IT AIN'T OVER YET PEOPLE!

From CNN 7/17/2009

Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it's racist
Story Highlights


Cops claim police message board "infested with racist, white supremacist" remarks
Boards reference swim club incident, calls black kids "ghetto monkey faces"
One post describes "no car insurance driving, bad weave wearing" black women
Lawsuit seeks for site to be taken down or have cops stop posting during work


Link to the article


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/17/police.racism.lawsuit/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Link to the actual civil complaint by the Police in Philadelphia

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/17/civil.complaint.pdf

By Jason Kessler CNN



(CNN) -- A group of black Philadelphia police officers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against their department, alleging an online forum geared toward city police is "infested with racist, white supremacist and anti-African-American content."

My comment

When this kind of racism is allowed to continue for even one day it is institutional racism.


Denegration of any and all people is wrong. All racism based in fear and ignorance is wrong. Unless, and until, there is an open dialogue the racial resentment will continue to fester. Talk , talk , talk all you want to but until everyone, white and non-whites, get together and say what they truly feel, face- to- face, the humiliation, denegration, resentment, and racist behavior will never change. It begins with the children of all races and, if the parents are incapable of understanding and communicating how harmful racism is to a society, then the schools should incorporate it into the classroom at the youngest age.

REVISITING THE LEGACY OF MASSIVE RESISTANCE

By Larry J. Sabato
Director, U.Va. Center for Politics

The following article is the unedited version of a commentary piece as submitted to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Fifty years have now passed since the dark days of Massive Resistance, when public schools in some Virginia localities were shuttered rather than integrated.
Virginia has had an overall proud and constructive history; yet except for the original sin of slavery, Massive Resistance is the most indelible stain on the state's soul.


When today's young people are told about the school closings, they are astonished. In retrospect, it is almost unbelievable--even for those of us who lived through the era--to accept that public education ceased in order to prevent "the mixing of the races."

But the nightmare was all too real. I was a young boy growing up in Norfolk when my father told me that my cousins were no longer able to attend school. Even as a youngster I had noticed the commotion, as well as the separate water fountains and the "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards. One Sunday, an African-American serviceman came to religious services. As he sat down, every white person in the pew moved. I was five or six years old, but I still vividly recall the anguish and humiliation on the man's face. This happened in a church, and this gentleman was serving our country.

These were the times. Society was sick with the plague of racism. And instead of helping to cure the disease, Virginia made it worse--much worse.

The state's elected leadership refused to accept Brown v. Board of Education, the breakthrough Supreme Court decision in 1954, which held that separate, segregated schools were inherently unequal. Barbara Johns, a brave 16-year old in Prince Edward County, Virginia, had helped to precipitate Brown in 1951 by organizing a strike to protest the disgraceful condition of her all-black high school. The resulting lawsuit was one of five cases the Supreme Court heard under the name Brown v. Board of Education.

Virginia's reaction to Brown was the "Southern Manifesto," championed by U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., and signed by more than 100 significant officeholders in the South. By 1956 Byrd-led Virginia decided to fight, and the General Assembly passed a state law that cut off funding and closed any school that agreed to integrate.

Sadly, the Richmond newspapers, including The Times-Dispatch, contributed mightily to this disgraceful effort. The papers thundered daily about the evils of integration, and arguably violated journalistic ethics by coordinating directly with Senator Byrd in promoting this extreme measure. By contrast, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot won a Pulitzer Prize for its anti-Massive Resistance editorials.

In September 1958, several schools in Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Warren County were on the verge of integrating because of court orders, but the state seized and shut them, creating the "Lost Class of '59." Some black and white students were tutored privately, but many others never made up the lost ground.

Reason gradually prevailed. Virginia's business leaders, many of them segregationists, nonetheless nudged the state toward integration, fearing the results of an uneducated workforce. This modest progressivism was not without cost. In Norfolk, hard-line segregationist mayor, Fred Duckworth, reportedly kept a list of these "soft" businessmen on his office door, and turned away any who dared to come by.

Finally, the federal and state courts acted, and on January 19, 1959 (ironically, Robert E. Lee's birthday) the school-closing law was overturned. In early February, a handful of black students integrated the schools, though not in Prince Edward County--where the public schools tragically remained locked until 1964.

Soon federal civil rights laws turned outcasts into voters, and Virginia gradually gave up most vestiges of segregation. Blacks won local offices and General Assembly berths, and the state led the nation by choosing the first elected African-American governor, Douglas Wilder, grandson of slaves, in 1989.

By 2008 Virginia voted for Barack Obama by a wide margin--and the first African-American president swept all localities that had closed schools, save for small Warren County.

Some Virginia leaders have also tried to face the legacy of the 1950s head on. In 2004 a much more enlightened General Assembly created a scholarship fund to provide educational opportunities for those damaged by the earlier legislature's actions. This past February, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim apologized from the heart on behalf of his city to an emotional gathering of Massive Resistance survivors.

Massive Resistance may seem to be ancient history, but it should never be forgotten--a classic case of leadership gone awry and irrational fears shaping public policy. And there are many lessons to be learned and applied to today's politics.

The U.Va. Center for Politics will explore these lessons, collaborating with PBS stations such as WCVE, in a national documentary depicting Massive Resistance through the eyes of the students who experienced it. In September the show will air in Virginia, and then it will debut nationally in February.

On July 17 at the state capitol, the Center for Politics will host a day-long conference on Massive Resistance. Former Governors Wilder and Linwood Holton, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, prominent state legislators, civil rights leaders, historians, journalists, and Massive Resistance veterans will be featured. It's free and open to the public, but registration at this Web site is required: www.centerforpolitics.org/programs/govcon/indexMass.html. Come join us. Hear firsthand a heartrending report on the mistakes of the past so that working together we can insure that they never happen again.



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CLUB POOL INCIDENT IN PENNSYLVANIA IS NOT RARE

The press does not get it about racism, the public does not get it about racism, whites don't get it about racism and blacks, as well as 'other minorities', don't get it about racism.What everyone is missing is that the racism born of extreme hatred is just buried beneath political correctness and given the slightest opportunity it will resurface when we least expect it in some gruesome way. Everyone will express their surprise at the extent to which it still exists, the outrage and the ballyhoo will subside and on and on. We, as a country and a society need to raise the discussion to the level it demands.

Eric Holder gets it . We are cowards and , for the most part, unwilling to have constructive dialog. It is as if racism is some nebulous concept, separate and apart, from our daily lives. As far as racist whites are concerned 'niggas' could be anybody who is non-white and are considered subhuman, dirty and dangerous. This notion is inculcated in racist families when children are the most impressionable and , once the racist attitude is planted, it is as hard to eradicate as a ground running noxious weed from the child's consciousness. The racist seed is borne of ignorance and fear. I should know, I was raised in a racist family.

After the pool incident in Pennsylvania, where the white kids got out of the pool when the black and Latino kids got in there was a great ballyhoo about the incident being racist. Well , I'll just be hornswaggled, who da thunk it?

After Obama was elected, according to the press, it seems that all was love and harmony between whites and 'other races' and that racial barriers had been transcended. This in spite of the fact that, at the same time, racist incidents were happening around the country. The true racial hatred cannot be fully measured until the meaning of the word 'nigger' is examined. Out here in the real world some things are getting worse, not better, regarding the attitudes toward 'minorities', who by the way, are fast becoming the majority. For all of the white kids, who got out of the club pool in Pennsylvania when the 'other kids,' got in, the concept of racism is indelibly etched into their perception of 'the other.' Those kids, in all likelihood cannot be wrested away from their racist thinking inculcated by the ignorant adults who are responsible for training them to survive in the world to come. That world will be comprised of a mixture of ethnic individuals who will eventually become one color and one culture.

I have taken a lot of heat from racist individuals with whom I am acquainted. I have been told the name of Obama is not allowed in some households. I have some lifelong friends, and sadly also relatives, who sent anti-Obama emails before, after and during the election. They were surprised when I told them that I deleted the emails, did not ever want to see them again, and that I felt Obama was the best thing that could have happened to our country in a very long time. I did not understand, until the 2008 election, how some of my friends felt and, because I proudly voted for Obama, our relationship as friends will never be the same.

The 'children of color,' were victims of racism, but so were the children whose parents yanked them out of the pool when the camp kids got in. This is a terrible lesson perpetuating an anachronistic, generational attitude of racism which will deprive them of the blessing of diversity and expanded cultural richness. It will also perpetuate, in the minds of the camp children, that they are regarded as inferior, dangerous and that they do not belong. How could the camp kids possibly understand such unjustified treatment? They did nothing wrong, but this one heinous incident planted the seed of resentment in their young minds and the cycle of racism and resentment continues while we do nothing but talk it to death. There needs to be an established forum of individuals from many races to address the opportunities for growth and prosperity through education, trust building and diversity on a national level. Our national security depends on it and our economic survival as a country is contingent upon eliminating institutional racism and injustice. The pool incident is one more truth exposed.

RACISM AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

People have lost their sense of humor. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist. I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a ‘Sam the Jew’ or ‘Jose the Mexican’ — but we didn’t think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don’t want to be politically correct. We’re all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.”


Clint Eastwood



Ok, so where do you even begin with something like this? This quote sounds a lot like my father, most of the people I grew up with, and a lot of educated, and supposedly enlightened people I now know. There is a disconnect somewhere between the speech center of the brain and the part of the brain responsible for rational thought. At least Clint Eastwood was honest.


Eastwood came out with it. Folks now, who are racist to the core and publicly claim they are not, do talk in whispers behind their hands, thinking no one will know except like-minded souls, to whom they are addressing their remarks. When there are doctors, attorneys, bankers, engineers, insurance professionals and myriad others, talking behind their hands in whispers how is any progress on racism going to take place? When we still have Realtors steering whites and non-whites to different neighborhoods how is racism diminished?


Much has been publicized about our recent 'housing crisis' and the concomitant economic breakdown of the entire financial system in the United States. It has been mentioned that economically disadvantaged ( mostly non-white) payed a heavier price than did those of privilege ( mostly white ). The bankers who made the shady loans , and understood full well that they were wrong, saw poor whites and non-whites alike as oportunistic victims ripe for discriminatory picking. Racism in not only morally wrong it has proved economically disasterous. The sooner we recognize that a robust middle class of all ethnicities is needed to restore our economic well-being the sooner we can begin to fiscally, as well as racially, heal this country.



Economic injustice still hides behind the backhand of whispers, shrouded in political correctness, in the face of racism: it thrives in the the dark secretive place where economic power decides who gets ahead.





***I need to say something about 'whiteness' vs 'non-whiteness' here. I recognize that racism is usually regarded with respect to bigotry against those who are non-white by those who are white. I also recognize that to use the term white vs non-white creates a greater racial divide, but I am trying to learn a better way to put it. At the moment white vs non-white is all I know. Please check out this link and read this scholarly article by Joyce Irene Middleton because I cannot say it as effectively as she has in the article entitled, Post Civil Rights Whiteness and Diversity: When are we going to stop talking about race? May 21st 2009.



http://cccc-blog.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

EDUCATING CHILDREN ABOUT RACE

It is well known that children are inquisitive by nature. Since their developmental skills are formulated through observation and questioning, what they see and hear from their earliest experiences will develop into lifelong attitudes. Children ask questions about everything. Why this, why that, and such things as why is a cat a cat and not a dog. For the most part the answers are simple for adults to answer but sometimes they are not easy.



When my son was about 3 years of age we encountered a young man in a wheel chair. We were going into a store just as he was struggling to exit in the wheelchair and I helped to hold the door open. My son looked at me and asked, "Mom, why is that guy in that chair?" I tried to hush him up, but the young man said, "M'am, if you don't mind, I'd like to answer that question myself." The young man went on the explain to my son that he had been in an accident and his injuries prevented him from walking so he needed a wheel chair to get around. My son was fascinated, he understood and accepted the explanation, and from that point on he did not see people in wheelchairs as particularly different but accepted that they had had a different experience.



Years later, when my son was about 9 yrs. old, in 1978, we were in the car on Main St. at the corner of Ridge St. in Charlottesville, Va. and we heard screaming. I was driving and I looked out the window to my left and I saw a young black girl holding her shoulder and screaming. Blood was gushing from under her hand where she had placed it to stop the bleeding. There was a very young child with her maybe, 2 or 3 yrs old. I stopped the car in the middle of the road and turned off the engine, got out and ran to her to find out what had happened. Others in the car were afraid and told me to come back and just leave. They were afraid a crime had taken place and that we were in mortal danger since the area we were driving through was predominately black. My husband, disabled by MS, was mortified that I would just stop the car and run over to someone bleeding on the sidewalk, and leave everyone else in the car.



Since this was a time before aids awareness, I did not know what to do except to try to calm her , watch her crying child so it would not get in the street, and put pressure with my bare hands on the triangle shaped cut in her shoulder. ( I was a Girl Scout) The cut was close to her neck and it was deep. She was lying down on the sidewalk and when she calmed down she told me she had been with some friends, on what is now the Downtown Mall, and they had pushed her into one of the store windows and when she fell through it, it broke. She had some other minor cuts as well but nothing like the big one in her shoulder. A young black man came from the direction of Ridge St. and asked if he could help. I told him to get to a phone and call the rescue squad, and the police, and he did. By this time people had gathered to see what was happening. When the ambulance came the men told me they had it, she was going into shock, and I should leave. I remember looking at the blood on my hands and marveling how it was just blood, not black blood or white blood, just red blood that runs through all human veins. My son's only comment was a question, "Mom is she going to be alright?"



One of the adults commented that I could have been killed just running willy-nilly to help a person in 'that section of town' and that I should have had more consideration for my family than that. It is true that the car was stopped dead in the middle of the road, but the traffic was very light and seemed to move around our car just fine. I was concerned about what might have been said in my son's range of hearing while I was not there. We had members of our family who were then, and still are, racist. I can only hope , that by example, I was able to negate any racist mutterings to which he may have been exposed .

CCCC: Diversity That Matters: A Commitment to Social Justice

CCCC: Diversity That Matters: A Commitment to Social Justice

The New Obama World

President Obama has exceeded all expectations I had of him as candidate Obama. In his last speech to the Muslim world he has elevated, not only the status of faithful, law-abiding people, but he has elevated the status of humankind. He has not given in to terrorism by recognizing that individual differences in religious belief do not make us adversaries. He has not given in to terrorist behavior by acknowledging that there are far more good Muslims living day-to-day, with the same goals and aspirations as those of us who are Christian, than there are terrorists invoking the Muslim religion as justification for their savage actions. He has recognized Muslims of all nations as a people who have longed to be recognized for the good they represent and not for the hate brought upon them by their own saboteurs.

For centuries Muslims have been feared, hated and misunderstood. To be sure their culture is vastly different from our American culture. They have suffered great religious persecution in much the same way Christians have experienced persecution. Nor have Muslims , by and large, been recognized in recent world history for the contributions made to art, technology and science. Just as United States history text books have left out huge amounts of information of the contributions of African-Americans to our national development, text books for classes in world history conspicuously leave out huge amounts of information about Muslim contributions. In my pursuit of information of the history of black Americans, I read a lot of books about Africans' contributions to the building of America that I never read in a text book in school. It is as if, once considered not equal by Western standards, certain ethnic populations just never existed.

If there is to be any reconciliation with nations that are prodominately Muslim it has to begin somewhere. President Obama's speech may have appeared to be apologetic to some Americans and less than adequate for some Muslims, but it was a beginning. It is true that no one else could have given that speech and connected so forcefully with the very people we need to engage in order to defeat terrorism. Muslims have suffered mightily from terrorism too and they have a huge human stake in eliminating it from their own lands.

There is such irony that at just the time when America needed someone to begin healing the religious and ethnic rifts in the world, that Obama burst onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere as a African-American, and in short order, began a dialogue with the Muslim world.