House Energy and Commerce Committee approves health bill – Patrick O’Connor – POLITICO.com

House Energy and Commerce Committee approves health bill – Patrick O’Connor – POLITICO.com

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Why what happened to Henry Louis Gates was a good thing

In watching what has unfolded with the widely admired Harvard Historian Henry Louis Gates or Skip Gates as he is also known, I am surprised yet thrilled by the shock and awe that has amassed.

For us lesser known black folks this is not an event that we are not familiar with. In fact if you have been following the coverage almost every commentator of color has spoken about their own experiences with racial profiling and the over zealous machismo of the National Police Fraternity, no doubt even law enforcement officers of color have not escaped from the nefarious clutches.

Whether or not I believe that Skip Gates’ case was as bad as others that I know of or have experienced personally is not relevant. It is important that it happened.

His incident and fame as forced a nation which believes in the false notion of a post racial society to acknowledge that it doesn’t exist. It has forced well to do and affluent scholars and professionals of color to remember that their prestige does not shield them from some of the perils that face the less fortunate. It has illustrated that racial profiling is not simply an issue for inner city residents, criminals or youngsters with baggy clothes. It had caused the President to have to speak out in a very direct tone with regards to the actions of a police officer for the first time in history (as far as I know).

It goes with out saying that people of color are subject to events much worse that this on an everyday basis. However the fact that it has happened to someone so prominent will start a dialogue across the country, and will even spark a documentary produced by Gates himself.

Ultimately what it shows is if more people of distinction and name recognition find themselves treated with the callous treatment that your average person of color receives perhaps we will find ourselves straying away from rhetoric and actually sparking action and eventually change.

B Greene

Our Own Limitations

This weekend as I was celebrating the Day of Independence with my family and having conversations about the state of Black America I came to some interesting revelations. Later as I spoke with one of my friends from Seattle some of these revelations were echoed throughout our conversation as well. The resolution that I came to within myself was that those of us who advocate for, and do work within inner city, minority, and poverty stricken communities must begin to change the way that we engage with our work. We must begin to truly use language that will birth independence and stop preaching a gospel of dependence. We have to stop using terms like “Well school is for everyone” and instead begin putting old phrases like “Knowledge is power” to actual use. It does no good for us to go around communities that are typically producing excessive drop out rates, high pregnancy rates, high incarceration rates, low test scores and the like saying things like “school is not for everyone”. In doing so we are preaching a gospel of failure. Those of us from inner city surroundings all ready know that being smart is frowned upon most of the time. Getting good grades and studying hard is the exception and not rule, yet we still promote the false premise that somehow are kids can escape without accepting the idea that in more cases than not education is the gateway to a life lived to the fullest. Are there set backs? Yes! Is the road still tough? Of course! But what is the likely hood the inner city  is going to be able to produce the drop out that becomes Bill Gates? Even if it is true that the inner city will produce some, that will still mean that so many will fall through the cracks. We have to stop embracing the minimum with self talk like “at least he/she graduated from high school.” Is it important to graduate? YES! Should graduation from high school be the benchmark? Absolutely not! High school graduation needs to become the rule not the exception. Some sort of post high school education needs to become the rule not the exception. Whether that education is College or a Vocational Program it must be done. I understand that success without some type of higher education is possible, but it is not very likely. We all know someone who is living real good with no education, yet we can point out many more who are living well because of their education. We also have to stop allowing stigma to prevent us from seizing opportunities that do exist.  We have all had our run ins with over zealous often times racist police officers. However, how can we ever expect to change the judicial system or the way it treats persons of color and low economic standing unless more of us go into the fields of law enforcement and criminal justice? If we are ok with simply sitting on the outside hoping to revolutionize the philosophy of the inner status quo we should just quit now. There are tons of industries that we are actively recruiting minorities and we are denying ourselves economic empowerment because we are more concerned with keeping it real than with changing our circumstances. We actively choose to to go into certain fields yet cry about not having access to others. Many people worked their who lives to be able to see a day that we could be so selective as to not apply for a job that pays well, and has good benefits and good retirement because our “friends” may look at us different. If our personal enrichment, development, and economic independence is contingent upon the opinion of someone that we have fallen farther that we will ever be able to recover from. I don’t subscribe to the “have to be broke” school of activism. Economic power is crucial to everything. With more economic power you often times wield more political power, which in turn yields more concrete results for social change. It’s common sense that the bigger the wallet and the louder the voice, the easier you are heard. The power structure in this country is often times highly educated, politically connected, and economically powerful. The upper middle class doesn’t speak about education like it is a cancer. It is usually not a question of if they are going to go to college but rather where are they going to go to college, and in my humble opinion until we begin to position are self talk in the same fashion we will continue to be fighting the same problems. We might not all go to Harvard or Yale but if we shoot for Ivy League the worse that can happen is that we land at Community College for two years and transfer. Either way will over time usher in a new time of empowerment. We can not continue to say that we are held back if refuse to attempt to push forward! Don’t call yourself an activist if you are only active in keeping us active-less! Volunteering to be a victim is not the same thing as being victimized. Peace

Reverse Racism

I know that this may not go over very well but can someone please explain to me what reverse racism is and how it is getting so much attention, all the way up to the Supreme Court. Can someone please fill me in on what white men (Insert I’m not a racist disclosure: I have a white friend) are losing in America? I mean when is the last time any cop of a racial minority went on trial for blatantly shooting and killing or brutalizing a white male? Are blacks somehow taking over because Clarence Thomas is on the court or because the white house TV has been colorized? How many CEO’s of color testified in the bank bailout? How many in the auto bailout? If newspapers receive government funds how many people of color will you see testifying before congress? How about we go county to county and count all of the local and federally elected officials and see if the minorities have over run the judicial and legislative branches of government. Is it Tiger Woods that took it too far by being good at golf, because you know he doesn’t consider himself black or was it Venus and Serena that did it? You know in all of my life I have only had one black teacher ever. I have only been stopped and harassed by one black cop. If it is true that we are taking over then I would expect to see a lot more people who look like me in powerful positions, spending unheard of amounts of money on useless things, verbally assaulting me, and pissing me off on a regular basis. I mean sure I have the rap community, but I’m talking about the guys at failing companies who are pocketing millions of dollars for being ineffective at their jobs. Talk about affirmative action…It truly amazes me that we have come so short (far) as a country that the de facto majority can now cry foul against policies that had to be enacted because they wanted all the good jobs and lame jobs to themselves. My grandparents who were raised as sharecroppers less than one generation out of slavery have had the pleasure of living lives that have seen every great leader murdered, schools desegregated (which actually gutted the community), and diversity initiatives enacted, now reverse racism cases heard and won in the supreme court. I am sure their grandparents would be proud to know that we have gone from property to the purveyors of discriminatory practices all in less than 3 generations.

My thought on the coverage of Michael Jackson’s Death

In watching  what has been happened with the death of Michael Jackson. My feelings have been a mixed bag. As a fan and consumer I was devastated by the way he passed. Ever since I was a little I have listened to his music. My sister, cousins, and I one talent show after talent show dancing to his songs as children. At Christmas time, to this day the Jacksons 5 Christmas album is a staple in our homes. To say that Michael Jackson impacted my life would be a vast understatement. However, it has also been very painful to watch as he a been portrayed not as a genius who was ahead of his time but rather as a wack job who just happened to possess a decent amount of talent. As a person who has always been infatuated with the media it sickens me how tradgedy has turned into the who can smear Michael Jackson with the most viciousness and the least amount of decency while maintaining a facade of “fair and balanced” coverage campaign. It amazes me that as a culture we are so accepting of the most harmful trends in our society. We build a person up until they are bigger than life, then we go to great pains to ensure that their legacy is one that reaps of innuendo and conspiracy theories. We single handled have birthed the tabloid culture that now circulates with wide distribution all across the world. We have no problem being the moral guide to the world while also engaging the most inhumane of practices. What is the most terrifying to me is that I am culpable as well as some part of me in the darkest recesses of my being still wants to be a voice in the media. I fear at what cost.

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