Vision Circle

Fear of a Libertarian Planet

It came to me that rather than fight for emigration to a country in Africa, or for a few southern states, that the best move black people interested in their own state could really make would be to emigrate en masse to Rhode Island. Looks like the Libertarians are trying to do something very similar. Doubt it'll work...but it should be a very interesting failure to say the least.

Bullseye pt. 2

So maybe they're all selling drugs? Pulled by the lure of easy loot, (more money than they could make at McDonalds!), fine women, and phat rides, maybe the brothers are simply being pulled (by the lure of money, rides, chicks) pushed (by the lack of other jobs) into the black market (pun intended)?

If you're black or Latino and grow up in the seventies and eighties in working class urban environments, you know drug dealers. At least I did. And if you know drug dealers...REALLY know drug dealers, you know this can't explain the gap.

Bullseye pt. 1

Since I've been a professor at Washington University, I've taught about a couple of hundred kids. Of the black students? Whereas I've taught approximately 30 or more black women, I can remember the men (David, Quinton, Nelson, Akil, Marques, Christopher B., Trumaine, Derrick, Christopher W., and Fred) by name their numbers are so small. Where are they? Part one of a series.

God is a dick

Paraphrasing.

"I knew we would win because my God was bigger than his God."

Pretty phallic.

Police and St. Louis Magic

Magic Johnson has expressed an interest in developing projects in the St. Louis area. A group of activists concerned with police brutality have contacted Johnson and suggested that St. Louis might not be the right place to do business given the climate. While some may ask why in the hell black activists would supposedly shoot themselves in the foot, I'm thinking it is pretty unfortunate that it has to come to this.

Now I got to Cut ya

I've written about the issues the St. Louis Schools are facing. A new slate of officials chosen by the Black Leadership Roundtable, Civic Progress (a group of powerful white business elites), and the Mayor, have made some real tough decisions about the schools. They've hired a management firm to slash and burn, privatizing services, closing schools, and firing staff. From what I understand they are also planning on bringing in some of the people responsible for the "Houston Miracle". What it looks like at this point was that the Black Leadership Roundtable bit off more than they could chew.

From what I understand they recently took their anger out on their head...in another example of how important it is to be an ELECTED leader.

Why Blacks & Whites Don't Dialog

I've spent a lot of time on the Internet as a race man, but I think I've probably spent more time as the fly in the buttermilk as it were. I've proven to myself and to others the value of sustaining black & white dialog on racial issues. I'd like to point out a few things that I've recently been thinking about.

From the black side there is a very powerful disincentive, or taboo against, confiding in whitefolks about the presence of racism. I think the notable exception to this is when Jews start the conversation in a particular way. If a nominally white person outs himself as a Jew, unprompted to a black person and talks about racism, I think a strong bridge is built.

On the Strength

A question about Black Strength was raised to me in the context of whether or not America is truly interested in black success. Could an economic downturn, given the shaky psychology of the hiphop generation and the loss of pre-integration community, set Black America way back?

I honestly believe that African Americans have amassed enough social capital to survive any economic downturn in the US. Living in Southern California, I find it difficult to believe that blacks will not compete successfully against Mexicans, if indeed it comes to that. Blacks may not have climbed very high on the economic ladder, but they do have some room to fall, and in a very coarse way of seeing things, if speaking English is an advantage, if being closer to whites than Mexicans or other latinos is an advantage, blacks will take it.

My perspective on the strength of African Americans in the lower socioeconomic strata comes primarily from my view of the Armed Forces. Many folks like to make a target of 'the man's army' as a dead-end plantation one step above prison, but I think that is entirely wrong. The Army is an integral and fundamental part of the infrastructure of America and blacks are not excluded or barred. They are welcome; they are invited. America is never going to get rid of its Army, so if blacks are disproportionately there, then they are disproportionately better off. As well it cannot be understated that in any apocalyptic scenario of race war that there are certainly enough blacks who are competent to lead armies in any capacity anywhere in the world. If we wanted to take 5 southern states for blackfolks, it is militarily possible in that kind of incredible scenario.

I also consider what happened in Los Angeles in the Riot of 91. Fewer than 100 people died, and it's not clear that the majority of those who did were black. So even when it comes to chaos, shooting in the streets and burning cities down, African Americans survive crises. The black population is not decreasing. 35 some odd million is large and healthy.

Competing With 'Them'

"When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored." --Eric Hoffer

I recently joined the AfroFuturists. I've always been an honorary member because I've been making black noise on the internet basically since PPP was invented. Today, however, I'm getting correspondance in real time. The following question (among many) was posed:

Would black children be more motivated if they didn't always feel like they could never compete with "them"?

This gets to the heart of a number of important issues. I have several angles on it.

The first is that children in America don't need to be externally 'motivated' per se. They simply need to understand their class expectations / generational imperatives and rise to them. Once children rectify their identity with their class, it doesn't matter where they go, that pretty much defines the direction they are headed. This is the difference between achievement and excellence. Only a very few people excel. Most of us achieve.

Uplift and Positive Images pt. 2

Flash forward.

The positive images argument goes something like this. Images have an impact on how we perceive reality. Our understanding of events on a local (in the case metropoles), state, and national level is at least partially driven by media images. As such, they have an impact on how we think, and how we feel.

Given that most images of African Americans on the local news are negative, it stands to reason that these negative images have a negative impact on how people perceive African Americans, and how they feel about African Americans. If we change the images, it stands to reason that we change the way people think, and feel about black people. The solution then, is for us to get more positive images of black people in the news to counteract the negative ones.

Does this sound familiar?