By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: September 30, 2007

THE police officer had not asked my name or my business before grabbing my wrists, jerking my hands high behind my back and slamming my head into the hood of his cruiser.

“You have no right to put your hands on me!” I shouted lamely.

“This is a high-crime area,” said the officer as he expertly handcuffed me. “You were loitering. We have ordinances against loitering.”

Last month, while talking to a group of young black men standing on a sidewalk in Salisbury, N.C., about harsh anti-gang law enforcement tactics some states are using, I had discovered the main challenge to such measures: the police have great difficulty determining who is, and who is not, a gangster.

My reporting, however, was going well. I had gone to Salisbury to find someone who had firsthand experience with North Carolina’s tough anti-gang stance, and I had found that someone: me.

Except that I didn’t quite fit the type of person I was seeking. I am African-American, like the subjects of my reporting, but I’m not really cut out for the thug life. At 37 years old, I’m beyond the street-tough years. I suppose I could be taken for an “O.G.,” or “original gangster,” except that I don’t roll like that — I drive a Volvo station wagon and have two young homeys enrolled in youth soccer leagues.

As Patrick L. McCrory, the mayor of Charlotte and an advocate of tougher anti-gang measures in the state, told me a couple of days before my Salisbury encounter: “This gang-like culture is tough to separate out. Whether that’s fair or not, that’s the truth.”

Tough indeed. Street gangs rarely keep banker’s hours, rent office space or have exclusive dress codes. A gang member might hang out on a particular corner, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, but one is just as likely to be standing on that corner because he lives nearby and his shirt might be blue, not because he’s a member of the Crips, but because he’s a Dodgers fan.

The problem is that when the police focus on gangs rather than the crimes they commit, they are apt to sweep up innocent bystanders, who may dress like a gang member, talk like a gang member and even live in a gang neighborhood, but are not gang members.

In Charlotte’s Hidden Valley neighborhood, a predominately African-American community that is home to some of the state’s most notorious gangs, Jamal Reid, 20, conceded that he associates with gangsters. Mr. Reid, who has tattoos and wears dreadlocks and the obligatory sports shirts and baggy jeans, said gangsters are, after all, his neighbors, and it’s better to be their friend than their enemy.

Sheriff’s records for Charlotte-Mecklenburg County show that Mr. Reid has been arrested several times since 2004 for misdemeanors including driving without a license, trespassing and marijuana possession. Despite his run-ins with the law, Mr. Reid said he had never been in a gang and complained that the police had sometimes harassed him without a good reason.

“A police officer stopped in front of my house and told me to come to his car,” he told me. “I said, no. They got out and ran me down. They did the usual face-in-the-dirt thing.”

Maj. Eddie Levins of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said that officers are allocated to different areas based on the number of service calls they receive, so high-crime areas are likely to get more police attention.

“Where there are more police, expect more police action,” Major Levins said. “Some people think ‘I can just hang out with this gang member as long as I don’t do any crime.’ Well, expect to be talked to. We can’t ignore them. In fact, we kind of want to figure out the relationship between all these gang members and their associates.”

Major Levins said that his fellow officers aren’t perfect and that he was aware of occasional complaints of harassment, but he said that most residents would like to see more police officers on the streets, not fewer.

Even Cairo Guest, a 26-year-old who complained he was handcuffed in his backyard, acknowledged that gang members in his neighborhood were “out of control.”

“There are a lot of guys out here doing stuff they shouldn’t have been doing,” Mr. Guest said.

Still, some civil rights advocates complain that the definition of a gang member is vague. Gang researchers find that most active members usually cycle out of their gangs within about a year. Even active participants might only be marginal members, drifting in and out of gangs, said Kevin Pranis, a co-author of “Gang Wars,” a recent report on antigang tactics written by the Justice Police Institute, a nonprofit research group.

Harsh penalties could actually reinforce gang membership by locking peripheral gangsters in jail with more hardened criminals, he said.

Suburban Salisbury, population 30,000, is about as far from the traditional ganglands of Los Angeles, Chicago or even Durham as you can get. But it has had an outsize voice in pushing for tougher anti-gang measures since a 13-year-old black girl was inadvertently killed there in a gang shootout after a dance party in March.

I arrived in Salisbury at midnight, figuring that gang members would be more visible after dark, and found a local hangout with the help of a cabdriver.

Striking up a conversation with young gang members in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar town is always a tricky proposition, but the one advantage I figured I had was that I am African-American. Brown skin can be a kind of camouflage in my profession, especially if you do a lot of reporting in minority neighborhoods, as I do. Blending in visually sometimes helps me observe without being observed.

But even when my appearance has been helpful, the benefits rarely survive the first words out of my mouth, which usually signal — by accent or content — that I’m not from around wherever I am.

“What’s The New York Times doing down here?” asked an incredulous black man. He and about a dozen other men were standing in front of a clapboard house in Salisbury. I observed several drug sales there within minutes of arriving.

“Man, you a cop,” said another. “Hey, this guy’s a cop!”

“You’ve got me wrong,” I said trying to sound casual as the men looked at me warily. I started to pull my press identification out of my wallet. “I’m a reporter. I’m just trying to talk to you about your neighborhood.”

In the distance I heard neighborhood lookouts calling: “Five-O! Five-O!” — a universal code in American ghettos for the approaching police. I thought they were talking about me, but thought again as three police cars skidded to a stop in front of us.

A tall white police officer got out of his car and ordered me toward him. Two other police officers, a white woman and a black man, stood outside of their cars nearby. I complied. Without so much as a question, the officer shoved my face down on the sheet metal and cuffed me so tightly that my fingertips tingled.

“They’re on too tight!” I protested.

“They’re not meant for comfort,” he replied.

While it is true that I, like many of today’s gang members, shave my head bald, in my case it’s less about urban style and more about letting nature take its course. Apart from my complexion, the only thing I had in common with the young men watching me smooch the hood of the black-and-white was that they too had been in that position — some of them, they would tell me later, with just as little provocation.

But here again I failed to live up to the “street cred” these forceful police officers had granted me. As the female officer delved into my back pocket for my wallet she found no cash from illicit corner sales, in fact no cash at all, though she did find evidence of my New York crew — my corporate identification card.

After a quick check for outstanding warrants, the handcuffs were unlocked and my wallet returned without apology or explanation beyond their implication that my approaching young black men on a public sidewalk was somehow flouting the law.

“This is a dangerous area,” the officer told me. “You can’t just stand out here. We have ordinances.”

“This is America,” I said angrily, in that moment supremely unconcerned about whether this was standard police procedure or a useful law enforcement tool or whatever anybody else wanted to call it. “I have a right to talk to anyone I like, wherever I like.”

The female officer trumped my naïve soliloquy, though: “Sir, this is the South. We have different laws down here.”

I tried to appeal to the African-American officer out of some sense of solidarity.

“This is bad area,” he told me. “We have to protect ourselves out here.”

As the police drove away, I turned again to my would-be interview subjects. Surely now they believed I was a reporter.

I found their skepticism had only deepened.

“Man, you know what would have happened to one of us if we talked to them that way?” said one disbelieving man as he walked away from me and my blank notebook. “We’d be in jail right now.”

By ORLANDO PATTERSON
Published: September 30, 2007

Cambridge, Mass.

THE miscarriage of justice at Jena, La. — where five black high school students arrested for beating a white student were charged with attempted murder — and the resulting protest march tempts us to the view, expressed by several of the marchers, that not much has changed in traditional American racial relations. However, a remarkable series of high-profile incidents occurring elsewhere in the nation at about the same time, as well as the underlying reason for the demonstrations themselves, make it clear that the Jena case is hardly a throwback to the 1960s, but instead speaks to issues that are very much of our times.

What exactly attracted thousands of demonstrators to the small Louisiana town? While for some it was a simple case of righting a grievous local injustice, and for others an opportunity to relive the civil rights era, for most the real motive was a long overdue cry of outrage at the use of the prison system as a means of controlling young black men.

America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.

The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts. These numbers and rates are incomparably greater than anything achieved at the height of the Jim Crow era. What’s odd is how long it has taken the African-American community to address in a forceful and thoughtful way this racially biased and utterly counterproductive situation.

How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?

Part of the answer is a law enforcement system that unfairly focuses on drug offenses and other crimes more likely to be committed by blacks, combined with draconian mandatory sentencing and an absurdly counterproductive retreat from rehabilitation as an integral method of dealing with offenders. An unrealistic fear of crime that is fed in part by politicians and the press, a tendency to emphasize punitive measures and old-fashioned racism are all at play here.

But there is another equally important cause: the simple fact that young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes, especially violent crimes, which cannot be attributed to judicial bias, racism or economic hardships. The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven times that of whites.

Why is this? Several incidents serendipitously occurring at around the same time as the march on Jena hint loudly at a possible answer.

•

In New York City, the tabloids published sensational details of the bias suit brought by a black former executive for the Knicks, Anucha Browne Sanders, who claims that she was frequently called a “bitch” and a “ho” by the Knicks coach and president, Isiah Thomas. In a video deposition, Thomas said that while it is always wrong for a white man to verbally abuse a black woman in such terms, it was “not as much … I’m sorry to say” for a black man to do so.

•

Across the nation, religious African-Americans were shocked that the evangelical minister Juanita Bynum, an enormously popular source of inspiration for churchgoing black women, said she was brutally beaten in a parking lot by her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks.

•

O. J. Simpson, the malevolent central player in an iconic moment in the nation’s recent black-white (as well as male-female) relations, reappeared on the scene, charged with attempted burglary, kidnapping and felonious assault in Las Vegas, in what he claimed was merely an attempt to recover stolen memorabilia.

These events all point to something that has been swept under the rug for too long in black America: the crisis in relations between men and women of all classes and, as a result, the catastrophic state of black family life, especially among the poor. Isiah Thomas’s outrageous double standard shocked many blacks in New York only because he had the nerve to say out loud what is a fact of life for too many black women who must daily confront indignity and abuse in hip-hop misogyny and everyday conversation.

What is done with words is merely the verbal end of a continuum of abuse that too often ends with beatings and spousal homicide. Black relationships and families fail at high rates because women increasingly refuse to put up with this abuse. The resulting absence of fathers — some 70 percent of black babies are born to single mothers — is undoubtedly a major cause of youth delinquency.

The circumstances that far too many African-Americans face — the lack of paternal support and discipline; the requirement that single mothers work regardless of the effect on their children’s care; the hypocritical refusal of conservative politicians to put their money where their mouths are on family values; the recourse by male youths to gangs as parental substitutes; the ghetto-fabulous culture of the streets; the lack of skills among black men for the jobs and pay they want; the hypersegregation of blacks into impoverished inner-city neighborhoods — all interact perversely with the prison system that simply makes hardened criminals of nonviolent drug offenders and spits out angry men who are unemployable, unreformable and unmarriageable, closing the vicious circle.

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other leaders of the Jena demonstration who view events there, and the racial horror of our prisons, as solely the result of white racism are living not just in the past but in a state of denial. Even after removing racial bias in our judicial and prison system — as we should and must do — disproportionate numbers of young black men will continue to be incarcerated.

Until we view this social calamity in its entirety — by also acknowledging the central role of unstable relations among the sexes and within poor families, by placing a far higher priority on moral and social reform within troubled black communities, and by greatly expanding social services for infants and children — it will persist.

Orlando Patterson is a professor of sociology at Harvard and the author of “The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in America’s ‘Racial’ Crisis.”

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer, Thu Jun 28, 2:30 PM ET

Ireland elected its first black mayor Thursday, the latest sign of how rapid immigration is changing this once all-white nation.

Rotimi Adebari, a Nigerian who arrived in Ireland seven years ago as an asylum-seeker, was elected unopposed to lead the council of Portlaoise, a bustling commuter town west of Dublin.

Adebari, 43, who has been an independent politician on Portlaoise Town Council since 2004, was backed by both the right-wing Fine Gael party and left-wing Sinn Fein.

Adebari, who planned a post-election party Friday at the new parish hall in Portlaoise, called it “a great honor to become the No. 1 citizen of the town.”

Little more than a decade ago, a black person in Ireland risked being gawked at, so rare was the sight of visitors from different racial backgrounds. But Ireland has absorbed more than 30,000 asylum seekers — particularly from Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria — since the mid-1990s, a wave attracted by Ireland’s booming economy and its relatively lax immigration rules.

These days, West African entrepreneurs run stretches of shops in urban Dublin and other Irish towns and cities, and social activists like Adebari are encouraging the newcomers to integrate into their communities.

“I got involved in the community and I volunteered. It gave me the opportunity to meet people firsthand and they got to know me,” Adebari said. “We all have to make an effort to reach out to one another.”

Adebari traveled to Ireland with his wife and two boys in 2000 and claimed asylum on the basis of religious persecution, citing bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims in his homeland. His application was rejected because of insufficient evidence he had personally suffered persecution, but he gained residency because his third child, another boy, was born in Ireland.

Asylum-seekers flocked to Ireland in part to gain European Union citizenship on the basis of having a child born in the country. Ireland in 2004 stopped granting citizenship to foreign parents of an Irish-born child, a law that had been unique in Europe.

Adebari said he had trouble finding work at first — in part because of an Irish law that bars people from working while they are seeking asylum.

So he volunteered at a local tennis club, helped found a lobbying group for unemployed people in Portlaoise and ran for office, winning a council seat on his first try in 2004.

Since then he’s finished a master’s degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University, founded a consultancy advising authorities and immigrant groups on how to work together, and hosts a weekly radio show on his local station, Midlands FM.

“I want to encourage immigrants to be a force in their communities, to engage with their communities,” he said. “People will get to know you. Their perception of you will change just like that. That’s what happened to me.”

___

On the Net:

Profile of Adebari

What it means

When I came across this article, I thought the headline was pretty amazing. I considered that the reason for my amazement probably had to do with my being an American who grew up in what used to be (and probably still is) one of the most segregated cities in the US – Chicago. Perhaps the color of my experience shades my optimism about what is possible or even realistic. This would explain my amazement.

The headline spoke to a phenomenon that hadn’t occurred before – a first. This was a legitimate cause for amazement, notice, and celebration. Why celebration? Should all firsts be celebrated simply because they are firsts, or because they symbolizes something else, something good? Frankly, the reason for celebration is that this event marks a change in the perception of what has been generally accepted as status quo – that racism defines the boundaries of possibility.

By no means am I suggesting that Ireland is a racist nation, rather, in a world that has been traumatically influenced by the last remaining superpower, which happens to have a history replete with racist doctrines, a country like Ireland might be (mistakenly) understood as “white” and “naturally” conforming to such influence. While such a perception might be the result of lenses stained with the film of racism, the election in Ireland clears the eyes of the hopeful, revealing a reality that has been hidden from them – racism is a lie. And if this is the wrong conclusion to come to, then at least one nation has signaled to the rest of the world that it is possible to change - an outstanding comment made on the global stage.

(A little choppy, but I can’t find the video)

“I love being Black. I love being called Black. I love being an American. I love being a Black American, but as a Black man in this country I think it’s a shame That every few years we get a change of name.

Since those first ships arrived here from Africa that came across the sea There were already Black men in this country who were free. And as for those that came over here on those terrible boats, They were called niggah and slave And told what to do and how to behave.

And then master started trippin’ and doing his midnight tippin’, Down to the slave shacks where he forced he and Great-Great Grandma to be together, And if Great-Great Grandpa protested, he got tarred and feathered.

And at the same time, the Black men in the country who were free, Were mating with the tribes like the Apache and the Cherokee. And as a result of all that, we’re a parade of every shade. And as in this late day and age, you can be sure, They ain’t too many of us in this country whose bloodline is pure.

But, according to a geological, geographical, genealogy study published in Time Magazine, The Black African people were the first on the scene, So for what it’s worth, the Black African people were the first on earth And through migration, our characteristics started to change, and rearrange, To adapt to whatever climate we migrated to. And that’s how I became me, and you became you.

So, if we gonna go back, let’s go all the way back, And if Adam was Black and Eve was Black, Then that kind of makes it a natural fact that everybody in America is an African American.

Everybody in Europe is an African European; everybody in the Orient is an African Asian And so on and so on, That is, if the origin of man is what we’re gonna go on. And if one drop of Black blood makes you Black like they say, Then everybody’s Black anyway.

So quit trying to change my identity. I’m already who I was meant to be. I’m a Black American, born and raised. And brother James Brown wrote a wonderful phrase, “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud! Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud!”

Cause I’m proud to be Black and I ain’t never lived in Africa, And ‘cause my Great-Great Granddaddy on my Daddy’s side did, don’t mean I want to go back. Now I have nothing against Africa, It’s where some of the most beautiful places and people in the world are found. But I’ve been blessed to go a lot of places in this world, And if you ask me where I choose to live, I pick America, hands down.

Now, by and by, we were called Negroes, and after while, that name has vanished. Anyway, Negro is just how you say “black” in Spanish. Then, we were called colored, but shit, everybody’s one color or another, And I think it’s a shame that we hold that against each other.

And it seems like we reverted back to a time when being called Black was an insult, Even if it was another Black man who said it, a fight would result, Cause we’ve been so brainwashed that Black was wrong, So that even the yellow niggahs and black niggahs couldn’t get along.

But then, came the 1960s when we struggled and died to be called equal and Black, And we walked with pride with our heads held high and our shoulders pushed back, And Black was beautiful.

But, I guess that wasn’t good enough, Cause now here they come with some other stuff. Who comes up with this shit anyway? Was it one, or a group of niggahs sitting around one day?

Feelin’ a little insecure again about being called Black And decided that African American sounded a little more exotic. Well, I think you were being a little more neurotic.

It’s that same mentality that got “Amos and Andy” put off the air, Cause’ they were embarrassed about the way the character’s spoke. And as a result of that action, a lot of wonderful Black actors ended up broke. When we were just laughin’ and have fun about ourselves. So I say, “fuck you if you can’t take a joke.”
You didn’t see the “Beverly Hillbilly’s” being protested by white folks.

And if you think, that cause you think that being called African American set all Black people’s mind at ease…..

Since we affectionately call each other “niggah”,

I affectionately say to you, “niggah Please”.

How come I didn’t get the chance to vote on who I’d like to be? Who gave you the right to make that decision for me? I ain’t under your rule or in your dominion, And I am entitled to my own opinion.

Now there are some African Americans here, But they recently moved here from places like Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Zaire. But, now the brother who’s family has lived in the country for generations, Occupying space in all the locations: New York, Miami, L.A., Detroit, Chicago- Even if he’s wearing a dashiki and sporting an afro.

And, if you go to Africa in search of your race, You’ll find out quick you’re not an African American, You’re just a Black American in Africa takin’ up space.

Why you keep trying to attach yourself to a continent, Where if you got the chance and you went, Most people there would even claim you as one of them; as a pure bread daughter or son of them. Your heritage is right here now, no matter what you call yourself or what you say, And a lot of people died to make it that way. And if you think America is a leader on inequality and suffering and grievin’ How come there so many people comin’ and so few leavin’?

Rather than all this ‘find fault with America’ fuck you promotin’, If you want to change something, use your privilege, get to the polls! Commence to votin’!

God knows we’ve earned the right to be called American Americans and be free at last. And rather than you movin’ forward progress, you dwelling in the past. We’ve struggled too long; we’ve come too far. Instead of focusing on who we were, let’s be proud of who we are.

We are the only people whose name is always a trend. When is this shit gonna end? Look at all the different colors of our skin- Black is not our color. It’s our core. It’s what we been livin’ and fightin’ and dyin’ for.

But if you choose to be called African American and that’s your preference Then I ‘ll give you that reference.

But I know on this issue I don’t stand alone on my own and if I do, then let me be me And I’d appreciate it if when you see me, you’d say, “there goes a man who says it loud I’m Black. I’m Black. I’m a Black American, and I’m proud

Cause I love being an American. And I love being Black. I love being called Black.

Yeah, I said it, and I don’t take it back.”

- Smokey Robinson, Def Poets, 3rd Season, May 16, 2003 ©

The following is from an email I received today forwarded from the website: The Israel of God. It deals with some racial/color issues as well as identity. It is information not propagated by mainstream society - so for some readers I can understand how it might be offensive, challenging and unbelievable. Nevertheless it is posted here for the purpose of informing, challenging, promoting discussion and understanding, and last but not least serving to highlight the underlying point which is: know who and whose you are and behave accordingly.

Three commandments to keep in mind:

… we have made a long and careful search of the Holy Bible and have concluded that the Israelites (Jews) are in fact a Black People.

We arrived at this conclusion by reasons such as the color of the Israelites (Jews) of the Bible, and most noteworthy, the Bad Treatment and Continuous Bad Conditions that were prophesied to befall the real Israelites if they fail to keep the laws and commandments of God. God promised the Israelites that if they failed to obey him, he would curse them and eventually have them removed from their land and carried as slaves into every nation upon the earth. Israel failed, and God kept his promise.

After the Israelites were removed from the land of Israel, it was left as an empty house with no inhabitants. Now, if one can understand that any land which has been emptied of it’s rightful owners can be claimed by any nationality of people that have the power or permission to settle in it and possess it, then it should also be easy to understand that the nationality of people which move in and take over the land can assume (adopt) the culture, history, and even call themselves by the name of the people that they have replaced. After a long period of years, that nationality would be accepted by the rest of the world as being the original and rightful inhabitants of that land. This would especially be true if the original people of the land had been moved by force, and carried off as slaves. Such is the case of the real Israelites (Jews)!

It is very easy to become lost when someone else is called by your name and is living in your land, while you have been carted off into slavery and are called by the name of the people of whatever nation you are found. After being in slavery for a long period of years, and throughout generations, it would be impossible for your children to remember their history. How can they remember what they were never taught?

Black History (The Holy Bible) tells us that there were two sons born to Isaac and to Rebekah, his wife. These two boys were struggling in their mother’s womb even before they were born, and Rebekah asked the Lord why they were struggling. The Lord answered her, telling her that there were two different nations and two different manner of people in her womb and that he would separate them at birth. (See Genesis 25 chapter, vs. 21-25).

When the oldest son was born, the Bible says he was Red and Hairy, and was given the name Esau, but was later also called by the name of Edom. The youngest son was named Jacob, with no reference made to his color. His name was later changed to Israel. The fact being that such emphasis was put on Esau’s appearance makes it clear that God had made more than just personality differences between the two boys!

As these two boys matured, there grew dislike between them because Esau claimed that Jacob stole his birthright. Therefore, Esau vowed to kill Jacob. As they developed into nations down through the generations, settling in different locations (Jacob in the land of Israel, which was named after him: and Esau in the land of Edom, also called and known as Mt. Seir), the children (descendants) of Esau were responsible for the death of many Israelites. Some time later, down through the generations, the children of Esau were able to take over the land of the children of Jacob, and to claim that they were the lost tribes of Israel. After taking the name and the land of the true Israelites, it was only a matter of time before the whole world accepted the children of Esau as being the lost tribes of Israel, (which is presently the case). Meanwhile, the true Israelites are still in captivity just as the Lord said they would be.

Being that we understand the origin, fate, and destination of both the descendants of Jacob and of Esau , we can say with proof , according to the Bible, that the whole world has accepted the descendants of Esau as being the Jews, but in truth they are not, but are really the descendants of Esau (Edom).

When Esau (the father of the Edomites) and Jacob (the father of the Jews) were born, the Bible describes Esau as being “red and hairy”. Later, in other scriptures, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was compared to the Ethiopians- “Are ye not as the children of Ethiopia unto me, O children of Israel?” (Amos 9:7). Ethiopia comes from the Greek word Aithiop, which means dark skin/ or face. The difference between “dark skin” and “red and hairy” is quite distinct, and has not changed down through the generations.

Now let us reason together. Understanding that Ethiopia comes from the Greek word Aithiop, which means Dark Skin, let us look at the description of Jesus in Revelation 1:14. “His head and his hairs were whit like wool, as white as snow: and his eyes were as a flame of fire”, (which only means they were red), “and his feet like fine brass, as if they were burned in a furnace.” (Also see Rev. 1:1Cool. Any rational minded person would understand that Jesus was not two colors, having a white head and a black or burnt (Aithiop) body. Reasoning will also cause you to understand that his hair is white and wooly, and his body and skin is like the Ethiopians (Dark Skin).

Song of Solomon 1:5-6, in the book of the Song of Solomon, we see the writing of Solomon where the Bible states, “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s (meaning that Solomon himself made all statements in this particular book): and I quote, “I am Black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me because I am Black, because the sun hath looked upon me. “Most people think this is just a love story Solomon wrote, but in reality this is describing the relationship between God and his people.

There are other things written that describe color, such as Acts 13:1 where a prophet was called Niger, which means black. Niger is the word that nigger comes from. Also in Exodus 4:6 where Moses’ hand turn leprous (as white as snow) and Numbers 12:13 where Miriam, Moses’ sister, was turned white. Leviticus tells us that there are two kinds of leprosy: one is unclean leprosy, when there is raw or swollen skin in the flesh: the other is clean leprosy, when a person simply turns white all over. Now, honestly ask yourself, why would a white person get excited about turning white? But, if a black person turns white, that’s something else! (See Leviticus 13:12-13).

There are even more scriptures on color, and there are also other things written concerning the true Israelites (Jews). Things like going into captivity, being sold as slaves, dispersed all over the world, and forever living as a poor people being badly treated.

The God of Israel (The God of the Bible) pronounced a sentence upon Israel. He told them that if they would not keep his laws and abide by his rules, he would curse them, telling them exactly what would befall them. Israel broke his laws and did not keep his rules, so the Lord cursed them as he said he would. (See Deuteronomy 28th chapter).

In the 28th chapter, it should be understood that a lot of these things happened over the course of many years, continuing down to our time. Because this curse was pronounces upon us when Israel first became a nation, many of these curses occurred before our time and we don’t recognize some of them, but some we do. Those we recognize are the ones that we will point out. The Lord said these curses will be upon us for a sign and wonder; (sign means to identify and wonder is to ask why). See Deuteronomy 28, verses 28-30: “the Lord shall smite thee with madness”, meaning you will be constantly angry because of the conditions; “blindness”, having no knowledge of your history and self; “astonishment of heart”, meaning always greatly surprised and amazed at your condition; “thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness”, meaning to feel about or search or seek with blindness, and not certain or don’t know what you are looking for (as if you were looking for something in a dark place and had no light); “thou shall not prosper in thy ways; and thou shall be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee; thou shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her; thou shall build a house and thou shall not dwell therein; thou shalt plant vineyards and shalt not gather the grapes thereof”, meaning you work, but someone else will reap the proceeds; “thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand”, meaning your children will be sold and you will see them being sold by someone else and will not be able to do anything about it (remember Roots and “Slave Trading”); “the fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up: and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway…..thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”

Now just look around you , and look back at what happened to black people and what is happening to black people. Now, are we getting a fair chance, or equal opportunity to excel as the whites or the so-called Jews? Why is it that the so-called Jews are granted immediate citizenship when they migrate from other parts of the world? Why is it that any other nationality or race of people is accepted into this country, granted citizenship, and is exempted from paying taxes for a set period of years? The latest, among the foreigners that were granted this luxury are the Cubans, which are mostly Castilian, but the Haitians from the island of Haiti, which are blacks (part of the lost tribes of Israel) were caged up like animals and sent back to their oppression. Also, consider the poor blacks here, (being that the majority of us are worse off than a lot of immigrants), who were brought here against our will. Why aren’t we exempted from paying taxes for the same period of years? Why aren’t we compensated for now our ancestors were treated in the past? Have you ever wondered about these things? Surely you can’t say it’s because we are equally treated as the white American born citizens. Have you ever wondered why there are places like Haiti, Jamaica, South America and the Bahamas? Did you know that all of those places were slave camps, and that blacks were carried there to work and to produce while the whites reaped the proceeds! The Bible prophesied this concerning Israel/Jews Black Americans and blacks from the above mentioned slave camps must be Israelites then!

When slavery was abolished (chattel slavery), black people assumed self rule after their masters were forced to release them Either blacks did not know their real home, or did not have the means to return. If they did know, they did not have any army nor the power to kick out the foreigners that were possessing their land. See Deuteronomy 28: 36-37. “The Lord shall bring thee and thy king unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known and there shall thou serve other gods, wood and stone”, (gods which are not backed up with the Bible, and holy days, such as Easter and Christmas, of which the Bible makes no mention as holy to God); And thou shalt become an astonishment” (a great surprise and amazement to other races of people around you); ” a proverb” (a short wise saying used for a long time by many people, a well known case); In our case, we have been called for a long time, names such as nigger, coon, shine, john, boy, lazy, smelly, nasty, etc.; “and a byword ” (an object of contempt, a thing scorned, and a common saying). Now ask, are blacks scorned? Are we a common conversation, such as.. Those niggers this, and those niggers that? Are we a people (objects) of contempt? Who cares for us or our rights? Who tries to help us without wanting to use us for their own personal gain/goal? What harm have we done to organizations such as the Ku-Klux-Klan, to any of the majority of whites, or to other nationalities for them to hate us so? Why are we disliked and scorned and in some cases assaulted for asking for the smallest civil rights that whites are born with, and foreigners are given, with help, when they migrate to this or any other country? It’s a case of: if we do wrong we are damned, and if we do right we are damned. I thank God that I know the whole truth of the matter, and that there is an appointed end. Because if salvation was the way it’s being taught in most churches, if I had no knowledge of God’s true plan, and of this temporary curse that is upon the blacks (the real Israelites/Jew), then I could understand why some people stay drunk, take drugs, or use other means of trying to blind themselves to the reality of our true and unchangeable condition. In some cases, death would be more merciful.

Deuteronomy 28:41, Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity” (slavery). Vs.43, “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low”; (which is to say that all of the people that were among the Israelites, but not Israelites themselves, are going to excel while the Israelites fall to the bottom). “He shall lend to thee, (Vs.44), and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be the head and thou shall be the tail”. Now consider what this is saying. Can blacks as a people lend money to anyone? Where are our big corporations? Where are our big chain businesses? Where are our banks? Now consider the people called Jews, who the world has accepted as being Jews. Do they have big corporations, chain businesses, and banks?

For a people that is supposed to be poor and not able to loan money, those people that the world knows as Jews are doing pretty good. In fact, there used to be a household saying among black families on payday - “I got to go pay those Jews”. Either these people are not the real Jew of the Bible, or the Bible is grossly misprinted. Consider the scriptures and judge for yourself.

As we continue, see Joel 3:1, “For behold, in those days and at that time when I shall bring again the captivity (captives) of Judah and Jerusalem (Israelites/Jews), Vs.2 , I will also gather all nations, and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my (land of Israel), Vs.3, and they have cast lots for my people and given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink, Vs. 4. What have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coast of Palestine (Middle East)? Will you render me a recompense (pay me back/repay me)? And if you recompense (repay) me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head, Vs. 5, Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things, Vs. 6. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem Israelites) have ye sold unto the Grecians (Greeks), that you might remove them far from their border”.

In Joel 3:1-3, the Lord is speaking of the time when he will return the real Jews to their own Country. Vs. 2 is saying that at the same time the Lord will gather all nations in one place to plead with them (do battle) because of what they have done to the real Jews- because they have captured and sold them (the real Jews) , and the whole coast of Palestine/ Middle East have taken their possessions, and divided the Jews’ land among themselves. In Vs.3 and 4 the Lord is telling all of these nations that whatever they would repay him, it is not enough for what they have done to his people. Therefore, if they try to repay him, he will return it upon their own head. Why? Because the nations (all nations) have taken the real Jews and cast lots for them (bidded for them/or auctioned them off like animals), and given a boy for an harlot (men traded or gave slave boys instead of money in payment to sleep with a prostitute), and sold a slave girl for wine (traded a young girl for some liquor). Vs. 5 and 6. The nations have taken valuables and riches of the real Jews and carried them into their own temples, and have taken the Jews themselves and sold them to the sons of the Greeks, and to other nations, and removed them far from their own borders.

See Zechariah 11:4, “Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter, Vs. 5, whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not.”

This scripture is very clear, and lets you know that whosoever owned the real Jews would kill them if they felt like it, and wouldn’t think that they had done anything wrong (for instance: Kill an old slave that couldn’t work anymore, or one that they thought was rebellious, or one whose will they could not break). Historically, the various hate groups didn’t feel that they were wrong when they burned crosses in front of blacks’ homes, hung them, or castrated and maimed them for sport. Even in these modern days, who cares if a young or old black is shot by a white person, or another black for that matter? Who cares how many black women get raped or how many blacks are killed by police officers? No real investigations are made to find the true criminal or the reason why. Just read the statistics and you will find that the highest mortality rate in the nation is among young Black males. Or look at the sympathy that Cubans and other non-black immigrants get when entering this country. Then look at the non-sympathetic help that Haitians (blacks) get when they are fleeing into this country to escape oppression and death. I could write page upon page concerning the guiltless feelings of people who kill blacks (so-called Negroes or African-Americans).

The scripture in Zechariah 11:5 states that their possessors (slave owners) sold them and thanked and blessed God because they became rich for doing so. Just look and consider the many nations and their histories. They all profess to be great “Christians” nations not only tolerated slave traders that packed black people in holes of ships (most of which died) en route to the market, but they also rushed to the market and cast their bid for the strongest and fittest that made it. Yes, as a slave trader, riches were dedicated by the amount he could buy. The majority of these people professed to be God-fearing Christians and probably sat in church every Sunday, yet none felt guilty ( and this included America, England, France, Greece, Rome, and all so-called Christians and Moslem nations as well). Also, in the same 5th verse, it states that their (the real Jews) shepards pity them not. How is that so? Just look at all of the black churches in America and in other nations. They don’t truly care about their own people! They fill their collection plates and treasuries with the hard-earned money of poor blacks, build larger and fancier churches so they can have more room and more “sheep” to fleece, and put on all kinds of programs (gimmicks) to increase their flow of money. Then they buy big cars to drive to their big churches to show their flocks how nice they have been to their shepherds. The flocks love it, and they increase their donations. The height or riches of a shepherd (preacher) are dedicated by the size of his congregation or church!

If their/our shepherds pitied us (the real Jews), they would consolidate some of that wealth that they acquired from their flocks, and build factories so that the black unemployment can be decreased or almost eliminated. They would sponsor housing developments so that blacks can move out of some of these rat and roach infested flop houses; or better yet, they (poor blacks) would be able to purchase homes with the income earned from church-created factories. Most of all, the pastors in these churches would teach the truth and stop telling people that God is coming to take you off to heaven, when God clearly states that he is coming to the earth (Zechariah 14:1-11, Revelation 5: 9-10, Revelation 21: 1-2). Even Jesus said clearly that no man has gone to heaven except he that came from heaven. He was speaking of himself (see St. John 3:13). Also, such un-truths as Jesus died on Friday and rose on Easter Sunday, and that Jesus was born on the 25th of December along with many other lies would cease to be taught if the shepherds cared. See Isaiah 56: 9-12, the Lord talks about these same shepherds that have no pity for their own people.

The Bible tells us that the Israelites (real Jews) would be incarcerated (in prison) in great numbers, see Isaiah 42:22-23, “But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, restore.” Now ask yourself what people do you know that is a minority in the country but a majority in the penal institution (jail)? Even the Lord wanted to know who in the future would see this kind of condition and recognize that this is talking about the real Israelites (blacks). Vs. 23, “who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?”

Read the book of Obadiah, and it will tell you how the Israelites (real Jews) were captured and carried out of the land of Israel as slaves (captives) and how the nations went in and parted the land among themselves. It clearly states that Edom, the descendants of Esau (those who currently claim to be Jews), caught those of the real Jews that did escape, and delivered them into the hands of the enemy. They also went into the gates of the Jews (cities) and laid hands on their substance
(possessions, culture, books, etc.).

Also, see Ezekiel chapters 35-36, the Edomites (those who claim to be Jews), which are also known and called by the names of Mount Seir, Bozrah, Teman, and Idumea, are spoken against by the Lord. The Lord tells of how they shed the blood of the Israelites (Jews), and said, “these two nations and these two countries (speaking of Judah and Samaria) shall be theirs (Edom’s) in possession, and they will possess it, whereas the Lord was there.”

The 36th chapter of Ezekiel tells us that Edom has done just that! For the Lord said, “Thus said the Lord God, because the enemy has said, aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession.” Read on and the Lord will tell you that they (Idumea, which is still Edom) have appointed his land (land of Israel) into their possession with the joy of all their heart, and with despiteful minds to cast it out for a prey.

But ask yourself, why do the people that the world has accepted as being the Jews, have such hard times, such as the trouble they had with Germany and the trouble with the Arab nations? Because of what they did to the real Jews, that’s why! See Obadiah 9th and 10th verses and read on. Also, see Ezekiel 35:6-15. The Lord said “when the whole world rejoiceth”, he will make Edom most desolate.

Lastly, I refer you to Revelation 2:9 and 3:9. The Lord, in both of these places speaks of a people that say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; but they are the Synagogue of Satan. Note that the Lord said also that he knows the work and the tribulations and poverty of the real Jews (but he said, thou art rich). Reasoning tells us that no people, or person, can be rich and impoverished at the same time. But the riches of the people of God (the blacks-the real Jew) is his promise to lift the curse off of us in in the time appointed, and to restore us to our former estate. Plus no one can say that the people known and accepted as Jews ( the descendants of Edom) are in poverty; consider this publication closely and reason with the Bible whether or not it makes sense.

To those that read this, be it known and understood that this is not hate, neither does the writer teach or believe in hate, nor condone it.

This is merely designed to identify the lost people of Israel and the facts according to the Holy Bible. If anyone is to be hated, it should be our ancestors for sinning against God, because he clearly told them what would happen if they broke his laws.

Be it known also that we believe in, and teach, all of the Holy Bible: from Genesis to Revelation, and that we acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, and that he is God. Also, we only teach what we can prove (through scriptures).

Please read Dawn’s Blog first. What follows is a response…

I posted on this topic already, but would just like to add that I’d like to know where I can go to find some $500 gym shoes (smile)

The Legacy of Civil Rights:

There’s a strong argument that states that the Civil Rights Movement was co-opted by opportunists, grand-standers, and self-serving preachers. The focus seemed to move from establishing an environment of respect and non-interference/persecution to wanting to eat in white establishments, share white privileges, and enculturate ourselves with the social jewels of a mainstream society. We seemed to have gone from loving ourselves to loving others more than ourselves - from wanting our own to wanting what somebody else had. Instead of embracing the opportunity to define self, create for self and nurture self - we bought into that which had excluded us, castigated us, and wanted nothing to do with us.

The Amen Crowd:

It is probably the easiest thing in the world to join in on gossip and criticism about others… until the spotlight is on you. Jesus said, “he who is without guilt, cast the first stone.” Does that mean we cannot reprimand or advise others? Of course we can. As long as it is done with love and not disparagingly. If love is patient and kind, knowing neither envy nor jealousy, is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited - in essence, if love is charity - then where is the gift in such denouncement? It reminds me of the fable where a boy is in the river drowning and an older man comes along and sees the boy drowning. While the boy is in the water, the older man lectures the boy on his folly for having ended up in the river. In the course of the lecture, the boy drowns. Amen to that?

Leadership (3 Quotes from John C. Maxwell)

• The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.

• Leaders must be close enough to relate to others but far enough ahead to motivate them.

• Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

Alligator tears:

I have been to many a funeral where a young person is laying in the casket because of gun violence. It is sad to know that the person who pulled the trigger usually gives the Mother a kiss expressing his condolences…

The Million Man March:

Every brother I know who went with me is doing their part. To say it was a failure spits on the efforts of those who took it to heart (BEFORE and after the date) and re-committed themselves to making a difference. Each one teach one, remember?

Cosby’s plea:

The voice of a collective conscience speaking? Babies raising babies. The babies came from somewhere, out of wedlock sometimes, like… what’s that guy’s name… Bill Cosby? Perhaps his great oration was personally motivated, which is not to say that it doesn’t apply to more. Mr. Cosby didn’t reveal anything new. Modern versions of that conversation can be heard in debates over the use of the word “nigger.” The bottom line? We don’t need to place the world upon our shoulders. Everybody knows change needs to happen, but if I may quote the words of Ghandi, rather than take on the world , “let us be the change we wish to see in the world.” It starts at home. It starts with one person. It starts when each of us decides that we will do the best we can where we are with what we have. If we do that, God will take care of the rest.

GRAND MASTER TEACHERS MAGNIFY

DR. JOHN HENRIK CLARKE

Who created Jesus Christ?

African Popes in Rome

“History is a clock that people use to tell there political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they have been and what they have been, where they are and what they are. Most important, history tells a people where they still must go, what they still must be. The relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child.”
- Dr. John Henrik Clarke

“I think every person that calls themselves a leader, a preacher, a policy maker of any kind should ask and answer the question in his own life time, how will my people stay on this earth? How will they be educated? How will they be schooled? How will they be housed? And how will they be defended? The answer to these questions will create the concept of enduring nationhood because it creates the concept of enduring responsibility. I am saying what ever the solution is, either we are in charge of our own destiny or we are not in charge. On that point we got to be clear, you either free or you a slave.”
- Dr. John Henrik Clarke

MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN

“Black leadership has to recognize that principles more than speech, character more than a claim, is greater in advancing the cause of our liberation than what has transpired thus far.”
- Min. Louis Farrakhan

“If we don’t make earnest moves toward real solutions, then each day we move one day closer to revolution and anarchy in this country. This is the sad, and yet potentially joyous, state of America.”
- Min. Louis Farrakhan

DR. CORNEL WEST

“We had a much deeper sense of community in ‘67 than we do in ‘97. This is important to say that not in a nostalgic way because it’s not as if ‘67 was a time when things were so good.”
- Dr. Cornel West

“Confining life to an eternal present is an insidious form of soul murder.”
- Dr. Cornel West

HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

“My mission is to give life to the dead. What I teach brings them out of death and into life. My mission, as the Messenger, is to bring the truth to the world before the world is destroyed. There will be no other Messenger. I am the last and after me will come God Himself. I do not say I will live so long as that, but when God comes, if it pleases Him, I may be with Him. However, if I am not with Him, this is the final. The truth I bring will give you the knowledge of yourself and of God.”
- Hon. Elijah Muhammad

DR. KHALID MUHAMMAD

“We don’t owe [the whites] nothing in South Africa… we give him 24 hours to get out of town, by sundown. That’s all. If he won’t get out of town by sundown, we kill everything white that ain’t right in South Africa. We kill the women, we kill the children, we kill the babies. We kill the blind, we kill the crippled, we kill ‘em all. We kill the faggot, we kill the lesbian, god dammit we kill them all.”
- Khalid Abdul Muhammad

“Don’t tell us you lost 6 million. Historians, scholars, scientists, they went to some of the death camps. It wasn’t 6 million, it wasn’t 5 million, it wasn’t 4 million, it wasn’t even 3 million. Some of them say we’d be hard-pressed to get 1 1/2 million. Reports on the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were bloated, exaggerated, probably fabricated.”
- Khalid Abdul Muhammad

And In Closing: RAS KASS NATURE OF THE THREAT

”Shit don’t just happen, I create it / everything you see / and shit you don’t son I made it and waited / I’m the big bang theory and evolution / been there done that / from revolution to prostitution”
- Ras Kass

By Richard Rapaport

If you need proof that there is no fool like an old fool, particularly when it comes to race relations, look no further than Virginia House of Delegates Member from Hanover County, Frank D. Hargrove. Hargrove, who is 79 and a WWII veteran, managed to side-swipe both Blacks and Jews suggesting in an interview in the Charlottesville Daily Progress that rather than having Virginia officially apologize for slavery, Blacks should simply “get over” it. Going beyond what is a sort of retrograde mantra by Southern whites of a certain age, Hargrove’s rationale for a general racial forgiveness in America was to ponder hypothetically, “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?”

As ill-timed and ill-tuned as Hargrove’s words were; published the day following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the man actually did make several useful associations even if not quite the ones he intended. The most salient of these, as both Blacks and Jews could tell you, is that “getting over” slavery, like transcending several millennia of blood libel, doesn’t happen overnight. Nor does it happen in the space of the century-and-a-half since the official abolition of Negro slavery in America following the passage of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. For both Blacks and Jews, emancipation has been an epochal process.

Each year, around Easter, Jews around the world celebrate Passover, the holiday that commemorates the freeing of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt sometime around 1600 B.C. Thirty-five hundred years later, the miraculous escape of the Jews from Pharonic bondage is still celebrated as one of the most important moments in Judaism’s nearly six-millennium history. The story of the flight from Egypt makes up Exodus, the second of the five “Books of Moses,” what Christians refer to as “The Old Testament.” The proximity of Passover to Easter, of course, has to do with the fact that Christ’s Last Supper was in actuality a Passover Seder.

As of today, American Blacks have only been free for one twenty-fifth of the time since the Jewish Exodus, a mere blink of the historical eye. That period shrinks considerably considering the true condition of the former slaves in the American South following what is weirdly still referred to as “Reconstruction.” If anything, the condition of the freed slaves in the former Confederacy and in the U.S. in general “deconstructed” hideously through the second half of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th. In antebellum America, slaves may have been chattel, but at least they were highly valuable chattel. Just prior to the Civil War, the nearly four million slaves in America were widely judged to have an accrued value of four billion dollars, or $1,000 each. This was a prodigious sum in those days and after the Civil War, that value figuratively and literally, vanished.

Following the surrender of Robert E. Lee and his Army of Virginia in April 1865, a low-grade insurgency raged for years in the South, the purpose being the suppression of freed slaves and the elimination of the radical Republican “carpetbaggers” who were trying to aid Constitutionally enfranchised Blacks in their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. By the 1880s, the nation South and North was far more interested in healing the wounds of secession than in redressing the mistreatment of former slaves. There was little happiness and less justice for America’s Blacks as the night of racism descended under the reign of Jim Crow and the Klu Klux Klan in the waning years of the 19th Century.

Instead of the slaver’s whip, it became the lyncher’s noose that came to symbolize oppression for generations of American Blacks. We thus must ask ourselves, when exactly did the bondage of America’s former slaves end if clearly not in 1865?

Could it be in the ‘teens and twenties, when passionate pioneers like W.E.B. du Bois and Marcus Garvey gave voice to a nascent civil rights movement? Was it in 1948, when President Harry Truman finally desegregated the American armed forces by Presidential edict? Could it have been in 1955 with the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, or 1961 when the Freedom Riders challenged white supremacy on the highways of the South? Was it rather in August 1963 with Martin Luther King made his “I Have a Dream” speech, or in 1964 or 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson repectively signed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts.

Arguably, the answer is that bondage never went away, and that it exists to this day in America. That argument becomes even more powerful if we take into account the relegation of a huge number of Black Americans into the nation’s inner cities and poorest suburbs, where lack of economic opportunity and second-class education creates its own kind of 21st Century bondage.

Thus, the answer to Delegate Hargrove’s plea for Blacks to “get over” slavery must be “no,” America’s Blacks cannot simply transcend the history of racism, any more than Jews could simply throw off the mantle of bondage as soon as they passed border control from Egypt into the Sinai. The truth is that slavery is an institution of such pernicious effect that can take centuries, if not millennia for the wounds to heal.

The Prophet Moses, who led the Jews out of Egypt, for one, understood that it could not simply be a straight-line march from slavery into the Promised Land. He instead led the Jews on a forty-year wilderness trek so that that the older generation would pass on, giving way to a younger one more comfortable with the trappings and demands of freedom. Moses himself, the final survivor of his generation, died within sight of the Promised Land, forbidden by God to enter it himself.

That act three thousand five hundred years ago, lends heart-breaking poignancy to the “I have seen the promised land” speech of the American Black Moses, Martin Luther King, in Memphis the night before his assassination. That speech, and King’s understanding of the difficult, and as yet incomplete journey, stands as an irrefutable retort to America’s Frank Hargrove’s, who inability to understand why we cannot simply “get over” slavery simply and powerfully answers its own question.

Richard Rapaport is a San Francisco Bay Area freelance writer. He can be reached at rjrap@aol.com.

By Allison Samuels
Newsweek

Feb. 12, 2007 issue - When Harriet Washington, a med-school graduate and former fellow in ethics at Harvard Medical School, decided to research medical crimes against African-Americans, she feared she’d turn up much more than the Tuskegee experiment. She was right.

Washington’s new book, “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present,” reveals that the 40-year Tuskegee study—which allowed black men with syphilis to die untreated so their cadavers could be used for research—was neither the first nor the last time that unwitting black subjects were exploited by medical researchers in the United States. “Tuskegee is just the most well-known example,” says Washington, currently a visiting scholar at DePaul Law School.

“Medical Apartheid” starts with the chilling story of John (Fed) Brown, an escaped slave in 1855 who recalled his owner, a doctor, causing blisters on his arms and legs to see “how deep his black skin went.” The study, if that’s the word for it, had no therapeutic value. It reflected a distorted fascination with the outward appearance of African-Americans at a time when racial differences were thought to be much more than skin deep.

“One thing that surprised me,” Washington told NEWSWEEK, “was the brutal honesty of the doctors’ notes. There was no hiding their racist views. They made it clear how they felt about African-Americans and saw no problem with what they were doing. They were proud to write it down.”

But “Apartheid’s” tales are not limited to the politically incorrect past. The forced sterilization of black women (what civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer called her “Mississippi appendectomy”) got its start during slavery, but continued in less overt forms until recent years. A 1991 experiment that implanted the now defunct birth-control device Norplant into uninformed African-American teenagers in Baltimore was applauded by some as a way to “reduce the underclass.”

But perhaps the most egregious case Washington documents involved a study conducted in New York from 1988 to 2001, in which a city agency tested potentially dangerous AIDS drugs on African-American foster children with HIV, often without permission of their parents. The children were 6 months of age and younger. “Eighty percent of the children in foster care in New York are black,” says Washington, “and many of them have parents who aren’t available to them because of drugs or whatever. They’re perfect victims.”

Washington also highlights the dual face of abuse, how many medical advances resulted from unethical research. J. Marion Sims, a leading 19th-century physician, president of the American Medical Association and one of the first doctors to emphasize women’s health, developed many of his gynecological treatments through experiments on non-consenting slave women who were denied the comfort of anesthesia.

Thanks to this brutal history, many African-Americans today are wary of participating in potentially lifesaving medical studies. “That’s really the true cost of all of these abusive practices,” says Washington. “Because of past crimes against our health, we’re too afraid to trust those in authority.” A recent study in The American Journal of Law & Medicine estimated that only 1 percent of the nearly 20 million Americans enrolled in biomedical studies are black.

Still, the author sees signs of progress. Many of the medical schools that were guilty of experimenting on African-Americans in the past have agreed to let her lecture to incoming medical classes. “My hope is this opens a door to conversation,” says Washington. “By bringing these atrocities out in the public, some healing can occur and some of the fears African-Americans feel will begin to dissolve.”

From Newsweek

by Kiri Davis

“I knew from an early age that film was a medium I wanted to work in. Through my films I’ve found a way of expressing myself as well as telling the stories that are important to me. At sixteen, I directed my first documentary, A Girl Like Me. Before that, I created numerous short films and attended the New York Film Academy. I would love to pursue a career in film making as well as to explore my passions for acting and writing. I have a love of traveling, which affords me the opportunity to meet new people and explore other cultures. My goal is to develop more projects that will help my community and give a much needed voice to issues that pertain to people of color. I am currently attending Urban Academy, a NYC public high school, and I live with my mother in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.”

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, supported by HBO, is a free after-school program that challenges high school students to create short documentary films about their lives. Working one-on-one with professional filmmaker-mentors, students write, shoot and edit personal narrative videos on subjects they choose. In the process, they gain self-esteem, develop media literacy and master state-of-the-art digital filmmaking technology. We say to teens: You have a voice! Use it!

And the world is listening! Since we began in 2001, our students’ films have been broadcast on HBO Family, PBS and LINK-TV and have been presented at film festivals nationwide from the American Film Institute in Hollywood to the Museum of Television & Radio in Manhattan. Our teen filmmaking program has been featured in the New York Times, The Daily News and on MSNBC, PBS and NY1 News. We have won numerous awards including four Honorable Mention National Student Emmys. Today, our films are being used in classrooms to teach powerful life lessons of diversity, tolerance and hope.

Young student’s documentary leaving audiences stunned.

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