejavu sentiments.
Have you ever been somewhere or doing something and thought to yourself, “This is strangely familiar. I have been here before, right?” The American comic Steven Wright once said, “Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time.” At this moment in time, this quote holds true for the current process of nominating the Republican Great White Hope nominee. Even though I was not around during the 1940s and 1950s (thank God, I do not know if I would have been tough enough), I am feeling as if our country has been here before, politically and socially...
Today, the spirit of Strom Thurmond is present within the current Republican Party nomination process. The likes of Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul have all had their turn publicly battering people of color and the poor to the jeers of misguided conservatives who have felt that their country has been stripped from their White hands by a Black man.
The Tea Party in Tennessee has a website. They are linked closely to a new "Black Robe Regiment movement. Black robes? What makes that different from Klan attire? Not much, since the black robes movement was launched by Glen Beck, (though this group claims to be different) they provide a link to Beck, and other arch-conservative Christian groups attempting to turn back the clock of history to re-birth the "real America" of WASP elite forefathers.
So we need to keep on pushin' towards forging coalitions that want to move forward to fulfill the promise of an America where we have equality, justice, civil and human rights for us all.
I ain't turning back and ain't gonna let nobody turn me round.
And they are not going to turn back time.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Via Kitsap River => Study showed more type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure as exposure to bad air rose. Medline Plus: Smog Tied to Raised Risk of Chronic Illness in Black Women
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Air pollution may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure in black American women, a new study suggests.
Previous research has shown that air pollution boosts the chances of acute cardiovascular events such as stroke and heart attack, but it hasn't been known whether it also increases the likelihood of chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension).
In this study, researchers examined the link between these chronic illnesses and exposure to nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, also known as particle pollution. Nitrogen oxides are indicators of traffic-related air pollution.
The study included about 4,000 black women living in Los Angeles who were followed from 1995 to 2005. During that time, 531 new cases of hypertension and 183 new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in the women, said study leader Patricia Coogan, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health and the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, and colleagues.
For each increase of 12 parts per billion (ppb) in exposure to nitrogen oxides, there was a 24 percent rise in the risk of diabetes and an 11 percent rise in the risk of hypertension. Exposure to particle pollution also appeared to increase the risk for having both diseases, but the evidence for this was weaker than for nitrogen oxides.
The study was released online Jan. 4 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Circulation.
Two previous studies suggested that traffic-related air pollution increased the risk of diabetes, but those studies did not include black Americans.
"A link between air pollution and the risks of diabetes and hypertension is of particular importance to African American women, because the incidence of both conditions is almost twice as high in African American women as in white women," Coogan said in a Boston Medical Center news release. She added that black Americans also may tend to live in more highly polluted areas than white Americans.
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Hundreds of interviews were stitched together to create a vast tapestry of opinion. New York Daily News: New video exhibit 'Question Bridge: Black Males' at Brooklyn Museum explores black identity.
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It’s not easy to get 160 black men from 11 American cities in one room to talk about their identity.
So the four collaborators who created “Question Bridge: Black Males,” the latest multimedia exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, did the next best thing.
Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair filmed African-American men from across America asking and answering questions about black male identity. They then edited together the interviews and played them on five separate video screens to create the appearance of these men having a conversation.
The result is a one-of-a-kind video installation that provides insight into the collective consciousness of black men in American society.
And what quickly becomes apparent from watching the exhibit is that black America, while sharing a common heritage, maintains a widely varied set of opinions.
“I wanted to show that there is as much range within any demographic as there is outside of it,” says collaborator Thomas, a 35-year-old photo artist from the upper West Side.
“People label us as black men but there is an incredible diversity of black men and that emerges in this installation.”
The “Question Bridge” project also packs a fair amount of star power. Executive producers include actor Delroy Lindo and “Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams, who is a former high school teacher and long time Brooklyn resident.
JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY/BROOKLYN MUSEUM
Photo of subjects in the ‘Question Bridge: Black Males’ video installation at the Brooklyn Museum
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Exploring the lives, outlook and goals of black women in America. Washington Post: Survey paints portrait of black women in America.
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Rich or poor, educated or not, black women sometimes feel as though myths are stalking them like shadows, their lives reduced to a string of labels.
The angry black woman. The strong black woman. The unfeeling black woman. The manless black woman.
“Black women haven’t really defined themselves,” says author Sophia Nelson, who urges her fellow sisters to take control of their image. “We were always defined as workhorses, strong. We carry the burdens, we carry the family. We don’t need. We don’t want.”
In a new nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a complex portrait emerges of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage. The survey, which includes interviews with more than 800 black women, represents the most extensive exploration of the lives and views of African American women in decades.
Religion is essential to most black women’s lives; being in a romantic relationship is not, the poll shows. Nearly three-quarters of African American women say now is a good time to be a black woman in America, and yet a similar proportion worry about having enough money to pay their bills. Half of black women surveyed call racism a “big problem” in the country; nearly half worry about being discriminated against. Eighty-five percent say they are satisfied with their own lives, but one-fifth say they are often treated with less respect than other people.
Results of a survey paint a a complex portrait of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage.
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Known for its art-loving leaders, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is intent on keeping the tradition alive with a slew of cultural buildings lined up for the coming months in what he has christened the 'Seven Wonders'. Africa Review: Senegal's Wade keeps arts fire alive with new edifice
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An earlier edifice, the $28 million African Renaissance monument, drew stinging criticism for being out of touch with economic reality as well as its poor aesthetics. But President Wade has said he will forge along with the construction of a 'Cultural Park' hosting the Seven Wonders and which will be dedicated to African youth and art lovers.
The museum is being built on a 2.2 hectare piece of land adjacent to another multi-million dollar building, the Grand National Theatre, which was inaugurated in April.
Culture ministry officials in Dakar told Africa Review that the museum, to be built in 28 months, would entirely be financed by the Chinese government.
President Wade last month said even though the designs of the structures were undertaken by Chinese architects, they were conceived with an African spirit and would allow the public to learn about African civilisations.
Senegal's controversial "African Renaissance" statue, depicting a family rising triumphantly from a volcano, which costs $28 million to erect.
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In recent years, Latino and African American consumers with good credit scores of 660* and higher have too often ended up with high interest rate mortgages, mortgages which are supposed to go to risky borrowers. Economic Policy Institute: A good credit score did not protect Latino and black borrowers
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From 2004 to 2008, only 6.2 percent of white borrowers with credit scores of 660 and above ended up with higher-rate mortgages. Latinos and blacks with good credit scores, however, were three times as likely to end up with higher-rate mortgages.
Borrowers of all races suffered from the anything-goes attitude of the housing boom. The Wall Street Journal has reported that more than half of high interest rate loans during the peak years of the boom went to borrowers who should have qualified for prime mortgages. The data also suggests that Latinos and blacks with good credit were especially at risk for ending up with higher-rate mortgages.
Discriminatory housing practices are one reason why our country needs a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A powerful CFPB helps make sure that everyone is treated equally and fairly by the financial services industry.
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A growing number of African American pastors in the Washington area, including the Rev. Carroll A. Baltimore Sr., president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, have embraced the Occupy movement. Washington Post: Growing number of African American pastors express support for Occupy movement.
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In December, leaders of Occupy D.C. left their encampments at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza to worship at Empowerment Temple, Bryant’s church in Baltimore. Hagler has held services on Freedom Plaza. Others bring food and clothing to the protesters. And Bryant, who ministers to many in the Maryland suburbs, co-founded Occupy the Dream with former NAACP leader Benjamin Chavis.
The pastors’ pleas for economic justice sound a lot like King’s.
“This is the continuation of the [civil rights] movement. It was the economic movement that King was killed for,” said Hagler, of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Northeast Washington.
A growing number of African American pastors in the Washington area are embracing the Occupy movement, saying the pleas for economic justice sound a lot like the Rev. Martin Luther King’s goals.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
The main take-away from George Orwell's Animal Farm is that, though all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others; and I am sure if it isn't banned already, Arizona will restrict Orwell's tome because of its description of division and unrest.
So it then follows, that a separation occurs; an isolation that breeds fear and uncertainty. A fear and uncertainty that imposes the question of, who is a friend and who is an enemy? A fear and uncertainty that causes flight from those most able to help and alleviate that fear and uncertainty.
We are all equal. Some of us are more equal than others.
Animal Farm
Consider the toucan’s festive gold breast.
Its multicolored pecker, oddly cutesy
& perhaps, a cartoon-comfort
to the gym-roped Westerners
reclining on a beach in Costa Rica.
It’s the same old song: good-natured
smile, hard work, a hat’s off kind
of attitude & before you can say
post-racial, you’re a Resort Toucan.
The benefits are room & board
but the cost is blood. Most times
it’s the closest ones—birds
of the same rainforest, same
quadrant, same tree—who give up
your whereabouts to the jaguar.
Quick as you got the gig, the boss
is tossing you out on your ass
all over some flipped umbrellas
& a tourist’s scarfed thumb. So now
you’re roofless, alone, vulnerable
& the beast is licking his chops
in your mirrored aviators. Stifling
too is the Midwestern Subdivision
in its treatment of the black squirrel.
Science tells us black squirrels
have driven out native grey squirrels
in numerous areas, but no bullshit
in my development, black squirrels
are relegated to lots with a view
of the highway. Mornings
they work shade for acorns
between homes narrow as Lincoln Logs.
History tells us black squirrels
can’t afford robust landscaping
but will pay their mortgage—
chair the neighborhood watch
if you like. Slenderizing, their night
of hair. They’re sun’s prey.
They avoid overexposure, make tanning
trend. Black squirrels
they fit in, get along. Know no one.
They see other black squirrels & run.
-- Marcus Wicker
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