"We Will Not Get There with You" Lecture by D. Brooms
Monday, January 21, 2014
I'm giving a lecture on Dr. King and wanted to share two thoughts (both inspired by today's NBA games):
1) The reality is that we live in a time (and a nation) where amnesia is more powerful
than memory. Even during today's NBA game between Brooklyn and New
York, to which I was listening to via audio stream, I cringed (again) as
I heard a commentator summarize MLK's entire body of work with the
oft-quoted, worn out, completely out of context statement: "He dreamed
that we would live in a nation that you could be judged by the content
of your character..." How many times will this line be repeated and
folks completely ignore the entirety of his speech? Mass
incarcerations... stop and frisk... Oscar Grant... Reka Boyd... Trayvon
Martin... and so many others... How about this part of the speech?:
"But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred
years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the
manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred
years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst
of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the
Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds
himself an exile in his own land..."
2) The upcoming game of
New Orleans at Memphis provides a great point of reality given the
histories of these two cities. For New Orleans, many current and former
residents are still being "Katrina-ed" since 2006-- people have been
dislocated for years and this has impacted the educational opportunities
along with the social, cultural, and political realities of so many
people. And, for Memphis, the state of affairs are still at a critical
level. Memphis: 27% poverty rate... 42% child poverty... 11-12%
unemployment... These are realities of our time. We STILL need the poor
people's campaign because clearly the "war on poverty" has turned into
and resulted in a "war on the poor"...
As Dr. King argued,
"When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war it loses its social
perspective; programs of social uplift suffer."
Clearly, for
many of the folks making decisions, it has not gotten dark "enough" so
that they can see the light. Let the trumpets sound so that the amnesia
is lifted, the willful forgetting is too cold, and the winds of default,
denial and neglect are uprooted.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Monday, July 23, 2012
Black in the city
I'm starting this new post and will commit to regular contributions on the theme... My goal is to talk about Black in the city of Chicago and being abandoned; this actually will merge two on-going projects right now. Will combine photos with free writes, short essays, and creative writing. A lot on my mind, just trying to give space...
We are PAST time... We need solutions and some dedicated and committed people (not politicians, not rhetoric, not talking)... we need people of service... this is effecting ALL of our communities.
We are PAST time... We need solutions and some dedicated and committed people (not politicians, not rhetoric, not talking)... we need people of service... this is effecting ALL of our communities.
Number of Chicago Public School students shot rises, as does fear of more to come
June 27, 2012
http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=1137
Sunday, June 24, 2012
African American Monument - Savannah, GA
I spent a week participating in a research program studying African American history and culture in Savannah and the surrounding areas-- in particular, the sea islands. There will be many more photos and posts coming in the next few weeks as I continue to process. I decided to start with this image that pays tribute to the Africans who were stolen from their lands and enslaved in the Americas. By and large, Africans were brought to this region of the country for cotton and rice cultivation; on the sea islands, they also harvested indigo.
The program that I participated in was conducted and coordinated through the Georgia Historical Society. Their work is incredible and I encourage everyone that travels to Savannah to PLEASE take a moment and appreciate what they do. They are instrumental in the retelling of U.S. History and they work to bridge the gaps of revisionist accounts of the past. The GHS has an historical marker program, which provides residents and tourists alike with significant information about Georgia's history. In the revisionist accounts, the cruelties and inhumanity of African enslavement would be omitted. We need institutions such as GHS so that we get a more robust understanding of our past; this, undoubtedly, will provide us with a greater appreciation for the present. I am still completely unsure how we can ever move forward if we're unwilling to look at the past. We cannot and ought not move away from African enslavement, but in fact move toward it.
Point of note: There is NO such thing as a "good" slave master/owner. You cannot possibly be "good" while holding another human being in captivity... this is a conundrum.
Inscription on African American Monument:
"We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African
Continent. We got on the slave ships together, we lay back to belly in
the holds of the slave ships in each other's excrement and urine
together. Sometimes died together and our lifeless bodies thrown
overboard together. Today we are standing up together with faith
and even some joy." -- Maya Angelou
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Atlanta, GA
6.20.12
Our people... abandoned on the streets under night lights. The gentleman on the right has a walker propped against the door; the individual on the left has "something" to lay beneath their body. What's wrong with our society when we, the people, are okay walking past this on a nightly basis? What does picture reveal about our society-- about our government, communities, and families? We are constantly taught to seek help from others and when these individuals ask for help we shun them, we avoid them, we constantly say "No"... and most often we use non-verbal communication. Worst of all, in ignoring them we simply deny their humanity. How do we possibly have more of a claim to "humanity" than others who might be less fortunate right now?
What will it take for us to hear them? What will it take for us to respond-- in the affirmative? What will it take for us to treat them in ways that we all want to be treated?
Unheard voices…
in Atlanta…
dbrooms
6.22.12
He called out and tried to mention
i feigned to listen but didn’t pay enough attn
begged and pleaded
not even sure what he needed
in a dark corner he had carved out a space
reading a bible by street light couldn’t see his face
“Please, please, please…” his voice so clear
just asking for help his presence so near
and even though i went back
one time too many, i had already turned my back
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Ms. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a towering public figure during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She led a campaign against segregation on the local railway in Memphis, she wrote articles on civil rights for local newspapers, and led a campaign for racial equality in the United States Army during the First World War. Ms. Wells-Barnett was a trailblazer indeed and her fight for Black freedom and dignity brought her face-to-face with many personal challenges. She lost her job as a teacher after criticizing the Memphis Board of Education for underfunding African American schools, her printing press was destroyed after she wrote articles condemning the lynching of Blacks, and she was threatened with treason after distributing anti-lynching buttons during the First World War (see Fradin and Fradin 2001). What Ms. Wells-Barnett understood was that there were issues that needed to be addressed and she used her various vantage point make keen and incisive observations in order that her voice be heard. In one of her many publications on lynching she wrote, “It is with no pleasure I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so” (Wells 1892: 5). Throughout her civil rights career, Ms. Wells-Barnett campaigned against racial violence in the United States and argued that the country’s national crime was lynching (Wells-Barnett 1900). She argued that the main aim of lynching was to intimidate Blacks from becoming involved in politics and therefore maintaining white power in the South. Ms. Wells-Barnett formed the Negro Fellowship League, was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was an editor of several major Black newspapers, established the first Black women’s suffrage club (Alpha Suffrage Club), and pursued political office in Illinois (see Peebles-Wilkins and Francis 1990).
Fradin, Dennis Brindell and Judith Bloom Fradin. 2001. Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Houghton Mifflin.
Peebles-Wilkins, Wilma and E. Aracelis Francis. 1990. “Two Outstanding Black Women in Social Welfare History: Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.” Affilia, 5 (4): 87-100.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 1892. Southern Horror: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 1900. “Lynch Law in America.” Accessed from: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/ida_wells_lynch_law.html
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 1901. Lynching and the Excuse for It.
Monday, January 16, 2012
MLK Remembered
Today, we celebrate MLK Day throughout the United States. Please take time to appreciate what he offered.
MLK Speech on Vietnam
MLK Speech on Vietnam
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
African American Readings... Short List
Below is a short list of African American Readings... I am most interested in non-fiction writing. I have plenty more ideas but hoping people can learn from this list and offer suggestions as well.
Ani, Marimba – Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior
Baldwin, James – The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name
Carmichael, Stokeley – Black Power
Crawford, Vikki – Women of the civil Rights Movement
Davis, Angela – Women, Race & Class
Diop, Cheikh Anta - The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality
DuBois, W.E.B. - The Souls of Black Folks
Fanon, Franz - Wretched of the Earth; Black Skin, White Masks
Giddens, Paula – When and Where I Enter
Hill-Collins, Patricia – Black Feminist Thought
Holsaert, Faith S. (ed) – Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC
hooks, bell – Black Looks; Killing Rage
King Jr., Martin – Where Do We Go From Here?; Letter From a Birmingham Jail
Paton, Alan – Cry, the Beloved Country
Pattillo-Beals, Melba – Warriors Don’t Cry
Tatum, Beverly – Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together at the Cafeteria Table?
van Sertima, Ivan – They Came Before Columbus
Welsing, Francis Cress- The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors
Welsing, Francis Cress- The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors
West, Cornell – Race Matters
Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean – Black Venus: Sexualized Savages, Primal Fears, and Primitive Narratives in French
Woodson, Carter G. – The Miseducation of the Negro
X, Malcolm – By Any Means Necessary; The Ballot or the Bullet
Emancipation... still fighting
"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses"
January 1st is an important date in African American history for many reasons; I will share three from the 19th century:
In 1804, January 1 was the day in which Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed independence of Haiti; this on the heels of the freedom movement led by Toussaint L'Overture. Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas; clearly, this was and is NO accident. The poverty and decimation of Haiti following the earthquake of 2010 is surprising only to those of us unfamiliar with history. Before establishing independence in 1804, Haiti ranked as one of the world's richest and most productive colonies. Upon gaining their independence in 1804, the French demanded 150 million francs as "severance pay" and the country struggled to pay this illegal and illegitimate debt for the next 80 years. Clearly, in the case of Haiti, freedom was not free. How is a country's (and people's) demands and quest for freedom met with financial payment? And, even more importantly, what impact has this had on an independent Haiti-- especially within an historical context? During this time, Haiti also suffered from international isolation as other countries refused to invest and/or trade with the country. More recently, the country has suffered in economic development, sanctions, political destabilization, and corruption.
In 1808, a U.S. federal law went into effect banning the importation of African slaves; thus abolishing the international slave trade. However, this did little to stop slavery as it continued to spread across the United States with the addition of new states to the Union. While the international trade may have stopped, the national trade was alive and well. Ultimately leading to the Civil War in 1861.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the "Emancipation Proclamation" which was intended to free those enslaved. However, several points should be made: first, the Proclamation only freed slaves in rebel states-- these states had seceded from the Union and did not recognize any federal laws; second, the Proclamation did not apply to slaves in border states, thirteen parishes in Louisiana (including New Orleans), and many counties in eastern Virginia and West Virginia; and third, Lincoln was disinterested in freeing enslaved Blacks, his primary objective was to preserve the Union. Given these points, hailing Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" is quite a conundrum. Clearly, the importance of history and public memory are always contemporary issues especially as we consider the distant past.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."
-- Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
The importance of history, and African American history in particular, is paramount to understanding the history of the United States and for gaining a perspective on race relations as well. Some people ask, even some of my current students, why do we need Black history and/or what is the purpose of Black History Month? One need only look at the annals of history to understand that no story will be complete if we leave voices on the margins. By and large, African American voices have been pushed to the margins and it is with great effort that Blacks themselves have gained agency in forcing that their voices be heard. If you want to see the challenges to retelling history, pick up any standard "American History" textbook used in elementary and secondary education. Read the table of contents, skim the chapters, and ask yourself if sizable gaps exist in how the stories are retold-- and, thus, remembered. If we allow public memory and knowledge to be misinformed, then what will this mean for our children and our children's children? Mrs. Rosa Parks was not "too tired" when she refused to give up her seat; what she was tired of was giving in. She was a member of and had worked for the NAACP since the early 1940s; Martin Luther King did not start the Montgomery Bus Boycott; JoAnne Robinson had been arrested as early as 1949 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and had committed herself to challenging and unearthing segregation laws in Montgomery and this was coordinated through her work in the Women's Political Council (which was established 1946); and a bus boycott was not a novel idea given that it had transpired already in other cities (such as Baton Rouge, LA in 1953).
What classroom has provided us with this information? NONE that I have ever sat in. Education is the pursuit of knowledge and it is up to us as individuals and communities to know and comprehend what has transpired in the past so that we have a better understanding of who we are, where we are, and, as Dr. King asked, where we're going from here. But, what is clear from the Montgomery Bus Boycott-- and other activities during this time-- was that people organized around issues that impacted their communities and committed themselves to demand and create change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days. For 381 days, Blacks refused to ride Montgomery city buses, they car pooled, walked, and biked in getting to their destination. All of these efforts were maintained while the city of Montgomery outlawed car pooling and placed tremendous economic and political pressure on Blacks to resist participating in the boycott.
As W.E.B. DuBois has asked in 1923, where would America be without her Negro people?
Study your history... know our stories... I appreciate Black History Month... but my Black History is everyday... it flows through my body in my blood. I am trying to become who I am... I have people in me... We need to get lifted in 2012... what are you waiting on?
-- Malcolm X
January 1st is an important date in African American history for many reasons; I will share three from the 19th century:
In 1804, January 1 was the day in which Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed independence of Haiti; this on the heels of the freedom movement led by Toussaint L'Overture. Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas; clearly, this was and is NO accident. The poverty and decimation of Haiti following the earthquake of 2010 is surprising only to those of us unfamiliar with history. Before establishing independence in 1804, Haiti ranked as one of the world's richest and most productive colonies. Upon gaining their independence in 1804, the French demanded 150 million francs as "severance pay" and the country struggled to pay this illegal and illegitimate debt for the next 80 years. Clearly, in the case of Haiti, freedom was not free. How is a country's (and people's) demands and quest for freedom met with financial payment? And, even more importantly, what impact has this had on an independent Haiti-- especially within an historical context? During this time, Haiti also suffered from international isolation as other countries refused to invest and/or trade with the country. More recently, the country has suffered in economic development, sanctions, political destabilization, and corruption.
In 1808, a U.S. federal law went into effect banning the importation of African slaves; thus abolishing the international slave trade. However, this did little to stop slavery as it continued to spread across the United States with the addition of new states to the Union. While the international trade may have stopped, the national trade was alive and well. Ultimately leading to the Civil War in 1861.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the "Emancipation Proclamation" which was intended to free those enslaved. However, several points should be made: first, the Proclamation only freed slaves in rebel states-- these states had seceded from the Union and did not recognize any federal laws; second, the Proclamation did not apply to slaves in border states, thirteen parishes in Louisiana (including New Orleans), and many counties in eastern Virginia and West Virginia; and third, Lincoln was disinterested in freeing enslaved Blacks, his primary objective was to preserve the Union. Given these points, hailing Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" is quite a conundrum. Clearly, the importance of history and public memory are always contemporary issues especially as we consider the distant past.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."
-- Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
The importance of history, and African American history in particular, is paramount to understanding the history of the United States and for gaining a perspective on race relations as well. Some people ask, even some of my current students, why do we need Black history and/or what is the purpose of Black History Month? One need only look at the annals of history to understand that no story will be complete if we leave voices on the margins. By and large, African American voices have been pushed to the margins and it is with great effort that Blacks themselves have gained agency in forcing that their voices be heard. If you want to see the challenges to retelling history, pick up any standard "American History" textbook used in elementary and secondary education. Read the table of contents, skim the chapters, and ask yourself if sizable gaps exist in how the stories are retold-- and, thus, remembered. If we allow public memory and knowledge to be misinformed, then what will this mean for our children and our children's children? Mrs. Rosa Parks was not "too tired" when she refused to give up her seat; what she was tired of was giving in. She was a member of and had worked for the NAACP since the early 1940s; Martin Luther King did not start the Montgomery Bus Boycott; JoAnne Robinson had been arrested as early as 1949 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and had committed herself to challenging and unearthing segregation laws in Montgomery and this was coordinated through her work in the Women's Political Council (which was established 1946); and a bus boycott was not a novel idea given that it had transpired already in other cities (such as Baton Rouge, LA in 1953).
What classroom has provided us with this information? NONE that I have ever sat in. Education is the pursuit of knowledge and it is up to us as individuals and communities to know and comprehend what has transpired in the past so that we have a better understanding of who we are, where we are, and, as Dr. King asked, where we're going from here. But, what is clear from the Montgomery Bus Boycott-- and other activities during this time-- was that people organized around issues that impacted their communities and committed themselves to demand and create change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days. For 381 days, Blacks refused to ride Montgomery city buses, they car pooled, walked, and biked in getting to their destination. All of these efforts were maintained while the city of Montgomery outlawed car pooling and placed tremendous economic and political pressure on Blacks to resist participating in the boycott.
As W.E.B. DuBois has asked in 1923, where would America be without her Negro people?
Study your history... know our stories... I appreciate Black History Month... but my Black History is everyday... it flows through my body in my blood. I am trying to become who I am... I have people in me... We need to get lifted in 2012... what are you waiting on?
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