Tuesday, January 6, 2015
In my spare time, I like to compile list of biographies and one of the list I like to keep is a list of those whose lives are rather exemplary. Here is one I recently added to my list. Perhaps you can add it to yours as well.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Joe Cocker, R.I.P.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Over the holy day season, there were a number of notable passings. One that caught my attention was the passing of Joe Cocker:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/arts/music/joe-cocker-is-dead-at-70.html?_r=0
Over the holy day season, there were a number of notable passings. One that caught my attention was the passing of Joe Cocker:
While I cannot claim to have been a big Joe Cocker fan, there was one memorable performance that stayed etched in my mind. The performance was Joe Cocker's duet with the histrionic Patti Labelle during the Motown Returns to the Apollo concert in 1985. The duet was introduced by a comedian of recent infamy and was accompanied by one of my favorite piano playing artists. I invite you to watch and listen ... and to smile.
The Case for Reparations: Part Four
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
"...while the people advocating reparations have changed over time, the response from the country has remained virtually the same. "They have been taught to labor," the Chicago Tribune editorialized in 1891. "They have been taught Christian civilization, and to speak the noble English language instead of some African gibberish. The account is square with the ex-slaves.
"Not exactly. Having been enslaved for 250 years, black people were not left to their own devices. They were terrorized. In the Deep South, a second slavery ruled. In the North, legislatures, mayors, civic associations, banks, and citizens all colluded to join black people into ghettos, where they were overcrowded, overcharged, and undereducated. Businesses discriminated against them, awarding them the worst jobs and the worst wages. Police brutalized them in the streets. And the notion that black lives, black bodies, and black wealth were rightful targets remained deeply rooted in the broader society."
***
"Broach the topic of reparations today and a barrage of questions inevitably follows. Who will be paid? How much will they be paid? Who will pay? But if the practicalities, not the justice, of reparations are the true sticking point, there has for some time been the beginnings of a solution. For the past 25 years, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., who represents the Detroit area, has marked every session of Congress by introducing a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its lingering effects as well as recommendations for "appropriate remedies."
"Broach the topic of reparations today and a barrage of questions inevitably follows. Who will be paid? How much will they be paid? Who will pay? But if the practicalities, not the justice, of reparations are the true sticking point, there has for some time been the beginnings of a solution. For the past 25 years, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., who represents the Detroit area, has marked every session of Congress by introducing a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its lingering effects as well as recommendations for "appropriate remedies."
***
As much as the arguments posited in the article may have great validity, the practicality of assessing reparations does appear to be the elephant in the room. Why begin an exercise, if the outcome will prove to be impractical? Is justice served if the "appropriate remedies" prove to be beyond the practical ability for anyone to pay?
Peace.
New Year's Resolutions
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Each year, I sit down at this time to review my New Year's Resolutions from the ending year and to write my New Year's Resolutions for the new year. For the year 2014, I had 11 resolutions (or goals) and I accomplished four of them. Undeterred by my abysmal rate of failure for 2014 [although in baseball terms four out of eleven ain't bad], for this coming year I have written 15 resolutions and in the spirit of the season I now share some of them with you.
Each year, I sit down at this time to review my New Year's Resolutions from the ending year and to write my New Year's Resolutions for the new year. For the year 2014, I had 11 resolutions (or goals) and I accomplished four of them. Undeterred by my abysmal rate of failure for 2014 [although in baseball terms four out of eleven ain't bad], for this coming year I have written 15 resolutions and in the spirit of the season I now share some of them with you.
(1) Lose the five pounds I seem to have "found" in the last month
(2) Walk 300 "exercise" miles
(3) Do 100,000 crunches on my AB Coaster
(5) Shoot 45 for a nine hole round of golf
(9) Attend the Amherst Black Alumni Reunion in April, play a round of golf with those similarly inclined, and perform Memorial Service
(10) Attend the Amherst Class of 1975 Reunion in May and play a round of golf with those similarly inclined
(15) Do what I can to make this a kinder more gentle world
If you too make resolutions, and if you too are not afraid to share, please do share them with us. I am curious to know what you too may have in store for the coming year.
Peace.
The Case for Reparations: Part Three
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
"Locked out of the greatest mass-based opportunity for wealth accumulation in American history, African Americans who desired and were able to afford home ownership found themselves consigned to central-city communities where their investments were affected by "self-fulfilling prophecies" of the FHA appraisers cut off from sources of new investment[,] their homes and communities deteriorated and lost value in comparison to those homes and communities that FHA appraisers deemed desirable." ("The Case for Reparations", pg. 8 of 47, quoting fromBlack Wealth/White Wealth, the 1995 book by Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro).
"Locked out of the greatest mass-based opportunity for wealth accumulation in American history, African Americans who desired and were able to afford home ownership found themselves consigned to central-city communities where their investments were affected by "self-fulfilling prophecies" of the FHA appraisers cut off from sources of new investment[,] their homes and communities deteriorated and lost value in comparison to those homes and communities that FHA appraisers deemed desirable." ("The Case for Reparations", pg. 8 of 47, quoting fromBlack Wealth/White Wealth, the 1995 book by Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro).
***
Slavery is gone and the discrimination of 50 years ago is now 50 years ago, so what is the purpose of dredging up ancient history as a basis for reparations? In reading the article, the purpose seemed to me to be to lay the foundational basis not just for the reparations that may have been warranted 50 years ago but also to put into context the discrimination that continues to exist today. And, for a person who has worked in a community ostensibly affected by the so-called "self-fulfilling prophecies" of the FHA, when the article goes into the perceived causes of the deterioration of the community, -- the perceived causes of the deterioration of my community, -- I do tend to pay attention.
Peace.
***
"The lives of black Americans are better than they were half a century ago. The humiliation of WHITES ONLY signs are gone. Rates of black poverty have decreased. Black teen pregnancy rates are at record lows -- and the gap between black and white teen pregnancy rates has shrunk significantly. But such progress rests on a shaky foundation, and fault lines are everywhere. The income gap between black and white households is roughly the same today as it was in 1970. Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at New York University, studied children born from 1955 through 1970 and found that 4 percent of whites and 62 percent of blacks across America had been raised in poor neighborhoods. A generation later, the same study showed, virtually nothing had changed. And whereas whites born into affluent neighborhoods tended to remain in affluent neighborhoods, blacks tended to fall out of them."
"The implications are chilling. As a rule, poor black people do not work their way out of the ghetto -- and those who do often face the horror of watching their children and grandchildren tumble back."
The Case for Reparations: Part Two
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Over the years, I have viewed the debate about monetary reparations for the African American descendants of slaves with a great deal of skepticism. After all, according to my math, with the year 2015, slavery ostensibly ended 150 years ago. So it seemed to me that there must be a statute of limitations that applies.
Over the years, I have viewed the debate about monetary reparations for the African American descendants of slaves with a great deal of skepticism. After all, according to my math, with the year 2015, slavery ostensibly ended 150 years ago. So it seemed to me that there must be a statute of limitations that applies.
However, over the weekend, I did read The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates and at the conclusion of the article, I was persuaded that a case had been made for a certain kind of reparations. This is no small triumph. But what I really became persuaded about is that The Case for Reparations is the best articulation of the post-slavery actions which warrant redress that I have ever read. Indeed, after having read it, I would recommend that every high school and college student be required to read and discuss this article.
Of course, that is not likely to happen anytime soon. So allow me to discuss it now.
Peace.
***
"When Clyde Ross was still a child, Mississippi authorities claimed his father owed $3,000 in back taxes. The elder Ross could not read. He did not have a lawyer. He did not know anyone at the local courthouse. He could not expect the police to be impartial. Effectively, the Ross family had no way to contest the claim and no protection under the law. The authorities seized the land. They seized the buggy. They took the cows, hogs, and mules. And so for the upkeep of separate but equal, the entire Ross family was reduced to sharecropping.
"This was hardly unusual. In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned land stretching back to the antebellum period. The series documented some 406 victims and 24,000 acres of land valued at tens of millions of dollars. The land was taken through means ranging from legal chicanery to terrorism." (pg. 4 of 47)
***
"From the 1930s through the 1960s, black people across the country were largely cut out of the legitimate home - mortgage market through means both legal and extralegal. Chicago whites employed every measure, from "restrictive covenants" to bombings, to keep their neighborhoods segregated."
***
"The FHA had adopted a system of maps that rated neighborhoods according to their perceived stability. On the maps, green areas, rated "A", indicated "in demand" neighborhoods that, as one appraiser put it, lacked "a single foreigner or Negro." These neighborhoods were considered excellent prospects for insurance. Neighborhoods where black people lived were rated "D" and were usually considered ineligible for FHA backing. They were colored red. Neither the percentage of black people living there nor their social class mattered. Black people were viewed as a contagion. Redlining went beyond FHA-backed loans and spread to the entire mortgage industry, which was already rife with racism, excluding black people from most legitimate means of obtaining a mortgage."
Finding Emilie: Part One: The Bridge
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
On Saturdays, I typically run errands. Usually the first errand I run is a recycling run where I take all my bottles and cans to the local recycling redemption center. This past Saturday, I was on my recycling run when I happened to switch on NPR's Radio Lab program. I do not normally listen to NPR on the weekends, but for some reason I did at that time and I came upon the following story
On Saturdays, I typically run errands. Usually the first errand I run is a recycling run where I take all my bottles and cans to the local recycling redemption center. This past Saturday, I was on my recycling run when I happened to switch on NPR's Radio Lab program. I do not normally listen to NPR on the weekends, but for some reason I did at that time and I came upon the following story
This story stopped in my tracks. It was the most unusual story I had heard in a very long time. On so many different levels, this story grabbed me and gave me a great sense of hope. Perhaps, those of you who are inclined to listen to it, and who do so, will feel the same emotions that I felt. In any event, I thought that this story would be a good way to bridge the old year with the new.
Happy New Year!
Peace.
P.S. This is Part One because there is a Part Two to this story, but that can come later ... after the new year has begun.
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