What was that about Post Racial Society?

Analysis: Gates Arrest a Signpost on Racial Road
By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer
Jul 23, 2009, 08:35

Summary:

It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America’s most prominent Black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it’s not just another episode of profiling; it’s a signpost on the nation’s bumpy road to equality.

Story:

It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America’s most prominent Black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it’s not just another episode of profiling; it’s a signpost on the nation’s bumpy road to equality.

The news was parsed and tweeted, rued and debated. This was, after all, Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates: summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, acclaimed historian, Harvard professor, and PBS documentarian. He was named one of Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997 and holds 50 honorary degrees.

If this man can be taken away by police officers from the porch of his own home, what does it say about the treatment that average Blacks can expect in 2009?

Earl Graves Jr., CEO of the company that publishes Black Enterprise magazine, was once stopped by police during his train commute to work, dressed in a suit and tie.

“My case took place back in 1995, and here we are 14 years later dealing with the same madness,” he said Tuesday. “Barack Obama being the president has meant absolutely nothing to White law enforcement officers. Zero. So I have zero confidence that (Gates’ case) will lead to any change whatsoever.”

The 58-year-old professor had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon and found the front door of his Cambridge, Mass., home stuck shut. Gates entered the back door, forced open the front door with help from a car service driver, and was on the phone with the Harvard leasing company when a White police sergeant arrived.

Gates and the sergeant gave differing accounts of what happened next. But, for many people, that doesn’t matter.

They don’t care that Gates was charged not with breaking and entering but with disorderly conduct after repeatedly demanding the sergeant’s name and badge number. It doesn’t matter whether Gates was yelling, or accused Sgt. James Crowley of being racist, or that all charges were dropped Tuesday.

All they see is pure, naked racial profiling.

“Under any account … all of it is totally uncalled for,” Graves said. “It never would have happened; imagine a White professor, a distinguished White professor at Harvard, walking around with a cane, going into his own house, being harassed or stopped by the police. It would never happen.”

Racial profiling became a national issue in the 1990s, when highway police on major drug delivery routes were accused of stopping drivers simply for being Black. Lawsuits were filed, studies were commissioned, data was analyzed. “It is wrong, and we will end it in America,” President George W. Bush said in 2001.

Yet for every study that concluded police disproportionately stop, search and arrest minorities, another expert came to a different conclusion. “That’s always going to be the case,” Dr. Greg Ridgeway, who has a Ph.D. in statistics and studies racial profiling for the RAND research group, said Monday. “You’re never going to be able to (statistically) prove racial profiling. … There’s always a plausible explanation.”

Federal legislation to ban racial profiling has languished since being introduced in 2007 by a dozen Democratic senators, including then-senator Barack Obama.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said that was partly because, “when you look at statistics, and you’re trying to prove the extent, the information comes back that there’s not nearly as much (profiling) as we continue to experience.”

But Davis has no doubt that profiling is real. He says he was stopped while driving in Chicago in 2007 for no reason other than the fact he is Black. Police gave him a ticket for swerving over the center line; a judge said the ticket did not make sense and dismissed it.

“Trying to reach this balance of equity, equal treatment, equal protection under the law, equal understanding, equal opportunity, is something that we will always be confronted with. We may as well be prepared for it,” Davis said.

Amid the indignation over Gates’ case, a few people pointed out that he may have violated the cardinal rule of avoiding arrest: Do not antagonize the cops.

The police report said that Gates yelled at the officer, refused to calm down and behaved in a “tumultuous” manner. Gates said he simply asked for the officer’s identification, followed him into his porch when the information was not forthcoming, and was arrested for no reason. But something about being asked to prove that you live in your own home clearly struck a nerve both for Gates and his defenders.

“You feel violated, embarrassed, not sure what is taking place, especially when you haven’t done anything,” said Graves of his own experience when police made him face the wall and frisked him in Grand Central Station in New York City. “You feel shocked, then you realize what’s happening, and then you feel it’s a violation of everything you stand for.”

And that this should happen to “Skip” Gates, the unblemished embodiment of President Obama’s recent admonition to Black America not to search for handouts or favors but to “seize our own future, each and every day,” shook many people to the core.

Wrote Dr. Lawrence Bobo, Gates’ Harvard colleague, who picked his friend up from jail: “Ain’t nothing post-racial about the United States of America.”

Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press.

© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com

My $2.00 worth on White Privilege

After discussions, upon discussions where sometimes I feel like the person I’m talking with genuinely “gets it” and many other times where people just can’t/won’t/refuse to understand their privilege, I’ve decided to spell it out for people and hope they actually read, comprehend and think about what’s coming in this post.

What’s about to be said here is based on MY experiences, what I’ve read by other people who have done research on the topic and who have shared their insights with me over the years. This is fueled by hearing one time too many.. but I’m POOR  I can’t be privileged! I don’t treat people like that, stop accusing me of being racist! etc….

Washington Uni of St. Louis to honor hate monger Phyllis Schafly

Washington U. Set to Honor Anti-Gay Activist
Washington University in St. Louis is giving an honorary degree to anti-gay activist Ms. Phylis Schlafly founder of the Eagle Forum a right wing group opposed to LGBT equality and feminism. This woman has fought tirelessly against marriage equality even though her own son is gay, and she has said women should not work and believes they belong in the kitchen.

Take action by clicking to email the university on the post below:
http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/05/ding-dong-witch-is-getting-honorary.html

Is America ready for a black president? or a female president? Webchat

When the chat is live got here.

Richard Wright’s Native Son – Discussion

 

I’m reading Richard Wright’s Native Son for our quarterly book club at Uni. We’ve had one meeting so far and it was pretty good. We touched on topis such as Bigger’s lack of emotion, sense of responsibility, the way he lives in a dream world where everyone has all the stuff whites do. Or rather where he has all of the things that whites do, there’s no mother or sister who is harassing him to take a relief job, and there’s no one to keep him down. The fight he gets into with Gus when they are “late” for their planned robbery etc…

We meet again in a couple weeks, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the discussion. If you’ve read the book, what are your thoughts on it?

Affirmative action ban at CA college is affecting minority numbers…

This is interesting… considering what happened in the field after the MI Law school ruling on quota’s and now this news. It makes me wonder what this means for minorities trying to get into college. Will affirmative action bans be rescinded? Does this give proof to the stereotypes about Asian students as well as Black & Latino students? 

 Your thoughts?

From Diverse Online
Current News
Affirmative Action Bans Hurt Male Student Enrollment

By Michelle J.Nealy
Feb 18, 2008, 22:47

According to a new study, released by the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA), college admission rates of Asian American students at select public universities have thrived in the absence of affirmative action, whereas the admission rates of Black, Hispanic and White students have declined.

In a review of enrollment statistics from three states where affirmative action bans are in effect — California, Florida and Texas — the report also revealed that across all races, the male population drops in schools with blind admissions processes. Researchers examined admissions at five select institutions — the University of California, Berkeley; UCLA, the University of California, San Diego; the University of Florida; and the University of Texas at Austin.

The results of affirmative action bans such as Proposition 209 in California, which prohibits university admission offices from considering race, sex or ethnicity in its decisions, varied from state to state.

Social divide among low, middle and upper class blacks you say? Well no shit…

This is a total no-brainer to me that is once again touted as something new and shiny for people to go, really? I would have never have thought that! Poor black folks don’t like middle class black folks usually. The rest of us don’t like those uppity negroes who ahve the gall to be upper class and in some cases pretend as if they arent black any more.

No matter how much green is in your pocket dear friends, if someone sees your blackness first and your bank account second they won’t care how much you’ve got or not. You’ll be the poor/not broke as those welfare shuckers and jivers (aka doing alright)/ or bourgeoisies.

There’s no happy medium when it comes to black folks and class I’ve found in my 35 years on this earth. If someone is out of work, and you have a steady job then of course you must have spare money to give them right? If you work your ass off everyday, you do so to be rich… not wealthy mind you, but rich. There is a difference. (See Chris Rock’s Bigger & Blacker routine) You’re never happy cause you don’t have what that rich brother or sister has … and you eventually hate them for it, becoming poisoned against someone who came into money by hard work or luck… and then you scheme to take them down via word or deed.

Keep in mind that my opinions are my own and if you come here looking for a fight you’ll get one.

Webchat on Black Greek life… is it still relevant?

For anyone who may be a frat or soror at/alum of an HBCU. Any thoughts on this topic?

Diverse Web Chat

Please join us for an exciting Web chat discussion about the state of Black Greek Letter Organizations at 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Nov. 14.

NY Times article on Study Abroad

The Foreign Legions
By LAURA PAPPANO
Published: November 4, 2007

FOR a student at the University of Ghana in Legon, a palm-graced suburb of Accra, a dinner might involve fufu — mashed casava and plantains in a soup of peanut butter and tomatoes — from a local “chop bar.” Electricity is not a given. Nor is running water. Students might have to fetch buckets of water to flush the toilet and wash clothes. Forget sleeping in. They rise at 5 a.m., when the chaos and din begin: loud music and evangelical preaching, through megaphones. The “Challenges of Living in Ghana” handout from the University of California advises bringing earplugs.
Pavel Horejsi for The New York Times

TOURIST CLASS American students, enrolled in a college just for them in the Czech Republic, are shown around Prague Castle by Prof. Jan Bazant.
Enlarge This Image
Olivier Asselin for The New York Times

INTO AFRICA Some 300 Americans from dozens of colleges study abroad at the University of Ghana in Legon. Chrissie Leong, right, is a sophomore from the Irvine campus of the University of California.

The country, and its flagship university, have become a newly popular destination for studying abroad: about 300 American students, representing dozens of campuses, take classes at Legon.

But American students expect a standard of food and housing (and sleep) that is not typical in West Africa. So New York University has imported the creature comforts of home. Its nearby complex has air-conditioning (power guaranteed), 24-hour security, an on-site nurse, wireless Internet. Students who prefer not to take the 10-minute walk can use shuttle buses between the N.Y.U. Center, where they take class with N.Y.U. professors, and the Legon campus, where they are encouraged to enroll in a class. They eat in a dining hall that serves African food interpreted for “the American palate,” says Yaw Nyarko, vice provost for globalization and multicultural affairs at N.Y.U. Some, he says, think the accommodations are better than New York’s.

“We are creating an entire infrastructure,” he says. The ambitious N.Y.U. program can include mounting art exhibitions for American students in Accra and bringing over film professors from New York to accompany them to neighboring countries for film festivals. The semester comes to about $28,000 all told.

I can’t believe this article…

Ok… I get “Diverse News in Higher Education” daily. Most of the articles are good and make sense for academia. But the article below made my brain itch. The gist of it is this: Dealing with and avoiding racism makes black folks crazy (sorry meant to say-creates “mental health issues”).

G*D in the University classroom… 2 adjuncts are out of work… what do you think about this?

Adjuncts and God: Why Are 2 Instructors Out of Jobs?

The adage says that you’re supposed to avoid talk of religion and politics in polite company, but the topics are hard to avoid if you teach Western civilization. And the topics may be especially dangerous for adjuncts.

An instructor at Southwestern Community College is charging that the Iowa institution fired him last week for having offended some students by telling them that he wouldn’t teach the Bible as being literally true. And on Friday, the University of Colorado at Boulder chapter of the American Association of University Professors issued a report charging that an adjunct there had not been reappointed in retaliation for disputes with department colleagues who thought he was too religious and too conservative. Officials of both institutions dispute the charges.

Steve Bitterman has been teaching at Southwestern since 2001, and said he’s never had any trouble with students in his courses. He’s an adjunct who teaches history, while also teaching philosophy at Metropolitan Community College, in Nebraska.

This fall, he is teaching Western civilization at Southwestern’s Red Oak campus, and his lectures are broadcast to students at the Osceola campus, with a live hook-up so he can see students. Much of early Western civilization focuses on the myths and beliefs of ancient peoples. Gilgamesh was no problem for students, Bitterman said. But when he got to the Bible on Tuesday, a student walked out of the Osceola section when, Bitterman said, when he wouldn’t agree with her that the story of the Garden of Eden was historically true. Several other students appeared disturbed by the incident, he said. From their questions and statements, he believes that they are evangelical Christians.

“A few of the students thought I was knocking their religion by not promoting it,” he said. “They were upset that I didn’t say that the Bible was literally true.” Bitterman said that he treats the Bible as a historically significant, important work, but that he does not accord it status beyond that. “That really seemed to come as a shock to some of them,” he said.

On Thursday, he said, Linda Wild, a vice president, called him, told him that several of the students and the parents had threatened an unspecified lawsuit, and fired him. Bitterman said Wild said he would be paid for the sessions he had taught and no more. “She said that the parents said that I was there to teach history and not religion and that she agreed,” Bitterman said.

Whether teaching about the Bible or the Reformation or many other topics, Bitterman said that it would be impossible to teach a Western civilization survey course without covering religious topics. Of administrators who fired him and parents who wanted him gone, he said “I assume that they don’t know much history.”

Various administrators at the college did not respond to messages seeking comment. But Barbara Crittenden, Southwestern’s president, told The Des Moines Register: “I can assure you that college understands our employees’ free speech rights. There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment.”

In Colorado, meanwhile, the AAUP has weighed in on behalf of Phil Mitchell, whose contract to teach history was not renewed this spring after a period of 17 years teaching in a program that provides some for-credit courses in dormitories. The AAUP report — published on the College Freedom blog — states that Mitchell enjoyed high rankings from students and peer evaluations of his teaching for most of his tenure, but was briefly in danger of losing his job in 2005, which prompted him to speak out against his department.

The report goes on to say that the AAUP considers Mitchell to have lost his job in retaliation for the statements he made at the time and because of “hostility” in the history department to his conservative religious and political views. The report cites a history of glowing reviews that changed radically at the time that Mitchell charges that some professors started to become concerned about his religious views and his sharing them with students.

Bronson Hilliard, a spokesman for the university, disputed the AAUP report. He said that Mitchell has been given the chance to present evidence of religious bias against him to a series of Colorado administrators, up to the university system president, and has produced “absolutely no evidence.” Hilliard acknowledged that Mitchell was popular with students, but said that the decision not to rehire him had to do with issues of academic rigor, not philosophy. “He was simply not leveling up and following the agreed upon curriculum,” Hilliard said.

Faculty members were concerned that the dormitory-based courses weren’t serious enough and wanted more writing added to them. Mitchell wouldn’t go along, despite “repeated dialogue,” Hilliard said. “Dr. Mitchell didn’t want to go along.”

Mitchell, who has encouraged campus groups to demand his reinstatement, said Sunday that the AAUP report backed his claims and that the administration’s defense that he was not providing enough rigor was “sheer nonsense.”

— Scott Jaschik

The original story and user comments can be viewed online at http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/24/adjuncts.

Precursor to today’s events…

DePaul memos tell of run-ins with professor

By Ron Grossman

Tribune staff reporter

September 3, 2007

Finkelstein, both lauded and decried for his strong criticisms of Israel, was denied tenure in June. His classes, however, remained in the university’s course schedule, and students were enrolled. The classes were abruptly canceled Aug. 24, at which point Finkelstein himself was notified he was being put on “administrative leave,” he said.

Oral and physical confrontations between Finkelstein and university officials began shortly after his tenure denial, according to a memo written by university Provost Helmut Epp.

Finklestein battle finally done… thank the Gods for small favors

DePaul, embattled professor settle dispute

As Finkelstein resigns, university calls him ‘an outstanding teacher’

Embattled professor Norman Finkelstein meets with students and supporters Wednesday on the quad at DePaul University to announce his resignation. (Tribune photo by Chuck Berman / September 5, 2007)

By Ron Grossman | Tribune staff reporter

12:40 PM CDT, September 5, 2007

From Today’s NY Times Online

Study Abroad and Overseas Study gifts for universities

In Study Abroad, Gifts and Money for Universities

By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
Published: August 13, 2007

As overseas study has become a prized credential of the undergraduate experience, a competitive, even cutthroat, industry has emerged, with an army of vendors vying for student money and universities moving to profit from the boom.

Shea Roggio for The New York Times

In lieu of real content some linkage for you peeps

Lauredhel posts about some breast surgery that isn’t breast surgery according to the docs who invented it.

2049live posted about the Twin Towers Alliance Interview [he's working on their site]

KittieKattie posted an excellent essay on that one black kid and Overt Racism being less than a generation away

Karnythia posted some interesting thoughts about other IBARW posts she’s seen around the net

Angelsscream’s IBARW posts are all here 

*All links will open in a new window

Recommended reading – Unbowed by Wangari Maathai

I’m almost done with this book, I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that one person can’t make a difference. Doctor Maathai is an inspiration, and I’m glad I recieved this book. Makes a great gift too. Below is a review from Amazon that sums up what I’d like to say, but its much better written

A well written review from Amazon’s site:
Perseverance and hope, April 5, 2007
By Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
When Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, questions were raised regarding her choice by the Nobel Committee. Why should an environmentalist receive a prize that was identified with peace and human rights, voiced the critics. Reading Maathai’s memoir sets the record straight, and justifying her selection for the award. In this fascinating and very personal account, she paints a vivid picture of her life, embedded in the realities of Kenya before and since independence. Her experiences during the Moi regime, in particular, demonstrate the challenges a young educated woman confronted in the face of traditional prejudice as well as political oppression.

What a tragedy…

From Diverse Online
Current News
Best and Brightest’ Scholar’s Promising Future Ends Tragically
By Margaret Kamara
Jul 12, 2007, 01:24

Devin Gaines, who became one of the University of Connecticut’s most noteworthy 2007 alumni when he graduated with five degrees in five years, died early Tuesday morning.

Gaines was featured in a Diverse series on the “Best & Brightest” minority college students shortly after earning bachelor’s degrees in computer science, theater studies, cognitive science and linguistic psychology. His fifth degree was in an individualized major: cinema, culture and cognition.

The Harford Courant reported that Gaines had gone for a swim with friends to Blakeslee Pond in Deep River, Conn., and drowned in the abandoned pit that forms the pond. The pond, which is 100 ft. deep in some places, has been closed following a swimming accident in the mid-1990s. Security frequently patrols the pond to prevent people from swimming there.

Though toxicology results are still pending, medical examiners classified the death as an accidental drowning.

“My brother is not a swimmer, he was not athletic, he was a book worm,” Gaines’ sister, Netosha Sumter, told the Courant.

Gaines, who graduated in May with a 3.2 GPA, had been working as an information technology associate for Pension Associates, a tax consulting firm.

A message posted on the firm’s Web site reads: “Our prayers go out to the family and friends of Devin Gaines, a recent Uconn grad and our employee for the last one and a half months. He will be sorely missed.”

Gaines’ extraordinary academic journey began 12 years ago, when his father introduced him to the world of computers.

“My father brought home a broken computer, and I was able to put it together. When he saw that I did that, he decided to take me to a community center. [There,] I met up with a woman who became my inspiration in life,” 22-year-old Gaines said in a May interview with Diverse.

The woman was Kathryn Murdock, the executive director of the Yerwood Center, located a few blocks from Gaines’ home.

For more information on Gaines’ life, see www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7325.shtml, where his friends and family members have posted messages about the scholar.

- Margaret Kamara