Wake County: Books, Busing and Bigots
Paul Scott
My first brush with racism occurred when I was five years old. I was playing with a little white girl at a beach in White Lake, NC when her grandmother motioned for her to get out of the water. "Sally" came back a few minutes later to inform me that she was not allowed to play with (insert "N word" here), as the old hag sat mean muggin' me under her beach umbrella. In retrospect, at least Granny was honest about her feelings, which is more than I can be say about the folks in Wake County.
There has been a big brouhaha brewing in Wake County over the last year. Seems like some folks (mostly white) are fighting for "community schools", while other folks (mostly black) are condemning it as an attempt at re-segregation. The conflict came to a boiling point last week when school board chairman, Ron Margiotta , made a statement about "animals let out of cages," allegedly referring to the anti-segregation protesters.
Of course, most of the good hearted Wake County citizens are saying that there is nothing racist about the anti-busing efforts, they are merely trying to protect the ecosystem by conserving gas. Also, even though Margiotta's statement is committed to the Youtube viral universe, what he really said was " the way those Tar Heels are playing is outrageous."
I'm not sure what ticks me off the most, the Wake County School Board's racial insensitivity or their attempts to insult my intelligence.
I'm sure that Margiotta and the rest of his homies on the school board know that "community schools" is the modern day PC translation of "no Blacks allowed."
Then again, I bet ol' Ron has never been dissed at the beach by an old lady while wearing swimming trunks decorated with dolphins and starfish.
Let's keep it real. For many of the community schools folks in Wake County, it's not really about Lil' Molly sitting next to Tyrone Jackson in homeroom but the idea of her bringing him home for cookies and milk; the age old fear of miscegenation. So, the whole argument is not really about education but the fear of contracting "colored cooties."
Desegregation of public schools has been a controversial issue in this country since the end of the Civil War.
According to Harold Cruse in his book, "Plural but Equal," during the 1880's there was an unsuccessful attempt to pass a bill by Senator Henry Blair that would have required the government to provide $77 million dollars to be spent "equally for the education of all children, without distinction of race or color, " making "separate but equal" a reality.
In 1954, the Supreme Court rendered its Brown vs the Board of Education decision that put in motion the process of integrating school systems across the United States.
It can be argued that if the Blair Bill would have passed, desegregation would not have even been necessary. However, during that period, some black folks believed that integration was some sort of magic elixir to cure all of the black community''s ills. As if, by some sort of telekinetic osmosis black kids would become smarter by simply being in the same classroom with white kids.
It must be noted that not all African Americans have favored integration. According to Dr. Noliwe Rooks in her book, "White Money, Black Power," in 1968, African Americans in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn attempted their own version of community control of schools courtesy of a $59,000 grant from the Ford foundation.
Also, black leaders such as Haki Madhubuti have long championed the cause of the creation of independent black educational institutions.
All of these efforts have one thing in common; better educational opportunities for black children.
It must be understood that even within an integrated school system, there still can be educational segregation in the classroom. As the late black psychologist, Dr. Bobby Wright wrote in his essay, "The Black Child: A Destination in Jeopardy," "even sitting in the same classroom, white children will be 'educated' and black children will be 'trained.' "
Many in the black community would have no problem with community schools if it meant that they would be funded, equally. Unfortunately, there is a well founded concern that the lion's share of the resources would go to the more affluent, predominately white schools.
As the controversy rages on, we must be careful not to give black children the false impression that the ultimate goal of desegregation is to earn the love and respect of the white parents of Wake County. It is about securing the necessary resources to insure that they obtain a first class education so they won't be treated as second class citizens; nothing more, nothing less.
Our ultimate goal must be to teach black children how to love and respect themselves and to instill in them the self confidence to know that their self worth does not have to be validated by white America.
No child should feel the way I did on that hot summer day back in 1972.
A boy and his beach ball, standing in the middle of a lake wondering what was wrong with him.
Courtesy of No Warning Shots Fired.com. For more information contact (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com
"No Warning Shots Fired.com, bringing you the issues that the mainstream media are afraid to touch."
Showing posts with label March. Show all posts
Showing posts with label March. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mis-Education of Black Children
The Mis-education of Black Children
Paul Scott
In 1933, the great educator and founder of Negro History Week (now Black History Month), Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote, "If you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. Although, "The Mis-education of the Negro" was written 75 years ago, the issues raised then are just as relevent today not only for African American youth but also for those who strive to teach them.
Every year, we are confronted with the age old question of why black youth are not achieving at the same rate as other racial groups. The reason that we continually raise the same questions is that very few have the courage to give the correct answer. While many would write the under achievement of African American children off as some sort of genetic deficiency, the truth is that the reasons are economic, social and political.
First, the depth of the destruction of African culture over a 400 year period via the TransAtlantic slave Trade is rarely discussed in the context of its impact on future generations. Although this is well researched in Walter Rodney's book "How Europe Under Developed Africa, how many people have heard of this outstanding work?
Also, it cannot be overstated that 140 years ago, teaching black people to read was a crime punishable by death. Why this fact is not highlighted as a probable cause for the current educational dilemma of black children has more to do with historical amnesia than historical accuracy.
While segregated schools may have had their good points ,as far as the attention given to the needs of black children, the schools were separate and unequal, lacking the resources to give black children an equal education.
Even as late as early as 20 years ago, members of my generation walked out of college graduation ceremonies to face the heartbreaking reality that we would earn considerably less than our white counterparts. This did not exactly serve as motivation for future generations to strive for academic excellence. Also, while grandma's sage advice that we had to be "twice as good as white folks" was well intentioned, this was an unfair burden to place on the shoulders of young African Americans.
This is why the Hip Hop generation has developed such slang terms such as "Street Knowledge" and "Thug Motivation" in order to compensate for the economic/educational disparity that they cannot understand nor properly articulate.
The media have never shown much interest in making the so called black "Hip Hop Generation" more culturally and politically conscious. Despite the large population of African Americans in the Triangle area, there are hardly any talk shows that supply African centered information to the community. However, there is no shortage of outlets that glamorize anti intellectualism. Even in the world of print media, since young black Americans are not the target audience, there is little effort to hire columnists to speak to their issues
As many Americans are using "change" as a buzz word this political season, we must understand that not only must there be change in politics but education and economics, as well.
We must come up with new and innovative ways to close the information/education gap.
The black community must produce a list of books that all black children should read and present that information to the Board of Education, as well as the community, at large. This list must include the works of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Amos Wilson and a host of others. Secondly, we must realize that "cleaning up Hip Hop" means more than just deleting dirty words but using the music to educate as much as entertain. Contrary to popular belief, there are Hip Hop artists that struggle to use their art to educate the masses.
Lastly, we must pressure the local media to develop outlets that will discuss the black experience in its totality, not just crime rates and other negative statistics.
Although the entire community will benefit from a truly enlightened populace, the burden of the responsibility to counter mis-education lies within the black community, itself.
As Bob Marley once sang, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Paul Scott
In 1933, the great educator and founder of Negro History Week (now Black History Month), Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote, "If you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. Although, "The Mis-education of the Negro" was written 75 years ago, the issues raised then are just as relevent today not only for African American youth but also for those who strive to teach them.
Every year, we are confronted with the age old question of why black youth are not achieving at the same rate as other racial groups. The reason that we continually raise the same questions is that very few have the courage to give the correct answer. While many would write the under achievement of African American children off as some sort of genetic deficiency, the truth is that the reasons are economic, social and political.
First, the depth of the destruction of African culture over a 400 year period via the TransAtlantic slave Trade is rarely discussed in the context of its impact on future generations. Although this is well researched in Walter Rodney's book "How Europe Under Developed Africa, how many people have heard of this outstanding work?
Also, it cannot be overstated that 140 years ago, teaching black people to read was a crime punishable by death. Why this fact is not highlighted as a probable cause for the current educational dilemma of black children has more to do with historical amnesia than historical accuracy.
While segregated schools may have had their good points ,as far as the attention given to the needs of black children, the schools were separate and unequal, lacking the resources to give black children an equal education.
Even as late as early as 20 years ago, members of my generation walked out of college graduation ceremonies to face the heartbreaking reality that we would earn considerably less than our white counterparts. This did not exactly serve as motivation for future generations to strive for academic excellence. Also, while grandma's sage advice that we had to be "twice as good as white folks" was well intentioned, this was an unfair burden to place on the shoulders of young African Americans.
This is why the Hip Hop generation has developed such slang terms such as "Street Knowledge" and "Thug Motivation" in order to compensate for the economic/educational disparity that they cannot understand nor properly articulate.
The media have never shown much interest in making the so called black "Hip Hop Generation" more culturally and politically conscious. Despite the large population of African Americans in the Triangle area, there are hardly any talk shows that supply African centered information to the community. However, there is no shortage of outlets that glamorize anti intellectualism. Even in the world of print media, since young black Americans are not the target audience, there is little effort to hire columnists to speak to their issues
As many Americans are using "change" as a buzz word this political season, we must understand that not only must there be change in politics but education and economics, as well.
We must come up with new and innovative ways to close the information/education gap.
The black community must produce a list of books that all black children should read and present that information to the Board of Education, as well as the community, at large. This list must include the works of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Amos Wilson and a host of others. Secondly, we must realize that "cleaning up Hip Hop" means more than just deleting dirty words but using the music to educate as much as entertain. Contrary to popular belief, there are Hip Hop artists that struggle to use their art to educate the masses.
Lastly, we must pressure the local media to develop outlets that will discuss the black experience in its totality, not just crime rates and other negative statistics.
Although the entire community will benefit from a truly enlightened populace, the burden of the responsibility to counter mis-education lies within the black community, itself.
As Bob Marley once sang, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Gay Rights Ain't Civil
Gay Rights Ain't Civil:
You've Got Your Troubles...
Paul Scott
Back before I was born, a group called the Fortunes had a hot hit with "You've Got Your Troubles I've Got Mine." Although the song, has now been relegated to late night infomercials, it could still be used, today, as the theme song for African American and Gay community relations.
Since the passing of Proposition 8 on the West Coast, a lot of people have been comparing the struggles of the homosexual community with the historical trials and tribulations that torment the souls of black folks.
To me that's like comparing an apple to an orange. (Or in this case a Big Mac to quiche.)
To compare the African Holocaust (Trans Atlantic Slave Trade) to the Same Sex Marriage Rights Movement is an insult to the millions of my African ancestors whose bones are resting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Can anyone say with a straight face that there is any similarity between being stolen from your homeland to work in the sweltering heat on a Georgia Plantation and the right to open a gay bar in Houston?
I don't recall reading about any slave ships being docked outside of San Francisco waiting for the next round up of homosexuals.
Some have even gone as far as to compare the Gay Rights Movement with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's. How many pictures have you seen of racist Alabama sheriff, Bull Connor sicing German Shepherds on Gay Rights demonstrators? How many Gay Rights activists have been shot down in their driveways ,like Medgar Evers, as their families watched in horror ?
Homosexuals are not the first to hijack the black struggle for equality. Our tactics have been either used or stolen by any advocacy group that came along from the women's rights groups to the animal rights organizations. The gays and others have used these tactics with greater success than those who shed their blood, sweat and tears to implement them. The reason being that while gay unity has been accepted at least by homosexuals, black unity has often been frowned upon by many blacks whose philosophy has been that African Americans have to shed their blackness and blend in with the white majority in order to achieve social and economic equality. While gay people were being encouraged to come out of the closet, we were being told to put our blackness back in the closet. Also, if the tactics that are used by other ethnic groups had been used by blacks they would have been quickly denounced as evidence of "racism in reverse."
From the perspective of many blacks, homosexuality is more readily accepted in this country than racial issues. The homosexual white male who contracts HIV is looked upon with greater sympathy than the heterosexual African American male who contracts HIV from intravenous drug use or unprotected sex. Yet they both contracted the disease by lifestyle choices. On the world scene, concern over the AIDS epidemic of white males in America has trumped the concern over AIDS in Africa.
While some may view the gay rights argument in strictly theological or moral terms, this is not the case here. What is good or evil depends on which religious text you are reading and your interpretation or misinterpretation of it. While my own religious point of reference does not condone homosexuality, this would be relevant only if we were living under a Theocracy. While a Theocracy contains certain dogmas that demand strict adherence, the mantra of a Democracy is "If it feels good do it, just don't hurt anybody." Especially in America.
That does not mean, however, that one has to be pressured into condoning another person's embrace of an alternative lifestyle.
Just because I choose to blast my old school Run DMC album at 3am every morning does not mean that my 90 year old neighbor should be forced to share my taste in music.
The attitude of most black folks is "live and let live." We don't have the time nor energy to devote to gay bashing. In case you haven't been watching the news, we have our own problems to deal with.
Therefore, the idea of "black homophobia" that is tossed around every time black folks don't run to the front of the line at Gay Pride Parades is over exaggerated. I don't see too many black men ducking for cover when "Dancing Queen" blasts over the intercom system at the mall. For most, homosexuality is met with indifference. (For years, I thought Liberace was just a snazzy dresser who liked to play the piano.)
Although Hip Hop has had homophobia lumped in with its multitude of moral transgressions that does not reflect the reality of the nature of the subculture.
With songs like like "My Girl's Got a Girlfriend" and the embrace of Lesbianism in some Hip Hop videos and magazines, one can charge exploitation but not homophobia. Also, most rap artists are slow to offend a large segment of their fan base and financial backers for economic reasons, if not moral.
There is, however, a concern that the Black Empowerment Movement will be co-opted by the Gay Rights Movement. There is a real fear that one day someone will interject the line "when little gay boys and gay girls will join hands with straight boys and girls" into Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech."
So the issue for black folks is not the rights of gays to marry or anything else but the way those rights infringe upon the movement for African American equality. If you think that it's hard being gay, you should try being black for a day.
To borrow from that oft repeated line of prose:
"I once complained about my pink paisley tie then I saw a man with a noose around his neck."
Paul Scott, the Hip Hop TRUTH Minista's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
You've Got Your Troubles...
Paul Scott
Back before I was born, a group called the Fortunes had a hot hit with "You've Got Your Troubles I've Got Mine." Although the song, has now been relegated to late night infomercials, it could still be used, today, as the theme song for African American and Gay community relations.
Since the passing of Proposition 8 on the West Coast, a lot of people have been comparing the struggles of the homosexual community with the historical trials and tribulations that torment the souls of black folks.
To me that's like comparing an apple to an orange. (Or in this case a Big Mac to quiche.)
To compare the African Holocaust (Trans Atlantic Slave Trade) to the Same Sex Marriage Rights Movement is an insult to the millions of my African ancestors whose bones are resting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Can anyone say with a straight face that there is any similarity between being stolen from your homeland to work in the sweltering heat on a Georgia Plantation and the right to open a gay bar in Houston?
I don't recall reading about any slave ships being docked outside of San Francisco waiting for the next round up of homosexuals.
Some have even gone as far as to compare the Gay Rights Movement with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's. How many pictures have you seen of racist Alabama sheriff, Bull Connor sicing German Shepherds on Gay Rights demonstrators? How many Gay Rights activists have been shot down in their driveways ,like Medgar Evers, as their families watched in horror ?
Homosexuals are not the first to hijack the black struggle for equality. Our tactics have been either used or stolen by any advocacy group that came along from the women's rights groups to the animal rights organizations. The gays and others have used these tactics with greater success than those who shed their blood, sweat and tears to implement them. The reason being that while gay unity has been accepted at least by homosexuals, black unity has often been frowned upon by many blacks whose philosophy has been that African Americans have to shed their blackness and blend in with the white majority in order to achieve social and economic equality. While gay people were being encouraged to come out of the closet, we were being told to put our blackness back in the closet. Also, if the tactics that are used by other ethnic groups had been used by blacks they would have been quickly denounced as evidence of "racism in reverse."
From the perspective of many blacks, homosexuality is more readily accepted in this country than racial issues. The homosexual white male who contracts HIV is looked upon with greater sympathy than the heterosexual African American male who contracts HIV from intravenous drug use or unprotected sex. Yet they both contracted the disease by lifestyle choices. On the world scene, concern over the AIDS epidemic of white males in America has trumped the concern over AIDS in Africa.
While some may view the gay rights argument in strictly theological or moral terms, this is not the case here. What is good or evil depends on which religious text you are reading and your interpretation or misinterpretation of it. While my own religious point of reference does not condone homosexuality, this would be relevant only if we were living under a Theocracy. While a Theocracy contains certain dogmas that demand strict adherence, the mantra of a Democracy is "If it feels good do it, just don't hurt anybody." Especially in America.
That does not mean, however, that one has to be pressured into condoning another person's embrace of an alternative lifestyle.
Just because I choose to blast my old school Run DMC album at 3am every morning does not mean that my 90 year old neighbor should be forced to share my taste in music.
The attitude of most black folks is "live and let live." We don't have the time nor energy to devote to gay bashing. In case you haven't been watching the news, we have our own problems to deal with.
Therefore, the idea of "black homophobia" that is tossed around every time black folks don't run to the front of the line at Gay Pride Parades is over exaggerated. I don't see too many black men ducking for cover when "Dancing Queen" blasts over the intercom system at the mall. For most, homosexuality is met with indifference. (For years, I thought Liberace was just a snazzy dresser who liked to play the piano.)
Although Hip Hop has had homophobia lumped in with its multitude of moral transgressions that does not reflect the reality of the nature of the subculture.
With songs like like "My Girl's Got a Girlfriend" and the embrace of Lesbianism in some Hip Hop videos and magazines, one can charge exploitation but not homophobia. Also, most rap artists are slow to offend a large segment of their fan base and financial backers for economic reasons, if not moral.
There is, however, a concern that the Black Empowerment Movement will be co-opted by the Gay Rights Movement. There is a real fear that one day someone will interject the line "when little gay boys and gay girls will join hands with straight boys and girls" into Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech."
So the issue for black folks is not the rights of gays to marry or anything else but the way those rights infringe upon the movement for African American equality. If you think that it's hard being gay, you should try being black for a day.
To borrow from that oft repeated line of prose:
"I once complained about my pink paisley tie then I saw a man with a noose around his neck."
Paul Scott, the Hip Hop TRUTH Minista's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Rise of Radio Revolutionaries
The Rise of Radio Revolutionaries:
March on Washington 2007
Min. Paul Scott
"We need to raise up our readership so that our children can grow up and freely lead without readin' a script"
KRS from X-Clan's "Speak the Truth"
The other day I was listening to Malcolm X's classic speech "Message to the Grassroots" and his critique (OK, diss) of the "Big Six" Civil Rights Leaders after the 1963 March on Washington.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxgrassroots.htm
I wonder what Bro. Malcolm would say about the March on Washington 2007.
"Oh, I'll tell you, Brothers and Sisters. They were gathered to do some damage. They wanted some action! Yes! They wanted change, not tomorrow, not next week but today! But just as soon as the crowd was about to get busy and really take care of business, some DJ yelled for Juan D to play some old Hip Hop record and the whole crowd stopped marchin' and started doin' the 'crank dat soldier boy.' I'll tell you, you've been had, tricked, bamboozled..."
Don't get me wrong. I ain't mad at anyone takin' a stand against injustice, miseducation or even why gas is so darn high. But anytime that entertainers get thrust to the front of the black leadership line. I have to ask some questions.
Now, I never claimed to be a straight A student in school but even I know the difference between a radio host and a revolutionary.
This is not to say that you can't be both. Local radio hosts were often the catalyst for change in communities across the country. They saw it as their civic duty to wake the people up with information as soon as their alarm clocks went off at 6AM. There are many stories about radio hosts who have sacrificed their jobs and risked their lives by bringin' on guests or discussing topics that were too hot to handle.
But that was an era long gone, before the corporate take over of local radio, as thoroughly broken down by Glen Ford's article at http://www.blackagendareport.com/
I know this ain't 1969, the height of the Black Power Movement, when black folks were gettin' their heads cracked on a daily basis and many of us are too young to remember that period. So, the point of reference I am using is the Hip Hop version of the Black Power Movement 1988-1992. That is the closest, in the last 20 years, that entertainment and activism have come together for collective change.
Now some may argue (and rightly so, in some cases) that all that period produced was a bunch of paranoid black folks who were too scared to go to protest rallies because they thought that government satellites would beam death rays down from space and vaporize them. Or a bunch of middle class Buppies who "used to be conscious" in college who now justify their comfortable, apolitical, corporate lives by endlessly talking about "The Spook that Sat By the Door."
But that ain't everybody. Some are still fighting the fight like the "Cease the Fire" Movement.
http://www.myspace.com/freeallpoliticalprisoners
What is most disturbing is when this new commercial radio radicalism (which came as a direct result of the powers- that -be realizing that black internet bloggers could put heat on racists like Don Imus without "Civil Rights" leaders) takes the place of grassroots community based activism.
According to Kenneth O'Reilly in his book "Black Americans: the FBI Files," in 1966 Atty General Nicolas Katzenback wanted to create a militant but peaceful organization which could compete with SNCC around the same time the organization was becoming pro-black under the leadership of Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael)and then Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown).
Kinda like revolution-lite.
Now am I suggesting that the radio hosts should should arm the marchers with machine guns and swear them in as members of the Black Panther Party.
No.
But the key is to play your role. Stay in you lane. Or as George Clinton would say "Don't fake tha Funk." (Shout out to the Ol' School)
I just don't think that a DJ who won't even break format to play "Behind Enemy Lines" by Dead Prez will be the first one to toss a Molotov cocktail. Maybe that is why many of them spend more time assuring their corporate sponsors that a demonstration will be "nonviolent" than they do explaining to the people why they are marching.
We all know that there is a line of demarcation that entertainers dare not cross. A place where DJ's fear to tread: a land of taboo topics and banned Afrocentric scholars and researchers. They know that just beyond that line of demarcation is where the "real" fight begins.
And they know that they have crossed that line when they begin to raise the collective consciousness of their millions of listeners and their corporate sponsors begin pulling commercials.
When you have millions of listeners that don't know who George and Jonathan Jackson are and think that COINTELPRO is the new cell phone that Verizon has coming out next month , therein lies the problem.
Until we replace the "Joke of the Day" with the "Fred Hampton Speech of the Day," no matter how many marches we have,to quote Chairman Fred we will be left with:
"Answers that don't answer, explanations that don't explain and conclusions that don't conclude."
For more information on the Books or Bullets Movement go to http://www.booksorbullets.com/
Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
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