Summer 2014
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 excluding discrimination and apartheid. 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 further 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 in the Little Rock school, which was 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 policy (of the DOJ supporting the reduction of sentences for nonviolent drug Offense in a proposal) will deal with a select group of nonviolent offenders. This is the fruit of a centrist administration. The reality is that the White House can commute sentences immediately of thousands of black inmates or anyone serving excessive prison terms for crack cocaine offenses. Also, we know that the prison industrial complex has ruined families and have even harmed innocent human beings. They can do more to erase the racial disparities found in the judicial system. The War on Drugs, mass incarceration, and draconian laws has been used as the pretext to control our communities (by the power structure). In the final analysis, the War on Drugs should end with alternatives. This is agreed upon by human beings from across the political spectrum. The Thirteenth Amendment should also eliminate its words where slavery is legalized for prisoners. Slavery is totally evil without exception.
It has been over 70 years since D-Day or during the date of June 6, 1944. D-Day occurred before both of my parents were born. My grandparents lived during that time. It was the date that when the Allied forces came into Normandy to fight the German Nazis. Also, it is important to note that the Soviet Union ironically enough made a huge contribution in defeating the Nazis. Many Soviet forces died in Stalingrad, Moscow, Kursk, and in other cities. Yet, the Soviets continued to fight and ended the Nazi advance in Europe. The Nazis were pushed back in the eastern front. Many human beings died during D-Day. It was a massive amphibious invasion of Nazi conquered territories. The Nazi regime was evil and unparalleled in its barbarity. The Nazis killed six million Jewish people and millions of other human beings of numerous backgrounds. WWII ended the powerbases overtly of many European Empires. Yet, America grew in its Empire internationally more after WWII. We have to know that many Western capitalists originally supported Hitler including the Nazis plus Mussolini. They did so, because the Western elite wanted the Nazis to be used as a buffer against the Soviets (who was formed after the Russian Revolution). Many of the Allied nations still exploited the masses of the world, especially people of color via their Empires. If the British leadership, etc. really wanted democracy, then they would immediately end their Empires during World War Two. D-Day was a brave action that many took to fight the fascist Nazis. Black people fought in WWII courageously and with bravery. Yet, back then, black people faced lynching, massive discrimination, and degradation by the white racist power structure. America was heavily built on black slavery and capitalism. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in human history. General Dwight Eisenhower was heavily involved in the invasion. General Dwight Eisenhower reported by cable to General Marshall at 8 a.m., that the operation was going well. That day President Roosevelt led the nation in prayer. Eleven months later, with the Eisenhower-led forces crashing in from the west and Soviet forces sweeping into Berlin, the Nazis surrendered to the Allies. The Allied soldiers during D-Day risked their lives in fighting a real enemy. Also, the French Resistance was involved in fighting Nazi oppression too. Their story should be told too. Many men died during and after the D-Day invasion. Their memories ought to be acknowledged and respected. The memories of the heroic Soviet peoples in the liberation of Stalingrad and Kursk ought to be respected too. Even with the legitimate overthrow of Nazism in Europe, we still face the evils of Western imperialism and totalitarianism in the world today. Humanity should utilize the D-Day invasion as a means to fight back against the pernicious evils of the world. We should follow righteousness and truth.
The Environment
The environment is diverse. The environment is not just about pollution. It deals with lands, the waters of the world, animals, trees, and other components of Nature. Since the dawn of time, the environment originated from the growth of the Earth in its beginning. Most reasonable people want clean water, clean air flourishing forests, and a stronger environment in general. There has been numerous debates on how to accomplish these legitimate goals. Then and now, legitimate activists have fought for environmental justice in the globe. Back decades ago in America, there was massive ocean pollution, air pollution, and other forms of environmental degradation. That is why a higher awareness developed about the need of humanity to clean up the world. This movement has grown since the 1960's. By the 1970's, the EPA was formed. In the same decade, Earth Day was formed as a way for the wider public to respect Nature and the Earth's valuable resources. It is obvious that fracking destroys the environment and poisons the air that we breathe. The witness of Pam Judy on July 20, 2011 said that she suffered headaches, runny noses, etc. from fracking. Her children suffered as well. She has benzene and phenol in her blood as product of the fracking. She lives in Pennsylvania, so she persuaded the PA Department of Environmental Protection to carry out air quality tests over four days on her land. The results revealed the presence of 16 chemicals, including benzene, which are all known carcinogens. In November 2010, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released a final report into air pollution in the area where Pam Judy and her family live. The report stated that the Department: "...could find no emission levels that would constitute a concern to the health of residents living near Marcellus operations …” That is wrong. This is a growing concern as such stories are common nationwide. The fracking industry has increase toxic chemicals in the land and air. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a damning report in February 2013, which admitted that there is no systematic air quality monitoring of the emissions from the fracking industry which emits, “large amounts of harmful pollutants that impact air quality on local, regional, and global levels.” The report further noted how the EPA underestimates chemical pollution from oil and gas wells and did not have a, "comprehensive strategy for improving air emissions data for the oil and gas production sector …”
In some states, there is an open collusion between the land gas industry plus elected officials. There are big business interests in Texas and other places where no action have been taken to protect local people who are being poisoned. Inside Climate News have documented the following information: “…Since then, more than 2,400 air emissions permits have been issued in the Eagle Ford without additional safeguards that would have reduced the amounts of benzene, hydrogen sulphide, formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals that drift into the air breathed by 1.1 million people.” The political establishment in Texas has even prevented new regulations of fracking. One example is how State Representative Tom Craddick, who steered the bill that prevented new regulations from being applied in the Eagle Ford shale region, has shares in five oil companies that are active in the Eagle Ford area. Craddick has received $800,000 from industry employees and related political action committees. According to a Centre for Public Integrity review of financial disclosure records, 42 members of the Texas legislature or their spouses own stock or receive royalties from oil and gas companies active in the Eagle Ford area. Governor Rick Perry who approved SB1134 has revived $11.5 million in campaign contributions since 2000. The attorney General of Texas Greg Abbott has received over $4 million in contributions and has sued the EPA eighteen times for interfering in Texas affairs. The Texas legislature is readily influenced by the oil and gas industry. The environmental group Earthworks investigated the air pollution in the Eagle Ford area. They found that the pollution was so dangerous that people evacuated themselves from the area. The regulators took no action to warn or to protect residents about the dangerous level of air pollutants. Fracking has poisoned people. Fracking pollution has occurred in California too. In September of 2013 the Center for Biological Diversity in California released a report that detailed its investigation into air pollution caused by the fracking industry in the LA basin. It found that oil companies had used 12 ‘air toxic’ chemicals on over 300 occasions. Air toxic chemicals are considered as extremely dangerous as they can cause cancer, harm the heart and damage the lungs and eyes. Air pollution is a real problem and the fracking industry has contributed to it. Methane is toxic to humans and it has been found near fracking wells too. The fracking industry in America has experience little to no regulation. There are exemptions of the fracking industry from most environmental regulations. Meanwhile, Congress has agreed not to apply the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to fracking fluids which contain hundreds of poisonous chemicals. Oil and gas companies keep from the public which chemicals are used claiming they are "trade secrets.” People have the right to act as a means to protect the environment.
Many leading scientists are telling the EPA to ban Agent Orange GMO crops. Many of the people included medical professional and credible researchers. These human beings believe that 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and glyphosate herbicide system developed by Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, will public health at risk if sprayed on millions of acres of cropland. This herbicide mix involves 2, 4-D and glyphosate (or the Enlist DuoTM weed killer) for farm spraying in combination with a new breed of genetically engineering corn and soybeans. These scientists believe that the 2, 4-D resistant corn and soybeans used in conjunction with Enlist DuoTM, but the planting of the glyphosate tolerant Roundup Ready corn and soybeans has caused an acceleration of herbicide resistance in many weed species. They feel that risk are found in the 2,4-D resistant corn and soybeans, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the EPA are close to approving of these substances. The 2, 4-D can pose human health and environmental risks. The scientists say that the herbicide has been linked to damage to the human thyroid and an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma according to epidemiological studies. Other compelling data have shown that families have been exposed to multiple pesticides with the experiences of a suppressed immune function, lower sperm count, and a greater risk of Parkinson’s disease. The health risks and the environmental risks are real. The increase in 2, 4-D spraying on corn and soybean fields would lead to pollution of food and water and increased drift of 2, 4-D from the fields into nearby residential areas. The Dow Chemical Company claims that their 2, 4-D choline salt formulation has low volatility and low drift. However, the large-scale, blanket spraying that has become standard practice with genetically engineered crops would make herbicide drift from sprayed fields into nearby residential areas and ecosystem habitats highly likely to occur. Decades long research document the risks of using 2, 4-D, which is a toxic herbicide. The EPA should do what is right. They should not approve of the new mixtures of 2, 4-D and glyphosate. Human and environmental health is important to protect.
By Timothy
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