Wow 2016 was a year that tries our collective souls. If I started the year on a very optimistic note (seeing my first diary of the year). I think, to be perfectly honest I’m ending it in a less hopeful place. I’m ever the optimist, but I’m also a student of history. Every forward progression of racial of justice, has been met with an inevitable racial backlash. We seen it over an over again (Jim Crow after Reconstruction, the “South Strategy” after the Civil Rights Ear, etc) but the thing that gives me hope is that the march of American history has over the long term been toward more inclusion and diversity. But history and freedom are not inevitable things as many people assume, they have to be fought for won, and then defended. Black Kos will always be at the forefront of defending those gains as well as pushing for a better future.
The reason I started Black Kos way back when was in the hope that it would allow Daily Kos members, who in their day to day lives, may not have much exposure to the everyday lives of black people. When I write of personal interaction, I don’t mean the professional interactions at work, but what life is like for everyday black people for the majority of their day. See I'm quite aware a majority of our readers at Black Kos are white. If I wanted to only address a black or mostly black audience I could more easily do so elsewhere. Think about it. I'm a member of a half dozen other majority black blogs. So why do I bother to post here?
I did it because of what the the image of the progressive Net Roots was at that time. I'm writing specifically of 2003-2005. I remember watching endless hours of TV punditry, on how the Net Roots (then Yearly Kos) were all “lily white” basically the old "limousine liberal" smear. Now think to yourself, when was the last time you have heard that on a Sunday Morning talk show? Go back and look at the coverage of the first Yearly Kos convention (Net Root’s nations predecessor). The number one question then was “where are the Black (and Brown) folks?” I believe that a more visible minority presence helped combat those smears, because we were always here just not visible. (By the way, I did enjoy back before anybody knew what race I was, the discussions were often fun and lively, but I decided on my own to step up and out because sometimes you do need visible members).
I have no interest today in debating the merits of religious institutions, nor will I trash evangelical Christians, who, like Rev. Dr. William Barber, practice what Jesus preached. Though not a theologian, by any means, I do teach comparative religion as a part of course work in cultural anthropology. I stand in solidarity today, with the stance taken by Dr. Larysia Hawkins, against the outpouring of right-wing hate leveled at Muslim Americans. Hate promoted by people like Franklin Graham — son of Wheaton's most famous graduate Dr. Billy Graham.
By now, most people paying attention to the news, have seen photos of Dr. Hawkins wearing hijab, which she donned in solidarity with her Muslim brothers and sisters. Some of you may have visited her facebook page where she posted:
I could have simply provided several links to a number of book lists throughout cyberspace such as this one or this one or even something as comprehensive as this one.
I never, ever do nothing. Nice. And easy.
I pretty much always need an angle to shoot.
In the meantime, my home library was (and still is) looking nice and rough. Books not alphabetized or categorized. One flash drive plugged into the laptop, another on top of the fridge (I scan a lot of reading materials), and who knows where the other two flash drives are (or what’s on them).
There is no way to discuss the impact, and contributions of one of our greatest black Americans in one post. I’m going to borrow from a tribute written here in 2010 and suggest you read Chitown Kev’s “Liberation Sociology.”
His life, work and activism was a link between multiple generations of change in the United States. Spanning reconstruction, the birth of civil rights movement, Pan-Africanism, two world wars, he remained an astute observer and participant in both national and international events as a sociologist, anthropologist, social critic and organizer, until his death.
I sometimes think we live on that rumored planet on the other side of the sun, where everything is the opposite of what it should be. We seem to live on a world where Cops act more like gangsters than gangsters do. A world where public service is dismissed as not being self-centered enough to make the big bucks. A world where lies and subterfuge have more currency than just doing the right thing.
Arguments abound whether Race remains an issue in the post-Obama world; one posited, mostly by bigots and their racist apologists, is that the very fact a black man is President is example enough that America's sordid racial past has been refuted; sort of like seeing only the figure, or only the ground.
For Women’s History Month, and today on International Women’s Day, I decided to do a brief review of some of the women in our black history — up until today — who were born in the South. This was spurred by my reaction to two themes I have seen repeated quite frequently recently, especially on twitter and facebook. The first is a dismissal of the South, and all those who come from those roots, compounded by a judgement hurled at black Southerners as “low information” folks.
The South has gifted us all with extraordinary women of insight, courage, intellect and creative talents. Join me in celebrating some of them today.
After graduate school Harrison went on to work at the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch (AMPB) of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 1994 as a research engineer under the tutelage of Terry L. St. Clair. While at Langley, Harrison conducted much of her research in the field of piezoelectric materials, a class of polymers capable of producing mechanical motion when introduced to an electric current and conversely capable of generating an electric charge when subjected to stress. Her research culminated with her participation on the Thin-Layer Composite-Unimorph Piezoelectric Driver and Sensor ("THUNDER") project with several colleagues, including senior engineer Robert Bryant. The THUNDER team innovated new piezoelectric polymers that improved upon the existing commercial varieties by providing better durability, energy efficiency, and production costs. In 1999, Harrison became chief of AMPB, which required her to supervise more than 40 research scientists conducting research on polymer composites and ceramics synthesis. NASA recognized Harrison's contributions to the AMPB branch by awarding her the Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2000 and the Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2006.....Read More
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Chicago
Commentary by Chitown Kev
Many times since November 4, 2008, I’ve asked myself the question: What place other than my adopted hometown, Chicago, Illinois, could the first African-American President of the United States have possibly come from?
My home state of Michigan? I don’t think so.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts? Maybe.
The American South? I doubt it; too many institutional barriers remain for the South to be the home base of an African-American President or a black United States Senator or (Virginia’s Douglas Wilder notwithstanding) a black governor (maybe Virginia, nowadays?).
California? Maybe. In fact, that might be put to the test sooner than we think.
Not that Chicago doesn’t have it’s problems.
Chicago remains the most racially segregated city in America. The Chicago Police Department is corrupt to the bone; even some of the city’s own law enforcement officers acknowledge that fact. Racial minorities have borne much of the brunt of that corruption and brutality at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.
And while Chicago Machine politics are a shadow of what they once were, The Machine is still a force to be reckoned with.
After all, Chicago is called “The Windy City” for a reason (several, in fact).
(Interestingly, I often think of Chicago’s “rival cities” as being New York, Detroit, and St. Louis but never Cincinnati. You learn something new every day.)
Make no mistake about it; Chicago, Illinois can be criticized for many reasons. And, in fact, many Chicago-ians do bash the city early and quite often.
At least I know that I do. Don’t get a Chicago-ian started on parking tickets, for example (I know, the parking tickets thing is pretty universal, but
But for all my city’s faults…don’t bring that bullshit here.
You will get checked.
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTIST AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Mathematician and professor of mathematics Trachette Jackson was born on July 24, 1972. She attended a large public high school and spent her summers at a math-science honors program hosted by Arizona State University where she developed her passion for mathematics. Jackson was an excellent student and graduated in the top twenty of her class. In 1994, she received her B.S. degree in mathematics from Arizona State University.
Jackson earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Her Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Mathematical Models in Two-Step Cancer Chemotherapy." She completed postdoctoral positions with the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota, and at Duke University.
In 2000, Jackson joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in the mathematics department. She was promoted to associate professor in 2003. In 2006, Jackson was appointed as the co-principal investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded University of Michigan SUBMERGE (Supplying Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics Education Research Group Experiences) program. SUBMERGE is an interdisciplinary program in math and biology that exposes undergraduates to experimental biology within mathematical modeling and gives exposure to quantitative analysis in biology courses. In 2008, she became a full professor in Michigan's mathematics department. Jackson is the co-founder, and is the co-director, of the the Mathematics Biology Research Group (MBRG). The group organizes lectures, conferences, and workshops for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, among other activities. The main focus of her research in mathematical oncology is combining mathematical modeling and in vivo tumor vascularization to gain deeper understanding of tumor growth and the vascular structure of molecular, cellular and tissue levels......Read More
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Voices and Soul
BY JUSTICE PUTNAM, BLACK KOS TUESDAY'S CHILE, POETRY EDITOR
Benjamin Banneker, who lived from 1731 to 1806, was the first black man to devise an almanac and predict a solar eclipse accurately. He was also appointed to the commission that surveyed and laid out what is now Washington, D.C. On 19 August 1791, Banneker composed a letter to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, in which he included his almanac and an entreaty to uphold the Founder's doctrine that there were truths that were...
... Self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certan inalienable rights, that amongst these are life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness.”
On 30 August 1791, without directly addressing the charge of inequality, Jefferson replied,
... no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America. I can add with truth that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence, and other circumstance which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society because I considered it as a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.
Jefferson's letter to the Marquis de Condorcet was rather effusive,
I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and of a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable Mathematician. I promised him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new federal city on the Patowmac, & in the intervals of his leisure, while on that work, he made an almanac for the next year, which he sent to me in his own handwriting, & which I inclose to you. I have seen very elegant solutions of Geometrical problems by him. add to this that he is a very respectable member of society. he is a free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied as to prove that the want of talent observed in them is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect depends.
Three years after Banneker's death though, Jefferson expressed some doubts as to the authenticity of Banneker's abilities,
The whole do not amount, in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. We know he had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor and friend, and never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker, which shows him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed.
So there you have it. Even the great man Jefferson, the man of letters, a dignitary of the Renaissance and Liberal Tradition, the author of the doctrine of all men as created equal; doubted that a black man could be equal, that any accomplishment was an exaggeration or a fraud.
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I Think the Kids Are Gonna Be OK
Commentary by Chitown Kev
I have talked at great length here at Black Kos about The Black Church generally, and the role of The Black Church (and all churches, really) in American political culture, specifically.
I’m simply not comfortable with the extent of the involvement of the church in black political and civic life. Sometimes, it seems as if political candidates don’t even acknowledge that a black political and civic life exists outside of the church. Whenever the local news covers something or another on the South Side of Chicago (usually a shooting), you don’t even have to count to ten before some camera-hogging pastor shows up on the television screen.
I’m sure that many of us can increase that list.
Having said that, I understand and get why The Black Church remains the iconic institution of African-American communities that it does. As I stated in my 1/27/15 commentary:
...The Black Church is still the primary place (at least as far as “bricks and mortar” are concerned) where black people (and others) can go for “acceptance, healing, and to feel good about themselves in a hostile world.”
I can’t think of a secular “integrated” institution within American society that offers that degree of safety or understanding. Not to black people.
To be sure, not every black person within the “safe space” of the church is exactly “safe”; indeed, there is no such thing as a 100% safe space.
And that’s doubly true for spaces that carry the veneer of being “racially integrated.”
These were among the reasons that I greeted Atlantic correspondent Emma Green’s March 22 article titled Black Activism, Unchurched with my usual combination of skepticism and cynicism...but also with a smile.
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The color of tragedy and media coverage
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
I was skimming through twitter when I saw this graphic — which was from cinismo ilustrado originally, and it made me stop and think.
So much that feeds news cycles depends on when, where and to whom something happens.
The Nation had this article back in January “Lives Fit for Print: Exposing Media Bias in Coverage of Terrorism” which took a look at the coverage of European and American versus non-Western events.
... almost all of these largely unreported major terrorist attacks were in non-Western countries. Of the 26 incidents in which 50 or more people died, only one happened in the West—the November attack in Paris. Of the remaining 25, 13 were in Africa (with 9 in Nigeria alone) and 11 were in the Middle East (with 4 in Iraq).
Many non-Western countries are hit by smaller terror incidents all the time. Nigeria, for example, suffered from 40 terror attacks last year—one every week and a half—with a staggering aggregate death toll of 3,193.
Try to imagine, for a second, that since January of 2015 there had been 40 incidents of terrorism in the United States, and that in 9 of them, 50 or more people had died. If that’s hard to do, think about this instead: Conservative estimates suggest that Nigeria experienced more terror-related loss of life in 2015 than the United States did in 2001, the year of 9/11.
This media bias is not simply a matter of covering terrorism. We already know the bias around missing persons.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Poetry Editor
How we got from there to here is a question all of us ask ourselves and wonder at. We can consider the sweat it took and the blood let; the cries of pain and of joy. We can consider the broken hearts left behind and we can consider those who left us with the broken heart. We can wonder at the sad trek of the sad soldier homeless and forgotten and we can wonder at the young mother celebrated in a...
Birthday Poem
First light of day in Mississippi son of laborer & of house wife it says so on the official photostat not son of fisherman & child fugitive from cottonfields & potato patches from sugarcane chickens & well-water from kerosene lamps & watermelons mules named jack or jenny & wagonwheels,
years of meaningless farm work work Work WORK WORK WORK— “Papa pull you outta school bout March to stay on the place & work the crop” —her own earliest knowledge of human hopelessness & waste
She carried me around nine months inside her fifteen year old self before here I sit numbering it all
How I got from then to now is the mystery that could fill a whole library much less an arbitrary stanza
But of course you already know about that from your own random suffering & sudden inexplicable bliss
-- Al Young
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When Eartha Kitt Made Lady Bird Cry
A Rant in Appreciation by Chitown Kev
As I have been seething in a bit of anger over “a little somethin’ somethin,’” I began to think of various instances where black people spoke their truths and paid a price for it.
I immediately thought of Eartha Kitt’s encounter with President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon in 1968 where Eartha Kitt spoke out against the Vietnam War.
I did notice a couple of stories in the DK archives about the passing of Eartha Kitt from colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008 but, as Black Kos was probably on hiatus at that time, I’m not sure that the story has been told specifically here at Black Kos so…
I prefer the defiant and “lowkey reading” version told by B. Alexandria Pania at The Visibility Project:
Everyone knows Eartha Kitt for her famous Christmas classic “Santa Baby,” her unapologetic sex appeal and her phenomenal performing skills. Yet few know that decades before she was the hilarious villain, Yzma, from The Emperor’s New Groove, she was blackballed for lowkey reading the First Lady of the United States, Lady Bird Johnson, for filth. In 1968, Kitt was asked how we [read: middle to upper class white women] can fix the problem of juvenile delinquency in the U.S. [read: how can we get the youth to act right without actually fixing any systemic issues but still feeling better about ourselves].
And Miss Kitt SAID to Lady Bird Johnson at that luncheon in The White House:
“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They will take pot and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”
Of course, no one tells the story of the White House incident and her subsequent blackballing by the Johnson (and Nixon) administrations better than Eartha Kitt herself
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On research in Black and Brown communities
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
As more and more issues affecting communities of color, like police violence, and incarceration are highlighted in the media, due in part to the protests generated by groups like #Blacklivesmatter and the Dream Defenders, we are also inundated with research data and statistics. A lot of that data is generated by academic researchers who are not part of the communities they study, and those under study are “subjects” of the research and have little or no say or participating in or framing the studies.
Though I often reference research data in what I write about, I have rarely discussed “research methods” and my own thoughts about the best theoretical approaches to doing sociological and anthropological research in our neighborhoods. I am a staunch proponent of what is called “Participatory Action Research (PAR) which engages researchers and community members as equal members of a process involving both study and taking action. Rather than cite a long list of studies, I want to introduce you to an ongoing project led by Dr. Yasser Arafat Payne, in Wilmington Delaware.
Yasser Arafat Payne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware. Dr. Payne completed his doctoral work at the Graduate Center-City University of New York where he was trained as a social-personality psychologist. Also, Dr. Payne completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH-NIDA) whereby he worked on a re-entry and intervention based research project in New York City's largest jail, Rikers Island—a project designed to reduce: (1) recidivism, (2) drug use, and (3) other risky behavior leading to HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Payne has organized a street ethnographic research program centered on exploring notions of resilience and resiliency with the streets of Black and Brown America using an unconventional methodological framework entitled: Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR)—the process of involving street-identified persons or members of this population in the process of activist-based research. Street identified populations are typically framed in a monolithic way and Dr. Payne through his research has found great emotional, psychological and developmental variation. His work seeks to break through stereotypical barriers and images of Black and Brown people in the criminal justice system, so that transition back in the community and opportunities for upward mobility are successful.
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The Kingdom of Mutapa ---dopper0189 Black Kos Managing Editor
The Kingdom of Mutapa was a medieval kingdom which stretched between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of southern Africa in the modern states of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Its founders are culturally and politically related to the builders who constructed the Great Zimbabwe (the image up top).
The origins of the ruling dynasty at Mutapa goes back to the first half of the 15th century. According to oral tradition, the first "mwene" was a warrior prince named Nyatsimba Mutota from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe sent to find new sources of salt in the north. Prince Mutota found his salt among the Tavara, a Shona subdivision, who were prominent elephant hunters. They were conquered, a capital was established 350 km north of Great Zimbabwe at Zvongombe by the Zambezi.
Mutota's successor, Matope, extended this new kingdom into a great empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean. The Mwenemutapa became very wealthy by exploiting copper from Chidzurgwe and ivory from the middle Zambezi. This expansion weakened the Torwa kingdom, the southern Shona state from which Mutota and his dynasty originated. Mwenemutapa Matope's armies overran the kingdom of the Manyika as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Mozambique, the Mutapa Kingdom was the premier Shona state in the region.
The Mutapa Empire worshipped a supreme god called Mwari, the creator of the world and everything in it. The religion of the Mutapa kingdom revolved around ritual consultation of spirits and a cult of royal ancestors. During these ceremonies "Yaka mask" were worn. A central role in Shona-Karanga religion was played the mhondoro, the spirits of the ancestors of the ruling families. It was through these spirits that the Shona could talk to Mwari. Remembering the names of all the spirits and the task of calling on them in times of need was the responsibility of the nobles. Thus, the king of Mwene Mutapa played the role of high priest as well as acting as day-to-day ruler. The mhondoros also served as oral historians recording the names and deeds of past kings.
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Honoring the “The Mother of the Movement,” Mrs. Septima Clark
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
Too often when we talk of leaders of the civil rights movement, we hear a list of male names. And yet, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Mrs. Septima Poinsette Clark “the mother of the movement.”
Today is her birthday. Let us celebrate her life, and the lives of all those she touched, organized and educated.
Septima Poinsette Clark was born in Charleston, South Carolina, May 3, 1898, the second of eight children. Her father—who had been born a slave—and mother both encouraged her to get an education. Clark attended public school, then worked to earn the money needed to attend the Avery Normal Institute, a private school for African Americans.
This video biography from South Carolina ETV tells her story.
Too often, those of us living today forget the difficulties black Americans faced in getting an education.
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The Man Who Built Los Angeles
A (mostly) photo essay by Chitown Kev
Yesterday, as I was reading a book for another assignment, the author casually mentioned that a particular building (a cathedral, in Las Vegas) was designed by a man named Paul Revere Williams, an African American.
It’s always little factoids in books such as this one that send me down rabbit-holes of library stacks, labyrinths of foot notes, and, at times, to the outer reaches of the internet.
I found a website called The Paul R. Williams Project, a site begun, curiously enough, in Memphis. The website has this biography.
Paul Revere Williams was born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1894 to Lila Wright Williams and Chester Stanley Williams who had recently moved from Memphis with their young son, Chester, Jr. When Paul was two years old his father died, and two years later his mother died. The children were placed in separate foster homes. Paul was fortunate to grow up in the home of a foster mother who devoted herself to his education and to the development of his artistic talent.
At the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles was a vibrant multi-ethnic environment with a population of only 102,000 of which 3,100 were African American (U.S. Census 1900). During Williams’ youth the California dream attracted people from across the United States, and they mixed together with little prejudice. Williams later reported that he was the only African American child in his elementary school, and at Polytechnic High School he was part of an ethnic mélange. However, in high school he experienced the first hint of adversity when a teacher advised him against pursuing a career in architecture, because he would have difficulty attracting clients from the majority white community and the smaller black community could not provide enough work.
Williams did not give up. Confident in his strengths, he simultaneously pursued architectural education and professional experience with Los Angeles’ leading design firms while developing social and business networks. Certified as a building contractor in 1915, he was licensed as an architect by the State of California in 1921. Earning accolades in architectural competitions and the respect and encouragement of his employers, Williams opened his own practice and become the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1923.
Williams wrote about his encounter with that high school student advisor in his August 1963 Ebony Magazine article titled "If I Were Young Today"
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Sometimes the greatest inventions are those which simplify necessary tasks. Such is the case with Jan Matzeliger – the man who made it possible for ordinary citizens to purchase shoes.
Jan Matzeliger was born in Dutch Guiana (now known as Surinam) in South America. His father was a Dutch engineer and his mother was born in Dutch Guiana and was of African ancestry. His father had been sent to Surinam by the Dutch government to oversee the work going on in the South American country.
At an early age, Jan showed a remarkable ability to repair complex machinery and often did so when accompanying his father to a factory. When he turned 19, he decided to venture away from home to explore other parts of the world. For two years he worked aboard an East Indian merchant ship and was able to visit several countries. In 1873, Jan decided to stay in the United States for a while, landing in Pennsylvania. Although he spoke very little English, he was befriended by some Black residents who were active in a local church and took pity on him. Because he was good with his hands and mechanically inclined, he was able to get small jobs in order to earn a living.
At some point he began working for a cobbler and became interested in the making of shoes. At that time more than half of the shoes produced in the United States came from the small town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Still unable to speak more than rudimentary English, Matzeliger had a difficult time finding work in Lynn. After considerable time, he was able to begin working as a show apprentice in a shoe factory. He operated a McKay sole-sewing machine which was used to attached different parts of a shoe together. Unfortunately, no machines existed that could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole. As such, attaching the upper part of a shoe to the sole had to be done by hand. The people who were able to sew the parts of the shoe together were called "hand lasters" and expert ones were able to produce about 50 pairs of shoes in a 10 hour work day. They were held in high esteem and were able to charge a high price for their services, especially after they banded together and formed a union called the Company of Shoemakers. Because the hand lasters were able to charge so much money, a pair of shoes was very expensive to purchase. Hand lasters were confident that they would continue to be able to demand high sums of money for their services saying "… no matter if the sewing machine is a wonderful machine. No man can build a machine that will last shoes and take away the job of the laster, unless he can make a machine that has fingers like a laster – and that is impossible." Jan Matzeliger decided they were wrong.....Read more
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Random Sh*t off of the Top of My Head
By Chitown Kev
I have no overarching themes today; no meticulously researched, linked and documented essay (or what we call here at The Porch “Miss Denise-style”). Part of it is no specific topic has really piqued my interest; another part is that I am working on a new thang (which I will talk about).
1) The Acquittal of Edward Nero in Baltimore- My position on the trials of the six Baltimore police officers accused of killing (murdering, if you ask me) Freddie Gray has always been that no white police officer will be convicted in this case. One or more of the officers will probably have to be convicted because of “riot insurance” reasons, more or less. The convicted officers will be African American.
Those officers that are convicted will deserve it. The usual suspects (here at DK and IRL) will proclaim that "justice” has been served.
And people will continue to wonder why African Americans are so pessimistic and cynical when it comes to matters of law and order.
And I will simply give them an eyeroll and carry on about my day, as I’ve been doing.
Plus ça change and all of that…
2) 240 days- In 240 days ( to the hour as I am writing this), my former United States Senator, President Barack Hussein Obama will become former President Barack Hussein Obama.
My nostalgia has fully kicked in.
Good job, PBO. Damn good job.
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A brief history and tour of black protest music
BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS EDITOR
The global history of the African diaspora is rich with Protest Music in fact, it can be argued that without protest music and the oral history it represents, much of the civil rights and freedom movements of the late twentieth century would not have been possible. To be fair, I’m not going to overlook, many of the songs that helped move this freedom movement along especially in the United States were not written by the decedents of African peoples but instead by allies in the fights for freedom and justice. These contributors should not be forgotten. Overall fans and people inspired by these protest song cut across racial and class lines, greatly amplifying and increasing the power and reach of various civil rights and social justice movements.
As African people were taken from their ancestral homes, much of their history and traditions were lost. As black people lost their native languages one of the few ways to keep their traditions alive was through oral traditions, especially through music. For example, in the New World the long vowel sound found in most "Black" music spread from Senegalese slaves (with roots in the African rendition of the Muslim call to prayer) to other slaves, especially from the Congo. This most likely was a result of trying to find comfort at night by singing to each other, or possibly in the work songs used to try and keep other slave’s spirits up. Combining the Senegalese call to prayer with Congolese rhythms and you get the blues. Even as the traditional religion of the Senegalese slave were lost, the sounds it help create were passed on to their decedents.
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Congressman John Lewis honors the legacy of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
There are living legends among us. No need to open history books — we simply have to listen and learn. John Lewis—civil rights activist and Congressman is one of those who not only talks the talk—he has walked the walk. We are blessed to have him—alive —to tell us his story and serve as a power of example.
Lewis recently delivered the keynote address to graduates at Bates College.
Bates, located in Lewiston Maine seems at first look to be an odd place for Lewis to be giving a keynote speech at graduation. We learn through his address the Bates connection to the civil rights movement.
Civil rights hero John Lewis to Class of ’16: ‘Get in trouble — good trouble’
A dynamic speaker, Lewis dedicated most of his time to autobiographical episodes intended as inspiration and exhortation for the Bates students. But he began by recognizing the role of a founding father of the modern civil rights movement — the Rev. Benjamin E. Mays, Class of 1920 — and Bates’ role in shaping that civil rights theorist and King mentor.
“I feel more than honored, I feel more than lucky, I feel blessed to be standing here on this campus to speak to you, the graduates, where a man by the name of Benjamin Mays once stood,” Lewis said. “Many, many years ago I got to know Dr. Mays. He was part of my inspiration, he was my friend, my leader.”
Lewis cited Mays’ statement that Bates did not emancipate him, but instead enabled him to emancipate himself. “This is the great power of education, and Dr. Benjmain Mays is a shining example,” Lewis said. “I want to thank Bates College for what you did, and continue to do, to free and liberate humankind.”
Lewis never fails to speak of those man and women upon whose shoulders we stand.
For those of you who don’t know his history — meet Dr. Benjamin Mays.
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Marjorie Stewart Joyner (October 24, 1896 – December 27, 1994) was an American
businesswoman. She was born in 1896, in Monterey, Virginia. She was the granddaughter of a white slave owner and a slave. In 1912, she moved to Chicago and began studying cosmetology. She graduated A.B. Molar Beauty School in Chicago in 1916, the first African American to achieve this. There she met Madam C. J. Walker, an African American beauty entrepreneur, and the owner of a cosmetic empire. Always an advocate of beauty for women, Joyner went to work for her and oversaw 200 of Madame Walker's beauty schools as the national adviser. A major role was sending Walker's hair stylists door-to-door, dressed in black skirts and white blouses with black satchels containing a range of beauty products that were applied in the customer's house. Joyner taught some 15,000 stylists over her fifty-year career. She was also a leader in developing new products, such as her permanent wave machine. She helped write the first cosmetology laws for the state of Illinois, and founded both a sorority and a national association for black beauticians. Joyner was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, and helped found the National Council of Negro Women. She was an advisor to the Democratic National Committee in the 1940s, and advised several New Deal agencies trying to reach out to black women. Joyner was highly visible in the Chicago black community, as head of the Chicago Defender Charity network, and fundraiser for various schools. In 1987 the Smithsonian Institution in Washington opened an exhibit featuring Joyner's permanent wave machine and a replica of her original salon.
In 1939, she started looking for an easier way for black women to straighten their hair, taking her inspiration from a pot roast cooking with paper pins to quicken preparation time. Joyner experimented initially with these paper rods and soon designed a table that could be used to curl or straighten hair by wrapping it on rods above the person's head and then cooking them to set the hair.....Read More
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Here in Black Kos—we are black, we are white, we are Latinx, we are Native American, we are Asian, we are male, we are female, we are straight, we are LGBT, we are young, we are elders, we are able and disabled.
We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, Lucumi, Indigenous Traditional, Humanist, agnostic and atheist.
We are united in fighting hate — whatever form it takes.
We stand in solidarity with the families, friends and loved ones of those who died in Orlando, those who were wounded and with the entire LGBT community.
We will continue to battle for gun-control, and dedicate ourselves to electing officials who will advocate for sane gun policies.
We will not live in fear. We will face it, and move forward, with love — together.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lorde
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A note on “sanctuary”
Commentary by Chitown Kev
ἐλῶσι γάρ σε καὶ δι᾽ ἠπείρου μακρᾶς βιβῶντ᾽ ἀν᾽ αἰεὶ τὴν πλανοστιβῆ χθόνα ὑπέρ τε πόντον καὶ περιῤῥύτας πόλεις. καὶ μὴ πρόκαμνε τόνδε βουκολούμενος πόνον· μολὼν δὲ Παλλάδος ποτὶ πτόλιν
Aeschylus, Eumenides (lines 75-79)
(A translation of these lines can be found here. I think.)
Today, I’d hoped to have a full book review of Onaje X.O. Woodbine’s Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball but I’m still in the final stages of reading the book.
I will say, for now, that one of the more moving features of Woodbine’s ethnographic accounts of “street” basketball in Boston’s impoverished and gang-ridden neighborhoods is the extent to which the asphalt courts (primarily of the Roxbury section of Boston) are nothing more and nothing less than sanctuaries for those that play on them.
Furthermore, these asphalt sanctuaries don’t have much of a resemblance to popularly known public sanctuaries like a church or a temple or a garden or even a more personal or private sanctuary like one’s own library or a room of one’s own.
The human need for times and places of sanctuary long predate Christianity, of course (as the quote by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus attests). It is striking to me that like, Orestes, the street ballers depicted by Mr. Woodbine seek an escape from ever-increasing levels of violence both from without and from within themselves; a violence that even, at times, follows them into their sanctuary (much as the Furies followed Orestes into the Temple of Apollo).
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The Religion of the Rastafari
dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor ,
The Rastafari religion is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, religion that arose in a mostly Christian culture in Jamaica in the 1930s. Its adherents, who worship Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, former Emperor of Ethiopia (1930–1936 and 1941–1974), as the Second Advent, are known as Rastafarians, or Rastas. The movement is sometimes referred to as "Rastafarianism", but this term is considered derogatory and offensive by many Rastas, who dislike being labeled as an "ism". Rastas are taught to reject all "ism" and "scisms"
The key text of the Rastafari are the following:
Rastafari is not a highly organized religion, as it is many ways more a movement or ideology. Many Rastas say that it is not a "religion" at all, but a "Way of Life". There is a rather large divide amongst Rastas. Many Rastas do not claim any sect or denomination, and thus encourage one another to find faith and inspiration within themselves. Other Rastas identify strongly with one of the "mansions of Rastafari" — the three most prominent of these being the Nyahbinghi, the Bobo Ashanti and theTwelve Tribes of Israel. By the way most of my family who are Rastas are non-aligned or Bobo Ashantis. Bob Marley was a member of the 12 Tribes.
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Remembering Bakke
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
The Bakke Decision was handed down by the Supreme Court 38 years ago today.
The Supreme Court's decision in Bakke was announced on June 28, 1978. The justices penned six opinions; none of them, in full, had the support of a majority of the court. In a plurality opinion,[a] Justice Powell delivered the judgment of the court. Four justices (Burger, Stewart, Rehnquist, and Stevens) joined with him to strike down the minority admissions program and admit Bakke. The other four justices (Brennan, White, Marshall, and Blackmun) dissented from that portion of the decision, but joined with Powell to find affirmative action permissible under some circumstances, though subject to an intermediate scrutiny standard of analysis. They also joined with Powell to reverse that portion of the judgment of the California Supreme Court that forbade the university to consider race in the admissions process
Given that we have just won a victory in Fisher vs. University of Texas II it is important that we consider, yet again, how important SCOTUS is, and no matter what activism takes place in the streets — which is a good thing, ultimately the fate of generations will be tied to decisions made in the Courts.
Too often I hear affirmative action described as anti-white, and reverse racism — even from some people on the left who should know better.
TPM had a good article on conservative reasons for killing it and one would hope that those of us on the left would not parrot those same r-wing talking points.
I think we need to continue the discussion of what white privilege is, and what affirmative action is — and not assume because people say they are progressive that they embrace the concepts.
I teach students of color who have gotten into college via various affirmative action routes. I also have to deal with other students who look down on them, as if — somehow that assistance dubs them as less worthy — and stupid.
It makes me both angry and sad.
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History's Lost Black Towns by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
I'm something of an amateur history buff. So after a long election season focused on winning the future, and in the brief recess before we get back to fighting for that future, I thought about looking back at our past.
Much of movement conservatism’s energy the last few years has been to attack and discredit Obama and by extension his strong support in communities of color by trying to label them as the other. Ever since the Dixiecrats joined "modern" conservatism the racial tinged idea that Democrats and now by extention Obama's supporter in the black community just want free stuff has continually percolated just below the surface of conservative rhetoric.
Donald Trump, has been exploiting xenophobia, and although he has been targeting Latinos and Muslims, polling has shown his support tracks closely with racial resentment. This matches the rhetoric after the 2012 election when Romney's excuse filled explanation for why he loss, also played to racial resentment when he state:
Romney told his contributors that Obama’s strategy was to “focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote.” These gifts, Romney lamented, “add up to trillions of dollars” and were delivered to “targeted groups,” “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people”.
With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because, as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people.
In comments reportedly related to blacks and other minorities, Romney observed:
You can imagine, for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it—getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity—I mean, this is huge. Likewise, with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition, with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.
But since before America's founding blacks have played a vital role in building this great nation. Eager to live and prosper as free people, blacks have established our own towns since Colonial times. Many of these communities were destroyed by racial violence or injustice, while some just died out. None of these towns were founded by people looking for "free stuff" but rather by people looking for freedom and opportunity. I always believe you honor the future by looking at the past, so let's look at some of the more significant ones.
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AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by sephius1
James Edward Maceo West (born February 10, 1931 in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia) is an American inventor and acoustician. Along with Gerhard Sessler, West developed the foil electret microphone in 1962 while developing instruments for human hearing research. Nearly 90 percent of more than two billion microphones produced annually are based on the principles of the foil-electret and are used in everyday items such as telephones, camcorders, and audio recording devices among others. West received a BS in Physics from Temple University in 1957. He holds over 250 foreign and U.S. patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets.
In 2001, West retired from Lucent Technologies after a distinguished 40-year career at Bell Laboratories where he received the organization's highest honor, being named a Bell Laboratories Fellow. West then joined the faculty of the Whiting School at Johns Hopkins University where he is currently a research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In addition to his many contributions to acoustical science, throughout his career West has been a fervent advocate for greater diversity in the fields of science and technology. While at Bell Laboratories, West co-founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees (ABLE), an organization formed to "address placement and promotional concerns of Black Bell Laboratories employees." He was also instrumental in the creation and development of both the Corporate Research Fellowship Program (CRFP) for graduate students pursuing terminal degrees in the sciences, as well as the Summer Research Program, which together provided opportunities for over 500 non-white graduate students….....Read More
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“We are an inclusive rather than an exclusive party. Let everybody come.”
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
It is hard for me to believe that 40 years have passed since I watched, with members of my family, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan deliver her powerful keynote address to the Democratic National Convention being held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. We were watching her make history.
- She was the first woman to deliver the keynote.
- She was the first black American to deliver the keynote.
- She was the first black woman to deliver the keynote.
- She was the first Texan to deliver the keynote.
I’ve written about her recently — Barbara Jordan: 'She always did sound like God'
As we approach the 2016 Democratic Convention, July 25th-28th, in Philly “we the people” of the Big Tent Party will come together again, to make more history.
Join me in listening to and reading her words.
Transcript
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Dr. Stephon Alexander asks big questions. How did the space and time that govern our universe come into being? Intrigued at an early age by quantum theory, Einstein's theory of relativity, and string theory, he now works to unify them in his search for a theory of quantum gravity.
"There's a world of phenomena and theories that do very well in making cell phones work," he explains. "But at the same time, other evidence we are calling 'dark matter' is still absolutely mysterious. My discoveries come through calculations as I tease nature into revealing her secrets."
Alexander has long personal experience confronting the unknown. At age eight his family moved from Trinidad to the Bronx in New York City. "My childhood was full of surprises," he remembers. "I learned that you can't always hold on to things; it taught me the idea of embracing the unknown. Our culture tells us to try and control situations. Instead, I've always coped with unexpected events by making up theories about why they may be happening."
After earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Brown University, Alexander completed postdoctoral work at Imperial College in London and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He is now an assistant professor in the Penn State Physics Department.
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Historically black colleges, still relevant and still needed!
dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community. Most were founded to provided educational opportunities denied to black Americans during the Jim Crow era.
There are 105 HBCUs in the United States today. They range from public to private, two-year to four-year institutions, medical schools to community colleges. All are or were in the former slave states and territories of the U.S. except for Central State University (Ohio), Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Lewis College of Business (Detroit, Michigan), Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), Wilberforce University (Ohio), and the now defunct Western University (Kansas). Some closed during the 20th century due to competition, the Great Depression and financial difficulties after operating for decades.
Of the 105 HBCU institutions in America today, 27 offer doctoral programs and 52 provide graduate degree programs at the Master's level. At the undergraduate level, 83 of the HBCUs offer a Bachelor's degree program and 38 of these schools offer associate degrees.
With its 15 HBCUs, Alabama has more schools of this kind than any other state. North Carolina has more four-year public universities than any of the other states with five. Some of the more notable colleges on the list are Louisiana's four-year private school Xavier University, Virginia State University, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a division of Arkansas' best known university, Georgia's Morris Brown University and Howard University in Washington, D.C.
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Our FLOTUS brings down the house at the DNC
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
Yes — “our” First Lady.
Black folks lay a special claim to First Lady Michelle Obama. Sure, she is beloved by many people worldwide and across party lines here in the U.S. However she will always have a major place in the hearts of black Americans — not just because of her position as the first black woman to become a First Lady, alongside of her very special husband, our POTUS, Barack Obama — she is our heart because of who she is.
I tuned in to watch the DNC yesterday, from the beginning. I was elated to see so many women, and men of color representing Democrats, up on that podium. What a difference from the sterile, almost monochromatic RNC — the party of hate, racism, sexism and xenophobia.
I was not happy about the sporadic outbursts and boos from a certain segment of the “couthless” attending the DNC. I was keeping an eye on Black Twitter at the same time, and there were loud rumblings about how we were gonna erupt into a “take off your earrings” moment if those folks dared to diss Michelle.
It didn’t happen. Michelle Obama dropped the mic and brought the house down, to rounds and rounds of applause. As the cameras cut away from her speech from time to time to scan the onlookers, the smiles, tears and intense emotions displayed told the story.
In case you missed the intro before she took the stage — here it is.
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Sports, black athletes and Olympic memories of Jesse Owens.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
It’s that time of year again. The Summer Olympics, this year in Rio, is on the nation’s tv screens and in the headlines. For many black families, the summer Olympics takes pride of place in our history and lore. That doesn’t mean we ignore the winter events—it is just that all that snow whiteness has never been peopled with as many black athletes (though it is changing) as the summer games which feature track and field events and more —which showcase black athletes—winning. A wealth of heroes and sheroes galore.
My earliest memories of family discussions centering on the Olympics are of Jesse Owens. Though I wasn’t even dreamed of by my parents in 1936 (they were not even married then) I remember the pride with which his name was mentioned. He showed Hitler something. He was “our champion” against the hateful Nazi’s.
1936 Berlin Summer Olympics
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Patriotism by the book
Commentary by Chitown Kev
As a rule, I have had two very distinct reactions to the online taunting and abuse being thrown at US Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas for insufficient “patriotism” at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
One reaction is simply a blinding rage at the keyboard yahoos and racists who haven’t accomplished even a millionth of what Ms. Douglas has achieved in her brief lifetime.
The other reaction is related to the blinding rage but is a bit more...introspective.
What does “patriotism” even mean? What does it mean to be a “patriot?”
(I do this because I adamantly refuse to surrender the English language, in all of its denotative and connotative meanings, to a bunch of yahoos.)
Well...here is the definition of “patriot” and “patriotic” in Merriam-Webster online...which doesn’t tell me what I don’t already know.
It’s easy enough to see the Indo-European root word pater (for “father”) so I know that we are talking about quite a manly and authoritative subject (at least once upon a time).
Which brings us to the etymology of the word.
And now this gets interesting.
Meaning "loyal and disinterested supporter of one's country" is attested from c. 1600, but became an ironic term of ridicule or abuse from mid-18c. in England, so that Johnson, who at first defined it as "one whose ruling passion is the love of his country," in his fourth edition added, "It is sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government."
The name of patriot had become [c. 1744] a by-word of derision. Horace Walpole scarcely exaggerated when he said that ... the most popular declaration which a candidate could make on the hustings was that he had never been and never would be a patriot. [Macaulay, "Horace Walpole," 1833]
Somewhat revived in reference to resistance movements in overrun countries in World War II, it has usually had a positive sense in American English, where the phony and rascally variety has been consigned to the word patrioteer (1928). Oriana Fallaci ["The Rage and the Pride," 2002] marvels that Americans, so fond of patriotic, patriot, and patriotism, lack the root noun and are content to express the idea of patria by cumbersome compounds such as homeland...
The Online Etymology Dictionary’s explanation is basically a summation of what is in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The following is one of the definitions of “patriot” in the OED:
2. a. One who disinterestedly or self-sacrificingly exerts himself to promote the wellbeing of his country; ‘one whose ruling passion is the love of his country’ (J.) one who maintains and defends his country’s freedom and rights.
Gabby Douglas has unflinchingly represented the United States at two Olympic Games. As far as whether Douglas may or may not be someone whose “ruling passion is the love of his country”...well...
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Voices and Soul
by
Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
It is said we should overcome any limitations imposed on us. It is said that strength lay in the embrace of limitless possibilities provided by a benevolent and bountiful universe, made just for us. It is said that eternal life is to be had if we simply believe it. It is said that what is said says it all.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women, And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men? And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere, The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
--Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
“… I was taught in College physics how
Time
Like particles And waves
Could shift From red To blue
Move fast Or slow.
But in that Alley I perceived in a Constant Rhythmic Chill.
I could see Molecules of light Play on the White dumpster
And the low Stone black Wings of death Shadow colors Refracted from A multitude Of broken bits Of glass.
I could hear The scratching Of the electrical Transformer At one end Of the Alley
Harmonize With the Reverberation
Of traffic At the other.
I felt The heavy Bass Of buses And semi's Mix liquid With the Treble Of car stereos Gained-up
Playing Classic rock Rap and Latin.
I could also Taste my own Salt tears Barely dilute The thick blood From deep inside me
And excreted Out my Mouth and nose.
Tears Falling On paper and dust While Blood rusted A path over Flesh and metal
Discarded and crushed… “
-- Justice Putnam
from "The Nature of Poetics Collapsed Outside My Window"
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“Saudade” — Black Brazil.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
I’ve been thinking over the Brazil Olympics and feeling “saudade” (can be pronou
nced sow—dahd-Jee) which is often dubbed a Portuguese word that is untranslatable.
...a Portuguese and Galician term that is a common fixture in the literature and music of Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and beyond. The concept has many definitions, including a melancholy nostalgia for something that perhaps has not even happened. It often carries an assurance that this thing you feel nostalgic for will never happen again. My favorite definition of saudade is by Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy."
I will more than likely never return to Brazil. My dearest friend there has died, and I just don’t want to attempt to revisit what I shared there with her. However, what she did teach me about Brazil, I will never forget. I waited impatiently to watch the Olympics from Rio, hoping to recapture just a bit of the Brazil Maria introduced me to.
Brazil is the country with the largest African-descended population in the world. The country with the largest number of black people is Nigeria. I had expectations of seeing that reflected in the Olympics coverage, and it didn’t happen. Yes, there were segments featuring some of the black Brazilian athletes — most notably Rafaela Silva, who claimed Brazil’s first gold in the games, winning in judo.
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On Colin Kaepernick...and that other announcement…
Commentary by Chitown Kev
Originally, today’s commentary was going to be about a change that I will be making in my bi-weekly commentaries. That announcement will still take place (albeit briefly) but I have a few thoughts that I would like to share about San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his political stance regarding his decision to sit for the national anthem.
1) Well...as a sports fan, I do have to say that there is one very noticeable difference between Kaepernick’s protest and the Tommie Smith/Juan Carlos Black Power protest at the 1968 Olympic Games an Muhammad Ali’s stance against the Vietnam War.
The Smith/Carlos protest took place from the medal ceremony itself (Smith won a gold medal and Carlos won a bronze medal in the 200-meter race).
When Muhammad Ali was denied his boxing license for refusing to be drafted by the Army, Ali was heavyweight champion of the world.
At the present time, Kaepernick has expressed a desire to be traded and is battling for the starting job in San Francisco...I guess.
I fully support Kaepernick’s actions with regard to his sitting for the national anthem, of course. However, questioning Kaepernick’s motivations for his doing so at this time in his NFL career is also fair. Had Kaepernick done this during the period he quarterbacked the 49ers to three NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl, then the comparisons to Smith, Carlos and Ali would make more sense.
At least to this sports fan.
Having said that…
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Annie J. Easley (April 23, 1933 - June 25, 2011) was an African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She worked for the Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She was a leading member of the team which
developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field.
Annie Jane Easley was born to Bud McCrory and Willie Sims in Birmingham, Alabama. In the days before the Civil Rights Movement, educational and career opportunities for African American children were very limited. African American children were educated separately from white children and their schools were most often inferior to white schools. Annie was fortunate in that her mother told her that she could be anything she wanted but she would have to work at it. She encouraged her to get a good education and from the fifth grade through high school, she attended Holy Family High School, and was valedictorian of her graduating class.
After high school she went to New Orleans, Louisiana, to Xavier University, then an African-American Roman Catholic University, where she majored in pharmacy for about two years.
In 1954, she returned to Birmingham briefly. As part of the Jim Crow laws that established and maintained racial inequality, African Americans were required to pass an onerous literacy test and pay a poll tax in order to vote. She remembers the test giver looking at her application and saying only, "You went to Xavier University. Two dollars." Subsequently, she helped other African Americans prepare for the test.
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History of the African American repatriation movements to Liberia, Sierra Leon, and Haiti.
BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
The ACS or the American Colonization Society (later renamed The Society for the Colonization of Free Colored People of America), was established in 1816 by Robert Finley of New Jersey. This organization was the primary vehicle for supporting the return of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa.
Among other things it helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen (American blacks who were not slaves). Among its prominent supporters were Charles Fenton Mercer, Henry Clay, John Randolph, and Richard Bland Lee. Paul Cuffee, (1759 – 1817) a Quaker businessman, sea captain, patriot, and abolitionist, was an early advocate of settling freed blacks in Africa. He gained support from black leaders and members of the US Congress for an emigration plan that became known as repatriation.
In 1811 and 1815–16, Paul Cuffee financed and captained several successful voyages to British-ruled Sierra Leone, where he helped African-American immigrants get established. Although Cuffee died in 1817, his efforts may have inspired the American Colonization Society (ACS) to initiate further settlements. The ACS was a coalition made up mostly of evangelicals and Quakers, who supported abolition and Chesapeake slaveholders who understood that unfree labor did not constitute the economic future of the nation. They found common ground in support of so-called "repatriation". They believed blacks would face better chances for full lives in Africa than in the U.S. The slaveholders opposed state or federally-mandated abolition, but saw repatriation as a way to remove free blacks and avoid slave rebellions.
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Protecting President Obama's Legacy
by JoanMar, Black Kos Ediotor Emeritus
In his address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards Dinner last Saturday night, the President said that he’d be personally offended if the community didn’t get out and vote this November. “A personal insult,” he said.
There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters. And after we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African-American community, I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. (Applause.) You want to give me a good sendoff? Go vote. (Applause.) And I’m going to be working as hard as I can these next seven weeks to make sure folks do. (Applause.)
I watched the speech and thought that particular paragraph was powerful and deserved a standing ovation. I agreed wholeheartedly with the President. In the Live Blog we did for the speech, I saw not one critical comment. Imagine my surprise when I ventured from the relative safety of DailyKos and out into the wild, wild ‘net and found that people were offended — offended, I tell ya — that Mr. Obama would dare ask people to protect his legacy by voting for Sec. Clinton.
From what I saw, it was not members of the community who were spitting fire, but rather people who professed to be insulted on our behalf. People who sought to protect us from the big, bad, abusive Obama. “Emotional blackmail,” some fumed. "He thinks African American are children to be told who to vote for,” still others complained. Well, whaddya know? Thank you so much for your concern trolling.
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tand Up, Stand Up
Commentary by Chitown Kev
This past Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Michigan Wolverines unmercifully and delightfully annihilated the Penn State Nittany Lions 49-10 in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.
And this happened:
ANN ARBOR -- Surrounded by 110,319 people, at least seven Wolverines raised their fists in the air on Saturday, bringing a national movement to the University of Michigan.
The final score of Michigan 49, Penn State 10, was an aside to a pregame statement by Jourdan Lewis and his teammates. They stood at the 40-yard line, facing the flag in Michigan Stadium's south end zone. As the "Star Spangled Banner" began, belted into the afternoon air by the U-M marching band, they clenched their fists and lifted their arms.
Lewis was joined by Mike McCray, Khalid Hill, David Dawson, Channing Stribling, Devin Bush and Elysee Mbem-Bosse.
Lewis was the lone member of the group to meet with reporters afterward. He said the gesture was not meant as a protest, but as personal expression.
Their message, according to Lewis: "(There's) injustice here in this country that we see. We've got to take notice of it. That's really what it is. It's no disrespect toward the country or anything like that, but there is injustice."
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COMMENTARY: AFRICAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Coming from a long line of relatives that worked in the medical and science fields, Jewell Plummer Cobb dedicated her life first to the research of cellular biology and then to the teaching of science to people of minority status. As the president of California State University-Fullerton, Cobb made advances in the opportunities to motivate minority students of all ages to study science and engineering and has been honored due to her work by numerous colleges as well as by the National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C.
Jewell Plummer Cobb was born on January 17, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the only child of Frank V. Plummer, a middle-class doctor, and Carriebel Cole Plummer, a dance instructor who worked closely with the Works Projects Administration in the 1930s. Cobb’s father was one of the main inspirations in the young girl’s life, making it clear to her that the most important thing in life was making life better for those around you. Frank Plummer lived by this rule, setting up his first office on the corner where a streetcar had a transfer point for commuting stockyard workers. This allowed the workers, almost all of who were men and women of color, to use the transfer time to visit his office and receive medical treatment without having to take time off of work and without having to pay out transportation fees to get to a doctor’s office.
Even though Cobb faced the same segregation that all minorities faced in the 1930s and 1940s, she was privy to the advantages of a middle-class upbringing. Her family continued to move into better and better neighborhoods in the city as they became available due to white families moving out of the city and into the suburbs, allowing Cobb to attend better public schools throughout her primary schooling. She learned to read at an early age and she took advantage of her father’s large home library which contained numerous scientific journals and magazines, up to date newspapers, and a thorough collection of books that chronicled the achievements of black Americans. Her parents also owned a cottage in Idlewild, Michigan, where a number of well to do black families vacationed during the summer months.
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Voices and Soul
by
Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
Scholars tend to downplay her connection with the Black Arts Movement, but Jayne Cortez was one of the most important writers of the Movement. She developed her approach to surrealism, which was always dipped in blues, during the early 1970s when she was living in New York. The Poet, Quincy Troupe, probably synthesized her work in the most powerful declaration at her passing;
"Many times we recoil in horror from what we hear and feel in the poetry of Jayne Cortez; sometimes many of her poems make us want to weep, not for her, but for ourselves, our own transgressions, our own particular weaknesses, as well as the weaknesses of the world; then there are the poems that makes us angry, both at Ms. Cortez, for telling us a particularly, penetrating truth, and at ourselves for committing the acts that the poem is addressing itself to; but at no time in listening to and reading the poetry of Jayne Cortez, are we failed to be moved by the power of her impact."
I had the great fortune to see Cortez perform her poems several times in Los Angeles when I was a young poet. She was a tour de force in the movie, Poetry in Motion, and if you haven’t already, you should take it in. Though she is missed greatly, Jayne Cortez remains the most necessary poet there is for these precarious and careless times.
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POTUS and Eric Holder will be working together again
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
As the time draws near, when we will no longer have Barack Obama as our beloved POTUS, there has also been quite a bit of speculation about what he will do as a private citizen.
Just saw a short, but very interesting article on Politico:
Obama, Holder to lead post-Trump redistricting campaign. The former attorney general heads up a new Democratic effort to challenge the GOP's supremacy in state legislatures and the U.S. House.
As Democrats aim to capitalize on this year’s Republican turmoil and start building back their own decimated bench, former Attorney General Eric Holder will chair a new umbrella group focused on redistricting reform — with the aim of taking on the gerrymandering that’s left the party behind in statehouses and made winning a House majority far more difficult.
The new group, called the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, was developed in close consultation with the White House. President Barack Obama himself has now identified the group — which will coordinate campaign strategy, direct fundraising, organize ballot initiatives and put together legal challenges to state redistricting maps — as the main focus of his political activity once he leaves office.
…
“American voters deserve fair maps that represent our diverse communities — and we need a coordinated strategy to make that happen,” Holder said. “This unprecedented new effort will ensure Democrats have a seat at the table to create fairer maps after 2020."
Obama strongly endorsed Holder’s selection, and is planning more involvement in state races this year. But it’s in his post-presidency that redistricting will be a priority for his fundraising and campaigning.
“Where he will be most politically engaged will be at the state legislative level, with an eye on redistricting after 2020,” said White House political director David Simas, who’s been briefing Obama on the group’s progress since it started coming together at the beginning of the summer.
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My first person experience witnessing voter intimidation
— BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS, MANAGING EDITOR
This is story I never thought I would have to write, because I never thought I would witness this in the first person. I tend to use early voting as on election day, I tend to volunteer to do GOTV. On October 27th I took my parents to city hall for early voting. Walking into the city clerk’s office I quickly felt ecstatic. The appearance of the crowd inside would warm the heart of any Democrat. In the front of the line was a young Latina with her mother going through the process of early voting, filling out some forms were three other millennial age white woman, my parents and myself were of course black, only one retirement age woman who was leaving as we entered “looked” like anything approaching a Trump demographic. Feeling hopeful I walked into line with my parents. A friendly city hall officer who was helping to maintain order asked us “what we there for?” I told him “I’m helping my parents early vote”. He asked me “do you want to early vote too?” I told him “I’ll do it after I help my parents”. I stood in line, helped my parents get the forms they needed and helped them sit down and fill them out. Everyone in line was pleasantly waiting their turn to vote. After helping my elderly parents fill out the forms, I helped my parents return to line. By this time a another man had approached the line, took one look and crossed his arms.
My parents were standing in the line holding their early voting forms, I didn’t have my form yet, but I was standing in line next to my elderly parents, just making sure everything was OK. The city hall officer noticed I didn’t have a form, he got a form with a clip board and pen, and started to hand itto me. He asked me “can I help you early vote too buddy?”. At this point the man “lost his shit” he angrily asked the security officer “are you going to call me buddy and help me vote too”, he then began to loudly talk to himself “what the fuck is this shit”, “this is what’s wrong with this place” and other comments along these general lines. I thanked the officer but waved him off, I looked directly at this disruptive man gave him my favorite “you don’t scare me smile” and told him ”Sir. I was already in line before, but since I’m helping my parents vote, I don’t want to cut the line, when I’m finished helping them, I’m going to return to line and vote”. He looked at me and said “I wasn’t talking to you”.
The officer then answered a question the Latina lady asked him in Spanish, this furthered set the man off on another rant. He asked the officer “are you a citizen” the officer told him “yes, I’m Puerto Rican, so yes I’m a citizen”. This jerk them asked him “are you registered to vote in Manchester”. The officer said “yes” he asked him “can you run for President?” The officer rolled his eyes and said “ I can run for any Federal office, but I’m not going to run for President”. He kept on asking the officer questions about this, but the officer, just tried to stop engaging him.
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Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Warren Washington is an internationally recognized expert on atmospheric science and climate research. He specializes in computer modeling of Earth's climate. Currently, he is a senior scientist and Chief Scientist of the DOE/UCAR Cooperative Agreement at NCAR in the Climate Change Research Section in the center’s Climate and Global Dynamics Division. Over the years, Washington has published almost 200 papers in professional journals, garnered dozens of national and international awards, and served as a science advisor to former presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
Washington was born and grew up in Portland, Oregon. He became interested in science in grade school, going on to earn a bachelor's degree in physics and master's degree in meteorology from Oregon State University. His next step was to Pennsylvania State University for a doctorate in meteorology. In 1963, he joined NCAR as a research scientist.
Climate Modeling
Washington became one of the first developers of groundbreaking atmospheric computer models in collaboration with Akira Kasahara when he came to NCAR in the early 1960s. These models, which use fundamental laws of physics to predict future states of the atmosphere, have helped scientists understand climate change. As his research developed, Washington worked to incorporate the oceans and sea ice into climate models. Such models now include components that depict surface hydrology and vegetation as well as the atmosphere, oceans, and sea ice.
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Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
Khrushchev’s speech at the UN, back during the height of the Cold War, when he famously banged his shoe on the lectern, resonates in these perilous times. People then were either aghast and appalled, or humored by yet again, anotherKhrushchevian, dramatic masterpiece. Regardless, the world couldn't stop speaking about it, just as the world is now aghast at the Teutonic train wreck rolling rolling rolling across a landscape of Rural White animus from sea to shining sea.
What was less reported at the time was an off hand answer to an off hand question as Khrushchev moved about on his escorted tour of the US. He was asked how he was so sure that the Soviets would prevail over the West. I like to embellish his response as,
"When I come to grind the West under the iron heel of my iron boot, rest assured, the Capitalist will sell me the rope I hang him from first."
The part about the iron heel and iron boot is my own “poetic license,” but that last part is all Khrushchev, and though the Soviets have gone the way of the Velociraptor, Khrushchev's truism about the Capitalist cannot be refuted. How else to explain the oil blow outs in the Gulf of Mexico and gas pipeline explosions in Bay Area neighborhoods? How else to explain contaminated foodstuffs, acid rain, polluted aquifers and mountaintop removal? How else to explain children poisoned by lead, mercury and dioxins? How else to explain a society poisoned by hate and fear and some more hate to sell a brand, a product, a pathway to the Presidency? How else to explain the cadence of jackboots in a goosestep march on a crystal night in a horrific bend in Time? How else to explain the acrid stench of fascism rising from the very roots of our National existence, to the thermal skies above?
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He rode the A-Train into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
Today marks the birthday of jazz composer, arranger, and pianist William “Billy” Strayhorn, known as "Strays" by the musicians he played with, and nicknamed “Sweet Pea” by Duke Ellington, born November 29, 1915 in Dayton Ohio. In 1984 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
If you are familiar with the jazz composition, "Take the A Train," then you know something about not only Duke Ellington, but also Billy "Sweet Pea" Strayhorn, its composer.
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