3 Mile

Passing the Slave Math Test

2012-01-11T07:10:00.001-08:00

I really want to understand, and those who know me know I'll give folks the benefit of the doubt -- liberally. Still, I'm struggling to understand how anyone could think that using references to the darkest day in our nation's history, to cross-pollinate social studies and math was a good idea.

"If Fredrick got two beating per day, how many beating did he get in one week? Two weeks?"

First of all, the fact that Fredrick was a slave should give the teacher pause. At that point I would think an educator would say to himself, or herself, "what the hell am I doing?!"

Still, in the Atlanta area, a teacher resigned last week after admittedly failing to exercise good judgement, or common sense (my words), in giving a class of largely black and brown children a test with the aforementioned question and other equally galling story problems. If ever a Millennial WTF? response was appropriate, dare I say this is one of those instances.

A local station in Atlanta reported the story and included some of the questions, which were posed to third graders at an elementary school in Georgia. Another read “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”

I get the fact that we need to reform public education in this country, and I understand that desperate times call for creative measures. I also understand that lack of racial sensitivity is more prevalent than most people know. I'm not calling that teacher a racist, but I am suggesting that if you don't realize that black people are not deeply scarred by the slavery, and the vestiges it wrought, then there is something wrong with you.

Cash cuts impact all our communities

2011-10-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

The social worker just shook her head when I asked her what all of the families about to be cut off from the cash assistance were going to do. There are about 11,000 of them who lost what I've heard to be an average of about $500 a month.

"What can they do?" was her refrain. "The best they can with what little they have."

When I heard that some prominent Democrats today were calling for President Barack Obama to step aside and let another candidate, Hilary Clinton for example, represent the party, I thought back to that conversation a couple of years ago. Desperation and accountability is what I thought about.

The Democrats I heard today claim that the president cannot run on his record because when Americans are asked if they are better off today than four years ago, way too many are likely to answer "hell no." There are members of 11,000 Michigan families who probably feel that way. Whether or not people feel it's Obama's fault the reality is that it is his watch so he has to bear the burden of criticism.

Despite the unenviable situation he inherited or the unproductive Congressional rancor on opposing sides of the aisle that has made enacting legislative reforms a nightmare, Obama's in charge. I can't believe there are people who think he faked a birth certificate in order to get this job at this point in our nation's history. Not saying it's worth giving up the White House and Leader of the Free World title, but I'd be willing to bet that a thought or two about being mayor of Chicago has crossed the president's mind.

4 Year Question Here

In Michigan, not only are thousands of people worse off than they were four years ago, many of them will likely never reclaim the lives they had eight years ago. That was about the time jobs started disappearing in droves and the housing boom was nosediving toward bust. I know my Detroit neighborhood looks nothing like it did eight years ago.

I wonder what records our elected officials are going to hold up to voters for scrutiny, when so many of them are hurting. Those long-term unemployed casualties of the recession are among the huge number of underemployed in our state who are about to lose a much-needed crutch. I know far too many underemployed people who had to take what they could get, as well as a number of people who have been looking for so long I'm hesitant to ask about employment when I bump into them.

Hassan Jabber, executive director of ACCESS, in Dearborn wrote on op-ed in the Detroit News last month which highlighted the impact of the cash assistance cut on all of our communities. Public cash assistance is used to cover expenses and are spent in neighborhood stores for things like food, gas, clothes, and rent. Business owners are being impacted, as are landlords, and the neighborhoods where empty houses will sit when fewer renters are able to pay. Most of those 11,000 are in Wayne County, so one part of the state is impacted to a larger degree. And it happens to a county that already has more than its share of problems.

Jabber wrote in the Detroit News, "After Michigan's 1991 foray in the welfare reform, in which 80,000 single adults lost general assistance, cutting $100 million from the state's budget, 20,000 former welfare recipients were evicted and 27,000 went without food. One person who lost her benefits, Eva Frederick, died because she couldn't afford her blood pressure pills."

He cited a study by the University of Michigan School of Social Work, that found Michigan doubled the number of shelter beds, but demand continued to exceed availability. The number of emergency shelters tripled, but the conditions of shelters was criticized as grossly inadequate. Now we're heading for more of the same, and people are going to clearly be worse off than they were before. I wonder how accountable they will hold leadership in Michigan when it's time to head to the polls.

War on the poor

2011-09-24T19:14:00.001-07:00

When I was in graduate school I once shared a story during a speech in a class I was taking about being poor kid who was so worried about asking my parents for new sneakers that I would put cardboard wrapped in duct tape over the holes in my shoes to extend the shelf life.

I was fortunate in that, while there was a time where we didn't have a wealth of luxuries, my parents made sure I had the things I needed most. Because of that I didn't actually realize I was poor. In retrospect, I appreciate the hell out of my parents for that. It is hard to be poor, and this the weekend it got much more difficult for thousands of children from low income families who are losing cash assistance from the state.

How bad is it? At a meeting of parents I attended a couple of weeks ago a woman I know literally broke down and began uncontrollably sobbing when someone broached the subject. I was speechless -- and sympathetic. About a third of Michigan's poor families receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare benefits, according to a recent study by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute. The lifetime 48-month welfare limit cap went into effect this weekend, kicking a reported 25,000 families off public assistance.

The report also noted that the availability of welfare is not increasing relationally to the rising unemployment rate, and that is the reason I'm bothered by this move. It's easy to say, "you should be able to get off of welfare and find a job." But because we know that there are fewer jobs available these days in Michigan and more people scavenging for the paltry employment opportunities that are out there, to put that challenge on poor people now is unconscionable.

It just got even harder to be poor. I really feel for the children of those families losing benefits.

Belafonte on rights, Obama

2011-09-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

I had an opportunity to see Harry Belafonte tonight. I have to admit that, despite all of his incredible humanitarian accomplishments, his platinum status as a recording artist, his elbow rubbing with global dignitaries, marches with civil rights icons, and those cool 70's movies with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, I was most interested in what he would say about President Barack Obama. He didn't disappoint.

Belafonte regaled the audience at Wayne State with stories of his time in Harlem during the renaissance, interactions with President Franklin Roosevelt and President John F. Kennedy, and work with everyone from Paul Robeson to Fannie Lou Hammer to Martin Luther King, Jr. He even sang a few lines from his signature classic. His belting of "Daaayy-Oh!" enlivened the crowd. He even took a moment to put the song about the oppressed, colonized banana plantation workers into context. That caused some to wonder why they always thought it to be such a happy song?!

It was when he suggested that Obama lost his moral compass that I became truly engaged. I respect his opinion, but disagree, in part. He said that the president has not done enough for black people or poor people. I can't agree more. But must add that no president ever has. Give credit to Lyndon Johnson for embarking on a poor people's campaign. Granted, pundits will say it was followed by a war on the poor. But I'll end my tour of revisionist history here.

Belafonte is one of many prominent black critics of the president on the lecture circuit these days, and I understand where they are coming from. I expected a bit more from him by this point. But I am willing to be patient, because I have to believe a second term, and some economic relief, will provide an opportunity to work more diligently on his social agenda. And, I'll ask, does anyone really think Mitt Romney or Rick Perry are more interested in helping minorities and poor people than the former Chicago organizer?

Going to work

2011-08-22T08:57:00.001-07:00

A couple of people I know found jobs over the past week after being out of work for about three years, and I'm happy for them. I'm also a bit worried about a lot of other people I know who are still looking, with few options.

Michigan's unemployment rate is around 10 percent. I know a couple of months ago the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had Michigan ranked third in the nation in that category, up (or down, if you will) from fifth this spring.

This is concerning because of the impending guillotine coming for families receiving welfare. I know a few folks who are wondering what they are going to do once the cash assistance welfare benefit ends Oct. 1. The problem, for me anyway, isn't about legacy welfare recipients. I know about multiple generations of people working the system, and it's both sad and indefensible. But there are a lot of people, like those I know who've never been on assistance, or been unemployed for years, who aren't part of the problem that has led to a draining of the system.

While four years seems like a long time to be receiving cash assistance, given our unemployment rate and the state of the national economy, it's more like a short window of time these days. When well-qualified, hard working people need three years to find a job, a lifetime limit of four years seems a bit severe.

Dialoguing on education

2011-06-13T11:31:00.001-07:00

I don’t know whether you saw the MSNBC special Sunday on education in Detroit, but it put a lens on the myriad of issues facing parents and students in the city and exposed those challenges for the world to see. As expected, it was long on hyperbole, heavy on emotional pleas and short on solutions likely to be implemented anytime soon. But at least folks were talking.

I am encouraged by the dialogue. A diversity and inclusion expert once told me, as long as there is dialogue there is hope. I will paint the passionate discussion I witnessed as a positive sign. I think the two-hour, rotating panel discussion is on MSNBC's website, should you be so inclined to check it out.

There was a mix of local and national figures among talking heads assembled. Sharlonda Buckman, executive director of Detroit Parent Network, really went for it, delivering part advertorial for the agency's parental involvement/organizing prowess and part call for the community to step up and get serious about improving outcomes for our children.

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts participated as well. I like Roberts for what he has accomplished in corporate America and in the community during his career. He has, a job I don't admire, as I've long said running the city's schools has to be the least attractive position in town. He did misstep when he said all Michigan districts had to participate in the schools of choice policy that mandates school systems provide seats for children outside of their community. Michigan doesn't currently have such a policy. However, Gov. Rick Snyder proposed schools of choice legislation back in April, during a message on education reforms he would like to see. You might consider this an omen, given the fact that the governor has established a track record of getting support for what he wants -- in a short period of time -- and that he tapped Roberts for one of his first appointments under the recently enacted EM legislation.

In case you didn't know, there's a movement afoot to challenge the law that paved the way for emergency managers. A group called Michigan Forward is having an event this Thursday, Aug. 18, from 5-7 at 2243 Ferry Street in Detroit to organize people for its campaign. It will be interesting to see what type of crowd turns out, and what type of dialogue that event produces. Because people clearly want something different than what we currently have.

New solutions to human rights problems

2011-05-18T07:37:00.001-07:00

I have long been interested in technology and its application in solutions to human rights issues, particularly education and poverty. There is an interesting group called New Tactics that works on developing these types of solutions collaboratively, and the group is having a convening that I thought I would let other

The online forum will run from July 27 to August 2, and is organized by New Tactics, an outfit called MobileActive and other human rights professionals . The forum is titled "Using Mobile Phones for Citizen Media," and it sounds like it could be of value.

Information is a powerful commodity for human rights defenders. Receiving and sharing information is at the heart of human rights work. Modern technology, such as the mobile phone, and the global distribution of the internet, provides new opportunities for citizens to actively participate in journalism. The mobile phone is arguably the most accessible form of information communication technology and a popular tool for receiving and sharing information.

According to New Tactics, "human rights practitioners are finding innovative ways to utilize mobile phones to amplify the voices of communities around the world in order to collect and disseminate news and information. In Namibia, readers are able to text in editorial comments that are then published in the Namibia print paper. In Guatemala, radio listeners text in their comments that are then read on-air. In India, mobile phones circumvent a radio news ban and allow people to both access news and record information. These are just a few examples of how practitioners are using mobile phones to get and provide information and news from and to citizens. "

"With the growing use of mobile phones for citizen media comes new risks, challenges and opportunities. This online dialogue is a space to discuss stories, tactics and resources for using mobile phones for citizen media, as well as a space to discuss mobile risk assessment and security. "

You can join the forum by clicking HERE

There is a pretty diverse collection of participants, and includes:

Melissa Ulbricht (co-facilitator) - MobileActive's staff writer, United States
Becky Hurwitz - Project Manager at MobileActive and currently working on the SaferMobile project, United States
Rich Jones of the Open Watch Project
Mong Palatino - one of the founding conveners of TXTpower, Philippines
Brian Conley and others of Small World News
Sean McDonald and Amy O'Donnell of Frontline SMS, United States
Alix Dunn - applied researcher and consultant in the role of digital tools in activism, Egypt
John (Kipp) Kipchumbah of InfoNet, Kenya
Sam duPont - Field Fellow for Dimagi, author of Global Mobile blog at at DC think tank NDN, currently based in Thailand and Philippines
Patita Tingoi and others from Fahamu, Kenya
Boukary Konaté and Eddie Avila from Rising Voices, Mali and Bolivia

Keep kids out of the pipeline to prison

2011-04-19T16:54:00.001-07:00

I spent the evening in a church basement trying to convince a group of Detroiters to stand up and demand that their legislators change our state's laws on zero tolerance in schools so that more good students have a chance to stay in school and graduate. It's a needed reform, because we're sending more black males to prison than to college, and to push them out of school and into the pipeline to prison is just wrong.

I shared with them that there were 46,000 suspensions in Detroit Public Schools in 2007-2008. In one school year. That is insane.

I am not suggesting that educators have any fewer tools to manage classrooms, only that in-school suspensions or restorative practices are better ways to address discipline children, and keep them out of the pipeline.

I got a call a couple of days ago from a friend who was frustrated by an incident he had just been involved in with a group of young black men at a local gym. It appears the men, all apparently in their late teens and early 20s, decided to relax after a workout by shooting dice in the bathroom of the facility. He was genuinely bothered by their lack of recognition of their criminal behavior, not to mention their lack of respect when he called them on it.

But this is what happens when we kick children out of school and leave them to their own devices. They end up living street life24/7. I'm assuming the worst, I know. But the reality is that black males are suspended or expelled at a rate of almost 3-1 compared to their white classmates. That blacks are suspended for committing the same offenses as whites who are not. The disparity is so great that the Justice Department and Department of Education are jointly investigating the disturbing trend. It's a civil rights violation and an educational inequity that threatens our neighborhoods and our region. When educational opportunity is denied to children because they are suspended because of offenses like loitering and insubordination they end up hanging out on the streets or gambling in bathrooms, unless someone with a substantial amount of compassion intervenes.

West's criticism worth careful inspection

2011-04-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

I have reverence for Dr. Cornel West, but found myself in conflict with his comments this week about President Barack Obama. I understand his well-articulated criticism of the president and realize that many blacks and progressives feel similarly.

After Obama's election I was concerned whether the grassroots movement that elevated him into the national spotlight and subsequently pushed him into the White House would continue to support him once he actually had the job. I thought it was an important consideration at the time because I figured his policies and positions would need that same level of support to be successful. He came in as a representative of those who have been marginalized, including people of color and poor people. West -- a preeminent intellectual and outspoken Democrat -- has been critical of the president in the past. This week he called called Obama a mascot, fueling this latest media frenzy.

I heard West say on the Tavis Smiley Show today that the president should be doing more to help poor people, and black people, and other minorities and disenfranchised Americans who supported him. I understand his point, and he does not stand alone in opposition to the president's efforts to address poverty, joblessness, and a growing sense of hopelessness among Americans who fully expected the Obama Administration to deliver on that "hope" and "change" we heard so much about on the campaign trail. It's fair criticism.

Given that black folks are often bothered when we begin to air our laundry, this was worth watching. But I wonder whether, while not totally off base, West's comments could prove be damaging long term.

After the president took office I wrote that I hoped everyone who came out and voted for the first time, who bought bootleg t-shirts and bumper stickers, and who suddenly took an interest in politics because they wanted to see a black president elected continue to provide support after Obama took office. I recall many people agreeing with me, and one friend, professor Lester Spence, who reminded me that "he works for us." That comment resonated with me, and spurred the first thought I had about how his supporters would hold him accountable. West's comments simply represent that call for accountability.

Every elected official should be accountable to those who put them in office. I just hope in this case those people who were motivated to become politically active for the first time aren't so turned off they sit out the next race. Without them, the president will have a slim chance of ever making good on the promises of hope or change for the voiceless. I don't believe I recall anyone else even putting those things on the table.

Got to keep fighting for rights

2011-02-20T16:22:00.001-08:00

I heard Muammar Qaddafi's son say today that the reports of violence in Libya have been grossly exaggerated, and got the feeling that might be a sign that things are about to get much worse. I rooted for the protesters in both Tunsia and in Egypt, and thought that this might be an indication of a wave of democracy sweeping through the Middle East. At minimum, it appears that human rights fighters are back in vogue.

Of course, you have to believe that every dictator worth his weight in illegally amassed gold will make it more difficult for similar uprisings to be successful going forward. Qaddafi won't be the last to use any means necessary to maintain a power hold. Their cause is helped by conservative talking heads like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who reportedly spoke out against the protesters in Egypt and suggested President Barack Obama should have helped Mubarak squash the uprising. The situation in Libya could be the tipping point.

It's hard not to consider what would happen if Americans got similarly fed up with what's going on here. For instance, Wisconsin's governor is leading a union-busting movement. And in Michigan, the House passed legislation that would give emergency financial managers (EFMs) the power to do away with collectively bargained contracts, among other expanded powers, essentially given them the juice to rule the communities or school districts they are selected to oversee.

Gov. Rick Snyder has said we won't see what happened in Wisconsin happen here.

He said the "cooperative approach is the way that it works in Michigan and I respect that." But it seems like support for expanding the deployment of of EFMs -- with greater power -- could accomplish the same thing.

The governor does want to do away with the earned income tax credit, and to tax pensions. I do believe people should pay taxes, but we have to be careful how much we take away from seniors given the fact that doing so could shift some of the burden to their children or other family members, and impact children supported by grandparents.

Lrcast week, Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) told the Michigan Information & Reseah Service, known as MIRS, that when it comes to Republican lawmakers, Snyder, and the EITC, "I don't think they get it.” She said that cutting the $340 million tax credit will result in 14,000 more children living in poverty.

"This isn't handouts to people that aren't working," Whitmer said. "This is a tool to help people that are working to make ends meet. . . . E is for earned, for people that are working. We have so much corporate welfare on the books, no one is scrutinizing that."

We've seen some protests in Lansing, but it will be interesting to see whether more people get similarly outraged and do something about it. The actions in the Middle East offer a lesson worth following.

More debate, less hate

2011-01-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have been writing (it seems like way too frequently) over the last year about my concern over the pervasiveness of hatred in the political discourse in this country. The weekend shooting in Arizona really pissed me off.

Some coverage in the New York Times today alluded to the distress Rep. Gabrielle Giffords felt over vandalism that took place at her office after she voted for passage of President Barack Obama's health care reform bill. She reportedly told a television interviewer the day after some threw a rock or shot a pellet gun through a window in her office that "things have really gotten spun up," in reference to the backlash from people in her congressional district in Arizona. The district has been referred as one of the most tense in the nation, and the shooting that left six dead and injured 14 others, including the congresswoman, is evidence of that.

Apparently people there are upset over immigration, perceived out of control government spending, health care reform, and the fact that Obama is president. Some are careful to refer to the shooting in Tucson as an act committed by a disturbed individual. But it's difficult to overlook the impact of the rhetoric of Tea Party supporters and other opponents of the current administration on people who are much more impressionable than you and me.

The Times article mentioned an incident involving, Jesse Kelly, a challenger of Giffords' primary last summer who reportedly had Tea Party backing. Kelly is said to have held a fundraiser, during which he invited contributors to shoot an M-16 along with him. And of course, you've probably heard about Sarah Palin's tweet last year that suggested to followers that they shouldn't retreat from those supporting the current administration's policies, but "instead -- reload." That Twitter post, according to reports, asked followers to go to her Facebook page where they could find a list of 20 Congress members with symbols of gun cross hairs placed over their geographical locations. Giffords was one of them, and the congresswoman she spoke out against the post. The Palin camp backtracked in light of the shooting and described the cross hairs as surveyors' symbols. What?! I still can't believe that was the best they could do. They should have claimed someone hacked into her account.

Regardless of your politics, suggesting anyone be shot because of their thoughts on health care or immigration is irresponsible -- at best. It should be criminal.

Today, the people from MoveOn.org began circulating a petition, accompanied by the following statement:

"While we may never know what exactly motivated the shooter in Arizona—and while there are many lessons to draw from this tragedy—one thing is clear: Our country must turn away from the culture of violent, hateful rhetoric that has been pervading our political discourse for too long.

Nearly 200,000 people have signed our "Debate, not hate" petition. It calls on politicians and the media to stop spreading hateful rhetoric and implicit appeals to violence. Can you sign the petition today? "

Here's a link, if you're interested: http://pol.moveon.org/debatenothate/?id=25774-17647285-LZbl8Cx&t=1

Time for the other side to shout

2010-10-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama seems to get publicly dissed during formal proceedings in Washington a little too frequently for me. I blame much of the problem on the fact that too few people either understand the progress he has made over the past two years, or are so dead against him succeeding that they disregard the work he's put in.

Thursday's reading of the Constitution on the floor of the U.S. House, a show of support for all of the new Tea Party supported representatives, was interrupted. When Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) read the portion of the document mandating that only a "natural-born citizen" may be president, some woman -- who I assume to be one of those Birther bigots -- shouted "except Obama, except Obama," from the gallery. It reminded me of Joe Wilson shouting "you lie" to the president in 2009.

This time the offender was quickly removed. But damage done, message sent. That message coming from the right seems to be -- don't trust the president, he's different than the other presidents, he's a Socialist, probably not from here, and everything that can be done to ensure he fails must be done. At least that's what I hear on conservative radio. And incidents like Thursday's seem to confirm as much.

I thought about something I read after the November election. Obama said he and his party took a shellacking. What he should have said is, "whether or not you like me personally, because of the way I look or my funny name, myself and my party have been trying to fix what's wrong with America. You're welcome." Or, something like that.

The Economist said that “An apology is due Barack Obama.” The journal applauded him for saving the auto industry with the $86 billion bailout, and helping the government make a profit through GM's IPO. Record-low interest rates are available today, and corporations are back to making big profits. That's capitalism, not socialism. He also ushered in health care reform, covering millions of uninsured. Now he just needs to improve his offense -- start shouting.

I suspect that with election season being just around the corner, Team Obama will begin talking about some of the things he has gotten accomplished, and hopefully that will counter some of the negative rhetoric the right keeps spewing. Its time for the left to start shouting loud and frequently.