Thursday, July 2, 2015

What To Slave Is 4th of July - Frederick Douglass; Education, Race,Gender and Careers; Army of Moms Patrol Community After Shooting; BlackHomeschool Expo


What To Slave Is 4th of July
Education, Race, Gender and Careers
Army of Moms Patrol
Homeschool Expo
Reparations
Most Powerful Action--Teaching Black Males to Read Well
What, to the American Slave,
Is Your Fourth of July?
by Frederick Douglass
July 5, 1852
Frederick Douglass
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day.
A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning.
I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude.
You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say. I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history-the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was "settled" that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were "final"; not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness.
Click Here to Read Full Speech
Education, race, gender
By Kennedy Taylor
Guest Columnist
June 30, 2015

Kennedy Taylor
In a report entitled "Education Pays 2013: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society," data shows the value of race, gender, and education level as it pertains to earning potential and societal benefits such as civic involvement, voting, and parent/child involvement.
With relatively little variance, the greatest predictor of individual earning potential is education level. The study found that if an individual has a bachelor's degree they will, on average, earn between $39,500 and $57,600, a span of $18,100. On the other hand, an individual with less than a high school diploma can expect average annual earnings between $18,300 and $29,200, a span of $10,900.
The data from this report shows that race and gender also hold value as to where an individual might fall within the span of their educational level indicator. Of those, with less than a high school diploma, a Hispanic female is likely to fall at the lowest end of the earning spectrum earning an average of $18,300 annually.
A black female would, on average, earn $19,300 annually. A white female holding less than a high school diploma could expect to earn $21, 800. Hispanic males holding less than a high school diploma earn an average of $22,700. By comparison, a black male of the same education level earns an average of $25,200 and a white male holding less than a high school diploma on average earns $29,200.
Similar earning patterns exist across every education level. The overall earning window increases with each increase of educational level achieved, but the spread within that window show that women are on average at the lower end while men are at the upper end.
The report offered no explanation for the pattern, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

Click Here to Read Full Story
'Army of Moms' Starts Patrolling South Side After Shooting
Tamar Manasseh of Mothers Against Senseless Killings is hoping to to break the violent cycle of retaliatory violence in Englewood by restoring some of the power of parents. DNAinfo/Sam Cholke)
By Sam Cholke
June 30, 2015
CHICAGO/ENGLEWOOD - An army of mothers started patrolling their neighborhood on Monday, gathering on corners after a shooting.
Mothers Against Senseless Killings volunteers in pink shirts were sitting in folding chairs and leaning against a mailbox at 75th Street and Harvard Avenue on Monday, hoping to prevent a violent retaliation after the death of Lucille Barnes a week ago.
"People are very emotional about it, and we don't know what's going to happen," said Tamar Manasseh. "If people say there will be violence, there likely will be violence, and you go where you're called."
According to police, a man walked by Barnes and two other women at 11:35 p.m. on June 23 in the 7500 block of Stewart Avenue and opened fire, fatally wounding 34-year-old Barnes.
Manasseh mobilized the group for the first time after the shooting on the gamble that even the most embittered and determined on vengeance would not shoot under the glare of a motherly eye - let alone 15 sets of maternal eyes.
"If you're trying to shoot someone and we're out here, you're not getting off the block," said Manasseh, who grew up on the northern edge of Englewood at Garfield Boulevard and Bishop Street.
The group plans to plant itself on the corner for four hours, beginning at from 4 p.m., and return every day until Labor Day.
The group brought grills and hot dogs, but no police. The idea was to show in unmistakable terms that the message to would-be shooters is coming from within the community.

"When you let a bunch of 16-year-olds run the world, this is what it looks like," Manasseh said.

The Mothers Against Senseless Killings view is that guns are a symptom of a bigger problem: Parents have given up their authority to their children and now fear them when after seeing what teens will do with that power.
Click Here to Read Full Story
Liberated Minds Black
Homeschool & Education Expo
Queen Taese - Homeschool Parent/Educator Executive Committee Director for The Liberated Minds Expo
Hotep Family,
Much love and strength to you and your families! I am honored to be in the position to assist in the organization of The 2015 Liberated Minds Expo. Creating a sacred space for the cultivation of our Afrikan children & families is critical because this is an incredible opportunity for us homeschoolers, parents, & educators to study, embrace, and implement powerful SOLUTIONS!
I take this very seriously and with a high level of integrity. NO MORE KILLING OUR SONS & DAUGHTERS through the myriad of mediums that have been created to destroy our culture and mere existence. We are taking full control of our destiny!
As we forge into our 4th year with some amazing accomplishments under our belt, we are diligently working to provide the mandatory education and resources for Afrikans by Afrikans! I welcome you to STEP INTO YOUR TRUE POWER! Try it on. I am sure it will fit you well.
Infinite Love & Prosperity to you all!
ABIBIFAHODIE! (Afrikan Liberation),
Queen Taese
Click Here to Learn More About the 4th Annual Liberated Minds Black Homeschool & Education Expo.
Press Release
National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) Sends Urgent Letter to Obama
Calls on him to establish the 'John Hope Franklin Commission on Reparatory Justice'
Kamm Howard
In the wake of the recent massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, the National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) is calling on President Obama to issue an executive order that establishes a Commission on Reparatory Justice to address white supremacy "in all of its individual, institutional and structural manifestations."
The letter describes white supremacy and racism as "a deadly disease" that remains deeply imbedded in the American psyche and the social, economic and political fabric of US society.
The National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) is comprised of eminent black leaders from the legal, academic, health and faith-based communities across the country.
NAARC is requesting that President Obama name the Commission in honor of the esteemed historian and academic Dr. John Hope Franklin who had chaired President Bill Clinton's Commission on Race some 22 years ago. "In honor of Dr. Franklin's 100th birthday, we call upon you to have the vision to create a commission on reparatory justice in his name. This is only fitting as it also offers an opportunity to complete the unfinished work of President Clinton's Commission on Race", states the letter.
Dr. Ron Daniels, convenor of the NAARC and President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), said that from Ferguson to Baltimore to Charleston, this most recent period has revealed that white supremacy is alive and well in the United States.
"As you have related, Mr. President, despite progress since the era of enslavement, Jim Crow and de fact discrimination/segregation the 'badges and indicia' of the long-standing exploitation and oppression of people of African descent are reflected in the devastating disparities in health, education, housing, employment, economic development, wealth and incarceration rates which harm large numbers of Black people each and every day in this land of enormous opportunity," the letter states.
A Luta Continua - The Struggle Continues
Kamm Howard
Amos N Wilson Institute GB2B
N'COBRA www.ncobra.org
"Power concedes nothing without a demand." Frederick Douglass
Black Is Back Coalition Blackisbackcoalition.org
Click Here to read full letter
Teaching Black Males to Read Well Is The Most Powerful Action That Black America Can Take
Left to Right ) Yosef Israel, Carlson Ayanjaya (rear),
Maalik Henderson (front), Jordan Dunn, Jazz Dunn, Shemuel Yisrael.
Listen to young Black men read and discuss Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Carter G. Woodson, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Click Here to hear outstanding reading and excellent discussion on these great Black heroes! Do you want a revolution??? It starts with teaching Black males to read well. Please share this program with other young Black men. Please call 773.285.9600 if you want to contribute to young Black males reading well or Click Here to contribute or send your support to: The Black Star Project, 3509 South King Drive, Suite 2B, Chicago, Illinois 60653.
Word of the Day
From The Black Star Learning Center
Zeitgeist - [tsahyt-gahyst],
noun (German).
1.
the spirit, attitude, or general outlook of a specific time or period, esp as it is reflected in literature, philosophy, etc. 2. The taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation.
Example of use - Advertisers, who after all make their living gauging the Zeitgeist, were not slow in responding.
(Word shared by Marc Sims)
20th Anniversary
Million Man March 2015

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