Category Archives: Social

On this Day in 1964….

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On this day in 1964,  Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize.

MLK

Acceptance Speech Transcript,  Martin Luther King Jr.- December 10, 1964

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace …

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shallovercome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible – the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live – men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization – because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

… peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold

Source: Nobelprize.org

As the protests mount

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I have been thinking about this, and I believe that the fear and intimidation that the cops use on US is the same that they use on everyone else. they intimidate all parties into submission, because the last thing anyone wants is their dogs off the leash. Since there is no citizen oversight, because the citizens are scared of each other, they think that at least if we have the cops on our sides, then we can keep the blacks from getting us! they are our only defense! So blacks and browns and some no good whites get murdered because they cannot undermine the ability of the police to use the force they deem necessary in the field, because if they do, then we’ll get them and we are also putting the lives of cops in danger.

its total bovine feces. It makes me angry and it just goes to show how pathological this country is. Fear rules every decision that they make which is why they are so morally corrupt and bankrupt of any real value(s).

Shared Posts #1: The price of being Black and “OK”

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A friend of mine sent me an email with a link to this post and I had to share it! I believe it is powerful, thought provoking, beautiful, scary, and true. As an academic working at an institution that is considered to be “elite” within the state and has national prestige, I often question my worth, my work, my progress, and sense of belonging here on campus and within the “college town” community where I live. I also often wonder how what I am doing, or not doing for “my people” impacts black lives. Finally, in lieu of recent events in this country involving racial matters, I have been pondering the question “What is the price that we as Black people in America must pay in order to be ok?”

Please read, comment, and share!

Link: My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK

Thought of the Weekend

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Though people may make it difficult to get a good education, find a good job, and place many other obstacles between non-whites and success, they are not stopping anyone from doing anything.
No one is forcing kids to drop out of school, no one is forcing people to commit crimes. Perhaps what we should be thinking about is why are these such a popular choices?

Closing the “color” Gap in Public Schools: An open discussion

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How can we increase the population of minority public school educators and administrators in this country? Our schools are populated with students of color, but few educators of color to teach and lead them…. For more details on this alarming problem, see the following article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/student-teacher-demographics_n_5738888.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000595 Please feel free to provide comments.

 

The Mike Brown “Special”

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Are you disturbed yet? Are you really understanding what has been going on in our society for decades? Do you truly understand the social injustices that continue to occur? That we are NOT a “post-racial” society? That systems of power, privilege, and oppression are still in full force? Wake Up, Realize, Learn, Challenge the system, become a Change Agent!

Mike Brown Special

Police

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Police are like dogs. Their behavior is dependent on their masters. Who are the masters of the police? Their job is to protect and serve the wealthy and politically active and to enforce the will of those in power. Until they start murdering the rich or until minorities start to start to take a more political approach on the whole, this will only be an issue in which we are talking loud, but no one is actually listening. Discussion is great, but it needs to leads to action.

Return to segregation?

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In this (once again great) Frontline report, they examine the return to segregation in american schools:

Here in texas we have been watching the gradual change in the quality of education. Over the last 20 years, and even more recently it seems, even to a casual eye, that it is harder and harder to get a good education from a public school when you are in a large city. Inner city schools have not always been bad, but what is the reason that they are so poor these days, to the point where the middle class no longer believe in them, and those that are in them, feel stuck with them? What is it that make people believe that public schools aren’t even worth the effort in trying to save them?

An Open Discussion on Money & Racism in the US

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Rascism

 

 

 

 

money

Racism and Money are both topics that spur much dialogue, debate, research, controversy, and a plethora of emotions.

Although some people believe that we are now a “post racist” society, there are many who still believe that because of historical institutional contexts, racism still very well exists in today’s society.

Moving along to the subject of money,

even typing the phrase “money in America” into Google brings forth a wide array of topics, resources, and information from images of the US dollar, to articles on the use of money as a form of social control, to money and politics, and even wealth inequality in America.

So let’s once again combine the two concepts “Money and Racism.” When I first think of these two concepts together, my mind instantly tries to make a correlation between the two and prompts instant questions like: Is money one of the institutional ideologies that contribute to racism? Is money one of the major reasons for the proliferation of racism in America? How did money and racism contribute to the success and decline of slavery in America? Does racism play into the economic disparities among racial/ethnic groups in the US? Is money a system of social control that involves racism in some way?

Again, there are certainly opposing views and opinions about all of these questions. In my opinion, our capitalist society yields both positive and negative influences on our economic and social positions as a nation, and racism definitely plays into this. We cannot deny that there is economic disparity within this country that is directly tied to racism. We also cannot deny that there are systems of oppression in place that contribute to the disparity of wealth but also contribute to the inability for certain people to progress economically. This means that our ideal of capitalism that we hold so near and dear in society is tainted and distorted.

One thing I believe that we can and should do is discuss this issue in a civil manner. While I continue to explore the correlation between these two concepts, feel free to take a look at other viewpoints/sources of info. on the web and comment that I have provided below.

I believe this to be a fascinating topic of discussion that is long overdue on BBS. Will you contribute to the discussion? Your contributions are strongly encouraged!

  1. American Money: The Economic Origins or Racism from BET News :   http://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/02/05/american-money-the-economic-origins-of-racism.html
  2. Racism is About Money and Power: The Race Card Project : http://theracecardproject.com/racism-money-power/
  3. Racism Influences How People Deal with money: Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5795514/racism-influences-how-people-deal-with-money

Race and the New Economy

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This is an excellent read from Yes! magazine contributor Penn Loh: What’s the Role of Race in the New Economy Movement?

On a deeper level, race matters because the economy we currently have is deeply racialized. Race and racism are central to how the dominant economy functions, whom it serves, and who pays the costs of obscene wealth accumulation and environmental unsustainability. Race and class in the United States are inextricably intertwined, beginning with slavery and Native American genocide and continuing to this day with the struggle of immigrants. In short, how we live in and experience the economy differs drastically depending on our race and class.

I think that this is something that should surely be addressed because people of color have long been aware that they are ignored at the top and only are consequential when it serves the purpose of people who are already benefitting from the policies in place. Which is why many have no issue with resigning themselves from attempting to do better or insist on working outside of the common wisdom when it comes to finance.