DarkStar Spouts Off

Coretta Scott-King Has Passed

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1560208

Jan. 31, 2006 — Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., has died. She was 78.

Scott King was admitted to Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital on Aug. 16, 2005, suffering from a stroke that left her weakened on her right side, unable to walk, and barely able to speak.

Black History Month

Normally, the month of February doesn't bring a twinge of dread for me. Even though I think that most of the "Black History" that will be "taught" in February will be the "top 5" and not go into any depth, I still hold hope that teachers and parents are teaching the real thing. But, my dread comes this year because I know that those who are ignorant of the history of Black History Week and Black History Month are going to make a lot of noise over the comments made by Morgan Freeman. Of course, they'll take it out of context and ignore that he was saying Black history should be part of American history. (They'll also ignore his comments concerning the Confederate Flag being the flag of traitors).

But Mississippi’s history of racial conflict bothers him even to this day. Forgive, he says, but never forget. 

For one, he thinks the Mississippi state flag, with its confederate emblem, should be changed.

“That flag has always represented, number one, treason and, number two, a separation of white people from Jews, niggers and homosexuals. And you can't change that. You can't tell me I'm never going to be able to look at that flag and think, ‘Ah, it's my heritage, my, you know...’ Never,” says Freeman.

The idea that Black history should be integrated with American history is one with which I agree. But how many educational systems have a program to integrate Black history into American history like that of the State of Maryland in conjunction with The Reginald Lewis Museum?

I'm sure we'll be bombarded with silly statements like this:

I truly believe that magazines like Ebony and Jet have long outlived their usefulness.

Sure, let Black history die and then later complain that we don't support our institutions.

Damn...

I need to hibernate through February.

Air Travel Advice

What ever you do, no matter how much of a jerk the TSA screener is being, do NOT call said TSA representative an a** if you want to catch your flight on time.

Don't say you haven't been told.

Tech Quickies

• I'm not into text messaging. I worked on a system that was a bridge between different providers of text messaging, but that's not the reason I don't use it. The reason I don't use it is because I'm cheap.
• I don't instant message either. Since cost isn't the factor, why don't I do it? I don't do it because I don't want people to see when I'm on-line or not. I have used it at work on one project where we needed to communicate between different offices. But, it's like email. Sometimes miscommunication occurs because you are using abbreviated text.
• I don't understand why cellular telephone companies think that people would be willing to look at television via their cell telephones. If that's you, seek help and TIVO. :-) Look at it this way. I have a "big screen" television to give me more visual impact. I have a 19" color monitor for my "main" computer because I like to see the information without straining. I brought my wife a 17" flat screen monitor when I ordered her computer so she wouldn't strain.
• I may be an old foggey, because I don't understand why some people want to merge the computer with television. If your traveling, I can see using your laptop to play DVDs, even though it a waste of battery power. I'd buy a portable DVD player for that purpose.
• From what I've read, getting songs via cellphones has been a failure. Now, Stevie Wonder could see that failure coming. The fidelity of a cellphone is terrible.
• In the U.S., Google is fighting the government's wish to provide information about search requests. In the U.S., people expect some level of privacy from the government. After all, we are in a Constitutional Representative Republic. In China, Google has agreed to the government's request to censor access to web sites the government deems unacceptable. Some people are mad about Google's decision in China and see an inconsistency with its actions in the U.S. I see it as being consistent. They are operating within the laws of the country and within the country's norms. If you don't like Google's actions, make them pay by using an alternative and pushing for companies to dump Google's stock.

Taxes

I'm here doing my taxes and I'm happier with the results this year than the past 3 years. If people make life decisions based on finances, there is no way couples who intend to be dual earning would marry. There is just no way. Last year my wife became unemployed, and with the addition of "DS 2.0", it's become a choice to stay home, for now anyway. Well, it's helped the tax situation A LOT. For grins, I did the taxes as if she had the same income as last year. Even with the addition of the tax deduction, I would have not been a happy camper. Her lack of income has made a big difference. Around this time of year, I get a major bad attitude. I call it TRPMS; tax related pms.

Under-Rated

Coming back from a dinner run, I heard In the Heat of Heat by Patti Austin. I've seen her 3 or 4 times in concert and I came away each time thinking that she was under rated. So, others who I think are under rated are:

• Mint Condition -- Their style of music is good, even if Stokley's voice is weak.
• Chuck Brown -- Wait. That's right, the God Father of Go-Go, Chuck Brown is under rated. But not because of his Go-Go. Nope. It's his jazz and blues songs that don't get the recognition it deserves.
• Jesse Johnson -- The former lead guitar player for The Time who later went solo. The brother's guitar work was on par with Prince. He wrote music as well, and though not as good as Prince, it was still good.
• Loose Ends -- This British group grooved as far as I am concerned. I keep hearing they are going to reunite to do some things, but all I hear is talk. The website says they toured last year but I didn't hear about it. Their keyboard work was awesome to me. They brought funk without the bass. And the primary lead singer could sang ya'll.
• ConFunkShun -- They brought the funk. Period.
• Slave -- If you want to hear some mean rock guitar mixed with a banging bass line, check out their early work before the band splintered. But they kept on going putting out music that just got me. It was that consistent bass banging. Look, if you have never heard Slide, then download it from where ever and give a listen. Hopefully it's the long version. You will understand right then what funk meant to me.

See, now that I'm thinking about this, I have to do some downloading.

I'm not as good as Ave when it comes to explaining why certain music moves me, but, I likes what I likes and what moves me, moves me.

Bob Wade, Univ. of Maryland Basketball

When I think about Bob Wade, the former football and basketball coach of Dunbar High School, Baltimore, I think of the basketball team that kicked butts. The team had Mugsy Bouges, David Wingate, Reggie Lewis, and Reggie Williams. I tend to forget that Wade had a good football team as well. I forget that because my high school was better. :-)

When Coach Wade took over the University of Maryland basketball team after the death of Len Bias, I thought that it was a good move by the University of Maryland and an even better move for Coach Wade. It turned out I was wrong.

Gregory Kane, a conservative columnist for the Baltimore Sun, writes about the contrast of Bob Wade to the current coach of the University of Maryland, Gary Williams. He lays it out plain and clear:

So after Len Bias' death, Wade walked into the loony bin of Maryland men's basketball - and its fans - and no doubt figured he'd stepped into a mine field. No infraction, even minor ones, escaped news media and fan scrutiny. In fact, to hear the reporters and Maryland hoops fans tell it, Wade was something akin to the anti-Christ, only more malevolent.

Among the charges leveled at Wade and his assistant coach, Woody Williams, is that they took a player from Baltimore to classes at the College Park campus. That was considered a scandal. What's not considered a scandal is Chris McCray, a player on this year's team, being banished from the team for poor grades. Or the 0-percent graduation rate since 1998 for the men's basketball team, which was reported in this paper last Friday.

Defenders of Gary Williams, the current head men's basketball coach at Maryland, will point out that he can't be faulted for McCray's academic performance. And they would be right. Williams couldn't very well have sat in the classroom and taken McCray's exams for him. That would have been the scandal of the decade.

But the point here is that if the same situation had happened when Wade was Maryland's head coach, he'd have been criticized for not holding the flunking player's hand through every step of the academic process. And he'd have been crucified for the graduation rate in the men's program. Williams has not only emerged unscathed from any fallout associated with the low graduation rate, but he has seen a hefty $300,000 pay raise to boot.

I don't agree with everything Kane writes. Some things I agree with even though I don't like what he wrote. Some things I agree with and like what he wrote. This is one of the latter.

He's "loved" by the major conservative radio station in the Baltimore metro area. Sometimes I wonder if he's loved because he is the only conservative on the Sun op-ed staff, or because he's a Black conservative, or because of his ideas, or all of the above. But I notice that, lately, his columns aren't being mentioned much by the talk show hosts. I happen to think it is because, lately, he has taken on the Baltimore Police Department's tactic of arresting people for minor infractions like talking to your cousin in a car while you are on the sidewalk.

Why Do Meth Addicts Get Treatment While Crack Addicts Get Prison Time?

Meth, the "crack" of the 2000s...

Why Do Meth Addicts Get Treatment While Crack Addicts Get Prison Time?

In the 1980s, crack cocaine exploded onto the urban scene, taking not just individuals, but entire families and communities hostages. Violence became commonplace as gangs and dealers fought over customers and turf, ‘crack heads’ became as much a fixture in urban communities as churches and corner stores. Today, there is a new "drug of choice" -- methamphetamine or meth.

Both law enforcement officials and mainstream media call meth America’s most dangerous drug. All of the attention has led lawmakers to come up with necessary solutions to this serious dilemma.

Now, it seems that meth users, by way of the criminal justice system, are getting the help they need to get their lives back on track while, historically, crack use has been punished with stiff criminal sentences.

Meth, made from a substance found in over the counter cold medications, is relatively cheap and, if a seller can’t be found, can be made at home with recipes available on the internet. There’s no denying that the drug’s cheap price and accessibility make it a threat.

But both drugs are highly addictive and equally dangerous. Why the disparity? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the face of meth is overwhelmingly white.

More at the link.
Frankly, what is there more to say?

Project 21 has criticized the CBC Foundation for not giving out money that it has received. I got into it here.

The CBC Foundation has responded in Black Enterprise

Members of Project 21, a nonprofit organization of conservative African Americans, issued a press release recently charging Congressional Black Caucus members with hypocrisy because of the pace with which the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has dispersed Hurricane Katrina relief funds. “Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have repeatedly charged that the Bush administration neglected survivors of Hurricane Katrina, but their own foundation has yet to release all of the donations it collected in the name of those survivors,” said Kevin Martin, a Project 21 member, in the press release.

...

“We had $355,250 as of Dec.12. We gave out $290,000, which left $40, 000,” says Tharpe. The $290,000 went to a Louisiana, faith-based organization called Community of Faith for Economic Empowerment (COFFEE). The two organizations had worked together previously on a homeownership initiative. “So we knew their work in the New Orleans area. They have received donations from corporations such as Western Gas, Bell South, IBM, and others,” adds Tharpe.

...

“We still stand by our release,” says Project 21 director David Almasi. “I think they still deserve criticism for coming out and saying the federal government didn't do enough and George Bush didn't do enough when they sat on $100,000 since basically September.”

...

Tharpe denies the charge and says that Project 21 is using this issue as an excuse to lobby a political attack. “They have never come to ask to look at our books. We're wide open. If someone wants to come in, we have nothing to hide.”

It seems to me that someone has egg on their face.

More links:

Black Activists Demand Congressional Black Caucus Release Katrina Aid

 Charity Chief Commended for Promise to Account for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Grant

Black Libs Are At It Again

This is what someone said about Lynn Swann, the former great football player, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

"The rich white guy in this campaign is Lynn Swann."

The fact that a Black liberal Democrat, again, is calling a Black Republican, essentially, a sellout, is sickening.

Uhhh... Wait a minute....

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A gubernatorial candidate challenging pro football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann in the Republican primary fired his campaign manager after the man told a televised call-in show: "The rich white guy in this campaign is Lynn Swann."

...

Seif, who is white and previously served in Gov. Tom Ridge's cabinet, made the comment while trying to portray Scranton as a political outsider and Swann as the candidate favored by the GOP establishment.

People just need to grow up.

Politics, Black Politics, No Communication

Mike nailed how I tend to view political discussions.

The blogosphere is about aggregation, not about change. It's about fleshing out ideas, but people still go where they go. And very few people wander out of their own comfort zones. The blogosphere is passive. Transformative politics needs to be active. The surprise of Vision Circle comes from Ed Brown, the last pundit standing. As a late-comer to the game, he was constantly reminding all sides that we were taking our arguments a bit to far - that mischaracterization of left and right dominated discussions, truces were more likely than synergies and blackfolks persist anyway.

I want to give some examples that supports his comments, even though I don't believe they really need support. His comments stand well on their own.

Let's examine the issue of politicians going to Black churches, every four years, for voter support. Over a period of time, I noticed that politicians appeared in the same churches or the with the same pastors. I started wondering exactly how many churches the politicians appeared. By my estimate, politicians in the Baltimore and D.C. area appear in, probably, less than 1% of Black churches in urban areas.

To add to this, certain people, of certain political stripes, attempt to make a case for the "failure of the Black church". Typically, they will point to the out of wedlock birth rate as the prime example to make their case. Ignoring glaring intellectual problems with the supposition, let's assume those people are correct. If they are correct, then the failure of the Black church would mean that its ability to influence the behavior of Blacks is minimal. If that's the case, how can the Black church be so influential in Black politics?

Democrats want to believe the idea of the Black church being central to Black politics because it continues to allow Democrats to present nothing but a side show when addressing Black voters. Republicans want to continue to present this idea because it allows them to marginalize the Black voter and their collective "intelligence" and, now, because it allows them to mimic Democrats in presenting fluff to the Black voter.

"See, your leaders like us. Play along and follow the leader."

Or is that too cynical?

Look at the issue of welfare reform. Democrats went to Black voters saying "Republicans are racist! Look at their attempt at so-called welfare reform!" Meanwhile, Republicans went to white voters saying, "Handouts are not the way to go. It just made Blacks look to government for more handouts. Enough!"

The "trouble" was, the percentage of Blacks on welfare was already falling before welfare reform and the talk of welfare reform. Next, if you examine the most successful implementation of welfare reform by the states, you will notice that Wisconsin implemented many of the "liberal" ideas about getting people off of welfare: continuing education, job training, and providing subsidized day care. And, to put the cherry on top, the implementation cost was more than the pre-welfare reform cost. Yet, it was said that welfare reform would most likely save money.

Let's take a quick look at affirmative action. Republican opposition came down to "unqualified Blacks getting jobs or into college at the expensive of more qualified white people." Tepid Democrat support came down to "racism causing Blacks not to even be considered." I believe in affirmative action. I find it interesting that when a study came out concerning people applying for a job, one set with "Black sounding names" and another set with "normal names," that despite the qualifications and quality of the resume, the resumes with the "Black sounding names" were more likely to be rejected.

Then, when we get to education, we come across nuggets like this one:

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food.

Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers.

More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.

From memory, 12% of Blacks have college degrees while, for whites, 28% have college degrees. Clearly, most people don't have a college degree, so the "debate" about college entrance is over crumbs. Again, from memory, Glenn Lourey mentioned in an Emerge Magazine article that most Black students, around 85%, apply to schools for which their SAT scores are within 10% of the median SAT score.

But politics doesn't lead to rational discussion. Instead you get lame sound bite analysis and pushing of the hot buttons of emotion.

When you bring Blacks into the mix, you get the ugly mess of the current state of Black politics: Black Democrats calling Republicans names, Black Republicans playing the victim card and doing name calling of their own. Black Democrats giving the impression that Blacks are helpless and Black Republicans giving the impression that Blacks are helpless only because of white liberals.

Melo, You Can Kiss...

Carmelo Anthony, you can kiss my Black...
No, wait. You aren't worthy of the "honor".

Anthony never intended Stop Snitching to be his message. He still doesn't, preferring that people focus on his community work that is geared largely toward giving inner-city kids viable options to the street. But he understands, even sympathizes, with the notion of not cooperating with police.

The target of much of the venom in the "Stop Snitching" DVD is Tyree Stewart, a marijuana kingpin who reportedly once tooled around West Baltimore in a $100,000 Mercedes. Almost from the moment he was busted in 2003, he has been arranging drug buys between associates and undercover officers.

"Tyree ran our neighborhood," Anthony says. "Now he's working with the state and the feds. You can't do that. He turned his back on the 'hood."

Police say that with limited resources for surveillance and other investigative techniques, they need to use informants to make drug cases. The chance for criminals to avoid a mandatory minimum sentence gives them that tool.

"That ['Stop Snitching'] video just glamorizes thug life," says Matt Jablow, spokesman for the Baltimore police department.

Not far from the area that Melo is thinking about, lived the Dawson family.

The Dawson Family Community Protection Act of 2005 would require the director of National Drug Control Policy to devote at least $5 million annually to support federal programs that protect communities under siege from drug-related violence.

The bill is named in honor of the late Angela and Carnell Dawson and their five children, aged 9 to 14. The entire family was killed on October 16, 2002, when a their home was firebombed in an apparent retaliation for Mrs. Dawson's repeated complaints to the police about recurring drug trafficking in her East Baltimore neighborhood, which is predominantly black.

This is the sort of thing that punk, Carmelo Anthony, is defending.

Home Schooling

More on Blacks and home schooling:

Researchers say 1.1 million to 2.4 million children are taught at home nationwide. While data on home-schooled students are spotty, experts say that blacks are one of the fastest-growing sectors of that population. Brian Ray, the president of the National Home Education Research Institute, estimated that black children make up about 6 percent of that pool based on data from his own organization, as well as the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics.

"Up until a few years ago, a dark-skinned face in the audience was almost unheard of" at a home-schooling conference, Ray said. "Now there's an obvious, obvious, obvious change. In some local or regional conferences, the majority of the audience is African-American or Hispanic."

Spence said that at least once a month she is approached by black strangers when she's out with her children in the middle of the day. "First they say, 'Oh my gosh, you're home-schooling,'" Spence said, "and the next minute they're asking for my number."

Word has trickled out slowly in the black community, said Maisha Khalfani, who turned to home schooling after reading Jawanza Kunjufu's Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys while pregnant with her son. The stereotype that only whites home-school persists, she said, and some black parents face pressure not to desert community schools.

"Historically, because of the struggles black people had in this country - Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights - there is this idea that going to public school is very much a privilege that we didn't have before," said Khalfani, whose children recently returned to public schools after the family moved to Baltimore County. "It's considered a no-no to pull your kids out."

Black parents tempted to home-school also frequently hear pleas not to leave because they're exactly the kind of proactive parents schools need.

But that hasn't stemmed the tide.

"I don't have one ounce of guilt. Not one," said Jennifer James, founder of the National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance in North Carolina. In public school, "the black students do worse than any other students in the state. ... I could stay around and help with something largely irreparable or go a different route."

The article features quotes from Shawn Spence, who I'm thinking is the wife of Lester Spence.

I Have To Ask The Wife

So, what's so surprising about this?

Eyeing an intricate DVD player or clunky home theater speakers? Better check with your spouse first.

    The idea of checking with a mate before purchasing a big-ticket item may not be a new idea, but its name, spouse acceptance factor -- usually called wife acceptance factor for the greater number of men interested in electronics -- is building steam among technology gurus and electronics manufacturers.

    Women control 88 percent of electronics purchases, whether they make the purchase or influence what their spouse buys, according to research by the Consumer Electronics Association. Whether an item passes the wife acceptance factor, or WAF, typically depends on price, design and complexity.

Of course you need to pass this past the spouse.

I recently purchased a "big screen" HD television. There was no way I could make that size purchase without having the Mrs. give the okay. Of course, she looked at it as a big toy, which it is. :-)

She likes it when we watch DVDs, but the, late, affirmation of the purchase came when we watched  24 in high definition.

Affirmative Action

If you listen to some people, Blacks don't graduate at the same rate from college as white students because of affirmative action.

Right now, overall, the percentage of Blacks in college is around 14%.

The number of Blacks with a college degree is around 12% while, for whites, it's about 28%.

I bring this up for one reason:

Study: Most College Students Lack Skills
Jan 19 2:43 PM US/Eastern
By BEN FELLER

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food.

Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers.

More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.

More than 50%?
That can't be mainly Black students, can it?

Power of the Libs

On the afroam-l list, I often wrote that some people on that list gave "white supremacy" too much credit and power. The strength of such in the U.S. was way overblown.

The same holds true for the belief that white liberals hold some power over Blacks en masse.

Both view points are wrong, both view points are condescending, and both viewpoints, to me, demonstrates the power whites still hold over the individual spouting the nonsense.

That's my opinion. My opinion, in my view, represents real Black power and freedom.

Black Self Help Info[rmation]

If you wonder about Black self help groups, why not visit the Black Self Help Info website and have a look around.

It's undergoing a redesign to make things easier to navigate.

And if you have any Black self help groups you would like to have listed, select the "Contact Us" link.

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog home of DarkStar.

I want to give a shout out to Cobb for allowing me the opportunity to mentally masturbate at Vision Circle. That came about because I was getting on the nerves of some of The Conservative Brotherhood.

Someone called me out and I had to accept the challenge or risk being called out as a punk.

I've been around the 'net for "a minute", first cutting my teeth on USENET, primarily soc.culture.african.american.

This blog will be about whatever suits my fancy. Chances are, it will concentrate on media misrepresentations of the American "Black community", Black politics, politics in general, and whatever else I want to mentally masturbate about.