Step up!

I want to start a national campaign! Beginning in the African American community, but spreading out to the rest of America called "Step up." "What is step up?" you ask. It's a chance for ALL people to move away from popular culture and step up their exposure to the arts and academia. I long for the day that August Wilson's playwrites are as popular as Tyler Perry's or that Talib Kweli out sells Lil Wayne or maybe that Toni Morrison outsells Zayne! I'm longing for a people that want to step up in their cultural awareness!

Henry Louis Gates as an exceptional Negro: An exercise in classism

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I grew up in a small town outside of Atlanta. Admittedly it wasn't too diverse, either you were Black or you where White (ironically Spanish speakers, Indians and other First World people were designated as White) and with that we all knew our "place." Blacks for the most part were relegated to working either domestic or warehouse jobs where Whites were "professionals." While of course there were exceptions to the rule, but this is pretty much how the city ran.My mother kept me very involved in extracurricular activities i.e. scouts, sports, etc. and this kept me in a pretty mixed crowd.I grew up being told that I was trying to "act white" or that I "talked just like a white boy." (Ironically, now I get that I sound like a Yankee, imagine that!) While I never thought that I sounded any different that my friends in the "Blacksville" community, I guess my close proximity to Whites did have a bearing on my speech patterns (couple that with my families insistence that I speak correctly). My Great Grandmother as well as my Grandmother worked for a very prominent family as domestics (I won't say their name, but I will say that there is a street named after them and they owned a drug store that took up the chairs in it after several Black people came and demanded to be served). Working in this capacity was both a blessing and a curse. I watched them say Sir and Ma'am to children younger than their own, but at the same time, I watched them be able to manipulate the de facto segregation of the 1980s in this small town.
I can recall one day being at the home of this prominent family and the patriarch of the family struck up a conversation with me. After we chatted for some time, he went into the kitchen (that placed reserved for domestics) and told my grandmother that was a "exceptional" boy and that I was mannerly. I recall her telling me how proud she was of me and that if I kept that up, I would grow up and be successful.

A few years later I was in Boy Scouts and for some reason my mother didn't put me in the "Black" Boy Scout Troop at my church, I went to the White one on the "White" side of town. Unlike most years, I wasn't the only "Black" Boy Scout in my den. After going to visit the sick at the local hospital, I can recall my Den mother pulling me aside and telling me that she was so proud that I wasn't like the rest of them (Ironically the them lived in my neighborhood and were my friends when I was away from "them"). While there are a few more incidents of me being told that I was "smart to be Black" or that I wasn't "really Black" because of the way that I spoke or acted, I was always reminded that I wasn't exceptional every time I went back to the house where my Great Grandmother, my mother, my Grand Uncle and I lived. It was a small two bedroom house where my mother and I shared a bunk bed. I was sure I wasn't exceptional every day I saw my mother coming home tired from working long hours at the Waffle House or when the White kids would call my friends the "N" word and then tell me that they were so glad I wasn't one.

Let me begin this by saying that racial profiling abhors me and it is a major issue in communities of color was well as many poor and working class communities. In the very near future I want to look at the rate that African Americans are stopped by police compared to Whites, but also, how African Americans are sentenced in comparison to Whites as well. For far too long, race has been the elephant in the closet and America has failed time and time again to forthrightly address this issue. (I had several people to say to me things like "now that we have a Black president, Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson won't have a job," as if racism, prejudice and bigotry were going to disappear after the inauguration.) While I don't want to address the issue of racial profiling in this essay, what I do want to look at is Dr. Henry Louis Gates' notion that the cop "didn't know who he was messing with" and that "I studied the history of racism. I know EVERY incident in the history of racism from slavery to Jim Crow segregation" or "if this could happen to me, it could happen to any body in America," as if he is some how exempt or above the every day struggles of African Americans.

I'm sure most people involved in African American Studies in one way or another knows that Dr. Gates has often compared himself to the 21st century's equivalent to W.E.B. DuBois. One need not to forget the controversy surrounding the Encyclopedia Africana or Dr. Gates' lack of involvement in any African American Studies Professional Organization. Maybe I'm reading too much into Dr. Gates' statements but it seems to me that he feels that he's above the lived experiences of "everyday" African Americans. It seems to me that Dr. Gates' as brilliant and accomplished as he is has let the "exceptional" Negro phenomena get the best of him. He seems to epitomize what Adolf Reid talked about when he said that quite often scholars put the back to the Bantustan to translate the drums for Tarzan rather than talk to the drummers.

I sure hope Dr. Gates was not injured physically or psychologically by this incident and I also hope this incident (though not isolated from the daily experiences of most of us) sparks a meaningful conversation about race in America and the world. I pray that this motivates us to look at not only racial profiling, but police brutality and the sentencing disparities between African Americans and Whites, but I also hope it sparks some conversation about political prisoners and prisoners of war in America's prisons. More importantly, I hope this will remind us of Malcolm X's quote, "What do you call a Black man with a Ph.D.?" Maybe this situation will help ground the "Dream Team," but also remind us all that we are not divorced from the brother on the corner with his pants sagging and his hat cocked to the side in the eyes of some. It was W.E.B. DuBois who said the problem with the 20th century is the problem of the color line and now the problem with the 21st century may be the problem of the class within color line.

the e-church

There is a body, a growing body of people that have grown disenchanted with the church. They have grown tired of church as usual. We have grown tired of church politics, church folk and messages that do not speak to their condition. We know that the prayers of the righteous prevail much. We not only read our Bible faithfully, we are activist minded. We are what Shawn Clairborne calls "ordinary radicals." We know that what happens in the Kenya affects what happens on King Blvd. We concur with Thomas Friedman as he echoed Christopher Columbus's sentiment that "The World is Flat."
We are highly educated both formally and informally. We've read Derrida, Diop, hooks, Karenga as we as Brueggeman, Yaconelli and TS Elliot. We read the NY Times as well as US News and World Report. Cornel West and Naomi Klein are no strangers to us. We are rooted in our history and culture, but we are not afraid to engage our cultures and histories.
We drink lattes, espressos and mochas trying to squeeze more time in the day so that we can write one more paragraph, negotiate one more contract or broker one more deal. We have many of the material trappings of the world, but over time we've learned that these things are "of this world" and they don't make us or give us meaning.
We have alternative faiths, but there is something about the faith of our grandparents that keeps drawing us back to the traditional church only to leave frustrated and empty. We are what Tony Jones calls "The New Christians." We toil in anticipation of the risen Christ. We long to empower our communities, the ones that we all grew up in, with the knowledge that we learned "in the world." We are forming neo-communities that are not only rooted in prayer and activism, but a new mysticism that boldly proclaims, "to live is Christ and to die is gain." We are Red Letter Christians, Pink Letter Christians, Green Letter Christians and Rainbow Christians. We are longing for "fresh manna," we are looking for a new dispensation of the Holy Spirit and we long for the formation of an E-Church.

Ms. Jamilah Maat Nation

Monday, April 13, 2009 Healing teacher, counselor and community activist, Ms. Jamilah Maat Nation, transitioned on Saturday, April 11, 2009. Jamilah courageously and graciously combated uterine cancer during the past year. She was 45 years young. A candlelight vigil and celebration for Jamilah's life are being coordinated and dates will be announced subsequently. Sister Jamilah generously impacted many people's lives through Healing Happens Consulting, and specifically through her passion for women's health and womb wellness. She fiercely taught each of us to "do what you love and love what you do, as peace, love, harmony and joy are our natural birthrights."Food and financial contributions are requested for Jamilah's family. For a list of the family's food requests, or to make any type of love offering, please contact Shelia Jones at 770-933-7662 (shelia.jones@cmich.edu) or Kimberly Stewart at 404-403-3085 (absolutelydivine1@hotmail.com).Please share this message with others, as Jamilah's powerful influence spread far and wide. We ask that you lift up the Jones and Green families in your prayers. Lastly, in honor of our sister Jamilah Nation, team Healing A Nation was formed to participate in this year's Relay for Life (of South DeKalb, GA) on May 01, 2009. If you would like to participate by joining the team and/or donating to the American Cancer Society, please visit: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/teamhealinganationIn advance, give thanks for your love and support."I want to empower people to utilize their gifts from the Creator and to find their divine purpose. When we recognize that the Universe is open and abundant to us, and if we choose to let go of old hurts, we thrive. It is unacceptable to merely exist; we must live each day as if it's our last day on earth." - Ms. Jamilah Maat Nation

God is Pro-Life

I was in a small town in Alabama and passed a church that had a sign that read "God is ProLife." Initially I wonder what this implied other than the usual neo-con rantings about abortion.

Admittedly, I'm pretty liberal (kind of funny that liberal is a bad word now) and I definitely don't think that I, or any man for that matter, should have laws that affects or prohibits a woman's right to chose, but what does "God is ProLife" imply theologically?
What does God is ProLife mean to a person to a person dying of AIDS? Cancer? Or some other terminal illness? Does that mean that God doesn't intervene in the life of those that are dying? Or is not responsible for death?

For this community is Prolife equal access to education? An antiwar sentiment? An effort to eradicate poverty since it's responsible for literally thousands of deaths globally? Could ProLife mean universal health care or an anti-death penalty posture?

God is indeed ProLife! But being ProLife isn't myopic or limited to our narrow definitions of such. Being ProLife means that we share the joy of Jesus to every one that labors in the vineyard of life. Being ProLife means eradicating anything that delays or destroys life.

I'm glad that this church proclaims that God is ProLife, but I pray that their proclamation wasn't one to destroy life, for Jesus proclaimed, "I came to bring you life and that more abundantly."

why we must fix our prisons

Why We Must Fix Our Prisons By Senator Jim Webb Publication Date: 03/29/2009 Inmates at a facility in California, a state that spent almost $10 billion on corrections last year. America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives. We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, I went to Japan on assignment for PARADE to write a story on that country's prison system. In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding--and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan's prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million. The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year. How would you change the prison system? » Our overcrowded, ill-managed prison systems are places of violence, physical abuse, and hate, making them breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior we purport to fear. Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard or, in some places, nonexistent, making it more difficult for former offenders who wish to overcome the stigma of having done prison time and become full, contributing members of society. And, in the face of the movement toward mass incarceration, law-enforcement officials in many parts of the U.S. have been overwhelmed and unable to address a dangerous wave of organized, frequently violent gang activity, much of it run by leaders who are based in other countries. With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter. Over the past two decades, we have been incarcerating more and more people for nonviolent crimes and for acts that are driven by mental illness or drug dependence. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 16% of the adult inmates in American prisons and jails--which means more than 350,000 of those locked up--suffer from mental illness, and the percentage in juvenile custody is even higher. Our correctional institutions are also heavily populated by the "criminally ill," including inmates who suffer from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.
Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. According to data supplied to Congress' Joint Economic Committee, those imprisoned for drug offenses rose from 10% of the inmate population to approximately 33% between 1984 and 2002. Experts estimate that this increase accounts for about half of the dramatic escalation in the total number imprisoned over that period. Yet locking up more of these offenders has done nothing to break up the power of the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade. Nor has it brought about a reduction in the amounts of the more dangerous drugs--such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines--that are reaching our citizens. Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. Indeed, four out of five drug arrests were for possession of illegal substances, while only one out of five was for sales. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in our state prisons were there for nonviolent or purely drug offenses. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans--who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population--accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Against this backdrop of chaos and mismanagement, a dangerous form of organized and sometimes deadly gang activity has infiltrated America's towns and cities. It comes largely from our country's southern border, and much of the criminal activity centers around the movement of illegal drugs. The weapons and tactics involved are of the highest order. The Mexican drug cartels, whose combined profits are estimated at $25 billion a year, are known to employ many elite former soldiers who were trained in some of America's most sophisticated military programs. Their brutal tactics took the lives of more than 6000 Mexicans last year alone, and the bloodshed has been spilling over the border into our own neighborhoods at a rapid pace. One terrible result is that Phoenix, Ariz., has become the kidnapping capital of the United States, with more than 370 cases in 2008. That is more incidents than in any other city in the world outside of Mexico City. How would you change the prison system? » The challenge to our communities is not limited to the states that border Mexico. Mexican cartels are now reported to be running operations in some 230 American cities. Other gang activity--much of it directed from Latin America, Asia, and Europe--has permeated our country to the point that no area is immune. As one example, several thousand members of the Central American gang MS-13 now operate in northern Virginia, only a stone's throw from our nation's capital. [ Who are the world's most wanted criminals? See the list »] In short, we are not protecting our citizens from the increasing danger of criminals who perpetrate violence and intimidation as a way of life, and we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail. It is incumbent on our national leadership to find a way to fix our prison system. I believe that American ingenuity can discover better ways to deal with the problems of drugs and nonviolent criminal behavior while still minimizing violent crime and large-scale gang activity. And we all deserve to live in a country made better by such changes. Senator Jim Webb (D. Va.) is a PARADE Contributing Editor and the author of nine books, including "A Time to Fight."