It’s all connected

What’s up fam
This piece is going to be a mix of various things that have been on my mind.

1.    If you haven’t noticed yet, the flurry of news surrounding Haiti relief is done. This is where the real work begins because character is what we do when no one is looking. So here we go, no more moving facebook updates, editorial cartoons, or grand speeches by political leaders. Now that no one is looking is the perfect opportunity to give more of your self. So let’s chill with the “We will never forget” slogans because if you remember and don’t do anything, what’s the point?

2.    So it appears that the Dems have decided to finally commit to using reconciliation to finish health care reform. Senate Majority Leader Reid put forth a goal of having this done in 60 days and I hope and pray Democrats get this done because it is simply unconscionable for a country flush with so much wealth to have so many people go without adequate healthcare.

3.    I wanted to share a quote that has had me thinking, “The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day.”

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“On the Shortness of Life”
translated by John W. Basore, Loeb Classical Library
London: William Heinemann, 1932

In response to this quote, what expectations do you have of yourself and others?  How do you think these expectations have helped or hindered? What informs these expectations? Do you really carpe diem or are you one of those people who go through the week like a zombie expecting to truly live when get off work on Friday?

4.    I haven’t heard anything about the guy that flew his plane into the IRS building. See now if the guy was Muslim, it would be front page every day for at least two weeks. What I don’t want is more finger pointing based on race, what I want is appropriate and proportional responses based on behavior, not race.

5.   Black History month is almost over and before we move on, I just want to thank all the Black people whose efforts and names will never make it into a history book or a PBS Black History month program. I represent am 27 years of Black History but I also stand on the shoulders of giants and so many elders have pulled me aside to show guidance and encouragement. Black History did not end with Civil Rights but it will be if we don’t have a burning desire to make the world better for our kids and grand kids. How much more would those coming after us resent us for being so selfish for not fighting as if all is well.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

p.s. I really wish I could write more fam. Law school and life make it difficult to write the more in depth pieces I used to do more often. My apologies.

No Internet Poll Taxes

My friend and colleague James Rucker wrote a piece on Huffington Post asking a simple question: Why are Some Civil Rights Groups and Leaders on the Wrong Side of Net Neutrality? I left a comment, and this post elaborates on the points I made there.

Participation, Inclusion, Equality

Democratic systems flourish when people participate. Having a voice changes people’s relationship with that system and the system’s relationship with the people.

When everyone can’t participate, the system no longer reflects the values and perspectives of the people it impacts. Barriers to entry create divisions, inequality and unfairness.

El Dorado

The Internet was designed as an egalitarian utopia: the El Dorado of the “good ideas win” ethos. Anyone with access to the net could connect with anyone else. Every idea had an equal opportunity to succeed.

When the Internet was taken hostage by telecommunications companies, they threatened this order. They limited participation online by pricing most low-income communities out of the market, creating the Digital Divide. This practice of exclusion reduced the diversity of thought online. It put the Internet on an identical path to becoming an echo chamber of pale, stale, male attitudes.

Next Stop: Poll Taxes

The redlining was round one, but the next round is more sinister. Telecoms are now considering crushing freedom of expression online by creating Jim Crow-esque poll taxes on content they consider unfit for higher-speed, higher-quality Internet connections. This assault on the freedom by private interests is as wrong now as it has ever been.

This should raise specific concern within the civil rights community. Civil rights organizations fought and won the war against poll taxes over 40 years ago. It’s alarming that they are willing to open the door for this type of discrimination in the 21st century. It’s up to us, the membership, the foot-soldiers of these organizations and of this 21st century civil rights movement, to take a stand against this disgusting discrimination.

Protecting Internet Freedom by ensuring Net Neutrality

The FCC is considering creating rules to protect Internet Freedom. Learn more about the process at Save The Internet. I testified at a hearing in December to voice my strong support of protecting Internet Freedom.

You can join the fight by demanding that Congress work alongside the FCC to protect Internet Freedom and outlaw discrimination by telecom companies.

Sign the petition today.

One Love. One II.

Open Gates – My FCC Testimony

On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, I testified at an FCC workshop entitled “Speech, Democratic Engagement and the Open Internet.” Video of the hearing is embedded below and available on YouTube. The moderator introduces me at 58:27, and my roughly 6 minute remarks begin at 59:07. The Q&A that begins at 1:26:18 (My answers are at 1:28:00-1:29:29 and 1:41:20-1:43:31).

My message was that an open internet is necessary for the political participation of all people of all shapes, sizes, races and income in the future. My full opening statement with references is below.

One Love. One II.

Civil rights groups must support Net Neutrality

Civil rights are fundamentally about protecting fairness, equality, and freedom for all people. Net neutrality is about protecting fairness, equality and freedom for all online data. From a values perspective, these two concepts are functionally equivalent.

Values aren’t everything

Unfortunately, these shared values are not convincing enough for some civil rights organizations. The Broadband Opportunity Coalition (which, ironically, has no website) consists of the National Urban League, the Asian American Justice Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Council of La Raza, and other groups that argue for fairness and equality every day.

Well, every day they’re not talking about net neutrality. On their off days, they “question” the impact of net neutrality in letters to the FCC:

If the history of civil rights in America teaches us anything, it is that facially neutral laws and regulations are not always applied neutrally to the constituencies we represent. We certainly don’t want that to happen to Internet regulation too, and we’re very concerned that, despite your very best intentions, some aspects of net neutrality might not turn out to be neutral as applied to our constituencies.

They don’t come out and say it, but this is setting the table for their rejection of fair content distribution online.

Neutral networks lead to empowered communities

The truth is network neutrality is critical to ensuring equal access to the Internet, its content, and the empowerment that comes with that. Without network neutrality protection, ISPs and telecom companies will have free reign to discriminate against the distribution of content created by minority producers. This will make the Internet just like other mass media channels in which the authentic voices of people of color have been marginalized.

Fairness, equality, and freedom must be protected on and offline.

Sean Bell

Like many of you, I am outraged that the three detectives were acquitted of killing Sean Bell. Sean was 23 the night he was set to be married the next day and though he was unarmed, the cops thought him dangerous enough to deserve being killed. And Sean wasn’t just killed, he was shot 50 times. It is crap like this that make me upset as to why Black people fear and distrust the police.

I know there will be rallies held in New York to protest this miscarriage of justice and if you are in the area, you should go. After the marches though, Bell’s story like Amadou Diallo and others will be filed in the Black consciousness as the continuing saga of injustice that has plagued Black folk since we were kidnapped from Africa. Surely this is worth Black folk being bitter right?

Bell was killed at a strip club and the undercover detectives were there to investigate if there was prostitution going on. Prostitution is wrong I get it. But quite frankly, how in the world do you investigate prostitution? I mean you tell me that these detectives couldn’t have set up a camera and watch the footage from the precinct? Aren’t there enough unsolved murders in the hood that could be a better use of these detectives’s time? And while I don’t have a J.D., how is it these detectives were not brought before a jury?

I try to imagine the hell I would raise if one of my people suffered a death like Sean Bell. The fact is that while I never knew Sean, he is my brother and your brother too. Our prayers go out to Bell’s family and friends as they and we try to sort out this injustice.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

The Future of the Civil Rights Movement

Our good friend and true SuperSpade Jill Tubman from Jack and Jill Politics put up this awesome piece about the future of the Civil Rights Movement and how technology figures into the equation. I have posted the piece in its entirety and it is a must read.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Civil Rights Groups Wither – New Ones Taking Their Place

This Washington Post story Civil Rights Groups Seeing Gradual End of Their Era ends with this sentence though I’d like to start my response with it. It quotes E. Ethelbert Miller:

 

“What would happen if W.E.B. Du Bois or Marcus Garvey had a laptop?” Du Bois helped found the NAACP in 1909, and Garvey, a rival, started a back-to-Africa movement around the same time.

 

We are the answer to that question. In the vacuum of black leadership 40 years after Martin Luther King’s death, it’s his spiritual grandchildren that are carrying his mission forward now and not the civil rights groups he might have recognized. From the WaPo piece (emphasis mine):

 

In New York, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which helped shape the movement’s philosophy after adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolent protest, is scarcely known outside Manhattan. CORE conceded that it now has about 10 percent of the 150,000 members it listed in the 1960s.

What Obama’s win really means

Now let’s assume Obama wins the nomination and shoot, goes on to be the next President. What do you think would happen to the civil rights–donor–industrial complex? I am not sure but I think along the way, it will be increasingly difficult for Black “leaders” that came out early for other candidates to 1) go negative against Obama like Andrew Young, who claimed that Bill is blacker than Obama and 2) making the transition to supporting Obama if and when he wins the nomination. My hope is that Obama’s candidacy will bring young folks out the shadows and fill in leadership vacuums by doing real work.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and firefighters

Michigan’s native son Mitt Romney falsely claimed that he watched his father, former Michigan governor George Romney marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Romney’s campaign had to backtrack when called to the carpet because when yesterday “Romney’s campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.”

Not that I am surprised but when I think about the currency that King holds in the American psyche, I am trying to figure out if we need a new claim to truly honoring the civil rights movement…like working on civil rights!!! Lest Romney stand alone, I am specifically skeptical of people like Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson who can honestly say they have marched with MLK and have reaped (and sold unfortunately) an inordinate amount moral authority as a result.

How the myth of individualism is destroying the Black community

Cross-posted at the Brave New Films Blog.

A majority of black Americans blame individual failings — not racial prejudice — for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday — a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s.

This sentence lead off an LA Times piece on class division in the Black community today. These results are not unique to Black people in this country, but they represent a dangerous trend of ignorance, selfishness, and a lack of empathy that does not paint a bright picture of the future. According to this, the "it takes a village…" proverb must be nearing obselescence.

Obama challenges the new AG on the Jena 6

Cross-posted from the Brave New Films Blog.

Courtesy of Too Sense.

Barack Obama is saving face since he didn't show up in Jena. He wrote this letter to AG nominee Michale Mukaskey. Here's an excerpt:

In recent months, our nation's attention has been focused on the racial strife in Jena, Louisiana, and the disparate treatment of six African American youths. As Attorney General, will you commit the investigative resources of the Civil Rights Division to ensuring the fair treatment and execution of the law in cases such as the Jena 6, as well as the recent acquittal by an all-white jury of eight prison guards accused of killing a young black male at a juvenile detention center in Florida?

I am happy that Obama is showing some character here. It is called the Department of Justice, so he is calling for Justice to be served to everyone everywhere. I want to see more, concrete Civil Rights-related statements like this from Obama.

One Love. One II.

Free the Jena 6!!!

I typically don’t listen to talk radio outside of NPR, but thankfully I came across the Michael Baisden show today and he was focusing on the Jena 6. I know his show is broadcast across the country and I hope that his show raises the consciousness of his listeners as he lent huge support to the rally taking place on September 20^th.

Black bloggers have been on top of this from Jack and Jill, Too Sense, Afrospear, and many others. Nevertheless, if you don’t know about the Jena 6 here is the basic run down.

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Vietnam

I am sending a huge and shout out to Jack and Jill Politics for featuring a video by Martin Luther King and his opposition to the war in Vietnam. I won’t go into detail about why I oppose this war but if you listen to this speech and replace Vietnam with Iraq, his speech is even more poignant. One quote I pulled from the speech is that the “A nation that year after year, spends more money on military defense, than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.” Meditate on this as you prepare for Memorial Day.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

Should States Apologize for Slavery?

TIME Magazine asks this question. What do you think?

{democracy:2}

The Movement for Our Times

I saw this cartoon in a Christian Science Monitor article and I wanted to know what issue you think our generation should tackle. Have we seen an issue (or set of issues) whose reach is long enough to be a call for our generation? I would hate to have been one of those people who just sat around during the Civil Rights Movement because I was too selfish or otherwise not engaged. But is it possible we are doing that right now?

To be sure, we should take stock to make sure that history will not look back on us and have our silence be recorded in the face of mass injustice. What is your vision and barriers do you think exist to communicating this vision?

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Vision
Movement

Changes at National Urban League & NAACP Signal Changes in Civil Rights Movement

What’s happening in the national Civil Rights Movement?

Bruce Gordon, the head of the NAACP, announced his resignation today. He is at odds with the NAACP’s board because he wants to focus more on social services, while the board wants to maintain the group’s more traditional role as an advocacy organization.

I believe that Bruce Gordon is dead-on in wanting to connect advocacy to tangible social services on the ground. An example of a two-pronged approach to this would be lobbying against police brutality (advocating) while at the same time training Black men on how to deal with the police (social service through training). I pray that Gordon’s departure does not mean that such a program would not be possible from the NAACP.

The Chicago Urban League last week announced that it is rolling out a new agenda focusing less on social services and more on economic empowerment. The National Urban League has over the years been transitioning from its roots as a economically-focused organization to one that has taken on more social services, but this represents a change in tactics and a return towards its initial goals at its founding.

I believe that the Urban League was heading down a great path by combining their economic and social agendas. An example of a two-pronged approach to this that I worked with last year was an after-school program for high school students (social service) that trained them on how to be entrepreneurs (economic empowerment). I pray that Chicago and other Urban Leagues around the coutry’s shift in focus does not mean that such a program would not be possible from them in the future.

What does this mean? I think it signals that a split in the movement that has existed since its beginnings still exists today. The question is, why are social services and economic empowerment treated as two ideals that cannot be strived for simultaneously?

One Love. One II.

Categories:
Black Issues
Civil Rights

Rev. Al Sharpton might be running for President

On blackelectorate.com today, I read an article that discussed Rev. Al Sharpton’s threatening to run for President of the United States if Democratic candidates do not “commit to focusing attention on civil rights issues.” Strategically, does it make sense for Rev. Al Sharpton to play that role in the 2008 election cycle? Why or why not?

And please do not confuse this question with whether or not you like or dislike Rev. Sharpton.

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Politics
Al Sharpton

Post election analysis: Affirmative Action

Guess who’s bizack? What’s up fam, my extended absence was due to my job doing political organizing leading up to the election. To Garlin and Steve; thank you for holding it down and continuing to bring the fire. So due to the political nature of my job, it is only fitting that I provide some post election analysis as it pertains to the banning of affirmative action.

Here in Michigan, there was a ballot proposal sponsored by the wrongfully titled Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The ballot proposal asked Michigan voters to amend the state constitution to ban affirmative action programs. The ballot initiative passed by an astounding margin of 56% to 42%.The text of the ballot read as such; (emphasis mine)

A proposal to amend the state constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.

Now if you were oblivious to the long lasting effects of banning affirmative action, I could see how it would be reasonable to think that voting yes for this amendment is in line with your values and beliefs. However, I want to spend a little bit of time on the loaded term, preferential treatment. These two words are powerful because it assumes that we are all equal and therefore, any group getting so called preferential treatment is unfair to the people that don’t get preferential treatment. In fact, affirmative action tries to actually level the playing field. But here is where I think lies the deep philosophical difference between supporters and opponents. Opponents of affirmative action like to believe that the playing field is equal and proponents of affirmative action try to level the playing field. I just find it sad that in 2006, so many people are in refusal of believing that discrimination is not an institutionalized feature of our society.

And as for this colorblind mess, I can’t stand it. Humans are not dogs, we see in color. Many White people will think that their Black counterparts in college got there by affirmative action, due to athletic scholarship, or just otherwise have not earned the right to be where they are. Taking away affirmative action will not heal race relations and will not make racism and discrimination disappear. Let me say that again, taking away affirmative action will not heal race relations and will not make racism and discrimination disappear.

Ward Connerly and his conservative backers will be taking his ban on affirmative action to five different states. Banning affirmative action has a very salient effect into tapping into the anger that is just beneath the surface of many white people. And before I think it crazy that the government should take positive action to make up for discrimination, I like to refer to Dave Chappelle.

This ballot initiative is bad for Michigan and I can only hope that the decision would have been different had people voted using logic instead of emotion. And as my co-worker so eloquently expressed to me, “Not everything should be decided by the people.”

In the next post, we will look at ways to blunt the effects of this decision and what to do if Ward sets up camp in your state.

Categories:
politics
affirmativeaction

Vote Black, no matter what?

I do not believe that Black voters should vote for someone just because they are Black. The danger with doing this is that it will [and does] encourage those who do not have any interest in benefiting Black people to use figureheads to bait Black voters into voting against their personal/collective best interests. I do not want to see such a thing happen.

Some Black Maryland Democrats are coming out in support of Republican Senate Candidate Michael Steele. This is the latest installment in the ongoing debate over which party best represents Black voters (not people, voters. If you don’t vote, you get ignored).

Republicans, over the last 4 years especially, have been courting Black voters, saying, “what have the Democrats really done for you? Don’t you feel like they take our vote(s) for granted?” These are valid questions that must be asked of every individual voter and every ‘block’ of voters (Latino, female, homosexual, single parents, entrepreneurs, etc.). The answers to these questions and other related ones are important points of introspection for individuals and collective bodies. What is interesting here is that is that these questions are posed by Republicans with the implicit assumption that “if you vote Republican, we won’t take you for granted.” I see little evidence to support such a notion.

Black voters have been relatively consistent supporters of the Democratic voters for the last 50 or so years. Why is that? I’d argue that the phenomenon started with Democratic Party actions such as Franklin Roosevelt and The New Deal, Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Movement, Affirmative Action, and other things.

I think that the debate on who to vote for should be based on an issue-by-issue, candidate-by-candidate, track-record-by-track-record comparison. A person the same race as you, the same gender as you, the same age as you, or the same sexual orientation as you does not mean that the person will best represent you or have your best interest in mind when they represent you as your governmental spokesperson.

Here’s a quote from the end of the article (my emphasis added):
–
“[Prince George's council member David Harrington (D-Cheverly)] Harrington said race is a factor for him. ‘It’s not the factor,’ he said, ‘but it is a factor. There needs to be a diversity of voices in the room.’”
–

I agree that a “diversity of voices” needs to be present in all situations. However, we need to be clear that race is not the only axis that diversity spins on. There are a whole lot of other things that mark diversity:
- Race
- Age
- Gender
- Religion
- Ethnicity
- Country of Origin
- Class
- etc.

When we think of diversity, we need to look beyond physical appearances. We need to be careful about who we trust, and not give people “like us” a free pass. I think Michael Steele is a nice enough guy, but I would not support or vote for him if he was running in my state.

I encourage people to look at candidates as individuals, their track records, and their plans for the future when deciding who to vote for. Take into account more than one issue, be it race, abortion, or what ever, when deciding who should represent you. Don’t vote for someone just because they are Black.

Perhaps a way to judge if someone will represent Black people well could be to get their take on these?

One Love. One II.

Categories
Politics
Black Issues
Voting
Democrat
Republican

Empowering Yourself, Empowering Your Community

This weekend, I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at the CLIMB Rally. CLIMB (Communities Learning to Invest and Mobilize for Business) is an initiative that works to increase financial literacy and awareness in inner-city communities in Wisconsin. I have been working closely with this organization since 2004 and it has been a rewarding experience. Originally in outline format, I have converted, to the best of my memory, the speech to prose form. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Truth and Peace,
Steve

It is an honor and a privilege to stand before you today. I am humbled that I was chosen for the keynote spot. The lunch hour is always a difficult slot to fill, so I will try to make this as brief and painless as possible.

When I was first asked me to speak on EMPOWERING YOURSELF, EMPOWERING YOUR COMMUNITY, I was at a loss. I thought, I am only 23 years old, and I am not a professional speaker. What do I know? Sure I had written a few articles and done a little volunteer work, but what qualified me to speak on such a deep topic? Well, the most important qualification I could think of is that I LOVE MY COMMUNITY and I genuinely WANT TO SEE PEOPLE LIVE TO THEIR HIGHEST POTENTIAL. I am not much of a public speaker, I am more of a conversationalist. With that said, I have a few words, but what I really want to have is a dialogue with you, the beautiful people who make up the COMMUNITY of MILWAUKEE. So after I get done, if there are any comments or questions you have, I am open to them.

Empowering the Community

Since we are in a church, I figure it would be appropriate if I took my text for today from the GOOD BOOK. We gonna go to church for a minute. I was raised in a Christian household, so a lot of my life lessons come from the Word. I know service isn’t until tomorrow, but bear with me.

In the book of Joshua, specifically Joshua 4:1-9, God has parted the Jordan river and the Israelites have just crossed into the PROMISE LAND after 40 years of wandering in the WILDERNESS. GOD tells Joshua to memorialize this moment of crossing over by choosing a man from each tribe and have them grab a boulder and make a heap of stones.

1. He says, “THAT it may be a memorial among you, that when your CHILDREN ask their FATHERS in the time to come, saying, WHAT DO THESE stones signify?” v.6

2. “Then ye shall answer them, THAT THE WATERS of JORDAN were cut off before the ARK of the COVENANT of the Lord: when it passed over Jordan, the waters of JORDAN were cut off: and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of ISRAEL for ever.” v. 7

B. Legacy

When I was doing my research, I came across this passage and I got to thinking: All threw out the Bible, the Israelites memorialized everything. Yet as a group, the Jews have been through some of the most systematic persecution the world has ever seen; from the expulsion from Rome, to the Crusades, to the Holocaust. Yet, today, they manage to own almost everything. And they have tremendous solidarity as a community. How is this possible? I came up with one answer: The Power of Legacy.
In order to talk effectively about subject matter, we need some definitions.

1. Legacy is defined in the dictionary as “ANYTHING HANDED DOWN FROM AN ANCESTOR; AN INHERITANCE.”
a. Traditionally for the rich (e.g. property, a coat of arms, written works, etc.) because the poor did not own anything. It granted them IMMORTALITY because every time their children or great grand-children sat down in that BIG HOUSE or spent that MONEY, it forced them to REMEMBER who made that possible.

b. LEGACIES are formed by mindsets that have been cultivated over time.
i. EXPERIENCES
ii. EXPECTATIONS
iii. UNDERSTANDING/INTERPRETION OF THESE EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS. BUT MOSTLY, WE DO WHAT WE SEE.

For example, my little brother and sister, when they were little, would watch me talk on my cell phone and walk around the house. When they were able to walk and talk, they began to do the same thing. Then I remembered, I saw my dad do that everytime he got on the phone. We do what we see.

Why are legacies important? CONNECTS us to the past, GIVES us WISDOM, GUIDANCE and STRENGTH for the Present, and HOPE for the future. It also makes us accountable for the things we have received and what we will pass on.

2. Community: A group of PEOPLE living TOGETHER as a smaller social UNIT within a larger one with interests in COMMON. A group of PEOPLE with COMMON legacies.
a. Communities are built on TRADITIONS, which is a type of legacy.
i. In fact, COMMUNITIES exist for the SOLE PURPOSE of PERPETUATING these LEGACIES, which are ways of doing things.

With these definitions, it leads to two interesting questions: What have you inherited? And what legacy will you leave behind? We need to take a critical eye towards our legacies. For example, soul food is a bedrock of the African-American experience, but the way it is traditionally prepared is killing us. We are suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure as a result of these foods. Legacies can hurt us when they outlive their usefulness.

My own family was not rich, but they things they lacked materially, they made up for in training and maintaining the family. CHURCH FAMILY, INTEGRITY, SACRIFICE, and CONCERN for one another was of crucial importance. Whenever I would go off to school, my parents would always say, “You are a reflection of us, do not do anything that will dishonor the family.” It was this groundedness and upbringing that has made me the man I am today. Seeing my grandfather interact with my grandmother and his children. Seeing my father and mother do what they did and take the time to teach me about life and my roots that made all the difference.

Consequently, I grew up immensely concerned with my legacy. Everything I did was done to make God and my family proud of me; and also to put my children in a better position than I was in. This is what led me to get involved with the Weekly Dream and The Superspade. I felt that every man should have a legacy and I wanted to memorialize the lessons I had learned to guide my children, to keep them on the path set before them. I thought about the stories my father told me that helped me through my rough times, and I wondered, what stories could I tell them? Those stories and lived experiences helped me through my own tough times when I came to that same fork in the road.

If we look at the LEGACY we are leaving our children, can we be proud? Our parents inherited the legacy of the Civil Rights Era, community activism and social awareness and empowerment. But my generation and the ones after us are seeing one of violence, drugs, absentee fathers, and poverty. Are we equipping them with the tools they will need to FACE TOMORROW and To COMPETE in this global economy?

Empowering the person

This leads me to the second part of the equation: Empowering the person. If we want the community to get better, we must get better. When the people get better, our community will get better. In order for us to get better, WE NEED TO GET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER. So allow me to present the Steven M DeVougas 4-Point Plan for Getting Your Life Together (patent pending).

First, Get a VISION. You need a revelation of your purpose and potential. In Proverbs it says that where there is no vision, the people perish. If you do not know who you are or what you are suppose to be doing, abuse and neglect sets in. I am a big proponent of asking the hard questions and seeking the truth. If you have more questions than we have answers, that is all right. The questions will lead you to your vision. And your vision will guide you actions and fuel your passion. So ask yourself:
1.) AM I LIVING THE LIFE I WANT TO LIVE?
2.) AM I MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT I HAVE?
3.) AM I FULFILLING MY DESTINY?

From the sixth grade on, I had one goal: To get out of my mama’s house and go off to college as far away from Milwaukee as possible. This goal carried me through grade school, high school, college and into grad school. Now, I am searching for a new vision to build and orient my life around, to fuel my passion and take me to the next level. After years of chasing this one vision and achieving it, I have to begin the process anew. That is the soul-searching I am currently undergoing so that I may achieve my destiny.

Second, Make the DECISION. And keep making the decision, to chase your dream and fulfill the vision. TALK to people who are making it happen. DON”T miss out because you didn’t open your mouth or seek the answers. INCREASE your awareness daily. WE ARE IN A WAR, with ourselves, for our communities, for our families. And change is not going to come easy. We are going to have to fight to the end.

THIRD, CONTROL what you can. You might not be able to save the world, but you can influence those around you and be a local catalyst for change. You might not be able to stop the war in Iraq or the atrocities in Darfur, but you can change what is going on right outside your door, right here, in this city. Take control and be accountable for your actions. SPEAK UP: Talk to your family and friends about legacy and what they are doing with their lives and talent. Bring them to things like the CLIMB rally, so that they can see a different way of doing things. Remember, we tend to do what we see.

Fourth: KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER. Help others and be a resource. Remember, it is bigger than you. SERVE with your gifts. That is why God gave them to you. Not everyone is built for visiting the prison or working in a homeless shelter, but you can do something that you enjoy that serves others, and that is how we glorify the Creator. Keep an eye toward your legacy and capitalize on it. A lot of times, we do not think that the things we possess has value outside of our family or community, but we all possess something the world needs. As a community and a people, we miss out on wealth creation and opportunity because of this limited thinking.

I will share a story that typifies this. At my family reunion last year, I learned that my great-grandfather had a BBQ sauce so good, that people in a tri-state area would come to his rib shack just to taste it. When I learned of this, I thought, wow, my family could be a BBQ sauce dynasty. When I inquired about where the recipe was, the answer I got was, “we don’t know, nobody ever wrote it down”. As a result, Sweet Baby Ray’s wears the BBQ crown.

Conclusion

Sounds simple? I do not have all of the answers, but this is how it seems to me. If we empower ourselves by being our best selves, then our community will be a reflection of that. It cannot be about me and mine, because we are all connected. When we move from a ME mentality to a WE mentality, then change will occur. But if we do not SHARE information and RESOURCES, nothing will change.

WE need each other and MILWAUKEE needs us. OUR city needs leaders who are not AFRAID to SPEAK UP, but who have enough LOVE in their hearts for the CITY and the COMMUNITY to stop and make a difference. The surest way to empower yourself and the community is to WALK in LOVE and LIVE THE TRUTH. Live a life consistent with what you know is right. What will the heap of stones you leave behind say about you?
I encourage everyone to check us out on www.thesuperspade.com and support some young brothers trying to make a difference in our own little way. THANK YOU and I WISH ALL OF YOU TRUTH AND PEACE in this pursuit of EXCELLENCE and financial freedom.

Categories:
money
blackissues

A turning point for Black folks

I know the Bible talks about we shouldn’t lead a life of fear, but can I be honest? I am afraid of looking of what the future holds for the Black Community 15-25 years from now when most of us the folks who were directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement will be in the twilight years of their lives. Now death is nothing new in the Black Community. However, I believe that as a whole, we take for granted the huge wealth of institutional knowledge that resides deep in the souls of more senior Black folks.

And my fear is that as more of these soldiers pass away, the goals and the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement will become more commercialized and watered down, thereby creating huge gaps in the understanding of our identity and the tactics we used to reach the point where we are at today. I don’t want to lose that but as I see more debates framed around the old vs. young, I feel that we are not respecting the delicate turning point we find ourselves in.

Do you think this is a valid concern? If so, what do you think are the implications be it negative or positive? And what should we do to help stave off the negative effects?

Stay up fam,

Categories:
blackissues
civilrights

Education vNext, Part I: The Mental and The Cultural

The SuperSpade has dealt semi-tangentially with education at different points in time.  I thought [after having it suggested to me] that it’s be appropriate at this time, the beginning of the school year for most people, to give me perspectives on education going forward and it’s relevance and importance to our people, our community, and our future.

Many of my thoughts on this subject are included in this post.  My foundation for these thoughts/feelings is worth re-iterating: we have two-fold challenge that faces us on this issue.  We have mental & cultural issues in society at large and in minority communities that only value education as long as it has a payoff in dollars.  We also have institutional issues that not only create but perpetuate resource disparities between schools, creating challenges for students because not all schools are created equal. 

Though I do not believe that one of these is necessarily more important do the other, nor do I believe that we need to serialize the solving of these problems, I will address the mental & cultural challenges first. 

We [unfortunately] can many times only see value in things when their value is most easily measured in dollars and cents.  To put it bluntly, this is short-sighted and f*d up.  My closest mentor says it like this: “We need to flip ‘if it doesn’t make dollars then it doesn’t make sense’ to ‘if it only makes dollars then it doesn’t make sense.’”  What does that mean here?  That means that we must expand our actions and thoughts so that they are open to the notion that money is not the be all, end all.  One of the reasons that many people do not pursue education seriously or at all is because they are sure that they won’t make enough money from it.  Think about it.  Why do so many kids want to be doctors and lawyers (or more interestingly, why do some many parents want their kids to be doctors or lawyers)?  It ain’t because people admire and respect these profession so much (though they should).  It ain’t because every half-way articulate kid will make a good lawyer or detail-oriented kid a good doctor.  It is because both physicians and attorneys make lots of money, plain and simple.  What was the underlying theme behind every skit on Kanye West’s College Dropout album?  It was stupid to pursue [higher] education because you would be destined to be broke.  Now I am not naive enough to think that money does not exist, or wealthy enough to think that money is no object.  However, I am naive enough to believe that there is more to life than getting paid.  Why does this matter in this education discussion?  Ask somebody who hates their job, and they’ll tell you how happy their money does not make them.

We need to shift our perspective to things more personally and communally fulfilling than money.  This requires a change in how we look at ourselves and our own personal worth, as well as how we view our collective selves and collective worth.  I do not believe that individuals like Frederick Douglass and other slaves taught themselves how to read because they were trying to get paid.  Do you think slaveholders outlawed reading being taught to slaves because they were scared slaves would get rich off of it?  NO!!!  They did so because they knew, rather, they mentally and culturally embraced the value and power of being able to read.  I use reading here as a proxy for education in general; the notion is still the same.

How did we allow this anti-educational, anti-intellectual demon to pervade our hearts, minds, and spirits?  We got focused on the wrong stuff.  This is partly our doing, and it was partly done to us.  One cannot responsibly ignore the fact that when something is withheld from a person (e.g. freedom of expression, access to money), there is a tendency to over-indulge in that which was withheld upon receiving it.  That is part of the reason why when we ‘come up’ from being broke, we buy cars with big rims (whole ‘nother discussion).  My question is, why didn’t that sustainably occur when educational access was open to us?  We saw it happen in spurts in american history (post-Emancipation, post-Reconstruction, post-Civil Rights Movement, post-Affirmative Action), but the trends slowed to a crawl after these upticks.  Why is it that our thirst for material “wealth” outlasts our thirst for mental, or any other form of wealth?  Did we make that number one, or did someone else lie to us and tell us that was what was most important?  The answer is both.

What should we focus on instead?  We need to redefine what success means, what happiness means, what fulfillment means.  I challenge all ‘educated’ folks as well as those currently pursuing/seeking education to examine ourselves to find what our motivation(s) for education really were.  You may find that there was more to it than getting paid.  If that is not the case, are you happy with your decision?  If that is the case, I challenge you to share these motivations with students, telling them what fulfilled you.  Get a mentee and tell them why education was important to you outside of the financial payoff.  The message here is that we need to do a better job of communicating the non-financial benefits to education in order to make it more holistically attractive.

We also as a collective need to understand delayed gratification as opposed to the hedonistic, instant gratification that society embraces so readily.  Understanding that there is more to life than today, and that what you do today can have positive implications not only tomorrow but in the following decades as well.  The challenge is that some of the alternatives to education have instant gratification characteristics, especially when it comes to money.  What need’s to be communicated is that education’s financial benefits, although somewhat delayed, are real and sustainable, much more so than it’s alternatives.  We need to expand our perspectives.  This is challenging, but it can be done.  Try this: the next time you converse with a young person considering leaving school, ask them why they are leaving.  Then, ask them why they think it might benefit them if they stay.  As many times as I’ve done this, I’ve never had a conversation where the answer to these two questions did not overlap.  Why does that matter?  It matters because it says that many people on some level do at least know education is ‘good.’  Our goal then should be to remove all of the crap that makes it un attractive and that distracts students from it.  That means addressing institutional challenges to education…

This post is getting longer than I anticipated, so I will break here and deal with institutional challenges later.

One Love.  One II.

The Weekly Dream: The Right to Privacy

Whatever you have spoken in the darkness shall be heard and listened to in the light, and what you have whispered in [people's] ears and behind closed doors will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
-Luke 12:3

This semester, I am taking a class called “The Law of Privacy.” It is an interesting class dealing with how far should the government and intrude into the lives and rights of individuals. I was surprised to learn that there are two types of privacy: Informational and decisional privacy. Informational deals with information about you released to the public (e.g. credit bureaus). Decisional privacy deals with those hot button issues like abortion, sexual orientation, etc. As one could imagine, technology plays a central role in privacy law. With the advent of the internet, Blogs, Profile sites, Smartphones, GPS, reality television and the like, it seems that you have to go to the moon to get some privacy.

In this Information Age, we are constantly bombarded with information. And it is a constant race to stay current. However, a large part of this is sifting through the ruff to get to the diamonds. When I turn on my computer, I come across numerous things I do not care about, mainly gossip. I do not care who is dating whom, who is cheating on whom, He said/She said. I have enough problems. However, the gossip and reality shows are a thriving industry. What is the preoccupation with sensationalism? Is it because the lives of these people are boring or are they trying to escape a dry, crusty reality? However, this will not help the situation. The result is that people know a lot of things that do not matter, instead of what they need to know. In addition to the voyeurism forced down our throats by the media, the government, under the auspices of National Security, has made it easy for any one to find out anything about you (read: wiretaps, credit reports, identity theft). Indeed, privacy is a scarce and undervalued commodity.

Why is Privacy Important?

Privacy, by definition, necessitates selective exclusion. In this exclusion, relationships are fostered and intimacy develops because there is a comfort and a safe place. Social theorists have claimed that there is a correlation between privacy and individuality. More privacy fosters more individuality and diversity. Less breeds a bland mainstream. Why? Because in the absence of privacy, there is the threat of disapproval, ostracism and rejection if you do not uphold “acceptable behaviors and values”.

In a family, when the sphere of privacy shrinks to the point where parents and children can no longer occupy the same space, then the children leave home-often to make decisions and mistakes without the criticism and stricture of the family. This can cause tension, but this is when parents should learn to “let go”, respect the privacy of their grown children and trust they will make good decisions.

The greatest thinkers and religious figures treasured being alone with their thoughts and their intimates. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience” in seclusion. Jesus would often leave the multitudes and His disciples to pray and gain insight. Moses would went up the mountain and came back with the Ten Commandments. The Israelites, alone in the wilderness emerged as a cohesive nation. Privacy in the form of the retreat is at its essence spiritual. When you are alone, you can reflect and truly define yourself. In the presence of others, you can contrast what you are not.

To me, privacy means the absence of distraction. It is placing a restriction on how much outsiders have access to. When there are no distractions, then there is intense focus. In Kung-fu movies, the hero always goes into seclusion to train and then he faces his foe. Why? Because he must conquer himself before he can achieve his mission. Privacy is not an end unto itself, but it is to recharge so that we can come back and function at a higher level. Privacy is essential to the realization of potential.

These days, people willingly surrender their privacy. A constant debate I have is whether websites like the Facebook or MySpace is an invasion of privacy. I feel it is, but others say that it is a consensual invasion. And true, these sites are consensual, but perhaps these individuals do not know any better. Perhaps people do not examine the ramifications of providing an internet all-access pass. Especially since employers have begun to background check these sites to monitor potential hires and employees.

Privacy can be imposed on individuals. For example, we cannot appear in public nude. So where do we draw the line?

Is Anything Sacred?

In this age of “All-access”, nothing is sacred and it is hurting our relationships. Privacy is the highest respect one can be paid in society. It fosters the self and imagination. As Garlin, Dumi and Brandon have artfully expressed, technology is a tool and should be used to amplify good, not stupidity ( i.e. Vh1’s Flavor of Love). It is hard enough to find truth in the world, and the presence of noisome voices do not make it any easier. Let’s set boundaries as to how far we will let people, technology, and the government encroach upon our lives.

In the Bible, it says seek first the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God is within each of us. However, how can we find the Kingdom on the inside with all the noise on the outside?

Make time to reflect, to build intimacy with the Creator and loved ones, with no distractions.

Respect the privacy of others.

Hold fast to the truth, and let go of the ruff.

Truth and Peace,
Steven M. DeVougas

Question of the Week: What are the ramifications of decreased privacy?

Cristal: Re-thinking Black business

So I read an interesting article that was on Blackelectorate discussing the implications of Jay-Z and other artists boycotting of Cristal after its Managing Director stated in the Economist, “What can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.” And while I won’t discuss hip-hop, this little scuffle highlights a larger issue within the Black community as it relates to how we think about and do business.

For starters, from Cristal to Courvousier to Patron, hip-hop artists have been pushing alcoholic drinks like freedom was in each and every bottle. Now imagine if major hip-hop stars pooled their money (money they have after the record company loan is paid off) and created a high class champagne called, “Urbane.” And if every artist mentioned it in their song where they would normally freely promote another drink, I foresee a Black business to be reckoned with.

The problem I see is that generally speaking, Black folks are so anxious to get access to exclusive luxury products, that once access is granted, we get drunk off the high-life, instead of creating opportunities for ourselves and our communities. And when we do, we think pennies not dollars. Take for example, energy drinks by Little John and Nelly, or fruit water by 50 cent.

A much bigger problem I see is that Black folks are generally concerned with selling other people’s products rather than creating and selling our own products. Now I understand that marketing is an important component of business, but I think Black folks have pretty much saturated the marketing field in terms of entrepreneurship and working in marketing departments.

So where do we go from here?

1) Before you boycott, ask yourself how you can provide a better product/service because if you have a problem, then a whole lot of other people are probably having the same experience.

2) Having a Black-owned business does not mean that all of your clientele must also be Black.

3) We need to get into obscure businesses like selling specially-made screws to construction companies or finding new ways to make cotton last longer. I think too often we limit our opportunities to the ideas that do the most good for Black folk. But this is a double-edged sword because while I applaud the concern for Black folks, we need to realize that having businesses not based in the Black community will make a world of difference if we invest our community service dollars wisely. Black folks give our money to everyone, everywhere, all the time. So let’s reverse this cycle and not be apologetic about it.

4) Less is more. I hate when some Black folks get a little bit of money and lose their minds. And even though I can’t tell people how to spend their money, most Black folk who get caught up in the bling lifestyle are really living on short money, not long money. When you have short money, you can’t afford to just stop working and live comfortably on your investments/savings and still have enough to pass on to your children. When you have long money, you have money that you will never ever think about spending. The difference comes from

5) Quiet wealth. You will know when Black folks have truly overcome economic misfortune when you are 1) surprised when you find out a business is Black owned and when 2) you have quiet millionaires and billionaires. The sad part is that when many of us think rich, we think Forbes lists of the richest people in the world. If you only knew of the quiet wealth that doesn’t get reported, you would go slap somebody’s Mama.

6) Owning your own business does not mean you have to be broke for 15 years before you see a profit. Though it requires a lot of work, many people work full-time jobs and have businesses on the side until it is clear that more profit will be had by quitting their job.

7) Like I stated before, think outside the box and think of ideas that will benefit ALL people. While Black folks have some nuanced preferences, our wants and desires are not dramatically different from those of other groups. We all want better lives for ourselves and for our children. And if a product/service comes along to make that process better, it will be successful. It’s never too late, so act now. In the end unfortunately, the American system of governance requires you to pay to play. There are instances where this is moot, like during the Civil Rights Movement, but until we stop looking for a Black savior, we need to get our money right.

The main reason why Blacks are so pre-occupied with politics is because bureaucracies have become our own businesses in terms of being in charge of massive budgets and being able to dole out thousands of jobs for those that are loyal to the political machine.

The problem now is that there is a huge push to cut the budgets of cities and school districts across the nation. There is a reason why it is political suicide for a politician to push for tax hikes. Less taxes, less revenue, less government. Therefore, we need to get ahead of this process and get into the market so that we can pay the necessary fees in order to make sure our interests are served.

And when we celebrate increased profit margins or the success of a preferred candidate, we can all sip on Urbane. Yes sir!!!

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Why Voting Matters Part II

This is an election year, a mid-term election year. This means that in November, people across the country will be voting not only in local elections, but also in gubernatorial and congressional races as well. There are some things we can do now to ensure that we as a people do not have avoidable drama at the poles on 7 November 2006.

The first thing we need to do is confirm that those of us that are old enough to vote are registered to do so. A good place to start is by visiting publius.org. Enter your name here, and if notating comes up, then you can click here to locate your local clerk, who you need to contact in order to register to vote.

Why are we talking about registering to vote? We’re talking about this because we need to get back to the basics and ensure that our fundamentals are solid. In my opinion, voting is one of the most important civic actions we can do. I tend to think that people agree with me that it’s important, since those in power work very hard to strip the right to vote away from people every day and night.

Here’s a secret: it is easier to take something away from an ignorant person than it is to take that same thing away from one who is informed/armed/prepared. Applying this concept to voting, it is much more difficult to take voting rights away from a person who never voted, stopped voting, or doesn’t value voting than it is to strip that right from one who understands its significance. We’ve talked about why voting matters before, and this point cannot be repeated enough.

Today, we take a slightly different approach to trying to quantify why voting matters, more specifically, why it’s important for everybody everywhere to vote. The Washington Post yesterday had a story that spoke to the effects of voter distribution in national elections.

This is important because it makes plain the fact there is power in collective action. One person doing one thing alone may or may not result in wide-reaching change. However, many people acting together with united purpose and determination have a better chance of effecting changes that impact society as a whole. We talked about working together just recently, and we can’t stress enough how important that is. One person may feel that their vote “doesn’t matter,” and therefore not vote. That, in isolation, will not cause the death of humanity. However, if that attitude were to catch on more broadly, which it has in large part, then you get people who are left with a government that they did not vote for and by definition does not represent them. Most people do not want that outcome, but instead of addressing the apathy at its source, we only react to it after the problem is obvious. If we concentrate on the basics, on helping people understand why they should care, maybe we wouldn’t have a representative democracy that did not represent so many people.

For those of you who vote, can you tell us why?
For those of you who do not vote, can you tell us why not?

A Little on the Top, or A Lot on the Bottom

We have talked about the pros and cons of Black faces in high places on this site before. This is a concept worth revisiting in light of a survey by the Washington Post that says the G. W. Bush has brought on less females and minorities in his administration than Bill Clinton.

Conservative reaction to this story is not surprising (an example is here), but it does raise an interesting question. To quote conservative columnist Michelle Malkin:

“In other words, Bush is an enemy of progress and civil rights because he has appointed too many minorities and women to top Cabinet positions–and not enough to lower, less important jobs!”

This is a matter of quantity versus quality. I think you can have both here, but maybe you can’t. Which would you rather see: a few Black folks in prominent leadership positions or lots of Black people working in lower positions?

White Guilt, Black Victimization

Shelby Steele talked with Ed Gordon on NPR about his book, “White Guilt” a couple days ago. The subject is interesting because it talks about Black folks playing on this “White Guilt” concept to gain concessions from white people. This is in many parts true. But it falls short in some explaining some things.

I had a mentor describe the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1900s as being built on a “moral argument.” It said, “I am a man the same as you. Therefore, we are equal and should be treated as such.” Those with Steele’s viewpoint would argue that this argument worked pretty well, and caused our white brethren to feel “guilty” about the wrongs they’d done. That feeling, where “guilt” is actually felt, is legitimate.

The problem is that we as Black people at times abuse this idea of white guilt. It is flawed because embraces a definition of Black people as victims in all areas of life. What we need to do is understand who we are and understand that we can overcome victimizations of the past and use the strength built from those experiences to be triumphant in the present and the future. Embracing this triumphant nature may cause us to be a bit less quick to “play the race card” in many situations, as Steele suggests in the interview.

Where Steele’s theory falls short, in my opinion, is in the fact even if a person, a white person, feels “guilty,” that feeling is often not trusted or respected by Black folks. Unfortunately, perception is reality for most people, so the person might as well have no guilt/remorse for their actions or the actions of their ancestors since we won’t acknowledge it anyway.

So what do we do? Do we now blindly trust anyone who is apologetic or guilty about the events that led to the condition of Black people in America? No, that would be naive. What we need to do is not embrace the fact that others may/may not “feel bad” about what happened or what’s happening. We should instead focus on our own self esteem as a people and question why we feel the need to act on or take advantage of the “guilt” of others. Could that need be the offspring of our own guilt that has built up over the last 1.5 generations who perhaps may not have done as much as they could to raise our collective knowledge of self, instead focusing on selfish personal gain?

Family, let’s get back to the basics here. Understanding our selves on a personal level and as a community is key to our success. Upon that foundation, we can overcome our situation without the need to exploit things such as “white guilt.”

On Immigration

I have been pondering the current ramifications of the immigration debate and I have come up with more questions than answers. And unfortunately, I am no where as near well-versed on this issue as I would like to be. But I would like to take some time to at least steer us in the right direction.

Language
For starters, (this applies to any issue) we have to pay strict attention to the way in which language is used to frame a debate. When commentators use the words, “alien” and “illegal,” the ensuing argument already assumes its own conclusion. And to call someone an “illegal” is just plain ignorant. I heard a guy on NPR ask, “Why don’t we call Martha Stewart an illegal CEO after she was indicted?” Similarly, if you ever had to go to court to contest a speeding ticket, the bailiff or judge doesn’t label you as an illegal driver. So why are so many of us so comfortable with using this term with respect to Latinos? If we are going to have an intelligent debate, we need to create language that is clear and respectful to both sides.

Distraction
You know what is killing me about all of these Black commentators talking about how Latinos are taking away jobs is baffling. I say that because like most Black folk (perhaps with the exception of those living in the Southwest) never seriously thought or wrote about immigration policy. But now, poll numbers show that Blacks and the rest of the country consider immigration policy to be an important national issue. Did you ever once consider that maybe this immigration debate is a convenient distraction for Bush and the Republicans to not talk about the ongoing civil war in Iraq? Not to mention that while Iran is upping the ante, our national government is obsessing over immigration. So for all the Black writers who recently discovered the importance of immigration reform, go back to what you were writing before instead of taking your talking/writing points from the mainstream press establishment.

Patriotism
Another thing that perplexes me is Black commentator’s assertion that we can’t let “illegal immigrants” sneak into our country. I don’t need to get into the nuances of why Black people may not have the warmest affection for America, but I condemn anyone that will use racism/discrimination to solidify their patriotic ideals. Because when Katrina survivors STILL can’t depend on FEMA to help them and when our country ignores the plight of those in Darfur, Black patriotism for America is hard to find.

History
I know Americans are notorious for lacking an appreciation of history, but why hasn’t Manifest Destiny or the Mexican-American war of 1846 informed the immigration debate? To be sure, the US “conquered and held California and New Mexico during the U.S.-Mexican War. The nation also obtained vast cessions from Native American tribes, which were relocated to remote and unwanted regions, a process begun in the seventeenth century.” Therefore, it seems to me that for as complex as the current debate has become, it would be a little easier to understand if we put it in the context of real American history.

West Indian Immigrants
And I haven’t heard anyone talk about the vast numbers of West Indians (I am speaking generally, of course) that are patiently awaiting their green card. So my gripe with Bush’s proposed guest worker program is that I wonder how much easier it would be for Mexicans and other Latinos to participate in this program than it would be for West Indians. Again, a historic note would be fitting because if you really think that people would be trying to keep Elian Gonzalez here if he was a Jamaican, then you are seriously mistaken. My hope is that immigration reform should be just as easy to take advantage of as Mexicans or West Indians, or any one else who wants to come to this country. More importantly, letting people work illegally without any intentions of granting them citizenship is just wrong. And for all the people talking about how illegal immigration closes job opportunities for Blacks is narrow-minded at best. We see the same flawed logic used in affirmative action when people imagine two applicants where one White applicant directly competes against a Black applicant who has lower credentials. The fact is that college admissions, like the economy, is dynamic and the market place (with healthy assistance from the government interference) and therefore, cannot be simplified to one Black and one Latino competing for one job. The fact is that if American corporations were more concerned about producing better products and services than cutting costs, there would be enough jobs for everybody.

Black and Brown Unity
Hopefully, this immigration debate will serve as the bridge between Blacks and Latinos because if you keep it real, it hasn’t really been robust. More importantly, Black people are not the judges of whether a “civil rights movement” is justified. I appreciate our unique history in this country but in the same way not “every” Black person was involved during the Civil Rights Movement, not every Black person have to take sides on the immigration debate. That is to say that not every quest for civil rights requires the involvement of Black people. I think Latinos have showed themselves to be quite capable or organizing themselves around this issue. As such, Blacks people’s presence or lack thereof, is not the deciding factor in determining Black/Latino relations. We have to define our own destiny.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Stand up!!!

That’s exactly what happened today at MacKenzie High School, (a Detroit Public School) when reportedly 200 students “marched up and down Wyoming, many chanting “No books, no school.” The students complained they have to share books in the classroom and can’t take them home. They also were upset about a new uniform policy implemented last fall and said bathrooms have toilets overflowing with feces and some students urinate in hallways.”

I’m not sure if you can sense it but there is a rumbling going on that is slowly making its presence felt. Young people are protesting in France, the Palestinians voted Hamas into power, Latinos are mobilizing like wild fire over the current immigration reform bills before Congress, and now students in my beloved hometown are stepping up demanding better resources. What makes me so proud is that these students were not “led” by old school civil rights leaders and as a result, they couldn’t be used as a backdrop.

Going beyond the picture
You are probably surprised that we posted a picture to accompany this post because you have never seen us do so in the past, but there is a point to be made that words alone can’t express. We are not permanently changing the format but if you read this story without the picture you might miss the significance. The young lady speaking, Christina LedBetter, is holding a bottle of Sprite and what I presume to be her talking notes. Now compare that image to what you normally see of so-called Black leaders; memorized talking points and catch phrases along with a bottle of water.(that they never use by the way.) My point is that she was being herself and she wasn’t being coached or managed. I’m not saying the students looked like bums but how many of you would get on camera fighting for justice if you were not looking right? And please don’t say yes too soon.

And do you see the tall brother standing behind her? His arms are crossed and his face, like the others is serious and I think it is symbolic of the fact that Black men have less of a problem being supportive of Black woman than what most would think. Beyond that, their faces convey a sense of urgency that I don’t see very often. And if the students have been reading all the negative statistics about Black youth and their bleak chances of achieving their educational/career goals, then they knew that they need a quality education right here, right now. And just like our forefathers before us, these students are taking control of their destiny and demanding a quality education. So before you continue, take a minute to let this image sink into your conscious so you are aware of what’s at stake.

The preparation
What I think people forget about most the civil rights movement is the preparation and sacrifice that people never saw or heard about. As such, I am proud of the preparation it took these students to get over 200 students to walk out of class. 200 people are not a clique. This event took thoughtfulness, determination, and effective communication because you know some people were on the fence, but was won over by the peer pressure to stand up for justice. Just imagine what will happen when they improve their organizing skills and present a whole new paradigm for correcting the system.

The sorry principal
Principal Bernard Bonam, I don’t know you very well but even if the newspaper took you of context, but you never should have said, “They don’t give a doggone thing about their education… and many of the problems are caused by students themselves, such as those who toss their textbooks out windows onto the schools greenhouse or others who stuff toilet paper into the toilet.” And people wonder why so many Black people are not pleased with the state of public education. For starters, you have to take people at their word and if the group was chanting, “No books, no school,” then that shows me pretty clearly they care about their education. But how many times do people have to say that schools don’t have enough textbooks, classes are overcrowded, the maintenance is shotty, and there is too much administration and not enough education. The students had enough and they demonstrated. But here is the real problem, why should kids ever have to protest to get enough books?!?! I mean fa real fa real. Could you imagine your wealthy suburban high school having kids march talk about “No books, no school?” That sounds silly right? Well if it sounds silly for suburban students then why in the hell doesn’t it seem silly for inner-city students?

Which brings me back to Principal Bonam, why are you blaming the students for the school’s issues? I’m not denying that there are some troublemakers but here’s a new rule that might help you. Get out of your office and get in the hallways and the classrooms. If you know kids are throwing their books out the window, how in the world can you say that you have an adequate number of books? Lock the windows!!!!! And then you tell me it is not in the budget. What about your budget? Open up your wallet, sell some candy, I don’t care, but don’t just wallow in what’s wrong, offer some solutions and ask yourself, “What can I do to make the situation better?”

This question also applies to the person reading this post because even though you may not work in the education field, we all have learned some things along the way that make us extremely valuable in being a resource and inspiration to our youth. Markell Donaldson, a Mackenzie sophomore, said “If we don’t walk out, we won’t get recognized.” Let’s wrap our hearts around all the Markells in this country so they know that the community is there to serve them in school so they don’t have to walk out.

Big Superspade shoutout to all the students that organized today, I applaud your integrity and willingness to stand up for what’s right. We stand with you in the constant fight for justice.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

The power and irony of Wal-mart’s relationship with Black folk

For better or for worse, Wal-Mart is making big moves in the Black community. For starters, “Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group of community leaders from across the country, was set to announce Monday that Andrew Young will be the chairman of its 16 member steering committee formed in December to counter charges from two union-backed groups that are pressuring Wal-Mart to improve wages and benefits.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I read this article that I realized how noticeably absent Black folk have been with respect to debating Wal-Mart’s corporate policies.

We may have been silent because we are all clamoring over the Covenant with Black America that was announced at the State of the Black Union hosted by Tavis Smiley. And I love Tavis Smiley and whenever I turn on the Tom Joyner show, I look forward to hearing his commentary. And when Tavis finishes, Tom Joyner informs us that Tavis’ commentary was sponsored by Wal-Mart. Now if the allegations against Wal-Mart are true that they drive out local businesses, are hostile to their employees in terms of not providing adequate living wages or healthcare, then what does that imply about the potency of Tavis Smiley’s commentaries, given the fact they focus on Black empowerment? And does this say anything about the Covenant with Black America?

And As I stated in the introduction, Andrew Young is spearheading a pro-Wal-Mart group that is at odds with two union-backed groups. I readily admit that sometimes unions can cause more harm than good but that is beside the point for now. The article pointed out that “Young, himself a former union organizer, said he decided to get involved because he believed much of the criticism levied at Wal-Mart by unions was one-sided and wrong.” In Young’s own words he said “The union position is talking about the redistribution of wealth, but they’re not talking about generating new wealth. Wal-Mart is generating new wealth when it comes in.”

For the purposes of this post, I am less concerned with the logic of Andrew Young’s defense of Wal-Mart, but what are the implications of Young being a “public face for the group, giving interviews and publishing opinion articles defending the company.” Now don’t get me wrong, Andrew Young is a bad boy. He is an ordained minister, former US congressman, ambassador to the UN, former mayor of Atlanta, and even helped draft the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1970. And his work as a Civil Rights Activist is fierce. Young was a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, and was with him the day he was assassinated. In 1964, Young was named executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And I could go on and on, but where are we as a people when a civil rights leader with that much clout puts his reputation on the line for Wal-Mart? Is this just a case where businesses need civil rights protection too, or is it a case of selling the richness of our legacy to the highest bidder?

And what do you think Young’s activities will have on Black people’s perception of Wal-Mart? Because not only are Old School Civil Rights leaders (Young) sticking up for Wal-Mart, but New School Civil Rights leaders (Smiley) are as well.

Somebody talk to me,

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Blacks and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Middle East is going to be the center of world attention for many years to come. And if you think that what happens in the Middle East doesn’t affect you, think again. So as we witness the victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections, along with the war in Iraq and the brewing battle over Iran’s nuclear program, what will history say about where Black people stood during these tumultuous times?

And although we could break down every conflict in the Middle East, no situation is more controversial than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So my question is simple but the issue is complex.

Where do you stand in the whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Should Black people have a natural bias towards either group? Is it any of our business?

I have heard some say that Palestinians are victims of Israeli aggression in much the same way Black Americans suffered under slavery and segregation. Likewise I have heard some say that Blacks have a natural bias towards Jews/Israel due to the support Jews they showed Blacks before and during the Civil Rights movement.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

The Weekly Dream: Love and Sacrifice

February is often seen as the “Love Month”. It is the one Hallmark holiday where everything is drenched in pink and red. If you have a special someone, you celebrate it, if you don’t, you try to ignore it. Either way, this is society’s celebration of romantic love.

As a shy, young grade school boy, I loved this time. Believing that timing was everything, I would wait all school year to tell whoever I had a crush on that I liked them. This would take the form of gifts, chocolate or a note. Although we might exchange treats with the class, I always tried to make sure that special young lady stood out from all the rest. It might cost all of my meager allowance, but if it made her happy, it was worth it. Unfortunately, my best friend, who had a paper route, had a habit of liking the same girls as I, and would out-spend me, but I must say I put up a valiant effort.
I reflect on this because in our formative years, we really do not understand what love is about. We get sold all of these “happily ever after” fairy tales of princes and princess, but that is not what we see in the world. So we grow up looking for a dream or an illusion not of our own creating. As a result, disenchantment normally occurs and people create any number of coping mechanisms to deal with the disappointment: bitterness, denial, nonchalance. Yet others intuitively redefine this concept for themselves. This is fine, but often their concept of love is an outgrowth of negative experience or it is emotion divorced from corresponding action. Personally, my idea of love is heavily influenced by the Christian faith. This month, it is my desire to explore this defining human characteristic in an attempt to tap into the true power and also deepen our understanding.

As stated earlier, this concept is personalized from person to person, so it is imperative that we collaboratively reflect and share on our experience and ideals. I encourage all of us to lend us the benefit of your wisdom and experience by emailing thesuperspade@gmail.com or posting your comments at http://www.thesuperspade.com/

Love without a limit

I am infinitely interested in the “dark side” of love and human relationships in general; the parts most people will not tell you about. Somehow, in the course of growing up, my ideal of love became intimately linked with sacrifice. To me, you cannot have love without giving something of yourself. By definition, love is to seek and promote the general well-being of others. It is altruistic and self-less. Pure sacrifice hurts, but when you put love next to it, the blow softens because you are glad to be able perform. You will give all that you possess and be glad about it.
We witness this time and time again with our families. Parents constantly place the needs of their children in front of their own, and never really complain. Or mom/dad might give you something that they know you cannot ever give back to them. However, they do not hold it over your head. They see it as part of their obligation as parents. They are responsible for you.

Too often, we find ourselves involved with individuals who profess to love us, but they do not give anything of themselves. They consistently take and take, but when we are in need, they turn a blind eye to us. That is not love. Love without sacrifice will inevitably breed resentment.

In the New Testament, Jesus stated that where your treasure is, your heart will be also. Time and time again, you saw Jesus putting people’s love to the test, with the Rich Young Ruler, his disciples and the crowd. When he asked them to give away all that they possessed to follow Him, he could see where there love was and what they were really willing to give in order to prove it.

In a Broader Context

February is also Black History Month. With the recent passing of Mrs. Coretta Scott King and also Rosa Parks, I began to think about the Civil Rights Movement and the history of the African American people at large. What distinguished those leaders of yore from the leaders of today is their genuine love of their people and their liberty. Perhaps it is my own personal skepticism, but I am hard pressed to believe that the Montgomery Bus Boycotts could have happened today. Too many of us would be concerned about it being too cold, too hot, having to pick up the babies from daycare, etc. etc. We are talking about tremendous inconvenience and sacrifice on the parts of our ancestors in order to claim basic societal rights. But the love and hope for a better future for the children and society at large kept them moving onward and upward. It took tremendous love for the likes Malcolm and Martin to do what they did. But it also took tremendous sacrifice and strength on the parts of their wives to stand by them while they did so. So the one lesson I am going to take from this month is this: You cannot lead the people if you do not truly love the people. If we began to truly walk in love and seek the good of our brother, we would see more of that true leadership that has marked our history time and time again.

Let’s us honor those who have loved us enough to give even when it was not convenient.

Let love reign: Give more of yourself.

R.I.P. Coretta Scott King

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Question of the Week: How do you know when you are loved and what have you given to prove your love?

In Search of Church

Young black man seeks single church that is also looking for a serious relationship..

I thought about placing an ad like this in the newspaper just to see how many people would contact me telling me how their church had everything I needed. Right now I am church shopping and I can’t stand it. I was fortunate to have been born and raised in the same church up until the time I left for college. While I was in college, a scandal broke out that involved the pastor and the secretary. I’ll save you the details but after the church dissolved, I was upset and I felt betrayed and even though I went to church during college, I was much more skeptical of churches as a whole and my relationship with God withered.

Before I graduated, I tried to get back into the game and the church put on a good front but after a small group, I found out it wasn’t for me. So here I am a 23-year old divorcee of two churches and trying to get back in the game, but church shopping to me at least, is an agonizing experience. One church is too big, this church doesn’t really emphasize community service, or that church is too far away. It’s always something and I feel like I am trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are so many churches to choose from, it is daunting. And although I do pray and read the Bible on my own, I do believe it is important to have a church home. And what compounds the situation is that I am in a state of transition and I don’t feel like I have the energy to really grow roots knowing that I am going to be leaving for grad school before long.

So as I search for a church home, I thought about the things that turn me off to different churches so I can better understand what will not work for me. You may be going through the same thing and if you feel this list should be edited, please post your comments.

• Use the Bible!! I have been to sermons where the preacher didn’t touch the Bible and this burns me to no end. Moreover, I want to know that you researched key words in Hebrew/Greek and can cite cross scriptures I can use to review later.

• I love praise and worship but for me, the message/sermon is more important. I don’t want to feel like I am at a concert and please people, three hours for praise and worship is not necessary unless the Holy Spirit is moving.

• Social change and community service should be integrated into the church’s mission and there must be tangible ways to get involved. Churches in the Black community used to be the pillar of the neighborhood because many church leaders did not draw a line between spiritual well being and fighting for social change and civil rights. I don’t agree with churches that isolate themselves and are unwilling to give the people the skills/resources they need to better their situation.

• Just because I am young and single doesn’t mean I am trying to find a mate so stop with the match maker business. I just hate it when people at a church are more interested in your marital status than your status with the Lord.

• For my pastors, please talk into the mic and avoid grunting whenever possible.

• And to the parents, if your baby is crying, get up and take the baby outside or drop them off at the nursery.

• If your church embraces diversity in terms of race, don’t just have different races there for the sake of having different races.

• I don’t want to be let out at a specific time per se, but I would appreciate having a thirty minute cushion to negotiate.

• Stop being fake. I get so perturbed when I feel like I am in the spiritual version of the Stepford Wives. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need a church to be all out raw with everything but being real is much appreciated.

I just realized how silly my list was. In all seriousness though, finding a church is a very difficult and important process and it requires patience and a willingness to let go and let God. And as my Dad taught me, no one person, church or denomination has a corner on the right way to live for God. However, what I have found by being away from church is that church provides a sense of accountability that you just can’t find anywhere else. Just think about all the times you made a deal with yourself that you would read the Bible every day. You may have started out strong but when you make deals with yourself, there is no one to hold you accountable when you falter. And let’s be real, do you really punish yourself when you break promises you made to yourself? Of course not.

So please take your time and trust that eventually you will find a church that works for you. What helps me with my church search is to think about how much effort I put into finding a job once I graduated and compare it to the effort I put into finding a church home. Many people claim (or desire) that our relationship with God is the most important facet of our lives but when our actions are examined, this claim sometimes falls to pieces. But just always remember that God does not put us in any rough situation without providing a way out.

And if you do have a church home, hold on to it because good churches are hard to find

Stay up fam,

Brandon
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YOU and the Supreme Court

If you are alive and own a television that has a channel other than BET, you may be aware of the ongoing Senate confirmation hearing of Samuel Alito, who has been nominated by your (not my) president, G.W. Bush to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. This, like ALL other matters of government, has direct implication on my life and yours. In case you may not believe me, let’s discuss why.

Being a Supreme Court is a great job for one main reason: it’s a job that you can’t lose! Once you get it, you’re basically stuck with it until you retire or die. Besides being a parent, I can’t think of another job with that level of security. I say all this to say that the nature of a person placed in such a position is very important. The question is, what is the nature of Judge Alito? I’m sure he’s a nice guy, a pleasure to be around or to have lunch with. What is more important is where he stands on certain judicial issues. I has been beaten to death that he would be sympathetic to a overpowering executive (read: king), and that abortion rights are nonexistent in his opinion.

I am more interested in Alito’s stance on issues of discrimination. I am not confident, given his judicial history, that Judge Alito will view the rights of all citizens equally in the same manner that Justice O’Connor did on many occasions (e.g. The University of Michigan Affirmative Action case). Justice O’Connor was important because her “swing” vote often came down on the side of civil liberties and civil rights. Judge Alito, with his decisions like the one in Williams v. Price. The Congressional Black Caucus, while I don’t agree with the financial practices of their foundation, is right on this one, as noted here.

I have been watching these hearings very closely. You can see them live on C-Span.org. Pay close attention to where Democratic AND Republican Senators stand on this nomination. Pay close attention to whether ANY of the Senators even mention Alito’s past decisions that have had racial implications. If they neglect to address these issues of Alito’s judicial philosophy, are they just as bad as he?

Avancer France!

Shout out to Jacques Chirac, the President of France, for taking the lead in his New Year address to call for the French Parliament to rewrite “a law that law requires teachers to stress positive aspects of French colonialism, especially in North Africa.” The controversial law was passed last year by the conservative majority.

Chirac must have really been feeling the angst of the riots that took place this past November because he even called for a slavery remembrance day which will be announced later on this year. Chirac added, “France has set an example by being the first country in the world – and still the only one today – to recognize slavery as a crime against humanity.” So does France get a cookie now? For starters, I am sure if you were to poll people of the African diaspora along with African countries, I am sure that a majority of Black people would categorize slavery as a crime against humanity.

Besides that, France still does not keep population statistics broken down by race. So what is the good of a slavery remembrance day when you don’t have data shows how are you are improving or not improving the opportunities for minorities to get ahead? However, I still give props to Chirac even if he is positioning himself for his re-election campaign. But isn’t it sad the extent to which most of our actions and those of our government are influenced by the fear of embarrassment? I am reminded of how the many gains in civil rights for Blacks were gained after innocent people were abused and the government was so embarrassed, they had no choice but to get right. I just hope that one day the United States government will take steps similar to France, but in the meantime, just know that there is power in numbers and ideas so don’t wait until some innocent child dies to start rioting, get involved in your local community NOW.

Stay up fam,

Brandon
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Mini battles for Women’s Rights

The other day while I was at a social event with some of my co-workers, I was about to leave early from the event when one of my co-workers proclaimed loudly (and I am paraphrasing), “He must be leaving early to go get a booty call!” Now his wife was there and I was thinking to myself, “Wow, this guy has a lot of nerve talking like that, especially in front of his wife and other women” Anyways, there was about twenty of us there and most everyone started to boo and hiss, anxious to see how I would respond to this accusation. And then I smiled politely and said, “Well actually, I don’t use that type of terminology because it is degrading to women.” The women went wild and the guys booed me down claiming that I was on “their” side.

I had couple observations about this situation. First of all, I never told anyone where I was going so how is it that we make this huge jump that this must mean a booty call? And while there was alcohol and no harm was meant, why can men get away with so many chauvinistic remarks? Then I thought about all the guys that were there laughing, who were probably thinking the same thing but didn’t have the gall to say, “Hey man, those types of jokes are not funny and they are disrespectful to women.” I get mad at men who are pre-programmed to laugh at jokes that degrade women and I get even more upset when the ones have a little sense don’t stand up for what’s right.

So here’s a little advice for guys that want to do the right thing but choose not to. Sticking up for women’s rights doesn’t make you a feminist and neither does it make you gay. Jokes that degrade women are not funny and the only require ignorance and disrespect; no wit necessary. Think about if all of those jokes were focused solely on a woman in your family, namely your mother or sister. Not too funny now is it? And if you try to exclude your family, then you are sadly mistaken because whatever woman you are degrading is someone’s sister, daughter, wife, etc. Lead a life of character and make decisions to do the right thing even when you might be the outcast. Noah was a freaking outcast and look what happened to the people who sneered at him.

And speaking out doesn’t mean you are an expert on women’s rights or that you never have disrespected women, it just means that you are a man of integrity who is willing to confront ignorance, the plague that people are afraid to be diagnosed with. When a doctor gives you a shot, it only hurts for a second, but it will help protect you for a lifetime. Be that doctor because you are always on call….

Stay up fam,

House Approves Patriot Act Extension

The House has approved extensions to the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is not one of those pieces of legislation that is just there to make Congress look like they are “earning” their pay. It is actually the most sinister act of the Bush administration. I said it. To me, this is worse than the Iraq war, worse than G.W.’s vacations, worse than his Social Security plan, worse than his “war-time” tax cuts, worse than it all.

This is arguably the largest infringement on civil liberties since the Jim Crow laws of the late 1800s. My feelings for this are too many to enumerate here, but they can be summed up quite simply and concisely.

If a piece of legislation is positive and has merit, why would we set a sunset to provisions of that legislation? This works for both sides of the argument. If the Voting Rights Act of 1965* was legitimate and indicative of how the people and the government truly felt, why did it have an expiration date? Laws are not perishable goods – well, good ones should not be. The only reason you enact something temporarily is because you do not totally agree with or like it and are pandering to some other party, or that you know it is wrong. The Voting Rights Act is in the “pandering” bucket. The Patriot Act is in the “wrong” bucket.

* Please note that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does have certain important provisions that will need to be extended/made permanent over the next few years. However, contrary to popular opinion, even in the relatively unlikely event that those specific provisions are not extended, people will not lose their right to vote as a result. I hate when people don’t do their homework. SuperSpades cannot be ignorant.

Civil Rights & Why Voting Matters

The Washington Post ran a story Sunday about the changing DoJ Civil Rights Division. In summary, the article is informing us that over the last year, the Civil Rights Division has been losing veteran lawyers and handling less “Civil Rights” cases. That means that instead of working on Equal Opportunity Employment breeches, they have been spending time on immigration matters. Now, I’m not against immigration, but I do believe that if the division is spending 40% less of its time handling the types of cases it was created to be involved in, then there are some serious issues present.

Nevertheless, this has been the case over the past 5 years. Since I believe wholeheartedly in coincidences, I’m going to refer to it as a coincidence that the change in focus of the division as well as its personnel bleeding have nothing to do with the current administrations attitudes towards Civil Rights. Right. The two are unrelated.

Let’s pretend, however unjustifiably, for a few seconds that it is not a coincidence. Then, maybe, I would not be suprised to see that the Civil Rights Division would need to shift focus away from issues such as intimidation of minority voters and disenfranchisement of low-income Americans. Had the Civil Rights Division served its historical purpose, there may have been real investigation at the federal level into the attrocity that became Election Day 2000. I wonder how this administration feels about Sen. Obama’s new voter intimidation legislation? We can’t possibly waste precious resources in the Civil Rights Division prosecuting individuals based on that; there are too many immigrants to harass.

I digress. Instead, lets go down a more pratical road. The SuperSpade is about practicality. How does this information point to personal action(s) that can be taken? This, to me, adds to the infinite list of reasons why voting is important. Brothers and Sisters, all of us who have had illegitimate run-ins with law enforcement, or know someone who has, feels as though their Civil Rights have been violated. Students wanting to attend non-HBCUs that were refused admissions due to factors outside of their control feel as though their Civil Rights have been violated. Individuals who never recieved call-backs, job interviews, or job offers due to the nature, spelling, or pronunciation of their names feel as though their Civil Rights have been violated. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the Civil Rights Division on 9 December 1957. This office was established to address issues discussed earlier in this paragraph. Granted, as times change, the definitions of Civil Rights expand, but I am not a fan of the core focus being forgotten. We need our people to be proactive and work towards electing to our representative democratic government individuals that represent our views. Anyone who has encountered the above and didn’t like it has concrete evidence as to why they need real representation.

The age old problem, however, is the “my candidate lost, so what’s the point now” phenomena. Let me offer a suggestion through a simple analogy. Anyone who cooks (especially as badly as I do) knows that it’s hit-or-miss. When what I attempt to prepare does not come out as intended, I am presented with two options: throw it away, or work with it. Lets examine both options:

1. Throw it away
I can discard my food and therefore invalidate the time it took to prepare it, the resources it took to gather the ingredients, etc. This does, however, afford me the opportunity to start over again from scratch. However, I will again need to set aside the needed time and ingredients to prepare the meal a second time; a situation that may or may not be possible now. Not to mention, this effectively makes the meal twice as expensive.

2. Work with it
It doesn’t taste good. Why not? Is it bland? Add some salt. Is it cold? Put it in the microwave. If you were not able to get what you wanted on the front end, you can work with it on the back end until you have something edible.

The same logic applies to voting, or any other form of positive action. If your candidate loses, you have the same options: you can throw your hands up in the air and give up. This way, you’ll end up pissed off because you got racially profiled, again, and have no real legal representation, agian. Or you can work on improving your current situation despite them, while at the same time building up a stronger opponent to the now incumbent to challenge them in the future (which could turn out to be you). Black folks are better than any people on the planet at being triumphant in the face 0f adversity. Why give up because the person you voted for lost. We have more heart than that.

Shout out to truthout.org for referring me to this article. The truthout.org post is here.