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View From Here

David Mark Greaves
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View From Here

When the education of African-Americans was left in Black hands for the first generations out of slavery, there was an explosion of literacy and people were brought from having nothing to homeownership and self-employment exceeding their white counterparts. That was then according to Judge Albion Tourgee, speaking at The First Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question held at Lake Mohonk, NY, June 1890 (See Page 15).  These Black teachers, working with hand-me-down supplies, educated generations of “firsts” who pressed against racism’s ceilings and walls in all areas of life.

Now a system run by whites with white teachers finds the teaching of Black children a very challenging task. They have instituted various programs to get at the “problem.”   What they won’t do is look in the mirror. Research by Adam Wright, “Teachers’ Perceptions of Students’ Disruptive Behavior: The Effect of Racial Congruence and Consequences for School Suspension,” documents that “Black teachers are much less likely to find problems with Black students than white teachers are with the same students. The difference is enormous…For Black students, being matched with a Black teacher matters.” And this study is not alone. A recent headline in The Guardian reads, “Teachers’ implicit bias against Black students starts in preschool, study finds.” Science doesn’t just matter in climate change.

A shortage of Black male teachers?  One way to get them would be to pay a $50k signing bonus and wipe out student debt to qualifying candidates. And pay a professional wage. Watch how many change majors, finding that now they can make a living doing what they want to do, teach.   No money you say? A single Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $1.5 million. This past April 13, the Pentagon announced an overnight air strike that included 66 of the missiles. The money is there, it’s just being used to kill people and break things rather than the most important job of a nation, to care for its citizens.

These trillion-dollar wars are being waged based on the wealth stolen from African-Americans whose slave labor first powered this nation, and now the interest and appreciation on that labor is accruing to the same class that stole it in the first place.

Now Trump wants us to attribute the lack of African-Americans in the tech industry to Asian immigrants taking jobs that would and should go to Black folks.   They’re saying to join them in hating on Asians, rather than the real enemies: systemic racism, a tax code that exempts the rich and a starved education system whose avatar is the comically mindless and deeply evil Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The whole thing is obscene.

This is why elections matter. Why being counted in the census matters. Why gerrymandering and voter suppression matter. Why the grass-roots activists, the people on the ground who educate and rile the populace matter. It is in your collective will that the power to change the destiny of a people lie.

 

WHAT’S GOING ON

Victoria Horsford
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ON RACE

Just wanted to expand the Jarrett/Roseanne blog, its ramifications and Roseanne’s pink slip.     Checked Valerie’s biography and got the following, regarding the ire which she has aroused among right-wing American conservatives.    She was born in Iran on November 14, 1956 to African-American parents Barbara Bowman and Dr. James Bowman, MD, who headed a hospital in Iran. The young Valerie spoke Farsi, French and English fluently. Her family relocated to England when she was 5, about 10 years before their return to the United States. Jarrett’s early childhood background implies a closeness to Iranian culture. Oh, what a crazy world. Her background is red meat for conspiracy theorists, usually short on critical thinking and long on gullibility.

THE 2018 USA MIDTERMS

Congressman Keith Ellison announced on June 5, after six terms in Congress, that he will run for Minnesota’s Attorney General this year and is no longer interested in congressional reelection.   Ellison, 54, is an African-American Muslim who ran and lost the race for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016. He is in an uncomfortable relationship with Thomas Perez, who defeated him as DNC Chair. Perhaps the state contests are where we should focus our interests.

Seems like it’s a foregone conclusion that Tish James is Albany-bound and about half a dozen politicos eager to succeed her as NYC Public Advocate. Democratic insiders say that a Latino should man the position. Names bandied about include City Councilman Richie Torres, Bronx Boro President Ruben Diaz, Ydanis Rodriguez and erstwhile City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.  Non-Latinos who are potential Public Advocate contenders include Brooklyn Boro Prexy Eric Adams and NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray, who probably won’t run for public office until her husband completes his mayoral term.

BLACK ENTERPRISE

 Debra Lee, Chair/CEO of BET (Black Entertainment Television), exits the company after 30 years. Lee started as a BET attorney who became Chair/President/CEO after BET was sold to Viacom for about $3 billion. Last December, Viacom announced that Scott Mills was named BET President.

 The Doleys, owners of the historic Madame CJ Walker Mansion, have scheduled an estate sale on June 15/16 at Villa Lewaro, located at 67 North Broadway, Irvington, NY. Contents of the sprawling 30-room mansion includes centuries-old antiques, fine art – American, European and African – and assorted memorabilia are among the sale items.   Built by Madame Walker, America’s first self- made woman entrepreneur and millionaire in 1918, the mansion is called Villa Lewaro. An African-American philanthropist, Madame Walker made her fortune manufacturing hair care products for Black women. For more info, call 914.255.5776.

THE ARTS/CULTURE/HISTORY

International literary cognoscenti will want to read the June 4-11 New Yorker magazine profile by Larissa MacFarquhar. “Writing Home” and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s “Global Fame” and learn about her life since our last bond with her while reading her novel AMERICANAH or viewing her in a TED talk.     Chimamanda battles bouts of depression between writing, married a Nigerian medical doctor, is a mother of a 2-year-old daughter.  She and her husband commute between Lagos and Maryland year-round. An Igbo, she is probably Africa’s second-most widely read literary lion, the first being fellow Igbo Chinua Achebe, who wrote a blurb for one of her books.    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s other novels are HALF A YELLOW MOON and PURPLE HIBISCUS.

Kamoinge presents BLACK WOMEN: POWER AND GRACE at the Gregg Galleries housed at the National Arts Club, located at 15 Gramercy Park South, Manhattan, from May 28 to June 30. Founded in Harlem in 1963, the Kamoinge Collective is a group of African-American fine arts photographers who document the Black experience: family life, arts and politics. Some Kamoinge members include Tony Barboza, Adger Cowans, Ming Smith, June DeLairre and Russell Frederick. The exhibit includes works by photogs such as Delphine Fawunda, Laylah Amatullah and Lola Flash.   For more info contact Russell Frederick at Lamoinge.russell@gmail.com.

Theater and film buffs and enthusiastics alike will succumb to the excellent documentary film “King of Stage, The Woodie King, Jr. Story,” which will be screened at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem, located at 258 St. Nicholas Avenue at 123rd Street, on June 18 at 7 pm.     Woodie King is the theater and film impresario who founded the New Federal Theatre, and who has produced more than 300 productions, on and off-Broadway, during close to 50 seasons.   “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow was Enuf,” “Checkmates” and “What the Winesellers Buy” are among King’s theater classics.  [Visit newfederaltheatre.com]

CARIBBEAN-AMERICANS

Sherrilyn Ifill

June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month.   The following is a truncated list of Caribbean-Americans and their vocation areas…. Doctors: John Mitchell, MD; Edgar Mandeville, MD; Cheryl Smith, MD; Lawyers: Eric Holder, former US Attorney General; Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Sherrilyn Ifill; Ernest Perodin; Afua Mensah; Michele Rodney; Democratic National Committee Chair Thomas Perez; Nathanuel Wright; Clergy-Politicos: Rev. Dr. Michael Walrond, First Corinthian Baptist Church; Jacques DeGraff, Canaan Baptist Church; Rev. A.R. Bernard, Sr., Christian Cultural Center; Real Estate: Apex Building Corp., Robert Horsford; Edward Sisters Realty, Ramona Grey-Harris, Russell Grey and Aden Seraile; Yvonne Stafford; Al Cunningham; Karen Soltau-Tridez, Frank Hernandez, BOS Development. Beatrice Sibbles, Michael Williams, Carthage Advisors; Eddie Poteat; Political cognoscenti: NYC Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie; Bronx Boro Prexy Ruben Diaz, Jr.; Congress: Yvette Clarke, Mia Love and Adriano Espaillat; US Senate, Kamilah Harris,   NYS Senator Brian Benjamin; Keith Wright and Basil Smikle; NYC Council members Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez; Chirlane McCray, First Lady of NYC, former NYS Governor David Paterson, former Congressman Charles Rangel, Celeste Morris and Cordell Cleare; Entrepreneurs: Alyah Horsford-Sidberry; Laurent Delly, IT Executive; Roy Miller, Maria Granville, Madisyn Consulting, IT.

David Patterson

The Class of 2018:   Congratulation to three Antiguan-Americans on the occasion of their graduation.   New Yorker Alean Celine Hepburn, a physics major and Japanese minor, earned her bachelor’s degree last week from Lehman College…. New York HS senior Naomi Horsford graduates from Marymount HS and will attend Washington University in September…….. Her cousin, Virginia-based Michael Horsford, begins his freshman year at Morgan State University, an HBCU.

The West Indian-American Day Carnival Association, the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Caribbean Tourism Organization and the Transport Workers Local 100 presents NY Eats Caribbean Restaurant Week from June 17- 24 when participating restaurants in Brooklyn, Harlem and Queens offer prix fixe Caribbean menus and specials.   Hashtag # EatCaribbeanNYC. 

JUNE PLEASURES

The Office of Brooklyn Boro President Eric Adams will co-host “Embrace Your Hyphen” event at their Caribbean-American Heritage Celebration on June 27 from 12 noon to 9 pm at Brooklyn Boro Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn.  Day unfolds with Caribbean Cultural Marketplace on the Plaza at noon, followed by a Symposium at 2 pm, followed by A Taste of Caribbean Cuisine, a Concert on the Plaza and an Art Exhibition. For event details, go to Brooklyn-usa.org/Caribbean-American.

The 10th Annual Dr. Barbara Ann Teer Spirit Awards will be held on June 13 where artists, activists and game changers gain recognition. The 2018 Teer   Honorees are Kenneth Knuckles, former UMEZ CEO; actress/director Barbara Montgomery; Van Jones; actor Brandon Victor Dixon; artist/scholar Ebony Knoelle Golden; and poet Adiobun Oyewole. [Visit nationalblacktheatre.org. or call 212.722.3800]

June is GUN AWARENESS MONTH.   The National Action Network, NY; Anti-Violence and Political Action Committees will co-host FIFTH SATURDAY SILENCE THE VIOLENCE FORUM at the House of Justice, located at 106 West 145th Street in the Village of Harlem, Rev. Sharpton’s NAN Headquarters.   [Call 212.690.3070]

 A Harlem-based management consultant, Victoria can be reached at Victoria.horsford@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Schools: A Tribute to Grace

Editor, Our Time Press
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The Schools: A Tribute to Grace

In last week’s issue, the introduction to an essay requested by the Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford Stuyvesant, Inc. for publication in Our Time Press was printed in its first-draft state. Our Time Press apologizes for the error. What follows is the piece as originally submitted.

 

By: Ms. Cheryl Ault-Barker – Principal, PS 81/Thaddeus Stevens

It was a beautiful sunny day on April 2, 2018 at about 1:30 pm as I scurried to one of the classrooms to help a scholar in crisis.

On the way to the classroom, I was greeted with a beautiful smile from Bernice Green, whom the Parent Coordinator, Ms. Norton, introduced as the representative of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc., donor of a magnolia tree that our kindergartens would add to our school’s garden.

When I heard the name Green, I inquired from Bernice if she had a sister by the name of Grace. I learned that Grace, known as Gracie, was her sister. I shared how grateful I was for the legacy and impact that Gracie had etched here at Thaddeus Stevens PS 81.

Not only was Gracie a straight shooter when it came to making her point, but she encouraged parents to come into the school, volunteer and become involved in their children’s education.

She reminded parents and families that they should not only show up when there was a crisis but also become actively involved in the decision-making and governance of the school.

As past PTA President, Gracie motivated parents to become “Learning Leaders” and to support their student’s learning. Gracie also had her son, Ralph, who is an amputee athlete and Olympics competitor, come and share key strategies and habits of mind with our scholars to help them to accomplish their goals. Her son also shared how he overcame his disability and is very successful at what he does. What an eye-opener for our scholars? This motivational event was one of the highlights of our school year.

Our Learning Leader population increased under Gracie’s leadership. Gracie was a no-nonsense person and knew exactly when it was time to take action to engage the external school community.

As a result of Gracie’s commitment, enthusiasm and fervor, we continue to have dedicated volunteers at PS 81.

In honor of Gracie’s tireless labors of love, we named and dedicated the magnolia sapling after her, on the morning of Friday, May 4, with nearly 100 people in attendance.

Thinker’s Notebook: This is Only A Test

Marlon Rice
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Thinker’s Notebook: This is Only A Test

I graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1992. Here is how I got into the school.

I attended Concord Elementary School, a parochial school that was housed inside of Concord Baptist Church in Bed-Stuy. I excelled in elementary school, so much so that I skipped the 5th grade, taking courses during the summer after 4th grade so that in the fall of 1985 I went straight into 6th grade. My mom applied for me to go into one of the “gifted and talented” junior high school programs in Brooklyn. I was accepted into Satellite East JHS. In Satellite East, our teachers and our Principal Mrs. Katherine Corbett stressed the importance of our future. Education was more than just regurgitating a force-fed curriculum. At Satellite East, we were made to feel that the future mattered, our future mattered. This included our choices for high school.

The Specialized High School examination was mandatory for all Satellite East 8th-graders. We had to take it. We knew we had to take it from the time we were in 7th grade. We knew the stakes involved, acceptance into one of the top 3 schools in the city – Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School. We were inspired and motivated to take that test. I remember studying for it at home with my mother. I remember taking practice exams. I remember the importance of it all. I took the test. Based on my score, I was accepted to Brooklyn Tech and I was put on Bronx High School of Science’s waiting list. I started Brooklyn Tech in the fall of 1988.

This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to diversify the city’s eight Specialized High Schools. Part of his plan would be to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). Immediately following this announcement, Asian-American groups came out in protest, condemning the plan as being motivated by racism. Although Asian-Americans make up only 16% of all public school students, they received 52% of the Specialized High School seat offers last year. Conversely, Blacks and Latinos received just 10% of the Specialized High School seat offers last year, even though they make up 67% of all public school students.

To truly understand why the numbers seem so disparaging, there are a myriad of issues that need to be fleshed out. For example, the test itself isn’t discussed in many of our city’s junior high schools. Yes, the test is available to anyone who wishes to register to one of the Specialized High Schools, however, many of our children are unfortunately being educated in schools that never even discuss the test and certainly don’t offer the opportunity for them to take it. A couple of years ago, I sat in a meeting with a few Black students from Brooklyn Tech that started the hashtag #blackinbrooklyntech. One student told me that when he was in junior high school his guidance counselor told him that he should feel lucky to be taking the SHSAT, because taking that test is a luxury. It is not a luxury though. Back in the late 80’s, our junior high schools citywide allotted for that test. As a result, a school like Brooklyn Technical was 35% Black in 1990. Today, it’s only 7% Black.

Making the test mandatory for all junior high school students would be a step in the right direction, but it would be pointless to do so unless those junior high schools worked to prepare their students for the exam. This would go a long way in leveling the playing field by offering every 8th-grader in the city an opportunity for them to study for and take the exam. Asian-Americans are currently represented in such high numbers in Specialized High Schools because they use the test as a way to put themselves in a position to be successful. They know about the test. They prepare for it and they take it. There is no trick to it, they simply view the test as a mandatory part of the educational process.

The correct answer in this issue is to make the SHSAT a mandatory citywide exam, and to hold the junior high schools accountable for preparing students to take the exam. That’s what worked for me. I didn’t spend thousands of dollars on Kaplan prep courses to take the test. My junior high school prepared me. My mother prepared me. Our children don’t need affirmative action-type policies to excel. They only need our educational system to do its job. The SHSAT shouldn’t be stigmatized as this great divide between the haves and the have-nots. It’s only a test.

Alice Marie Johnson Joins Kemba Smith in Clemency

Maitefa Angaza
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Alice Marie Johnson Joins Kemba Smith in Clemency

Alice Marie Johnson will breathe free and will be held in the arms of her family members at long last. The President commuted her life sentence today after speculation that he might do so at the urging of Kim Kardashian West, who visited him in the White House a few days ago. The 63-year-old great-grandmother had been in prison for 21 years, convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking in Memphis, Tennessee. She was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole when 10 of her co-defendants in the drug ring testified against her in exchange for reduced sentences.

Alice Marie Johnson

Although this was her first offense and a nonviolent one and she says her involvement amounted to relaying messages for drug buys on the phone. Johnson says she was depressed and in financial crisis. She’d gotten divorced, lost her job due to a gambling addiction, and then her son died in a motorcycle accident.

“I felt like a failure…” said Johnson. “I went into a complete panic and out of desperation, I made one of the worst decisions of my life to make some quick money.”

The world came to know of Johnson’s case when West, who was moved and disturbed by learning of it, made the issue her crusade. West visited the White House on Johnson’s birthday to speak with Donald Trump about prison reform and to ask for clemency for Johnson. The public was not apprised of the content of that conversation, and some questioned how much Kardashian actually knows about the subject. Most people, however, seemed appreciative of her using her celebrity to do whatever she can to assist.

Kardashian’s attorney, Shawn Holley said that her client asked last winter to find a way that she could help Johnson. Since that time, they have met with Johnson and with her attorneys. One positive result has been the enormous increase in awareness of Johnson’s case as curious people of all persuasions have joined Kardashian West’s fan base in searching for information about the campaign.

Smith is said to have been a model inmate and the former warden at the prison wrote a letter on her behalf, which was scheduled to be given to Trump. The President had made no indication of his thinking, but said he was reviewing the case. He’d recently pardoned convicted felon and perceived race-baiter Dinesh D’Souza, as well as Joe Araio and Scooter Libby, all of which stirred controversy.

Meanwhile, Trump wants the death penalty for people like Johnson. At a press conference in March, he said, “If we don’t get tough on drug dealers, we’re wasting our time. And that toughness includes the death penalty.”

Kemba Smith has been speaking up and out loud for Alice Marie Johnson for some time. She joins those who commend Kim Kardashian West for championing Johnson’s case because she knows firsthand, what it’s like to be imprisoned for decades on a drug charge. Smith has been campaigning for prison reform since her release 17 years ago. Her book, Poster Child: the Kemba Smith Story, bears the subtitle, “It was easy falling in love with a drug dealer. The hard part was paying for his crimes.”

Smith was convicted on a crack cocaine drug charge and sentenced to nearly 25 years in federal prison. She was a 19 years old college student seven months pregnant by Peter Hall and says she didn’t know he was a drug kingpin on the FBI’s 15 Most Wanted list. She says Hall physically abused her and threatened her when she tried to leave him. When he was found murdered the government charged the drugs found in the residence as hers as well. She was sentenced under the then mandatory minimum statutes and would have languished in prison for decades.

In December of 2000, President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence after six-and-half years, however. Since being released she has been on a mission of service and advocacy, starting a foundation for children, and lobbying elected officials to assist in her cause.

In addressing college students, she reminds them of the need for their active participation.

“People organized in churches, signed petitions all across the country,” she said in one address. “We need to fight on that kind of national level again, just like the Deltas, the Links, the National Council of Negro Women. Those organization presidents came inside the prison to visit me to let me know they were going to make sure my case saw justice as well, But I need… the sororities and fraternities to speak up on this issue!”

Smith is on a mission to make her life in freedom mean something. She went back to school and has many accomplishments. Among the most meaningful are likely the invitations she accepted to address the U.N. and to speak at the White House and on the floor of Congress. She was also appointed as member of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. She hopes to help make change there and across the nation. She praises President Obama’s promise, although he did not provide Johnson justice, delayed though it would have been. Johnson’s attorneys had appealed to President Obama for clemency three times, and though he pardoned 231 people at the end of 2016, and although she fit the criteria for clemency, she was denied.

“In President Obama’s era, he actually invited formerly incarcerated individuals in the White House to have a conference and the day before he invited individuals who had been commuted by former presidents… I would invite President Trump to do the same thing, because I think once you hear people’s stories, people coming out of prison, want to do better. So we really need to reevaluate this issue of incarceration in our country.”

 

 

 

 

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