Prometheus 6

Judge Suspended For Wearing Blackface To Party
POSTED: 6:52 am EST December 14, 2004
NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana Supreme Court has given a judge a six-month suspension for wearing blackface makeup, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit to a Halloween party.

Judge Timothy Ellender will lose all of his pay during the suspension. That totals more than $50,000.

Ellender, who is white, said the costumes worn by him and his wife were meant as a joke. She dressed as a policewoman. And the party's host, Ellender's brother-in-law, was dressed as Buckwheat.

The justices agreed Ellender did not mean to insult blacks. Still, they ordered him to take a sociology course to get "a greater understanding of racial sensitivity."

A Watchdog Muted

The United States Commission on Civil Rights cannot legislate or regulate. What it can do is hold hearings and make a terrible racket if the government is not enforcing the laws of the land forbidding discrimination in voting, employment and housing.

The panel is a watchdog, exactly as President Dwight Eisenhower intended when he persuaded Congress to establish it in 1957. Mostly it has been run on a part-time basis by academics like the first chairman, John Hannah, then president of Michigan State; the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, who was president of Notre Dame; and, most recently, by Mary Frances Berry, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania. The panel helped created momentum for the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and for the creation of civilian review boards to ease tensions between the police and minorities in the 1970's.

No one is trying to force you to speak ebonics.

Your two threads are interesting.

But your commenter who says he can't find sentence structure in ebonics is full of it.

And this is a fact: language develops from the ground up. It's hard to say you're not speaking correctly when everyone (including you, Oliver) understands what you're saying. Furthermore, if you read the original historical documents, you'll find "proper English" is very, very new. The American nation, society and economy were created by people who couldn't spell worth a damn.

The "proper English" you extol is a trade language, like Swahili. It should be taught as such. And like any other skill it adds to your marketability. But "proper English"…like Chinese…has no more significance than that.

Quote of note:

"He was then jumped upon, hit in the head and beaten. From there, he was dragged to a nearby apartment, which was actually the apartment of a co-defendant. Inside the apartment, he was beaten. He was stabbed in the area of the chest with a knife. Lit cigarettes were put on him, and there was racial slurs written on his back," Beland said.

The suspects allegedly yelled that Parks was a disgrace to his race. They allegedly pulled him into a car, where the racial slurs continued, and threw him out of the vehicle.

White Man Beaten For Dating Black Woman
Date: Monday, December 13, 2004

Nichelle of Nichelle Newsletter dropped this link to a MediaWeek story on declining Black TV viewership and its financial impact on the U-People Network.

Only you have to go to The Niggerati Network to get it.

Quote of note:

Under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, armed forces personnel are prohibited from "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal."

Military Appeals Court Reverses Heterosexual Sodomy Conviction
By JOHN FILES

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - A military appeals court has overturned the conviction of a soldier for heterosexual sodomy in a decision that legal scholars and advocates for gay rights say may have broader implications for gays serving in the armed forces.

The decision, issued late last month by the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals, was based in part on the Supreme Court opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which declared last year that the Texas sodomy statute violated the right to privacy.

Though given its timeliness as regards an ongoing conversation in the comments I could understand the accusation…

After you read the article though, just to balance things out, you might want to consider this as-worthy-as-it-is-lengthy commentary. Then come back for mine.

'Acting White' Myth, The
By PAUL TOUGH

When Bill Cosby spoke out publicly in May against dysfunction and irresponsibility in black families, he identified one pervasive symptom: ''boys attacking other boys because the boys are studying and they say, 'You're acting white.''' This idea isn't new; it was first proposed formally in the mid-80's by John Ogbu, a Nigerian professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, and it has since become almost a truism: when smart black kids try hard and do well, they are picked on by their less successful peers for ''acting white.''

Quote of note:

“In mainstream American society and culture, whiteness remains an ever-present and unexamined state of mind and body, a powerful norm so pervasive that it is rarely acknowledged or even named,” says guest curator Maurice Berger. “By refusing to mark whiteness—to assign it meaning—we are also refusing to see a vital part of the interpersonal and social relations of race. In the end, any discussion of race that does not include an analysis of whiteness will be, at best, incomplete. ”

Photo Exhibit Examines Race and Racism
Dec 10, 2004 2:57 pm US/Eastern

It's the part of the conversation on race that doesn't usually get talked about -- what it means to be white.

But whiteness as a racial category is a crucial part of the discussion, said the curator of a new exhibition that focuses on the topic.

"It's assumed on the part of many white Americans that it's the job of people of color to deal with the issue of racism," said Maurice Berger, curator of "White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art," which opened Friday at the International Center of Photography.

"What I'm arguing is that since white people are part of the structure of race and racism…that white people and whiteness itself must come into the dialogue fully, openly, in order for us to have hope that certain kinds of prevailing attitudes and ideas are going to change."

The show, featuring 10 pieces ranging from photo essays to sculpture and video, will be shown at the ICP through Feb. 27.

You know Claude Steele brought the "stereotype threat" theory to light (I'd give you a link to the excellent article he wrote on the topic for The Atlantic Monthly, but after all these years they've decided to disappear their archives behind a financial firewall). It's a useful explanatory tool, though some would like to discredit the idea. It has been found applicable to women and mathematics, men and athletics, everyone, it seems, has some area in which they can be vulnerable to stereotype threat.

I believe the National Institute of Mental Health just documented the physical mechanism by which stereotype threat operates.

In the course of looking for something else which now slips my mind I ran across the American Journal of Public Health. I learned some things from the abstracts (the abstracts, mind you) of the December 2004 issue that made my jaw drop,

The Health Impact of Resolving Racial Disparities: An Analysis of US Mortality Data

Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Robert E. Johnson, PhD, George E. Fryer, Jr, PhD, MSW, George Rust, MD, MPH and David Satcher, MD, PhD

The US health system spends far more on the "technology" of care (e.g., drugs, devices) than on achieving equity in its delivery. For 1991 to 2000, we contrasted the number of lives saved by medical advances with the number of deaths attributable to excess mortality among African Americans. Medical advances averted 176,633 deaths, but equalizing the mortality rates of Whites and African Americans would have averted 886,202 deaths. Achieving equity may do more for health than perfecting the technology of care.

Quote of note:

The booklet's other author, Steve Wilkins, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.

"Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

Potok said people who argue that the South should secede again have latched onto the writings of Wilson and Wilkins, which portray the Confederacy as the last true Christian civilization.

School defends slavery booklet
Critic says text is 'window dressing'

Here's some excerpts from a book that was, until yesterday being used by Cary Christian School to teach about American slavery.

'SOUTHERN SLAVERY, AS IT WAS'
Here are some excerpts from the booklet:

* "To say the least, it is strange that the thing the Bible condemns (slave-trading) brings very little opprobrium upon the North, yet that which the Bible allows (slave-ownership) has brought down all manner of condemnation upon the South." (page 22)

* "As we have already mentioned, the 'peculiar institution' of slavery was not perfect or sinless, but the reality was a far cry from the horrific descriptions given to us in modern histories." (page 22)

* "Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." (page 24)

* "There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world." (page 24)

* "Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." (page 25)

* "But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends." (page 27)

* "Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South -- and had a much easier existence." (page 30)

I think marriage should be defined as "a religious ritual affirming a civil union."

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada gave the federal government the go-ahead on Thursday to legalize gay marriage, prompting Prime Minister Paul Martin to announce plans to introduce a redefinition of marriage early next year.

But the court refused a government request to say the constitution required the legalization of gay marriage, stripping away a political weapon that would have made it easier to push its draft bill through Parliament.

It did rule that the constitution allowed the proposed redefinition of marriage as "the lawful union of two persons," while protecting the right of religious organizations to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

That's scary.

Okay, not really. You deal with issues that are actually of concern to Black folks, you look at it like a Black person and I have no issues with you. A conservative spin on the analysis or offered solution isn't a problem. The problem only arises when you try to solve someone else's problems using Black folks.

Bilingual Education Legislation Expected to Shape African-American Progress and State’s Future For the Next 50 Years, Leader says.
By Darwin Campbell
African-American News&Issues
Dallas-FortWorth, TX

The push to ensure African-American children are bilingual and able to compete for future job opportunities moved forward this week with State Sen. Royce West filed a bill in Austin promoting dual language instruction in all Texas public schools by 2007.

“We are aware of the demographic and ethnic changes that our state demographer Steve Murdoch has forecast for Texas in the 21st Century,” West said after filing Senate Bill 61. “By 2026, the Hispanic population is projected to become a majority of the state’s population. This legislation will create incentives for our teachers to learn Spanish so they can better prepare our students in public schools where a majority of the kids are of Hispanic descent.”

Make your statement and move on to your next project because two-three weeks isn't worth the agita.

Quote of note:

"Given that the conclusion of my tenure is only a few weeks away, a legal challenge would be an unwise expenditure of resources," she wrote. "Therefore, I am resigning my position as commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights effective immediately."

Adviser on Civil Rights Quits, Declining Legal Fight for Job
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: December 8, 2004

Ending speculation that she would put up one last fight with a president, Mary Frances Berry, the chairwoman of the United States Civil Rights Commission, resigned yesterday, a day after President Bush appointed a new head of the advisory agency.

I love reading about things like this.

Quote of note:

On Tuesday, city officials said the shopping center attack was an isolated incident.

So is the level of concern.

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said the incident was caused by "a couple of kids with too much time on their hands," and called on their parents to discipline them.

"What they need is for their parents to put them over a knee and give them a good spanking," Williamson said. "I'm talking as a mother, and if they were my kids, that's exactly what I'd do."

And what would you do if it were four Black kids that jacked a white kid selling newspapers for no reason? Or if it were your kid that got jacked?

I'm not looking for perfect foresight. I'm looking for white folks to face the same repercussions for their actions as Black folks do.

She's on the trail Clarence Thomas blazed.

Quote of note:

The newly named commissioners are Gerald A. Reynolds, former assistant secretary for the office of civil rights in the Education Department, and lawyer Ashley L. Taylor of Richmond. President Bush intends to designate Reynolds the commission chairman, succeeding Berry, and to name Abigail Thernstrom, already a commission member, as vice chairman.

Civil Rights Chairman Resists Ouster by Bush
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A05

President Bush moved yesterday to replace Mary Frances Berry, the outspoken chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission who has argued with every president since Jimmy Carter appointed her to the panel a quarter-century ago.

Quote of note:

Shewmaker encouraged the task force to think about creating an environment where students learn how the rest of the world functions, instead of focusing on potential lawsuits.

"Whether or not the law approves, that's the second step, not the first step," Shewmaker said.

Diversity criteria debated at UGA
By KELLY SIMMONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/06/04

ATHENS — A University of Georgia task force on Monday began discussing ways to reintroduce race as a criterion for freshman admissions without getting sued.

The group, which includes faculty and administrators, is charged with defining the university's need for a more diverse student body and determining at what point UGA will have fulfilled that need.