28 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Moral Monday Leader Encourage Voters to the Polls for Equality
Barber says Democrats don’t always do what they should with power either
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press
27 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Amid a tepid economy, America’s burgeoning “maker” movement is breeding a whole new generation of creative black entrepreneurs. They are betting their futures not on traditional jobs, but on serious craft. Whether hand-sewn, hand-made, home-forged, hand-cut or garage-built, these risk takers rely on a very old-school concept: If you have a craft, nobody can ever take your career away.
The rapid rise of black entrepreneurs in the maker space is due, in part, to greater incubator spaces, cheaper access to collaborators, and possibly to dramatically higher black unemployment. This has made some people much more aggressive about pursuing passions and opportunities outside of the norm.
But, their timing couldn’t be better: Recent studies by African American economists and activists agree that one of the easiest solutions to black economic advancement, would be a dramatic increase in spending by black consumers within their own community. According to Nielsen, less than two cents of every dollar spent by African Americans stays in their community. Yet economic leaders such as Charles Tate, the former head of the Booker T. Washington Foundation, estimate that if African Americans would simply examine their list of monthly purchases and dedicate themselves to buying a minimum of three of those items from black-owned businesses, it would add as much as $30 billion to the community. So, with that in mind, you can spend Thanksgiving night waiting in line to buy new TVs from big-box stores or you can buy true craft by an exciting group of African American artisans.
This list, compiled by the Urban News Service, represents the best of the best — creators and crafters, some famous and some soon-to-be, who are producing high-quality products. They also have put just as much effort into their delivery systems, so their goods will arrive in time for the holidays.
Detroit vs. Everybody – The brand is manufactured and designed here in Detroit with brick and mortar stores in Greektown and Eastern market.
27 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Political/Economics, Uncategorized
Tags
Unfortunately, the sons and daughters of formerly enslaved Africans in America, who complain about the oppressive conditions of stop-and-frisk, joblessness, the “war on drugs,” crime, violence, fratricide and the murder of unarmed Black men such as Trayvon Martin and Black women such as Renisha McBride, are not immune to the seductive appeal of the Christmas season. On Black Friday – actually, Thanksgiving afternoon – Black consumers will lineup with liberated White folks in the reckless race to give our hard earned/precious dollars to the oppressor. We are addicted. We must educate and organize to kick the habit.
Collectively, Black people continue to be neglected, disrespected, disregarded and abused because we have become too tame, tolerant and even accepting of our oppression. This is not to say that there is no fight-back or resistance. The problem is that we lack a “critical mass,” a much larger number of Black people, who are sufficiently enraged and outraged, to act decisively to promote and protect/defend our interests and aspirations. This is the challenge we must overcome.
Black Friday should mark a critical point of resistance for Black people, a time when Black consumers utilize the billions of dollars in our hands as a weapon to advance the Black freedom struggle. I have often said, if Black people would commit to “keeping Christ in Christmas,” focus on the spiritual and family aspects of the season and consciously refuse to participate in the senseless buying frenzy, the White corporate establishment would come running, asking what concessions they should make to end the economic sanctions.
Black people have more than $1 trillion of consumer buying power in our hands. The question is whether we have the consciousness, commitment and discipline to use it to promote and defend Black interests.
Veteran activists, including Bob Law, have long advocated Support Black Business Days to encourage Black consumers to shop at Black stores. He is advocating a similar campaign this year. In addition, Black communities can organize Black Expos on Black Friday where scores of Black vendors and businesses can be assembled under one roof to display their wares for sale.
For example, in New York, under the visionary leadership of Rev. Dennis Dillon, the Emancipation 2013 Freedom Coalition is organizing a two-day Black Friday Expo November 29th and 30th at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. This kind of event could become a model for Black communities nationwide. The Support Black Business Days and Black Expo events exemplify the first principle of the utilization of Black consumer power – Black dollars should be used to support Black businesses and entrepreneurs as a means of building a strong economic infrastructure to employ Black people.
The second principle of the utilization of Black consumer power is that companies/corporations that depend on Black dollars must be compelled to reinvest in Black communities. Black dollars should be used as leverage with businesses and corporations that depend on Black consumer dollars.
Our inner-city neighborhoods are dying for lack of jobs and investment. Therefore, we cannot permit businesses to grow fat off our dollars without demanding reinvestment in our communities. Those who refuse to do so must face the wrath of economic sanctions – and there is no better time to target offending businesses/corporations than the Christmas season when their profitability depends on Black dollars.
Ron Daniels is president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, he can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org
26 Thursday Nov 2015
Posted in Education, Solution, Uncategorized
Tags
#africanamerican, #chinese, #cultralgenocide, #hispanic, #indigenouspeople, #irish, #latino, #mestizo, #nativeamerican, #sterilization
http://bit.ly/1IjAWI6http
It’s a cultural war and the tools of racism are used to destroy our indigenous culture.
Cultural War: Re-Education and Cultural Genocide … Canada’s indigenous schools policy was ‘cultural genocide’, says report
26 Thursday Nov 2015
Posted in Education, Solution, Uncategorized
The Slave Story…The Story of the Red, Yellow, Black & White Slaves in America
The Thanksgiving Lie on WPFW Radio
November 25, 2015 Listen to:
“The American Indian’s Truths –Nightwolf – “The Most Dangerous Show On Radio” WPFW 89.3 FM, 9:00 AM or via Archived Show
24 Tuesday Nov 2015
Posted in Education, Solution, Uncategorized
Tags
#amiribaraka, #BlackChildrenTheirRootsCultureandLearningStyles, #changeofamericasschools, #DaleRussakoff, #keepingblackboysoutofspecialeducation, #liesmyteachertoldmeeverythingyouramericanhistorytextbookgotwrong, #mayorofnewarknewjersey, #miseducationofthenegro, #psychoacademicholocaustthespecialeducationandadhdwarsagainstblackboys, #rasbaraka
RAS BARAKA is a longtime educator credited with turning around Newark’s Central High School as principal from 2007 to 2014. His father, the late Amiri Baraka, was a global activist and noted poet.
The education system of Newark, New Jersey has faced years of crisis, with high dropout rates, low-performing schools and a state takeover dating back two decades. In 2010, Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Democratic Mayor Cory Booker of Newark and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg joined forces to revamp Newark schools. But despite trumpeting their plan as a model for national school reform, millions of dollars initially flowed not to the schools but to outside consultants, most of them white and with no ties to Newark’s majority African-American community. “A lot of [the money] went to consultants,” says Baraka. “Not much went toward teacher training, toward teachers and classrooms to give them better resources and opportunities for kids in the schools. I think now because there has been a lot of uproar and a lot of discussion and because we have a new person in charge of that when I became mayor, we began to talk about the last bit of money and how we get to spend that. Hopefully, use it for the benefits of the children.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Speaking of outsiders affecting your city, your school system has been under state control for decades now, and I wanted ask you about this whole issue because you ran, really one of your main planks of your campaign was to bring back parental control into the schools. What has been the effect of the state control for all of these years? Because, supposedly, they came in to make things better in the school system.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Right, that’s what they always say.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what have you been able to do in the time you have been in office to regain control of the public schools for the people of Newark?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, right now we have something called an education success board that we created whose job it is to transition Newark back into local control. So I would imagine in about a year we should have control back after 20 years of state control, should be up to get local control back. I think the fight now is what local control is when look like. And all of the players in the city now and outside the city who want to influence the city have now begun to put troops on the ground to push their idea of what local control should look like, whether it’s charter schools, traditional schools, who’s in charge, elected school board, appointed school board. So that fight is really gearing up.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the money that’s gone into the New Jersey schools, or hasn’t. Of course, high dropout rates, low performing schools dating back to the takeover, what, two decades ago. In 2010, Republican Governor Chris Christie, Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg joined forces to revamp Newark schools. They made their announcement on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
OPRAH WINFREY: Mayor Booker, what’s the big news?
MAYOR CORY BOOKER: Well, we have been talking for quite some time about creating a bold new paradigm for educational excellence in the country to show the way, to put the people of the city of Newark, really, in the driver’s seat and in the focal point, and to work to get all of the assets and resources we need to give to them to succeed.
OPRAH WINFREY: So Governor Christie, what are you committing to? What are you committing to?
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE: What I’m committing to is changing the schools in the city where I was born and spent the first years of my life. Mayor Booker is going to be the point person, our lead guy in Newark in helping to develop this entirely new plan of how to reform the education system in Newark and create a national model. I’m empowering him to do that, I’m in charge of the public schools in the city of Newark as Governor. I’m going to empower Mayor Booker to develop that plan and to implement it with the superintendent of schools that we’re going to pick together.
OPRAH WINFREY: I think that is so fantastic. So, Mr. Zuckerberg, what role are you playing in all of this? Are the rumors true, will there be a check offered at some point? Yes.
MARK ZUCKERBERG: Yeah, I have committed to starting the Startup:Education Foundation whose first project will be a $100 million challenge grant.
OPRAH WINFREY: $100 million?
AMY GOODMAN: That is a clip from “Oprah” in 2010. despite trumpeting their plan as a model for national school reform, the story of what followed emerges as a cautionary tale. With matching funds from other donors, millions of dollars initially flowed not to the schools, but to outside consultants, most of them white and with no ties to Newark’s majority African-American community. Some consultants made up to $1000 a day. While some students benefited from placement in the higher-funded charter schools, the Newark school system’s overall performance level fell even lower. Last month on Democracy Now! we spoke to author Dale Russakoff who recounts Newark’s reform efforts in her new book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” She talked about how concerned Newark parents organized against the educational changes, and described the role they played in electing our guest today, now Newark Mayor Mayor Ras Baraka.
DALE RUSSAKOFF: The political uprising ended up almost, you know — well, not single-handedly, but significantly helping to elect Ras Baraka, who was a high school principal who ran for mayor almost exclusively on a platform of stopping these reforms. And even of the education reform movement put over $5 million into the campaign of his opponent, he won significantly just because of this grassroots uprising.
AMY GOODMAN: Mayor Baraka, what happened?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, I think that’s partly true, kind of simplifying it, but ultimately that is the case. They did put $5 million or more in my opponent’s coffers. We kind of pushed for more democratic control not over just education, but over the city period. More say so by Newarkers, more jobs for Newarkers, more control over our lives in the city and education was at the center of that. And it still is as a matter of fact.
AMY GOODMAN: What happened to the $100 million?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, I mean, you said most of it, right? So a lot of it went to consultants. Eight something million dollars of it went to teacher contract, which fought to get rid of tenure, extend the day, give teachers bonuses, all kinds of things like that. So $80 million of it went toward the teacher contract. Not much went towards pedagogy, went towards teachers, went towards, you know, teachers in classrooms to give them better resources and opportunities for kids in the school. So money wasn’t spent in that way in the beginning. I think now because there has been a lot of uproar, a lot of discussion and because we have a new person in charge of that and I became mayor, we began to talk about the last bit of money and how we get to spend that, and hopefully, use it for the benefits of the children.
Just recently, we used it to help expand summer jobs. We gave teachers some money and we talked about giving teachers money in the classroom. They began to do that. Began to create a pipeline for students to move from high school to college, begin talking about that. So hopefully, we’re trying to get them to use the remainder of that money for community schools, to invest in community schools. So, it’s a struggle, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I want to ask you, when you see something like this with Oprah, with Cory Booker, with Chris Christie, Mark Zuckerberg, talking all about how they’re going to reform the school system, although, supposedly, the Governor should have done that years ago since he was in charge of the school system, you have been an educator. You have actually done the reforming of one particular school. Your reaction to seeing all of these experts on what is wrong with our public school system?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, I always say, you know, most people who talk about schools have never been in one besides the fact that they graduated from an elementary school or high school. The reality is, schools get better when a community supports them. That’s why we agree with community schools. Central improved because we had a community school model called Global Village School Zone that came out of the broad and bold approach from NYU, Dr. Pedro Noguera and the kind of work that they’ve been doing in terms of community schools and stuff that is happen like that around the country; in Cincinnati, places in New York, Patterson, New Jersey, that are using community schools as a model to raise the kind of academic record of these schools by putting the whole community around the schools. And it’s important for us to do that. These other people that are saying all of these things about how to improve schools have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t know any pedagogy, they don’t know anything in terms of social work, they don’t know how to move kids from one place to the next place. What they’re talking about is business. What they’re talking about is making money. What they’re talking about has nothing to do with educating young people.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, as we move into this next election year, and candidates are running, you ran a real uphill battle. What do you attribute your success to, how you buck the establishment?
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: Well, I think we had a long standing kind of relationship with the community. That’s number one. We’ve been in a community for a very long time, organizing now.
AMY GOODMAN: You were principal of the school for years.
MAYOR RAS BARAKA: I was principal, Vice Principal, a teacher, a community activist, organizer in the city for twenty years.So people knew who I was, they know my family, my father the same way, my mother, my brothers. We have been organizing in the community for a very long time. So that helped. As well as we have a serious ground kind of campaign of folks who are organizing and committed. I mean, we didn’t have a paid army. We had a army of folks that were committed to the ideals of what we were talking about.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city. We’ll be back with him in a minute.
17 Tuesday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
As Told In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart And Turnbull’s Human Cycles
16 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
#12Steps, #alvinfpoussaint, #associationblackpschologist, #blackpainitjustlookslikewerenothurting, #facingtheblackshadow, #laymyburdendownsuicideandthementalhealthcrisisamongafricanamericans, #marlenefwatson, #terriemwilliams
According the National Association of Social Workers, as of 2013, there was no mental health profession prepared to address racism or the mental health issues of African Americans… ( which really is a bases for class action law suite…for mass mis-diagnosis…ex. prescribing medication for students and, even assigning them to special ed…a topic for another time.)
The Association of Black Psychologists was founded in San Francisco in 1968 by a number of Black Psychologists from across the country. They united to actively address the serious problems facing Black Psychologists and the larger Black community. Guided by the principle of self determination, these psychologists set about building an institution through which they could address the long neglected needs of Black professionals. Their goal was to have a positive impact upon the mental health of the national Black community by means of planning, programs, services, training, and advocacy. Their objectives were:
The Association of Black Psychologists has grown from a handful of concerned professionals into an independent, autonomous organization of over 1400 members.
Black/African-Centered Psychology Preamble: Based on a proposal submitted and accepted by the Board of Directors (BOD) of The Association of Black Psychologists, the following definition of African Centered psychology has been adopted. It is the intention of the Committee to Advance African Psychology (CAAP) to establish a framework for content provided during the African Psychology Institute (API) that adheres to the values and principles expressed therein. In recognition of the diverse historical experiences and cultural expressions within and between peoples of African ancestry, the following is the accepted definition: “Black/African Centered psychology is a dynamic manifestation of unifying African principles, values and traditions. It is the selfconscious “centering” of psychological analyses and applications in African realities, cultures, and epistemologies. Black/African centered psychology, as a system of thought and action, examines the processes that allow for the illumination and liberation of the Spirit. Relying on the principles of harmony within the universe as a natural order of existence, Black/African centered psychology recognizes: the Spirit that permeates everything that is; the notion that everything in the universe is interconnected; the value that the collective is the most salient element of existence; and the idea that communal self knowledge is the key to mental health. Black/African Centered psychology is ultimately concerned with understanding the systems of meaning of human beingness, the features of human functioning, and the restoration of normal/natural order to human development. As such, it is used to resolve personal and social problems and to promote optimal functioning.”
CHN and ABPsi have been working together since 2009 to build a worldwide movement for the emotional emancipation, healing, wellness, and empowerment of Black people. We are working to spark the creation of a global grassroots network of self-help groups focused on overcoming the lie of Black inferiority and the emotional legacies of enslavement and racism.
To participate in the Emotional Emancipation Initiative, contact Dr. Chante DeLoach at c.deloach@abpsi.org.
15 Sunday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
One Reason We Act As We Do….Our Ignorance Is Their Power
School Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologist, Etc. …
White Mental Health Professions Do Not Address
As of the 1860 census, the last before the American Civil War, 2.3 million slaves lived in the Lower Southern states—nearly 50 percent of the entire Lower Southern population at that time. The numbers for the Upper South didn’t fare much better, with 1.2 million slaves, about a third of the population. All told, Southern and Border States totaled four million slaves, or half the population of today’s New York City.
These mind-boggling numbers reveal the tremendous effect of slavery on the African population in the 19th century. Slavery continues to effect today’s African American population, as Dr. Patricia Newton’s presentation for African-American Heritage month on Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder will attest.
Newton wants to explore the long-term effects of the chattel slavery experience on African populations. Chattel, as defined on dictionary.com, is “another form of cattle; any item of movable or immovable property except the freehold.”
While Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder may be a new term to many of us, Newton is an expert on the topic and makes an interesting case for the correlation between the Disorder and emerging patterns in African-American life.
With control groups in the Caribbean and the North American continent, Newton explores clinical case histories and makes comparisons between the trauma experienced by Africans forced into the United States and slavery, Jewish Holocaust victims, and veterans of the Gulf and Vietnam wars. In addition, neurological data relative to the effect of trauma on the brain, psyche, and body will also be explored. Identification of the problems and suggestions for healing will be discussed in an attempt to clarify the direction that African-Americans must take in the 21st century.
Newton’s speech is a prestigious one during African-American Heritage Month and investigates an important and timely topic. But slavery in its many forms occurs around the world each day, and must be recognized and fought against year round.
Dr. Patricia Newton will present on Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder on Tuesday, February 19 at 7pm at UVA’s Clark Hall, Room 147. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Office of African-American Affairs. Please call La Tasha Levy at 924-7923 for more information.
14 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Traumatic Stress Includes: Walking, Driving, Looking Police in Eye, Being Black in America 24/7
Journal of Traumatic Stress , the official publication for the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, is an interdisciplinary forum for the publication of peer-reviewed original papers on biopsychosocial aspects of trauma. Papers focus on theoretical formulations, research, treatment, prevention education/training, and legal and policy concerns. Journal of Traumatic Stress serves as a primary reference for professionals who study and treat people exposed to highly stressful and traumatic events (directly or through their occupational roles), such as war, disaster, accident, violence or abuse (criminal or familial), hostage-taking, or life-threatening illness. The journal publishes original articles, brief reports, review papers, commentaries, and, from time to time, special issues devoted to a single topic.