(paintings by Jacob Lawrence)
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Deoliver47
Black Demographics in the US -
When discussing a massive population deemed "black" here in the United States there are assumptions made about that population, including myths and stereotypes, which are difficult to combat. We also run the risk of assuming that the category, often referred to as African-American is monolithic, since most demographic data we see in the news media tends to simply state black this or AA that...and leaves the data in its most simplistic format. One big lump.
African-descended US citizens are no longer simply "African-American" in the sense we tend to use the term, and include many blacks from the Caribbean or "West Indies", and we often fail to include those people with Spanish surnames - Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans...as well as Afro-descendants here from places like Panama and Guyana. There is also a growing population of US citizens from the African Continent - both from West Africa and The Horn.
I am hoping that we will have better data collection and analysis in the future which breaks out these sub-populations but the current data available is targeted specifically at the descendants of Africans brought to this country during the period of enslavement.
One site I would recommend that we all utilize when writing and reading about the status of black Americans is BlackDemographics.com.
I'd like to summarize some of the data found there, and talk about how this affects where we, as progressives need to focus our political efforts in the years ahead of us.
Where we are today - in the numbers.
Population:
According to the US Census Bureau. in 2008 there were 41.1 million African Americans in America of the total population of 304.4 million. The black population exceeded 500,000 in 20 states. Blacks were the largest minority group in 24 states, compared with 20 states in which Hispanics were the largest minority group.
Those deemed black American are still concentrated in certain regional areas:
Region 2008 2000 1990
South 22,293,078 19,528,231 15,828.888
Midwest 7,354,137 6,838,669 5,715,940
Northeast 7,317,056 6,556,909 5,613,222
West 4,162,537 3,495,625 2,828,010
New York, California, and Illinois, once held claim to the largest Black populations. But due to rapid growth in the South, Florida, Texas, and Georgia, all have an African American population of about 3 million. Only New York still has more African Americans.
This points to a mistaken idea on the left...there is a tendency to "write-off" the South that I hear a lot of here, yet how can we write off an area that holds a large percentage of the backbone of the Democratic Party?
Gender- When I usually see statistics posted about US citizens, there are boxes that say "minorities and women". This seems to obscure that fact that a large number of those "women" are black (or other poc's).
African American males make up almost 48% of the black population where African American women make up 52%. In contrast, the nation as a whole make up 49% and 51% respectively.
Social Class
We hear a lot of talk about the success of the black middle class, as a counter to positions that advocate for continued affirmative action. And the most egregious argument is that we live in a "post-racial" society; therefore we need not discuss the impact of systemic racism on those citizens who are marked by their skin colors and culture as being different from "the average American" (read white).
Many adherents of a class-based analysis of social inequity often deny the inter-relatedness of race. Let's take a look at some of the data on "the black middle class".
Growth
Most of those who considered themselves middle-class were still confined to the inner city and lived among the working class and poor blacks. Things changed with the Civil Rights movement. Since the 60s the Black middle class has grown tremendously. African Americans have moved into more white collar jobs and are more educated than ever before. No longer isolated and identified by skin tone they integrated into white middle class neighborhoods and developed their own black middle class neighborhoods.
By the 1990s middle class Black America was well established as a separate community and was no longer forced to live with lower income Blacks. Communities such as South Dekalb (Atlanta), Prince George's County (DC/MD), and Baldwin Hills (Los Angeles) sprung up across the country and are still growing today.
Yes - it has grown. But a closer look at related data is something that should concern us all.
Alarmingly Insufficient Assets
Sixty-eight percent of African-American middle-class households have no net financial assets whatsoever and live from paycheck to paycheck. Only 2 percent of African-American middle-class families have enough net financial assets to meet three-quarters of their essential living expenses for nine months if their source of income disappeared. well below the already alarmingly low national average of 13 percent. Even more alarming, 95 percent of African-American middleclass families do not have enough net assets to meet three-quarters of their essential living expenses for even three months if their source of income were to disappear. This figure is well above the national average among all middle-class families of 78 percent.
Inadequate Incomes to Meet Housing Expenses
Only 26 percent of African-American middle-class families spend less than 20 percent of their after-tax income on housing—below the national average of 40 percent. Thirty-one percent of African-American middle-class families match the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition for housing burdened, spending 30 percent or more of their after-tax income on housing expenses. This falls well above the national average of 28 percent of all middle-class families.
Inadequate Incomes to Meet Essential Expenses
Thirty-six percent of African-American middle-class families are secure in being able to meet essential family needs because they have $25,000 or more left over after paying income taxes and meeting essential family needs each year, compared to the national average 34 percent. Nineteen percent of African-American families are at risk of falling out of the middle class because they have less than $5,000 per year left over after paying for taxes and essential expenses, compared to the national average of 21 percent.
The Working class, unemployed and those living in poverty
Although poverty conditions for Black America have improved, the rates are still staggering when compared to that of all Americans. 41% of single mother Black families are living in poverty compared to only 7 percent of married-couple Black families
Though there has been a lot of coverage of the recent disasters in mortgages and foreclosures, and the impact of this issue on the middle class (mostly on the white middle class) there is still little attention paid to those who must rent to keep a roof over their heads. We need to place more emphasis on affordable rental housing, especially in urban areas.
Many working class Black Americans struggle to obtain affordable housing. 53% of Blacks, who rent pay more than 30% of their income for their rent. 30% is the recommended threshold that a family should pay for housing costs. This leaves many families to make ends meet.
Linked to housing are also issues of transportation. We talk often about the energy crisis and dependency on oil, and automobiles...not so much on affordable public transportation. According to the statistics "20% of African Americans do not own an automobile while 91% of all Americans do."
Health and Health Care
One of the major issues discussed here in the last year way health care, and health care reform. Not much of that discussion centered on Medicaid. Nor was much data presented on health issues, and costs affecting black Americans.
African American Life Expectancy
The life expectancy has improved greatly for all Americans during the last century. One thing that has remained consistent during that time is the lower life expectancy rate for African Americans compared to Whites. The good news is the decrease in the gap between Black and White life expectancy which has dropped from a 14 year difference in 1900 to only 5 years in 2004
The African American death rates are directly related to the state of Black America. America is experiencing a crisis in health care, obesity, cancer, and other chronic and seriously fatal illnesses. This Crisis like most others has a greater affect in the Black community. They have less access to appropriate health care and that includes preventative care for children and adults. So African Americans are not only more susceptible to disease and illness, they are also more likely to die from it. Even when the incident rate is lower for a particular disease such as Leukemia, the Black death rates are higher due to lack of access to appropriate health care.
The most disturbing number is the life expectancy for Black men. Black men are least likely to live past 70 and on average die just before that age. They are least likely to collect retirement social security benefits even though they contribute during their working years. Black males’ state of health is also affected by their environments. This contributes to the high number of death by homicides and the recent surge in death by HIV infections.
Though hypertension and high blood pressure in the black community is often mentioned in public health reports, there needs to be a greater emphasis on the impact of racism, and systemic inequality as a stress factor.
Although African Americans have the highest incident rates of High Blood Pressure and Hypertension in America, there are other populations in the world such as the Germans who have higher rates. There are several factors that contribute to this. Some are the same as the reasons for obesity but there are others that come into play. Stress is a major contributor to high blood pressure and Blacks have higher rates of stress and distress because of environmental, social, and economics conditions in many Black communities across the country. Stress is a known and major contributor to elevated blood pressure.
Education
80% of African Americans over age 25 have high school diplomas.
The average number of African Americans that have at least a bachelor's degree increased one percentage point to 18% from the year 2000. This however is still ten percentage points lower than the national average.
In 1971, a lower percentage of Blacks than Whites completed high school (59 vs. 82 percent). Although the gap between Blacks and Whites has narrowed, the high school completion rate for Blacks was still below that of Whites in 2005 (87 vs. 93 percent). The high school completion rate for Hispanics also increased between 1971 and 2005 (from 48 to 63 percent). Unlike the gap between Blacks and Whites, no measurable changes in the gap between Hispanics and Whites occurred between 1971 and 2005.
For each racial/ethnic group, the percentage completing at least some college increased between 1971 and 2005, but the rate of increase was less for Hispanics than for Whites or Blacks. In 2005, 64 percent of White 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least some college, compared with 49 percent of their Black peers and 33 percent of their Hispanic peers. The percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who had completed a bachelor's degree or higher increased from 17 to 29 percent between 1971 and 2005. Although the percentage with a bachelor's degree or higher increased for all three racial/ethnic groups, the gaps between Whites and Blacks and between Whites and Hispanics widened over time.
Related to education, lack of job opportunities and the systemic racial inequity of The War on Drugs (which should be renamed as "the War on Black and Brown Americans") is an issue explored weekly by our sisters and brothers at Criminal Injustice Kos, are the abominable incarceration rates for black males.
Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity. Of the total 2.1 million male inmates in Jail or Prison, Black males represent the largest percentage 35.4%, followed by white males 32.9%, and Hispanic males 17.9%.
Over one third (33.8%) of the total males in Jail or Prison were ages 20 to 29. The largest percentage of black (35.5%) and Hispanic (39.9%) males
held in custody were ages 20 to 29. In contrast to white males whose largest age group was ages 35 to 44 accounting for the (30.1%) of the white male incarcerated population. According to the US Department of Justice, when comparing the incarceration rates to the to the American residential population, black males are 6 times and Hispanic males are a little more than 2 times more likely to be held in custody than white males in 2007.
Politics
We are all aware of the importance of the black vote in the last election
A majority of whites voted for John McCain. But the data points to other changes in voting overall.
However, it took a shift of voting patterns in all demographics being that the Black population is only 13% of the nation. Actually the Black vote (which voted 95% for Obama) increased to 13% of the total vote, up from 11% four years earlier. 43% of whites voted for Obama up 2% from 2004. Hispanics 67% up 14% from 2004 and all others were up more than 10%. These changes combined to thrust Obama into the presidency. More Black women voted than Black men and they voted more for Obama by 1%.
Contrary to the stereotyping by FAUX News and other elements, a majority of black Americans are neither wild New Black Panther Party members, socialists or ultra-leftists.
Anyone who has ever organized in black communities is aware of that. That does not mean that black Americans accept racial inequality, and most are willing to fight for Civil rights - but there is a broad spectrum of beliefs on other issues and as progressives we have more work to do.
Although 88% of African Americans voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, 44% consider themselves to have a moderate political viewpoint. Only 28% consider themselves liberal in their political views. Over the last 40 years Black Americans have consistently voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat presidential candidate. The most votes any Republican candidate received from Blacks since 1968 was George H. W. Bush in 1992 (21%). In 1980 Jimmy Carter received 94% of the Black vote against Ronald Reagan.
The good news is that only a small percentage of black Americans viewed themselves in 2004 as conservative (10%) or extremely conservative (04%).
Religion
Many of those listed above as part of the conservative block may be members of conservative religious sects, which is about 7% of the black population.
Where the white left and black folks in general often butt heads is over the issue of religion. I personally know people who have left Daily Kos due to the constant attacks on both religion and spirituality, which play a major role in the black community.
This is an issue I have grappled with over the years, since I was raised by a father who was atheist, though my mother's family was Baptist. I learned early on that the key to organizing in my neighborhoods was to push the church. This was a lesson learned by both Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X (let us not forget he was Minister Malcolm). Though the number of African Americans listed currently as having no religion has increased to 11%.
There have been significant shifts in recent years.
According to the data published by The Leonard T. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, the African American population has been shifting over the past 18 years. In 1990 the half (50%) of African Americans considered themselves Baptist. However that percentage dropped a while 5% by 2008. There was also a substantial decrease in the percentage of Mainline Christians (Methodist and Orthodox) from 12% in 1990 to 7% in 2008. Increases are seen in the Generic Christian category (non denominational, evangelical) and the none category (none, agnostic, atheist)
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There is so much more data to explore, along with the issues raised by the data that it is impossible to cover it all in one diary.
In the weeks ahead, I plan to cover black immigrant populations to the US, and their role in the future of black politics and community.
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News by dopper0189
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About damm time! Washington Post: House subcommittee approves bill promoting D.C. budget autonomy.
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House Democrats are pushing this year to give the District full control over how it budgets and spends city revenue, severely limiting opportunities for Congress to intervene in local decisions such as support for same-sex marriage, needle-exchange programs and medical marijuana.
In what would be a significant milestone in the city's quest for greater autonomy, Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) attached language Thursday evening to the city's proposed fiscal 2011 budget that would remove Congress from the process after this year.
Congress would have the power to enact laws affecting the District and block legislation approved by the D.C. Council, and it would have oversight of federal money earmarked for the city. But Serrano, a member of the Appropriations Committee and chairman of the subcommittee that handles the District's budget, said the House and Senate would no longer have the power to dictate whether the city can spend local funds on controversial policies.
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I'm trying to make it to the counter demonstration this month. The president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence notes the irony of the planned Aug. 28 rally at the Lincoln Memorial featuring Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. the Root: Your Take: Guns and Divisive Rhetoric to Honor Lincoln and King?
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A disturbing magazine cover recently crossed my desk, announcing in big, bold print that Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the NRA will be hosting a "Restoring Honor" rally in August. It's being held at the Lincoln Memorial, a place that honors America's most revered president -- the one who saved our union, freed African slaves and breathed the healing balm "of malice toward none" at the conclusion of our bitter Civil War ... and who was killed by a gun.
It's also being held on the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington -- the march where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke so eloquently of his dream that one day his children would live in a nation where "they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Where this same civil rights giant and pacifist who won the Nobel Peace Prize was joined on the podium -- and in the 200,000-plus audience -- by Americans of all races, backgrounds and religions; and where the transformative power of nonviolent protest and forgiveness traveled deeply into the racially scarred American consciousness, and prodded political leaders to pass laws that struck down decades of discriminatory practices that had relegated a group of people to the desert of second-class citizenship.
Now picture the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, on the anniversary of "I Have a Dream," with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the NRA's Wayne LaPierre at the podium, and our National Mall teeming with their followers to, in Beck's words, "pick up Martin Luther King's dream."
The man calling the date of his rally "divine providence" (as noted ironically by The Colbert Report) is the same Glenn Beck who is a life member of the NRA; who has insulted the Anti-Defamation League; who challenged Keith Ellison, a Muslim who had just been elected to Congress, to "prove to me you are not working with our enemies"; and who repeatedly called President Barack Obama "a racist" and accused him of having "a deep-seated hatred for white people." This same Beck recently urged Christians to leave their churches if their ministers ever spoke about "social justice" -- the very foundation of King's leadership during the 1950s and 1960s -- because he considers the term code for "communism and Nazism."
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The CBC is doing the right thing here. CQ: Tennessee Turnaround: Black Caucus Backing White Congressman.
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The last time he ran for re-election, Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen, a white guy who'd been rejected for membership in the Congressional Black Caucus, saw the caucus endorse his challenger. This time around, the caucus is sending Cohen money to help him run against a well-known black politician in that majority-black district.
Bartholomew Sullivan reports in the Commercial Appeal that the caucus's political action committee gave $5,000 to Cohen's campaign.
"With almost $1 million in his campaign account, the amount is immaterial, but its symbolic value is significant," writes Sullivan. " His opponent, Willie Herenton, has argued that the district should elect the former Memphis mayor so that one of the 11-member Tennessee Congressional delegation is an African-American."
Cohen's colleagues didn't just let their money do the talking. The PAC's chairman, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, spelled out the message the black lawmakers wanted to deliver to Democrats voting in the Aug. 5 primary:
"The CBC PAC's mission is to increase the number of African-Americans in the U.S. Congress (and) to support non-black candidates who champion CBC interests."
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I wonder how the health care reform that passed will effect situations like this in the future. Cap Time: Racial disparities found throughout organ transplant process.
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On a Sunday afternoon last year Larry Studesville received the most important phone call of his life. A young man had died in a tragic accident; did Studesville want his kidney? Studesville, then 62, was at UW Hospital within two hours. "It was another chance at life," he recalls.
A grieving family's gift helped Studesville, whose own kidneys were failing due to hypertension and diabetes, beat grim odds. But other African-Americans have not been so fortunate.
Ever since the first kidney transplant was performed in 1954, there has been a growing chasm between supply and demand when it comes to transplant organs, about 80 percent of which are kidneys. The number of people waiting in the United States for a renal transplant has more than quintupled over the past two decades, from 16,294 in 1989 to 85,473 today. Every day 92 people are added to the national waiting list, and 12 people die waiting. Last year in Wisconsin, 93 people died waiting for a transplant.
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I'm suprised that some people are still surprised by this. Chartlotte Post: Race matters in N.C. death penalty cases.
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Race still matters in North Carolina when it comes to handing down the death penalty for those convicted of murder.
That’s a finding of a study by researchers at the University of Colorado, which shows that, among similar homicides, the odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing a white person are approximately three times higher than the odds of death for killing a black person.
The death penalty is a major issue for the Tar Heel State, with one of the nation’s largest death rows. There are currently 155 men and four women facing execution.
Study author Michael Radelet remarks that this finding may come as a surprise to some.
"This is something that I think most people are not aware of, this disparity, this bias, and in order to do anything about it, we first need to be made aware of it and then have a discussion about where to proceed from there."
Radelet and his partner on the study examined more than 15,000 homicides. He’s performed similar analyses in other states, and is in favor of "life without parole" instead of a death sentence, which he argues is costly.
"But I’d like to see us use those millions of dollars, and instead focus more on getting murderers off the street and see what we can do about the fact that four out of every 10 murderers are never apprehended."
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In a new documentary, filmmaker Tamra Davis gives us a three-dimensional portrait of the brilliant artist. At last. The Root: The Elusive Life of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
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The artist Jean-Michel Basquiat led a mercurial, tumultuous and tragic life. At 25 he was an art-world superstar, and a few months before his 28th birthday, in August 1988, he was dead of a heroin overdose. In many ways he was emblematic of the '80s art world, when a new wave of artists bum-rushed the academy, and unfortunately he was also representative of a decade in which far too many people died young.
Yet Basquiat was an enigma, an elusive figure whose multifaceted personality and abundant talent have yet to be fully captured in a movie. Many people close to the New York art scene felt that Julian Schnabel's 1996 biopic, Basquiat, though a showcase for the brilliant acting of Jeffrey Wright in the lead role, was more about the director's flashy sense of visuals and storytelling than about Basquiat's life.
Filmmaker Tamra Davis, who shared those sentiments, has created the corrective work Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a film that is now running at Film Forum in New York City and will go on to a series of screenings elsewhere in the country, including Landmark Nuart in Los Angeles on August 20. The film will also air on PBS next year. See the trailer and download the opening scene of the movie here.
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CNN: Cape Town's 'Ghetto Ballerina' lands U.S. scholarship.
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A South African ballet dancer from a poor township outside Cape Town has been given the chance to train in the United States -- all because of a documentary film, and an email from a caring viewer.
"Ghetto Ballet" is a documentary that chronicles the lives of four young ballet dancers living in one of the poorest towns on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa.
The film shows the dancers vying for two coveted spots in a local dance company that could be their ticket out of poverty.
The film's director, Jeremy Simmons, told CNN he felt compelled to tell their story. "The kids were amazing," he said.
"I knew after that first day that these kids would speak to a broader audience. They had incredible personalities; they were so open and honest and talented. I was blown away."
One of the four dancers featured in the movie was Sibahle Tshibika. In the film, she is seen failing to make the cut for the dance company -- the end of her dream, or so she thought.
I was so hurt inside and I thought I would never be able to be a dancer again.
"I was hurt, and I thought that was the end of me," Tshibika told CNN. "I was so hurt inside and I thought I would never be able to be a dancer again."
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Tuesday's Chile, Poetry Editor
A literary conceit was used in Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano", in which The Counsel carries an ever-increasing bundle of letters from his ex-wife. He tells others in the village of the letters' contents and his ex-wife's day to day itinerary of experiences; as each missive is delivered to the village post office. When asked when she will come to visit, his constant reply is, 'soon.' When his ex-wife does arrive unexpectedly, to reconcile their relationship, no less; it is revealed he has never opened any of the letters from her; years worth of letters unopened, yet each letter was enthusiastically awaited for.
"Hell," The Counsel would tell all within earshot, "Hell is my natural condition."
Pablo Neruda would walk the Promenade and watch from the window of his seaside villa as humanity strolled by on oppresively hot summer days and nights. His solitary observances evoked what some have described as a Hell, or at least a purgatory of human sin and degradation. It is all of that and more, but it is also a simple acknowledgement of the Beast that is in all of us; the Beast that conjures and transcends Angels. The Beast that is hidden until one finds themself as a...
Gentleman Alone
The young maricones and the horny muchachas,
The big fat widows delirious from insomnia,
The young wives thirty hours' pregnant,
And the hoarse tomcats that cross my garden at night,
Like a collar of palpitating sexual oysters
Surround my solitary home,
Enemies of my soul,
Conspirators in pajamas
Who exchange deep kisses for passwords.
Radiant summer brings out the lovers
In melancholy regiments,
Fat and thin and happy and sad couples;
Under the elegant coconut palms, near the ocean and moon,
There is a continual life of pants and panties,
A hum from the fondling of silk stockings,
And women's breasts that glisten like eyes.
The salary man, after a while,
After the week's tedium, and the novels read in bed at night,
Has decisively fucked his neighbor,
And now takes her to the miserable movies,
Where the heroes are horses or passionate princes,
And he caresses her legs covered with sweet down
With his ardent and sweaty palms that smell like cigarettes.
The night of the hunter and the night of the husband
Come together like bed sheets and bury me,
And the hours after lunch, when the students and priests are masturbating,
And the animals mount each other openly,
And the bees smell of blood, and the flies buzz cholerically,
And cousins play strange games with cousins,
And doctors glower at the husband of the young patient,
And the early morning in which the professor, without a thought,
Pays his conjugal debt and eats breakfast,
And to top it all off, the adulterers, who love each other truly
On beds big and tall as ships:
So, eternally,
This twisted and breathing forest crushes me
With gigantic flowers like mouth and teeth
And black roots like fingernails and shoes
-- Pablo Neruda
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The Front Porch is now open. If you are new, grab a chair, and introduce yourself to the family. If you are lurking - come on up onto the porch and let us get to know you.
Baby back ribs, collard greens and cornbread are on today's menu, with apple dumplin's for dessert.