Black In The City (Of Detroit)

Article: Being brown in a city of black and white. Growing up in biracial brothel shaped Detroit woman's view of race

DETROIT - In a city that would become famous for segregation, Linda Hutcherson’s early memories of her household in Detroit are of carefree times amid a pastiche of skin colors. She had loving parents — a black father and a white mother. Her own skin was the color of caramel, and her sister, Cheryl, just a shade lighter than wheat. There was a steady stream of black visitors to the house, and a group of resident white women — prostitutes, as Hutcherson would only learn much later.

“It was pure joy,” she said. “We grew up in a house full of blacks and whites. We didn’t realize anything was wrong in the world of color.”

But race tensions were simmering in the city, and their inevitable eruption eventually transformed Detroit into one of the nation’s most polarized urban areas. For Hutcherson, the change has been depressing and disorienting. The neighborhood of her childhood long ago fell to the bulldozers of urban renewal. And now, at 55, the Detroit native feels alienated in her black neighborhood, and cut off from the city’s white population.

“I can remember how the city got blacker and blacker," she said. "Areas that used to have white people eventually became all black. Now the whites that do come in shoot down the freeway from the suburbs, straight downtown to (their) offices and never have to deal with blacks.”

My Plan To Research The Key Reasons Why Black Drug Related Incarceration Is Disproportionately High

I know that it is against the standards of research to detail your assumed reason why a point of research is as it is. At the same time - I am not a professional researcher. This blog is only my hobby.

While I don't claim to be "balanced" I believe that I am "fair". My unbalance comes from the critical state that I see my community in and the power that the forces who would tend to oppose my views have in their entrenchment upon my people's consciousness. Fairness is a very different characteristic, however. Fairness, unlike balance is rooted in intellectual honesty. If I don't strive for fairness in discussing the issues at hand then I won't render a credible solution because I am not fully modeling the real world experience by leaving out all critical forces because of my ideological bias. Thus I would be no better than my ideological adversaries as I point out their lack of fairness in discussing that which impacts our community.

I am a consumer of news from many sources as I shape my opinions. I believe that I can render my opinion regarding what I believe is the reason why things are as they are based on all that I know rather than depending on the national numbers that point to a certain disproportion but does not speak to the underlying reasons why. In this situation RACISM is the universal catchall that is used to explain that which the facts don't club us over the head to indicate as the real culprit.

I will detail my plans for research in advance though.

It is my opinion that the reason why there are more Black people in jail serving time for drug crimes is because the "drug life" is fundamentally different between "White America" and "Black America". Rather than looking at the aggregate numbers and making a conclusion - it is important to look at the law enforcement and prosecution district and make note of the prevailing views on crime and drugs in that particular district. Certainly a district that is being "overrun" with drug use that is spilling over into crime, broken families and measurable impact on the communities is going to elicit a different police response as compared to a community that has stronger ties in the areas of law enforcement, civic and religious interdiction and plain ole financial resources that can be used to reach the drug addicted person before the law enforcement system does.

The cry of RACISM would hold most strong when you have one district (police, district attorney and judiciary circuit) with White and Black defendants being brought in on the very same charges yet having a fundamentally different set of outcomes take place with regard to their rate of conviction and sentencing.

As we move across political boundaries the link to straight up racism changes fundamentally. I will agree fully that the "conservative" ring city next to the "inner city" community who is aware of "those people" in the inner city - upon seeing the slightest sign that "those people" are attempting to bring their drug culture into this pristine city - they will likely apply racial prejudice in this manner. I am not saying that there is no racism embedded in these incarceration outcomes. It would be surprising if this was not the case. At the same time I don't believe that it is the straight up racism of the past where the judicial rulings have no logical explanation as it relates to due process.

The television series "American Gangster" on BET has been a phenomenal history lesson about our community and the impact that gangs and drugs have had on it from the late 60's to the present. This show has brought to life certain characters that have rose to the top of the game with respect to drug centered violence within our community. By no means were these single individuals the only individuals operating the drug machine within these communities. Instead they are evidence of the wide conspiracy and racketeering that had been going on in these communities during this time.

I have a recording of the "American Gangster" episode detailing the exploits of Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols playing in the background as I write this segment. Nichols was a big time crack dealer in the Queens New York City area during the late 1980's. His exploits were brought to national attention when he had a NYPD police officer assassinated while idly sitting in his police car. The two key points that this episode details better than the others is the fact that crack had destroyed many communities as it made people into "zombies" and that the violence that accompanied the drug distribution gang BOTH served to turn the microscope and heat up upon these specific communities. It is simply not possible to disconnect this justified attention from the law enforcement agencies from the drugs and violence that serve as the undercurrent for all of this. Only possible the gangland style killings by the Italian Mafia (and now I might add Mexican drug gangs) comes close to the systematic killings and drug related damage that has been done by these operatives within nearly every large Black community in America. Aside from possibly motor cycle gangs what other force had the same means of attracting attention for their violence that could be associated in the Anglo-American community?


METHODOLOGY

I will merge this drug incarceration research into a larger research project that I had already been working on. Currently I am working to compile a data base that could be called "Where do Black people live". This is a listing, by county of districts where African-Americans reside. Any county with a minimum of 50,000 African-Americans will be included on this list. I was originally going to focus on the vital statistics contained within these counties - income levels, employment rates, crime rates, and school quality. From there I am developing a standard formula to document the "Partisan Intensity" of that specific county to answer the question "how much Democratic or Republican representation is present to which these statistics - good or bad can be attributed to?". With this current question of drug arrests I will add these points of data onto the existing structure.

Again - my theory is that areas that are over run with drugs and violence prompt a different response from the police, judges and law makers. I will update this entry as my research progresses. I will allow the data to speak for itself - FAIRLY - one way or the other.

My goal is not to impugn my people. My goal is to make note that the need for INTERNAL, ORGANIC change has never been greater.

Managing Toward "Progressivism" For The Sake Of Progressivism

Consider this circular reference that I happened upon from an article published by the "CBC Watch" an organization that monitors the Congressional Black Caucus to bludgeon it and make sure that it remains on the far left of sanity:

Article: Just How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?

To be fair, CBC Monitor has not done a gender-based analysis of non-Black congresspersons' voting records. However, at least one study indicates that white women are more likely to win in more "liberal" congressional districts, while there is no discernable political difference among Black districts that elect males or females. If true, this is a strong indication that, in general, Black female congressional candidates will behave in a more progressive manner once in office than their male counterparts.

There is more to progressive behavior than just voting correctly on the House floor.

If there is a better case of circular reference - I would like to see it. CBC Monitor is insuring that the Congressional Black Caucus remains PROGRESSIVE. When has the CBC Monitor ever fully vetted the notion that WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY more "Progressivism" is going to solve our structural problems?

Without such a check, which is nothing more than a structured validation that your assumptions are true as they play out in our community, the mission will be to GET MORE PROGRESSIVES seated. You say we STILL have problems within our community years after conducting this strategy? No problem - GET EVEN MORE PROGRESSIVES - we don't have enough power yet and thus this is why we are failing to deliver. Oh and did I mention the RACISM that remains despite our increased power?

Let's be blunt. Anyone who agrees to apply this strategy upon the Black community's political advocacy deserves what they get in return as they have done everything necessary to obtain it. What are you complaining about?

This entire scheme is about managing toward the ideology that you came to the table with and enforcing it upon the Black community. These left wing pressure groups are little different than the right wing pressure groups that they often target as being bigoted and only interested in empowering their particular candidates rather than producing measurable results. They would no doubt argue that a "PROGRESSIVE" result is a "measurable result".

Let me expand the conversation so that I can show how their strategy is flawed. I have shown continuously that where Black people are concentrated the most - we are also represented by people who are favorable. The "progressive" politician is already seated except in rare instances. As Black people assume power in the population of certain areas and then take over the political seats the continued cry for "progressivism" folds in on itself. What once was a logical stance against that fire breathing conservative who you can blame for your school's performance because he did not provide you with the resources that you needed for the schools that are in the same district as the White dominated school.......is the same ideology that is present when the all liberal school board of your own choosing has assumed the seats that preside over your schools. The same raise hell and fight for JUSTICE strategy seems lost........YOU worked on the campaigns to get these people elected! What are the chances of and the logic behind you protesting against these same people? Of course not. But we are not done. Having secured this particular beach head in the way of Progressive Headcount they will make note that "now that we run things" we don't have the local economic resources to provide the benefits that the proverbial "Suburban school district" is able to provide. At no point will it be noted that your machine ALSO provoked any sane business who seeks not to have their revenues confiscated in taxes or lawsuits out of town OR the anti-Gentrification policies that you supported have also suppressed the home values from being expressed per the market price that the demand had warranted, thus your tax base growth has been squandered.....by YOU and your ideological bindings.

As a non-organic movement what is the next choice? Seek to boil the larger body of water that stands in their way. Rather than making note of how misaligned their ideologically laced polices are, they ask the people to stick with them as they expand their front. Those same people who figured that they would receive the benefit of having elected someone who "represents their best interests" in power over their local communities - have another thing coming. They will only get to see this benefit if they remain committed to the long run cause. Missing from the scrutiny will be the notation that when their adversaries held the seats they were at least able to generate a few schools of excellence while indeed suppressing equal distribution of resources based on race. Far too frequently, however, (and I have the school districts of Philadelphia and Clayton County GA in mind as I talk) there is a net drop across the boards after having new leadership put in place based on ideology and race rather than the delivery of services for the community.

To be clear - I DO NOT BLAME THE OPERATIVES. They are going to do what they do best - gain POWER through attrition and attacks. Ultimately it is the BLACK COMMUNITY itself that must be held accountable for being asleep at the wheel while these operatives have fused the notions of Black Best Interests in with that of a given ideology. Surely everyone has a right to do this. It is up to those who have the commitment to the former to demand that the operative PROVE THEIR CASE or get to stepping.

The problem is that at times representation for the sake of representation makes for the loss of direction. If you read the article the author makes the case that the "Progressives" have gender diversity in their ranks. Wait a minute - I thought that the purpose for these representatives was to make a demonstrable set of benefits for the people back at home? If the legislative body for a particular state was all women AND they showed notable material improvement for the districts back at home - which of these two attributes take the priority regarding their mission? No doubt certain points of diversity are valuable supplementary attributes. When they become the primary driver as that which should be primary is lost then it becomes problematic.

But its not that simple. If you notice the author of the piece makes the case that in Black liberal districts (are there anything but) FEMALES are prone to produce more "progressive" votes. This is yet another one off point of intermediation that is introduced, similar to the notion within the Black community that if we help the Democrats to win our Black community goals will be met. Indeed clear evidence has shown that we have done our part. The resulting benefits that were promised - remain elusive in many areas though.

Of course - we don't have enough progressives in power and once we do - the results will come pouring in - no doubt. Just wait and see and just keep voting.

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("And if a house divided (split into factions and rebelling) against itself, that house will not be able to last" Gospel of Mark, 3:25

How "Christian Liberal Progressive of you)

The Pact - Deliverance From Newark To New Ark

"The Pact" Movie Web Site Link

Now this is what I am talking about!

The documentary called "The Pact" was recently shown on my local PBS station. It gives an overview of 3 young Black males growing up on the streets of Newark NJ who resolved to become doctors thus breaking a cycle that proved to be a death spiral for too many young people in their situation.

The film is great because it did a good job balancing the accomplishments that they had attained with specific details of what they had to overcome as well as what they continue to deal with while remaining in Newark.

I took away a very different conclusion than what others might have. The typical response is to look at these 3 Black males and say "they are special and are deserving of praise for they are of the few that made it through the bricks". I can't accept this way of thinking. For me I saw the high costs of this particular community remaining as it is. The fact that these 3 accomplished Black males have made it while others have been crushed by the internal vortex who's friction can wear down the most hearty of inhabitants is indicative of the need for CHANGE WITHIN. The cost of not changing, therefore, is the fact that hundreds of thousands of young people will never blossom to their full potential.

Consider these 2 medical doctors and one dentist. All of them are working to provide medical and dental services back to their own communities. All of them are working as mentors of some sort, seeking to guide young aspiring medical professionals or talking to young students in general so that the seemingly giant leap that they face from where they stand over to where they want to be can be plotted out in small steps.

I must apply my personal framework of proportionality and comprehensiveness to make the case that these 3 men alone cannot be expected to be the primary force for change in a city that contains several hundred thousand people. Instead the script must be flipped. The community, seeking a higher standard in living for most must begin to ENFORCE certain standards which have proven to be in their community best interests. Over time and with proper management that which is the rare exception will become closer to the rule.

The challenge remains for many poor and Black communities around the nation - seek to bring the yolk of your community consciousness WITHIN. Seek to have the end results that you seek be the results of your work to sculpt them more than your ability to articulate what you have a RIGHT to access from the greater society. Do this and you have 90% of the problem solved right there. You will begin to put the exceptions in check because they will be the ones most threatening to your order rather than the rare among you who have made it.

Arbitrariness

As I was thinking about a series of verbal jousting matches that I had today with the usual suspects I evaluated the names that they were calling me and their commentary about my arguments. I was called an "Intellectual Lightweight" by one person who I was introduced to a while back. After having looked at his reply on one blog that struck me as curious - I clicked through to his blog site and then was made to understand exactly what I was dealing with as I tried to follow his rationale.

For me being called names just goes with the territory. Most Black people who dare to disagree are attacked and thus - just as in slavery times - when one person is made an example of the others are made to more easily fall in line. (I hate slave references when other people make them. I guess I am being intellectually lazy now).

The name calling doesn't bother me. I would much rather be proven an "intellectual lightweight" by having someone pull apart my voluminous postings and point out exactly where I am wrong. I don't claim to be always right but I do value doing research so that my views are not just "pulled out of my azz" as so many people who enjoy the company of fellow travelers live by.

I have always argued as I participate in the swarm of the beehives that I enter that by attacking me but allowing your intellectual soul mates to make bogus and specious arguments you are not helping him to become strong. He is going to attempt to use his craft of argument in a less friendly environment and be pummeled in the process. On the other hand - years of debating "my friends" in hostile forums have made me a better debater. (I will add "in my own mind" just to blunt any self-aggrandizement that might appear to be present).

Over the weekend I was standing in a circle of Black men. We were talking about general things. I went to get a piece of fruit and when I returned they were talking about politics. I do not like to talk about politics in public (surprising isn't it?). I did my normal thing. Shut up and listen and allow their conversation to flow as it naturally would without me. Then they just got too deep. Everything was Bush and the Republicans - the gas prices, the mortgage problems, the schools. I have to thank all of my friends who have previously slung at me what some of these guys threw my way. After going back and forth on various subjects the big issue became that conservatives in Georgia seek to have so many small governments so that they can have their own control that it becomes inefficient. I broke the circle up when I stated that "WAL-MART believes the very same thing about the inefficiency of all of these Mom and Pop stores that are around, but only able to service a small portion of a shopper's over all need. Thus they are seeking to CONSOLIDATE the retain market. You do agree with what they are doing since you want consolidated governments, RIGHT?". This got the crowd laughing saying "Oh you got him" and then we all disbursed.

This all leads me to why I posted the picture above. It shows the popular lynching photo in which the band of White supremacists are gawking at the sight of two Black men who were "taught their lesson". As you see Bill and Hillary Clinton have been added to the picture per their treatment of Barack Obama in the intramural fight between Democrats. To those who live by the rules of "arbitrariness" the "Republification" of Hillary Clinton makes their job easier. Rather than having any specific type of framework by which to make their arguments or evaluations from - they resort to standard one liner images that the consumer of their message will quickly "get". "Hillary Clinton is the Republican Running Against Barack Obama". I have to admit that upon the post impeachment walk that the Congressional Black Caucus made with Bill Clinton and after hearing Bernice King, MLK's daughter saying "
Leave OUR president alone" I never would have imagined that the very same people who applied the black shoe polish to Bill Clinton's face and handed him his soul card would be the same ones to Photoshop a picture of a lynching - adding an image of Bill and Hillary Clinton to the photo.

Recall - as these same people have reminded us so over the last few years - Bill Clinton had a 68% PUBLIC APPROVAL RATING. (A measure of POPULARITY of course.) We all know how tenuous "popularity" can be - that rock solid measure of performance. I wonder if their claim "the world now HATES America has any positioning on bedrock either?

Circling back around - when one bases their judgments on a given target on an almost exclusively arbitrary set of measures it there any surprise that their enemies will come out as runts and their friends who amplify their own biases come out as "intellectual heavyweights"?

This is why I have tried to craft a certain framework for my criticisms of the operatives that are abundantly around us: Our schools, our streets, our business districts, our health. That is not to say that some people will do "jury nullification" on the critical inspection of how they have benefited in these specific areas but at least with this structure in mind - when it all collapses in the future after having followed the wrong course they can remember that they were warned in a systematic way but chose not to take heed.

At the same time I reject the attempts by academics to use that crap called "peer review" meaning that if a fellow academic has not reviewed your thoughts - the fact that you have placement outside of academia renders your opinions moot. This is the primary monopoly tactics used by those who have their thoughts honed by Pell Grant funding rather than real life experience that is staring them in the face showing their errors.

For me - if someone can detail their methodology and process of reasoning as to how they have come to a certain end point in the argument I am more proned to assign credibility to their viewpoint even if I don't agree with them. I, for example, see Link TV and also Amy Goodman in such a light. I frequently watch their content and find it rather enjoyable. I don't agree with their conclusions because no doubt I am going to add preference to my country where I rest my heard every night rather than abstract this notion with the belief that I am attempting to make every person in the world have equal footing.

Truth be told - in so many cases despite their CLAIMS to have more interests in the state of every being in the world rather than any provincial interests specific to the United States - when you inspect many of their views regarding their concerns for the state of the American worker in the global economy their desire to revert back to the way things used to be is proof positive of their arbitrary nature. This was a time in which American imperialism and capitalism had secured the very stability that they long to return one day.

When you are nearly 100% arbitrary you can indeed have this wish come true but not note the vacation from your previous position against imperialism.

Debating Against An Abstract Theoriest

Please listen to this audio clip. Play particular attention to the 2.09 mark on the audio. This is when Rose Braz, campaign director of Critical Resistance begins to speaks.

Audio Clip: NPR's News & Notes - Companies Cashing in on People's Prison Stripes?

Ms. Braz speaks in a way that most frustrates me regarding what can be heard among left wing extremists.

She says "Other than private prisons Slavery is the only institution that derives its profits solely off of denying people of their right to freedom."

Given who we are locking up in this country, which is poor people of color then the prison system today have to be the key racial justice struggle we face"

"If a prison system was really about rehabilitation, the goal of that system then should be to work itself out of business."

I will admit it. Liberals are more descent human beings than the rest of us.......in their own minds that is.

All of these comments above are incredibly naive or stupid - depending on how politically correct one chooses to be.

First this lady equates the prison system to slavery with respect to the denial of a person's 'right to freedom'. Would someone venture to ask this woman if she believes that anyone should be locked up in any prison, anywhere as punishment for their decision to break the laws of this country? Thus the entire concept of "denying someone's right to freedom is really the debate at hand? A person who "got it" would make note that all Americans have their right to freedoms protected. Upon violating societal trust then the government is inclined to step in and remove them from society for a certain period of time. I wonder if Ms. Braz believes that the assault or killing of innocent Americans by a criminal represents a denial of their freedom by the criminal and what she would do about it?

Secondly she makes the case that since a disproportionate amount of people who are being incarcerated today are among the poor and minority that this is a civil rights issue that must be addressed. I ask that Ms. Braz bring in the MINORITY VICTIMS who live in the communities that are either in fear or destroyed by the antics of those who have violated the law as a counter balance to her abstract theory.

She says further that private prisons are a direct descendant to the practices of selling prison labor which itself descended from slavery. Once again she willfully perverts the role of these private prisons. These firms are providing a service that augments the government's ability to handle such a task in their own facilities. Where as the operation of the government owned facilities is represented as a line item on the state budget - it is a gross perversion of logic to then conclude that by sending individuals over to a private prison for detention within the confines of their being found guilty and then sentenced to a certain amount of time in detention.

Recently I debated another person regarding the fantasy surrounding the differences between government workers constructing airport runways and water control levees as compared to having private firms that have been contracted by the government to do so. At the end of the day - one's ideological biases defines the differences in views.

To be clear - the ruling that an American citizen should be held in detention is only the right of the government. This power must be closely guarded and open to inspection by the traditional system of checks and balances. As we specifically talk about the function of detention of these individuals as their sentences are carried out I demand that this only be done with close oversight by the government authorities that have "outsourced" the detention of these individuals to a certified private firm. I ask that there always be a government official on hand to monitor the operation to insure that it is up to par with the preexisting standards. In summary - as long as these firms are operating under the AUTHORITY of the government agency and up to the STANDARDS as set forth by the government agency then there is no magical state that is achieved in being locked up in a government owned facility or a certified private firm.

Lastly Ms. Braz says that a prison system should have the goal of working itself out of business. This statement actually pissed me off as being so idealized and ridiculous that she should be ashamed of stating it publicly. Let's logically walk through the process.

A person has been alleged to have broken the law. He is detained by the law enforcement authority. He is given a trial by a jury of his peers. He is found guilty. He is sentenced by the judicial authority. The judiciary authority turns this person over to the state correctional authority to hold this person in detention for a given term. As we apply Ms. Braz's standard to the last step - could someone tell me how the correctional authority can stop the judicial authority from sending new inmates to them and thus fullfil their idealized goal?

Let's back up a bit. Can the government as a whole serve out the goal to put the correctional facilities out of business? Around the world there are examples of this - the entire society becomes a repressed, prison-like environment that being inside of a cell or outside in public is only an incidental difference in terms. Fortunately this country has not traveled down this path - yet.

Other than this - the government could choose to not enforce its own laws or they could water down all of the punitive responses to the violations of law that the virtual effect of what Ms. Braz discusses is achieved.

Please note that Ms. Braz and other liberally inclined individuals who stand where she stands on the ideological continuum do not ask THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY who is seeking to produce a different societal outcome to do anything in particular to bring forth this improved condition. Her plan is focused almost exclusively on THE GOVERNMENT and what they need to do to bring this environment forth upon the people.

I can imagine that Ms. Braz envisions that the government will provide the social programs, the counseling, the redistributed resources - necessary to bring forth this wonderful environment.

But wait - Ms. Braz - what about those who commit a HATE CRIME during this Utopian period in our time of existence? Will you allow these people who were motivated by HATRED to maintain their freedoms or will they said to be a victim of their environ just the same. A mental reorientation program could correct them from their hateful thoughts, no doubt.

I am obliged to ask Ms. Braz what I have learned to be an effective reality check on their theories: "Would you point to one particular country around the world that most closely approximates the conditions that you speak of so favorably?"

Diversity

For my purposes left wing journalist Bill Moyers is a worthy example of how the Black community will be fully serviced......as long as we maintain our inferior position and he gets to advocate on our behalf. For Moyers we are "poor, ignorant and under-resourced". We are all caught up in the system of Corporate controlled, Right Wing, Republican configuration in society. We are shut out at the edges and in the narrative of Moyers and other White liberals (and sadly too many BQPFRCs) - it was designed as such and there is nothing that we can do about it unless we fight to change the system. We fight these external fights more than we ever work to manage the internal human resources that they might change for the better. Instead we must spread the system's "wealth" among all using government power rather than developing schemes to have people voluntarily take the money out of their wallets and giving it to us in exchange for something of VALUE to them that we have as part of the exchange. Instead, Moyers operates in the currency of "the commonwealth". The value of "feeding the Blacks" is because society needs to show that it sees us as 'humans'. No particular ask of the Black to show our humanity and our equality though.

On the latest episode of "Bill Moyers Journal" there was a review of the high stakes fight for the Supreme Court and how this presidential election is an important component of this. Indeed the 4 conservatives on the court represent a threat to the nation and indeed to minorities that we Blacks are. And, as expected Justice Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer where shining examples of judicial acumen. They are attuned to the importance that the law plays in shaping the society that we WANT TO BE.

Moyers had Jeffrey Tubin, legal analyst for CNN on the show confirming the views of Moyers. Moyers teed up the conversation with a notation about how beyond the prima facia meaning of judicial rulings found in the written words - we must focus upon the broader impact that result from these rulings in the real world.

Thus the word "Diversity" was thrown out as being road kill on the winding road that the conservative jurists have brought upon us. Moyers and Tubin pointed to last year's Supreme Court ruling which denied allowing school districts to establish voluntary school desegregation plans for the sake of DIVERSITY. For these two - diversity is a qualitative value for society. This sounds good so far. After all - we can't have these "Blacks in a community all by themselves" - violence, chaos and ignorance will reign". It pains me, however, that our people so often prove Moyers and Jonathan Kozol to be masters in their analysis of us as a people. A few years ago Moyers did a documentary of the negative impact of having Black government ruling Zimbabwe. The previously stable nation of Botswana was destabilized from the large influx of immigrants. Certain Moyers is no stranger to the damage that Negroes who are unsupervised can do to themselves.

Remember that Moyers challenged us to consider the broader impact of court rulings? I wish to do the same regarding the notion of "diversity". I am not opposed to diversity. Having different people to understand others who are different indeed expands a person's ability to deal with people, cultivating their understanding that we are pretty much the same at the human level beyond what our skin color presents us as to the world. I grew up in a diverse high school 25 years ago.

As I fast forward today, however, the modern state of the high school that I graduated from speaks volumes regarding the "unspoken assumptions" that don't appear in the official text of the DIVERSITY plan. My high school is no longer diverse. All of the White folks have moved out of the neighborhood and now the school and the community around it is all Black. In returning home to this part of Philadelphia after being gone for so long I am unnerved as to the absolute and complete change that has taken place. The areas where we were once chased by White boys now has Black folks on the corners.

I am forced to make the conclusion that with White folks - when they say DIVERSITY - they are speaking of BLACK FOLKS going into a WHITE DOMINATED environment rather than having a parallel and equal exchange. Simply put - the average White person IS NOT going to come into a Black dominated environment - especially to receive an education. (the fact that Morehouse College just had their first White validictorian is noted. He is but one.) In their minds and, sadly on too many report cards and school evaluation studies - such a move will be a net degradation from where they stand right now. As with any human being they are seeking to optimize their individual and group postion.

For me as a person with a "strong-black" bias (similar to a "Strong Dollar" policy) I reject the notion that the best way for a Black student to get an education is to sit next to a White person. This is a fundamental PERVERSION of the assumption of our own EQUALITY. Believe me through the strong presence of "Non-White White Supremacy" among our own people these policies prove POPULAR among Black people. A Black person can get attacked for daring to tell Black people that we are in fact equal and with EQUALITY comes the need for us as a people to EXPRESS THIS ATTRIBUTE VIA OUR OWN ACTIONS as well as asking the society to show us that IT THINKS that we are equal.

The basic flaw of the Diversity Movement as it stands today is that there is no firm balance of trade. Indeed Blacks receive a quality education because they go to a White school - a solid benfit. Whites, on the other hand receive the soft benefit of being exposed to the humanity of Black people that now sit next to them rather than appear on their television screen.

A second major flaw of the Diversity Movement is what I call the failure to size one's "Friends and Family Plan" around the proper population. Indeed the drive is to include the entire nation as being members. For Black people this includes people who don't want to be around us. But just as Charles Barkley demonstrates to Dwayne Wade in the current "T-Mobile Cellular" commerical - we are going to call upon you whether you like it or not because you are in my plan - the same is the case among those who promote diversity over substance in the balance of trade.

A more equal exchange of VALUE is required for Diversity to be truely effective. Absent this there will be a requirement for the third party agent of the government to step in and force those who use their democratic right to relocate elsewhere if they choose to NOT do so if they are attempting to evade forced members of the "Friends and Family Plan". As with Hate Crimes Laws - the motivation behind an action trumps the common end result of two different actions. How far off are we from government engineered housing settlments that accomplish THEIR goals for diversity - or "balance" in their narrative?

Superior to the attempt to try and get Black kids sitting next to White kids is for us as a people to work on the environments where WE are the majority and insure that only the highest standards of individual behavior and accomplishment is maintained. Keep in mind that those who are loathed to implement such a "conservative" environment where uniformity and the rule of law are advanced over individual freedom will quickly point to the lack of RESOURCES that the current system provides which prevent them from producing an EQUAL environment to that of the White folks. Flaw: Who said that White folks have to be the key reference?

After having defined your own standards and goals - if they are high enough then you only need to focus your people on these home grown standards and then developing the ECONOMIC SYSTEM that stands behind it to feed it the nutrition that it requires. You will begin to see that the aggregate spending of your people is the primary funding source for your goals. If you indeed focus on the MEMBERS AT WILL in your friends and family plan and impress upon them the importance of utilizing those resources that they control to their maximum benefit THEN the group can achieve far more success at their own hands than the alternative of focusing on boling the ocean where fundamental societal change is attempted.

The Black Community Is Infiltrated w/ Leftwing Activists V - The NAACP Crisis Magazine 2008 Edition

I purchased a copy of "The Crisis" Magazine. This venerable magazine appears to be the print oracle of the NAACP this despite the caption in the editor's note page stating "The opinions expressed in The Crisis do not necessarily reflect the views of the NAACP". I heard that before - back in 2000 when the NAACP established the "NAACP Voter Education Fund" as a means to channel money used to insure a Democratic victory by having Black folks registered to vote and thus do as they all knew that Black folks would do. The Education Fund was a mere formality to allow the NAACP to remain complaint with the federal rules regarding the requirement that they remain non-partisan. Despite this they felt comfortable to lend the name of the organization and the leadership to this new organization. Thus as former Democratic elected officials at the helm they could accomplish their goals for the Democrats using the infrastructure that the organization had in place.

For some background - I have set out to consume materials that express the viewpoints that are at odds with my own. I find it much more intellectually simulating to watch LinkTV or to read the International Socialist Review (ISR) review than to stay nuzzled into listening to radio talk shows or other "right leaning" media sources as I already know their line of thinking. I have learned more about the Democratic Party's treatment of Black folks from the ISR magazine which is to the far left of the party than I will EVER, EVER, EVER expect to hear from a Black person who is an operative within the party, not wanting to place his race above his party loyalties, fearing that he might cause them to lose....and then us Black folks to lose per his brainwashed condition of having fused the interests of the Democrats with our interests as Black people.

I promise to address some of the other articles in Winter 2008 edition of the The Crisis which I thoroughly enjoyed and thought were well written, quality pieces. However I could not pass up reading the featured commentaries which included the one woman who can assuredly make me scream other than the late Phyllis Hyman. In the case of Ms. Hyman because of her voice and lyrics. In the case of Julianne Malveaux because of years of listening to her commentaries on the radio and newspapers due to massive frustration with her cherry picking line of reasoning.

The cover of the magazine and thus the commentary that I will point to is titled "What Should We Do Now? Ten Black Thinkers Share Ideas About The Future"

Before I go deeper into my analysis let us create a framework by which to MEASURE the appropriateness of the responses that I will highlight. This will allow for my critical analysis to be something other than yet another 'attack piece'. I hope to use this fair measuring stick to determine if the respondee actually answered the question or if they just simply used it to spout rhetoric.

"What Should WE Do Now?"
WE and DO!
These are the two operative words.
For me and my understanding when I hear "we" I am prone to hear an organic movement that is most dependent upon our own efforts rather than those of someone else to carry us through.
When I hear "DO" I hear certain distinct and prescriptive actions which again fall upon BLACK PEOPLE ourselves rather than someone working on BEHALF OF BLACK PEOPLE. The classical "raining resources down upon the 'unwashed' so that they might grow - is NOT what I have heard. I have little doubt that some others who are not so inclined to think this way. Indeed - additional advocacy on BEHALF OF BLACK PEOPLE is what is required today because there are forces greater than us working against us. We thus must change the system. Fair point. Let's continue.

The Crisis further noted a body of work done in 1944 by historian Rayford Logan in which he asked Black folks to explain "what the negro wants". The conclusion was unanimously reached that the negro wants "equal rights" for Black people. I take it that my differences with the contributors might simply be a matter of our disagreements on the question of WHO is to EXPRESS he "Equality of Black people"? Is this done by government working to clear our way? What about having Black people to EXPRESS our own equal measure of our manhood and humanity by first accepting some of the concepts that we are not popularly inclined to support because they go against our prevailing sentiments but they produce that which we judge our "1.0" reference point per the National Urban League "State of Black America" report upon - the White folks. Might it be more logical to acknowledge that you are indeed a 0.75 but in doing so you have maintained your dignity because that extra 0.25 percent is not worth you selling your soul over? Indeed it is more complicated than what the face value suggests.

Back to our review though. I will only cover those of the 10 individuals who I thought gave rather peculiar answers per the question. First up is Makani Themba-Nixon who is executive director of Praxis Project in Washington DC. First Mrs. Nixon points out the fact that it is popular to hold Black people ourselves accountable for our current failures, many of which are self inflicted wounds she comments. Then she goes on to make the case that these are views largely held by Black folks who "speak for and about us" but who are "deeply immersed in White institutions". She makes the case that these people have more relative influence among WHITES but little base of connection to Black people. WOW.

As a result of this there is a great amount of pessimistic discourse that renders the impact of WHITE SUPREMACY invisible. She asks us to recognize the past and how it shapes our present. I must quote the next segment:

Imagine a different discourse of faith in our humanity; of recognition of the past and how it still shapes our present. Imagine communities gaining strength from the stories of slavery and resistance; neighborhoods understanding how freeways were built to evicerate itm most-thriving communities; how the continued struggle to vote, to get value for our tax dollars, are part of the everyday obstacles of structural racism.

Imagine a public conversation that illuminates the systems of White supremacy as a problem the world must address - not punishment for a people gone astray. Such a focus would point to new frameworks for equity, for redistributing resources and repairing the harm of the past. It would also help us to build a healthy foundation for genuine transformation in the future.

Let's see. Where do I start?
I am struggling to understand how one chooses to GROW STRONG as a community by detailing slave rebellions and the fights against freeways but fail to centrally focus on on what we did during the tens of thousands of years BEFORE WE WERE ENSLAVED OR COLONIZED AS A PEOPLE during which time we truly were strong and also independent. It seems that not only strength but also the associated responsibilities that go along with being independent while achieving your societal goals must be fused together.

This type of reasoning is yet another "Boil the ocean before we can expect to see benefits for our community" type of approach that I commented upon after seeing the rebroadcast of the Tavis Smiley commemoration of the Brown V Board decision. It laid the groundwork for Blacks to continue to back a certain ideology in the political domain but refrain from demanding results as this machine grabbed more power over us - as you know - we STILL hadn't taken over the world yet and thus the resource distribution is still out of alignment. Don't "hate on me for failing, join with me as we depart from this current plateau that we now dominate to scale up to the next plateau. We need to be unified". The desire of all leaders is it grab power and eschew accountability. The mindset featured in this article seeks to do this very thing for the machine that now dominates Black America.

We will grow stronger as a people if we are able to start at the base level and develop a system that works for us on a small scale and then is able to expand outward - the key components of a balanced society intact - educational services, law enforcement services, economic development/employment services, health & lifestyle services being provisioned as close to home as possible. This will EMPLOY OUR OWN PEOPLE in pursuit of providing these services and will have us to develop the ECONOMIC UNDERPINNINGS necessary to finance this as well as the EDUCATIONAL discipline that has the maximum amount of our people employed to provide these services.

Let me back up and revert back to my framework. Did the following passage detail what BLACK PEOPLE (we) MUST DO or did it more successfully detail how WE must work to transform the SYSTEM that is all around us? This is nothing more than a call for advocacy against the existing institutions rather than a prescription for how to make the ones that we currently control work for us.

I cannot accept the strategy as detailed by Mrs. Nixon. It proves to be more of the same. We have followed this pathway for at least the past 40 years. We need more directed, inward efforts to transform Black people into being the primary actors who will PRIMARILY OPERATE the system that we now have, not the goal to focus upon the global super-structure. The dependency is put upon this super-structure to change when in fact it is already changing in front of our eyes. African-Americans, not being positioned properly to take advantage of the distributed power that is shaping before our eyes proves to be a bigger threat.

I also find her analysis about "White influenced Blacks". On the surface she says that Blacks who have a "connection with the Black community" are the most desirable than these Blacks who sound like Whites. Please don't be fooled. I have talked extensively about the great debate between POPULARITY versus EFFECTIVENESS. With this as the case Mrs. Nixon would have us to make sure we "Get in where we fit in" and not challenge the thoughts and assumptions of the masses. I reject this. There are times when the balance of the whole have thoughts and actions while don't work toward our stated common goals. In seeing this but not making note of this - you are working against our best interests. The fact of the matter is that some people prefer the power that they have within the "Popular Black perspective" rather than a threatened loss of power by putting our people on the right track - with respect to our common goals.

Let us road test this theory using my analysis which assumes that the Conspiracy Theorist believes what they say. Clearly Mrs. Nixon promotes "connected Blacks" over White influenced Blacks. If we apply this to Affirmative Action academics and employment then indeed the Black culture to be had at Fisk University, for example would be preferred to the lofty and elite settings of lily White Princeton University using this theory. Why then is there such a scramble in the civil rights community for Blacks to "be connected" with this White elite institution of Princeton while Fisk is in financial straits? Why would Mrs. Nixon and others allow the many Blacks who matriculate into corporate America after graduation with an undergraduate degree or with a fresh new business school MBA? Indeed they are going to be molded to think "White". This can't be good for the Black community, right? Certainly they are going to come back to the community with "funny thoughts in mind", trying to apply their White boy connected tactics onto us Black folks. Clearly we need to set up a protest out side of the Ivy League schools and University of Michigan - not for Affirmative Action admissions but instead to block Black students from receiving "White indoctrination".

In all seriousness the threat of this type of rhetoric is that it never inspects the POPULAR SENTIMENT WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY for its efficacy in taking us to where we need to be. It is interesting how on the one had Mrs. Nixon talks about our slave past. Clearly some elements of our culture of today was derived from our Slave experience of the past. Why are these seen as sentimental (or music for example) and desirous rather than evaluated for its applicability toward our current mission? How is it that what was learned in slavery is any more permanent than what was learned from our 10,000 year freedom and self-sufficiency before slavery? It is clear that this is an arbitrary mandate (Black connectedness) which promotes the power of the masses over any particular notion of having this mass align with a greater goal. As a thinking person I prefer to get connected with what I have rationalized to be most connected with a fully developed mind and then work to change others (and myself) via my interactions with them. Mrs. Nixon's version would have us to be subordinate to the common cause. I can't do that. Those with current standing and who can manipulate the masses are sure to continue in their unchallenged mode. It is the Black community who loses in this case. We need to have a framework to evaluate the common strategy and then no individuals feelings get hurt because "it's not all about them".

I have decided that instead of doing one long blog entry for whatever subset of the 10 that I will chose to use that instead I will review possibly 2 at a time in subsequent entries.

The key CHANGE that we need to make is with respect to our bondage to the PAST rather than an achievable plan for future actions with the LOGISTICS of the plan finely detailed including what BLACK PEOPLE must do as the primary agent for our own salvation.

Anti-Immigrant Riots In South Africa - The Same Fundamental Issues As The Unskilled Worker In America

Article: South African army called onto streets for first time since Apartheid to end anti-foreigner violence

More than 10,000 Mozambicans have fled home from South Africa to escape anti-foreigner violence that has killed at least 42 people and left more than 30,000 homeless.

Their escape comes as President Thabo Mbeki ordered the armed forces to quell the unrest for the first time in the country since the end of Apartheid.

The most horrifying aspect of the violence has been the return of necklacing, the appalling method of killing which involves putting a petrol-filled tyre around a victim's neck and setting it ablaze.

In the violent 1980s and 1990s, necklacing was a common sentence imposed by 'people's courts' on collaborators with the apartheid regime and criminals.

It was frequently carried out in the name of the now-ruling African National Congress and was alleged to have been endorsed by Nelson Mandela's then wife, Winnie.

Now necklacing is being used against Zimbabweans and Mozambicans who have fled violence and poverty in their own countries.

In another article the "liberal immigration" policy of the ANC lead South African Government is a component of the problem but of course the policies that have destroyed the economy of Zimbabwe have lead to the conditions in which the Zimbabweans have streamed across the border to South African and Botswana.

At the end of the day the unskilled labor coming into S.A. is competing for the jobs that unskilled South Africans are performing. Just as the ANC in South Africa are unwilling to "go right" as they choose to protect their entire nation rather than continue to accommodate the effects of Robert Mugabe. South Africa's Mbeki is unwilling to publically criticize Mugabe and thus is partially complicit in the series of events that have lead up to the situation in his own country.

I get the strange sense that this controversy will hit the shores of America as the Humanitarian Left and the Business Class right who have allowed illegals to stream across our borders in an unchecked fashion provide the similar ingredients.

Obama Supports Sanctions Against Iran, Others As A "Stick"

Article: Obama's Speech To A Jewish Group

In his speech to a Jewish group Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama made the case that as president he would support a "carrot and stick" approach to foreign nations that are hostile to the United States. He expressly said that he would use UN SANCTIONS as a means of containing these nations.

Let us go back into history and focus on some information that is not popular to talk about with regard to the POLICIES in Iraq prior to the war that was initiated by George W. Bush. At minimum one can conclude that Sanctions are nothing more than a "clean hands" approach of achieving the same deadly approach that war provides. But hey.....At least no AMERICANS will die with sanctions and thus we won't have to worry about their long term health care bills costing $3 trillion.

Here is a history lesson for those who are interesting:

IRAQ SANCTIONS

United Nations sanctions against Iraq were imposed by the United Nations and the United States in 1990 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and continued until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. They were perhaps the toughest, most comprehensive sanctions in history, and have caused much controversy over the humanitarian impact, culminating with two senior UN representatives in Iraq resigning in protest of the sanctions

On August 6, 1990 the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed stringent economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade embargo, excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the Security Council sanctions committee. After the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi sanctions were linked to removal of Weapons of mass destruction by Resolution 687. [3]

The United Nations economic sanctions were imposed at the urging of the U.S. to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The New York Times stated: "By making life uncomfortable for the Iraqi people, [sanctions] would eventually encourage them to remove President Saddam Hussein from power." [4] In as much as the economic sanctions were designed to topple Saddam they were a failure. However, most research stated that the sanctions caused the deaths of many, many Iraqi children and others for health-related reasons owing to disease from lack of clean water from banning of chlorine, lack of medicine, impoverishment, and other factors.

THE RESULTS

The modern Iraqi economy had been highly dependent on oil exports: In 1989, the oil sector comprised 61% of the GNP. A major drawback of this over-dependence has been the narrowing of the economic base during the last three decades, with the agricultural sector rapidly declining in the 1970s. So some claim that the post-1990 sanctions had a particularly devastating effect on Iraq’s economy and food security levels of the population.[7]

Shortly after the sanctions were imposed, the Iraqi government developed a system of free food rations comprising of 1000 calories per person/day or 40% of the daily requirements, which an estimated 60% of the population relied on for a vital part of their sustenance. With the introduction of the Oil-for-Food Programme in 1997, this situation gradually improved. In May 2000 a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) survey noted that almost half the children under 5 years suffered from diarrhoea, in a country where the population is marked by its youth, with 45% being under 14 years of age in 2000. Power shortages, lack of spare parts and insufficient technical know-how lead to the breakdown of many modern facilities.[7]

The overall literacy rate in Iraq had been 78% in 1977 and 87% for adult women by 1985, but declined rapidly since then. Between 1990 and 1998, over one fifth of Iraqi children stopped enrolling in school, consequently increasing the number of non-literates and losing all the gains made in the previous decade. The 1990s also saw a dramatic increase in child labor, from a virtually non-existent level in the 1980s. The per capita income in Iraq dropped from $3510 in 1989 to $450 in 1996, heavily influenced by the rapid devaluation of the Iraqi dinar.[7]

Iraq had been one of the few countries in the Middle East that invested in women’s education. But this situation changed from the late eighties on with increasing militarisation and a declining economic situation. Consequencently the economic hardships and war casualties in the last decades have increased the number of women-headed households and working women.[7]

Some researchers say that over a million Iraqis, disproportionately children, died as a result of the sanctions, [8] although other estimates have ranged as low as 170,000 children. [6] [9] [10] UNICEF announced that 500,000 child deaths have occurred as a result of the sanctions.[11] The sanctions resulted in high rates of malnutrition, lack of medical supplies, and diseases from lack of clean water. Chlorine, was desperately needed to disinfect water supplies, but it was banned from the country due to the potential that it may be used as part of a chemical weapon. On May 10, 1996, Madeleine Albright (U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations at the time) appeared on 60 Minutes and was confronted with statistics of half a million children under five having died as a result of the sanctions. She replied "we think the price is worth it", though in her 2003 autobiography she wrote of her response (answering a loaded question):[12][13]

I should have answered the question by reframing it and pointing out the inherent flaws in the premise behind it. … I had fallen into a trap and said something that I simply did not mean. That is no one’s fault but my own.[14]

Denis Halliday was appointed United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Baghdad, Iraq as of 1 September 1997, at the Assistant Secretary-General level. In October 1998 he resigned after a 34 year career with the UN in order to have the freedom to criticise the sanctions regime, saying "I don't want to administer a programme that satisfies the definition of genocide"[15] However Sophie Boukhari a UNESCO Courier journalist reports that "Some legal experts are skeptical about or even against using such terminology." and quotes Mario Bettati (who invented the notion of "the right of humanitarian intervention") "People who talk like that don’t know anything about law. The embargo has certainly affected the Iraqi people badly, but that’s not at all a crime against humanity or genocide." and reports that William Bourdon the secretary-general of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues said "one of the key elements of a crime against humanity and of genocide is intent. The embargo wasn’t imposed because the United States and Britain wanted children to die. If you think so, you have to prove it."[16]

Halliday's successor, Hans von Sponeck, subsequently also resigned in protest, calling the effects of the sanctions a "true human tragedy"[17]. Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Program in Iraq, followed them.

WHERE IS THE INTELLECTUAL CONSISTENCE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HATE WAR BUT ARE SILENT ABOUT THE IMPACT OF SANCTIONS?

My Conversation With A White Man Who Had A Thomas Sowell Book

There I was in the airport, having departed a meeting in which I assisted the big corporate conglomerate that I work for to advance the "corporate-tocracy" that we live in. (I just watched a Bill Moyers speech on inequality and the rise of the Religious Right Corporate class - so you must excuse me). As I looked for a seat in the airport to return home I chose to sit next to a White man who cleared the seat of its wrinkled newspapers so that I could sit down next to him.

As I pulled out my laptop to catch up on the various online discussions that I participate in I looked to the side and noticed that he was reading the book by Sowell. I was not going to pass up this opportunity to inspect his thoughts on the subject. After all Thomas Sowell is a Black man. Since as a Black Conservative his detractors in the community of Black Quasi-Socialist Progressive-Fundamentalist Racism Chasers claim that he writes his books for White folks rather than Black (though I enjoy his books as well) I thought that it would be interesting to hear this man's perspective.

I asked him "So what do you think about that book?". He told me that he is a big fan of Dr. Thomas Sowell and agrees with his analysis on many issues. He told me that in this particular book Sowell walks through several common positions held by various people that are bound by a particular ideology and then examines how these ideological proclivities determine the policies that they are likely to support. Let me get his summation correct - he said "liberals assume that all men are worthy and that society must protect them from the forces that threaten them while conservatives believe that people should be bound to a certain set of cultural and institutional values as a means of having them express their full value". I may have mangled his exact words a bit but he said something like this.

He further told me that if there was one person which he could spend 30 minutes talking to, Professor Sowell would be on this short list. In reading his books he felt that he also got to know Sowell and his life story. I later found out that this White man was a college professor and that he indeed considered himself a conservative. I inquired about the standard assumption that most professors are liberals. He concurred but stated that there is a vocal group of conservatives who fight to hold their own ground. He is part of a private school and thus these liberal influences are less pronounced at his particular college.

This lead me to talk about the public school system. It is clear to me that by keeping our children in the government operated public school system those with such ideological leanings insure that they will retain their strong hand in the indoctrination of our children. He then argued that it is illogical for them to enforce attendance in schools that are not providing the best environment for their children to succeed in. I talked about the "save us all or let us all drown" mentality that the educational activists have. While their theories have good intentions their obstinance allows the current waves of children in such schools to continue to have a sub-par educational experience. In addition it is left to the government to express this higher level of quality with little being asked of the people themselves to make such an expression.

I asked him to provide to me some insight regarding how the battles of today match those of the past. He stated that the debates of today are little different fundamentally from those of the past. The recent decision in California to allow same sex marriage is an example of "States Rights". Those who are inclined to dislike the concept of states rights when it works against their interests simply don't acknowledge that they are just as inclined to make use of the institution when it fits their own interests. The battle between federalism and a strong national government that does it all will always be with us. Of course I noted that liberals are inclined to support the national government because it allows them to abstract themselves from some of the local policy decisions that they have, particularly economic ones. As a resident of metro Detroit, he agreed with my assessment on these points. As they increase taxes on the people and companies they simply drive those with mobility out and increase the burden on those who remain as they attempt to maintain a level of government services that their economic realities and tax policies no longer support.

Where as the stereotype of the White Conservative as the "Angy, Racist White man" - I detected a man who was not willing to vacate his positioned that were arrived at via his reasoning for the sake of engineering an outcome that fit his preordained set of assumptions.

I am happy that both Dr Sowell and his equally despised Dr Walter Williams, another economics professor, have chosen to maintain their intellectual integrity over the gravitational pull that is put upon them by the POPULAR elements within the Black community. There are no OFFICIAL viewpoints within the Black community. Instead there are only collections of ideas that are assembled together, some which are supported because they are in line with that which is popularly assumed to be what is in the best interests of Black people but which is never asked to bear this out with real world results.

New Orleans: Rebuilt "Government Levees" Are Leaking

Article: Leaky New Orleans levee alarms experts

NEW ORLEANS — Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses.

Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.

The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $4 billion so far of the $14 billion set aside by Congress to repair and upgrade the metropolitan area's hundreds of miles of levees by 2011. Some outside experts said the leak could mean that billions more will be needed and that some of the work already completed may need to be redone.

"It is all based on a 30-year-old defunct model of thinking, and it means that when they wake up to this one — really — our cost is going to increase significantly," said Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Army Corps of Engineers disputed the experts' dire assessment. The agency said it is taking the risk of seepage into account and rebuilding the levees with an adequate margin of safety.

"It's always a potential, so it is a design component for every feature," said Walter Baumy, the chief corps engineer in New Orleans.

I love that term - "Government Levees". It states so much about the mindset of many of the advocates fo rthe "Right To Return" to New Orleans. You must understand the etymology of the term.

You see with these structures being "Government Levees", in the mind of some, this transfers liability and obligation for the engineering, construction and upkeep of these structures upon the government. Of course, you say....."What do you expect the citizens to build them in your warped notion of self sufficiency?". My answer: "NO". This is not what I am saying.

What I AM saying, however, is that in transferring your expectations upon the Federal Government to engineer, construct and maintain the water control system around your city.....this does not abdicate the citizens and the advocates working on behalf of them of their obligations in assessing the risk of living in this situation and in taking adequate precautions to insure that life and property are protected.

"I Wuz There!!". I visited the Lower 9th Ward with my GPS that has altitude readings in hand. I drove around the area and took sample readings of this area that received significant destruction the LAST TIME the "Government Levees" broke. This current news only underscores my previous statements and my current questions - IS IT WORTH PUTTING THESE PEOPLE AT RISK in depending on these GOVERNMENT LEVEES to hold?

I am no zoning expert and certainly no civil engineer. I do know, however that the subject of construction in "flood plains" and the insurance of these properties there in is a major debate all around the country. The government legislators are typically reluctant to provide building permits in flood plains. What happens though when an ENTIRE COMMUNITY IS A FLOOD PLAIN?

Could this with the racial undercurrent of the situation. Certain operatives keep propagating conspiracy theories with the notion that there is a big "White Land Grab" underway and thus the "Right of Return" is mandatory for Black New Orleans residents. These people have been attending too many Pro-PLO Left Wing rallies.





When will these same people be held accountable for their advocacy that put these mostly poor and Black people back in harms way all while being agitated by lines and rhetoric?

Is it logical for you to have your live depend on the same government that "tried to kill you the last time"? Again rather than debating Conspiracy Theorists I instead accept their words as true and then measure their own behavior against that which they have claimed to believe. This is where you are inclined to see the biggest set of misaligned behavior on Earth.

Lets be clear folks - this is the DELTA. This land was first built up by sediment from the very same river that has flooded you previously. Now that the river is confined by "man made levees" in the key flood plains up stream it is now a faster, more powerful river that no longer carries as much sediment into the New Orleans region to build up the land. Why didn't anyone propose to haul fill dirt into this area as a means of raising the ground level above the level at which the river crests?

I am right now sitting in the Atlanta Airport, having missed my flight. Behind me is the 5th Runway. (I needed to find some sort of consolation for my anger at missing my flight.) I saw them construct a 5 mile conveyor belt that transported dirt from a quarry into a plot of land that, in my estimate, is about the size of the Lower 9th Ward area. Why hasn't this been proposed for this area of New Orleans prior to these people being put back into great risk?

There comes a time where "cute sayings" such as "Government Levees" don't cut it any longer. Still you have outsourced your very existence upon the hope that the US Army Corps of Engineers will follow through on their responsibilities. I wonder if any resident of the Lower 9th Ward has the mind to start a scholarship in which 3 or 4 of their residents are assisted to become civil engineers. Upon receiving such training they perform independent inspections of the conditions of the levees, working in the people's best interests.

I know that "Speaking Truth To Power" is a popular thing for some people. In my estimation - having the power of knowledge about that which is separating you from the most powerful waterway in North America is more than speaking - it is action that translates into measurable benefits in lives saved. Namely YOUR OWN.

Baltimore - City of Shame For Black Homicides, But Contentment About Black Political Office Holders

Murder Index
A Breakdown Of Baltimore City’s 2007 Homicide Statistics

Total number of victims: 282


Victims by Race:
African-American: 261
Asian: 1
Caucasian: 14
Hispanic: 4
Other: 2

Percentage of victims who were African-American: 92.6 percent
Percentage of the city's population who are African-American: 64.8 percent

Per capita homicide rate: 44 per 100,000
Per capita homicide rate for African-American men in their 20s: 460 per 100,000



How the Victims Were Killed:

Shooting: 233
Stabbing/cutting: 21
Beating/blunt-force trauma: 20
Asphyxiation: 5
Other: 2
Unknown: 1

Victims by Age:
Youngest victim: Bryanna Harris, 2
Oldest victim: Virginia Jones, 82
Victims under 13: 2
Victims under 13 in 2006: 6
Victims under 13 in 2005: 15
Victims under 20: 53
Victims in their 20s: 127
Victims in their 30s: 62
Victims 40 and older: 40


Victims by Sex:
Female: 24
Male: 258

Victims by Police District:
Eastern: 50
Western: 41
Northeastern: 40
Southwestern: 33
Northwestern: 32
Southern: 30
Southeastern: 21
Northern: 21
Central: 14

I get the strange feeling that upon reading these stats that the usual suspects will conclude that GUNS are KILLING BLACK MALES and thus we must GO AFTER THE GUNS!
What other inanimate object gets diverted toward more than guns? If this logic were to hold Ida B. Wells and the NAACP of the past should have been chasing after ropes and woodpiles rather than the racists who were LYNCHING Black people. It comes as no surprise to anyone that the majority of those who killed the 261 Black people in Baltimore last year - were Black themselves.

Now get this however - in my frequent registration about the unchecked crime and violence WITHIN the Black community it is ME who receive the attacks for doing so. I am said to be a "self-hater". I am said to see nothing but "Negative with Black people". I am said to believe that ALL BLACKS ARE CRIMINALS and that all of our communities are OVER RUN WITH CRIME.

Indeed Ida B. Wells and others who publicized the horrors of lynching were attacked for shining the light on this truth. It was the WHITE COMMUNITY seeking to run a protection racket against the deeds of certain members of their community attacking Ms. Wells. Unfortunately there are BLACK PEOPLE seeking to defend the status quo WITHIN the Black community to wage the attacks today. How ignorant they are!

Put my strategy into perspective. I am speaking on behalf of the BLACK VICTIMS. The victims who carry the undue burden of the crime in their communities. The victims who's schools are not managed to be "academies" but instead are congregation points of all sorts of social problems into one building.

The Black community HAS DONE IT'S PART per the narrative that was told to us over the last 40 years - VOTE!!!!! We have now reached the point that was foretold by civil rights activist Bayard Ruskin. We indeed have Black people, as Democrats (and many non-Blacks who are favorable as well), in power, over our community. This was the key directives in us achieving the BENEFITS that were sought after.

Today the Black community must consider the question of who our loyalties are attached to. Is it to a certain IDEOLOGY or PARTY OR IS IT TO SELF INTEREST? What is the downside for doing the introspection that I am calling for? That we might lose our attachment to the Democratic Party? If this is your believe then clearly you have no concept of what your ultimate goals are. We have more PROGRESSIVES in power than ever before. Are your streets paved with gold?

What is my agenda? I have no problem stating it. I have a goal of DISLODGING a certain popular IDEOLOGY from the death grip that it has upon my people. This is not about PARTY. This is not about having Black people to become Republicans. This is about having our community AT LEAST functioning in a way in which our people are allowed to prosper. This is not happening under the assumptions that have lead us for the past 40 years. Indeed we know how to win elections - we have failed to learn how to protect, educate and employ our community.

The current political powers over our communities are slick. They will view these homicide numbers in Baltimore and the woeful performance in our schools and point to GREATER SOCIETAL FORCES that have rendered such a situation. As you buy into this claim you are asked to look past the fact that NOW THEY ARE IN POWER and instead join them in climbing to that next plateau with THE BLACK COMMUNITY CHASING after some other external villain now that THEY control the seats that were once EXTERNAL 40 years ago.

The balance of the solution to the problems in Baltimore and other cities resides WITHIN. It is up to the BLACK COMMUNITY to put to test the thesis laid out by Bayard Ruskin and other political operatives as to the best course of action for our community. In my view they have been proven WRONG.

Theirs is not an ORGANIC ideology. They instead depend on Black growth by lawsuits, struggle for inclusion in White dominated systems and by government regulation. If we find ourselves all alone in large cities such as Baltimore and Detroit - WE ARE SCREWED! This will be called having been "left behind" instead of the commonly heard rhetoric of "The LAND is the center of all revolution movements". You have the land now - what are you doing with it? What some of you see as an economic system of currency STILL over the land thus preventing you from making your move.....I SEE land that is PROTECTED from all external invaders and in which you can order water, sewer, natural gas and cable television service upon that you would other wise have to do for yourself. These cities should be seen as OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE. Indeed in the GLASS HALF FULL view. Instead we have a group of popular influencers that see it as a GLASS HAVE EMPTY view.

The high death rates for Black males in Baltimore is a sign of MENTAL UNEMPLOYMENT. Where are the next round of ideas that will have the next 40 years to be different? Instead I see more Democratic Party land acquisition that does not register back at home.

The Rise Of The Mulatto "Black Leader"

The rise of the mulatto Black leader.

There is indeed a pattern going on with respect to the "new Black leader" of today. Often it is noted that they are "Post-Civil Rights Leaders", not having "Marched With King" but instead are children of the 60's and 70's. Upon further inspection credit must be given to their White parent which has shaped their views of themselves prior to them becoming self-actualized as a Black man.

Barack Obama is said to be a new Black leader and is pointed to as what is possible for Black people to achieve in this modern day of civil rights and social justice. In truth Barack Obama was raised by his White mother. I have argued in the past that if you want to give one person credit for actually doing what many Black single mothers have struggled to do - raise a Black child in a healthy and nurturing environment - one needs to inspect the actions of Barack Obama's mother for doing what she did.

This particular blog dares to inspect the question of if the popular Black culture as it is today properly attuned to address the major challenges that we have as a people. This is not to ignore the fabulous job that many if not most Black parents are doing with their Black sons and daughters. The notable rise of mulatto Black leaders cannot be ignored, however.


Pictured: Benjamin Jealous - NAACP President

Anthony Brown - Lt Governor Maryland

Adrian M. Fenty - Mayor of Washington DC

Barack Obama - US Senator Illinois

My Donation To The NAACP Is Safe

My 2008 Donation to the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund will remain right where it has been for years - in my own wallet and the donation request letter having been shredded. I take it that they got my name from either the National Urban League or the United Negro College Fund both of whom I try to donate to each year. At least they have a clue.

If I had one question to ask both the new President of the NAACP, the old fool who is the Chairman and all of the other chapter presidents around the nation it would be this:

Do You Consider The Killing Of A Black Man By Another Black Man To Be A Violation Of The Now Dead Black Man's Civil Rights?"

Of course you'll say "NO" or that "such an issue is better left to other organizations that are better equipped to handle these matters.......we are a 'Racism Chasing' organization and this is not our bailiwick ". I can live with that answer.

BUT NAACP - What would you do if I pointed out these high density Black areas were the HOMICIDE CLOSURE RATE is between 28% and 40% - thus you have good odds of killing a Black person and NEVER SPENDING A DAY IN JAIL..........would THIS news garner your attention and make this a CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION?

Do you all see the problem with them?
In their perversion they look at the KILLER and use this to determine the presence of a "Civil Rights violation". I can even live with the notion that it is a QUALITY thing and thus a POLICE OFFICER shooting an unarmed Black Man is a "civil rights violation" while a gang related shooting of an unarmed Black man is not.

Then we add the QUANTITY index to the question and it far outstrips any reluctance on their part to focus on the QUALITY of the "killer".

It seems to me that the NAACP and other activist organizations should look to protecting the BLACK VICTIMS of assault rather than looking at the perpetrators of these crimes and deciding to jump in or not. Under this policy the "cancer cells" WITHIN have spread to the point of malignancy.

I am surprising no one in stating my observation that the NAACP and other activist groups are more tuned at going after government, corporations and other entities than they are in pursuing INDIVIDUALS. Even if those individuals conspire as a gang to cause wholesale terror upon the Black community itself - the NAACP is likely to do little in response.

I was a bit heartened by an interview done by Michele Martin of NPR's "Tell Me More". She cut to the chase and began to ask Mr. Jealous - the new president of the NAACP specific questions that I have been asking for years: "What do you do when all of the WHITE FOLKS/REPUBLICANS/CONSERVATIVES are gone and PEOPLE YOU FAVOR now run the institutions that you are aggrieved about?"

Brother man botched the answer - or at least gave an answer that was standard NAACP B.S.: He talked about the need for RESOURCES!!! These favorable people who are still not measuring up need to have RESOURCES so that they can do their job. I recently went through an exhaustive study of the public school systems in the state of Georgia. One of the highest ranking districts in the state - Fayette County which has a rating of a 9 in the "Good Schools" index spends about $500 per student LESS than does Dekalb County which is another school system in the metro area. Dekalb's system is rated as a 4. Are you sure that "Resources" are THE problem Mr. Jealous or just A problem in some areas?

The answer to your question, NAACP is that you have been so busy fighting EXTERNAL FIGHTS and indeed most have been worthy - in the past 30 years after assisting in the build up of a particular machine that you favor - you have not learned how to obtain from this machine that you helped assemble the RESULTS for the Black community that you have long aspired for.

You all are in to HEAD COUNT when you need to be into EFFECTIVE RESULTS and the willingness to adopt certain policies that you have heretofore rejected due to ideological disagreement. It appears that the RESULTS of you policies have been DISAGREEABLE to many. They haven't rose up and seen you as part of the problem and demanded that you CHANGE.

Audio Report: Tell Me More

Check out the 8 minute mark of the interview.

Is Clayton County Georgia Credit Worthy?

I realize that in previous debates we are likely to hear various community activists decry the actions of the evil monopoly bank as they employ practices that keep a collective boot on the neck of the community in their lending practices. The blame is typically unicast in this manner.

Unfortunately with Clayton County - my own eyes provide me with a different perspective on the situation. I have to admit that I was WRONG. As I drive home either down GA Hwy 314 or take I-85 - the presence of the small houses that cost between $65,000 and $115,000 are readily visible. At the time I thought that it was a grand idea to build houses that are smaller and thus more affordable. The concept of turning renters into homeowners sounded like a wise one. Unfortunately with 1 in 10 mortgages in this specific county being delinquent it is clear to me that some people need to remain as renters rather than homeowners. If one struggles to keep up with the payments on a 2 year apartment lease the concept of being bound into a 30 year lease must seem like a prison rather than a pathway to prosperity.

From the vantage point of the community activist - they support policies and people who push them which shift liability from the INDIVIDUAL to the CORPORATION OR GOVERNMENT. This is "Ted Kennedy 101" at play. Unfortunately if you look at the numbers registered below for Clayton County - a portfolio manager who discarded the numbers and went with the activists - would not be employed for long in his current position. It is antithetical for anyone with good business sense to expose themselves and their firm to the liability that is shown via these numbers.

We always hear about the racism associated with "red lining" why can't we have an honest discussion about these specific numbers and how any clear thinking financial institution who plans to be in business over the long haul would be wise to avoid people with this specific financial and credit profile and that the INDIVIDUAL decisions to do so might indeed show up as GEOGRAPHIC REDLINING when in fact this is nothing more than an aggregation of individual decision that came up with the same conclusion - this is an unfavorable loan environment to participate in?

(Or you can just state that "I hate Black people and hate myself for reporting on this situation" and thus avoid any deep and honest discussion about these circumstances which destroy our intergenerational wealth building that we talk about so frequently. )

MORTGAGE CRISIS: More Atlanta homes at risk
Clayton County raises alarm bells with high rate of homeowners in trouble, but even richer metro counties show rises in delinquencies.

By Carrie Teegardin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/19/08

Clayton County's rate of seriously delinquent mortgages has reached epidemic proportions, with nearly one in 10 mortgage accounts at least 60 days past due, according to data from one of the nation's largest credit reporting companies.

Clayton had the highest delinquency rate for mortgages in an 11-county area of metro Atlanta, according to Chicago-based Trans-Union.



But late payments were up significantly in every metro Atlanta county, even in relatively high-income suburbs such as Forsyth, Fayette and Douglas counties. The share of seriously delinquent mortgages in each of those three counties increased by more than 70 percent between the beginning of 2005 and the end of 2007, according to the data.

The data is based on a survey of 27 million consumer records during the fourth quarter of 2007.

Across metro Atlanta, 4.2 percent of mortgages were at least 60 days past due at the end of last year. That's 40 percent higher than the national average.

"A lot of those folks are going into foreclosure," said Dan Immergluck, a professor at Georgia Tech who is an expert on mortgage lending. "What that means is a lot of those folks are shut off from credit markets for a while. People think of it as a short-term problem, but it's a long-term problem."

Most lenders seek foreclosure if a homeowner falls three payments behind. Once the proceedings begin in Georgia, a house can be sold on the courthouse steps in as few as 37 days.

Foreclosures have reached record levels across metro Atlanta. And every new wave of foreclosed properties hurts values in a real estate market already flooded with houses for sale.

Metro Atlanta posted high rates of delinquent mortgages even though it had not experienced the dramatic run-up in real estate prices that states such as California and Florida experienced. Metro Atlanta also differs from Ohio and Michigan, where the economy has taken a nosedive.

"Atlanta doesn't have any of those characterizations of a super-hot bubble or a super-weak economy, but it's still tracking the national numbers," Immergluck said. "I think that has something to do with the Wild West lending around here."

Georgia ranked sixth nationally for its rate of delinquent mortgages.

Mortgage failures are now extending beyond relatively risky subprime loans to the traditional prime loans, experts said. Because prime loans make up the majority of loans, an uptick in delinquencies in those mortgages has a significant impact on the total number of foreclosures.

Keith Carson, a senior consultant in TransUnion's financial services group, said he expects the national delinquency rate to rise from 3 percent to 4 percent by the end of 2008.

"There is a misconception that this is solely restricted to some subprime loans and hybrid ARMs [adjustable rate mortgages]," Carson said. "It goes beyond that."

Immergluck said the rising rate of foreclosures in an upscale county such as Forsyth suggests the spread of foreclosures into the prime market. In lower-income counties such as Clayton, foreclosures have become so widespread that they are likely to have a devastating impact on housing values in some neighborhoods.

"I'm extremely concerned about it," said Eldrin Bell, chairman of the Clayton County Commission. "I will do everything possible that I can within the county's authority to assist with these issues."

Bell said he is personally concerned about the trendlines because many of the families facing foreclosure in Clayton County are single mothers with children. Bell said thousands of these families moved to Clayton in recent years with their eyes on the prize of homeownership.

"I am just beside myself," he said. "To me it's a moral issue and a moral obligation to protect families, to keep them together. If they get kicked out of housing, what are they going to do?"

Delinquency rates are high in Clayton, even though the county's residents have the lowest mortgage balances in the region. The average Clayton mortgage was $137,000, compared with the region's highest in Fulton County at $271,000.

The average amount owed on mortgages has taken a hit with the foreclosure crisis, the TransUnion data indicated. Across metro Atlanta, the average amount owed on a home loan declined between the third and fourth quarters of last year, from $208,000 to $193,000.

TransUnion's Carson said he believed the decline was a result of lower home prices driven by the oversupply in the market. But Georgia Tech's Immergluck said he thought the number was driven by the earlier failure of many higher-priced mortgages.

"I think it's the big loans being pulled out because they have gone into foreclosure," he said.

FALLING BEHIND

An increasing number of metro Atlanta homeowners are 60 days or more behind with their mortgage payments and likely to end up in foreclosure. A breakdown and the increase since the beginning of 2005:

County......Delinquency..Percentage

............rates........increase

Cherokee....2.5%.........48%

Clayton.....9.45%........44%

Cobb........2.9%.........41%

DeKalb......5.6%.........23%

Douglas.....5.8%.........86%

Fayette.....2.8%.........82%

Forsyth.....1.8%.........74%

Fulton......3.6%.........43%

Gwinnett....3.9%.........55%

Henry.......5.7%.........57%

Rockdale....5.6%.........50%

Metro Atlanta...4.2%.....43%

National Average...2.9%..52%

Source: TransUnion, Journal-Constitution analysis