The Lie About Black Males and Prison
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Category: Blogging

MB vs BB (Part II)

Before getting to the point of this blog I must take a moment to clarify a valid point raised by my partner in crime. In writing this blog I failed to accurately define the groups to whom I refer in my writings. In reading part one back to myself I realized that one may get the impression that the BB's are simply those of financial gain, when in reality they are those that have compromised self and sacrificed their history in order to gain acceptance from a white population. They are blacks that will turn their backs on any topic that is labeled taboo by whites, topics such as, brutality, murder, rape, and exploitation. They are the chickens in the coop that blame the dead chickens for not flying opposite the fox, even though they will eventually find themselves in the frying pan. This ignorance which is more often than not influenced by wealth or education is the foundation on which the BB is built.

Now I ask for a few minutes of your time to explore one of the most misunderstood social issues used by these misguided souls to suppress any attack on their position of comfort.  You will consistently hear the BB make statements relating to the incarceration rate of black males as a genetic failing.

This statement has become one of the most repeated by both white society and denatured blacks. The goal is to imply that at some point in time black males became uneducated predators, men of no direction or motivation, a lost generation. I beg to differ. I propose that while punishment for crimes committed accounts for some of the increase in the prison population for black males, the greater driving force is that of the Prison-Industrial Complex and its need to maintain a high level of occupancy within prison institutions.

While researching this blog I came across the following article that was posted on the NAACP website that captured every sentiment I had planned to incorporate in this document myself, therefore I will simply post a few excerpts from the article for readers to comment on.

A New Generation of Native Sons:

Men of Color and the Prison-Industrial Complex

By Adolphus G. Belk, Jr.

The Prison Crisis: Inside the Numbers

As of 2003, 2.2 million sentenced inmates were held in America's adult prisons, up from 204,211 in 1973. 7 If all persons under adult correctional supervision are included, then the number of individuals under the watch of the federal or state criminal justice systems increases to 6.9 million. 8 Between 1973 and 2003, the incarceration rate grew from 93 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents to 482 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. This increase is astounding, especially considering that, between 1923 and 1973, incarceration was "strikingly stable" at an average rate of 110 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. 9  The increase is particularly puzzling given that crime rates fluctuated during the 1980s and then dropped each year between 1992 and 2000.

To contain expanding inmate populations, the number of state prisons grew from 592 in 1974 to 1,023 by June 2000. 10  By this date, there were a total of 1,668 correctional facilities in the United States. 11 While the state and federal governments operate most of these institutions, private corrections companies have designed, constructed, and managed many others since the mid-1980s.

Troubling racial disparities are evident inside America's prisons (Table 3). Blacks and Latinos represent 26 percent of the U.S. population, but comprised 63 percent of all inmates under state or federal custody in 2003. Black males accounted for 45 percent of all male inmates and were incarcerated at a rate of 3,405 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. Latino and white males were imprisoned at rates of 1,231 per 100,000 and 465 per 100,000, respectively. Black men between the ages of 25 and 29 had the highest incarceration rate of any group: 9,262 per 100,000. Stated differently, about nine percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 were in prison at the end of 2003.

Racial minorities are also disproportionately represented in the nation's juvenile justice systems. As of October 27, 1999, the latest year for which data are available, there were 134,011 youth in 2,939 juvenile facilities. 12 On any given day during that year, minority youth, who make up 34 percent of the U.S. juvenile population, accounted for 62 percent of the offenders in residential placement. Blacks (1,004 per 100,000), American Indians (632 per 100,000), and Latinos (485 per 100,000) all had higher custody rates than whites (212 per 100,000).

Finally, a greater share of public funds has been committed to America's prison systems. The federal government increased its expenditures on corrections from $541 million in 1982 to $5.2 billion in 2001, an increase of 861 percent. 13 State expenditures grew 538.4 percent, rising from $6 million in 1982 to $38.4 billion in 2001. Local government spending increased as well, rising from about $3 million in 1982 to $16.7 billion in 2001 (455.3 percent).

Although states and localities spend more money on other functions of government, expenditures have increased at a greater rate for corrections than for other functions. 14 From 1977 to 2001, total state and local expenditures on corrections increased by 1101 percent. This rate of growth outpaced spending increases for education (448 percent), hospitals and health care (482 percent), interest on debt (543 percent), and public welfare (617 percent). 15

These developments have led many analysts and social commentators to suggest that America suffers from a prison-industrial complex (PIC) akin to the military industrial complex that first emerged in the 1950s. The prison-industrial complex, however, is best understood as a
hybrid subgovernment/issue network constructed around the issues of crime, punishment, and prisons. Prisons have become the centerpiece of a multi-billion dollar industry, and several businesses have placed themselves in strategic positions to profit from prison growth. Private corrections firms also have emerged as important actors in U.S. prison systems. At the same time, some communities (especially in California, Florida, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Texas) pursue prisons with the zeal of major cities courting professional sports teams, based on the belief that prisons offer an environmentally clean industry that can bring "recession-proof " jobs, development, and even federal funds based on U.S. Census counts.

Understanding the American Prison-Industrial Complex

The term "prison-industrial complex" was derived from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's assessment of the U.S. military apparatus.16  Some suggest that it is a subgovernment comprised of governmental and non-governmental entities that produce policies that further expanded prison systems. 17  Although these accounts are partially correct, the prison-industrial complex is best understood as a hybrid subgovernment/issue network constructed around the issues of crime, punishment, and prisons.  The prison-industrial complex has features that are indicative of both subgovernments and issue networks. Like a subgovernment, it has been stable over time and operates in relative obscurity. It also has the attendant members of the "iron triangle" (i.e., congressional committees, executive agencies, and interest groups). Yet, the prison-industrial complex resembles an issue network in two important ways. First, it cuts across the federal, state, and local levels of government. Second, a large number of interest groups move in and out of the policy arena. Some groups are part of the federal or state criminal justice systems (e.g., correctional officer unions, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors), while others operate outside of these systems (e.g., single-issue interest groups, victims' rights associations, communities in which prisons are situated).

Some groups wield influence at the national level while others are more effective at the lower levels of government. The prison-industrial complex should not be viewed as an all-powerful
replacement to the military-industrial complex, as there are significant differences between the two. First, military service generally improved the employability of soldiers; in contrast, as Wray observes, "With the near abandonment of attempts to rehabilitate or educate prisoners, it is unlikely that most prisoners leave prison better prepared for employment." 18  Second, the military-industrial complex was almost exclusively powered by the national government, which can deficit-spend. The prison-industrial complex, by comparison, is largely an undertaking of state and local governments, which must balance their budgets. Third, military Keynesianism
consumed the products of the highest technology firms. In contrast, the prison-industrial complex is largely "low tech" and "blue collar," consuming fewer products from companies such as Boeing or Lockheed Martin as the military-industrial complex did. 19

Prisons have become the centerpiece of a new sub-economy. Now a multi-billion dollar industry, there are trade shows, Internet websites, catalogues, and direct-marketing campaigns dedicated to corrections. The federal and state governments, corporations, small businesses, private  corrections companies, and rural communities all seem to have placed themselves in positions to benefit from prison expansion. Although it emerged in earnest during the 1980s and exploded during the 1990s, the prison-industrial complex has it roots in the 1960s. During that time, crime became a national concern and anxious citizens demanded governmental action. Since that time, some elected officials and issue-seeking politicians have used crime to get votes and win office. 20 These developments had significant ramifications for crime and drug control policy, punishment, and prisons.

Changes in Crime and Drug Control Policy

The shifting politics of crime and punishment left an indelible mark on the formulation and implementation of public policy. During the 1960s, federal and state lawmakers began to call for "law and order." Specifically, they argued that the nation's crime problem could only
be solved by hardening criminal justice policy. By the 1970s, new policies emphasized deterrence, incapacitation, punishment, and victims' rights rather than rehabilitation and treatment. This new paradigm was fueled by the campaigns of issue-seeking politicians and commentaries from the scholarly community. During the 1980s and 1990s, the call for "law and order" gave way to the "get tough" movement, which sparked president-led wars on crime and drugs. This movement also targeted juvenile offenders, particularly those living in central cities who were young, black, or Latino. Some scholars portrayed these young people as "super-predators." At the same time, the liberal perspective on crime and punishment faded into the background as the "get tough" movement enjoyed the support of members of both political parties. In this environment, new policies were adopted that hardened both the adult and juvenile justice systems.

Some of the harshest laws enacted at the federal level of government include:

• The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970
• The Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970
• The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984
• The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
• The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988
• The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

These policies helped to facilitate or were influenced by changes in the states. For instance:

• By 2002, 42 states and the District of Columbia had adopted some form of "Truth-in-Sentencing," a measure designed to ensure that offenders served a substantial portion of their court-imposed sentences before being released. Twenty-nine jurisdictions require that offenders serve 85 percent of the court-imposed sentence.
• By 2001, 16 states had abolished early release by discretion of a parole board for all offenders.
• Between 1993 and 1996, 24 states added "Three Strikes and You're Out" laws to existing sentencing laws. Three Strikes measures have enhanced prison sentences for violent and habitual offenders.
• By the end of the 1990s, all states had some type of mandatory sentencing provision that targeted drug offenders. Following the precedent set by the federal government with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, many states enacted exceptionally harsh penalties for drug crimes involving crack cocaine.
• Between 1992 and 1997, 47 states and the District of Columbia approved measures that made
their juvenile justice systems more punitive. In particular, states made it easier to transfer juveniles to adult criminal justice systems, gave criminal and juvenile courts expanded sentencing options, and changed or removed traditional juvenile court confidentiality provisions by making juvenile records and proceedings more open.

These policies, enacted incrementally, have done little to reduce crime and victimization. They have contributed to soaring incarceration rates across the country, however. They also have led to sizeable increases in the amount of money dedicated to criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Policy Implications and Recommendations

The nation's youth of color are experiencing a time of crisis. They face daunting challenges to securing a good education, finding quality jobs, and becoming productive members of the American community. If we fail to address these issues, millions of young people will be fed into the nation's criminal justice systems. Already, as Marable states, U.S. prisons have become "vast warehouses, for the poor and unemployed, for low-wage workers and the poorly educated, and, most especially, for Latino and African American males."21 By focusing almost exclusively on the behavior of the individual, some researchers and lawmakers have lost sight of the political, economic, and social circumstances in which individuals exist. Given the convergence of criminal justice policy and the long-running assault on the social welfare state, imprisonment has become the first response to many of the social problems that burden the poor. Difficulties such as homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, and mental illness "disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages."22 Consequently, policymakers must consider changes that will help to transform the urban communities in which so many of these young people reside.  The following policy recommendations flow from the analysis presented in this paper:

The Political Discourse on Crime and Punishment
• Rely on research rather than rhetoric. Lawmakers must weigh the potential intended and unintended consequences of proposed changes in crime and drug control policy.
• Consider how racial minorities have been constructed as targets of public policy.
• Adopt an approach to criminal justice that balances the needs of society, victims, and inmates.

Truth-in-Sentencing and Three Strikes and You're Out
• Repeal or revise Truth-in-Sentencing and Three Strikes laws that have proven ineffective in the fight against crime and drugs.

Drugs and Imprisonment
• Rescind the 100-to-1 powder cocaine/crack cocaine ratio and other drug sentencing laws that have incarcerated nonviolent offenders while failing to capture "drug kingpins."
• Divert nonviolent, non-dangerous drug addicts and offenders from the prison system.

The Private Corrections Industry
• Conduct an audit of private correctional institutions to determine: (1) the physical conditions of the inmate population, (2) the effectiveness of inmate rehabilitation programs in these institutions, and (3) the purported cost-savings of private prisons over public institutions.

Juvenile Justice
• Provide family therapy and parent training directed at delinquents or pre-delinquents and their families.
• Divert nonviolent and non-dangerous juveniles from confinement.
• Explore rehabilitation options in community-based programs for youth offenders.
• Increase job opportunities for minority youth.

Rehabilitation and Prisoner Reentry
•Improve alcohol, drug treatment, and ancillary services for inmates during their incarceration.
• Strengthen educational and vocational programs.
• Assist inmates in their re-introduction to society by putting them in touch with institutions and
organizations that might be of assistance upon release.
• Aggressively recruit private businesses to employ inmates after they are released from prison.

Summary: Making Sense of It All
At the end of the day, the politics of crime and punishment took another turn during the 1990s. Coming out of the 1970s, the positions of the major political parties on these issues were fairly clear. The Republicans were the "law and order" party, while Democrats stressed the "root causes" of crime. By the end of the 1990s, however, such partisan delineations were obsolete, as both Democrats and Republicans called for tougher policies. The result was a "punishment frenzy" largely supported by issue-seeking members of both political parties. 23

The intellectual discourse on crime and drug policy continued to produce scholarship that endorsed the greater use of incarceration as a tool in the fight against crime—be the offenders adults or youth. For instance, in 1995, John J. DiIulio wrote an article for The Weekly Standard titled "The Coming of the Super-predators." He described super-predators as a "demographic crime bomb" of young people who kill at will. He added that super-predators are more likely to
be black, male, and young, and to come from the central city and suffer "moral poverty." The definition of moral poverty is to be surrounded by "deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults
in abusive, violence-ridden, fatherless, Godless, and jobless settings." 24 DiIulio, along with former and current drug czars William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, further clarified the theory of moral poverty in Body Count: Moral Poverty—and How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs. They dismissed other explanations for criminal activity, such as destitution, lack of education, lack of opportunity, or racism. According to these authors, the true culprit was abject moral poverty, which promoted "lack of impulse control and lack of empathy." 25

As a result of moral poverty and changing demographics, it was predicted that, by 2000, there would be "at least 30,000 more murderers, rapists, and muggers on the streets" who "fear neither the stigma of arrest nor the pain of imprisonment." 26 The increased use of incarceration was a necessary and proper means of dealing with this menace to society. Bennett, DiIulio, and Walters also recommended that religion be used in the war on crime. Other researchers, including analysts at the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Heritage Foundation, offered similar perspectives and policy recommendations.27

The mass media quickly picked up this terminology and policymakers began to call for new anti-crime and juvenile justice initiatives.  Shortly thereafter, these ideas were codified into law with new policies that targeted violent and repeat offenders. Likewise, between 1992 and 1997, 47 states and the District of Columbia adopted laws that made their juvenile justice systems more punitive.28 The much anticipated crime wave, however, never materialized and young people actually contributed to declining crime rates during the 1990s.29

In the final analysis, other scholars were more accurate in their assessments of crime policy. For instance, some researchers noted that ideas about the so-called underclass were driving a "new penology" that emphasized "low-cost management of a permanent offender population." 30 Others argued that, with the wars on crime and drugs, police adopted more aggressive tactics when patrolling black and Latino communities. 31 Such practices—powered by a racialized fear of crime—exacerbated racial disparities in arrests, jailing, and imprisonment. Still, some plainly remarked, "the conceptual building blocks of the conservative rhetoric on crime and its
control were fallacious."32 These analyses, however insightful, were not heeded. Thus, lawmakers must be wiser consumers of policy research in the future.

1 Richard Wright, Native Son (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993, orig. pub. 1940), 20.

2 Wright, 1993: 21

3 Clarke E. Cochran, Lawrence C. Mayer, T. R. Carr, and N. Joseph Cayer, eds., American Public Policy: An introduction, 7th Edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003); Thomas R. Dye, Understanding Public Policy, 10th Edition (Upper Saddle River,  NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001).

4 Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, "Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991-2002," (2005), http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm.

5 Illinois (14 percent), Indiana (14 percent), Wisconsin (14 percent), Michigan (15 percent), and Minnesota (15 percent) had the lowest percentages of black high school graduates equipped to enroll in a university. Latinos were the most unprepared in Massachusetts (14 percent), Ohio (13 percent), Illinois (12 percent), Michigan (11 percent), and New York (11 percent).

6 Inmates of color have lower levels of education than white inmates. In 1997, 44.1 percent of black state prison inmates and 53 percent of Latino inmates had not graduated from high school or received a GED, compared with 27.2 percent of whites in state prisons. For male inmates ages 20 to 39, 43.9 percent of blacks, 51.8 percent of Latinos, and 27.7 percent of whites had not completed high school. Harlow observes that these men were "markedly less educated than their counterparts in the general population." See Caroline Wolf Harlow, "Education and Correctional Populations," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: GPO, 2003), http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ bjs/pub/pdf/ecp.pdf. Another study found that, for males born between 1965 and 1968, three percent of whites and 20 percent of blacks had served time in prison by the time they reached their mid-30s. For black males, nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts were sent to prison by 1999. See Becky Pettit and Bruce Western, "Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration," American Sociological Review 69 (April 2004): 151-69.

7 The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice defines "sentenced inmates" as persons with prison terms of one year or longer.

8 The phrase "criminal justice systems" is intentionally used instead of "criminal justice system" because there are 51 such systems in the United States (the 50 states and the federal government). The estimated 6.9 million inmates under the watch of federal or state criminal justice systems include persons either in prison or jail, or on probation or parole. The data are available at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

9 Alfred Blumstein, "U.S. Criminal Justice Conundrum: Rising Prison Populations and Stable Crime Rates," Crime &Delinquency 44 (January 1998): 127-35.

10 Sarah Lawrence and Jeremy Travis, "The New Landscape of Imprisonment: Mapping America's Prison Expansion" (The Urban Institute 2004), http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=410994.

11James J. Stephan and Jennifer C. Karberg, "Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2000," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: GPO, 2003), http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/csfcf00.pdf.

12 Melissa Sickmund, "Juveniles in Corrections," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Washington, DC: GPO, 2004), http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/202885.pdf.

13 Lynn Bauer and Steven D. Owens, "Justice Expenditures and Employment in the United States ,2001," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: GPO, 2004), http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/jeeus01.pdf.

14 In fiscal year 2001, seven cents out of every dollar spent by state and local governments went to criminal justice activities. According to Bauer and Owens, "Among all state and local expenditures, 3 percent was for police protection, nearly 3 percent for corrections, and 2 percent for judicial and legal services." In contrast, these authors note, "30 percent of state and local government spending went to education, 14 percent to public welfare, 7 percent to health and hospitals, and over 4 percent to interest on debt." See Bauer and Owens 2004, 4.

15 Bauer and Owens 2004.
16 See Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People," The Military-Industrial Complex, ed. Carroll W. Pursell, Jr. (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 206.
17 Katherine Beckett, Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); Nils Christie, Crime Control As Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2000); J. R. Lilly and Paul Knepper, "The Corrections-Commercial Complex," Crime & Delinquency 39 (April 1993): 150-66; Randall G. Shelden, "It's More Profitable to Treat the Disease than to Prevent it: Why the Prison Industrial Complex Needs Crime" (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2004), http://www.cjcj.org/pdf/treat.pdf.
18 L. R. Wray, "A New Economic Reality: Penal Keynesianism," Challenge 43 (September-October 2000): 51.
19 Wray 2000: 53.
20 Joseph D. Davey, The Politics of Prison Expansion Winning Elections by Waging War on Crime (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998).
21 The phrase "criminal justice systems" is intentionally used instead of "criminal justice system" because there are 51 such systems in the United States (the 50 states and the federal government). The estimated 6.9 million inmates under the watch of federal or state criminal justice systems include persons either in prison or jail, or on probation or parole.
22 Alfred Blumstein, "U.S. Criminal Justice Conundrum: Rising Prison Populations and Stable Crime Rates," Crime & Delinquency 44 (January 1998): 127-35.
23 John Irwin and Chris Baird, "Fanning the Flames of Fear," Crime & Delinquency 44 (January 1998), 32.
24 John J. DiIulio Jr., "The Coming of the Super-Predators," The Weekly Standard, November 27, 1995, http://www.mcsm.org/predator.html.
25 William J. Bennett, John J. DiIulio Jr., and John P. WaltersAmerica's War Against Crime and Drugs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 57.
26 DiIulio 1995.
27 William P. Barr, "Crime, Poverty, and the Family," The Heritage Foundation, 1992), http://www.heritage.org/Research/Crime/HL401.cfm
28 Howard N. Snyder and Melissa Sickmund, "Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Washington, DC: GPO, 1999), http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/nationalreport99.
29 Butts and Travis write, "The violent crime arrest rate fell among every age group between 1994 and 2000, but the decline was proportionally larger among juveniles. The juvenile arrest rate for Violent Crime Index offenses in 2000 was less than two-thirds the rate of 1994." In fact, in 2002, the violent crime arrest rate for juveniles was "nearly as low as it had been in 1980." See Butts and Travis 2002: 5.
30 Malcolm F. Feely and Jonathan Simon, "The New Penology: Notes on the Emerging Strategy of Corrections and its Implications," Criminology 30 (November 1992):468.
31 William J. Chambliss, "Policing the Ghetto Underclass: The Politics of Law and Law Enforcement," Social Problems 41 (May 1994): 177-94; Lusane and Desmond 1991.
32 John Irwin and James Austin, It's About Time: America's Imprisonment Binge, 2nd ed. (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1997), xvii.

______________________________________________________________________________
Adolphus Belk is a professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Winthrop University.

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Majority Blacks vs. Black Bourgeoisies (Part 1)
Category: Blogging

A group gathers at the corner, waiting for the street light to change from red to green when one falls desperately to his knees.  Grasping his abdomen he screams in agony, as the remaining people scurry by avoiding the wounded man. One woman bends over, staring the man in his eyes she proclaims "If you just stop the bleeding you won't lay here and die".  The man peers up at the woman and responds "It is not the bleeding that I will die from but the knife used to stab me" as he begs for her assistance.  The woman, eyes rolling in her head shoots back, "maybe you should stay away from people who carry knives. I'm not bleeding so why should I get involved with your personal problems? I have avoided knives and so should you." The man with a teardrop running down his left cheek rolls over and silently expires.

As strange as this exchange may sound, it happens on a daily basis within the black community. Sorry, let me correct that statement. As strange as this exchange may sound, it happens on a daily basis within black society (the community is no longer relevant). The role of the man is played by disenfranchised blacks or for the sake of this commentary they will be referred to as the MB (majority blacks). The role of the woman will be played by the educated black benefactor of the civil rights movement or the BB (black bourgeoisies).  

To our misfortune black society has given birth to a group of BB's that have dedicated their lives to reinforcing MB stereotypes created by a society focused on maintaining dominion over those under their rule. They perform the work of the oppressive state by attacking the characters of MB's as a whole because of actions of a minority of this population, characterizing these transgressions as the norm. They spew rhetoric fed to them by white scholars and other BB's regarding the state of Black America. They confuse education with knowledge; therefore they are themselves victims of their own ignorance. They quickly inform the world of the pending demise of the black male due to ignorance and a lack of desire to better there economic status. They are so into self that they are unable to understand the damage caused by their misguided voices of compassion.

Here are a few indicators that you are face to face with the notorious BB.

·       They always point to the incarceration rate of black males as a genetic failing.

·       They give statistics supposedly supported by unbiased research that denigrates the intellectual capability of the MB.

·       They are quick to point to themselves or their group as an example of accomplishment and the reason that all blacks can overcome their self imposed challenges.

·       The repeatedly proclaim that the MB has a victim mentality, claiming that they are holding onto slavery, thus keeping themselves in bondage.

·       They proclaim that racism has passed us by and whites now treat us as equals.  Better yet they will now call the MB the racist for criticizing whites.

·       And my favorite proclamation is that the MB is financially irresponsible, spending their money on rims and air jordans (yes, little j), rather than paying their rent. (You'll understand why this is my favorite later)

The BB, like the House Negro, does the work of his master in return for the opportunity to lay his head in the Big House. The BB actually hates most that is black, but somehow anchors themselves to black issues, claiming to be the voice of reason. Like a trained dog, they refuse to bite the hand of their master, even when beaten. Then whenever they are abandoned and detached from the "Big House" they can be found scurrying to the field seeking support and empathy from the MB.
 

The most disturbing issue surrounding the BB is that they are now giving birth to little bb's. These offspring have no knowledge of black culture other than rap music. They believe that the injustice to black people began and ended with slavery. And much like the 1998 members of the Black Caucus, they could not identify the person behind the name JoAnne Chesimard if their lives depended on it.

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The World's Best Kept Secret
Current mood: impressed

I would like to take the opportunity to thank "T" for passing along such a educational document_

Sepia Magazine
May 1980

THE WORLD'S BEST-KEPT SECRET:
Black Genetic Superiority
Part 1: The Black Child

Evidence is being quietly amassed by a small group of scientist that will soon blow the lid off the 300-year old lie that black people are genetically inferior to whites - specifically in terms of their intelligence. This evidence will shock the masses, but will not be new to countless Western scientist and academicians who have been aware of it for some time, but have chosen to suppress, distort or ignore it.

The most startling revelation that has been made thus far is that black children in Africa and the United States are from birth to age two generally, superior to their white counterparts in motor coordination and intellectual development. But, before we examine the evidence that supports the genetic superiority of the black child, we must take a serious look at the I.Q. controversy in the United States and its grave implications for black people now and in the future.

A Clear And Present Danger

In America today, the mass media are renewing their focus on Dr. Arthur Jensen, a professor of educational psychology at the University of California Berkeley, who insists that, based on I.Q. test, whites are intellectually superior to blacks; and on Dr. William Shockley, a physicist and Nobel Prize laureate from Stanford University. Shockley not only believes that blacks as a group are genetically inferior to whites, but he proposes that this state of affairs be controlled by black people "voluntarily" submitting to sterilization. Neither Jensen nor Shockley, it should be noted, has been trained in medicine or genetics.
It is my firm belief that, just as the mass media have conspired to project black people on television, radio and on the printed page as buffoons and idiots, these same conspirators have deliberately kept alive the names ad pseudo-scientific views of who are currently discussing the thesis that black people are genetically inferior to whites.
Is it not curious that, while many reputable scientist supposedly stand in violent opposition to the views of Jensen and Shockley, these two professors are constantly in demand as speakers at the most prestigious universities and colleges, and are liberally quoted in the most respected national journals and magazines?

Is it not also curious that, while various scientists, academicians, columnists and commentators have stepped forward to defend the First Amendment rights of both Shockley and Jensen these same civil libertarians have not publicized or pursued – in only for the sake of academic balance – the very much available evidence that points toward black genetic superiority?

This is no accident according to the distinguished scholar lecturer and child psychiatrist, Frances Cress Welsing. In fact, Dr. Welsing believes that the widespread publication of the views of Shockley and Jensen is only part of a larger white effort to perpetually inferiorize black people. She states:

The collectivity of whites has evolved patterns of societal structuring to cause blacks and other people of color to appeal functionally inferior to themselves through both crude and highly refined methodologies to deprive peoples of color of the same social, educational, economic and political supports that they provide for themselves. They then say that such patterns of inferior functioning are genetically determined. The behavior of D. Shockley and all others who cannot cease talking and writing in a negative manner about the genetic recessive deficiency state of skin albinism but also its component psychological disease state of racism (white supremacy).

It would appear, moreover, that the present frantic effort, on the part of the highly placed whites in the academic and media establishment, to focus on alleged black genetic inferiority is impelled by: (1) the secret belief that black people are indeed genetically superior to whites and/or (2) the need to subtly instill in the minds of the white masses that black people are less than human; so that, should there emerge a move to exterminate Afro-Americans (as happened to the American Indians), the masses of whites, believing blacks to be no more than animals anyway, will have no sympathy for them.

In light of this, I believe it imperative at this time that substantial evidence be published on a global level not only to dispel the myth of black inferiority once and for all, but to reveal those facts that point in the opposite direction. In this sense, I personally am not here arguing that black people are absolutely superior, intellectually or otherwise, to white people, but I am stating that if the mass media are going to insist on playing the I.Q. game, then let's put all of the cards on the table, not just those that favor white people.

Some black behavioral scientist, it should be noted, have sincerely argued that to refute Shockley and Jensen will raise these pseudo-scientist to a level of dignity that they do not deserve. What these critics fail to realize, however, is that the Jensen's and Shockley's of the world are not only dignified and tolerated in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in most of the rest of the Western World; but that their work is overtly and covertly encouraged by a political end economic system in this country whose major institutions are built on the assumed inferiority of nonwhite people. Therefore, what is needed now is not the cowardly silence of black scientist who fear for their tenure, promotions and government grants, but the bold publication of facts and statistics on a massive scale that expose these I.Q. charlatans for what they are, and reveal the real motive behind the universal publicity that they have received.

White scholars, who pretend to be so objective, have never publicized the fact that in ancient times white people were thought to be genetically inferior to blacks. Early records reflect that Europeans were considered the mutant, albino offspring of the original blacks of Africa. The Egyptians, for example, killed red-haired whites on sight, believing them to be diseased; and even the Romans, who were largely white themselves, considered their whiter cousins to the north a barbaric, diseased race apart.

John G. Jackson, the distinguished Afro-American historian, quotes an 11th century Moslem scholar who described northern Europeans as "barbarians with big bellies, pale skin, long and land hair' who lacked "keenness of understanding, and clarity of intelligence and [were] overcome by ignorance and foolishness, blindness and stupidity."

As late as the 13th century, another Moorish scholar, Said of Toledo, spoke of this same group of people in the following words: "They are cold of temperament and never reach maturity. They are great of stature and of a white color, but they lack all sharpness of with and penetration of intellect."

Brain weights and intelligence test were used and distorted to "prove" white superiority and where they failed to do so, the rules of the game are simply changed. For example, according to social scientist Robert Guthrie in his book, Even the Rat Was White, "The earliest effort by American researchers to investigate black-white differences using intelligence test was made in 1897 when G.R. Stetson tested 500 black and 500 white public school children in Washington, D.C. The test utilized by Stetson consisted of four stanzas of poetry which the experimenter read aloud and the children were required to repeat. It is interesting to observe that in this exercise, of which little publicity was made, the black children outperformed the white children; consequently, it was determined that the memory technique was not a valid measure of intelligence."

Two years prior to this experiment, another scientist, R.M. Bache, using a popular reaction time device, tested Afro-Americans and American Indians. Since these two groups exceeded whites in reaction time, Bache concluded that "primitive peoples" were highly developed in physiological tasks and attributes while more advanced races "tended less to quickness of response in the automotive sphere; the reflective man is the slower being."

This same practice of distorting facts and suppressing evidence has kept the general public from knowing that, despite all of the hullabaloo about black genetic inferiority, strong evidence, gathered under conditions which do not favor either the black or white child, indicates conclusively – according to the findings of a number of scientist – that from birth to at least two years of age, black children are genetically superior to their white counterparts.

It would appear, "according to Nancy Bayley, an authority on early infant development, "that the advantage the Negro babies have is a pervasive one which may lie in a generally heightened muscle tonus. Similar findings of more advanced motor status in Negro over white babies have been reported by a number of investigators, for example, [Hilda] Knobloch and [B.] Pasamanich (1953), Pasamanick (1946) and [Judith R.] Williams and [R.B.] Scott (1953)."  Bayley and other scientist of her ilk, realizing the implications of their findings, have sought to limit the acknowledged superiority of the black child to that of "advanced motor status;" and to, thereby, separated body functioning from that of the mind. This clever maneuver was conceived, of course, to avoid the logical conclusion that a sound, precocious body presupposes the existence of a sound, advanced mind; and therefore that the newly born black child is, in both body and mind, superior to his white counterpart. Recognizing Dr. Bayley's fallacious reasoning, Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dean of the School of Education at San Francisco State University, has stated:

It is sometimes said that the precocity of the African [Black] child is only 'physical' and not 'intellectual' or 'mental.' There are two problems with such a statement: On the one hand, the developmental measures, which are cited in the professional literature, include measures of language and puzzle working (e.g., circle, square and triangle in a form board). Further, some of the 'physical' tasks which are measured include such things as intentional climbing and walking. Therefore, the use language and intentional behavior hardly justifies the common investigative bias of calling some developmental test items 'merely physical measures.' On the other hand, there is no clear scientific distinction between 'mental' and physical' activities. It is more appropriate to think of these words as labels for aspects of the same human activity. Thus, the child who climbs stairs or, better still, who dances, is clearly demonstrating the inseparable nature of 'mental' and 'physical' activity. You simply cannot have one without the other.

While black babies in various parts of the world appear to be more advanced the others, those who have been studied in Africa are the most precocious. Extensive work on the physiological development of young children was done by Marcelle Geber and R.F.A. Dean in Kenya and Uganda in the 1950's, and has been recently updated by Mary Ainsworth in South Africa and West Africa. Of Geber's discoveries, author Joseph C. Pearce states, "She found [in Uganda] the most precocious, brilliant, and advanced infants and children ever observed anywhere. These infants had smiled, continuously and rapturously, from, at the latest, their fourth day of life…Sensorimotor learning and general development were phenomenal, indeed miraculous. These Ugandan infants were months ahead of American or European children. A superior intellectual development held for the first four years of life." (Why it ended there appears to be attributable to either the very abrupt weaning of the child during which he, according to cultural tradition, is separated – sometimes permanently – from his mother; or to the Westernized verbal test that are administered to the African and European children after the age of four by white investigators.)

Remarkably, Geber found that even the newborn baby was in a more advanced state of development that new born European children. This fact, more than any other, suggest a genetic origin for the precocity of the black child, rather than a environmental one which many astonished white scientist have been so quick to posit. Geber has said the following concerning her general findings:

The results of the test showed an all-around advance of development [of African children] over European standards which was greater the younger the child. Thus from the first day the child when drawn up into a sitting position, could keep his head from falling back, and held sitting had his back straight. In the first days many children appeared to be able to focus their eyes. At six weeks the child could control his head whatever position. At four months he could sit alone and at eight months stand without support, at 10 months he could walk, and at 11 months he was able to use his thumb and fore-finger accurately for picking up small objects…The precocity was not only in motor development; It was found in intellectual development also. It is not always realized that intellectual development is displayed very clearly in the use of the Gessell material. To take an elementary example, the child who merely looks at the cubes and then picks them up is demonstrating a series of intellectual processes, and for the building of a tower with the cubes, more complex processes are needed, in addition to the greater manual dexterity. "Although most of the African children," Geber continues, "had never seen anything resembling the test material, they used it in the same way as European children and succeeded in the tests earlier than those children. Their interest was lively, and their personal-social relations excellent. They made very good contact with the tester, turning and 'talking' to her, smiling at her, and trying in every way to communicate with her."

The following are comparisons made by Geber on the bases of the tests that she administered to African and European children: 

With The Head Held Firmly, Looking At The Face Of The Examiner:
Black Child: 2days old White Child: 8 weeks old

Supporting Himself In A Sitting Position And Watching His Reflection In The Mirror:
Black Child: 7 weeks old White Child: 20 weeks old

Holding Himself Upright:
Black Child: 5 mos. old White Child: 9 mos. old

Taking The Round Block Out Of Its Hole In The Form-Board:
Black Child: 5 mos. old White Child: 22 mos. old

Standing Against The Mirror:
Black Child: 5 mos. old White Child: 9 mos. old

Walking To The Gesell Box To Look Inside:
Black Child: 7 mos. old White Child: 15 mos. old

Climbing The Steps Alone:
Black Child: 11 mos. White Child: 15 mos. old

While the findings of Mary Ainsworth, to which reference has been made, in West and South Africa parallel those of Geber, the former went a step further in an effort to record more specific cognitive achievements that those made by Geber. Although Ainsworth's findings, by her own admission, are less than conclusive, the following are certainly noteworthy:

1. Mean Age At Which A Child Knew His Own Name
Black Child: 8 ½ mos. White Child: 14 mos.

2. Mean Age At Which Child Could Use Three Or More Words Appropriately:
Black Child: 10½ mos. White Child: 12 mos.

Amos N. Wilson, in his outstanding book, The Developmental Psychology Of The Black Child, has reported that "Tronick, Koslowski and Brazelton compared the neonatal behavior of urban Zambian and American infants. Despite the fact that on the first day the Zambian children reacted less than the American children, within five days they had caught up and in 10 days had surpassed their counterparts, becoming more attentive and responsive."
The Afro-American child has also shown remarkable precocity when compared to white children. Bayley, whose studies have been mentioned, concludes that, "in motor development," black babies "tend to be more advanced than the whites during the first 12 months. Although there is considerable overlap of scores among whites and Negroes of the same age, a genetic factor may be operating. That is, Negroes may be inherently more precocious than whites in their motor coordination." This is a most profound observation when we keep in mind Dr. Hilliard's point that a precocious mind and a precocious body go hand-in-hand.
H. Knoblock and B. Pasamanick have added, concerning the black infant, that he has "superior motor scores and similar adaptive, language and personal-social scores, as compared with whites through age two years."

Etta Walters tested babies on the Gesell developmental schedules with three days of their 12-week, 24-week and 36-week birthday. The children were divided into black-white ethnic origins and according to income status. Walter found that the black children demonstrated superior motor development up to age 12 weeks at which point the differences were not again significant except that at 36 weeks the black high socio-economic group was superior.
Another study cited by the editors of The Competent Infant, found that "93 percent of [American] Negro neonates [newborn babies] and only 61 percent of whites showed some form of visual pursuit." In other words, when the examiner showed the babies something, 93 percent of the black infants and 61 percent of the whites would recognize it and focus on it.

Even Arthur Jensen has alluded to the precocity of the black child: "It has also been noted, "he has written in volume 39 of Harvard Educational Review, "that brain wave patterns in African newborn infants show greater maturity than is usually found in the European newborn child…This finding especially merits further study, since there is evidence that brain waves have some relationship to I.Q….and since at least one aspect of brain waves – the visually evoked potential – has a very significant genetic component, showing a heritability of about .80 (uncorrected for attenuation)…"

In summary, the following can be said:

1. A number of comparative studies of black and white children in Africa and America strongly suggest that the black child is significantly advanced over the white child up to at least two years of age.

2. These studies are most significant for I.Q. ratings because, they were administered by white people using white testing standards on black and white children during a vital period of the youngster's lives before the white child had acquired a distinct rural advantage over the black child, and the with child consistently scored lower that his black counterpart in all categories.
Speaking of the later regression of the black American child, Wilson states: Generally, it would appear that the differences between black and white infants disappear between the ages of one and one half and two years and the equality of their mental and motor functioning begins to reverse in for of the white child at around two or three. We think that it is no coincidence that black intellectual functioning as compared to that of whites, as measured by standard I.Q. test, begins to fall during the period beginning with the acquisition of language (starting somewhere around 12 to 18 months) and the formation of a stabilized personality structure from three to five years). For the first two to three years at least, it appears that the black child approaches the Greek ideal of a sound mind in a sound body. However, the ravages of racial prejudice and poverty destroys and distorts much of his wonderful potential.

Today, the 'wonderful potential' of the black child is being destroyed not only by poverty and race prejudice, but by frightened black parents and bewildered teachers who are beginning to believe that maybe Jensen and Shockley are right – maybe black children are indeed born inferior to whites. The evidence, however, is overwhelmingly supportive of the black child and his potential.

In light of this, the challenge facing black people in this time is two-fold. First, a cadre of black social scientists must study and determine what social forces are at work that cause superior black children to lose their apparent genetic advantage by the time they reach the age of three. Is it non-standard English that is handed down from generation to generation in their families? Is it the I.Q. test and testing procedures that are devised and administered by white people based on white language and culture? Is it that black parents raise their children on food that, while satisfactory for white children, is not nutritional for the highly developed minds and bodies of black infants? A team of black scientists must grapple with these and other questions to solve the riddle of why the black child usually falls behind his white counterpart before he reaches school age.
Once this challenge is met, the black community – i.e., homes, churches, social clubs, fraternities, sororities, professional groups, etc. – must organize itself and plan a program for the salvation of black children. The goal should be to develop the minds and bodies of these children so that their apparent genetic advantage will not be destroyed by the "ravages of racial prejudice and poverty," but will be maintained throughout their lives.

A final challenge, moreover, must be made to Jensen, Shockley and the white-controlled media which have served as their agents. They should be called upon to tell America and the rest of the world of the apparent superiority of the black child over his white counterpart; and to expound on how that superiority has miraculously persisted over the decades in Africa and America despite poor nutrition, limited prenatal care and dire poverty to which the black child has fallen victim. It is unlikely that this challenge will be met, however, because its very implications are too threatening to the fragile foundation of white supremacy in which not only Jensen and Shockley's theories but, also, the powerful American media are deeply rooted.

11:02 AM - 7 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Willie Lynch Is Haunting Me Again - Please Read
Current mood: distressed
Category: News and Politics

To all my Brothers and Sisters, I come to you with a request of dire importance. It is time to Lynch the tale of Willie Lynch. A tale of mind control over the black population that is not only fraudulent but damaging to our eternal growth and unity.

While I have found that many doubt the validity of the Willie Lynch letter for the reason I will outline, they tend to want to hold on to its essence because it seems to apply to the problems seen in today's black community. While this assumption is true, it's parallel exist because its writer had a view of today's issue on which to base the letter. To believe in Willie Lynch is to deny our own history and even worse it causes us to focus on the unreal, leaving the real issues amongst us to go unattended.

First I will point out to you the reasons why historians doubt the validity of the Willie Lynch letter, and then I will offer my personal reasons why this psychological game was never played on black society.

The expert; Prof. Manu Ampim is an historian and primary (first-hand) researcher specializing in African and African American history and culture. He has a B.S. in Business Management and M.A. in History/African American Studies. His master thesis, "The Revolutionary Martin Luther King, Jr." (1989) is being expanded into a two-volume work entitled, "Martin Luther King: The Evolution of a Revolutionary."

He has taught in the Department of History at Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD), and at San Francisco State University in the Dept. of Ethnic Studies. Also, Ampim has studied at Oxford University in England, and collaborated on a NASA-sponsored research project, which examined the ancient climate and migration patterns in Africa. Currently, Prof. Ampim teaches Africana Studies in the Peralta Community College District in Oakland, CA, and he is teaching a 7-Step Primary Research Methodology Course at Advancing The Research and yes, Dr. Ampin is Black.

His quotes regarding the Willie Lynch Letter

The "Willie Lynch Speech" is not mentioned by any 18th or 19th century slavemasters or anti-slavery activists. There is a large body of written materials from the slavery era, yet there is not one reference to a William Lynch speech given in 1712.

Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, Olaudah Equino, David Walker, Maria Stewart, Martin Delaney, Henry Highland Garnet, Richard Allen, Absolom Jones, Frances Harper, William Wells Brown, and Robert Purvis were African Americans who initiated various efforts to rise up against the slave system, yet none cited the alleged Lynch speech. Also, there is not a single reference to the Lynch speech by any white abolitionists, including John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips. Similarly, there has been no evidence found of slavemasters or pro-slavery advocates referring to (not to mention utilizing) the specific divide and rule information given in the Lynch speech.

A reference to the Lynch speech and its alleged divide and rule tactics are completely missing in the works of Benjamin Quarles, John Hope Franklin, John Henrik Clarke, William E.B. Du Bois, Herbert Aptheker, Kenneth Stampp, John Blassingame, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Darlene Clark-Hine, and Lerone Bennett. These authors have studied the details and dynamics of Black social life and relations during slavery, as well as the "machinery of control" by the slavemasters, yet none made a single reference to a Lynch speech.

The Lynch speech lists a number of divide and rule tactics that were not important concerns to slaveholders in the early 1700s, and they certainly were not adopted. The anonymous writer of the Lynch speech states, "I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves: and I take these differences and make them bigger." Here is the list provided in the Lynch speech: age, color, intelligence, fine hair vs. coarse hair, tall vs. short, male vs. female.

However, none of these "tactics" were concerns to slaveholders in the early 1700s in the West Indies or colonial America. No credible historian has indicated that any of the items on the Lynch list were a part of a divide and rule strategy in the early 18th century. These are current 20th century divisions and concerns. Here are the Lynch speech tactics versus the real divide and rule tactics that were actually used in the early 18th century:

DIVIDE & RULE TACTICS

LYNCH SPEECH               vs.          HISTORICAL FACTS
Age                                                   Ethnic origin & language
Color (light vs. dark skin)                  African born vs. American born
Intelligence                                    Occupation (house vs. field slave)
Fine hair vs. coarse hair                  Reward system for "good" behavior
Tall vs. short                                                  Class status
Male vs. female                                   Outlawed social gatherings

There are a number of terms in the alleged 1712 Lynch speech that are undoubtedly anachronisms (i.e. words that are out of their proper historical time period). Here are a few of the words in the speech that were not used until the 20th century:

Lynch speech: "In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your Black slaves."

Anachronisms: "Fool proof" and "Black" with an upper-case "B" to refer to people of African descent are of 20th century origin. Capitalizing "Black" did not become a standard form of writing until the late 1960s.

Lynch speech: "The Black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self re-fueling and self generating for hundreds of years."

Anachronism: "Re-fueling" is a 20th century term which refers to transportation.

Lynch claims that on his journey to give the speech he saw "a dead slave hanging from a tree." This is highly unlikely because lynching African Americans from trees did not become common until the late 19th century.

Lynch claims that his method of control "will work throughout the South." This statement clearly shows the modern writer's historical ignorance. In 1712, there was no region in the current-day U.S. identified as the "South." The geographical region of the "South" did not become distinct until a century after the alleged speech. Before the American Revolutionary War vs. Britain (1775-1783) the 13 original U.S. colonies were all slaveholding regions, and most of these colonies were in what later became the North, not the "South." In fact, the region with the second largest slave population during the time of the alleged William Lynch speech was the northern city of New York, where there were a significant number of slave revolts including the rebellion in 1712.

These are only a few of the problems Dr. Ampin found in the letter, there are many more along these lines. Now my reasons why the so called Willie Lynch Syndrome fails the historical litmus test.

Based on the Willie Lynch Syndrome, Blacks would have never been able to accomplish the economic boom of the early 1900's nor would Marcus Garvey have seen the birth of Garveyism in the United States. Both are clear signs of strong communities working together for the good of all. We would not have had the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960's and 70's when blacks of different belief systems united to move out of the Jim Crow era and provide the current framework for black success as we know it today.

Now, why is it so important to let go of Willie Lynch? Simply review the historical events that I have mentioned and you will find that the resistance faced by Blacks was not generated by a mythical syndrome but by actual oppressors. Willie Lynch lets white America off the hook by placing the blame on a fictitious character from the past then in turn placing it at the foot of weak minded blacks who have been unable to overcome this so called syndrome.

Fact 1 – Marcus Garvey was not stopped in his efforts to unite the Black race on a universal level by Willie Lynch.

Fact 2 – Black Wallstreet was not destroyed by a syndrome or curse placed on Black society by Willie Lynch

Fact 3 – MLK was not assassinated by the ghost of Willie Lynch, nor was Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton and numerous others.

Fact 4 – Assata Shakur is not in exile hiding from Willie Lynch, nor has Willie Lynch put Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row.

My Brothers and Sisters, to accept Willie Lynch as a truth is to ignore a system of oppression, fueled by murder and mayhem. While we sit around waiting for Willie Lynch to expire, our young men still face unfair levels of incarceration, our children are still dying in the streets and our mothers are still crying for their lost children. We must let go of this lie and look at the truth.

4:57 AM - 17 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

ImagiNation
Current mood: hopeful
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

I pose this question to my readers...

Can we imagine a African nation where we can be recieved as lost souls returning home?  A nation that will embrace our return with open arms?  A nation that in unity will allow us to build industries never before seen in Africa? Is there a nation that will embrace our concepts of  business and allow us to combine the ingenuity of the black mind ? A place where we can manufacture the worlds best cars, top electronics, and build a military focused soley on defending our autonomy? A nation where we can combine the flair and style of Africa, with the edginess of hip hop to build a new expansive culture to be envied throughout the world? Is there such a African Nation? If so, where?

6:33 AM -