Of Interest, July 21, 2008

The Great African American Awakening—not just for black Republicans anymore.

The New York Times won’t publish McCain’s Iraq op-ed after having published Obama’s. Don’t forget, McCain’s was written after eight trips to the country, with the last being two months ago; Obama’s was written after one trip to the country (before today) with the last being two years ago. (HT: LGF)

A Middle Easterner tells the West what diplomacy means in his neck of the woods.

For those who don’t see the point in paying a lot of money for an item that only depreciates in value: The Twelve Cheapest American Cars—some safety features can also be bought. (HT: Instapundit)

Real Oppression of Blacks in the 21st Century!—I’m sure that Jesse is ready to cut somebody’s jewels off and Al is gearing up for that next protest march.

And Frank Martin has a question regarding Iraq for both presidential candidates: "What are you doing to ensure that American troops will not be needed in the region during your Presidency?” After all the posturing and the dog-and-pony shows, that’s the issue that matters.

Comments

[Donna B.]

The "Great Awakening" article is a good read. Thanks for the link.

I'm white in a town that's 50% black. I worked for a while as a substitute teacher and was never more depressed than after a week at a predominantly black middle school (yes, there's still a problem with segregation here.)

I know they behaved worse for me because I was a substitute, but I could also hear classes up and down hallway just as unruly.

The problem stemmed from just a few students. About a half of the rest of them just sat there or let themselves be pushed around. A few were so unengaged I thought they might be on drugs, maybe legal ones prescribed to calm them down.

The rest were those who wanted to learn something but tried not to be seen as "uncool". These were the ones I tried to engage and frankly I tried to help them appear as cool as they could. I let a lot of language slide that ordinarily would have resulted in a trip to the office.

I'd seen the office and they would have had to stand in line.

The young man that broke my heart was the one who sat away from everybody else and doodled on a note pad, ignoring everyone, including me. I walked over to see what he was drawing and it was a cityscape of skyscrapers. Quite nicely done. He whispered to me, obviously not wanting to be overheard, that he was going to be architect.

I think of him often and hope he has not lost his dream.

Well... thanks for letting me get this story out of my system. And let me point out the part of the problem is that this school district uses magnet schools. Part of the problem is that most of the brightest -- the cream -- had been skimmed away from this school leaving them without a core of strong healthy students.

Maybe, overall this is a good thing. I certainly made every effort to get my kids into the magnet schools (two didn't make it.) However, those two had to compete with their siblings who did and they at least got their homework done.

Thanks again.

[baldilocks]

Thank *you* Donna.

I have a long op-ed about how these things came to be so, that will be up soon. I think it's been said already but it needs to be said again.

[DarkStar]

Baldi, I need to make sure to give a quick "I agree with you" when I do so that my points are seen in the proper light vs. one of contention.

Having said that, I have a great big bone to pick here.

I'm 44 years old. In the late 70s on up to now, it has NOT just been "Black conservatives" who have been pointing out problems in the Black community and saying that Black people have to address the problems not government.

The following is a statement of fact and not a defense of the person being mentioned.

When I was in Jr High, I heard a speech given by Jesse Jackson, Sr. In this speech, he told "us kids" to stay in school, study, read, stay away from drugs, don't have sex (ok, I'll wait for the laughing to end here), don't take part in crime, etc. All that was reported on television was, "Keep hope alive! Say no to dope and yes to hope!" There was a lot said before that ending summation that was never written about. (Keep that sentence in mind).

I grew up in Baltimore where teenage pregnancies was a growing problem. During that time I remember the radio programs, programs in school, churches, and yes politicians, who were saying the teenage pregnancies were a problem and that different approaches needed to be taken. Of course, there were different approaches but they mentioned and tried. I have to state here that Black people, from e'rday to politicians to activists were involved. There were articles in Ebony, Jet, and Essence. When Emerge came along, Emerge covered it.

Crime problems were mentioned and attempts made to address it by Black people in the area.

I played baseball in the James Mosher League, a baseball league set up to keep Black kids busy in the summer. We played another league from the west area where I lived that was started by 2 young men (in their 20s), JUST to keep kids from "around the way" out of trouble in the summer. Many stayed out of trouble. Some are now dead, some are in jail, some are junkies in and out of jail.

When I was student a Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, I was behind in education background. Mrs. Wilder, my history teacher, got her son, a Naval Academy cadet, to tutor me in trig (9th grade) when I was having trouble with a teacher, Mr. Cimbilista, who was a self-proclaimed red neck pig farmer. Mrs. Wilder was Black. When I defended a friend, a Jewish boy who was being harassed by some jackass, the jackass decided to drop the n-bomb. I was about to drop him when school security came around and stopped it. The only reason we both didn't get suspended because it was start of the school championships and one of the security guards said the team needed me. Evidently it was talk of the classroom because when I returned, my thermodynamics teacher, Mr. (Dr) Gnighting, an older white man with a tight buzz cut, told me I had too much potential to let white trash get the better of my by bringing me down to his level.

I went to the University of Virgina where there were Black students who went into Charlottesville to tutor Black students. (I didn't).

When I moved to the D.C. area, I helped tutor as a member of Concerned Black Men. CBM has been around since 1975. Among the groups that tutored were members of the Urban League of D.C., the NAACP of D.C., and 100 Black Women.

100 Black Men started from an idea in 1963 and was around in local forms until '85 when it went national. 100 Black Women developed in 1971.

Should I tell you that "cheese buses", as my daughter calls them, full of kids came to the school we tutored? The FIRST time I saw all of the buses pull up I was *FLOORED*.

In D.C.? BUS LOADS of kids being tutored? After school? They got on the bus themselves?

Juan Williams, who on a Fox Sunday Show, mentioned the work his niece did in getting gown donations for high school girls who lost everything in Katrina. His niece attended Howard. Williams, to my knowledge, never mentioned Howard and other HBCUs who had "summer break" in New Orleans to help clean up. Nor has he mentioned the Howard students who went to D.C. schools in the area and mentored kids and worked as unpaid student aides. (My daughter attended Howard one year before she was asked to take a break because she partied too hard). My daughter called me one day, UPSET, about the state of the school they were in. Howard also runs a charter school.

Coppin State University, an HBCU in Baltimore, has helped turn around an elementary school they adopted. The school went from being on the NCLB under performing school list to a high performing school and now wants to open a charter school.

How much of this have you read about Baldi in the mainstream or conservative press Baldi?

It's been in the Black media, but that doesn't count as being "the public", meaning when Juan Williams and others say Blacks only talk about things "in private" and not in public, they have to consider the Black media as not being public even if it's available for all to hear and/or read.

Crime? Emerge had articles. So-called "Black leadership"? Emerge toasted Jackson and Farrakhan. Yes, the same Emerge that had Clarence Thomas as a lawn jockey and Aunt Jemimah. Teenage pregnancies? Essence, Ebony and by default Jet since Jet is just the reader's digest of Ebony. How about the Black newspapers across the country? I know the Baltimore edition of The Afro covered the stuff. But to some people, that's still private.

Ice T went on The Arsinio Hall Show and got on his knees to beg for money for the gang intervention projects that he was involved with along with Jim Brown.

Tell me if you can, why these things are not mentioned in the mainstream press?

[DarkStar]

Oh, 100 Black Men started as an idea in 1963 and had things going before going national in 1985.

Look at the groups listed at Black Self Help Information.

How many have been mentioned in the media?

Something I've heard and never validated or even tried to validate is it is the Black middle class and above who "man" most of these organizations.

So, now I come to the Black leadership part, which I will not be so kind.

[DarkStar]

Since the late 70s, I've heard Black people blast so-called Black leadership. It's been in print and on the radio. It's in print, in cyberspace, and on the radio and television NOW. And if anyone says it's just conservatives, they have their head in the backside. The question is if the head placement is willful or not.

Back when Ben Chavis was named head the NAACP, NAACP members said Chavis was needed because younger Blacks weren't joining the organization and they thought Chavis would be the answer. After he left, the same was said about Mfume. Now the same is being said about Ben Jealous. And every since Chavis, the NAACP members have said, at best, the NAACP rolls are stagnant if not falling.

The NAACP, Jackson, Sr, and Sharpton are all against vouchers. Polls show that Blacks polled are for vouchers. The "Big 3" are for homosexual marriage, not Blacks polled. The "Big 3" try to get Blacks riled up to vote, but Black voting participation is falling. That will change this cycle.

OH YEAH....

The local Baltimore chapter of the NAACP has been trying to get men to mentor Black kids in Baltimore since before Cosby spoke out. If Juan Williams did his homework, he would know this. He would also know that a major reason why Mfume lost. Mfume didn't support causes of Blacks in the Baltimore area when asked to speak out about something going on in Baltimore. There was A LOT of talk about Mfume being in Martin O'Malley's back pocket and it cost him in the primary election against Cardin.

Here's when I get nasty.

Juan Williams is a much of a race hustler as Al Sharpton.

If Williams were on Howard's campus, in the dorm areas, he would hear rap blasting from the student's music systems. Can he explain how those students, listening to rap, are in college if rap is to blame as much as he claims?

"The Great African-American Awakening" is the media starting to pay more attention and the conservative media pumping up the victim hood of Black conservatives.

The conservative media, on the larger level, IMO, are pimpn' and hustlin.

There are TOO MANY easily verifiable information around of positive activities in Black communities for the conservative media to miss.

[Donna B.]

Darkstar, it is upsetting to me to hear that there's a "separate but equal" media. Not that I didn't already know it... but still upsetting.

I do not understand why blacks and whites are considered to be so different. And yeah, I've been accused of being naive many many times.

[DarkStar]

Darkstar, it is upsetting to me to hear that there's a "separate but equal" media. Not that I didn't already know it... but still upsetting.

*BLINK*

[baldilocks]

I didn't get that one either.

[DarkStar]

Full of typos and poor structure, but I'll fix this one:

How much of this have you read about Baldi in the mainstream or conservative press Baldi?

Should read: How much of this have you read about in the mainstream or conservative press, Baldi?

[baldilocks]

Dude, your comments were so long I missed the question. Let me go back up.

[baldilocks]

Okay. I read them but I'm still not sure what you're asking me. How much have I read about the black "leadership" in the past 30 or so years? Plenty.

[DarkStar]

Forget "leadership", I'm talking about the people "on the ground" doing the work that people criticize "leaders" for not doing.

And it was really more rhetorical than anything.

"If it bleeds it leads" is "the answer" but the Black community is getting unfairly slammed and it's happening from the the mainstream and conservative media.

[Donna B.]

I just want to know why black people are so different from whites in wanting what is best for their children and grandchildren.

Why do we have to separate when (I think) we want the same things?

yeah, yeah, here comes the naive accusation again.

I just don't get it.

[baldilocks]

"I just want to know why black people are so different from whites in wanting what is best for their children and grandchildren."

Some of us are still slaves.

[Donna B.]

i will accept the label of "privileted white person who does not understand" because frankly, I don't understand.

What are you still slaves too, and why?

Do you want more for your children than the average white person wants?

I still don't get it, but, believe me I'm trying to.

[Donna B.]

yah... make that "privileged"

[baldilocks]

Donna, forget about the "privilege."

The long op-ed I mentioned above has some explanations.

[baldilocks]

"Do you want more for your children than the average white person wants?"

One thing: I am an individual and an individualist. I haven't the foggiest notion of what the "average white person" wants, because I don't think such a thing exists.

[notropis]

"I haven't the foggiest notion of what the "average white person" wants, because I don't think such a thing exists."

Apparently, though, all you'd have to do is ask Obama's grandmother ;-)

[baldilocks]

Ha!

[Donna B.]

Perhaps I don't know what the average white person wants. Perhaps I'm not the average white person. Who knows?

What I want for my children and grandchildren is contentment with who they are.

My grandchildren are mixed race and I can no longer accept them as not white, or not black. They are simply my grandchildren and precious.

[DarkStar]

Some of us are still slaves.

Comments like that is why Black conservatives catch so much hell.

Look, there's a difference between ignorance and not caring about right and wrong.

Most Blacks are doing the right thing. To continue to assign a negative label to the Black community shows, to me, that the cries of "individuality" really is just empty rhetoric.

It appears to me the only time its shown by conservatives that a majority of Blacks are doing the right thing, it is to slam so-called Black leaders.

When vouchers are made available, its the Black parents, like those in D.C., who are said to not care, who line up to take advantage of the vouchers. It's the Black parents who, like in Philly, flock to charters. This repeats in "inner cities" all across the country to the point where charters may actually threaten the existence of Catholic schools.

It's the parents who are said to not give a damn, are the same parents who when presented a better option, take it.

I just want to know why black people are so different from whites in wanting what is best for their children and grandchildren.

Did you know that Blacks adopt, officially and unofficially, the children of relatives and friends at a higher rate than whites? Officially means going through the adoption/guardianship process. Unofficially means taking the kids in and taking care of them with out going through the legal process. This is known especially to those in the "social service" field, but rarely is it mentioned.

[DarkStar]

I've written this all before on my blog, but here it is in a nutshell: public Black conservatives and white conservatives "in support" of Black conservatives, say their message isn't getting out. They say only one side is being presented. Yet, public Black conservatives, rarely from what I've read and seen, present a side of the Black community that is functional, unless it is to slam "Black leaders."

I read Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, and many others. In their articles, you will even more rarely find mention of Blacks doing positive things. An exception is Gregory Kane from the Baltimore Sun but his articles there are not syndicated.

Why is a presentation of nothing but pathology when there is much more going on, NOT mental slavery?

[baldilocks]

"Comments like that is why Black conservatives catch so much hell."

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Donna B.]

"Why is a presentation of nothing but pathology when there is much more going on, NOT mental slavery?"

OK, that I understand. Please understand that am not trying to be obtuse, it's just that I've lost about 25 IQ points in the last few years... even a benign brain tumor takes its toll. :-)