Friday, May 16, 2014

60 Years after the Brown v. Board of Educational decison

It has been 60 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown V. Board of Education. That decision outlawed legalized segregated schools in America. Yet, we have a paradox. Today, we witness a re-segregation that has increased since the late 1980’s. Eliminating segregated schools has nothing to do with calling black teachers inferior. We know that there are tons of excellent, qualified black teachers back then and now. It has to do with human beings having the right to be educated in any public school without regard to race, class, or color. That is the point. It is about any student regardless of class having the right to receive a strong, adequate education. Millions of African Americans migrated into the North and Midwest (including the West Coast) from the South as a means for people to gain economic & political rights. They wanted children to have a better education. Many black people were forced into crowded ghettoes and they sent their children to segregated schools via design. Back then, segregation was legal in the South, but in the North it was heavily custom. Black people in the North suffered racism in their housing and school options (backed up by the government agencies and the force of law). Black people fought to end segregated schooling. Even from 1920s to the 1950s, large desegregation battles took place in Northern suburbs and industrial towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York and Michigan. The NAACP supported lawsuits against segregated schooling. In 1951, Barbara Johns, a high school junior, organized a student strike at her all-Black high school in Virginia to protest poor conditions and overcrowding. Students contacted the NAACP for help, but its lawyers advised them against striking. The strikers' determination won the lawyers over, however, and their claim became part of the basis of the Brown case. Brown did not immediately end segregation, but it was a turning point. It gave black people confidence to struggle for black liberation. We also must see that residential segregation and lax resources should end as well. Separate schools based on race in a racist society will never be progressive at all. Also, activists back then wanted desegregation to not integrate into a white supremacist society. They wanted black people to have access to better resources that many white schools had. That is the point of black liberation. We wanted to free economically, socially, and politically (and not allow the government to discriminate against us based on skin color). We wanted liberation and the best resources possible as white people have had. We wanted justice. As Detroit parent Vera Bradley put it: "We were upset because they weren't getting as many materials as some other schools. We figured if it was desegregated, we would get the same." The psychological angle of Brown had the perverse effect of falsely & immorally stigmatizing Black schools (and consequently, Black teachers) as necessarily inferior. Black kids were to be "integrated" into white schools--but never vice versa. There was no timeline for desegregation from the Brown decision.


The Brown II ruling caused desegregation to come with all deliberate speed. In the opinion of one NAACP lawyer, this really meant "movement toward compliance on terms that the white South could accept." Stiff resistance to these court rulings came from white reactionaries. There were harassment, firings, and evictions.  In 1956, Alabama outlawed the NAACP altogether. In 1957, when the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth tried to enroll his children in an all-white school, he and they narrowly escaped with their lives. Famously, when Black students tried to integrate Little Rock Central High School in September 1957, they were driven back by the Texas Rangers and by racist mobs. President Dwight Eisenhower tried to avoid the conflict, but eventually was forced to send U.S. troops to escort the students--the first time federal troops had been sent into the South since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Southern racists were not giving up their Jim Crow system without a fight. Brothers and Sisters fought back. A decade after Brown, 90.7 percent of the South's Black children still attended all-Black schools--400,000 more than in 1956. Schools in the North like in Harlem fought against segregation and inferior education. In New York, Viola Waddy was a part of a group of Harlem parents who, defying the law, kept their children out of school in 1958. The "Harlem Nine" won an important victory when a judge ruled that the New York City Board of Education was offering inferior education to Black children. Boston leaders fought against racial segregation too. Similar efforts existed in Chicago in the 1960’s too. Institutionalized racism and other policies contribute to massive Northern segregation. The busing issue was always a canard. In 1970, half of students in the U.S. went to school by bus, but fewer than 5 percent of those students did so because of desegregation plans. Now, American schools are massively resegregated. Brown caused many positive changes and demographic changes have made full desegregation with whites more difficult. At the end of the day, schools need self-determination and resources. These items relate to desegregation. We don’t need to sit next to a white student to learn information. Yet, we do need small class sizes, qualified including experienced teachers, and rich plus stimulating curricula that are readily found in richer, whiter communities. Black communities need these resources too. Predominantly white suburban schools often spend twice what urban school districts do and three times what poorer rural areas spend. And when they find government funding insufficient, donors in wealthier areas shell out the cash for reading specialists, music and arts, science labs and computers as well as the extracurricular field trips and activities that make for a quality learning environment. Education ought to be universal and not discriminatory based on class or race. Only a genuine movement of parents, teachers, and students can wrest the kind of redistribution of resources that we deserve. Desegregation should be used to end the structure of racism placed in society. Desegregation is about legitimately ending racial apartheid since we are all human beings. Racial apartheid in any form is evil point blank period. The economic system benefits the evil system. Black education can never be improved without addressing black unemployment, the prison industrial complex, environmental racism, and the housing crisis. We have to find ways to end the harsh conditions in the ghettos and the barrios nationwide. Race and class inequality woven in schools must be dismantled if we want to be free.

The Indian elections are finished. The U.S. wants to press for greater support for the pivot to Asia agenda. India is the most populous nation that calls itself a democracy. India is an ally of Washington. India wants to have more economic power than China. The West wants India to be used as a means to surround China geopolitically. Narenda Modi is a reactionary who lead his right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance to power in New Delhi, according to exit poll results. However, a State Department spokesman later said that were Modi to become India’s prime minister, he would be welcome in Washington. Ironically, America revoked Modi’s visa back in 2005, because of his role in instigating the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom. For eight years since, its diplomats shunned the Gujarat Chief Minister. In early 2014, however, the U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell made a very public trip to Gujarat to meet with Modi, signaling that the United States is ready to work with him. The U.S. is starting a new relationship with Modi. Powell said that she was retiring. There is a growing U.S. and India relationship business wise. The 2008 Indo-US nuclear accord was meant not only to underpin the Indo-US “strategic partnership;” it was also meant to blaze the trail for the US nuclear industry securing lucrative contracts. But to the chagrin of the US nuclear industry, India—after protests driven by the memory of how Union Carbide’s US owners escaped providing any compensation for the 1984 Bhopal disaster—refused to tailor a liability law to US stipulations. India’s ruling elite has issues with U.S. having relations with Pakistan, Iran, etc. India for the most part has allied with America in the 20th and 21st centuries. India has worked with the U.S. in expanding military and strategic ties with the U.S. knowing that Washington wants to use India as a strategic counterweight to China. Japan is partnering with India too. Japan is allied with America’s pivot to Asia agenda. Japanese imperialism has its own ambitions to use India to develop an alternative cheap labor supply network to that now centered on China. China is expanding its resources globally. So, India is having a historic time indeed.

It would be courageous if LeBron James boycotted the League until Sterling was removed as an owner. I will wait to see what the League will do. Sterling continues to make offensive comments. His actions and his words blatantly violate rules from the NBA Constitution (according to NBA officials). I still respect LeBron James as a man, because he at least was one of the first men who condemned the evil words said by that racist Donald Sterling. LeBron James greatly loves and takes care of his family like any real father would. The bigger question is where do we go from here? We can’t acquiesce to the status quo. We should definitely use our economic and political power to fight back against racism. When an owner prejudges our people, then all of us are attacked not just NBA Players. It is important to make sure that we defend our dignity heroically against any injustice. It is a shame that many from the local NAACP (found in Los Angeles) knew about Sterling’s ways and still allied with a man with lax character. Our heroes from the past were involved in not only sit-ins and protests. They used groups of people to protect civil rights workers and other folks in our communities from racists. Sometimes we have to sacrifice in order to gain something. Too many of our people desire a "comfortable" lifestyle instead of sacrificing truly for their dignity and self-respect. It is very disappointing for the President to support a nominee that desires to place an evil emblem (which relates to the oppression, harm, and murder of our people) on the state of Georgia flag. With the recent reactionary Supreme Court decisions ranging from corporations to voting rights, we should always stand up for our principles. He should immediately withdrawal the nominee and pick a human being that is qualified and that will show respect for the interests of black human beings. Yes, sometimes the suit and tie wearers are even more bigoted than a poor Klans person. With the current sorry state of our judicial system, we can't afford to see more extremist judges at the bench at all. It is a shame that many doctors refused to help her. Many doctors have to show a little more compassion since she is experiencing a massive tumor that created a massive burden in her life or Doris Davis. I am glad that one doctor will give her the necessary surgery that she needs and desires. Hopefully, she will be fine without massive complications after the procedure. This event proves that we can't have the status quo involving our health care system. We still have a way to go to make sure that universal health care is instituted for all Americans. We have the right to advance our economic rights and our health care rights too.




We are learning more about the Nigerian situation. There is more to the violence in Nigeria than what the mainstream media is showing. I express sympathy to the mothers and fathers who are missing their precious daughters. More than 200 schoolgirls being abducted is a huge tragedy. The viral spread of the "#BringBackOurGirls" campaign has cast a spotlight on a terrible crime and horrific social conditions in a long-neglected part of the world. Now, we should use this event as a means to support militarist actions that benefit the Nigerian ruling class and the world’s imperial powers at all. That will make the violence and injustice worse. Boko Haram is a theocratic terrorist group. The families of the victims have every right to protest in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja at the end of April 2014. The abductions came in the northern Nigeria town of Chibok. The U.S. and British government will assist the Nigerian government in their operations against Boko Haram. The Nigerian government of President Goodluck Jonathan bears some responsibility in this affair. He has used violence in Northern Nigeria. He has delayed in responding to this tragedy. We should support the working and all other peoples of Nigeria, who struggled against tyranny. Multinational corporations and powerful government benefit from the injustice in Nigeria. Boko Haram has killed Christians and males too. Last week, the purported leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, took responsibility for the abductions in Chibok whose age ranged as young as 9. We know that the Nigerian security forces have been killing, torturing, illegally detaining, and raping civilians according to the June 2013 Nigeria’s own National Human Rights Commission report. Some Nigerian government forces are killing people without making a difference between militants and innocents. Africa is filled with U.S. military bases using covert and overt operations in Africa. Nigeria has big economic inequality. Many Western multinational companies have exported oil from Nigeria and caused environmental destruction too. As the Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole wrote on Twitter, "Terrorism is not a natural disaster." Nigeria's history of colonial exploitation and the plundering of the country's natural resources by multinational corporations set the stage for "[c]riminal negligence by successive Nigerian governments [that] created ideal conditions for Boko Haram," Cole wrote. Nigeria’s government policies must be challenged. The solution is for the girls to be found via non-imperialist international means. Also, grassroots people in Nigeria have the right to confront poverty wages, unemployment, government repression, and sectarian divisions. 




 By Timothy

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