Democrats Aren't Your Friend Either

Democrats aren’t your friend either. Both parties in this bipartisan system are invested in maintaining the supremacy that oppresses and subjugates people experiencing marginalization. Whatever their intentions, people on both sides are invested in keeping the existing hierarchy. It should go without saying that in arguing this, I don’t mean that the platforms of both Dems and Reps have the same level of detriment, rather I hope to discuss the fact that both cannot bring the change necessary for liberation. As dominant currents, both aim to subordinate the public. Any support of a capitalist system supports the competition and dehumanization (individual worth determinant on monetary status) of that system, thereby working against the efforts necessary to achieve any type of justice. These politicians observe pain passively while preforming their duty to their monetary contributors, not their regional constituency. Political monopolies (and oligopolies) must be abolished in the process of destroying coercive institutions. There is not a single person who can validly argue that the lifeless rhythm of the US political machine can be assuaged by political identification. Democrats play the same game as Republicans, and while you can easily vote for the lesser of two evils, I sincerely hope that you are not blind to the history of abuse and hegemony that maintains the game and do not quake in the face of the assertion that the game itself must be abolished to achieve sustainable and equitable justice.

We live in a monetary dictatorship and changing the world so drastically is frightening to say the least. To dismantle everything, start everywhere. Your subversive actions can go even further with greater social support. Activism networks amplify actions and connect like-minded individuals. What are the alternatives to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents? Anti-capitalism is a good place to start. You cannot be anti-racist and not be anti-capitalist. So now you need to ask yourself, what does my anti-capitalism look like? Start by reframing your consciousness and considering the expressions and manifestations of power imbalances in everyday life. Focusing on the theoretical alone is inherently dangerous; I strongly encourage joining the Memphis movement through the Memphis activism calendar: Memphisactivismcalendar.weebly.com. For instant (and relatively rare) notifications of what’s going down, text @memphisact to 81010.

We cannot wait for our “representatives” to change the system they cannot exist without.

Preservation of historical spaces

When thinking back on history we often focus on the people we perceive as driving its big events, rather than the everyday locations where history happens. Because of this, many historic locations are destroyed or abandoned because the history behind them is not fully appreciated. In Atlanta, many such historic sites from the civil rights movement are in such a situation. The city is in danger of loosing historic locations such as Paschal’s restaurant, where "Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Paschal’s to strategize. So did students from the nearby black colleges and universities". Locations such as Paschal's were important parts of the civil rights movement. They provided places for activists to network, organize, and unwind. The owners of the restaurant fed and housed activists, and even posted bail for them on occasion. "The former restaurant and the old Paschal’s motel are among several civil rights sites around Atlanta that have received little recognition, despite the city’s image as a destination for civil rights tourism". Because these locations are not as well known, and aren't part of the master narrative of the civil rights movement they don't receive the funding necessary to preserve their history: "“Dr. King was just part of the story of the civil rights movement. And Dr. King didn’t do it alone,” he said. “You know, there were thousands and thousands of people who were involved in the struggle.” however Even the creation of MLK'S memorial required concerted effort from Coretta Scott King and other activists. Historians have the chance to preserve these historic locations, but that time is quickly running out due to the frugal construction of the buildings and the toll of the weather on them. "Preserving buildings, though, takes more than history. Jack Pyburn, an architect specializing in historic preservation at Lord Aeck Sargent, said other things matter too: money and political will." That political will must come from a younger generation of political charged activists who are committed to preserving the memory and legacy of the civil rights movement. These structures could serve as valuable tools for outreach and education in the civil rights movement going forward. However these sites of Black history are equally deserving of the attention that white historical spaces have been granted, and can teach us just as much, of not more, about our nation's history:  "What happened here at Paschal’s, right where we’re standing is the story of the nation,”

https://www.wabe.org/civil-rights-sites-atlanta-remain-unrecognized-disrepair/

Environmental racism affecting Memphis in this sense means: " socially marginalized racial minority communities subjected to disproportionate exposure to pollutants". A notable case of environmental racism the Flint Michigan crisis, where insufficient water treatment led to unhealthy living conditions for thousands of residents, many whom were black and many whom were poor had no access to clean running water. Often times environmental racism occurs in industrialized neighborhoods affecting poor people the most. This problem has afflicted Memphis in many ways, for the purpose of this post I will focus on cancer in Memphis.
Racial disparities in survival outcomes by breast tumor subtype among African American women (Vidal) and Relationship of racial composition and cancer risks from air toxics exposure in Memphis, Tennessee (Jia), do excellent jobs of addressing issues that are almost identical using different sects of intersectionality, one with race and gender the other with race and income. Vidal explained the statistics of breast cancer survival rates among African American women in Memphis. With research data collected from Methodist Health Care and West Clinic, the results showed that it AA women had poorer survival outcomes. While the report briefly mentioned the possible contributors to this, socioeconomic background and age among other things, it focused on biological differences. Jia focused more on poverty-stricken neighborhoods, which often times have nearby industrial facilities in dense spaces, resulting in high exposure to harmful air toxins. Instead of using as much scientific data, this report was more focused on economically disadvantaged areas and the negative effects of environmental racism.
Despite the promotion of so many health facilities in Memphis, especially the focus on cancer facilities, clearly many people in the city are suffering.  Poor industrialized neighborhoods that suffer from this are often majority black communities, due to things like segregation. Reoccurrence of the government's blatant disregard for the health and life of the poor black community is extremely apparent.

Jia, C., James, W., & Kedia, S. (2014). Relationship of racial composition and cancer risks from air toxics exposure in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11(8), 7713-24. Retrieved from http://relay.rhodes.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1558844677? accountid=13503

Vidal, G., Bursac, Z., Miranda‐Carboni, G., White‐Means, S., & Starlard‐Davenport, A. (2017). Racial disparities in survival outcomes by breast tumor subtype among African American women in Memphis, Tennessee. Cancer Medicine, 6(7), 1776–1786. http://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.1117

Corporate Exploitation of Activism

The Superbowl has become a major event each year, attracting thousands of viewers not just with Football, but also with its unique commercials. Corporations spend millions on advertising slots in order to have their products reach as many Americans as possible. The desire to be memorable causes each company to try and make the funniest, most inspiring, or most cringe-worthy advertisement to capture the minds of the public. At this years 2018 Superbowl, car manufacturer Ram drew attention when it used civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr in its advertisement. The ad used an excerpt from his "Drum Major Instinct" speech combined with its own motto of "built to serve" to sell pickup trucks. This move drew criticism from the tone deaf way it used MLK's words, and the fact that it ignores the full reality of MLK's
politics and activism. Although it is frequently glossed over when MLK is brought up today, he was highly critical of the capitalist economic system that he saw oppressing African Americans. In fact, the very same speech that Ram quoted for their advertisement, King said: "Now the presence of this instinct explains why we are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. And they have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbors envious, you must drive this type of car. In order to be lovely to love you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you’re just buying that stuff. … I got to drive this car because it’s something about this car that makes my car a little better than my neighbor’s car. … I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America". Kings saw advertisement as a tool used to put working class people into conflict with eachother, preventing them from fully cooperating with each other against the cause of their oppression. Using his words to advance the exact mentality that he fought against is a complete corruption of the original intent of his speech.

Ron Brown College Prep: Can We Move Back towards a Self-Empowerment Model of Education?

As we have mentioned before in class, the education system in the U.S has undergone massive changes, not just in the wake of desegregation, but complete changes in attitude about what a school or a teacher was supposed to accomplish. Many scholars and students will openly acknowledge that the education system that dominates in the U.S – a system based around standardized testing and academic acceptance rates- is deeply flawed in the inaccuracy of the measurements, but also the racial biases and divides they enforce and encourage.

But what can we do? Can we avoid playing into this flawed system?

These questions made me incredibly interested when I heard the Codeswitch team (which focuses on race and identity in the U.S.) at NPR would be following the first year of operation of a new, revolutionary high school in Washington, D.C. The high school - Ron Brown College Prep – is an all-boys, all-people-of-color school that is based on the leadership of Principal Ben Williams and the school psychologist Charles Curtis, a faculty of exceptional black teachers, as well as a team of staff and other students that are dedicated to emotionally supporting and personally engaging with all the students (called the CARE team). The entire organization, policies, and curriculum of Ron Brown are based on the goal of fostering self-love and self-respect in young men of color. They don’t even refer to their students as students, they call them “kings,” and the entire student body and CARE team begin each day complimenting each other and sharing their accomplishments from the day before. The CARE team is also responsible for resolving disputes or behavior that would normally result in disciplinary action in a typical public high school. In fact, going into the year, they had a no-expulsion, no-suspension policy. However, they weren’t able to maintain that policy until the end of 2017. This education model interests me because I feel like it is necessary and everything about it sounds like the perfect formula for bringing back self-empowerment education. The small student body, and the intense faculty investment in working with students at whatever skill level they enter the grade. Many of the students starting at Ron Brown had been passed through the D.C school system without truly learning the state-mandated curriculum. This story is not a simple turn-around of these once-neglected students into self-empowered kings who gracefully and completely rebounded from years of systemic racism over the course of one year. The problem is, the focus is on the students, not the academic standards of the state. Which means that this entire class of boys, nearly all of whom entered the school testing below their grade level, were not meeting the state goals established through standardized testing. Those scores are not meaningful to the school, but they are meaningful to the state. The problem is, school funding and achievement is often determined by these tests. So, can we base education on self-empowerment, in a system that does not value the self-empowerment of people of color? Is this the starting point we build from to change long-engrained racial biases? Or is this too late to build these school and community support systems? Does creating an all-black school promote racial separation?

The successes and failures of the first year of this school are so hopeful and heartbreaking. I strongly encourage everyone to listen to at least the first episode of the series; these students and teachers, –whether the school model ultimately succeeds or fails – are a testament to the basic concepts of empathy and human understanding that are so desperately in demand right now.

http://click.et.npr.org/?qs=69c792c51fbae17ab758c1dbd039d5473642d2510cc227e71453e9c132d6b9e481963d30fa947200d361f11fb0aa78cc69be21477aea8883eea5f49d69013fb0

Master Narrative of Progress

e master narrative paints the Civil Rights Movement as a done deal. Presumably the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 resulted in an immediate end to systematic oppression by outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, religion, origin. I mean, it’s not like White Supremacists and segregationists would just ignore the law, right? Obviously we know that things turned out differently. Although the laws passed on the momentum of the civil rights movement prohibited outright racial discrimination, it did not automatically improve the conditions of African Americans, especially with weak enforcement from the federal government. This is especially true in Memphis, where economic inequality between races has remained exceptionally high, even while it has been decreasing in cities of similar size. Although statistics show that significant progress has been made in the area of education, a new report from the National Civil Rights Museum and the University of Memphis has shown that "On this 50th anniversary of Dr. King's cruel assassination, and more than fifty years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, African-Americans still lag far behind whites in Shelby County ... Poverty for African-Americans in Shelby County is three times that of whites, and median income for African-Americans has remained about half that of whites through the decades." Even with greater access to education, black Memphians face barriers that keep thousands in poverty. The report singles out racist enforcement of drug laws as one barrier, as criminal records from drug convictions can be a serious barrier to employment. Although studies have shown that white and black communities use recreational drugs at similar rates, drug enforcement and convictions disproportionately affect black communities. However, contradicting this master narrative is still controversial. When Angela Rye criticized the lack of progress in Memphis since the 1968 Sanitation workers strike, she was met with criticism from Mayor Strickland and other Memphis officials: "'We certainly wish she had not phrased her sentiments in that way and it was unprofessional and quite frankly, classless,' said Ursula Madden, communications director". This paternalistic response to the simple truths of Memphis' situation, couched in the language of the politics of respectability, makes it seem like Memphis' leadership is more concerned with its image than the conditions of its black citizens. They would rather cling to the master narrative and refuse to recognize their problems than admit their lack of progress.

https://amp.commercialappeal.com/amp/378513002

http://wreg.com/2018/02/26/mayor-strickland-responds-to-cnn-pundits-criticisms-at-i-am-memphis-event/amp/

Recently opened stands the Crosstown Concourse building, a project spurred by Crosstown Arts to create a multi-use building in the heart of Memphis. The project has a focus on the Memphis community and many founding tenants are Memphis-based nonprofits including, the Poplar Foundation, Pyramid Peak Foundation, and A Step Ahead Foundation. The building also has residential living areas. But living in the old Sears building comes at a steep price, and since its opening rental home prices near the building have been creeping up. One particular building directly across the street from Crosstown Concourse is where the Cleveland Street Flea Market was held. 
 

The Cleveland Street Flea Market has a rich history and a number of vendors have been there since the beginning. It has become a community of its own as well as a staple to the community around it. Crosstown Arts has been managing the flea market for 5 years and leased the building they reside in but the lease is up, and the property value has gone up a considerable amount because of the newly renovated Sears building.  

The nearly 20-year-old neighborhood staple has had their last day in that building and a "possible" arrangement is being made for the flea market to move elsewhere in midtown.  
Along with that the co-founder of Crosstown Arts recently released a statement about the Flea Market stating, "We operated the market for five years as long as we could, but operating the flea market is not part of Crosstown Arts mission of further cultivating the creative community in Memphis." As they start their search for someone who can operate the flea market and a new building to hold it in, the value around Crosstown continues to rise.  Black space continues to be disregarded in every manner as gentrification continually hits Memphis neighborhoods. Often its disguised as revitalization, but many times that is not the case. There are many sides to each case and a number of factors, but I believe the series of events that has occurred is a disregard for black space. 

'I am a Man' and the effect on Women

In Battling the Plantation Mentality by Laurie Green, in the penultimate chapter there is a passage that particularly stands out to me in an inspiring way. The passage concerns the importance of the ‘I am a Man’ slogan and its impact not only on male workers in Memphis, but also black working-class women at work and also in the home.

In the passage, Green tells of how the slogan was used by African American women not only as a sign and claim of freedom, but also as a sign of protest towards the paternalism of their supervisors who often proclaimed that they did not work hard enough. This is so powerful because it is a statement from the working-class women that emphasises that just because they are women, doesn’t mean that you can treat them like they are children, or that they need to be encouraged to work harder. We’ve spoken in class at length on the treatment women faced in the workplace, and I believe their use of the slogan shows the multiple dimensions of the movement to include more than just race issues.

More important than this, however, is dimension of freedom that Green mentions which was bought to the household. For women to also be using this slogan, it highlights not just the racial equality that they were looking for, but also for gender equality. It deeply challenged the stigma of the time that called for the men of the house to be the bread-winner, and for the women to be the caregivers and look after the home. This slogan challenges this stigma, and encourages women to take on the ‘supposed’ male role and earn the money. As with the previous statement, it challenges the paternalism of society but not just in white communities, but in African American communities also.

This one tiny passage in Green’s book pushes the Civil Rights movement beyond just race, but makes it into something bigger, a key aspect which is important to remember. The message of the Civil Rights Movement was about achieving equality and justice, and the use of the slogan by African American women pushes this ideal into something far greater than perhaps it was originally intended. “I am a Man” encouraging women to break out of the confines of womanhood is truly inspiring and, in my eyes, adds new depths to this already standout movement.

Laurie Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality 

Confederate Statue Removal is a Step in the Right Direction, But Memphis Still Has a Ways to go

The political dichotomy between race and space has always loomed large over Memphis. One of the most glaring examples is how the city is still very much divided by race as it was 50 years ago. Many of the black communities still suffer from redlining and other forms of divestment and neglect. The fact that a disproportionate black Memphians live in substandard conditions shows that the mark of white supremacy still looms large in the minds of both white city leaders and black citizens. This divestment in the communities was not caused by redlining policies alone. In the 1950s, Memphis was a booming town that saw massive growth in the population of both black and white residents. Soon the strategically carved spaces for black people to live in within the city limits became too small to confine the number of growing black residents and they began to prosper despite the obstacles put in their way.

The surge in the black population also brought along opportunities for black people to organize and become more economically independent. The advancement of the Negro community naturally angered their white counterparts and in 1954, E.H. “Boss” Crump ordered to have a statue erected to commemorate the founding klansman and confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. While many Memphians saw this as a harmless homage to the confederacy, the context under which it was put up suggests otherwise.

The year 1954 was about one hundred years removed from the end of the civil war, and in that period some righteously angry World War II veterans who wished to lay claim to their full rights as American citizens had started many conversations about race and class. By the time of the statue’s erection, the second wave of the push for civil rights by African Americans was well under way. Landmark court cases like Brown v. Board of Education had given black Memphians interested in civil rights activism the confidence to keep fighting. Naturally, white Memphians were angry and felt that they had been deprived of their right to oppress others sought for more subtle ways to do so. (Ironic right?) Through this lens, it can be inferred the erection of the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue was meant to send a message that white supremacy was there to stay and that no matter how hard Memphis’ Negro citizens tried, they would never be fully accepted into the mainstream of Memphis’ society.

This assertion of white supremacy through this statue would leave a mark on the city that is still seen today. As the demographics of Memphis changed, black Memphians began to look at the statue with more open contempt and in the early 2010’s there were pushes to take it down. The city put it on a referendum and Memphians said loud and clear that they did not want the statue there anymore. However, the action of taking the statues down was blocked by a law from the state senate that forbade cities to take down monuments without the state’s permission. This was a particularly demoralizing blow to the cities black residents because it meant that they had to keep feeling like second class citizens in their own city.

However, city leaders did not stop there. They spent the next 4 years deliberating and looking for ways around the unjust legislation from last year and in a stroke of genius, they used a loophole in the law to sell the parklands to a private, Non-Profit organization. On December 20, 2017, the statues were removed from the parks finally. While this seminal event was a huge step in the right direction, the city still has to do the legwork to usher in a true paradigm shift.

Reparations for Living Black Sanitation Workers from 1968 Strike

On her website entitled “MLK50: Justice through Journalism”, Wendi C. Thomas has written an impressive number of interesting articles that are directly applicable to the focus of our course and class discussions. Thomas’s articles reveal the ways in which structures of institutionalized racism have remained within the city of Memphis. Thomas wrote an article last July entitled “Reparations well-intentioned, but insufficient for the debt owed; City of Memphis gives $50,000 each to the 14 living black sanitation workers from the 1968 strike”.

This article analyzes Jim Strickland’s pledge to grant a total of $700,000 from the City of Memphis. Strickland’s program emphasizes the intended purpose clearly, and his post social media post announces that, “a more secure retirement for sanitation workers has eluded us for nearly 50 years. Today, I’m announcing that will change.” This article did not mention it, but I am curious of the economic benefits for the City of Memphis with the events planned to commemorate the MLK50.

Thomas mentions an article written by a researcher who conducted an in depth economic research project which eventually concluded that “it will take 238 years for the average black family to build the same amount of wealth of the average white family”[1] I had never seen this concept described in this way before. Wendi C. Thomas concludes her article with a simple explanation for these economic racial disparities. She writes that these ongoing inequities present in our society are “not an accident. The wealth gap is largely the creation of racist public policy. It will take anti-racist public policy to solve it.” [2]

Working from the viewpoint of creating anti-racist public policy seems like a very logical way to counteract the systemic and generational inequities that originated in racist public policies. From what I understand, for the most part when it comes to replacing racist public policies the solution is to institute policies that are simply not shown to be racist. From what I gathered from Wendi Thomas’s article, this will not be enough to counteract the government-sanctioned policies that have been historically disadvantaging black communities ever since America was founded. By attempting to design policies that actively push against this systemic racial inequality, perhaps it is possible to counteract some of the damage.

Thomas, Wendi C. “Reparations Well-Intentioned, but Insufficient for the Debt Owed.” MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, 6 July 2017, https://mlk50.com/reparations-well-intentioned-but-insufficient-for-the-debt-owed-5aa4d327c31f.

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[1] Wendi C. Thomas, “Reparations Well-Intentioned, but Insufficient for the Debt Owed,” MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, 6 July 2017, https://mlk50.com/reparations-well-intentioned-but-insufficient-for-the-debt-owed-5aa4d327c31f.

[2] Ibid.

Go Forth and Gentrify

Gentrification has been a national phenomenon in coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles since the early nineties. However, it is just now that this 5-syllable word has come into mainstream recognition. The term was coined back in 1964 by the British sociologist Ruth glass to describe the process by which the demographics of her neighborhood was changing. There are many forces that drive gentrification, but the mother of all of those is capitalism.

When people of a higher socio-economic status move into an area, they are typically looking to capitalize on the low market valuation that was caused by years of divestment and neglect. They also bring copious amounts of resources with them. On the surface this seems like a good, but reality shows that these people have little interest in investing in the community that is already present and thriving. It also does not help that gentrification in the American context is inherently linked with racism because the communities that usually suffer from neglect and divestment are poor and working class communities of color.

To make matters worse, when outsiders bring their resources with them, it pushes the people who are a part of the existing community out of their homes and strips their communities right from under their feet. Due to the low property values and its central location, Memphis is fertile ground for those looking to invest in urban real estate. Years of De Facto and De Jure segregation have left the city split between the races. As expected, the communities that are the most blighted and underserved are Memphis’s black and brown populations who stand to be the next group of Americans to have their neighborhood spaces recolonized by young urban professionals.

However, one community in Memphis sought to stand up to the forces of the market and look out for its poorer residents. The Klondike community in North Memphis gathered in an effort to stave off gentrification and protect their livelihood from being systematically stomped out of the area. The main force that threatens to push residents out of this area was the newly opened crosstown concourse, a massive building that houses multiple businesses, civic spaces, and luxury apartments. The arrival of this establishment was a symbol to the Klondike community to gather its resources and protect itself from recolonization. In my personal experience with the crosstown concourse, I think that the damage is already done and the neighborhoods around it are more than at risk.

I attended an art gallery opening about a month ago, and at one of the most crowded exhibits, I could only find two black faces other than mine. The types of businesses housed within the building, like the Curb Market which is the most expensive grocery stores in the city, are not particularly meant to serve the needs of the community on the outside of its walls. This ties directly into the black struggle for freedom because crosstown stands as a harbinger for the uncomfortable discussions on the dichotomy between race and space to come.

Athletes Fight Back Against Trump

On Tuesday earlier this week, the Golden State Warriors made the trip out east to Washington D.C. where they took a group of elementary school children to the Museum of African American History and Culture.  However, they were supposed to be at the White House, celebrating their latest NBA Championship win.  It is customary for all championship teams of American sports such as basketball, baseball, and football to visit the White House and spend the day with the president.  The team will usually offer the President a gift like a jersey and he in return will speak to the nation about how these various teams came to win their championship.  The two sides will send jokes back and forth and everybody is having a great time.  This year however, the event will not happen for the 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors.  Many players have made statements discussing the action of not going to the White House.  NBA superstar Steph Curry was quoted saying that “We [the Golden State Warriors] don’t stand for basically what our president has — the things that he’s said and the things that he hasn’t said in the right times, that we won’t stand for it,” Curry said. “And by acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to.”  After Curry made this comment, our current President took to twitter to formally uninvite Steph and the other members of the Warriors.  With that burden off of their backs, they had the decision of what to do with their free time.  In the end, the team chose to “constructively use [their] trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that [they] embrace as an organization.”  Is it right for these NBA players to boycott their visit to the White House because they dislike Trump?  Please let me know your thoughts.  Myself, I totally agree in this situation.  No person should be forced to go someplace that they don’t want to go to.  With the way things currently are with our President, this article came as no surprise.  I like to see more and more athletes using their stage to voice their opinions about what is going on in the world, and more specifically, our country.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/warriors-students-african-american-museum-white-house_us_5a959da4e4b036ab0142fb6e

Modern Day Censorship

Donald Glover’s Atlanta, is a TV show on FX that follows the lives of two cousins navigating their way in the Atlanta rap scene in an effort to improve their lives and the lives of their families.  The show has only begun its second season and has already received critical acclaim and various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Glover, and two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.  ‘Atlanta’ has made Glover the first African-American to win an Emmy for the category of Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.  I consider myself a Donald Glover supporter in all that he does both in film and in music.  I have been a huge fan of the series since its beginning in 2016, so when I found this article, I was absolutely dumbfounded.  This piece by huffingtonpost talks about a situation between the network and Glover before the show ever aired.  Apparently, some studio heads from FX network asked Glover to cut out his use of the ‘n-word’ in the pilot episode of ‘Atlanta’ for undisclosed reasons.  Glover was recorded commenting about the situation, saying, “I’m black, making a very black show, and they’re telling me I can’t use the N-word! Only in a world run by white people would that happen.”  I was so appalled when I found this article, not just for what it said, but also because of how recent it is.  The article is from three days ago, and it is talking about a situation that occurred almost two years ago.  Why is this just coming out now? How did it get out? I have so many sorts of these questions that I think will probably go unanswered.  Nevertheless, this situation happened and we must deal with it.  How could FX possibly think that they could censor someone’s show in this way?  The use of the word brings a certain level of truth in its context of the show.  It is a necessary aspect that must be included in the show for its authenticity.  But the network is concerned about what certain viewers might think of FX after hearing the n-word on this show and therefore they asked Mr. Glover to remove it.  Even though the n-word did not appear in the pilot episode, it has been used since. Was it fair for FX to ask Mr. Glover to censor his episode if it was just the pilot? In the end I believe this action by FX continues to show the racist agenda of these media powers and their censorship of black culture.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-glover-white-translator-atlanta_us_5a957252e4b02cb368c60b0c

Two Nations, Separate and Unequal

In 1967, Lyndon B. Johnson formed a commission to investigate the underlying causes of a series of race riots across the country. Brown v. Board had already long been debated in the Supreme Court. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act both already had Johnson’s signature. The President was seemingly baffled by the idea that African Americans were still unhappy with their place in American society.

The Kerner Commission spent seven months investigating urban areas across the country and found a country headed towards “two societies, one black and one white – separate and unequal.” The 400-page report singled out economic inequality as the prevailing frustration among African American communities, indeed even after they received expanded political rights. The report also gave a list of recommendations for moving forward towards a more stable union, including equal access to adequate housing and jobs in cities.

                                                   

Johnson, however, dismissed the report as fiction.

In 2018, the Hooks Institute for Social Change, in cooperation with the National Civil Rights Museum, released a new report. The central question in the report was how far African Americans have come in fifty years, judging by indicators of economic progress.

To put it simply, the report better answers the question not of how far black Memphians have come, but rather just how far they’ve economically regressed.

The report demonstrates that the childhood poverty rate for African American children is four times greater than that of white children. African Americans still earn less than half of white earners. Where the incarceration rate for white people fell slightly, that of African Americans has steadily increased.

There is little optimism in the new report, as there is very little to be found. African Americans still live in a society of economic and social segregation. While federal and state legislatures may not uphold Jim Crow laws in 2018, the past fifty years have seen a continuity in African American success, restricted by the legacy of segregation that has persisted into the twenty-first century.

We as a nation have to get away from the notion that just because we desegregated schools in 1954 does not mean that America did away with racial inequality. The underlying nature of segregation was far more pervasive.

Segregation was not simply a distinction between white schools and black schools or white lunch counters and black lunch counters. It was white jobs and black jobs. White neighborhoods and black neighborhoods. White thoughts and black thoughts. White prosperity and black poverty.

Jim Crow was not content with ensuring that black children did not ride the same school bus as white children. Jim Crow laws restricted everything from social status to economic mobility, and these are restrictions that even as of 2018 remain unaddressed.

Unfortunately, the Kerner nightmare, in many ways, came true. We have steadily moved in the direction a stratified nation, split along racial and economic lines. Until America can acknowledge the historical implications of segregation and address the inequalities that have only gotten worse as a consequence of segregation, we will continue to be two nations, separate and unequal.