Category Archives: books

The Problem With African Heritage Month……….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

………is not that it’s only a month (people who complain about it should respect its history), but that, like its sibling, MLK Day, the Establishment uses it as a way to instill some innocuous pride instead of directly confronting the ugly side of American history.

A Wreath for Emmett Till (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards))

Check out this “News And Notes” story and subsequent interview. And here’s the newspaper account that spurred NPR’s interest.

So, children in 2007 L.A. who grow up with all kinds of rap lyrics can’t handle the Till story? PUL-LEASE.   🙂

BREAKING NEWS: 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Sets May 17 Date for Oral Arguments in Mumia Case

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

Once again, Dave is on point and in front of the herd. I’ve enclosed the open letter from Mumia’s lead attorney at the end of this posting.

March 23, 2007

Third Circuit Appeals Court Sets Date for Oral Arguments in Mumia Case

By Dave Lindorff

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelpia journalist and former Black Panther activist who has been on Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, will finally have his appeal of his conviction heard by a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which set a date of May 17.

At that session, Abu-Jamal will argue that his original trial for the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally flawed because of racial bias by the prosecutor in jury selection. He will argue that his conviction by that jury was improper because the prosecutor improperly was permitted to lessen jurors’ sense of responsibility by assuring them that whatever they decided, the defendant would get “appeal after appeal” and so their decision “would not be final.” He will also argue that his effort to appeal his conviction was damaged because his post-conviction relief act hearing was presided over by a judge who was clearly biased in favor of the district attorney.

The hearing will also hear a claim by the district attorney that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence—lifted by a Federal Judge in 2001—should be reinstated. The federal district court had ruled that Abu-Jamal’s sentence had been arrived at by a jury that was given improper and confusing instructions by Judge Albert Sabo, and that their sentencing form itself was
misleading.

Meanwhile, it has been learned that the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office earlier this month attempted
unsuccessfully to have the entire Third Circuit Court—one of the more liberal appeals courts in the nation—recused from hearing Abu-Jamal’s appeal on the grounds that Abu-Jamal’s claim of jury selection bias was charging then DA Ed Rendell (now Pennsylvania’s governor), with having deliberately violated the law. Rendel’s wife, Marjorie, is one of the appeals court judges in the Third Circuit.

Abu-Jamal’s attorney Robert R. Bryan, objecting to the DA’s effort, noted that there was no claim of illegality on the governor’s part, but rather on the part of the prosecutor in the case, Joseph McGill. It is alleged that a succession of Philadelphia DA’s encouraged their prosecutors to remove as many blacks as possible from capital juries, and documentary evidence has been submitted to show that this was done, both by the DA’s office over all, and by assistant DA McGill in his own capital cases. During jury selection for Abu-Jamal’s trial, 11 black potential jurors who had all agreed they
could vote for a death penalty, were removed by McGill using his available peremptory challenges (meaning he did not have to give a reason for his action).

In a letter to the DA’s office stating that the request to have all the circuit’s judges recused from hearing the case had been rejected, the clerk of the court said that such a request would have to be made not as a letter, but in the form of a formal motion. In a scolding tone, the letter notes that such a motion “must be in proper form, i.e. an original and three copies and certificate of service.”

“It must have been humiliating for the opposition” to receive such a note, comments attorney Bryan. He notes that to date, the DA has “not had the guts” to make such a formal motion, adding, “We’ll see.”

Authors Website: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

Authors Bio: Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books (“This Can’t Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy” and “Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal”). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is “The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office” (St. Martin’s Press, May 2006). His writing is available at
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net .

———–

March 22, 2007
Legal Update

Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Martin Horn, Pennsylvania Director of Corrections
U.S. Court of Appeals Nos. 0 1-90 14,02-900 1 (death penalty)

Dear Friends:

Today notification was received that oral argument in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is scheduled on Thursday, May 17, 9:30 am, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Ceremonial Courtroom, 1″ Floor, U.S. Courthouse, 6″‘ and Market Streets, Philadelphia. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the National Lawyers Guild, which have filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs, are also participating.

This case concerns Mr. Abu-Jamal’s right to a fair trial, the struggle against the death penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken journalist. Racism and politics are threads that have run through this case since his 1981 arrest. The complex issues under consideration, which are of great constitutional significance, include:

Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process of law and a fair trial under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments because of the prosecutor’s “appeal-after-appeal” argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err on the side of guilt.

Whether the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude African Americans from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal’s rights to due process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and contravened Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).

Whether the jury instructions and verdict form that resulted in the death penalty deprived Mr. Abu- Jamal of rights guaranteed by the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and violated Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367 (1988), since the judge precluded the jurors from considering any mitigating evidence unless they all agreed on the existence of a particular circumstance.

Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments during post-conviction hearings as the result of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo which included the comment that he was “going to help’em fry the ni – – er”.

Recently the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office sent a letter to the court suggesting that the entire Third Circuit should disqualify itself from deciding the case of my client. We filed a reply strongly objecting to this absurd request, explaining that the position of opposing counsel was “utterly unfounded and should be rejected.” On March 10 the court rebuked the prosecution, advising that it had failed to follow proper procedure and thus no action would be taken.

Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and I are in this case to win a new and fair trial for Mr. Abu-Jamal. The goal is for our client to be free. Nevertheless, he remains in great danger. If all is lost, he will be executed. Your interest in this struggle for human rights and against the death penalty is appreciated.

Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Did You See…….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…….Chris Rock on “The Tavis Smiley Show” joking with Tavis about Smiley’s annual “The State of The Black Union” gatherings?

I also liked Dyson’s response two days later (March 9), which I’ve posted below.

Tavis: Michael Eric Dyson is a distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and the host of his own syndicated radio program. He is the author of a number of notable books, including one last year on Hurricane Katrina. His latest book is called “Debating Race,” a collection of memorable encounters and conversations about matters of race in America. Michael Eric Dyson, it’s always nice to see you, sir.

Michael Eric Dyson: Always good to see you, man.

Tavis: I don’t know you do it. Fourteen books in fourteen years. You’re cranking out a book every year.

Dyson: Well, you know, I’m just trying to stay on my game and trying to take the requisite time it takes to construct a book, as you know, having sold so many, to put the requisite effort into it to make sure that it’s clean and articulate and to make sure that it’s certainly representative (laughter) –

Tavis: – (Laughter) That sounded sort of Biden-esque, clean and articulate.

Dyson: And who knew that, when we talk about the influence of hip-hop culture on the culture, that Joe Biden, the senator, would have been influenced by “you’re so fresh and so clean?”

Tavis: (Laughter) Now there you go. I’m glad you went there because, two nights ago on this program, Chris Rock, comedian extraordinaire –

Dyson: – yes.

Tavis: – was on this program a couple of nights ago and your name just happened to come up.

Dyson: I see.

Tavis: Would you like to see this clip?

Dyson: Yeah, with him and the woman I owe child support to (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) Roll the Chris Rock clip from two nights ago on this program.  

[PLAYS CLIP YOU JUST WATCHED 🙂 ]

Tavis: So what do you think of that, Mike Dyson?

Dyson: Well, you know, how you’re living, Biggie Smalls, in mansions and Benz and giving ends to my friends and it feels stupendous, tremendous cream. Blink a dollar and a dream. Well, you know what? Chris can rock it. I’m just trying to Michael Dysonize my thing, brother, you know (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) On a serious note, though, do you ever get concerned that your profound intellect gets taken less seriously because of your style, because of your flow, because of the way you choose to do what you do?

Dyson: Of course, but that’s the dilemma of Black culture at large.

Tavis: Right.

Dyson: The point is that, if you have style and substance merged together in a seamless package, people always question the integrity of the fusion. So what we have to do is think ahead of time. We have to think anticipatorily. We have to look toward the future like Jesus did. “One day hopefully I’m going to rise. Got to go through some death right now. It’s going to be kind of funky and fowl and nefarious, but ultimately the triumph will be mine.”

So you have to have enough confidence in your skills and abilities that God gave you that the world might catch up twenty years later. You know what? In the midst of all that stuff, he was dropping some signs. I don’t have time to let people check it out now. The people who get it, they get it. I think I speak clearly and hopefully lucidly enough that they get that.

But people in the academy are always suspicious of people who are able to speak beyond jargon, beyond obscure discourse and dialog and language, to say something meaningful in five minutes that somebody out there in the world can actually understand. I don’t apologize for that. I got a PhD from Princeton not to please other critics, but to speak the truth to power in as lucid a fashion as possible.

By the way, Dyson announced on the program that he was leaving his Syndication One weekday radio show.

The Way We (Struggle To) Live In New York City, Circa 2007

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Got this from April Silver.

New York’s Affordable Housing Crisis

By Kevin Powell

Stacy had been subletting an apartment in an expansive complex on the Upper Westside of Manhattan from a family friend for ten-plus years. A product of working-class New York, this arrangement helped to give Stacy’s life a foundation and, for once, she was enjoying the fruits of the Big Apple experience. So you can imagine the shock and awe when Stacy, a single mother who scraped to make ends meet as she raised her son, received a notice from the management of her rent-stabilized building that she would have to vacate unless she were able to shell out $2400 a month in rent, a huge leap from the $900 she was currently paying. Terrified, confused, and sure she would wind up in a shelter or on the streets if she did not react quickly, Stacy, an administrative assistant by profession, sought and found a small apartment for her and her son in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She is thinking of leaving New York City altogether because she feels trapped by her environment; and because over half of her income each year goes to rent. 

Imani is a modestly successful model who supplements her earnings by bartending at exclusive nightclubs. Financially astute, she has been saving her money to purchase a condo here in New York, her adopted hometown-the city Imani would prefer to live in rather than anywhere else in America. And why not? Imani is young, talented, energetic, intellectually curious, and she feels it is here that she can achieve her dreams as an actress, or whatever it is she so desires. But Imani is in crisis mode. For the past several months, the management company of the building where Imani rents (her cousin’s name is on the lease) has been harassing her about her residency, threatening to evict her, refusing to acknowledge that although she has been in this unit for two years, has written every single rent check, from her checking account, that somehow she is suddenly not eligible to rent that unit, with or without her name on the lease. Terrified and confused about the matter, Imani is being forced to go to court to fight for her apartment, and she has no idea what she will do if forced to vacate or pay a substantial rent increase if she wants to keep her living space.

Welcome to the terrordome called the struggle for affordable housing in New York City, circa the early days of the 21st century. I have been living in New York, mostly in Brooklyn, for 17 years and I have heard variations on the stories cited above multiple times, from renters and subletters alike, from New Yorkers of all ethnicities and cultures, all religions and faiths, all educational levels and occupations. Clearly, there is something rotten in Gotham, and it is the fact that millions of New Yorkers, quite literally, cannot afford a place to live. I knew it was a problem as I watched a parade of folks come and go in my neighborhood, in my borough, in my city, the past several years. I knew it was a problem with the loss of massive housing developments like Stuyvesant Town. I knew it was a problem with the recent threat to Starrett City as a mixed income and culturally diverse experiment in affordable housing in New York. There at Starrett City a developer attempted-and failed-to purchase it for a billion dollars or so, with the intention of creating top-dollar luxury apartments on the development’s vacant land. And God only knows what he and his partners planned to do with the tenants already inhabiting the previously built towers. We who are honest know the deal: New York City is propelled by and on the backs of working class and middle class New Yorkers of all persuasions. That was the case in 17th century New Amsterdam, the original name; and that is the case today at this critical juncture in our city’s history. I moved to this great metropolis, from across the river in Jersey City, because I wanted to be in a space where, as a writer and an activist, I could encounter the myriad of people, social classes, sights, sounds, languages, cultures, foods, and attitudes as I could no where else. And I moved here because I knew that in spite of all its big-city problems, that New York is the one place in America where you could walk half a block, turn a corner, go one subway stop, and, without question, feel the heartbeat of what former Mayor David Dinkins called “a gorgeous mosaic” at any given moment. 

But that New York City is being threatened by what could potentially be our worst housing crisis in decades. Like Stacy, more than two million New Yorkers pay over half their income in rent. In just three years (2002 to 2005), the city’s subsidized affordable housing shrunk by 11%. We know that state and federal initiatives like Mitchell-Lama, Section 8, and public housing were specifically created to serve and protect low to moderate-income urban dwellers. And we know that tens of thousands of Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 apartments have been lost; and there lingers a loaded and uncomfortable question about the future of public housing in New York.   

So we have a battle on our hands. We have to ask ourselves what kind of New York do we envision 10 years from now, or by, say, 2030, as Mayor Mike Bloomberg has instructed us to do? Is it a New York City where all New Yorkers can continue to live and coexist to make this metropolis the most magical, the most multicultural, the most multidimensional, and the most multilingual on this planet? Or are we going to sit idly by as New York becomes an oasis mainly for those able to rent or sublease at or above today’s market value for an apartment?

Stacy has already lost her apartment, and Imani may as well. But concerned New Yorkers can help turn the tide in the fight for affordable housing by pressing newly-elected Governor Spitzer to reverse the destructive practices put forth during the Pataki administration which favor landlords over tenants. This means repealing “vacancy decontrol,” preventing displacing rent increases, extending rent regulations to all developments, preserving state-built affordable housing, and enacting legislation that gives tenants and tenant-selected qualified buyers a right of first refusal to purchase buildings put on the market. This means that while we applaud Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to create 94,000 new affordable housing units, and to preserve 71,000 existing ones, we also must move to maintain the nearly 1.5 million housing units at risk if local and state elected officials do not act immediately. This means, too, supporting the efforts of key organizations like the Working Families Party and Housing Here and Now, who are spearheading this latest charge for affordable housing in New York.

And, for sure, it means some of us will have to burrow into our souls and ask ourselves what New York City, our city, will look like if all affordable housing, and its occupants, were slowly but surely to disappear in the coming years and decades?

Kevin Powell, a community organizer and writer based in Brooklyn, New York, is the author of 7 books, including his most recent essay collection, Someday We’ll All Be Free (Soft Skull Press) . He can be reached at kepo1@aol.com .

To learn more about the New York City affordable housing crisis, and to get involved, please visit these websites:

Working Families Party

Housing Here and Now

Black Dollars, Black Sense :)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

Are books like this going to be regulated to history? Hmmm…….

Thought this was good enough to share in full.

Article published Mar 6, 2007

Procter & Gamble ads targeted to blacks paid off

By Cliff Peale
Gannett News Service

CINCINNATI — When Procter & Gamble Co. rolled out its Tide with a Touch of Downy detergent in late 2004, it included a special advertising campaign targeting black consumers.

“Nostalgia Dad” featured a black man lovingly cradling his sleeping young son. The ad was designed to convey warmth and fatherly caretaking, and the pair’s crisp white T-shirts seemed almost peripheral. It also was designed to counter stereotypes of fatherless black households.

“It was very deliberate to have a man with his son,” says Najoh Tita-Reid, associate director of P&G’s multicultural marketing unit. “It was very deliberate for him to have a wedding ring on.”

The heartwarming images are only the latest evolution of a 40-year movement inside Cincinnati-based P&G to try to reach more black consumers. The early efforts — in the 1960s, when racial tensions throughout the country were running high and white faces dominated nearly every commercial message — were not without risks.

Today P&G is acknowledged as a leader in creating advertising for black consumers.

“Without question, P&G has to be seen as one of the companies that other companies pattern their behavior after,” says Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News in Chicago, which tracks patterns of advertising to black consumers.

Along the way, reputations were made and enhanced. Crest toothpaste used a young Bill Cosby for a television commercial in 1969. In the 1980s, some Tide ads featured the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

In the past decade, the movement has accelerated. P&G spends at least six times more on media targeting black consumers than it did five years ago. And it’s constantly adding new ways to reach black consumers, such as a 2004 sponsorship deal with the popular Tom Joyner morning radio show.

Today you’ll see Queen Latifah on commercials and Internet sites pitching a Cover Girl line for black women. Angela Bassett promotes the benefits of Olay body lotion for black skin. Soon, Tiger Woods will tout the virtues of Gillette razors.

Black spending power is driving much of P&G’s strategy.

The $68 billion company has pledged to investors that it will add at least 5 percent to total sales every year, and the spending power of black Americans is an important piece of that growth, having reached $799 billion in 2006, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

Procter executives say they want both marketing efforts and employee base to reflect the more diverse face of the 21st century American consumer.

“We need to define diversity broadly and leverage it to the hilt,” chairman and chief executive A.G. Lafley said last fall at an internal event. “Being ‘in touch’ is an attitude. To lead in this kind of environment, we need a balance of business skills and empathetic skills.”

Beyond "War And Famine And Refugees"

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

Kalamu strikes again. Dug this quote in the profile of Nigerian novelist Helon Habila:

What upsets him even more, though, is an image of his homeland that he has found in the West. In “Waiting for an Angel,” Lomba is told by a woman at a party: “You really must try and get arrested—that’s the quickest way to make it as poet. You’ll have no problem with visas after that, you might even get an international award.” I refer him to the words of the Ugandan writer, Doreen Bainganawho: “Sometimes I wish my life had been more tragic. This is because my audience expects me, as an African writer, to regale them with tales of hunger, war and catastrophe.” He agrees.

“There is a tendency, especially in the West, to look at African writing as all about war and famine and refugees,” he has found. “When they think about Africa they expect someone to be dying. But literature is supposed to show you life in a more balanced way. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a murderer, ambitious; but he loves his wife, he is a general, a hero. It takes more effort to make a character round, but it makes him more compelling. And Africans are just like any other people: happy, sad, optimistic. If readers don’t want to see people laughing, then they should read other people’s novels.”

Fifteen Years Later During Sweeps/Black History Month, CNN Discovers Excesses In HipHop :)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

The usual CNN simplicity. I’m glad that Zahn was open enough, at least, to include voices like Roland Martin, Chuck D, Michael Eric Dyson, Tim Wise, Keith Boykin, Byron Hurt, etc.

I don’t think it’s nitpicking to say that it would have been better if the author-talking-head roster had included some bonifide hiphop feminists.

It also could have included a comment from Paul Porter (although Roland, to his credit, kept trying to go in that direction), but perhaps that would have cut too close to home. (Perhaps folks like Paul have to write books and/or produce documentaries to get in the national-broadcast guest booker “mix.” Sad reality.)

The show’s online if you missed it—AND WANT TO PAY FOR IT. Hmmm…….. CNN’s not exploiting Blaxploitation during Black History Month, is it?  🙂