Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor
One of the diaries on the rec list yesterday had a picture of Emmett Till. It was an image that I’ve tried my whole life to forget. Seeing it again I was reminded of how hate-filled and foul the history of race in this country has been.
My heart cried out for justice. There will be no justice. Not for Emmett. Not for millions of Africa’s children kidnapped forced into slavery, raped and lynched in America. By Americans.
Images of white families children in tote, smiling in the foreground while black bodies hung from trees in the background floated again to my memory. Anger and pain took turns twisting in my mind. Twisting. My. Mind.
(commentary con't.)
I saw again in my mind’s eye the photos from the Massacre at Wounded Knee. America has a history of photographing abuse, murder and lynchings. These photos are tortuous for those of us who belong to groups that have felt the sting of rage and violence uniquely American. They become personal. Very. Personal.
Finally I realized why I support the President’s decision not to make public at this point, photos of the abuse and torture perpetrated by the previous administration. It is assumed that only Muslims in Arab countries will be offended. That is bad enough. But what about Arab Americans? How will they feel seeing other Arab people abused, perhaps brutalized? Can anyone say what feelings will rise in them as they witness what their country thinks about them as both Arabs and Muslims? I suspect it will be personal for many if not most of them.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is it that is being said?
It seems to me that revenge against the bush regime is at the heart of this controversy. Damn the cost, full speed ahead. Never mind that we already know what has been captured on film. Never mind that our enemies will be able to use these photos to recruit for a jihad in Pakistan that will most certainly result in further loss of life. Ignore that the Taliban is already close to overtaking a country with nuclear weapons.
The need to see is not the most important need. Not always. Certainly not now.
It seems to me that our President might have sensitivities missing in others. Since empathy is a quality he values enough to make requisite in a Supreme Court Justice, it occurs to me that empathy is what he’s showing in his decision to delay making public photos that we all know will offend the sensibilities of those who have sensibilities.
I realize that others do not shrink from the idea of these photos. There are those who can watch unflinchingly movies where chainsaws are used to dismember and kill. I am not one of them.
As an African American, I have learned that the wheels of justice are slow. As an African American I have learned that history in this country is filled with injustices that remain.
Blacks in America still cry out for justice. Women and Gays cry out for justice. The pictures in question will not bring justice. Only anger.
They will remind the world that America under Bush practiced torture against people of color once again. They will rise up against the vileness that was Bush. Only Bush is gone and Obama will be blamed and more Americans will suffer. Arab Americans will feel the pain in those photos. Our nation will divide itself and nothing constructive will result. This will truly be mission accomplished for the bushites whose hatred of others was sanctioned by the treatment of prisoners of a war only bush wanted. While it will give some folk something to talk about, it will give others something to fight against. Pushing against peace.
I for one, can do without seeing cruelty against people whose only crime may well have been running afoul of the American Military Industrial Complex. I’ve seen enough thank you. No.
Now run and tell that.
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NY Times === 'What Color Is That Baby?'
I remember as a young deputy city editor at The Daily News attending my first "sked meeting," a large gathering of editors held every afternoon to consider which stories would go into the next morning’s paper and how they would be played.
I was sitting at the far end of a conference table from the editor who was conducting the meeting. The News had very seldom had a black person at those gatherings. Mine was the only black face in the room.
One of the stories being pitched was about a baby that had been killed on Long Island. The editor running the meeting was completely relaxed. He was sprawled in his chair and was holding a handful of papers. His legs were crossed.
"What color is that baby?" he asked.
A tremendous silence fell over the room. Everyone understood what he meant. If the baby was white, the chances were much better that the story was worth big play. It might be something to get excited about.
Annoyed at not getting a response, the editor repeated himself. Then his eyes caught mine staring down from the other end of the table.........More
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This is just a cool idea.
Miami Herald === Senior citizens launch oral history project on blacks in Broward County.
They came to bring the dead to life.
About 30 black seniors gathered Friday at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale to start an estimated two-year project to tell the history and achievements of Broward County blacks and black communities. Follow-up individual interviews will be done later.
The effort will culminate in a book and oral histories on video tape.
"The risk is [the history] will be lost," said Marvin Dunn, a retired Florida International University professor and author of books on Florida's black history.
So, on Friday, seniors told stories of places and people from the past and recounted what life was like in the bygone days of Broward.
"It's a rich history," said Patsy Bragdon Barnes, "and we have to get it right this time."
Barnes' grandfather built several of the first black churches in Fort Lauderdale.........More
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YouTube.com === Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents Dinner
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We can't insert the video, but Tyra Banks has done a show on "Good Hair", and the length plus extent black woman go to get "it".
Tyra Banks Show === What is good hair?........More
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Ney York Magazine === Sessilee Lopez Credits Her 'Comeback Year' to the All-Black Italian Vogue.
At just 20 years old, model Sessilee Lopez seems a little young for a career comeback. But she says that's exactly what happened after Steven Meisel gave her the cover of the July 2008 Italian Vogue featuring black models exclusively. "I didn’t even know I was going to have the cover until it came out. So it was definitely a surprise," Lopez told us at the Cinema Society screening of Easy Virtue last night. "When Steven [Meisel] gave me that cover and 30 pages of editorial it definitely resurrected my career."
Lopez believes the attention the all-black issue received put her on the radar of people who hadn’t seen her past work. "Definitely, it’s opened up doors for not only myself but for a lot of new faces and young girls of color. With the whole fashion world embracing diversity this past year, this has been quite amazing," Lopez said. It's no wonder she calls this her "comeback year" after she went from walking six or seven shows in September during New York Fashion Week to more than twenty in February. Those included Narciso Rodriguez and Oscar de la Renta, which she was thrilled about. "I was flabbergasted," she says. "I was blown away when I got confirmed."
Her upcoming editorials include one in the June issue of Harper’s Bazaar. "And there’s something special coming out in September that I’m not really allowed to talk about. It’s amazing."........More
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The Root === The Cherokee Nation is determined to deny black folks citizenship. Descendants of Freedmen cannot let that happen.
I am a descendant of Cherokee Freedmen, the former slaves owned by the Cherokees and a smaller number of free blacks who lived among the tribe before the end of the Civil War. So watching the PBS series We Shall Remain, which aired last month, I empathized with Native Americans and silently condemned the white settlers and government officials for all that they so inhumanely inflicted on the native tribes. I felt angry about the forcible removal of the Cherokees from the Southeast to Indian Territory or modern Oklahoma.
But in recent years, I have found myself as angry with the Cherokees themselves as I am with the white settlers who wronged them in the past.
From the end of the war until Oklahoma statehood in 1907, black Freedmen were accorded rights as citizens of Cherokee Nation, if not exactly equal rights. A century later, Freedmen descendants find themselves battling the Cherokee Nation in the courts to restore their tribal citizenship........More
Google News === Black colleges will fight cut to federal program.
Leaders of historically black colleges say they'll fight a reduction in a federal program they call a financial lifeline at a time of economic distress for the schools and their students.
President Barack Obama's education budget, unveiled Thursday, included major spending increases in many areas — but didn't include an extra $85 million that black institutions have received annually for the past two years thanks to a 2007 change to the student loan laws.
That two-year-old program provided direct funds to federally recognized HBCUs — historically black colleges and universities.
Other direct federal support to the schools would increase from $238 million to $250 million, but with the expiration of the HBCU fund the schools effectively would see a $73 million cut.
A program supporting Native American tribal colleges would also see decreased funding, while one for institutions serving large numbers of Hispanic students would see an increase from $93 million to $98 million.
Education Department officials emphasized that all such institutions stand to gain from other parts of the budget, notably the proposed increase in the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students by $200 — to $5,550.
Still, the move could suggest that even as the administration pushes big education spending increases focused on low-income and minority students, direct support for institutions isn't the most favored method. The HBCU program is unusual; most federal help for higher education goes to students, and thus only indirectly to schools........More
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Slate.com === Slate asking people to send in their children's drawing of President Barack Obama.
Obama picts 1
Obama picts 2
Obama picts 3
Obama picts 4
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USAToday === More black lawmakers open to school vouchers.
Back when he was on the city council for the District of Columbia, attorney Kevin Chavous would occasionally run into fellow Democrats concerned about the state of the USA's urban schools.
They were open to a lot of ideas, but most Democrats have historically rejected taxpayer-supported private-school vouchers, saying they drain precious cash from needy public schools. Chavous, who served from 1992 to 2005, openly supported vouchers. He would ask others why they didn't.
"Several of them would whisper to me, 'I'm with you, but I can't come out in front,' " Chavous says.
That was then.
While vouchers will likely never be the clarion call of Democrats, they're beginning to make inroads among a group of young black lawmakers, mayors and school officials who have split with party and teachers union orthodoxy on school reform. The group includes Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony Williams.........More
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RecordOnline === West Point says more minorities applying.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is recruiting a record number of minorities into its class of 2013.
The nation's oldest service institution is on pace to welcome as many as 91 black and 127 Hispanic undergraduates into its incoming class of about 1,300 cadet candidates.
While not a huge increase over previous years, admissions officials say West Point's new cohort is moving in the right direction and closing the gap between the Academy's minority demographics and those of the rest of the Army.
Nearly 63 percent of the total Army is white, according to defense reports. But at West Point, an elite training ground for future officers and scholars, admissions officials say roughly 75 percent of the student body is white.
West Point doesn't use quotas in its admissions process, but the goal is to graduate officers that more closely resemble the makeup of the Army. The soldiers giving orders should look like those receiving them........More
The recent bust has wiped out some of the gains made by African Americans and Latinos at a faster rate than for whites.
CNN Money === Minorities lose housing gains.
Some of the rapid gains in homeownership made by minority Americans during the last housing boom have been wiped out by the latest bust, according to a report released Tuesday.
An analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center, an arm of the Pew Research Center, which is an independent, public opinion research group, revealed that homeownership rates grew faster for minority groups than for native born whites for about 10 years starting in 1995.
But the housing bust, which really began to pick up steam about three years ago, has set things back. The foundering economy is responsible for most of the homeownership decline, especially for native-born Latinos, according to Rakesh Kochhar, Pew Hispanic Center's Associate Director for Research........More
SOME FRIDAY WAKE-UP MUSIC (Ol'Skool / Nu Skool )
Come Into My Life by Joyce Sims
Makeda by Les Nubians
Cooking with AAF: King Creole...of the Sunny Islands by Asinus Asinum Fricat
Vote Against Hate Crime Legislation and Most Underperforming District (AL-07) by alpolitics
The Face of Emmett Till by Big Tex
TVA sends spilled coal ash to poor black communities in GA, AL by Sue Sturgis