Journal of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies

Race, Religion, and the Continuing American Dilemma: Barack Obama's Philadelphia Speech on Race

2008-04-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Towards a More Perfect Multi-America: Barack Obama’s Philadelphia Speech and Proposal for Racial Healing

By Dr. Zachery Williams
Voice of the People Submission
Akron Beacon Journal
March 19, 2007

The unfortunate truth is that America still suffers from the sickness and cancer of racism. This fact has been made most evident in the recent controversy surrounding Senator Obama’s affiliation with Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, including his relationship with former pastor Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright.

In a span of thirty-seven minutes, Presidential candidate Barack Obama, exposed the intense and serious wounds of our nation: black anger and white resentment which continues to stifle this nation’s ability to move forward, toward a Multi-America.

We, as Americans, revel in our nation as a metaphor and an ideal; however, we cringe at any display of criticism or revelation of the truth of our nation’s unsavory past. This past, operates in our rearview mirror even as it appears front and center during delicate political moments such as this one. Americans, of all kinds, suffer from what social psychologist Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary calls “cognitive dissonance,” which impairs our understanding and acceptance of the real effects of historic racial trauma.

Silence is agreement. For far too long, all Americans have been subdued into a seductive silence, one that romanticizes racial transcendence while also positing the inevitability of perpetual racial division. Yet, these conversations occur in private, on derisive talk shows, and in limited public spaces, disallowing collective engagement around such a serious and potentially, debilitating issue.

The stakes are too high for us to remain silent and inactive in resolving what Gunnar Myrdal called in 1940, “An American Dilemma.”

Cleveland native and poet, Langston Hughes, penned a significant poem which has direct application to our country’s current dilemma regarding race. Hughes in “A Dream Deferred,” writes:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Similarly writer James Baldwin, penned perhaps one of the most poignant civil rights manifestos of America’s greatest generation, in 1963, with his The Fire Next Time. The consummate public intellectual, Baldwin offered critical insights designed to help our nation avoid what he called “racial conflagration” or racial conflict/war.

He spoke, convincingly and expertly, of the complex fate of American blacks, highlighting the necessity to help deliver white Americans from their imprisonment by myths of racial superiority. Baldwin offered history and education as tools that would help bring our nation to complete maturity, even as it faced the difficult parts of its past. Baldwin offered that the consequence to averting such a path was found in the warning offered in the song of the enslaved: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign/No more water, the fire next time!” We already see the evidence of “quiet riots,” percolating in our central cities, illustrating that efficacy of Baldwin’s words coming true-unless we address the racial divide-once and for all time.

For too many Americans, black and white, our nation has yet to fulfill its promises of citizenship, equality, and justice. Unless we fully come to grips with the damage of centuries and decades of racialized attitudes, policies, and customs, our nation’s growth will continue to be stunted.

Barack Obama’s original speech on race, written by himself, evidenced a transformative leader that can lead by example, assisting us in healing America’s long-standing racial wounds. His own personal story, resonates with every American’s, signifying each of our genealogical trees-reflecting the immense, complicated character of relatives of tremendous racial and ethnic background.

In his finest moment of this campaign, Obama, standing against the backdrop of eight American flags, rose above the cynicism of his detractors, to provide a vision and a plan to assist America in confronting its past and present racial dilemmas. In Kingian language, he welded acknowledgement of the nation’s inhumane treatment of African Americans with a direct call for mutual responsibility, forging a blueprint for individual and collective racial healing.

Evidencing the blunt honesty of his bold and dynamic wife and partner, Michelle Obama, concerning her pride in the nation’s apparent ability to turn the corner, as it related to racial division in American politics. Michelle raised an important commentary, highlighting the overwhelming and enthusiastic support of her husband’s campaign-that of a bi-racial African American man. The honesty of Senator Obama is refreshing, considering the fact that this important ingredient has been missing from our current discussions. Obama’s courageous speech provided a personal example of how we, as a nation, can rise above the stifling fears that have continually constricted our ability to be open and honest as it relates to our nation’s racial past.

Recently, as of February 5-12, 2008, the University of Akron, commemorated the 10th anniversary of President Bill Clinton’s race commission in 1997. The first town hall meeting was held at the University of Akron in 1997. Visit our website at http://www.uakron.edu/colleges/artsci/race/RevisitingRace.php to review our list of speakers, face-to-face conversations, and community activities.

In 2009, the University of Akron plans to continue these dialogues on an annual basis, engaging the campus and greater Akron/Canton/Cleveland communities in serious dialogues and solution-seeking forums regarding this issue. We need this dialogue to take on an applicable action-oriented character to effectively resolve problems plaguing every race and ethnic group.

Senator Obama’s historic speech provides us a golden opportunity, at this very hour, to revive these discussions regarding race and racial healing. Parallel with it, we must build upon the important groundwork laid by President Bill Clinton’s race commission, headed by eminent historian, Dr. John Hope Franklin. To take a step further, we must resolve to develop an open and honest national truth and reconciliation as South Africa developed in its attempt to deal with the ghosts and current legacy of racial apartheid.

In doing so, we must understand that the process will not be easy. It will not be without difficulty or anxiety. However, this is a process that all of us must undergo in order to achieve authentic racial healing and reconciliation. Political scientist Dr. Ronald Walters has written an insightful new book examining such a proposal in his work, The Price of Racial Reconciliation (University of Michigan Press, 2008).

Contributing to our nation’s culture of fear have been insensitive conservative and liberal media pundits, who railed against Obama, pointing our incomplete and misconstrued sound-bites of his former pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. The tactics of Fox News, ABC News, and countless talk show hosts are reprehensible and highly polarizing. The American people deserve truth and honesty, rather than derision, diversion and hyperbole.

An interesting juxtaposition of Obama’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania speech of racial challenge and racial hope is Ronald Reagan’s 1980 speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which evidenced extreme racial insensitivity and intolerance. My hope is that Obama’s speech will result in the development of countless policies which constructively reconstruct our nation, as opposed to the slew of destructive policies that emanated from the Reagan administration.

Regarding the black church and black pastors, both entities have functioned as the conscience of America. Black preachers, in the social justice tradition, have continuously functioned as prophetic leaders for our nation and world. Beginning in the crucible of slavery, running through the period of Jim Crow and domestic colonialism, to the current vestiges of institutional racism and discrimination, black prophets have spoken the truth in love, even if this love-talk has been deemed as harsh due to its honest nature. We as Americans must face the honest truth of our nation’s past and commit ourselves to a full immersion baptism in the river of reconciliation, so that we can be cleaned and healed of this cancer of racism.

The truth of the matter is that Obama is correct: Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America. Sociologist of religion and public intellectual, C. Eric Lincoln, provides an explanation for the development of the black church in his prophetic book, Race, Religion, and the Continuing American Dilemma. Lincoln argues that the black church developed as a result of the discrimination inherent in the white church, noting that no discussion of the black church and its cultural character can commence without discussing this sordid relationship and past history.

We must have the collective courage and desire to slay the dragons of discrimination, demonization, and dehumanization. Our children will thank us. As Cornel West appropriately penned in his 1993 book by the same title, race matters. The question for our generation to answer is one Dr. King put forward in his last major work in 1967: Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

My proposal is for black, white and multi-ethnic church leaders, denominations, and organizations, led by the United Church of Christ and various African American denominations, to organize these truth and reconciliation commissions. The church is the proper institution to handle the racial mountain as it relates to religion. Church leaders should organize ongoing interfaith, intergenerational, ecumenical dialogues, engaging the American public and local communities, around interconnected issues of race, religion, politics, and America’s past. Two books that I would suggest as reading materials for this church-led effort would be Lincoln’s Race, Religion, and the Continuing American Dilemma and Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith’s Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America.

To be healed of its racial pain and trauma, Americans must be honest and thorough in studying, sharing, digesting, debating, and actively discussing/resolving our nation’s racial and ethnic past. In this effort, Americans of all backgrounds must understand that every group has been racialized. We are all fully responsible for charting a visionary direction through our racial/ethnic morass. Ignoring race or acting as if it is the responsibility of one group is absurd and inaccurate. Race cripples white as much as it does black-Asian, Hispanic, Latino, immigrant, Native American, etc.

While addressing race, we must simultaneously address parallel, significant and interrelated issues of disparities in health care, home foreclosures, economy, education, involvement in the prison system, environmental matters, and the like. These challenges are not only local, regional, and national-they are global. Dr. King resolved that America possessed the resources to deal with this insidious crisis. However, he also lamented that, as a nation, it was evidenced that we lacked the will to commit the necessary resources to root out these collective ills.

In 2008, as a nation, we find ourselves at a decisive crossroads. Barack Obama has opened the door for us to promote racial reconciliation and healing. The question is: will we walk in, roll up our sleeves, and get to the difficult work of making this long-held dream a reality. My hope and prayer is that, as a Multi-America in the making, we unequivocally respond with a resounding “Yes, We Can,” and “Yes, We Will” because “Yes, We Must.”

Written By Dr. Zachery Williams
University of Akron History Professor
Interim Director of Pan African Studies
Public Historian and Intellectual
All Rights Reserved

Dr. Williams can be contacted at zrw@uakron.edu.

The Revolution was Televised...for 5 Seasons

2008-04-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

It happened a few Sundays ago. The committed few knew it was coming, but like true soldiers we marched to the inevitable end, heads and spirits high, without any comfort of what the future would hold. Honestly, we could not and still can not imagine that it’s over. It’s really over!!

If you don’t know what happened a few Sundays past, I hate that I feel compelled to clue you in. After all, you made a conscious choice to ignore it. Hell, you ignored it for five years. In reality, you have chosen to ignore it all your life, and maybe that’s why me and the rest of the committed few aren’t really concerned that you missed it. With any luck, maybe some of its integrity will be preserved. But, for the sake of this reflection, I guess I have to share or what’s the point, right? HBO’s, The Wire ended its five-season run. And in case you really want to know what you missed, you slept on the most important television show ever!! Bar none. No, not Seinfeld. No, not Cheers. No, not Friends. No, not The Cosby Show. No, not The Dave Chappell Show. None of those shows, as important as each is to its genre, are nearly as significant as The Wire. These shows are mere cartoons in comparison. In fact, The Wire may be the most important display of moving image art every produced, Spike Lee joints notwithstanding. Thankfully, the show has ruined me for all others.

Like any good Wire-head, I felt the rush through my veins every week, and even watched previous seasons on DVD in the off-seasons of the show, to take the edge off. Bloggers far and wide openly admit their addiction; take pride in it in fact. Why wouldn’t we take pride in our hunger for the show? We knew, and know, that we experienced a historically relevant, smart and critical enterprise into post-industrial urban America. We allowed ourselves to enter into the world of Baltimore, Maryland knowing full-well that it wasn’t only B-More that was under examination. We know, and always knew, that it was America taken to trial before the court of public opinion. And you chose to ignore. You dismissed it as another violent cop show. You even probably thought you were doing the responsible thing for not supporting the continued exploitative stereotyping and negativity that comes with drug-related shows. Some may have even thought the show glorified drug-trafficking. Well, let me wake you from your slumber, in all of its infinite wisdom. The Wire, according to David Simon one of the show’s creators, is about post-industrial America, the society we currently endure, and how “raw, unencumbered capitalism” devalues human beings. (see “Stealing Life” in The New Yorker, Oct. 22, 2007)

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked that we consider what has occurred in our urban spaces as a function of industrial decline. (These devastating effects are equally as grave in rural America.) Just a simple question folks: Where are people supposed to work now? Castigate drug dealing; shake your heads at hoop dreams; proffer the possible but improbable, “people should start their own businesses”; encourage more service related jobs to further emphasize your class arrogance; but when you get done with all the excuses, dare yourselves to find an effective answer to the dwindling labor sector of this country. No problem, I’ll wait. In the meantime…

The Wire held a mirror up this very nation, and dared us to face the overwhelming economic chasm that has emerged as a function of this wide-scale industrial decline. While the immediate response is to suggest that each person has the same chance to compete for socio-economic gain, to suggest so at this moment in this nation’s history is the baldest assertion one could wager. Instead of reinforcing this long fabled idea, like many shows and movies do, The Wire placed at least some of the truths regarding socio-economic disparities on the table, and welcomed viewers to consume a healthy plate of reality. The show explored the widening gulf between the “haves” and “have-nots” as a function of many broader systemic and structural insufficiencies, minus the absurd, politically fashioned arguments given to so much of our popular media.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to stop lying about the War on Drugs. Note to the Drug Czars past and present; it’s not working fellas. Recent acquittals of crack cocaine offenders given the blatant racial disparities between users of the powder and the rock form is evidence of that, though the impact of decades of racialized drug enforcement policy can never be reversed. Plus, drugs enforcement efforts aimed at street level dealers has been about as effective as diet pills aimed at trimming fat while doing nothing to halt the consumption and digestion of high fat foods, all without any physical activity. Urbanites have long questioned who the people are that help to flood urban spaces with drugs; the very people who rarely appear as the target of law enforcement efforts. Interdiction at the nation’s borders is still policy and practice, right? But for those who are “natural police,” The Wire taught us not to blame you. You are merely mid-level players in a high stakes game from which you to will never benefit or see substantial results. Thank you for service, for you too are pawns in this sickening game of get the next politician elected. No other show has been as fair to police and drug dealers alike. Choices aside - politics aside - there are human beings on both sides.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to stop lying about our racial attitudes. The show refused to cast African Americans, for example, only as criminals or only as flat, singular dimensioned characters. Instead, here was a show that offered a range of humanizing images whereby blacks emerged as, well, people. Rarely, if ever, has this nation been exposed to black and white characters displayed in all of their splendor and shortcomings. No one is all good or all bad – whatever either o f those mean. And in case we forget, addicts are people too; myself and fellow Wire-heads included.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to admit to the institutional ineffectiveness inherent in many of our organizations, but especially in the structures that matter most: political organizations ( local, state and federal); our educational system; our criminal justice system; and law enforcement. But the shining light in this commentary is that the show did not dismiss the possibility of effectiveness in either arena. Instead, The Wire carefully crafted a five-season story line that reminded us repeatedly of what was possible when resources were allocated with some sense of fairness and with some attention paid to making sure the talented people in these organizations are fully equipped to do their jobs. Contrary to the notion trumpeted by “supervisors” that “employees” must maintain or even increase production with stagnant or dwindling resources, to quote Simon again, “You never do more with less... ou do less with less.”

Some may suggest the show is hardly artistic enough for this kind of acclaim, given, if viewers aren’t careful, they may come away completely void of hope that humans will, can or even care to change themselves or their circumstances. After all, it is humans who help to maintain the dysfunctionality of so many of our organizations. Nonetheless, The Wire even gave some clarity to the age-old adage of whether “art imitates life” or if “life imitates art”. Maybe, just maybe, art imitates life with some hope that life might, in return, imitate the infinite possibilities art discovers and rediscovers over and over. A colleague reminded me that social change is rarely instigated by TV. And as much as I know he is correct, I remain hopeful that HBO's The Wire, might encourage us to imitate just a few of the options this artistic rendition dared us to consider. Of course, the other extreme is possible. Maybe the revolution was televised this time, but most of us didn’t give enough of a damn to even turn the channel.

Call for Papers: Africana Cultures and Policy Studies

2008-03-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

Call for Contributors: Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: How African American History, Culture, and Studies Can Transform Africana Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan

We seek scholarly and engaging papers for an edited book titled, Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: How African American History, Culture, and Studies Can Transform Africana Public Policy. This collection of essays is a new edition to Palgrave Macmillan’s Contemporary Black History series, edited by Dr. Manning Marable and Dr. Peniel Joseph. This particular edited work is supported by The Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute, an innovative group of scholars who seek to develop the academic sub-field of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies.

This collection represents an interdisciplinary field of Africana studies centered around the critical examination of the broad spectrum of Africana cultures and policies globally. Contributors should be interested in connecting their research to the construction, implementation, and evaluation of policies on a local, national, and transnational/international level. Also welcome are submissions from scholars whose research concentrates on the relationships and intersections among African Diaspora cultures and public policy.

The book’s contribution to both the fields of Contemporary Black History and Africana Studies is found in its intentional goal of canonizing Africana historical studies for the purposes of policy development, analysis and application. Africana Cultures and Policy Studies calls for a relocation and synthesis of policy-derived research emanating from public and private culture spheres. In the process, our goal is to use history and culture to engage the policy process from a top-down and bottom-up approach, thereby dissolving the previously impenetrable divide existing among theory and practice, academics and policymakers, and community constituencies and related social/civic institutions.

We are especially interested in essays that examine the link among the study of Africana culture and public policy, both from bottom-up and top-down perspectives.

Submission Procedure
Authors are requested to submit an abstract of 250 words (in plain text or word format) by March 15, 2008 along with a CV and short bio. The abstract submission should contain the author’s contact information (name, email, postal address, phone and fax numbers), institutional affiliation, and working title of the proposed essay.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 15, 2008. The deadline for submission of accepted papers is June 1, 2008.

Submitted papers will undergo an extensive peer-review process. The length of a submitted paper should be approximately between 20-25 pages and formatted in The Chicago Manual of Style publication style format.

Important Dates

Abstract submission deadline: March 15, 2008
Author notification: April 15, 2008
Paper submission deadline: June 1, 2008

Please address queries, abstracts, and papers to:

Editor
Dr. Zachery R. Williams
Assistant Professor of African American History and Pan African Studies
Department of History
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325
Email: zrw@uakron.edu
Tel: 330-972-2402
Fax: 330-972-5840

ACPSI Press Release

2006-03-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

Institute Seeks to Improve the Plight of Africana Peoples Worldwide

Akron, OH (BlackNews.com) - An innovative community of scholar-activists and public intellectuals seek to bring academics, government and policy experts, journalists, theologians and black religious leaders, artists, grassroots leaders, community members and public intellectuals together to critically engage important issues of our collective past, present and future world. The Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute (ACPSI) was formally founded in 2003 to connect the academic study and analysis of culture and policy to the present and future direction of black people worldwide. The group operates with a multi-dimensional structure that spans many disciplines including history, philosophy, literature, education, area studies and law.

"ACPSI serves to create a new paradigm among think tanks and research institutes; one that effectively communicates the vast cultural relevance of Africana peoples while simultaneously developing pertinent mechanisms of global outreach, policy advocacy and development," Dr. Zachery Williams, Executive Director, says.

In terms of organizational emphasis for the Institute, Dr. Robert Smith and Dr. Babacar M'Baye spearhead the effort in developing an edited book, which will articulate the new research/policy paradigm of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies. Dr. Carlos McCray directs the Institute's efforts at linking cultural research with policy advocacy so as to connect theory with praxis. Relatedly, Dr. Seneca Vaught administers the group's website and information technology initiatives.

The Institute's early beginnings are marked by intellectual discussions sparked by the group's founders while they were completing doctoral degrees at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. The earliest discussions revolved around an integration of cultural theory, policy studies, international relations and history. Upon joining the professoriate, the group's founding Senior Fellows sharpened their desire to connect the academy and community in order to deal with the relevant social problems of Africana peoples.

The staff of the Institute include an Executive Director, an Associate Director and Directors of various departments, evidencing its multi-dimensional structure and mission. ACPSI also has a Board of Advisors which advise the Executive Director and Executive Board. Founding Senior Fellows comprise the Executive Board. Currently, Senior Fellows serve, in the capacity, as Department Directors who assist the Executive Director in leading the Institute from locations spanning the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Research and Policy Fellows, of varying levels of expertise, carry out the research and advocacy agenda of the Institute.
Founding Senior Fellows and Department Directors:

* Dr. Zachery Williams, Executive Director/Director of Initiatives and Special Projects and Assistant Professor of African American History/Pan African Studies at The University of Akron.
* Dr. Floyd Beachum, Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
* Dr. Babacar M'Baye, Assistant Director of Academic Research and Publications and Assistant Professor of Black Atlantic Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
* Dr. Robert Smith, Director of Academic Research and Publications and Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
* Dr. Seneca Vaught, Director of Information Technology and Instructor of History at Bowling Green State University.
* Dr. Carlos McCray, Director of Policy Advocacy and Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut.
* Dr. Tim Lake, Director of Development and Assistant Professor /Director of Malcolm X Institute at Wabash College.

"ACPSI believes that the connection between culture and policy studies provides a unique opportunity to examine the lives of Africana peoples. The lives of Africana peoples will be affected, one way or the other, by the legal, economic, and civic policies approved and promoted by governments," Dr. Tim Lake, Director of Development, says. "The Institute's mission affirms the right to link matters of policy with issues of culture because culture is the foundation from which policies emerge and through which they have import on our lives," Lake says.

Among the numerous programs of the Institute include an Africana News Network, Capacity Building Initiative, Policy Advocacy Network, and numerous other demonstration projects. Further, the ACPSI working papers and roundtable series and speaker's bureau offer opportunities for individuals to connect with the organization's current work. The working paper series and roundtables strive to address the racism, socioeconomic inequalities, and vast array of classism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and other prejudices that continue to limit the conditions of black people worldwide. The speaker's bureau provides colleges and universities, churches, community groups, nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals the opportunity to bring ACSPI Senior Fellows to their city or campus to lecture, conduct workshops or offer consultant services.

Furthermore, ACPSI has developed the following seven (7) satellite centers that conduct cultures/policy research in specific areas of interest to current Senior Fellow research foci:

* Center for Black Public Intellectual Thought and Policy
* Center for African American Religion and Policy
* Center for Civil Rights Policy
* Center for Africana Justice and Liberation Studies
* Center for African American Urban Education and Policy Studies
* Center for Black Atlantic Studies and Policy
* Center for Educational Leadership, Critical Race Studies, and Policy

ACPSI is currently soliciting applications for fellowship from scholars, activists, artists, authors, poets, and people of all professions and from all walks of life who are concerned with improving the quality of life for Africans all over the world.

Learn more about ACPSI by visiting the Institute website. For more information, contact Dr. Zachery Williams at 330-972-2402.

CONTACT:Dr. Zachery Williams, Executive DirectorAfricana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute(ACPSI). 330-972-2402. http://www.theacpsi.org/

To see original press release from Blacknews.com, go to the following link: http://www.blacknews.com/pr/africana101.html

Prophetic Thoughts in an Age of False Prophets

2005-12-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

By Minister Dr. Zachery Williams

Theologian Gayraud Wilmore, in an interview included in the recently published book, Blow the Trumpet in Zion: Global Vision and Action for the 21st Century Black Church, argued that we live in an age where prophetic Christian voices are for the most part silent, whereas many current public religious figures are not using the Word to speak truth to power and challenge the status quo on a variety of issues affecting people of color and the poor: among these issues and realities include education, health care, unemployment/underemployment, corporate greed, HIV/AIDS, disingenuous religious posturing, and governmental neglect. Furthermore, severe cases of mental illness remain an ever-increasing problem among Black Americans and their families, attributable in large measure to unresolved issues, stemming from the violent and terror-filled past experiences of our ancestors and relatives.

Unfortunately, as we look to the next generation for hope, we are often met by young African Americans more consumed, than at any other time in our history, with stark cynicism, vehement rage, nihilism, and frustration. These our youth, have found more solace in self-centered music, gangs, lonely existences, and other escapist forms of reality as opposed to those institutions, such as the black church and colleges and universities, which have historically sustained our people and provided a strong sense of identity in an otherwise alien land; amongst fellow Americans, that despised our very existence. While we heap extensive criticism on the younger generation, and to an extent some criticism is well-placed, each of us must look squarely into the mirror and assume greater responsibility for our current collective condition as a community, particularly the disillusion of so many great young black minds.

I offer that many youth react so demonstratively in an attempt to seek out honest and real leaders to help them make sense of the times they are living in. Authenticity is a code of the streets, among the Hip Hop generation, and has historically been a characteristic of black leadership. However, lately, most black leaders have been reduced to mere media figure heads and celebrity icons. The young Hip Hop generation witnesses all this and has concluded that many of us are not “keepin it real.” If we speak the truth in love as Dr. King and Malcolm X both admonished us to do, we will gain more of the respect of young adults. Healing must take place but who will lead us in this critical work?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's most important book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, still remains as neglected a clarion call for black communities as James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. This occurs at a time where the messages and lessons in these works and others are so sorely needed to offset the incredible challenges, mentioned above, facing black communities throughout America and around the world (remember recent events in Paris, France). Rampant poverty continues to afflict most urban cities and rural areas of Black America, the most notable of which remains New Orleans; although New Orleans is certainly not the sole representative. Our fellow brothers and sisters in our very own Akron continue to suffer amidst deplorable conditions of growing unemployment, underemployment, and hopelessness. One problem is that the "Black Church" and black leadership, generally speaking, have largely, with too few notable exceptions, maintained a politically conservative bent in regards to adopting and incorporating a relevant and practical liberation theology, including womanist theology and a critical black men's theology, into its local church ministry. Such a theology and practice as advocated by black religious intellectuals including James Cone and Emile Townes could help guide us in addressing these great ills afflicting so many in our communities. Akin to the "race-traitors" Historian Manning Marable exposes in his book, Great Wells of Democracy, far too many contemporary black preachers, pastors, and aspiring ministers have become more enamored with dollar signs, political payoffs for favors, and intoxicated with the lucrative, popular nature/status of being the next rising star in the "Mega-church" galaxy. While this trend has continued, the masses of black, brown, and poor have suffered incessantly. Nationally, many congregations continue to lack courageous leaders who love the people above the so-called benefits of this world, a world continuing to spiral out of control.

Without effective leadership, our world and its people, will continue to languish and deteriorate.The role of the Black preacher/pastor/religious intellectual has been a complex one throughout the history of Africana America. Yet, despite this complexity of identity and affiliation, there have remained those women and men who rose to the occasion when the times and people called for leadership. Here I summon the names of Jarena Lee, Bishop Vashti McKenzie, Benjamin E. Mays, Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, and countless others. Unfortunately, far too often, faith has been traded in for false witness and the prophetic message of liberation proclaimed by Old Testament prophets and Jesus himself has become a relic of nostalgia for many. Today, church services have become more representative of circus side shows, Sunday morning entertainment clubs, and movie theater performances instead of sites of agency, spiritual salvation, and holistic empowerment. Additionally, church goers seem more eager to flock to attend the problematic and androgynous Amos and Andy slap stick "gospel" plays rather than ministry meetings or NAACP gatherings at the church. Dr. King: Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?I call for the young adult black women and men prophets of my generation, the Hip Hop Generation, along with our progressive elders, to stand up and bring Black/Africana theology back to the church. There has always been an uneasy tension between the study of African American History and Theology and the ministry of many local churches.

This gulf must be bridged and the younger generation is the generation equipped to implement and accomplish this important task. Young people cannot do this alone and they must work along with the elders of the community, seeking out the proper guidance and partnership coming from the generations on whose shoulders they stand. When we bring the liberation message of the Gospels, without dilution or sugarcoating, along with the divine wisdom from our cultural experience as chosen people of God, we will bring Jesus back into the Christian church like never before and therefore bring positive change to our communities. In this clarion call, I challenge the Hip Hop prophets to emerge and develop a relevant Hip Hop Liberation Theology. Your generation as well as every generation before you, on whose shoulders you stand, is calling out for you to become the leaders you were destined to be.Black Theologians, Pastors, Ministers, and Professors/Teachers, in our communities, must lead communities in summoning the courage to face the many ghosts in our religious, historical, and cultural closets. Once we recommit ourselves to working together to reclaim the black mind, bridge gender divides and instances of historic discrimination, come to grips with closet issues of sexuality, and close the generational gap, the "Black Church" will rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and assume its rightful place as the bastion of the multi-various Black America communities all across this nation.

Black Churches can only manifest this reality with the proper, prophetic leadership awakening and rising to the occasion. Civil Rights Activist and the guiding influence behind the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Ella Baker said strong people don't always need to be led but in cases where leadership is required, we must implement a model of group- centered leadership. Theologian J. Deotis Roberts similarly called for the development of a Prophethood of Black Believers, a stronger community model of black religious leadership. We must heed these our elders and the lessons of others and develop old/new ways of being unapologetically black and authentically Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc.Will the real communities of men and women prophets please come forth? Will the sleeping Lazarus' and Esthers no longer lie sleeping dead! Lazarus and Esther come forth and help lead your people.

In terms of meditating on the idea of the Black Christian Church as representative of the centerpiece of the black community and thereby black community development, I find it a dangerous proposition for those who profess to follow the example of Jesus and have an African America identification to be silent at a time where true Christian voices need to rise and speak consistently against the evils of our day. Instead of figures who narrowly define morality, while condoning injustice and poverty, I argue that we need leaders as religious philosopher Cornel West has called for, “who love the people enough,” over and above themselves and the glory and limelight they can acquire. African America still wrestles with the Du Boisian “double consciousness” and has not fully come to terms with its collective identity and collective past-both positive and negative; although the search for that identity and knowledge/understanding of our history is so critical at this juncture in our sojourn in this homeland of America. In fact, I would argue that African Americans everywhere, and Africana peoples globally, are still in search of self-what psychologist Na’im Akbar calls community of self-self as a healthy and whole individual and self as a healthy and vibrant community. Can we afford to deny ourselves this important knowledge and birthright?

For many of the black working class and poor today, the Black Christian Church represents a bastion reserved for the middle and upper class of the community and an institution less and less engaged with meeting the needs of the least of these in our communities. A similar criticism can be levied against other institutions such as schools, colleges and universities and the intellectuals who inhabit those spaces. Here, we would do well to revisit the important lessons offered by the father of black history, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, eminent black sociologist Edward Franklin Frazier, and historian and cultural critic Harold Cruse. Woodson’s The Miseducation of the Negro and Frazier’s Black Bourgeousie stand as important works of social criticism of the black middle class, arguing against the dangers of adopting elitist mentalities and programs. Similarly, Cruse’s landmark Crisis of the Negro Intellectual examines the role of many black intellectuals in American society as being irrelevant and disconnected from the hopes and aspirations of the masses of the people. Although written in the 1930s and 1960s, these works reveal biting, yet, constructive criticisms that are as valid and valuable today. Black Intellectuals, including Black religious leaders and theologians, of which I represent all three, should be more than ivory and ebony tower thinkers and figures. We must connect with the people and really assume more of a public role. We must do deep soul searching as preacher and theologian Howard Thurman directed us to do. Change begins within each of us.

However, as we proceed to function as real public intellectuals, professors, ministers, theologians, and non-traditional teachers, the wisdom and example of philosopher and cultural critic Alain LeRoy Locke, Minister Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Ida B. Wells offer must needed direction for us. These leaders urge us to use the tools of self-criticism and models taken from African America History and Culture to guide the development of our leadership and teaching philosophies, organizations, and programs.

In this regard, I propose that we develop urban CommUniversities where anyone of any age can attend and enroll. The CommUniversity curriculum would use Pan African/Africana Studies, History, and other disciplines to engage the community and attempt to develop an educational institution that could serve as a vital nucleus of community change and development, supporting the work of prophetic churches and other religious institutions; one that is squarely situated in the community but partnering with nearby colleges and universities, as well as churches and local civic groups. Such an institution, I firmly believe, will connect the needs of the people to the resources and expertise of those trained in the study of Africana life and culture. Taking it a step further, we must then proceed to train community residents to become the professors, professionals, and leaders of their own communities and promote a much needed enhancement of collective self-esteem and community development. Designed as a more ambitious adult education program, the curriculum, overall set-up and functioning of the CommUniversity should model the set-up of the best colleges and universities in our region and nation. The difference in the two would be that the CommUniversity would specifically partner with institutions working to improve the African American community, such as churches, civic organizations, non-profits, businesses, health care facilities, and social service agencies. Its graduates and students would work to promote community change, development, and empowerment with the education they acquire.

When leaders and community residents can both begin with a critical internal examination of their role and extend that criticism outward, we can meet in the middle on “common ground” and follow through on platforms developed collectively. This remains our challenge today, to develop as historian John Hope Franklin advises “unity without uniformity” but keeping in mind the noble words of the renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” We must focus our goal on becoming one diverse community again and function in dialogue with Diasporan communities all over the world, spanning throughout the African continent and Latin America to Europe, South America, Asia, and Central America.

Inspired by the words of Mahatma Gandhi and community activist Ron Daniels: We are the leaders we have been waiting for so let’s get to work!

Stan "Tookie" Williams and American Justice -- Crip Style

2005-12-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

I called Governor Schwarzenegger on December 12. I wanted to voice my concerns about the execution of Stan "Tookie" Williams. Williams, the founder of the Crips gang and convicted felon of several murders, was sentenced to die by lethal injection on December 13 at 12:01 a.m. I had never made a call to Governor's office before. I don't remember calling any politicians other than my congressional representative to demand an up vote on PBS funding earlier this year. I have always been distrustful of politicians. The reason being that politicians are not so much concerned with justice and fairness in American society but rather in maintaining an image that they are. This is a great source of moral decay. How can those who are elected to enforce, create, and interpret the law base their whole system of ethics on an image of justice and not the sincere practice of justice?

After I was put on hold, I was patched into some adolescent aide of the Governor. He assured me that he was there to listen to my concerns and that he would forward them to the Governor himself. Of course he would. I spent about five minutes outlining reasons why I felt Stan "Tookie" William should not be executed. A told him about the statistics concerning those on death row -- silence. I told him how capital punishment offenders tend to be overwhelmingly poor -- I think. I told him about how the morality of the sentence was wrong and that it sent a negative message to others who are considering or are actively committing similar crimes-- I hope. I do remember that I concluded my soliloquy by suggesting the Governor could save himself some political capital by opting for the wise alternative -- commuting Williams' sentence to life instead of death.

There was a pause. Then the young men on the other side of the phone tersely replied, " You are aware the Governor Schwarzenegger has made a final decision regarding this case and that he will not grant Mr. Williams clemency. Mr. Williams will be executed tomorrow morning at 12:01 a.m. Is anything else I can help you with?"

I would have rather talked to an answering machine.

My conversation with the aid at Governor Schwarzenegger's office is indicative of what is really wrong with America's criminal justice system. Many whites and other skeptics overwhelmingly tend to believe that African Americans are "pimping" other Americans with their complaints of racial inequality. They consider claims of racism and discrimination to be a modern-day equivalent to a Black man's con. This is especially true in the heartland of America. Geographic region that has been historically spared the detailed legacy of conquest and hate that was so visibly exposed in the South. In some ways, our heartland kin and their outsourced conservative values reveal a perception of themselves as moral superiors, but this is beside the point.

In actuality, there is no black "pimping of justice" going on. Rather, we are in a closed minded-environment/prejudiced society, where we know that the majority of Americans have their minds already made up on issues related to economics, politics, religion, justice, and not surprisingly on the issue of race. The American mindset appears to be incorrigible at the precise time when dialogue and critical discussion is needed. Decisions are made based on prejudiced in pre-informed notions of how should society should appear in what it should be like instead of the actual facts. In an environment where, "what I think" precludes "what the evidence says" is the staple of the decisionmaking process, how can we actually expect the justice system to reflect levelheaded, ideal and holistic interpretations of the equality of law?

Of course we are being heard, but are they really listening? Really?

African Americans overwhelmingly, I believe, are turning to alternative means of outrage in an attempt to get the conscience in the attention of Americans back on this fundamental problem of American society. How do we determine who is to be free into is to be unfree? How do we treat those who we have historically discriminated against in an institutional culture of racialization?
Yes, admittedly Williams was a Crip, a gang member, but he was also a representative for the black voice that often goes unheard in criminal justice system. Without justice there can be no peace, and without hope there can be no justice. The state-sponsored murder of Williams represents a microcosm of reality for African-American males who should clearly see there is no hope, there is no peace, and there is no justice when addressing a closed minded and racist society. How do you explain justice to a nation that interprets the disputed killings of Williams to be entirely different in character than state-sponsored killings and abuses. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth--they say.

If this is the understanding of justice that Americans have, let's extend the metaphor and ask why are African Americans gouge-eyed and toothless while white American have both eyes and a full grin. Think of the present demand for justice that the criminal justice systems propagates in the historical context regarding reparations for the criminal state-sponsored practice of slavery. Don't even think all the way back to reparations for slavery, think about the criminal state-sponsored practice of Jim Crow. The state has historically played a key role in supporting the criminal activities of white citizens against African-American citizens how can we apply the rule of lex talionis here? Malcolm X once said what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

My point is simply, regardless of the crime, justice should be restorative and not entirely punitive. Americans have such a hard time grasping the fact that justice should take restorative forms because of the long legacy of crimes and abuses towards African-American people. To support a system that establishes restores to justice as a norm would be to dismantle the system of Americanism itself. Restorative justice implies reparations and adjustments to generations of descendents of African slaves, Native Americans, and Chicanos. That would be too radical, they say. But it's not considered too radical to destroy a rehabilitated life and to suggest that another murder evens the score for the victims who were allegedly killed by the perpetrator. Is it?

It serves the Establishment well to make examples of individuals who cannot cope with the intense pressures of the society that demand conformity or madness. In the post-Tookie era, I hope that African Americans and all Americans will begin to truly understand the relationship that exists between themselves, American societal norms, and the law.

ANN Issues Forum 6: African Growth and Opportunity Act

2005-11-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has undergone a mild amount of criticism and has received little attention in the mainstream press. It has had the unfornute position of being a piece of regional legislation that has been politically and economically marginalized as well as having come onto the scene amidst a faltering economy and a failing war. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law over 5 years ago in May of 2000 under Title 1 of The Trade and Development Act of 2000. According to the State Department and the current administration, "the Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets."

History/Future of Africa as Free Market
Since continental Africa has been considered a a "free market" for Europe since the late 19th century, considering the Berlin Conference of 1885 in which Western Nations agreed to carve up Africa like a thanksgiving turkey. The rule for freedom and fairness were drawn only as it related to the international rivalry between France, Great Britain and Belgium et. al. The political product of the conference was the General Act of February 1885, international legislation pioneering in global imperial policy with a major intention of keeping European powers from clashing amongst themselves as the overran the continent with military, political, and economic dominance.

Of particular historical relevance to Belgium's venture into the resource-rich region of the Congo Basin, is article 3 and 4 of the act. "III. Goods of whatever origin, imported into these regions, under whatsoever flag, by sea or river, or overland, shall be subject to no other taxes than such as may be levied as fair compensation for expenditure in the interests of trade . . . IV. Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain free from import and transit duties..." In addition, a the exercise of monopoly was prohibited.

The parallel between the problem is apparent today as it was over one hundred years ago. Advocates of the continent and its people must differentiate between "opportunity for Africa" versus "opportunity in Africa." The advocates of the former almost certainly use the rhetoric of freedom, democracy and development but to what end? The free market system has traditionally (and in the case of the African continent--historically) benefited industrialized nations at the expense of developing nations. Precisely what makes free markets "free" for developed nations is that the costs associated with equitable practices are nill, virtually "underdeveloping" in the words of Walter Rodney, new economies that are unable to compete in a global scale.

Free market economics has a tremendous ability to democratize economic relations between two players who are relative similar in portfolio, but when the principle of laissez-faire has been broadly applied and expanded into regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America that have historically been pimped by the interest of the imperial state and large business, a normalization/regulation of relations is necessary.

Relatively speaking, supporters of the legislation will argue that Africa will be better off today than it was 5 years ago. Relatively is conceded. Africa is also still relatively free after 50 years of independence movements and neo-colonial administration; Africa does not need relative freedom but rather total independence and 80-90% self sufficiency. Africa does not need the relative freedom that is brought through the free market economic agenda of industrialized nations, what the soul of the Pangea needs is no dependency on Western markets especially when entrance to this markets are structured according the advantage of the West and the dependency of the sub-Saharan hosts.

Africa and the world are interdependent. Economic and political relations should acknowledge this fact. Rather than allowing the West to determine the dependency of the underdeveloped world, Africa and other underdeveloped nations must work with mulitinational corporations to increase their political bargaining capabilities in the global economic policy.

Major Criticisms of AGOA

Some non-governmental organizations have highlighted several major criticisms of the African Growth and Opporunity Act as follows:

AGOA exhibits preference for multinational corporations at the expense of developing African states.
AGOA forces African nations willing to enter into NAFTA-like agreement to adhere to IMF structural adjustment policies.
AGOA has minimal labor and environmental protections.

Cultural Issues Regarding AGOA

In addition to the previous economic concerns there are also several important criticisms of the Act with regard to cultural issues.

AGOA evidences a transfer of racialized policy objectives in the America to Africa; underlying philsopohy of "what works for us is best for them."
AGOA presupposes a paternalistic relationship between the United States and Africa. Africa is not a nation but rather a continent with a serious of autonomous states, each of which have the sovereign right to determine their own policy and government with out the economic-engineering of hte United States.
AGOA brokers relationships between individuals African nations at the expense of others; it creates 'house nigger' complex in which nations who are aligned with the U.S. reap economic benefits at the expense and exclusion of others.

Policy Recommendations and Strategy for NGOs

Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership, and Empowerment for Africa (HOPE Bill) addresses many of the previous concern by engaging African nations as autonomous, productive and vital members of the global community. This approach is designed to deal with Africa in a similar manner that Europe is dealt with, one nation at a time recognizing the strength and needs of each country.
This bill focuses on human rights as an equally integral a component in nation development as economic concerns. Instead of exclusively promoting "free trade" principles, uses a mixture of mild regulation and market forces to stimulate economic growth.

A Rose for Rosa

2005-10-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

Rosa, Rosa our fallen matriach.
Our lodestone of resistance
The first daughter of our baptism into fire

When I think of Rosa Parks, of course I see the symbolism. Who could not help but see the symbolic nature of a woman of such profound dignity. She was strong and her statement through a determined repertoire of resistance inspired many. I would like to remember Rosa as she was in Montgomery, before the textbooks got her. Before they mainstreamed her. Rosa had a passionate vision of American society and she knew where she wanted to be. She knew the pains of racism and the distortions of the motto "liberty and justice for all."

Above all, I believe Rosa Parks prided herself in being a person who recognized the tremondous obstacles in the struggle for Africans in America to be treated with dignity and respect. Rosa Parks was an outstanding citizen but before she was caputured by the textbooks or parodied by OutKast, Rosa was a revolutionary. She is a reminder to all of us that the small acts of life are revolutionary and have a tremendous opportunity to radically change the environment around us.

While I will not credit Rosa with being the originator of black protest for civil rights in America, I will credit her with being tough as nails and lending the determination that inspired two generations that followed. My generation, Generation X, I urge you to listen to the sweet refrain of her life that melodiously renders the following line most clearly...

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

Exile at a PWI (Predominantly White Institution)

2005-10-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

I was getting really frustrated a couple of days ago with life on the ranch. Someone asked me for commentary regarding the SWB@PWI (Schooling While Black at a Predominantly White Institution) phenomenon. I decided to download a lot of stuff that was getting under my skin (pun intended). If you are curious of a catalogue of these personal experiences, I have outlined a list of general grievances listed below:

1) I am starved for interaction with some "real" brothers.

There is no sense of community here. I had heard the saying that everyone who is black is not your brother. I had to attend a PWI to discover the truth in that saying. Out of the very few brothers attending here, so many are caught up in shucking and jiving in the interest of social acceptance by white peers it is hard brothers who connect on the Pan-African level. The athletes are the archetypes, the intellectuals the aberration.

Don't get me entirely wrong though, there are some MX Jr's around. If you ever want to test that theory, a PWI is the place to do it. PWI's are the sites where real militancy is forged. One of my friends teased me when I returned home by saying that I had to go to hang out around white folk before I became a "real" brother. I had been a student at an HBCU for 4 years and graduated, little did I know then, I had been quite insulated from understanding the realities of white racism--especially in its institutional forms. Attending a PWI was the fire in the hole that really motivated me toward a focus on social change.

2) The Negro Expert Syndrome (NES) is a pandemic.

I would like to announce that there has been an outbreak of Negro Expert Syndrome all over PW college campuses. NES is not an acronym for Nintendo Entertainment System that is played out bro. NES is an acronym for certain people who think they are cultural experts (and thereby critics) on the black experience informed by nothing other than a steady diet of BET, an occasional XXL mag, weekend basketball games and a single sexual liaison with a non-white person. Did I mention that they frequently consult the Negrologist? More on that in item 4.

I diagnose NES a notion of pseudo-intellectualism that is not based in reality. It is true, everyone is an expert on something, but this can be extremely frustrating when discussing issues of relevance to the Afro-American community in a predominantly white setting. At PWI's all over this country, I am sure that everyone has encountered a non-black classmate who "knows" more about the black experience than they do. That’s the NES at work.Let's be real.

You don't have to be black to study and research black life, I concede that. Also, I recognize that there are some people who know more about topics that we as black scholars claim expertise in who have never set foot into an institution of higher learning. They possess valuable experiential knowledge. In most cases, as black scholars we have experiential knowledge combined with intellectual rigor. Those infected with NES have nothing to their but hearsay and perhaps an occasional book review. At a PWI this syndrome can be particularly frustrating and annoying. At an HBCU a well-placed backhand slap could cure this disease instantaneously, outnumbered, at a PWI we must suffer through it silently.

3) The Great White Hope Complex GWHC (+/-)

This GWHC is frustrating because it is evidenced on two opposing poles-the negative and the positive. The negative GWHC is manifest in white students who are always ultra competitive with you because you are black and they have "something" to prove--what exactly what that is, I will never know. The second opposing extreme is that some with the positive GWHC are overly sympathetic in proving themselves friends of the race, overly apologetic to any black, African, Native American, homosexual, Lationo/a etc. I am supposing that these are sincere people. I am inclined that they want to prove "not all white people are bad" in an effort to confirm there is hope for the construct of whiteness in America.

Honestly speaking, while I often find comfort in the company of those infected with this positive strand of GWHC, relationships developed with these folks often feels unnatural and artificial. Sometimes I can't help but wonder is this guy/lady really sincere? Or is this a mega-conspiracy in which s/he and those infected with the negative GWHC strand are working together to get me. Yes my friend, paranoia has definitely begun an awful work on me since I have been here.

4) Enter the Negrologist

Problem number four is that I am considered the resident Negrologist. Why I am supposed to be the expert on every aspect of black culture from slavery to sexuality, dance and music, food and fashion, emotion and entertainment, etc? Okay, I am a supposed "scholar" in black studies. But come on, black people are not like a Milton Bradley trivia game; we are far more complex than that. There is so much uniqueness that no single person can ever be the Encyclopedia Africana Repository for every detail of the black experience. I get tired of being presumed as the omniscient Negrologist, an occupation based solely upon the color of my skin as a primary qualification.

It does delight me that people want to know more about black culture and life but folks should exercise some discretion in what they ask me. Stop being so damn voyeuristic and use some common sense. Don't ask me questions about black hair, shoe size, athletic ability, sexual prowess, or any other kinky curiosities that I dare not post in this blog. In a multicultural environment, I would be a little more forgiving (perhaps) but when I am the only African American at a social event, it is not the time for 21 questions. The Negrologist is out of the office.
PWI's can be very similar to labs where misguided white folk experiment on us as trapped black guinea pigs. We can't escape! Even those who have got NES (I thought they were supposed to know everything about black folk!) keep coming to me to find out why their experiments with those aliens of a darker hue don't go as planned. Hell, how I am supposed to know? Before I attended a PWI, I thought I had white folk all figured out. Boy was I wrong. People are people. And above all, people are all very complex.

5) Cultural Drought

PWIs have a culture of their own. But from my experience it sure is hard for black culture to thrive in this environment. Where'd it all go?

6) I am tired of sitting in the Second-Guessed Seat

Open Letter to Administration of PWI’s:

Since you invited me to come here as the resident Negrologist, please keep my white colleagues from second-guessing my abilities. Please inform them that I am not here because of an affirmative action pity the Negro university policy, as has been implied by their raspy whisperings and baleful glares. Rather, I am here to educate and expose the culturally-deprived segregated masses on the reality of blackness in America that their ignorance has blinded them to and their society has attempted to bleach us out of.

Please write me into the curriculum. Make me part of the university general education requirement. For as you see, I am doing a double job. I deserve double remuneration. I am schooling fools on their ignorance about blackness and picking up a graduate degree at the same time, thank you very much. If I get that look (the hmmm-unqualified-black-student-must-be-a-minority-affirmative-action-lottery-gaze) one more time, I will scream.

All this second guessing is annoying. I am no W.E.B. Du Bois, no Rhodes Scholar, but I do hold my own in the classes that I have taken. I have sampled a variety of courses across the university and have also taught enough to know that while your students are arguing that non-whites/blacks are taking the seats of better qualified white students, I have news for both you and them. While teaching here, I have found that there are a large number of so-called "highly qualified white students" you’ve admitted that are taking the seats of better qualified non-whites that I know. Don’t try me.

Sincerely,
Angry Black Student at a PWI

Above all, the most frustrating and revealing aspect of the PWI experience is that it discloses the greatest secret of American history in volumes--whiteness is so overrated. An experience at a PWI will pull back the curtains and let you see a broader picture of whiteness that can only be learned through experience--apart from a book, a sermon, a Final Call article, mama’s advice, etc. Do your time at a PWI and you will really come to see that whiteness is bankrupt concept.

PWIs are one place in American where I feel this is most evident. You get a good variety of white students and really get a better composition of white America than in any other environment. You get a cross-sampling of attitudes, aptitudes, personalities and perceptions. In my opinion, it has allowed me to see how I have been guilty of some of the same things that a white privileged culture promotes, while at the same time etching the experience of blackness even more deeply into my consciousness.

Of course, there are some advantages to attending a PWI. Excellent funding. Research opportunities. Rural environments. Live Klan rallies. You can go by your first name only knowing that it will be suffixed with Oh yeah, I know him--the black guy And whenever pictures are taken, you always stand out-just like 3-D. The only problem is that this is a very brutal experiment and unduly harsh on black bodies and minds.That’s my testimony. Thanks for asking.

Saen Amaen
PWI in Ohio

America as a Corporation

2005-10-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

The American way of life is full of contradictions and hypocrisies. Those who are supportive of this system often call it complex, I prefer to call it hypocritical. Why is it that there are so many contradictions of rhetoric and mission within the so-called American dream? If the United States of America were evaluated on the basis that businesses are legally bound to their shareholders, the government would be branded corrupt, bankrupt and probably would be forced to disband.

Consider this for a moment. If it is the responsibility of the state to ensure all of its citizens (shareholders/taxpayers) certain rights which include but are not limited to life, liberty and the pursuit of happines, how would the portfolio (past and present performance) of government fare? It takes but a brief history lesson to outline the legacy of benign and malignant neglect to nearly every racial/ethnic group in American history--those of African descent particulary apparent. Even the present managerial class of so-called "white Americans" were promoted based on their willingness to further exploit other immigrant groups who were not deemed as "(q)white-worthy" of promotion. If the American system were comparable to a fraternity or a sorority, perhaps this type of hazing before admission to certain privileges would be acceptable but if we adhere to a corporate model of accountability regarding the responsibility of a nation-state, these abuses evidence corruption beyond redress .

Historically, millions of marginalized poor have invested in a governmental corporation that has not made returns on invested capital (given greater value back on the resources invested) to the largest base of its shareholders. Instead, through a process of racialization, class stratification, and gender discrimination, the shareholders have been systematically defrauded and exploited.

As citizens/shareholders in a corporation that has been characterized by abuses of its senior executives, most often stemming from racist/patriachial/hegemonic assumptions by the president/CEO himself, we need to think about ways to demand accountability or divest entirely. We should move beyond the notion of exposing abuses and move into the realm of demanding redress. It is only when we understand the relationship between economic rights, civil rights and human rights that we can understand the true relation of government to people. There can be no redress without civic reform AND economic reparation.

Africana News Network Issues Forum 5: The Toledo Race Riot of 2005 and The Fire This Time

2005-10-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

In 1963 protest writer James Baldwin penned his seminal work, The Fire Next Time, which provided a brilliant analysis and illustration of what would happen if America did not effectively confront and solve its ever-widening racial divide and dilemma. Since Baldwin's prophetic treatise, many Americans, black, white, and of other racial backgrounds and ethnicities have forgotten his poignant words and have slipped comfortably into their seats of extreme complacency and mediocrity. The events of Saturday, October 15, 2005 in Toledo, Ohio should be a troubling reminder that there is still much work to be done in regards to fully understanding and winning the most perplexing war which continues to visit upon the American mind, body, and soul: The Race Relations War.

Saturday, October 15, 2005 in Toledo, Ohio- Racial conflict facilitated by the National Socialist Movement (NSM)-a Virginia-based neo-Nazi group calling itself "America's Nazis Party," escalated into unfortunate violence as the NSM staged a demonstration which was met by counter opposition from local gang members and residents of a predominately black and historic Stickney community in Toledo's North section.

The violence, which included, the burning of a bar and pelting of a number of vehicles as well as police officers led Mayor Jack Ford to institute an 8pm curfew for the city which may be lifted today. Fortunately, no one was fatally wounded but a number of arrests have taken place. The emotional and psychological damage could be inestimable at this moment in a city that is already underdeveloped in many neighborhoods most affected by the recent happenings.

This incident triggers memories of the riots which shook the city and the Midwest in the 1960s, prior to and following the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The entire city has been gripped by the events of the past weekend. Religious leaders are searching for answers and politicians are attempting to locate responsibility. Underlying the blame game in the city is a larger powderkeg of racial and class tension further fueled by the evident gap between the haves and the have nots, between the black, brown, and white poor and the rest of the city. We invite commentary that involves substantive policy solutions for the city of Toledo and its residents.

See the link below to Toledo Blade articles that recap the events and discuss many of the major issues of the confrontation and their implications in its aftermath:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/NEWS16/51016004

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS16/51017001

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/NEWS16/510160409

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051015/COLUMNIST24/510150378

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS16/510170328

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/NEWS16/510160383

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051015/BREAKINGNEWS/51015023

Reflection on Badu at the Millions More Movement

2005-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

I did not get a chance to attend the Millions More Movement, but I was glued to C-Span and saw all the great speakers throughout the day. Erykah Badu particularly got my attention this time, as she usually does, but for different reasons. Badu came correct, and she came preaching. I was expecting a performance but she stunned me with that brilliant metaphysical banter of self-conscious prophecy.

She exposed the need for black people to understand the role that self-hatred and assumptions have played in demoralizing the global African community. The words, the rhythm, the movement is alive and living. To me, the presence of Badu revealed that the moment could not be more pregnant with possibility than it is today. It is a exercise that is spiritual as much as it is political, powerful as much as it is precious, and serious as much as it is sacred.

Africana News Network Issues Forum 4: The United States of Africa

2005-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

From the time it was first proposed by Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah to its most recent revival by Libyan leader Muammar Quaddafi, the idea and reality of a United States of Africa has been plagued by colonial and post-colonial conflicts and problemmatics which further make African Unity a dream deferred. Politically speaking, the inauguration of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Abba in 1963 signaled a hope that this dream would finally be on the road to reality. However, due to various expressions and manifestations of disunity and neo-colonialism, the OAU never really lived up to its very high expectations.

Now, the African Union (AU), the successor entity to the OAU, has emerged, formed on the model of the European Union. Questions arise as to whether the vehicle of the AU will yield any more of a substantive end result, leading to the ever elusive reality of continental unity for the motherland. Interestingly enough, the European Union has instituted the makings of a political economy that has developed a single currency and appears on the road to political unity, in the form of a United States of Europe. If the EU is successful and the AU follows in step in taking sustantive measures toward real and lasting socio-political and economic unity, what New World will emerge? These and other questions and possibilities, we examine in this new cultures and policy issues forum.

Links:

To visit the website of the African Union, click on the following link: http://www.africa-union.org/

New African magazine, published out of London, covers the African continent from a Pan-Africanist frame of reference: http://www.africasia.com/newafrican/index.php

Also, look at the Africa section on the website of World Press: http://www.worldpress.org/africa.htm

Silent Storm: Why All the Ado About Hurricane Katrina Says Nothing About Race in America

2005-10-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

by Saen Amaen

I sat through as many newscasts as anyone else in the days and weeks following Hurricane Katrina. I became outraged as I saw the trauma and drama of racial politics in American society daily broadcasted across the screen. I got involved in several heated debates with my colleagues over everything from the tactics of the evacuation, to the delay of Bush's reaction, to the police/military brutality, to the looters versus the finders, to abuses in the Superdome, to remarks of Barbara Bush, then to remarks of Kanye West, to the politics of Reconstruction, and finally to the issue of police and military brutality---again.

After all this discussion over these issues that literally "stormed" into our lives for a one-month period during this disaster of dramatic proportions, I have come to believe that hurricane Katrina is nothing more than a silent storm. For all that we have discussed about the issues of race and their centrality in American society as evidenced by the storm, we really have left the "realest" issues of the matter unresolved. To talk intelligently and realistically about race in America, we must abandon all the post-political gossip of emotional reactionism.

By the time events flicker across your flat planel television screen, the politics of the matter have long been decided. When the political buzz begins to blur across the channels, from Fox News to CNN to ABC to NBC to BBC, the issues have already been framed and the major decisions have already been made. While it's true that enough buzz around an issue can alter the political atmosphere, we know that in this age more than ever before, the political buzz is initiated by political institutions who have already formulated responses to these issues.The reason that I think all the fuss over Katrina says nothing about race is because the media dialogue contributed nothing to the discussion of white privilege in American society.

Until we can talk bluntly and candidly about the issue of white privilege, we are not truly talking about race in American society. On the contrary, we are discussing what white people think about race in American society. Likewise, until Africans in diaspora (a la black people everywhere) begin to frame their own issues, we are mere footnotes in a white commentary of race in America. From the issues that were framed immediately following Katrina, we see that the dialogue did not center on agency-focused African Americans desiring to initiate change. Nor did the news focus on the privilege and power concentrated in the hands of a few that prevents change. Neither did media seek to address the historical issues that inform a need for change. The post-Katrina dialogue centered on cute stories about kids sending care packages, political leaders blaming Republicans and Democrats, and whose fault it was that the damn levies (no pun intended) gave way.

When we can talk candidly about the issue of racial privilege in American society, we will allow those who have been most affected by it to frame their own perspectives and responses. We will be engaged in more than a monologue with ourselves on the virtues of goodwill Americanism. With much ado about nothing, engaging in a silent storm, we are delaying a necessary dialogue with possibly far more damaging potential than any hurricane could ever muster.

Africana News Network Issues Forum 3: The Millions More Movement

2005-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, the Millions More Movement (MMM) occurs on this coming Saturday, October 15, 2005 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Some believe, the gathering and movement will come to represent the largest mass movement in African American history, since the Garvey Movement and even the Civil Rights Movement. This potential fact is evidenced as a cross-section of leaders from the Civil Rights establishment, the Women's movement, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Hip Hop Generation, Black religious demoniations, and many more, have already endorsed the movement, and seek to build a broad and substantive coalition representing the diverse spectrum of Black America. Furthermore, the ten point program of the MMM seeks to address virually every area of concern to Africana peoples in the U.S. and abroad.

Contrastingly, there is also as much criticism as there is praise for the MMM and its leader, the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan. Regardless of whatever your position on the gathering and prospective movement or the leadership, the idea of mass coaltion building and cessation of egoism among black, hispanic, and poor leaders is long overdue.

The Africana News Network's Issues Forum 3 deals with cultures and policy commentary and recommendations of the Millions More Movement itself. Click on the links below to find out more about this issue and then weigh in on this historic and important happening in African America.

Official Millions More Movement website: http://www.millionsmoremovement.com/index_noflash.html

Africana News Network Issues Forum 2: What is Africana Cultures and Policy Studies?

2005-10-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

Africana News Network Issues Forum No. 2 deals with addressing the idea of what Africana Cultures and Policy Studies is.

Africana Cultures and Policy Studies (ACPS) is an interdisciplinary field of Africana Studies centered around the critical examination of the broad spectrum of Africana cultures globally, produced by scholars of all backgrounds, interested in connecting their research to the construction, implementation, and evaluation of policies on a local, national, and transnational/international level. ACPS is in dialogue with Africana Studies, Policy Studies, Cultures Studies, as well as more traditional disciplines including but not limited to history, education, philosophy, religion, law, english, etc. In terms of the policy process, from a top-down and bottom-up perspective, ACPS serves to bridge the gap between theory and practice, connecting academia, various community constituencies, and related institutions. Furthermore, ACPS links cultures studies and policy studies in a systematic manner that promotes the critical examination and evaluation of cultural issues such as continuity and change or dislocation, thereby applying such cultural analysis to the policy research, development, and implementation process.

To find out more about the discipline and paradigm of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies, visit the website of the Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute: http://www.theacpsi.org/

Africana News Network Issues Forum: Hurricane Katrina

2005-10-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Africana News Network inaugurates its first issues forum on important issues connecting Africana cultures analysis with policy recommendations. The first issues forum deals with cultures and policy analysis of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Feel free to offer commentary.

For more information on the African American response to Hurricane Katrina and other related issues, visit Tom Joyner's news website, BlackAmericaWeb: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/

Journal of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies

2005-06-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Journal of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies, the scholarly journal of the Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute. We are committed to developing the highest quality of cultures and policy research affecting Africana people the world over. It is our mission to define and articulate the field of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies.

Sincerely,

Dr. Zachery R. Williams
Executive Director
Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute