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Never Forget Part 6

David Mark Greaves
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Never Forget

Part 6

Africans in the Millennia

(Reprinted from December Our Time Press 1999 issue A Millennial Look at African America.)

Preventing Slow-Motion Genocide
After a long and successful period of mis-education, now there is a de-education. When someone is mis-educated, they are still useful to society, and can be productive in a number of capacities. When the person is
de-educated, it’s assumed that they will only be needed, if at all, in the most basic areas.  This is what is taking place in our public school systems today. This is not to disparage the many dedicated and caring people in the school system, we mean the system itself; the class sizes, the number of uncertified teachers in African-American communities, the constant comparative lack of resources in Black communities.

There is a lot of interest in the immigration boom, but not much notice of the African-American economic support that makes it possible. Many of these immigrants. own the businesses in our communities that we could own ourselves. The grocery stores, newsstands, gasoline stations, food wholesaling, and all the other jobs and
services a community runs on. A bicycle ride through the Hasidic community in Williamsburg is very instructive. You’ll find commercial strips with no chain stores. Only small shops, owned and patronized by the Hasidem. No Gap, Burger King, Old Navy or Tommy. The young people coming out of school have been shielded from the material push of the corporate media. They are· not adorned with makeup and brand names.
No quarter waters, walk men, beepers or phones. These are people on a national mission of survival. They don’t have time for the foolishness of society, except to offer it for sale to others. These are lessons that African- Americans should pay close attention to.

Africans Worldwide, Trading Together

The African Continent is the natural trading partner of an Africans-in-America nation state-of-mind. Africans from the continent live in New York’s African-American and Caribbean communities. We enjoy each other’s cultures. We are family. Africans on the continent and in the Caribbean have commanding percentages of the world’s natural resources. African Americans are some of the most trained people on earth, reportedly earning upwards of $500 billion dollar a year. A new transatlantic black trade route, by sea and cyber, is the only way to provide the foundation to en sure the meaningful presence of African people when the coming millennium closes.

Instead of DeBeers, there should be an Olatunji/Johnson Mining Corp. with North American Headquarters on Fulton Street, in the African Diamond district. This is a Pan-Africanist future. It is a future that is not in the planning of the World Trade Organization. It is a future African people will have to work for themselves.

This is necessary not just for Africans, but for all the people of the world. Because the enemy is both white supremacy and capitalist pressures, with their potential voting power, African-Americans are uniquely positioned to politically temper the most inhumane aspects of U.S. foreign and national politics.

Into the Millennium

As Africans -in-the-Americas head into the millennium the question is will we revive that spirit embodied in the stone heads of San Venta? When asked about prospects in the Millennium, New York State Comptroller Carl McCall, in an interview to be published in our January 2000 issue, said “I think there’s three things we’ve got to move on. One is education, we have to focus on the educational system to make sure our children get a quality education to be prepared for the next millennium, where the requirements for getting a job and keeping a job are going to be tougher than you or I have ever experienced. We are entering an era of global competition and a technology revolution … We’ve got to make sure we have a first class education. The second thing is have to focus on the economy. We’ve got to become players, full participants in the economy. We do this by having our own businesses, having access to capital, by supporting our own businesses so that we have jobs and real financial power. The third thing we have to use is our political power, because it is political power that makes those other two things happen.
“People must register, they must vote, and they should support candidates not on the basis of what they look like, but on the basis of who’s going to deliver for the community. If we use our political power we can improve the educational system and we can become participants in the economy. So those are the three things I think we need to do to approach the next millennium.”

Civilizations rise and fall, leaving behind evidence of their passing. Other civilizations have left pyramids, obelisks, mask, and symbols of deities as signs of the human spirit. What will be the lasting signs of the civilization that has evolved here in North America? A look at American history sees a society founded in theft of land and theft of labor and the blood and death necessary to achieve both. Thus founded, the only thing it leaves behind for certain are chemicals and radiation that permeate the environment causing cancers for generations and radioactive sites that will remain dangerous for the next several hundred thousand years. But in that full expanse of time, what African-Americans do not want, is to leave behind any more of our blood on their hands.

In·1998 a United Nations Report, as reported in the New York Times, said that “AIDS is cutting the life expectancy in many African countries and will effectively reduce their populations within the next 10 years to 15 years.” As we look at the statistics for death, impoverishment and de-education in African communities at home and abroad, we cannot believe that somehow it’s just gonna be all right. We cannot put our faith in individual success stories and material things. Not while vast amounts of African potential is being destroyed daily by white supremacist/capitalist pressures.

There must be a racially conscious counter-force, or the race, over time, will simply fade away.
There are neighborhoods in Brooklyn now, where African and Hispanic Americans are being pushed out by those quiet beneficiaries of white supremacy; nice people, nice families, snug in their denial of, or satisfaction with, what is happening in the world around them.

How do we counteract a white supremacist consciousness? In his interview, Professor Clarke told us,
“We counteract it by getting closer to our children. By talking to them. Someone asked me the same question one time when I was out lecturing and I gave them a true answer and I still believe it. Break all the TV’s and bum all the bibles.  Maybe you’ll get their attention.”

As for Black folks into the Millennium, Dr. Clarke said, “If Black people don’t unite and begin to support themselves, their communities and their families, they might as well begin to go out of business as a people. Nobody’s going to have any mercy. And nobody’s going to have any compunction about making slaves out of them.”

Research Sources

John Henrik Clarke, November 1996; Horace Campbell, May -July 1997; Dark Alliance, by Gary Webb; “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia.” by Al McCoy; The Weeksville Society, Weeksville Then & Now; They Came Before Columbus, African Presence in Early America‘ Ulrich Phillips, American Negro Slavery; United States Census,
General Population Statistics. I 790- 1990; The American Heritage History of American Business & Industry by Alex
Groner and the Editors of American Heritage and Business Week. 1972; (MAl) Friends of the Earth, (MAl) Third World Network, Joy Leary- June & July 1999, Dr. Amos Wilson August 1999; Black Reconstruction, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois;

Village Voice, World Trade War, Nov. 30, 1999 . *Dr. Amos Wilson excerpt is from “AFRIKAN CENTERED CONSCIOUSNESS VERSUS THE NEW WORLD ORDER‘ Garveyism in the Age of Globalism.” scheduled for
release December 15. 1999. For more information, call Afrikan World Infosystems 718./62–1830.)

 

(The Never Forget series is derived from articles which have appeared in Our Time Press and that were reprinted in the writing of the December 1999 issue A Millennial Look at African America.)

Parts 1-4 are available at www.ourtimeathome.com

 

 

 

Hoffman and Oquendo: Murders in Black and White

Stephen Witt
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By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

 

This past Sunday, Philip Seymour Hoffman, an Oscar-winning, white actor was found dead in his Greenwich Village apartment of an alleged, heroin overdose on this past Sunday.  In other words, “Hoffman killed himself”.  On the other hand, Avonte Oquendo, an autistic, Latino student in the care and custody of New York’s public school system went missing in October 2013.  Parts of his body were found on or about January 17, 2014.  His murderer is still possibly employed by the NYC Department of Education which has mayoral control of our children.

 

Since Blacks and Latinos, under the U.S. Constitution, are considered only “three-fifths of a person” and their blood is cheap under the “one ounce” rule, the police summarily ended its missing child investigation on the discovery of Oquendo’s body parts.  This is evidence of a heinous crime.

 

On the other hand, the investigation concerning the circumstances of Hoffman’s death commenced on this past Sunday as is prescribed by Article 190 of the Criminal Procedure Law.  The police are interested in identifying the supplier of any drugs to Hoffman.  There is the possibility of a felony-murder charge and there is a continuing, ongoing, criminal, investigation.

 

Since Black parents are not only unaware of their rights but they also erroneously believe the dictum of Chief Justice Roger Taney of Dred Scott when he said:  “No Negroes have any rights that whites are bound to respect”, no Black parent has demanded a grand jury investigation into the murder of Avonte Oquendo or a grand jury report recommending appropriate legislation.  We have nothing to die for; therefore, we have nothing to live for.  In New York City, Black parents have been disfranchised.

 

In the Hoffman case, at the outset, the NYPD is looking for at least one suspect or a middleman.  The intention is to employ this evidence to initiate a criminal prosecution.  It is believed that this is a suspect perpetrating a white on white crime.  The badly-mutilated body of Oquendo is reminiscent of the death of Emmett Till, a Black teenager murdered by white racists in Mississippi.

 

Since it is widely-believed that any murderer of Oquendo is a white person, there is no need for a grand jury investigation because New York’s judicial system is “infested with racism”.   It has been my experience that law enforcement agencies need a “cold trail” before it initiates a grand jury investigation when the suspect is white.   The agencies need time in order for the suspect to get far ahead of the posse.

 

If Blacks and Latinos enjoyed political representation, their political representatives would already be considering legislation for the degree of care necessary for the protection of our children.  A grand jury can not only initiate a criminal investigation but also recommend remedial legislation.  A grand jury may also recommend a grand jury report.  Avonte Law, by Congress, will not do the “trick”.

 

For the first time in New York’s history, Blacks, in the Freedom Party, have been given the assignment of fashioning a legislative agenda from a legislative memorandum and a legal memorandum.  It is very important for a political party to acquire legal literature to combat “unjust laws”.  Otherwise, rental space for a political party without a law library is only a “political front”.

 

Velma Johnson Passes

Editor, Our Time Press
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Velma Johnson Passes

Lover of life, trailblazing business owner, artist, designer, civic and community activist, world traveler, mother and grandmother.

 

Velma Johnson was all of these and more.  When she walked into a room dressed her indelible style people knew they were meeting someone with creativity and imagination.  Her presence emanated joy, beauty, and laughter. There was always something about her that excited, charmed and inspired everyone she met.

 

She began her extraordinary life journey on December 23rd 1929 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania- a small town outside Philadelphia where she lived until she was three years old.  Yet, you could say that her life truly began when she moved to New York on 99th Street in Manhattan.  That’s when she developed an interest in art. At the age of seven, she’d walk across Central Park by herself to visit The Museum of the City of New York.  She was transfixed by the fashions, art and history she experienced there.

 

At Tilden High School, guidance counselors told Velma that being a nurse of dietician was the best she could do.  They only saw a young black girl – they never saw the artist. So she enrolled part-time in Brooklyn College while she worked as a dietician in hospitals across the city.  Velma knew she was capable of more.

 

Velma left the food services in the early 1950’s behind and went to work as a secretary on Wall Street for Western Union as one of the first black women secretaries.  She developed many life-long friendships with other black women she met there.

 

In 1952, she met Leroy Johnson and they married in 1954.  Lee was from Harlem and, as Velma told the story, there was “an aura of light around his head”.  She knew he was “the one”.   They danced and partied their way through the early years of the their marriage until their son Chris was born in Flushing, Queens.  A daughter, Walis, came two years later. While raising her family, Velma finally got her bachelor’s degree in Art at Queens College.  She worked part-time for the magazine 1001 Decorating Ideas and other publications of the time.  A sixties-style aluminum foil mini dress was one of many fashion and decorating ideas shown on a local television show featuring her designs.

 

Always, ahead of their time, Velma and Lee moved to Brooklyn way before it was fashionable and “cool”.  Listening to her laugh about those early days was delightful.  Lee didn’t quite know what he was getting into – he just thought it was one of Velma’s wacky plans.   But he went along, inspired by Velma’s passion for creating something from nothing.  Pretty soon renovating the brownstone on St. James Place became a lifelong passion for the family.

 

Living in Clinton Hill ignited her involvement community activism.  She loved Brooklyn!  Within a year after moving into the house she singlehandedly saved the brownstone next door from the “urban renewal” wrecking ball by circulating a petition that won the house a reprieve.  The beautiful block we have today is because of her courage to fight and speak to power.  She served on the board of PACC – Pratt Area Community Council — organizing the very first PACC Clinton Hill House Tour and large community fairs and block parties.  In the early 1970’s, she founded the Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus – a group that still performs today, and spearheaded the development of the Clinton Hill Society.  She fought for services like the Clinton Hill library on Washington Avenue and neighborhood beautification projects like flowers and trees, the community garden on Dekalb Avenue, and, more recently, the little iron fences that surround the trees on St. James Place.

 

In 1972,Velma opened Studio 14A Boutique in the basement of her family’s brownstone.  It began as a project to raise money for a new kitchen, but quickly turned into something more. She sold crafts and designs from Design Works of Bedford Stuyvesant — a favorite project of Jackie Onassis — and featured the work of local artists.  Crafts later evolved into fashion as she started selling unique boutique-wear to fashion conscious Brooklyn women.

 

It was all about the clothes: the color, style and pattern and how it all came together on a woman’s body.  When people stepped into Studio 14A, they came out transformed.  She sold clothes that lasted.  Even today women remember what they bought from the boutique and how much fun they had. Studio 14A thrived until Velma retired in 1997 after 25 years in business.

 

Retirement brought a whirlwind of travel, home renovations, parties, grandchildren and community recognition for all of her accomplishments and achievements. Velma received citations from the New York City Council, Fort Greene Association, St. James Block Association, Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Churches and Sororities.  She was widely recognized as a black business icon – a woman of courage, style and stature — a mentor for black business people throughout the community.

 

Velma loved life and living well.  She liked to celebrate — she was always the life of the party- any party, wherever it was.  In 2003, at age 70, Velma was featured in Essence Magazine’s in its annual Ageless Beauty Edition.  The picture shows her doing Tai Chi with grace and serenity.

 

She had the energy of 10 people in one! She had so much love, so much talent, so much energy and courage, so much style, so much LIFE!   She is remembered as a fierce, independent spirit — a personality who spoke her mind and radiated light, warmth and wisdom.

 

Memories of Velma live in on in the hearts of her children, grandchildren, daughter-in-law, a worldwide community of acquaintances, customers and dear friends.

 

Velma did life her way and for that she is admired and forever missed.

 

 

 

State Lawmakers Call for Halt of Common Core for Two Years

Stephen Witt
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Say rollout for new national education

standards is deeply flawed

 

 

By Stephen Witt

The state legislature this week called for a two-year moratorium for using Common Core-aligned test scores to evaluate educators and affect student placement decisions.

In a rare bipartisan vote, both Democrats in the assembly and Republicans in the senate said while they support higher learning standards, the urgency and confusion behind the Common Core rollout left schools, educators and students scrambling to find resources and other tools to teach the new standards.

“Though we as a conference agree with the need for the Common Core standard, it is critical for us to implement it correctly the first time through. Given the various concerns we have received from parents and educators across our state, we feel it is appropriate to wait until we can collectively collaborate on the best way to roll out this program in New York State. I look forward to working with Governor Cuomo and my counterparts in the state Senate to improve our schools, while doing right by our students and teachers,” said Assemblyman Walter Mosley

Under the national Common Core initiative, 45 states including New York, signed on to share the same standards and much of the same curriculum, textbooks, lesson plans and assessments. The standards, which include the subjects of English, language arts and math, were written in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts for students to be fully prepared for the future and to compete in the global economy.

Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York State Education Commissioner Dr. John King support the initiative.

“Common Core addresses the mismatch in K-through-12 between what is taught and what is needed in today’s marketplace,” said King at a forum last year in Harlem, noting that 80 percent of CUNY junior college students have to take remedial high school courses at college prices.

While most charter school networks have lauded Common Core standards, many public school teachers and parents have lamented that the Common Core curriculum focuses only on core subjects and gives students less access to art, music and a more well-rounded education.

It also has subjected the youngest students in elementary schools to testing. Due to the rollout last year, thousands of students didn’t pass initial tests and this was put on their permanent records – a point not lost on the city’s teachers union, which has called on a three-year moratorium.

“Parents, principals and teachers spoke in one voice about how their children have suffered because of this grossly mishandled roll-out of the Common Core standards,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew in a statement. ”We gave our kids tests, and only after our children failed — and after that failure became part of our students’ permanent records — did anyone even think about getting teachers the curriculum and materials they need to help their students succeed.”

Cuomo acknowledged problems with the Common Core rollout, but called the moratorium premature.

“Governor Cuomo believes that the best long term economic development strategy is ensuring New York State has the strongest possible education system,” Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa Derosa said in a statement following Tuesday’s vote. “Common Core is an issue about which there has been a lot of dialogue. The Governor believes that we need to set real standards for our students and have a meaningful teacher evaluation system, and continues to support the Common Core agenda.”

The city’s Department of Education (DOE) did not respond to the vote at press time.

City set to install slow zone in Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy

Stephen Witt
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DOT claims reduction in speed limit and

speed bumps will thwart crashes

 

By Stephen Witt

The city’s proposal to install a Neighborhood Slow Zone that straddles Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant has hit a speed bump.

Under the Department of Transportation (DOT) plan, the speed limit in a large rectangular area bounded by Bedford Avenue to the east, Washington Avenue to the west, Lafayette Avenue to the north and Fulton Street to the south will be reduced from 30 to 20 miles an hour to adjust driver behavior on local streets. The major thoroughfare running through the center of the zone is the two-way Gates Avenue, on which the highly utilized B52 bus runs.

The goal of the Neighborhood Slow Zone program, which is a holdover of the Bloomberg Administration, is to lower the incidence and severity of crashes and to enhance quality of life by reducing cut-through traffic and traffic noise in residential neighborhoods.  Besides reducing the speed limit, DOT uses signs, markings and speed bumps to calm traffic within the Zone.

“As with all Slow Zones, DOT selects locations based on crash history, community support, proximity of schools and senior and daycare centers, among other criteria,” said agency spokesperson Nicholas Mosquera.

Mosquera said the zone was chosen because it fit the criteria of having strong community support, 4 schools, 8 pre-k/Head Start/daycare centers and a history of crashes. DOT data says this includes 62.4 average yearly injuries including 6 severe injuries/fatalities per road in the zone.

DOT was set to make a presentation at the proposal at Mondays Community Board 3 meeting, but it was postponed due to inclement weather.

CB 3 Chair Tremaine Wright called the cancelation a blessing in disguise because she isn’t sold on the idea that it has broad community support. DOT said it was requested from some parents at the Brooklyn Waldorf School, 11 Jefferson Avenue, but a lot of residents don’t know about the plan, she said.

“With the cancelation of the meeting until next Monday, I’m trying to encourage people who live in the affected area to weigh in,” she said.

But it appears DOT is full-speed ahead for the Slow Down Zone

“The Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy Slow Zone is currently scheduled for implementation in the Spring, pending Community Board support,” said Mosquera.

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