Thoughts on Harry and Meghan, POTUS Obama and virulent racism.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
I don’t often write about international celebrities like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex; though they have been covered here on Daily Kos, I find the Duchess of Sussex, formally Meghan Markle (and her mom, Doria Ragland) of interest, simply because far too many folks who purport to be “on the left” continue to push the “white Trumpists aren’t racist, it’s economic anxiety or Brexit wasn’t about race” memes. I keep being told that equal access to money, and education will somehow magically solve racism.
Um. No.
So when I woke up today to find the 2nd wedding anniversary of #HarryandMeghan trending on social media I took a look.
It was interesting to see the tweets of support.
I went back to take a look at the history of Markle’s black family:
Also at tweets documenting the racism against her, just for being descended from black folks.
Barack Obama was in my twitter stream today too. Not just for his address to graduating young adults.
The ugly was there as well.
We know that though he is a global political figure, President Barack Obama is also a celebrity. Becoming the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, certainly didn’t and hasn’t protected him from a never-ending barrage of racist attacks. Many of those attacks generated from the lips of the current pResident. Obama has rented space in the head of Donald Trump — to the level of an obsession, and Trump loving racists have gleefully followed suit.
Funny how some people were convinced in the past that Obama’s having had a white mother would somehow mitigate the wall of racism he faces. Erase his blackness. Hah! Same goes for Meghan Markle, whose dad is white, but whose mom is descended from enslaved black people in Georgia. If anything it has made it worse.
Then there’s that canard that racists are all ignant low class denizens of some back hills swamp.
Sure.
This guy, Gary Casper was a Vice President of information technology at Transcard.
I’ve grown up knowing that my parent’s ascent into the middle class, and a move to the middle class neighborhoods of Queens, NY (home to Donald Trump) was no shield against racism.
Yes, we need to push for economic and educational equity for black folks.
Yes, we need to end housing segregation. Yes, we need to demand racial equality in health care — as the COVID-19 pandemic is illustrating — daily.
Don’t think however, that throwing money at us, will magically end deep-seated, hundred’s of centuries of racism.
The cure for that illness is in the hands of white folks.
I won’t hold my breath.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The New York State Department of Health is partnering with the state’s largest health care network, Northwell Health, to provide dozens of COVID-19 testing sites for communities of color.
As reported by WABC, 11 churches in New York City were converted into temporary testing sites and began offering testing services earlier this week. Another 13 churches are expected to be added to the list of providers next week.
The testing sites are located in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs, as well as Nassau and Westchester counties. More than 530 residents in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood gathered at Bethany Baptist Church for testing in a matter of two days, HuffPost reported. At least 400 signed up for antibody testing, according to Rev. Adolphus C. Lacey.
“We’re demonstrating a need,” Rev. Lacey stated.
At least 20 members of Bethany Baptist have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic started. Six have died of the respiratory disease.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Barack Obama delivered a commencement speech to graduates at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) Saturday. And much of his advice encouraging students to become leaders doubled as an indictment of the Trump administration’s management of the pandemic.
“More than anything, this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama said in a video streamed online as part of the “Show Me Your Walk H.B.C.U. Edition” virtual commencement. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
On the whole, Obama struck his signature tone of calm and measured optimism, and used the country’s current economic and public health crises as springboards for discussing his usual political themes, including the importance of community organizing and finding common ground outside of comfort zones. And he also emphasized the unique injustices faced by young black people like Ahmaud Arbery at a time when some political leaders are arguing that coronavirus is an equalizer of sorts.
“Let’s be honest, a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country,” he said. “We see it in the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.”
Obama went on to tell graduates that it is because of challenges such as these that they are needed as active citizens who can engage deeply with the world in a time of crisis. “No generation has been better positioned to be warriors for justice and remake the world,” he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Des Moines man says he was assaulted by three white men early Saturday morning in a racially motivated attack on the city's south side, and members of the NAACP at a news conference Sunday advised black residents to be on high alert in light of recent incidents both locally and nationally.
DarQuan Jones, 22, said he was on his way to his girlfriend's house when he was assaulted by the suspects at about 3:25 a.m. Saturday in the 5200 block of South Union Street, according to a police report.
At least one of the suspects made racist comments during the assault, Jones told police.
When police arrived at the scene, they discovered Jones lying on the ground with significant, non-life-threatening injuries to the left side of his face, eye and hands. He was transported to a local hospital.
Daryl Jones Jr., DarQuan's father, said the men had put his son in a choke-hold and broke multiple bones.
"They broke my son's face in five places. Five," Daryl Jones Jr. said to a large crowd of community members, who attended in support of his son and stood outside the 2:30 p.m. news conference at the Mickle Center.
"(The suspects) know what they did. I don't want an uproar, I just want justice."
DarQuan Jones did not know the men who had attacked him, the police report said.
"He said, 'Dad, why did this happen to me?' And I couldn't answer back. It brought tears to my eyes," Daryl Jones Jr. said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Nurudeen Olugbade taking photographs of life in Orile-Iganmu, Lagos state, during the pandemic is a way to affirm that the disruption it has wrought on the neglected town does matter.
“We are not really seen. There’s very little attention paid to us but the struggle out here is real,” says Olugbade, 28, who has documented the crisis on his phone.
In recent months the strict measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 have changed the character of the town. Ordinarily Orile, as it’s usually known, is a vibrant town but footfall has waned on the streets lined with makeshift stores built out from weathered housing units. Many of the businesses that are allowed to trade as the lockdown slowly eases are open for fewer hours, to fewer customers.
Informal work such as cleaning and making deliveries, usually serving more affluent parts of the city of Ikeja, have slowed. For the past two months a powdered milk factory in Orile that employs hundreds of people has been shut.
An alarming rise in armed robberies, cult killings and gang warfare has unsettled those in communities that are struggling during the pandemic, roaming the area in search of work during the day, and too frightened to sleep at night.
“Everybody is on their guard,” says Olugbade. “For a couple of weeks, a situation has been going on in the area. One million boys – they’re an infamous gang that is terrorising places and looting. They haven’t come yet but people are really afraid.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
U.S. President Donald Trump’s sparring with China is playing out in an unlikely new arena: the sandy turf of northern Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank on Thursday approved the broadened scope of a $4.7 billion loan to back American suppliers to a liquefied-natural-gas development that could transform the southeastern African nation’s economy. The lender said China and Russia had both been considering helping finance it.
[snip]
The Exim Bank helps foreign companies buy American products when private lenders won’t provide financing, with one of its goals being to “advance the U.S.’s comparative leadership in the world with respect to China.” The appointment of three Trump-appointed nominees to the bank’s board in May 2019 helped provide the quorum needed to restore its ability to approve deals worth more than $10 million for the first time since 2015, smoothing the way for its participation in the Mozambique project.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp., based in Woodlands, Texas, initially led the Mozambican project that was sold on to French oil major Total SA. U.S. companies including McDermott International Inc. have been awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to help build the facility -- work that Exim Bank said could support 16,700 American jobs over the five-year construction period.
China has a well-established presence in Mozambique. It funded and built Africa’s longest suspension bridge in the capital, Maputo, and has invested in a massive hotel and conference center there. Russia has made more recent inroads, winning some oil and gas licenses and reportedly supplying mercenaries to beat back insurgents operating in the vicinity of the gas project.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was about 1am last Thursday when Dorothy Masika was woken by the rumble of water and boulders as they crashed down Mount Rwenzori.
Then came the alarms raised by those living in the hilltop areas, those who could run, racing down to warn people along the valley and lowlands to run. A torrent of water was on its way down the mountain. Four rivers in Kasese district – the Nyamwamba, Mubuku, Nyamughasana and Lhubiriha – had burst their banks.
“I realised a disaster was coming. It was a matter of life and death,” Masika, 34, tells the Guardian. “I ran back to the house to wake up my husband and children. I knocked and alerted our neighbours. The floods and stones are coming to kill us,” she says.
That night heavy rains in the area of western Uganda swept away homes, schools, submerged farms, cut off bridges and left several roads inaccessible, affecting 24,760 houses and an estimated 173,000 people, according to a disaster committee interim assessment report.
“We couldn’t sleep on the hill. It was so cold. The children were crying. There was nothing I could do,” says Masika as she lights a fire to cook at a makeshift home in Kilembe, about 10km north-west of Kasese town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two U.S. lawmakers are asking the Department of Homeland Security to keep Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant detained until the Haitian government provides a plan to ensure the safety of his victims in Haiti and his prosecution under Haitian law.
The founder of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, a brutal paramilitary organization, Constant and those who worked for him are accused of terrorizing and torturing political opponents in Haiti, and of having been involved in a 2004 massacre in the village of Raboteau in the country’s Artibonite Valley.
Constant is currently in U.S. immigration lockup after being released from a New York State prison, where he was sentenced in 2008 to 37 years for mortgage fraud and grand larceny while living in New York. He was among 101 Haitian nationals who had been slated to be deported to Haiti this week, but his deportation was canceled after controversy erupted over the plan to send him back.
The request to keep Constant in the U.S. is being made by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich. Both Democrats with an interest in Haiti, they made their arguments in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maria Diva do Nascimento was worried as she set off for her job at one of Rio de Janeiro’s biggest hospitals wearing a face mask she hoped would keep her alive.
It had been two days since she had heard from her son Allyson, a 20-year-old drug trafficker whose job made social isolation impossible.
Nascimento knew the risks of Covid-19 well: four days earlier it had killed a friend and fellow security guard at the hospital. More than half of her co-workers had been infected.
But when the 42-year-old reached work on Friday, she received news of another, even more immediate threat to her child.
Armed police were sweeping into the Complexo do Alemão, the vast favela where Allyson worked for Brazil’s oldest drug faction, the Red Command. Helicopters soared overhead.
“Where are you???” Allyson’s panicked mother asked him on WhatsApp at 6.39am. “I’m on my way home,” he answered. But that was the last message he sent her.
By lunchtime, Nascimento would learn her son was dead – one of more than 2,000 mostly young Brazilians gunned down by Rio police since the start of last year.
“I brought him into this world,” she said on Saturday, crying as she prepared to say farewell. “No one had the right to take him away.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The federal government’s response to COVID-19 has been a mess from the top to the bottom, including the “you’re on your own” approach it’s taken towards black people, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Case in point: the $650 billion Paycheck Protection Program which was supposed to help small businesses survive and pay employees during the current economic downturn has neglected hundreds of black and other minority-owned businesses while funneling millions in taxpayer money to corporations like the Los Angeles Lakers.
That kind of inequity in the distribution of resources has driven former NBA All-Star Magic Johnson to commit $100 million in loans to those left behind by the government’s program, according to the Wall Street Journal
“We knew why the money was gone and couldn’t trickle down to small businesses, especially small minority businesses, because they didn’t have those great relationships with the banks,” Johnson told the Wall Street Journal.
The money will be disbursed through a partnership between Johnson’s EquiTrust Life Insurance Company and MBE Capital Partners, a lending institution in New Jersey that specializes in financing businesses owned by women and minorities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voices and Soul
by Black Kos Poetry Editor Justice Putnam
João da Cruz e Sousa was the son of freed slaves, born on the island side of what is now Florianopolis, in Southern Brazil. A pioneer of Symbolism in Afro-Brazilian literature, he was nonetheless shunned by his late 19th century peers. Fluent in French, Greek and Latin; and also a graduate of Math and Science taught by Fritz Mueller; Cruz e Sousa's intellectual contemporaries did not understand him and he held their work with contempt and disdain.
A racist mediocrity and the Parnassian Criticism that was currently en vogue, elicited the following anonymous "poetic review" of two collections he released in 1893, "Missal" and "Shields":
"A spiritualizing,
half-wit dunce
brought up
in distant Mozambique
has picked at true Art
with his beak
Swaying sickly,
with sonorous grunts.
And all the blacks from Senegal
do a buck-and-wing
as they caterwaul
and hail him
with rockets exploding in the air."
It's not hard to wonder why then, this little-studied Modern Renaissance Man, this Abolitionist Man of Letters harbored a deep and profound hate manifested in all that befell him.
I bore,
like corpses lashed
lashed to my back
and incessantly
and interminably rotting,
all the empiricisms of prejudice,
the unknown layers
of long-dead strata,
of curious
and desolate
African races
that Physiology
had doomed forever
to nullify with the mocking papal
laughter of Haeckel!
All the doors and passage-ways
along the road of life are closed to me,
a poor Aryan artist-yes,
Aryan,
because I acquired,
by systematic study,
all the qualities of that great race.
To what end?
A sad black man,
detested by those with culture,
beaten down by society,
always humiliated,
cast out of every bed,
spat upon in every household
like some evil leper!
But how?
To be an artist and black?
O my hatred,
my majestic malice
my sacred,
pure and benign
malevolence
anoint my forehead
with your pure kiss
so that I may be both
proud and humble
Humble and generous
to the meek
but haughty to those lacking Desire,
lacking in Goodness and faith,
who know not the lamp of the gentle,
fecund sun.
O my hatred,
my blessed emblem
which flaps in the wind
of my soul's infinity
while the others' banners
droop Hearty,
benign hatred be my shield!
against those villains of love,
whose infamy resounds from the
Seven Towers of Mortal Sin.
-- João da Cruz e Sousa
“Sacred Hate”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY’S PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.