The Weekly Dream: Old School
June 8, 2006
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come thereafter.”
-Ecclesiastes 1:9, 11
June is family month. The summer, in general, is a time for family reunions, family vacations, and other activities to reconnect with the people we share last names, living quarters and blood. With all this familial love in the air, it has always been a fascination of mine about how strong genetics and certain character traits manifest themselves over time in individuals.
For instance, if you knew both of my parents, you would be able to pick out the mannerisms and physical characteristics I inherited from each of them. Family often serves not only to provide socialization, but also context to our personality and worldview.
Starting from this premise, I have been mildly obsessed with the origin of things. As an African-American, I cannot help but lament the piecemeal lineage I am apart of. But even more immediate, I am infinitely interested in my grandparents and the older generation’s view of the world and their experience.
The game don’t change, only the players
My grandparents are the backbone of my family. This is the case for many individuals. But what is of interest for me is how they were able to persevere through some of the worse times in American History. My grandparents have lived through the depression, Jim Crow, Affirmative Action, an oil crisis, and the list goes on. And since hindsight is 20-20, I often find myself struggling to understand how they found the strength and resiliency to keep going, create something beautiful out of nothing and still keep their sense of humor.
In their day, racism was overt. There were no such things as career advancement, benefits, or a car. Yet, they were able to do more with what they had back then than what my generation can do now. The world promised them nothing.
Reality Check
The world still does not promise anyone anything. We have issues of entitlement and privilege in our society, where individuals believe that they deserve something or because they work hard, they are entitled to something. Well, life is not fair. There are a lot of people who work a lot harder and do not have their fair share. This was a hard truth for me to swallow at an early age. It was a lesson that was impressed upon me by the examples of my parents and grandparents. Watching them work, sacrifice and live morally upright garnered my admiration.
We were never rich but I appreciated the heritage that my grandparents preserved and instilled in my family structure. It was a heritage of solidarity, faith, hard work, and integrity.
Respect you elders
All of us have inherited some heritage from our family. It may not be monetary, but character, morals and values have no price tag. We should celebrate the good and be aware of the bad.
One way to do this is to spend time and listen to our elders. Youth often think that the elderly as out dated and unaware of what is going on. In the process, they make a deadly mistake. The same sun that rose when they were born is the same sun that is in the sky today, and it is the same sun that will be here when all of us depart from what we know as life. That means that there are some things that do not change. These are the fundamentals of life. And understanding those things is what is called wisdom.
People can acquire wisdom through direct experience or the experience of others. I’d rather learn from the experience of others rather than try to make every mistake in the world. Spending time with the elderly can lead to gaining understanding and insight. Only in America is age correlated with obsolescence. However, they did not get that old being a fool.
What Can We Learn
What can we learn from our elders? From my grandparents, I learned patience, discipline, sacrifice, responsibility and loyalty. My grandparents would give any of us the shirt off of their back and they genuinely care about people.
At the same time, they had backbone. They knew what was right and what was wrong and were not afraid to let you know which side you were on. The have manners and were respectful. Some things were just sacred to them.
They are good judges of character. My grandfather always made me laugh when he would tell me why someone was not going to turn out to be any good. And years later, he would be right. Garlin and I would often bring certain young ladies we dated around our grandmothers to see what they would say.
There is a generational divide between the old and the young. Some of the trends and things we are into, they will not understand and vice versa. But that does not mean that they do not have a lot of wonderful gifts and guidance to offer us, especially in these perilous and uncertain times. We need each other. The elderly need our energy and exuberance. We need their wisdom and guidance. So let’s celebrate our elders and give them the honor that they deserve. Spend time with them and you might learn something.
I thank God for all of my elders. Without them, we would not be here.
Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas
Question of the Week: How do you honor your elders?
Prison-Industrial Complex
June 5, 2006
Black people are uniquely aware of the realities of prison. Disproportionately, Black and Latin men make up a large number of incarcerated individuals in the US. This is probably not news to anyone, but it cannot be stated enough. What was news to me, and may be news to some of you, is the number of US residents that are in jail right now. A study has shown that 1 out of 136 US residents is in jail. I’d like to talk about what this means to minority and majority populations, and why the madness that is our “justice system” must cease.
Some of you may be familiar with the Prison-Industrial Complex, the notion that there exist special interest groups that have lots to gain from putting more people into prison. This concept has been championed by many social leaders such as Angela Davis (a summary of her views is available here). The idea is similar to the Military-Industrial Complex, which was broadly introduced to most people in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s final Presidential Address, which similarly states that there exist special interest groups (e.g. Haliburton) that have plenty to gain from a state of perpetual war.
The Prison Policy Initiative has some interesting statistics on the demographics of US prisoners. The more interesting of the stats are below:
Number of White male prisoners per 100,000 U.S. males, 2000: 990
Number of African-American male prisoners per 100,000 U.S. males, 2000: 6,838
Percentage of U.S. population that is White 2000: 75.1%
Percentage of adults in state prison who are White, 1997: 33.3%
Percentage of U.S. population that is African-American, 2000: 12.3%
Percentage of adults in state prison who are African-American, 1997: 45.6%
What you’ll notice from these stats and others is that Black folks are a whole hell of a lot “better” represented in the prison system. Why is that? Is it because they, in absolute terms, commit more crime? Is it because they are predisposed to illegal behavior? Is it because they more often exist in conditions conducive to criminal behavior? Is it because racism plays a role in the incarceration rate? Is it something else?
The answer to the first two questions is an emphatic NO. If you disagree, please point me to some evidence to the contrary. As for the latter 3, the answer is: somewhat. My question, however, is this. Let’s say that I’m one of the parties (e.g. a builder of privately owned prisons) that will benefit from an increase in the US inmate population. As a businessman, I would probably want to attract patrons (read: prisoners) from as large a group as possible; I’d try to cast a wide net. What does that mean more specifically? It means that I would not try to go at minority populations to fill my prisons because there just are not enough of them!!! Even if I locked up every Black, Latin, Native American, East Asian, East Indian, or any other non-white man/woman/child in this country, there would be less of them than there are potential white inmates!!! So this begs a question as to what the agenda of the prison-industrial complex’s beneficiaries: Is their goal to make profits only, or is it to make profits while at the same time crippling minority populations by depleting them of their people?
Let’s think about this on a real basic level. If I want to hurt someone, do I injure the thing they value most, or the thing they value least? If I want to embarrass someone, do I expose something they care little about or something they care deeply about? It’s simple mathematics. Will I get more money if I stick my hand in the little jar or the big jar? So why is it that these special interests have consistently stuck their hands into the smaller jar? I say it’s because they are convinced that the worst thing that could possibly happen in this world is to have a viable, educated, employed minority population because that group might wake up one day and realize that they have been systematically excluded from things for a long, long time, and want to do something about that.
Do not confuse this piece as a litany of excuses for those who have committed crimes. What I am saying is that when trends like this are obvious and observable, we have to think that there is more going on than just a few ‘evil’ people encouraging negative behavior amongst many.
So what needs to change? What can we do? Basic things. Simple, small things.
For starters, let’s do our best to avoid stupid situations. Case in point, I got pulled over [again] last week for 3 over the speed limit on my way home from work (33 in a 30). My commute to work is less than 5 minutes when I drive, so I was really gaining nothing from my ’speeding.’ In situation like this, we need to be wise. Why invite the posssibility for ignorance?
We also need to watch each other’s back. There are a couple ways this can be done. When was the last time you asked an officer why they pulled somebody over? I did this, and you wouldn’t believe the response I got: the police officer left. Why, because he had pulled the guy over talking about he had a broken tail-light…that wasn’t broken. I inquired, and he bounced since he had no answer to my simple question. We need to stick up for one another people.
Another thing we can do is travel together. It is less likely that a squad car to harass a group of four than a group of two, a group of three than a single person. If at least one individual in the group is not ignorant, than there is more likely to be a political solution.
The most important thing we can do is refuse to accept ignorance in all of its forms. Share what you know. More importantly, share how you learned what you know. The foundation of all meaningful things is knowledge; spread it at every opportunity. In the car with the fam, on the phone with loved ones, at happy hour with colleagues, everywhere.
Give a man a thought and he’ll be able to repeat it. Teach a man to think and he’ll be able to teach others in the same way.
One Love. One II
Access to Higher Ed for H.S. dropouts
June 5, 2006
Many of us, who have matriculated through college and reaped the benefits thereof, are concerned that not enough of our peers have taken the advantages of gaining a higher education. This is especially troubling when you know of people who chose to drop out of high school because we all know how difficult it is to take care of yourself without a H.S. diploma. But if there was a way where you could go to college without graduating from high school, would you supportive or would you be skeptical? Karen Arenson of the New York Times tackles this issue and your answer might not be as straight-forward as you may think.
That’s right, “many colleges — public and private, two-year and four-year — will accept students who have not graduated from high school or earned equivalency degrees.” This seems like a win-win right? Schools collect on student loans and the students get a second chance to make things right. However, the growing interest in admitting those that have not graduated “is fueling a debate over whether the students should be in college at all and whether state financial aid should pay their way. In New York, the issue flared in a budget battle this spring.”
But to first put this issue in a national context,
So we are looking at an increase of roughly 8% points in eight years, which is more likely to grow in the future as more students become aware of this opportunity.
Supporters of this practice believe that because access to college is a critical factor in determining later success, students who do not have a H.S. diploma should therefore be allowed to attend to college. On the other hand, some say that this is just another form of social promotion and perhaps de-motivates students to do their best in high school.
But if the schools didn’t accept these students, they wouldn’t be able to go right? Of course, but you have to realize that like most things in life, this issue comes down to money. And as Arenson points out,
Now you know I had to look up the racial statistics for Interboro and I was so surprised to see that of the 2005-2006 class, 42.1% of the students were Black (non-Hispanic) and 41.8 were Hispanic (non-Black) bringing us to a (drumroll please) a student body that is over 80% Black and Hispanic. It is funny how people that want to abolish affirmative action in higher education tend focus their efforts on highly-selective institutions. But that’s a whole different post.
“At Interboro, the state recently found cheating by employees on the exam students have to pass to qualify for state and financial aid.” What’s that I hear, institutions of higher education mainly using Black and Brown people to get more money? “In the late 1980’s and early 90’s, federal investigators found many commercial colleges effectively sweeping unqualified students, many without high school credentials, from the streets into their classrooms to collect their financial aid. The students then dropped out and defaulted on their government loans.” The statistics show that even students that have some higher education do better financially than those that don’t, so who are both parties being pimped?
Either way, NY Governor George Pataki had enough of it has “tried to withdraw state tuition grants from students without high school diplomas this year. Mr. Pataki said the students should show their commitment to education and earn 24 college credits before the state gave them financial aid.” Of course, the federal government has all but walked out on financial aid by seeing to it that students expect loans more than they expect state grants and federal aid. Therefore, I think Pataki and the entrenched public school system should show their commitment to education so that all children have access to equal and quality education. It’s like you have kids going through horrible K-12 systems and then expect everything to honky dory once they graduate. So instead of washing our kids away when they graduate, let’s re-examine the K-12 experience so that students and parents have the confidence and the skills to do whatever they want in life.
Pataki agrees with me too, his spokesman, Scott Reif said this, “In too many cases, students fail to graduate from college because they were admitted to programs for which they were academically underprepared.” So if kids are unprepared, what is the point of dangling financial aid in front of students who you readily admit are often times academically underprepared. But instead of taking responsibility for our kid’s education, we blame it on the proverbial “they” that includes each and every one of us.
Getting back to Pataki, the New York State Legislature rejected the governor’s proposal and the state budget office estimated that it paid $29 million a year for 13,000 students who never graduated from high school to attend college. Now some would say that 29 million is a lot of money but in the grand scheme of things, it really is just a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend for health care and defense.
But that’s not really the point right? The goal is to keep open the doors of higher education so that once kids receive a quality K-12 education, the world is theirs for the taking. But does allowing students without a high school diploma attend college part of the solution or part of the problem. I admit I am on the fence but one idea I like is that “the government now requires that before students lacking high school credentials can qualify for financial aid, they have to pass a test approved by the federal Department of Education to show they have the “ability to benefit” from higher education.” Even though this may seem like another barrier, much like the ACT/SAT, I am afraid that without such parameters, students will lose some of the urgency in knowing that going through high school will greatly improve their chances for going to college.
Please let me know what you think because this post was very cathartic,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
What do you think Politics is?
June 5, 2006
Brandon started a great discussion on what Black thought is recently. It is a conversation worth having for a number of reasons, not limited to questions of self-identification (e.g. am I/am I not Black?), whether everyone’s input is welcome in every conversation (e.g. Black people speaking on issues that are not “Black-specific”), etc. What this really is, in my opinion, is a question of definition: how do we define Black? How do we define Thought? In the spirit of searching for definition, I would like to address another word/concept that individuals have raised with me: politics. Many people consider themselves “political,” while others shun that label. My question is, what do you mean when you say/use the term “politics?” Why is it that many are quick to say that they “hate politics?” Is this that they truly hate the notion, that they hate their interpretation, that they hate how it is practiced, or maybe something else? Politics is defined in many ways. When many people think of politics, they think of government. Indeed, a definition of politics is a “set of policies relating to governmental and legal matters.” However, I suggest taking a more broad view of the concept of politics. A more flexible, descriptive definition of politics would be “the practice of responding to conflict with dialogue.” Adopting this definition frees us up to interpret life as much more political than we could before. We all experience perpetual conflict, whether minor or major. Therefore, when there is a disagreement that is addressed and resolved through words, a political action is taking place. In my view, the only difference between politics and conversation is that the goal of politics should always be observable change and/or action as a result of the dialogue. Conversation, in general, may or may not have this aim. Government is one way that can be conducted. However, we are presented with political situations all the time, every day. With this approach, “hating politics” is effectively saying “I hate having conversations that end in changes to a situation.” When phrased in this manner, most would probably not hate politics. A problem is that many political systems, which I’ll refer to more specifically as governmental entities, are laced with corrupt individuals. The US government’s current leadership have many examples of this. In fact, in this country, I don’t think the problem was that we had a poorly designed system, but rather that the system was designed to purposely exclude certain groups of people from many rights (e.g. the right to vote) explicitly given to white, property-owning, men. The individuals were corrupt not because they were ignorant, but because they were selfish and prejudice. If they were ignorant or stupid, then the system would not have worked so well. Instead, they were smart enough to create something that still hurts the same sets of people they seeked to disenfranchise in the first place (women, Black people, Native Americans, poor people, etc.) Since this is true, we need to differentiate between not liking “politics” and not liking corrupt politicians. Again, if we consider politics to be conversations that lead to action & change, then a corrupt politician is nothing more than a person that is motivated to speak lies during conversation. When faced with a liar, we generally will move our conversation to someone that will not lie to us. We do not reject the notion of action-oriented conversing, and I am suggesting that we similarly not flatly reject the notion of politics. Why pose this question? Why do I not want people to “hate” politics? Well, for one, I am one of the strange one that actually enjoys the study of politics as practiced by governments and as practiced by individuals. More importantly, I want everyone, especially Black people, to not tune out any possible method of changing situations for the better. Perhaps if the connotation of politics was not one of lying rich people planning ways to increase their wealth and oppress the “have-nots,” then politics would not be something to be hated. Very few people hate conversation, especially not conversation focused on changing the status quo for the better. To me, that is what it means to be political. In the spirit of politics as action-focused conversation, The SuperSpade is a political entity. It is about understanding issues and current events in context, while at the same time understanding how these things impact us all and how we are all connected. It is about talking about things that need to be changed. It is about talking about how we can take action change situations ourselves, through things like mentoring and voting and organizing. I encourage everyone to continue to dialogue and to grow action from these conversations.
Seeking a deeper understanding of Black Thought
June 3, 2006
-You can’t lead where you won’t go and you can’t teach what you don’t know.
If you have read this site for any extended period of time, then you know that a vast majority of our posts site have nothing to do with Black people. With topics ranging from activist nerds to the environment, there is more than enough room for everyone to gleam from and add to this site, (regardless of their race/backgrounds) but something is still off.
Which is why I get confused when my non-Black people tell me they feel uncomfortable posting comments. So this got me thinking about what you the reader think of when you read our subtitle, “Black Thought at the Highest Level.” Do you expect opinions from primarily Black people on a wide range of issues or do you expect to encounter “Black-specific” articles or both? By Black-specific issues, I mean stories that involve either Black individuals or an analysis of how a certain issue affects the larger Black community.
Now if you are Black, I am interested in your answer because while there is no one Black way of thinking, I am interested in whether or not you think that “Black thought” is generally restricted to Black-specific issues or is it broader than that. And while this may seem like a pointless request, you should acknowledge that part of what made previous sacrifices for freedom and equality so effective was due to the fact that most Blacks, regardless of their socioeconomic factors, all lived in the same area. Therefore, it was very easy to appreciate shared interests and the need for everyone to sacrifice to make the world better for themselves and their children.
So now when you fast forward to today, you have Black folks engaged in what I call, Black-Flight. Similar to white-flight, Black-flight happens when Black folk move out of the city and into the suburbs. And like white-flight, some Black folks are in search for housing farther away from the suburbs because their previous majority-white suburb is now majority-Black. So this means we don’t go to the same churches like we used to, shop at the same grocery stores, and our children don’t go to the same school. This is not to say that the aforementioned are necessary for a healthy community, but it provided a strong foundation for many of the triumphs Black folks have made in this country. And that is why forums like these are so important so that we can maintain a tangible idea of what the community actually feels like.
However, if the Black community has wildly different ideas of what is considered Black thought, then how can we ever get on the same page? Just think of all the Black people who have ever typed into a search engine; Black thought or Black consciousness. What were people looking for? What were you looking for? I could probably guess right that you are one of those people and if so, then hopefully by now, you can appreciate the gravity my question entails.
Now if you are non-Black, I am interested in your answer because I wonder if your thinking is similar to the claim made by critics of Bill Cosby; such that Black issues should be dealt with in-house. So as a result, are non-Black people supposed to be barred from joining those types of discussions? I don’t think so. Therefore, if someone non-Black wants to post a comment on anything, I don’t ever want to see a disclaimer saying something to the effect of, “I’m not Black, but I would like permission to participate.” By doing that, you are undermining your own opinions and what is odd to me is that one-on-one conversations between Blacks and non-Blacks can be very fulfilling, so why is it that when we get in the public (via blogging and posting comments) folks act weird? We have to stop walking on egg shells around each other regardless of our fears/insecurities about race because as my pastor stated a couple weeks ago, “sometimes you just have to go afraid.”
Nevertheless, I don’t think Black thought can be restricted to just Black issues because we are limiting our own potential. Just look at our history. George Washington Carver is a famous Black scientist that pioneered a whole slew of products from peanuts. Now many of us would consider George Washington Carver’s success and ideas a part of Black thought right? So why is it that the Blacks you don’t see at the Black Student Union meetings because they are in the lab, are for the most part, not considered down with the cause? We don’t need everyone doing the same thing but this thinking still manifests itself in our community. However, if we were to truly take an inventory and appreciation of the diversity of achievements, ideas, and struggles in our own community, there would then be a truer realization of Black thought. And this beautiful Black diversity will allow us to more adequately navigate and gleam from non-Blacks in a way that not only empowers us, but those we come in contact with.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
The Weekly Dream: In search of Integrity
June 1, 2006
“Every man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?”
I have stated and alluded many times that inconsistent people are one of my biggest pet peeves. I have friends that I have known forever, but I refer to them as my “50-50 friends,” because whatever they say or any plans we might make, has a 50-50 chance of happening. For instance, I have a very good friend who always calls me to go out on the weekend to a lounge downtown. Normally, I would say yes and begin to get dressed. But after a few instances of not hearing from him, I learned quickly that he was one of these individuals. Now, I do not change my plans or my ideas when this individual calls. We are still friends, but I just deal with him on his level.
Rare Indeed
This may seem like a small instance, but Jesus “He who is faithful in that which is least, will also be faithful in that which is great.” This is the rarest type of integrity and discipline indeed. And it can only be cultivated by being consistent in everything. Take any great athlete, and you will find that one of the factors that separates him or her from the rest of the back is the consistency in performance. Whether it was the regular season or the championship, the greats always delivered great performances.
This is an area that everyone can use improvement. How you handle the small things reveals a lot about your character and credibility. Therefore, be careful about what you say to people and what you commit to. Because you might forget, but there is a good chance that the person you committed to will not.
I Can Change
How can we master the details? Well besides being more conscientious of our interactions with others, we need to get organized. I am a big list maker. If I do not write it down, I know I will forget something. Use a calendar, planner, whatever. Also, the setting of a deadline to follow up or perform the task will make it more real. Whatever method you decide to use, the key is to just do whatever it is you say you are going to do, no matter how small it may be. That way, when it is time to come through in a crunch, others will have no problem putting their money on you.
Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas
Question of the Week: How do you insure your consistency daily?
