BigBlackBlog

Road Kill Road Warrior

2005-09-15T07:44:00.000-04:00

This was too bizarre for me not to post. A German man has created a biofuel which contains, of all things, dead cats, giving legions of car owners fed up with high gas prices a new reason to visit their local animal shelter.

Straight, But Not Narrow

2005-09-15T07:20:00.000-04:00

Editors of a San Diego paper take up arms against their less evolved heterosexual colleagues on the issue of gay marriage in California.

Poo Poo-ing the Pledge

2005-09-15T06:28:00.000-04:00

A federal court in Indiana rules the pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional. Could this end up being a case Judge Roberts will preside over as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?

Mass. Legislature Soundly Defeats Bill to Ban Gay Marriage

2005-09-15T06:24:00.000-04:00

Recognizing that the political landscape has changed, many legislators who were fearful of supporting gay marriage in the past, change their positions.

Roberts Dodges Gay Rights Question

2005-09-15T06:15:00.000-04:00

Septemember 15, 2005 From Advocate.com

During Senate confirmation hearings on Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court chief justice nominee John Roberts demurred from answering a gay rights question posed by Sen. Russ Feingold. The Wisconsin Democrat asked Roberts whether he thought the Constitution gives Congress the power to ban employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. Roberts replied, as he has many times in this week's confirmation hearings, that he can't express an opinion on matters he might have to rule on. "Personally, I believe that everybody should be treated with dignity in this area, and respect," he said. "But the legal question of Congress's authority to address that, though, is one that could come before the courts."

Feingold also grilled Roberts about a memo he wrote when he was a White House lawyer in 1985, suggesting that a note saying the AIDS virus is not transmitted through casual contact be dropped from briefing materials for President Reagan. Roberts said Wednesday he did not "want the president giving out medical advice if it was a subject of some uncertainty." Feingold retorted that the mode of transmission was fairly well understood in 1985 and that the suggested change represented a lost opportunity for "presidential leadership and reassurance." (Sirius/OutQ)

Zulu King Gets Raked For Homophobic Remarks

2005-09-14T07:29:00.000-04:00

King Goodwill is apparently lacking in his namesake's department.

Judge Roberts On Racism

2005-09-14T07:25:00.000-04:00

Apparently the future Chief Supreme Court Justice feels It's alright...as long as you don't get caught, and nobody can say that your actions, or lack thereof, had a racist result. Convenient, isn't it?

It's Open Season On Young Black Males In NOLA If You're A Sheriff's Deputy In Katrina's Wake

2005-09-14T07:22:00.000-04:00

New England national guardsmen are startled at the racism they observe by law enforcement against blacks in Katrina's wake

The "Broke" Little Movie That Could

2005-09-11T08:47:00.000-04:00

Filmed on a shoe string budget in Canada to save money, director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a love story between two cowboys spanning 20 years, has become the most celebrated indie film since Hustle And Flow.

Pentagon Seeks Preemptive Use Of Nuclear Weapons

2005-09-11T08:39:00.000-04:00

I suppose as the world's only super power, we may need them to bomb the next Katrina.

Halliburton Subsidiary, Bechtel Get Katrina Contracts From FEMA

2005-09-11T08:32:00.000-04:00

Surprised? You shouldn't be! Now we know why the Bush administration made it possible for contractors to hire employees below the going wage in areas hit by Katrina. Do these people have even an iota of compunction?

Judge Supports CNN Request To Cover Katrina Death Toll

2005-09-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

After some legal rangling, the federal government decides not to enforce its "zero access" policy for reporters covering recovery efforts for the bodies of victims killed in the aftermath of the storm.

Bush Allows Contractors To Pay Below Prevailing Wage In Areas Hit By Katrina

2005-09-10T07:42:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how this is supposed to help the rebuilding effort- would you want to work for less than you know you should be getting, especially if you knew your contractor boss was getting a fat check from the government that would add to their bottom line? Maybe this is part of the trickle- down-voodoo economics the neo-cons love so much, and that benefitted so many poor people in New Orleans so tremendously that they couldn't afford to evacuate before the storm.

Conservatives Place Schwarzenegger Between A Political Rock And A Hard Place

2005-09-10T06:22:00.000-04:00

Once the darling of conservatives everywhere, and the brightest star in the Republican Party, the Govenator's patina is wearing off, and the honeymoon appears to be over. Whether he vetoes California's gay marriage bill or not, conservatives in his base aren't going to be happy. If he doesn't veto the bill, he will be accused of supporting the "gay agenda". On the other hand, if he vetoes it and lets the courts decide, he will be accused of encouraging "judicial activism"- a big no no in the conservative camp. With an election year coming up next year, poor Arnie's ass is being baptised by political fire.

FEMA Leaders Lack Disaster Experience

2005-09-10T04:38:00.000-04:00

FEMA's incompetence has led to the deaths of untold numbers of people who waited in vain to be rescued after Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast. The Bush administration and its policies have led to more needless, unwarranted American deaths at home and abroad since his 2000 coronation by the Supreme Court than any U.S. President since Nixon. I think its time to start a grassroots Presidential recall effort.

Gore Airlifts Katrina Victims To Safety

2005-09-10T04:24:00.000-04:00

Three days into the aftermath of Katrina, the former U.S. Vice President managed to do what the current President couldn't or wouldn't do: organize and execute a successful mission to rescue survivors

I Can't Get This Bush Parody Out Of My Head!

2005-09-10T01:23:00.000-04:00

Kanye West, you've really started something...ya little stinker! LOL

Tight Constraints Placed On Pentagon's 9/11 Commemoration

2005-09-09T23:27:00.000-04:00

Security will be tight, and those who aren't registered will be arrested if they refuse to leave, according to officials.

Mozilla Adds Another Chink To Microsoft's Armor

2005-09-09T22:59:00.000-04:00

Mozilla has announced and released the new (but incomplete) beta version of its Firefox web browser. I gave up using Microsoft's Internet Explorer when I discovered Mozilla's Firefox web browser over a year ago, and haven't looked back since. Aside from the fact that Firefox is incredibly powerful, flexible, customizable, and FREE, there's the fact that Microsoft has gotten way too powerful, takes its customers for granted, and has mediocre products that are WAY too expensive and full of security issues. I've also always been one to root for the under dog.

If you haven't given Mozilla a try, or you're a brainwashed slave to the Microsoft monopoly's blustery chest beating, and you want to break free (at least in part) from the stranglehold this behemoth is placing on the industry, you should definitely give Firefox by Mozilla a look see. It does things that Internet Explorer can't even DREAM of doing, and it's much more secure. Since using it, the amount of spyware, spam and viruses on my pc has fallen to virtually nil, because Firefox doesn't accept scripts from the internet the way Internet Explorer does. Although the completed beta version won't be available until around the end of the year, the current version is still preferrable to Internet Explorer- especially if you want to heighten your pc's internet security. Free downloads are available in my links.

Bush, Advisors Show What They Lack In Effective Desire To Assist Poor Blacks In La., Is Made Up For With Political Savvy

2005-09-09T22:28:00.000-04:00

"By elevating Roberts to Chief Justice, Bush now faces only two confirmation hearings rather than the three required if he named an existing justice to the chief post. He avoids a contentious battle, yet assures himself of a conservative heading the court."

The Storm Heard Round The World

2005-09-09T21:58:00.000-04:00

How can the Bush administration's policies to spread glittering democracy and capitalism overseas be taken seriously at home or abroad, in light of the administrative incompetence and abject poverty exposed by Hurricane Katrina?

O'Connor Quiet On Rhenquist, Roberts

2005-09-09T21:52:00.000-04:00

The Associated Press
Friday, September 9, 2005; 8:49 PM

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor steered clear of directly discussing the big issues facing the nation's highest court while visiting the University of Florida's law school Friday.

O'Connor spoke before a crowd of 500 but did not mention the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the nomination of John Roberts to replace him, or her own delayed retirement plans.

What she did address was political influence on the judiciary.

"I am against judicial reform driven by nakedly partisan, result-oriented reasons," O'Connor told the group. "The experience of developing countries, former communist countries and our own political culture teaches us that we must be ever vigilant against those who would strong arm the judiciary into adopting their own preferred policies."

Without naming names, she faulted politicians from both parties for not understanding judicial independence.

"We have the power to make the other branches of government really angry," she said. She spoke at the dedication of a new university law library named for Lawton Chiles, a former Florida governor who died in 1998.

O'Connor, 75, announced her retirement in July but promised to remain on the court until her replacement is confirmed.

Bush initially nominated federal appellate judge John Roberts to succeed O'Connor, but on Monday nominated him to succeed Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Roberts' confirmation hearings are to begin next week.

Black Katrina Refugees Ask If Utah Will Really Accept Them

2005-09-09T21:49:00.000-04:00

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Asked whether he would relocate permanently to Utah after being brought here as a refugee from Hurricane Katrina, Larry Andrew rattled off a series of questions on Friday on the delicate issue of race.

"How do the adults really feel about us moving in?" he asked at Camp Williams, a military base 21 miles (34 km) south of Salt Lake City housing about 400 refugees from last weeks disaster. "What if I find a Caucasian girl and decide to date her?

"Will I have to deal with whispering behind me and eyeballing me?" asked the 36-year-old black man.

For the mostly poor, black refugees evacuated from New Orleans, few places are as geographically remote and culturally alien as this corner of Utah, where 0.2 percent of the population in the nearest town is black.

Still, some refugees, especially younger adults, say they are ready to make a new start in the region even though they did not know they were coming until the doors shut on the airplane evacuating them from New Orleans.

"I'm planning a whole new life," said Phillip Johnson II, 23, who has already arranged an apartment in Salt Lake City. "It's an opportunity knocking for me out here."

He said even though the population of New Orleans was two-thirds black, his appearance with dreadlocks and a goatee still worked against him. "In New Orleans, being a young black man, you get harassed a lot, stereotyped a lot," he said.

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. said he expected about half of the 600 refugees who arrived here to remain permanently and said they would do just fine.

"It's different perhaps than many would think who rely on the old stereotype of Utah being homogeneous," he told Reuters. "We've evolved so rapidly in recent years."

One of the volunteers at the base, Newton Gborway, who moved to Utah from Liberia in West Africa five years ago, shared his first-hand impression of life in an economically prosperous state with a less than 1 percent black population.

"Don't be shocked and surprised if you meet someone who is mean to you or doesn't want to associate with you because you are black," he told Darisn Evans. "You don't worry about the negative stuff."

JUST A MATTER OF TIME

"Everything is going to be okay, but it is just a matter of time."

Evans said he would remain in Utah, and would like to work either as a handyman or as a highway patrolman.

His ex-wife Tanya Andrews, 44, said race played a part in their escape from flooded New Orleans, an adventure which she said included looting food, a television and a boat to get to higher land. She said rescuers picked them up only after a lighter-skinned black woman waved down a helicopter.

So far the local community has welcomed the refugees with open arms, although they say they face an adjustment to life in Utah, stronghold of the socially conservative Mormon Church.

"Any time you go in where you are in the minority -- and I'm experienced in this -- it's going to be more difficult," said Wayne Mortimer, mayor of Bluffdale next to Camp Williams.

He cited his past missionary work in Canada when he was a relatively rare Mormon. Mortimer said his town of 6,500, a well-to-do bedroom community of Salt Lake City, had 20 low-income housing units available for the refugees.

"When you are an affluent community like we have, the greatest blessing we can have is to lift someone else," he said in an interview.

Larry Andrew's brother Adrian and sister Tanya, despite initial shock about being sent to Utah, say they will remain in Utah. Even Larry, despite his doubts, says the state is offering him a unique chance.

"According to what I see, it will be beneficial to me economically, even socially," he said. "But how would they adapt to me?"

Laura Bush Wants Woman Nominated For Supreme Court

2005-09-09T21:46:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Laura Bush said on Friday she hopes her husband will select a woman as the replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"Of course, as a woman myself, I hope it will be a woman," Mrs. Bush said in an interview with American Urban Radio Network.

President George W. Bush in July nominated John Roberts to replace O'Connor. But after the weekend death of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Bush changed his plans and named Roberts as his selection to succeed Rehnquist.

Roberts' confirmation hearing is to begin on Monday. The president has said the field is "wide open" for his pick to succeed O'Connor. Laura Bush said she did not think a nomination for that position will be made until after Roberts is confirmed.

In an interview with the same network on Thursday, Mrs. Bush rejected criticism of her husband's response to the devastating hurricane Katrina, including remarks by rapper Kanye West who said the president does not care about blacks.

"I think all of those remarks were disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country," she said.

But she said the hurricane was a wake-up call that showed how poor people were more vulnerable to natural disasters. "We need to address the effects of poverty," Mrs. Bush said.

Fema Head Removed From Katrina Operations

2005-09-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

Is it me or does it seem as though incompetence is a prerequisite for working in this Bush administration?

Bank of America Denies Profiting From Slavery

2005-09-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

From the Associated Press:

CHICAGO The Bank of America has filed a report with Chicago city officials that denies its predecessor institutions ever profited from slavery.
But the report submitted yesterday does say some of those institutions did do business with slave owners.

In 2002, Chicago became the first city in the country to pass an ordinance requiring all companies doing business with the city to disclose profits they may have made from slavery.

The Bank of America came under pressure to do more extensive research after one Chicago alderman accused it of lying about ties to slavery.

While the bank's report denies profiting from slavery, it announced it will donate five (M) million dollars to organizations devoted to preserving African-American history.

Black Gay Pride Fights To "Let Liberation Ring"

2005-09-09T08:53:00.000-04:00

Activists focus on abusive churches, internalized conflicts

By RYAN LEE
Friday, September 09, 2005

Standing in front of the steps of the Georgia State Capitol on Monday, Montee Evans evoked memories of a previous civil rights leader from this state who used his booming voice and eloquent rhetoric to call his people to the fight for liberation.

“We as black same-gender loving people and transgender individuals don’t realize that it’s our America too, and Atlanta —‑which we claim to be the black Mecca — this is our Atlanta too,” Evans said during a rally following the fifth annual Stand Up & Represent March, one of the final events of Atlanta’s Black Gay Pride held last weekend.

About 150 people took part in the Sept. 5 march, which was sponsored by In The Life Atlanta, the group that organized Pride events throughout Labor Day Weekend.

The march started at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, wound through the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and ended at the state Capitol.

Evans was the final speaker during the rally at the Gold Dome, and implored those attending to work to make the world better for all gay, lesbian and transgender people.

“We must let liberation ring, and free up those brothers, sisters and transgender youth who feel like they have to hide part of themselves in order to proclaim their wholeness to the world,” Evans said.

The early morning march attracted participants from as far away as Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee, as well as several politicians running for office in Atlanta.

Kwanza Hall, a member of the Atlanta School Board and candidate for the Atlanta City Council, courted gay support for his District 2 campaign, as did gay candidate Keisha Sean Waites, who is running for the District 12 seat.

Montrell Walker, a candidate for District 10 on the city council, and council member at-large hopeful Dwanda Farmer also made campaign pitches at the Stand Up & Represent march.

Gay state Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) and Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas (D-Atlanta) were the only elected officials to participate in the march, although several politicians made appearances at ITLA events throughout the weekend.

Standing up to churches
For the third time in her tenure, Mayor Shirley Franklin welcomed about 300 people to the city during ITLA’s opening ceremony at the Sheraton Midtown Hotel at Colony Square. Franklin was showered with applause after giving brief remarks about how she was elected to represent all Atlanta residents to the best of her ability.

City Council member at-large H. Lamar Willis participated in a Black Pride luncheon Sept. 3, explaining that his close relationship to gay and lesbian voters and organizations stems from a gay man helping his single mother raise three young children when Willis was younger.

“I feel like the reason I can fight for your issues is because about 90 percent of your issues are identical to mine,” Willis said.

The luncheon touched on a host of issues, including gay Muslims, the HIV rate among black gay and bisexual men, gay inclusion in the Millions More Movement and how to combat the homophobic rhetoric endemic to many black churches.

“It’s not going to end until the LGBT community [stands up] and says, ‘Preacher, enough is enough,’” Rev. Kenneth Samuel, a heterosexual pastor at the gay-friendly Victory Church in Stone Mountain, told those attending the luncheon.

“I tell you what, open the Bible again, and find something in there … about love, and less about homophobia and hatred. Until that time, we’re going elsewhere,” Samuel said.

But during a question-and-answer session following the luncheon, black gay men and lesbians were called to task on the way transgender individuals are treated — including being left off the panel for the luncheon.

“You’re talking about bridging the gaps, you’re talking about communications —‑I just could not understand why there is not one transgender person sitting up there as we’re talking about bridging this gap,” said Earlene Bud, a transgendered woman from Washington, D.C., who was in town to conduct a workshop for ITLA.

ITLA officials did not have attendance estimates for the weekend by press time Wednesday, but said the figure should be similar to the estimated 32,000 people who participated last year.

African Archbishops Fault Church On Gays

2005-09-09T05:59:00.000-04:00

By RICHARD N. OSTLING
AP RELIGION WRITER

NEW YORK -- Anglican Christianity's split over homosexuality worsened Thursday as Africa's two most important archbishops joined to criticize a new Church of England policy on gays and lesbians.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi each assailed a July 25 announcement from England's bishops that said gay priests who register same-sex partnerships under a new civil law will remain in good standing so long as they promise to remain celibate. The English bishops also said that lay Anglicans who register civil unions will not be denied the sacraments.
"If England adopts a new faith, alien to what has been handed to us together, they will walk apart. Simple as that," Akinola said at a Thursday news conference where he reaffirmed his stand on gay issues.

Last month, he accused Anglicanism's mother church of an "outrageous" departure from biblical teaching that is "totally unworkable (and) invites deception and ridicule."
He further suggested that world Anglicanism must now discipline the Church of England along similar lines that Anglican bodies worldwide have taken against liberal actions by the U.S. and Canadian churches.
Orombi said that Akinola "speaks for all of us" who lead the self-governing Anglican branches in Africa. "We see a different direction taking place" in England, Orombi said, and
"we can only pray and hope they do not walk away."

The churches led by Akinola and Orombi combined have 26 million members, a third of the world's Anglicans and equal to the Church of England membership. The continent of Africa, whose Anglican council is chaired by Akinola, is home to half of world Anglicans.
Discussion of the Anglican split is expected at Nigeria's national synod starting Saturday, a meeting of Africa's primates - or church leaders - in Tanzania Sept. 19-22 and a special international conference for conservative Anglicans in Cairo, Egypt, beginning Oct. 25.
The Nigerian and Ugandan churches have broken ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church over its 2003 consecration of a gay bishop living with a partner and its toleration of same-sex blessing ceremonies. Same-sex rites are also at issue between Africans and the Anglican Church of Canada.

In a 1998 vote, 82 percent of the world's Anglican bishops opposed homosexual relationships on biblical grounds.
The two archbishops were in New York to receive awards from the online magazine Kairos Journal for "their bold and consistent stand" against the U.S. and Canadian changes. Honored with them were Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of southern South America and Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of South East Asia.
The magazine's publisher, retired American Standard Companies president Emmanuel Kampouris, said he hoped the awards would encourage Anglicans and others "fighting for orthodoxy."
None of the visitors are meeting with Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the New York-based Episcopal Church. They chuckled when asked about a meeting.

The ‘Blame Black People First’ Crowd

2005-09-09T05:57:00.000-04:00

By Victor Tan Cheng

Whenever national calamity strikes, the same group of disloyal Americans starts to sow seeds of disunion in this country. Rather than searching for who is really responsible for the ills afflicting our nation, they blame their fellow Americans. They refuse to show compassion for the suffering of innocent men, women, and children. They point fingers and accuse the very victims of the perpetrated crimes.

Who are these shameless, unpatriotic Americans? I call them the “Blame Black People First” crowd.

New Orleans, ground zero for the government’s belated and botched hurricane relief effort, is predominantly African American. It also has a poverty rate almost twice as high as the national average.

As usual, the subversive element in this country has not stooped from singling out these suffering Americans as the perpetrators of their own misfortune. Somehow, they always blame black people first.

Some examples:

1. Media commentators self-righteously decry the outbreaks of looting in the devastated city — forgetting that some people might like food and clean clothes after being left to fend for themselves in a flood zone for several days. Says Julianne Malveaux of BET.com:
When hungry folks take food from flooded grocery stores, that’s called survival, not looting. When people, who are strapping cardboard to their feet because all of their possessions have been swept away, go into a store and take shoes, that, too, is called survival. The calls for zero tolerance for looting were absurd, and the images of Black people “looting” (along with the more benign images of White people “finding” food) fanned the flames of every racial stereotype there is. Then rabidly conservative talk show hosts — Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson among them — piled it on by foaming at the mouth about looters while ignoring the conditions even George Bush called “unacceptable.”

2. Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly berates the city’s poor for not applying themselves during the disaster. (I agree. Whenever I see people drowning, I tell them to just buck up — there’s no use whining about it, save your breath!) Says Nikki Finke of LA Weekly:
FNC’s Bill O’Reilly, who spent last month verbally abusing the grieving mother of a dead Iraqi war soldier, then whiled away the early days of Katrina’s aftermath giving lip to New Orleans’ looters and shooters and then basically blamed the hurricane’s poorest victims for expecting any government help at all. “First, the huge, bureaucratic government will never be able to protect you. If you rely on government for anything, anything, you’re going to be disappointed, no matter who the president is,” he scolded. And, “If you don’t get educated, if you don’t develop a skill, and force yourself to work hard, you’ll most likely be poor. And sooner or later, you’ll be standing on a symbolic rooftop waiting for help…. Chances are that help will not be quick in coming.”

3. Sen. Rick Santorum suggests that the government fine hurricane victims. In an interview over the weekend about Hurricane Katrina, the Republican from Pennsylvania said: “You have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” (After he was criticized for his remarks, Santorum said that he actually didn’t mean to include people who lacked cars among those who should be fined. They, instead, would get a tax credit on the purchase of a new hybrid car.)

A long time ago, Harry Truman said, “The United States has become great because we, as a people, have been able to work together for great objectives even while differing about details.” How much our country has changed. In this time of national tragedy, how is it possible that these people are resorting to such divisive, un-American rhetoric?

But then, they always blame black people first.

The American people know better. They know that black people built this country with their sweat and blood. They know that African Americans have contributed heroically to America’s art, literature, science, and way of life. They know that it’s dangerous to blame a group of victims for terrible problems that they did not cause.

You would think that the Blame Black People Firsters would be ashamed of what they say. Don’t they know how much these people have suffered? Didn’t they watch “A Concert for Hurricane Relief”?

But then, they always blame black people first.

Black people will never seek a permission slip to defend their security. If they need to invade a neighboring store to advance black people’s interests (i.e. not starving), then this is their right as God-fearing, freedom-loving Americans. If they feel the need to criticize out-of-touch leaders in that far-off land of Washington, then other Americans will stand by them in their struggles to spread democracy.

Let us put an end to the blame games, the blame gaming, and the blaming games. This unpatriotic, treacherous element should not be allowed to spread their false accusations. They must be rooted out of our government, our way of life, and our 24-hour cable news channels.

The “Blame Black People First” crowd is a threat to this country. Americans will not be safe until we rid ourselves of this Red menace.

Pioneering Hip-Hop Duo Black Sheep Is Ba-a-a-ck!

2005-09-09T05:55:00.000-04:00

By TYLER GRAY

You don't expect a department store best known for pleated slacks to spark an old-school hip-hop revival. But that's exactly what's happened since J.C. Penney got a hold of Black Sheep's irrepressible 1991 song "The Choice Is Yours" for its back-to-school TV ad campaign.

"That was something that kind of fell out of the sky for us," says Dres (born Andre Titus), half of Black Sheep. With his gift of gab, it's hard to believe he ever hung up his mike and put the group on indefinite hiatus in the late '90s. "At a time when hip hop was underground, Black Sheep had a hit record," says Kim Osorio, former editor in chief of hip-hop bible The Source. "'The Choice Is Yours' still stands out today."

But even at his peak, Dres says he earned only about $150,000 a year — a far cry from the millions that seem to come standard with a hip-hop hit today. Dres released a solo project on the Internet and resurfaced recently on "First…and Then," a song by independent hip-hop project Handsome Boy Modeling School. Ironically though, it was a call from a Chicago ad agency that led to Black Sheep's comeback.

"I've gotten calls from all across the country," says Dres. "Friends of mine are like, 'Damn, you got me wantin' to shop at J.C. Penney now for no reason.'"
He and fellow Black Sheep Mista Lawnge (pronounced "long'; real name, William McLean) insist that they aren't reuniting just to cash in.

"We were never in it for a gold chain or a Bentley," says Dres. "I'd rather buy 30 Hyundais and give them to everybody who's doing something for my life and my family."
Fresh from East Coast shows from Miami to Canada, the Queens-based duo plays Irving Plaza tonight with DJ Z-Trip and DJ Goldenchyld. They'll do some old favorites, plus new songs from their forthcoming release "8WM," says Dres. And they'll play to two generations of fans: the thirtysomethings who knew them as contemporaries of A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul (the Native Tongues posse, collectively) and the kids just discovering them via their single-turned-jingle. To borrow the refrain from that song, "You can get with this. Or you can get with that."

Katrina, Aftermath Galvanize Black America

2005-09-09T05:51:00.000-04:00

By JESSE WASHINGTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK -- To African-Americans, Hurricane Katrina has become a generation-defining catastrophe - a disaster with a predominantly black toll, tinged with racism. They've rallied to the cause with an unprecedented outpouring of activism and generosity.
Blacks who have been touched by the disaster are not only donating money but gathering supplies, taking in friends and relatives, even heading south to help shoulder the burden of their people.

"You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way," said Darnell M. Hunt, a sociologist and head of the African American studies department at UCLA.
If the rescue effort had not been so mishandled, and if those who suffered so needlessly had not been so black and so poor, perhaps Hurricane Katrina would have been just another destructive storm, alongside the likes of Charley and Andrew and Hugo. (There is no Keisha or Kwame.)

But Katrina's searing images - linking nature's wrath and the nation's wrongs - have fanned the smoldering resentments of the civil rights, Reaganomics and hip-hop eras all at once.
"Something about this is making people remember their own personal injustices," said author damali ayo, whose book "How to Rent a Negro" takes a satirical look at race relations.
"You don't look at Rodney King and say, 'I remember when I got beat up.' But people remember being neglected, unimportant, overlooked, thought of as 'less than.' That's a very common experience for black people."

Some 71 percent of blacks say the disaster shows that racial inequality remains a major problem in America, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 6-7 among 1,000 Americans; 56 percent of whites feel this was not a particularly important lesson.

And while 66 percent of blacks think the government's response would have been faster if most of the victims had been white, 77 percent of whites disagreed.
On Thursday, first lady Laura Bush said it was "disgusting" that critics blamed her husband's policies for the racial disparities between hurricane survivors. In an interview with American Urban Radio Networks, she said the homes of the poor were more vulnerable to the storm and "that's what we want to address."

Many events have transfixed African-Americans: the Rodney King and O.J. Simpson cases, the killings of icons from Martin Luther King Jr. to Tupac Shakur, the crack cocaine epidemic, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
But Katrina is different. It has opened people's eyes - "The face, the cover has been pulled off the invisible poor," said Rev. Ronald E. Braxton of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. - and it has created a rare opportunity for people of all backgrounds to make a tangible, immediate difference.
Braxton spoke as his congregation loaded a 50-foot tractor-trailer with antacid, diapers, food, water and other supplies destined for AME churches in Jackson, Miss. and Baton Rouge, La.

Before Independence Air volunteered to fly the supplies to the hurricane zone, Braxton turned away volunteers willing to drive 22 hours to Baton Rouge. In addition, he said, his church raised $20,000 last Sunday alone to send to the national AME relief effort.
Individuals have also stepped up. Kimberly Lowe of Philadelphia signed up on that city's Web site to host an evacuee in a spare bedroom.
"They just probably want to talk to regular folks and be in a real home," Lowe said. "There's nothing like being home."

Katrina has spurred other blacks to take crucial roles in relief efforts - and they're in a better position to help than they were even a decade ago, when rap still scared people and being paid $30 million per year to play basketball was beyond imagination.
Now billionaire Mississippi native Oprah Winfrey is bringing her top-rated show to the Katrina zone, famed attorney Willie Gary is planning to transport victims in his 737 jet, and rapper Kanye West can excoriate President Bush's response to the hurricane in front of a nationwide audience.

Tavis Smiley has devoted much of his television talk show to Katrina.
"I've seen black folk come together around any number of issues. It's usually either a head or a heart issue," he said. "For example, we came together after the election of 2000, when Bush essentially stole the election. That was a head issue. People were mad. Other issues hit our hearts; O.J. Simpson comes to mind."
With Katrina, "our head is saying we know that what happened here is wrong ... and our hearts at the same time go out to these people because we know, we feel their pain."
Many want to share it.

Hip-hop hitmaker Timbaland said that he is renting trucks, buying clothes and toys and heading "to the trenches" - first stop, the Houston Astrodome. He challenged peers who splurge on jewelry and cars to do the same, because "these people in the dome listen to our music."
"Don't give to no Red Cross, that's the easy way. Not to say anything bad about the Red Cross, but who knows where that money's going," the producer said. "Take your money and do your own thing."

Timbaland estimated he was spending several hundred thousand dollars, up there with Diddy and Jay-Z's half-million each. The donation of time, money and free performances by hip-hoppers is a watershed for what had become a largely apolitical genre.
"This is the most devastating thing to their community they've seen in their lifetime," said the original hip-hop mogul, Russell Simmons. "I've never seen a bigger outpouring of love and giving. I've never seen anything like it."

There is another reason Katrina resonates. Most blacks have family from "down South," a sort of symbolic womb from which black America slowly went its separate ways.
"We are a population in this country of black people, but do we feel like a community?" said ayo, the author. "What really makes a community?"
Shared experiences, perhaps?
"I think this is one," Ayo said. Katrina "is at the central core of black culture and American culture ... I hope this is a turning point of some kind, a turning point for creating a larger community."

Gay-rights backers, foes alike slam posting of names on Web

2005-09-09T05:48:00.000-04:00

Talk about strange bedfellows: Leading gay activists and those fiercely opposed to same-sex marriage formed an alliance yesterday, calling on a North Shore couple to remove a Web site listing the names and home addresses of people who sign a petition backing a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

``If they really wanted to be helpful in protecting equal marriage rights, they can show their support by talking to people and sharing stories, not by putting up this silly, mean-spirited Web site,'' said Marty Rouse, campaign director for MassEquality, a coalition of gay rights groups.

``. . . I appreciate the professionalism of the colleagues across the aisle that this is not in the best interests of the type of campaign we would like to run,'' said Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, leaders of the petition drive.

The Herald reported yesterday that Tom Lang, 42, and his partner, Alex Westerhoff, 36, both of Manchester-by-the-Sea, created the Web site KnowthyNeighbor.org.

They plan to use the site to post the names and home addresses of those signing the petition – information that is available at the Secretary of State's office. Some 65,825 signatures of registered voters are needed to get the measure on the ballot.

Attorney General Tom Reilly certified the petition Wednesday. If enough valid signatures are collected, the amendment to ban gay marriage will be put to the state's voters in the 2008 election.

Lang said he was not advocating that supporters of gay marriage use the Web site to harass signers, but to be informed about their foes in the same-sex marriage fight.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said there is nothing illegal about posting the names on the Internet.

Fire Destroys 3 Buildings At New Orleans HBCU Dillard

2005-09-08T20:46:00.000-04:00

Fire destroys three Dillard University buildings

Thursday, September 8, 2:45 p.m.

Three multi-story buildings burned Wednesday at Dillard University.

New Orleans Fire Superintendent Charles Parent said Thursday that the buildings are probably destroyed, but firefighters have been unable to get close enough to survey the damage or determine the cause of the blaze.

The university has several multi-story dormitories on campus, but Parent did not know which buildings burned.

"From what I understand they were destroyed,'' he said. "It doesn't look like they were salvageable.''

The university closed Aug. 27 and students were evacuated to Centenary College in Shreveport. The university announced last week that its students had returned to their families.

from Nola.com

Catholic Priest Arrested For Role In Genocide

2005-09-08T14:26:00.000-04:00

A Belgian Catholic priest has been arrested at the airport in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide.

The Winds of Change in Hip Hop: Beyond Kanye West

2005-09-08T14:16:00.000-04:00

This revolutionary form of musical expression is experiencing its own revolution. Has the sleeping giant finally awakened?

Racism And Sexism Are At The Core Of John Roberts' Judicial Activism

2005-09-08T13:59:00.000-04:00

September 8, 2005
Leo Walsh
PoliticalAffairs.net

In a weak effort to shift searing public critique of the Republican and Bush administration's inadequate, incompetent, and racist response to the Katrina disaster, President Bush announced over the weekend that he was amending his nomination of John G. Roberts to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

This announcement shocked much of the civil rights and democratic rights community as revelations about Roberts' views on women, civil rights, and the Bill of Rights have shown him to be a hard line conservative whose judicial activist career aims to roll back some of the most advanced and democratic laws, decisions, and practices won over the last 40 years.

Hearings that were scheduled to begin before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (Sept. 6th) were postponed until next week.

Of Roberts' proposed elevation to the powerful Chief Justice position, Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of labor unions and civil rights organizations, said, "We need to ask ourselves whether John Roberts is the right person for this influential post. What we know of Roberts' record raises warning flags on a number of important issues, including disturbing efforts to reshape civil rights policies such as court-ordered desegregation of public schools, as well as voting rights and Title IX implementation."

Bid To See Roberts Memos Renewed

2005-09-08T13:38:00.000-04:00

With two Supreme Court slots now open, Democrats begin pushing the envelope.

After Katrina Pat Robertson says John Roberts can "be thankful that a tragedy has brought him some good."

2005-09-08T13:23:00.000-04:00

Somebody please assassinate this man!

New Orleans Starts To Remove Dead

2005-09-08T06:17:00.000-04:00

As water is pumped out of New Orleans, the diminishing flood reveals dead bodies, raw sewage, fuel and rusting vehicles.

Mass. Gay Couple Plays Hardball Against Marriage Foes

2005-09-08T04:02:00.000-04:00

A pair of gay activists are raising the stakes in the fight over same-sex marriage, vowing to post on the Internet the name and address of anyone who signs a petition to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts.

``I have the fight in me now, and if people I know, or that I support, or that I do business with are on that list, I might not support them or their philanthropies or their businesses,'' said Tom Lang, who launched knowthyneighbor.org with his spouse, Alex Westerhoff.

Lang, 42, said he and Westerhoff, 36, are only providing via the Internet public information that any citizen could obtain at the secretary of state's office. But anti-gay marriage activists are outraged.

``We think that it is intimidation by no other name,'' said Kristian Mineau, whose name was listed as one of the first 30 signers of the petition. Mineau said he will explore the rights of people who have signed or plan to sign the petition.

``Certainly it raises my concerns. This is the first I have heard of it,'' said Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Mineau and his wife are listed on the site, along with their address. Also listed: former Mayor Raymond L. Flynn; Dover Selectwoman Kathleen W. Weld and her husband, Walter Weld; and Richard W. Richardson, spokesman for the Black Ministerial Alliance.

Yesterday, the anti-gay marriage ballot measure passed another key legal hurdle when it was certified by Attorney General Tom Reilly.

Galvin said posting the names of the signatories on the Web is legal. ``That is fine. That is the American way if they want to do it,'' he said.

Lang said he was not advocating that gay marriage backers use the Web site as a method of intimidating the signers, but rather as a way to ``open up communication'' on both sides of the debate. ``We are not telling people what to do. We are letting people become their own armchair activists,'' he said.

Campaign To End Gay Marriage In Mass. Makes Large Step Forward

2005-09-08T03:04:00.000-04:00

On the heels of the blow delt by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to gay marriage in that state, the Massachusetts Attorney General gives the green light to a ballot initiative that seeks to end gay marriage in the only state in the union that legally allows it.

Islamic Society Of North America- Critics Charge Collusion With Bush Administration, Under-representation of Blacks

2005-09-08T02:45:00.000-04:00

A severe backlash results from Bush aide Karen Hughes' attendance and endorsement of the organization's September 4, 2005 conference, and a perceived lack of response to victims of Hurricane Katrina by black members, who make up the majority of American Muslims, yet represent ISNA's smallest ethnic membership segment.

Radio One Sends Truckload Of Hope To Victims Of Katrina

2005-09-08T02:06:00.001-04:00

Radio One has announced it is participating in Hurricane Katrina disaster relief by collecting food, water, and other necessary items for victims of the storm from its partners and listeners.

Radio One is the nation's seventh largest radio broadcasting company, and the largest company that primarily targets African-American and urban listeners in markets reaching approximately 13 million listeners every week in Atlanta, Augusta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Dayton, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, St. Louis and Washington, DC.

The company is headed by its Chairperson and Founder, black businesswoman Catherine L. Hughes, and her son, Alfred C. Liggins, III.

"If I ever doubted that there were two Americas, this disaster has made this division clear"- Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Ca.)

2005-09-08T01:34:00.000-04:00

The Washington Afro American, the largest black newspaper in the nation's capitol, reports a mixed reaction among members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) regarding the response to the Katrina Disaster.

Though some in the CBC feel that poor planning, not race, was the major factor contributing to the slow rescue and response from federal authorites, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Il) had this to say:

"The truth is that Hurricane Katrina exposed the neglected realities of poverty and race in this nation. This disaster has trapped the poor as a class and African Americans as a caste -- both of which reflect past failures of federal policy."

And Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said the racial element could not be ignored. "The people who couldn't get out of New Orleans to escape the storm were predominantly Black," he said. "They stayed behind, not because they wanted to risk the danger of the hurricane, but because they don't have cars. No one is even talking about the poor in more rural areas -- Blacks and Whites -- who have not even been reached by rescue teams."

Though the CBC has spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Domestic Policy Adviser Claude Allen and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson via telephone, its members have not collectively offered suggestions, solutions or strategies for improvement.

Hip Hop Returns To Its Roots In Katrina's Wake

2005-09-08T01:12:00.000-04:00

Rappers are once again making prescient political commentaries, calling attention to social ills, and assisting members of the community less fortunate than they- just like in the old days.

Katrina Exposed The 'Larger Hurricane Of Poverty That Shames Our Land'

2005-09-08T00:44:00.001-04:00

Perhaps one of the silver linings of this disaster in New Orleans will be a new understanding of the ever widening gap between rich and poor in this country, as well as new ideas for dealing with the grinding poverty that remains hidden from most of us, and the world.

Farrakhan Meets With Black Gay Leaders

2005-09-08T00:44:00.000-04:00

In a developing story from his blog, National Black Justice Coaltion executive director Keith Boykin announced a historic meeting with the Nation of Islam leader. Farakhan has never met with openly gay black lesbians and gays before.

Schwarzenegger Vetoes California Same Sex Marriage Bill

2005-09-08T00:34:00.000-04:00

They don't call him "The Terminator" for nothing.

African American Gays, Church Leaders Hold "Revival" To End Homophobia

2005-09-07T12:57:00.000-04:00

Hundreds of Black gays and lesbians packed the Assembly Hall at Riverside Church In New York City on July 30 for REVIVAL!: Victory Over Spiritual Violence Through Grace, to call for an end to the homophobic rhetoric coming from many Black ministers in recent months.

The speakers were clergy and secular, gay and straight. Riverside’s Senior Minister James Forbes spoke at the event, and assured the attendees that there was nothing deficient about gays or lesbians, and that “ Your job is to get up every day and be grateful to God for your DNA,” Forbes said.

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields spoke about her recent efforts to bring together clergy of all faiths to combat the recent rise in hate crimes in New York City. She told the crowd about one Black minister in attendance who had been known for making disparaging remarks against gays and lesbians, decided to join in the fight to end violence against gays and lesbians.

Many of the speakers refuted the notion often toted by conservative Black ministers that rights of gays and lesbians had nothing in common with Black civil rights struggles. Reverend Valerie Holly of Unity Fellowship Church in Brooklyn recounted her experience seeing graphic photographs of lynchings with the victims of homophobic violence, whose bodies are often desecrated at the point of murder. Rashawn Brazell’s body was found in trash bags spread across Brooklyn in February, and Marvin Paige’s body was severely burned after his throat was slashed in his Bronx apartment in March.

As more Black gays and lesbians become more vocal in opposing homophobic rhetoric, it has become harder for ministers to make those comments of gays without responses from the black gay community. After protest from Black gay journalists, Washington D.C.’s Reverend Willie Wilson, the executive director of the Millions More March, was made to apologize for his disparaging remarks against the gay community.

“We are beginning a spiritual movement,” Elder Joseph W. Tolton, the event’s keynote speaker, told the spirited audience on Sunday. “We firmly understand that we will see victory over violence because we’re fighting with the power of the Holy Ghost.”

REVIVAL! is the first event in a campaign targeted to end violence against gays in the Black Community.

Al Jazeera Editorial On Racism And The Administration's Slow Response To Katrina

2005-09-07T12:39:00.001-04:00

So, if foreigners can see it, why can't Condie Rice? Too distracted being a good conformist neo-con mouthpiece house negro zombie I guess.

As Clean Up Begins In New Orleans, Harrowing Tales Of Survival Emerge

2005-09-07T12:39:00.000-04:00

By Gabrielle Maple, Michael Grant and Juliuna Mitchell
Black College Wire

A little after midnight, the prayers of hundreds of families were answered Sept. 2 as a convoy of 11 buses rolled up at Southern University in Baton Rouge, carrying evacuees from Xavier University in New Orleans.

“I just want to see those lights come around the corner,” said Erica Schroeder of New Orleans, waiting anxiously outside Southern’s Clifford T. Seymour Hall, the men’s gym. She was hoping to spot Audrey Price, her mother, as she peered through the tinted windows of the buses that stretched for nearly a block around the gym. “I just want to get her here so she can relax.”

Price was among more than 400 storm-weary students, faculty, staff and relatives who stayed at the private, historically black university’s campus as flood waters rose around them.

“Thank you, Jesus,” Schroeder said, as she found her mother in a reunion scene that would be repeated for many through the day

“I couldn’t leave those kids,” said Price, explaining how she came to be among the storm victims taking shelter on upper floors of Xavier dormitories. “I had to be the mother.”

Four hundred sixty students became trapped on the mid-city campus after Hurricane Katrina, its storm surge and broken levees together unleashed a deadly flood from Lake Pontchartrain. They were not alone: Price and other staff and faculty members remained with them, along with campus police and other refugees from the floods, including some friends of Xavierites and family members.

They were welcomed at Southern by area Xavier alumni, volunteers and relatives. Jesse Jackson, whose local Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leaders helped to secure the students’ safety, was also there. Only a day before, he had held a news conference blasting the government’s handling of a catastrophe affecting so many poor and black residents across the Gulf region.

'I didn't care where they brought us'

The buses dropped off 250 storm-weary students, faculty, staff and others at a shelter hastily assembled by the alumni volunteers in the Seymour gym. The remaining students continued on another four-hour trek to Grambling University in north Louisiana, where they arrived at about 5 a.m.

“I didn’t care where they brought us,” said Xavier sophomore Brittany Melvin of Chicago. “I am just happy to be out of that dorm.”

When they arrived, some ran off the bus, searching for electrical outlets to charge cell phones and other communications devices so they could contact relatives. Others gathered their belongings and trudged up the ramp of the gym to check in at the shelter and receive a hot meal. Many told accounts of their days of waiting.

The students' weeklong ordeal began Friday, Aug. 26, when Louisiana officials ordered an evacuation, in light of predictions that the eye of the storm might pass over New Orleans.

An e-mail advising more than 1,700 Xavier students to leave was sent out by the administration on Friday afternoon, said Calvin Tregre, senior vice president of finance and administration.

“We encouraged those students who were able to leave, to leave,” he said. “We tried to arrange for buses to transport the remaining students to safety, but there wasn’t one bus available in New Orleans.”

Initially, students were scattered in five campus dormitories. On Aug. 29, they were gathered up and placed in three buildings.

On a six-burner gas stove at their convent, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament cooked spaghetti and meatballs, grits, pork and beans, rice and any frozen foods that could be salvaged from the campus cafeteria. They baked homemade bread in two ovens in the convent.

Campus security and administrators used boats to deliver the food and other supplies to students, many of whom arrived at Southern outfitted in Xavier T-shirts. There were also reports that rations provided by the American Red Cross or National Guard were delivered to campus at drop-off points.

“It wasn’t much, but we made sure that everyone had something to eat,” said Sister Mary Ann Stachow, assistant professor of theology. “The most important thing is the fact that those students were never abandoned.”

Tempers flared when pressure dropped

The campus lost power around 3 a.m. on Aug. 29, but according to Stachow, the students remained in good spirits. However, when the water pressure began to drop and eventually stopped running on Aug. 30, a Tuesday, tempers and emotions began to flare, some students said.

“At first, everything was cool, but when we couldn’t take a shower, people began to crack,” said Adia Holt, a sophomore from New York. Holt lived in an apartment two blocks from the university, but when she wasn’t able to find a last-minute flight out of New Orleans, she left the apartment and sought refuge in the high-rise dormitories with her 2-year-old son, Michael.

Ronnie Gaddis Jr., a 19 year-old Xavier student, said, “We had food and water but people started panicking, eating all the food and taking jugs to the room. I saw dead frogs, snakes and tipped over porta-potties in the water. It opens your eyes. You learn how to survive.”

To keep clean, the students used baby wipes, paper towels and alcohol to wipe themselves down once running water was no more.

“We brushed our teeth out the window. Do you know how dangerous that is?” said Chantal Davis, 18, of New York. “Living conditions were dangerous without lights. I counted steps. It was so dark, and we didn’t know where we were going. We did it so we wouldn’t fall.”

Also seeking refuge on campus was Tynika Mayo, 28, of New Orleans, who is not a student. She fled to Xavier after her home at Carrollton and Tulane avenues began to flood. “We were fine after the storm passed, but the water began to rise,” Mayo said. “Someone stole our boat, so we made our way to Xavier in chest-deep water.” She, her 8-year-old daughter, 3-year -old son, 7-month-old daughter and six friends found sanctuary at the university through a friend, who happened to be a campus security officer.

“Once the levee broke, it caused water to swamp the school,” said Marion Bradley, Xavier’s director of facilities, from the shelter created at Grambling University. The university buildings sustained considerable wind damage and more than 4 to 6 feet of water covered the campus, said Tregre. As floodwaters rose and looting became rampant in the city, it became the job of administrators and campus security to accommodate and protect the students, Tregre said.

“Our officers made a Herculean effort to secure the buildings and to maintain order,” said Duane Corkum, chief of university police, who with 15 campus security officers stayed to ensure that the looting downtown never reached Xavier.

Seeking help outside

As the days passed and the waters rose, a decision was made to seek help outside. Two of Corkum’s officers, and Xavier’s vice president for fiscal affairs, waded in waist-deep water from the campus on Carrollton Avenue to the New Orleans disaster command center at City Hall to let city officials know that the students were trapped. They left Wednesday night and had to sleep in City Hall.

But the response they encountered was disappointing:

“It was like they didn’t even care,” said Alvin Tirquit, one of the two officers who made the harrowing trip, leaving behind at Xavier his mother, grandmother and 94-year-old great-grandmother, who had fled their homes in the Lower Ninth Ward.

“We were told they were rioting in the streets and there was shooting at the Superdome,” Tirquit said. “From there, we knew that we had to stick together.”

During the week, the trapped students and families also had to deal with death. The cause was unknown and the victim was identified only as an elderly man, the husband of a retired faculty member. The couple had sought shelter on the campus when floodwaters rose near their New Orleans home. Students and faculty declined to be quoted, but said that the nuns comforted the wife and others who became aware of the death.

Across the country, many students’ families frantically were trying to contact Louisiana, New Orleans and federal officials and the news media to notify them about the trapped students.

Arrived in motorboats

Around 9 a.m. Sept. 1, New Orleans city police officers arrived in motorboats, Corkum said. An emergency Web site set up by Xavier, www.xulaemergency.com, said the National Guard also took part in evacuating the campus. The students were taken to the Interstate 10 overpass at Carrollton Avenue, where a number of people displaced by the floodwaters already huddled.

“The kids were in a hostile situation when they arrived on the bridge, and other evacuees learned that buses were on the way to pick up the students,” said Corkum. There are reports that some desperate people tried to join the students on the buses. Some students said that for security reasons, they were not told where they were being taken. Others said passengers were asked to stay low as the bus crossed some areas that were considered “danger zones” due to reports of hijacking and robbery.

Xavier President Norman C. Francis and other school officials worked with alumni, volunteers, Louisiana State Sen. Cleo Fields, and Jackson’s Rainbow-Push Coalition to arrange to remove the students rapidly from New Orleans. They sought help from Southern and Grambling to house the evacuees.

“When Dr. Norman Francis made the call to the university, we readily accepted the task in assisting one of our fellow HBCUs,” said Johnny Anderson, chairman of the Southern University system’s board of advisers. “We will do our best to provide for them as long as we need to.”

E-mails went out, calling on Xavier alumni to help. Through these and word of mouth, many responded by heading to Baton Rouge. Fields arranged for three buses from a leadership institute. Grambling University sent more buses.

“I received a call saying that the students were being brought to Southern, but I didn’t know what was set up or who would be there to receive them,” said Alejandro Perkins, an Xavier alumnus and 2004 graduate of Southern University’s law school.

“But I know that I was going to be there to help in any way possible.”

When he arrived at Southern on Sept. 1, he found his former law school professor, Donald North, alone, trying to organize the university’s effort to create a shelter to house the coming evacuees. Soon, with 20 more volunteers, including law students and alumni, they converted Seymour gym into a shelter, separate from the official regional shelter being managed across campus at the Minidome by the American Red Cross.

Teamwork pays off

The teamwork paid off: The Red Cross provided extra cots from its shelter. Church organizations donated hot food. Other shelters in the area delivered their extra supplies and toiletries, enough to sustain evacuees for the first night. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Jackson and Fields lent their connections in order to open doors and get needed services. Fields is the coalition’s national president.

Northern Louisiana universities contributed to help Grambling put together a shelter for the arriving evacuees. “We are merely a resource available to them in this time of need that is more than willing to assist them in getting them through the transition,” said Ernest L. Pickens Sr., Grambling's vice president for student affairs and enrollment management. “We are not in this for glory. We are in this because it is the right thing to do.”

“These students are courageous and this is an experience they will never forget,” said Jackson as he greeted students stepping off the buses to safety at Southern. “They held on to hope and had the strength and determination to survive.”

By late Sept. 2, volunteers were shuttling students to Western Union, the bus station and airport, to banks and to Wal-Mart and helping them reunite with families.

“I could not have asked for better student, staff and community support and participation,” said Bradley, the Xavier facilities director. “I’m wearing dry clothes, because people gave them to me.”

Next, students must decide whether to wait for school to reopen or enroll in another college.

Xavier officials used their emergency Web site to announce plans to reopen campus on Jan. 4. The recovery plan includes extending the school year so that students may complete two semesters before fall 2006, allowing seniors to graduate only a few months behind schedule.

Some won't return

Some students among the evacuees said they probably will not return. “My parents are very upset,” said Kenneth Hoover, a junior speech pathology major from Chicago. He wants to enroll at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the spring. “My parents don’t want me nowhere near this state.”

For many other evacuees who rode out the storm with Xavierites, the future is uncertain.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. The only thing I have are these three bags,” said Mayo, the New Orleans resident, as she laid out her clothes to dry and removed soggy food from her children’s backpacks.

Tregre said that he knows that parents are angry, and the university has already been criticized for not getting the students off campus before the storm. But he said the university made the right decision to keep those unable to evacuate together on campus.

“We did what we had to do, with no effective away to communicate through cell phones or radios, and we had a sufficient stockpile of food and water to provide for the kids,” he said. “We were faced with a challenge, and as a team we stood with our students until the end.”

“In the end, the only thing that matters is that their children are all safe,” he said.

*Michael Grant, a senior, and Juliuna Mitchell, a freshman, reported from Grambling University. Gabrielle Maple, a graduate student in journalism, reported from Southern University.

California Legislature Passes Gay Marriage Bill

2005-09-06T23:45:00.000-04:00

If the bill is signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, it would make the largest, most populous state in the country the first to pass a gay marriage law without intervention by a court.

And Now For Something Completely Different: The Lighter Side Of BBB

2005-09-06T23:22:00.000-04:00

Pharrell Williams and Jennifer “J-Lo” Lopez recently met in Puerto Rico to record a reggaeton song, a first for both artists. Last week, the Latina and the Virginia rapper, who is also half of the Neptunes production team, met to work with LunyTunes, a popular group of reggaeton producers. Lopez is reportedly working on a Spanish album with husband Marc Anthony, an accomplished singer and actor.

50 Cent, The Game, Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child were top winners at the 2005 World Music Awards, which were held in Los Angeles on Wednesday. 50 Cent snagged the award for best-selling pop male artist, while rival The Game won the best-selling new male honor. Destiny's Child won accolades for best-selling pop group, best-selling R&B group and best-selling female group of all time. Carey and her Emancipation of Mimi emerged victorious with the best-selling R&B artist, female entertainer of the year awards and best-selling pop female artist. Usher, Gwen Stefani and Eminem also won awards at the show, which was held at the Kodak Theatre in L.A.

Ice Cube Plans New Album, Come Back With Lil Jon

2005-09-06T23:06:00.000-04:00

After a long recording hiatus and an abandoned first come back attempt, the West Coast rap icon and former N.W.A. front man has a new single to drop.

HBCU Southern University Becomes Shelter For Over 500

2005-09-06T22:54:00.000-04:00

Southern University becomes shelter for over 500 evacuees

BY BRANDI WORLEY
September 02, 2005

BATON ROUGE, LA. — New Orleans homemaker Vanessa Hoffman clearly remembers the night of Hurricane Katrina’s arrival and when her neighborhood flooded.

The New Orleans homemaker and single mother took her two children Mia, 9, and Vance, 15, and escaped knee-high water in her 7th Ward home. The 7th Ward is a section of downtown New Orleans, situated just south of the Mississippi River.

“You could hear the surges of water,” said Hoffman. “It sounded like the wind, but it wasn't blowing.”

Now, Hoffman is one of the more than 500 hurricane evacuees taking refuge at Southern University’s F. G. Clark Activity Center.

“Right now, it's a big relief because you're not in that storm, so you can sleep, ” Hoffman said.

All she was able to bring with her was a small bag and the clothes on her back. Similar to the sentiments of other evacuees, she said she did not know what she would do or when she could return home.

It only took two hours for the Minidome to fill to capacity when it opened on Aug. 31, at the break of dawn. The air-conditioned, 7,500-seat arena is normally used to house graduations and fans of Southern’s basketball games. Now it is a shelter, home to refugees who were soaking and waiting to be rescued from polluted waters, most of them with just the clothes on their back.

Young and old lie strewn on army-typed green cots that cover the gym’s court. Many of the sheltered have hung their clothes on bleachers and railings located outside the arena.

Shelter manager Ralph Perrotta, has been a Red Cross volunteer for nine years. As refugees received donations of clean clothes, food and hygiene supplies, Perrotta, a 76-year-old San Antonio resident, said the shelter situation of Hurricane Katrina was the worst case he'd ever seen.

“Often I manage a shelter, and the most people (we have) is 100,” Perrotta said. “The longest was two weeks and up to 40-50 people.”

The shelter has as many as 40 Red Cross volunteers, plus other volunteers who are assisting evacuees with everything from providing numbers to help locate missing family members, to providing comfort kits and soap and water for showers.

Five physicians are also on staff, assisted by a host of nursing staff and students from Southern’s School of Nursing.

Dr. Debbie Kennedy of the Louisiana State University Health Science Center is director of the shelter’s health team.

Though prescriptive medication is not readily available, Kennedy said, evacuees are still being evaluated for medical problems ranging from high blood pressure, diabetes and minor cuts and wounds. One pregnant woman went into labor and was transported to a local hospital. A dialysis patient also had to be taken to another facility.

Tuskegee University Accepts Students Displaced By Katrina

2005-09-06T22:43:00.000-04:00

The Alabama school, founded by Booker T. Washington, joins a growing list of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) offering assistance to New Orleans college students affected by the storm.

BBB Humor: NEWSFLASH!!

2005-09-06T21:47:00.000-04:00

Evangelicals Blame Gays For Katrina, Gays More Powerful Than Previously Believed
By Lee Camp

Evangelical Christian leaders across the U.S. have come together to blame the Hurricane Katrina disaster on homosexuals. This is just one in a long line of catastrophes that Evangelicals have accused gays of causing including 9-11 and the tsunamis in Southeast Asia. With homosexuals being responsible for so many massively deadly events, a growing number of Americans are worried that gays are more powerful than experts previously concluded.

Edwin Thacker, head of the Federal Institute for The Study of Gay Evil Powers, has been mapping out gay superpowers and their consequences for over 20 years. He said, "Yeah, Hurricane Katrina truly demonstrated the wrath of the gays. And seeing as it occurred in the same 12-month period as the Tsunamis, we here at the Institute believe homosexuals are growing exponentially in power and range of terror. Quite frankly, we've been astounded at what they can do. We've known for years that they were good with hair, but none of us in our wildest dreams thought they could control natural disasters."

When asked what people can do to prepare for these disasters or prevent them, Thacker said simply, "Pray… Lock your doors… Don't wear a backwards baseball cap or a flannel shirt – that's soooo 1990's; it will just anger them."

"The Only Bad Luck In The World Is White Folks. They Just Don't Know When To Stop." -Toni Morrison (Beloved)

2005-09-06T19:19:00.000-04:00

There have always been uptight white people who feel threatened by black music. Starting with slave masters being uneasy about the drumming and dancing of their "chattel property" in the antebellum south; to the ridiculous fear in the early 20th century among the establishment that jazz was "too racey" and led to white teenagers using 'reefer'; to members of the clergy, dj's and parents calling rock and roll "race music" in the 1950's and 1960's and saying it had to go because white kids followed the example of blacks and danced to it, moving body parts other than their feet.

Now, in the 21st century, we have uptight white people with nothing better to do, blaming hip hop for the current mess in New Orleans. Yes, that's right, according to the ultra-white right wing American Spectator, it wasn't nature, the Bush administration's slow response, or the fact that the city lies under sea level that resulted in the chaos following the storm. No, it was hip hop music and those bad, bad black people who listen to it. If I remember correctly from my psych 101 class, this outrageous blaming of the victim is what is referred to by Freud as "transference and projection"- or the habit of blaming others for issues you are in denial about (like racism), and your own shortcomings (like refusing to admit and learn from mistakes). Irascible neo-cons appear to be a high risk group for the disorder, with no cure in sight. So for goodness' sake, would all you uppity negroes out there, please STOP SCARING THE WHITE FOLKS!!! A few of the more sheltered ones seem to be overtly clueless, fragile, delicate, and rather easily set off.

As a footnote to this commentary, I would like to mention, without giving too much of what was written away, that in addition to the hip hop garbage, I question two additional points raised by the author. Regardng his biased statement that certain types of people (read "blacks") don't report hearing gunshots in certain neighborhoods to the police because "the criminals" are in control, I wonder how the author can be certain that gunshots were going unreported for the reason he mentions, since he never bothered to ask anybody if they heard the gunshots and why they may have chosen not to report them. The author admits that the New Orleans police were, in some cases, "complicit" in the chaos that followed Katrina's onslaught. Is it unreasonable to believe that cops who would be complicit in taking advantage of a disaster like Katrina would also be complicit in the criminal activity that may be taking place in particular neighborhoods? And that as a result, residents in those neighborhoods may not bother to call in suspicious activity like gunshots because they know better than to call a police department that may not show up at all?

The author makes a second disturbing point, which is that "politically correct" affirmative action programs force police departments to hire based on quotas, which leads to an increase in the number of criminals hired by the police department, as well as increased police negligence and malfeasance. This outrageous propaganda is ridiculously illogical, racist, purposefully inaccurate and downright irresponsible for the following reasons:

First, affirmative action is NOT a quota program. It is a set of federal guidelines which mandate that QUALIFIED ethnic minorities ought to be considered, when they are available, and it is appropriate, for positions that they have historically been locked out of or under-represented in. Affirmative action does NOT force anybody to hire unqualified minorities.

Second, attempting to spread the misguided idea that hiring more minorities, particularly blacks, means hiring more criminals, is racist to the most desperate, vile and poisonous degree. The reality of much police malfeasance against minorities is that a culture of fear, mistrust, and hatred towards minorities and the poor has instilled in many police officers, black and white, a sense that they are outnumbered and outgunned, and therefore must conquer the "bad guys" by any means necessary, legal or illegal, up to and including using violence to instill fear and "respect" in the communitites they are supposed to protect and serve. The tactics used by police officers when they are called to deal with propblems in "nice" neighborhoods in New Orleans, or any other city, are much more polite and friendly, and less forceful, abrasive and violent than those used when the same officers are called into poorer neighborhoods- even though poor people pay taxes and are law abiding citizens too.

Right wing neo-cons like the author of this article and Antonin Scalia (who, without mentioning race or color, said that "some people" were "visibly less qualified" than whites-without one having to know their credentials or abilties, in oral arguments defending his stance against affirmative action in the Gruder Supreme Court Case) have grown into more and more sophisticated and sneaky snakes when it comes to inciting racial and cultural animus using specious syllogisms, and this article is a very good example. Apparently, they just don't know when to stop.

"Hell No We Ain't Alright"

2005-09-06T18:59:00.000-04:00

Public Enemy front man Chuck D has written a new song addressing the natural disaster in New Orleans, Alabama, Mississippi and the issues that surround the region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. In “Hell No We Ain’t Alright,” Chuck D sends a barbed message to government officials, the media, the military and even the Hip-Hop nation. The lyrics for the song were written on Sept. 2, the same day Kanye West rapped the treatment of African Americans suffering in the catastrophe live on the NBC television network. The rapper reportedly recorded the track over Labor Day weekend and is expected to distribute it shortly. Chuck D and Public Enemy have been long running activists in the rap community. Below are the lyrics to “Hell No We Ain’t Alright,” as written by Chuck D.

“Hell No We Ain’t Alright”

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Now all these press conferences breaking news alerts

This just in while your government looks for a war to win
Flames from the blame game, names? Where do I begin?
Walls closing in get some help to my kin
Who cares?While the rest of the Bushnation stares

As the drama unfolds as we the people under the stairs
50% of this Son of a Bush nation
Is like hatin’ on Haiti

And setting up assassinations
Ask Pat Robertson- quiz him.... smells like terrorism.

Racism in the news/ still one-sided news
Saying whites find food/
prey for the national guard ready to shoot
‘Cause them blacks loot

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Fires, earthquakes, tsunamis
I don’t mean to scare/ Wasn’t this written somewhere?
Disgraces all I see is black faces moved out to all these places
Emergency state, corpses, alligators and snakes
Big difference between this haze and them diamonds on the VMA’s

We better look/ what’s really important
Under this sun especially if you over 21

This ain’t no TV show/ this ain’t no video
This is really real/ beyond them same ole “keep it real”

Quotes from them TV stars drivin’ big rim cars
'Streets be floodin,’ B/ no matter where you at, no gas
Driving is a luxury
Urgency
State of emergency
Shows somebody’s government
Is far from reality....

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

I see here we be the new faces of refugees
Who ain’t even overseas but here on our knees

Forget the plasma TV-ain’t no electricity
New worlds upside down-and out of order
Shelter? Food? Wasssup, wheres the water?

No answers from disaster/ them masses hurtin’
So who the f**k we call?--Halliburton?

Son of a Bush, how you gonna trust that cat?
To fix s**t when help is stuck in Iraq?

Making war plans takin’ more stands
In Afghanistan 2000 soldiers dyin’ in the sand

But that’s over there, right?
Now what's over here is a noise so loud
That some can’t hear but on TV I can see
Bunches of people lookin’ just like me…

Kanye West Receives Support And Criticism After Bashing Bush On Live TV

2005-09-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

Right wing news outlets attack the rapper for being "ignorant" and "malicious", while civil rights leaders who have witnesseed the devastation and seen the victims in person, praise his remarks.

Twista Rallies Chicago Hip Hop Community To Support Free Benefit Concert

2005-09-06T18:38:00.000-04:00

The rapper is organizing a free concert that will take place September 19 at the House of Blues in Chicago. Confirmed Chicago rappers include Da Brat, Do or Die, Shawnaa, Crucial Conflict and Bump J.

Hip Hop Reacts And Responds

2005-09-06T18:17:00.000-04:00

While members of the right wing media resort to blaming poor black people and hip hop culture for the situation in New Orleans, hip hoppers like Kanye West, Jay Z, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Master P, James Prince and David Banner show hip hop at its best by speaking truth to power, and reaching out to lend a hand to those in need.

"The City Is No Longer Habitable"

2005-09-06T10:28:00.000-04:00

As rescue workers begin to pump fetid floodwaters out of New Orleans, the extent of the destruction left by Katrina becomes wrenchingly clear.

Mother Nature: Earth's Only True Super Power

2005-09-06T08:35:00.000-04:00

It has taken the U.S. more than two years to create a chaotic situation in Iraq, complete with mass violence, ethnic strife, class war-fare, political rifts, and human suffering on an unprecedented scale. It took Hurricane Katrina mere hours to do the same thing to the U.S.- the wealthiest, most powerful nation in history. With 1/5 of the nation's states now officially declared a disaster area, nature has brought this oftentimes arrogant nation, which can be so willing to tread mercilessly on the poorest of the poor both at home and abroad while hypocritically crying "freedom and justice for all", to its knees.

La's "Cancer Alley" Refineries Becoming Operational Again

2005-09-06T04:44:00.000-04:00

Oil refineries owned by Texaco, Exxon, and Total, historically blamed for creating abnormally high rates of cancer in the predominantly black neighborhoods known as "Cancer Alley" that surround them, return after having production interrupted (and industrial pollutants spilled into the water perhaps?) by Hurricane Katrina.

A Great Way To Help Katrina Victims

2005-09-06T02:28:00.000-04:00

Modest Needs is a non profit that gives concerned people the means to directly assist those in need. No middle men, and no bureaucracy.

"This Looks Like The Hull Of A Slave Ship."

2005-09-05T23:43:00.000-04:00

Charges of racism plague Hurricane Katrina rescue effort

Kofi Annan Braces For Criticism

2005-09-05T23:08:00.000-04:00

In A BBC interview, the U.N. Secretary General discusses the potential fall out from a final report on the Oil For Food Scandal, due out on Wednesday, as well as the upcoming World Summit, allegations of oppression against Muslims by Western countries, and the U.N.'s role in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Could Katrina Lead To A Rethinking Of Federalism And States' Rights?

2005-09-05T21:48:00.000-04:00

BBC reports that Bush is clearing his schedule to deal with Katrina and his perceived lack of leadership in the disaster's wake. It also reports that the existence of a "bewildering" array of local fiefdoms may have contributed to hampering the relief effort. The fact that state and local authorities have such power relative to the federal government and compared to other industrial nations might make the U.S. less efficient at responding to a national disaster or terrorist attack. Could this lead to every states rights' advocate's worst nightmare: consolidation of power at the national level?

BUSH LIED. The Feds KNEW How Bad Katrina Would Be BEFORE It Hit

2005-09-05T21:12:00.000-04:00

NBC's Brian Williams posted information in his blog that indicates the National Weather Service was aware of Katrina's potential for damage, and sent out warnings and bulletins to that effect, comparing the storm to the devastating Hurricane Camille of 1969. Yet Bush claims the storm's damage couldn't have been anticipated. If the National Weather Service knew, and it's part of the executive branch he heads, why didn't HE know about the unprecedented national disaster that was about to unfold?

Here are excerpts from the actual National Weather Service warning notice:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER.

AT LEAST HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED...ALL WINDOWS WILL BE BLOWN OUT.

THE VAST MAJORITY...OF TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

The Real, Awful Truth About William Rhenquist

2005-09-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Before Bush and his neo-con cronies begin the process of revisionist history writing that will paint the former Supreme Court Justice in the light most favorable, let's be very clear about the racism, bigotry and homophobia Rhenquist practiced and benefitted from, starting with his days as a law student at the then overtly racist and anti-Jewish Stanford Law School.

Thousands Who Were Able To Leave New Orleans Return To Inspect Damage

2005-09-05T15:52:00.000-04:00

Those able and lucky enough to leave before the storm, begin looking for what remains of their homes.

Bush Nominates Roberts To Succeed Rhenquist As Chief Justice

2005-09-05T15:22:00.000-04:00

I guess it could be worse...he could've nominated Scalia...but still...what a nightmare!

Forgotten Roots: African American Muslims In Early America

2005-09-05T02:00:00.000-04:00

When African slaves were brought to the New World, they were given new names, and expected to conform to a new way of living, but that didn't mean they forgot their identities. Try as they might, slave holders and overseers were never able to fully separate African slaves from their African roots...though they did a great deal of psychic, emotional and physical damage to African slaves while trying. Africans came to the New World with their own languages, customs, and beliefs. One of the religious belief systems that existed in pre-Colonial Africa, and that Africans brought with them to the New World, was Islam. Middle Eastern Muslims and black Sub-Saharan Africans were trading and engaging in frequent contact across the desert long before the first Western European slave traders arrived in Africa. As a result of this contact, many Africans converted to Islam. To this day, fully 50% of all Africans are Muslim. The image accompanying this post is of a Koran that was apparently in the possession of an African American around the middle of the 19th century, and was the only book rescued from a torched fire. It is part of an ongoing exhibit at the Anacostia Museum of African American History in Washington, DC.

Where Gods And Mortals Meet

2005-09-05T01:48:00.000-04:00

The National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC has opened a new exhibit on the concepts of continuity and renewal in the spiritual art of the Urhobo people of Nigeria. As an amateur student of the history of pre-colonial Africa, and how that history has been impacted by exposure to the West, I am always interested in learning about the belief systems and cultures of the many diverse ethnic groups in Africa. The history and culture of Africans has for too long been whitewashed, almost to the point of extinction, by destructive, arrogant people who would have the world believe that there is nothing in Africa, or that what little there is isn't worth knowing about. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are those who say that Africa has never contributed anything to humanity, when in fact one of Africa's major gifts to humanity is humanity itself. Ultimately, we are all Africans, because Africa is the birthplace of humankind.

Fidel Castro Offers 1,500 Doctors To Assist U.S. In Katrina Crisis

2005-09-05T00:40:00.000-04:00

The Cuban leader says political enmity must be set aside during crises like this, and has asked the doctors, from all over the island nation, to gather in Havanna where they await, fully stocked with medical equipment and prepared for an unlikely deployment . With President Bush's leadership during the disaster's aftermath under attack, and an obvious lack of medical personnel, supplies and federal support for local officials in areas hit by the storm, is the American president "red" enough to accept assistance from our tiny communist neighbor to the south?

The U.S. may be getting used to hearing the words "American" and "refugees" being used together for the first time, but accepting aid, much as it may be needed, from a nation in the third world would be too embarrassing for the foremost military and economic power in history to accept, wouldn't it?

Fidel, I may not agree with everything you say and do, but when it comes to geo-political maneuvering, I gotta give you your props. You GO boy!

Condoleeza Rice Needs To Be Bitch Slapped For Saying Race Hasn't Played A Role In The Katrina Disaster

2005-09-04T23:44:00.000-04:00

Rice admits that poor, black people and the elderly were the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina because they didn't have the resources to escape like others in the city. Yet, in the same breath, she says race was not a factor in the Katrina disaster. HUH? So let me get this straight- poor black people were hit harder because they were poor; and blacks have ALWAYS suffered higher rates of poverty per capita than just about any other ethnic group in this country-regardless of the skills and education they possess (meaning the poverty level of many blacks has always been directly attributable to structural racism, not a lack of ability or desire to do better, starting with slavery, when blacks were expected to be skilled craftsmen and workers without being paid, and continuing to the present, when blacks with similar skills and educational levels as whites are paid less for similar work-if they're hired at all) but somehow, magically, race was not a factor? EXCUSE ME?

If race wasn't a factor, why were so many poor people unable to evacuate, and why were so many of those poor people BLACK? If race wasn't a factor, why was President Bush on the ground within hours after Hurricane Ivan hit predominantly white-middle class Broward County in Florida last year, during his re-election campaign, but 5 days after Hurricane Katrina hit predominantly black New Orleans, all he has done is fly over the city from the comfort and safety of Air Force One, and hold press conference after press conference while dead bodies rot in the streets and children go hungry? If race wasn't a factor, why is it that the predominantly white beach front property owners of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, who insist on having their homes on stilts, get to drive up insurance premiums and receive federal aid to rebuild almost immediately after each hurricane blows their homes away, just so they can wait for it all to happen again with the next storm, but poor black renters in New Orleans must consider starting their lives over in Texas and other states far from home now that their houses are destroyed?

And don't even get me started about the way the so called "liberal" media have portrayed whites as "finding" things while blacks are said to be "looting" them. No, that's all irrelevant. According to Condie Rice, race is not, and never was an issue- so just disregard all those black faces in New Orleans you've seen clamoring for help, and stop wondering why there have been so few white ones there with them.

Rice's ludicrous statement reminds me of something I've observed for a long time now. Have you noticed that over the course of the last generation, one can now only become a "successful" black person in the federal government if one is a mouth piece for and ass kisser of conservatives? Condie Rice, Clarence Thomas, Armstrong Williams, Colin Powell...the list goes on and on. There are NO blacks that I can think of who are left of center, progressive, liberal, or whatever you want to call it, who are given such high ranking offices in and access to the federal government. Not even when the Democrats are in the White House (perhaps Jesse Jackson and Vernon Jordan can be considered exceptions, but last I checked, black people who were summoned to the White House to hold prayer vigils when Bill Clinton couldn't keep his cigar in its box were never given official cabinet level status).

The last Democratic president to place a black person in any visible position of authority was Jimmy Carter, when he made Andrew Young our U.N. Ambassador back in the 1970's. Not even Bill Clinton, the so called "first black president" placed any black people in such high level positions as Secretary of State or National Security Adviser-although he did make a Republican white male his Secretary of Defense (and I do NOT consider Ron Brown as Secretary of Commerce to be a black person in a high ranking position. Yes, it's a cabinet level office, but who really knows or cares who the Commerce Secretary is and what they do?)

The days of the likes of Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell or Ralph Bunche speaking truth to power as black people and being given positions of substance and leadership in the federal government as a result of their courage and willingness to shed light on serious social ills are long gone. These were black leaders who were willing to fight for justice, and to clear a path for their black brethren to follow them toward a more hopeful future. The great black leaders of yesteryear have been replaced by melanin-infused mouthpieces for the neo-cons whose job isn't the upliftment of anybody but themselves, and who, because of their conservative ass kissing, are placed on a pedestal to show us all what it really means to be a "successful" black person today. And that is defined as a black person who is given authority by the neo-con establishment to look down on the rest of us (especially those like the poor blacks suffering in New Orleans, who were hidden from our collective view until this disaster) and say "Race is not an issue. I made it, so why can't YOU?"

The Great Divide

2005-09-04T20:35:00.000-04:00

Are the racist, homophobic rantings in the blogosphere regarding Hurricane Katrina and Bush's Supreme Court nominee choices indicative of a heretofore hidden, seething underbelly of hatred in the nation as a whole?

Leavitt: Katrina's Death Toll "In The Thousands"

2005-09-04T17:36:00.000-04:00

Federal official first to acknowledge what many had feared.

William Rhenquist Dies: Checkmate for Dubya

2005-09-04T04:45:00.000-04:00

The death of the Supreme Court's Chief Justice gives George W. Bush, that redneck-idiot-thug-from-hell, the chance to seriously impact the course of history...AGAIN...how badly will he screw this one up for future generations of Americans?

Churches, Religious Conservatives Organize to End Mass. Gay Marriage In 2008

2005-09-04T04:27:00.000-04:00

Highly organized coalition expects initiative to be placed on ballot in 2008: plans to use churches, schools to gain the requisite number of signatures necessary are already in effect.

"Memo to all...nitwits: [Katrina] was a hurricane, not God's stamp of approval for your small-mindedness and hate."

2005-09-04T04:19:00.000-04:00

Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts, Jr. discusses the disturbing way Hurricane Katrina has been used to justify hate in a very socially, economically, and politically divided America.

This Week's Dose Of BigBlackBlog Humor: "Holy Homophobes, Batman! First A Black Green Lantern- Now This!"

2005-09-04T03:09:00.000-04:00

DC Comics forces "Gay Batman" exhibit to close, and demands all unsold originals from artist Mark Chamberlain, proving once and for all the dynamic duo is homoerotic, maybe, but homosexual? NOT!!

Author Ann Rice Says Losing "The Big Easy" Wouldn't Be Easy On America

2005-09-04T01:44:00.000-04:00

The racial and cultural legacy of New Orleans is a testament to the city's importance in American history. The Katrina disaster, its aftermath, and the way it is being addressed speaks volumes about our racial and cultural present-and most of it's not good. What does this say about our future?

Dillard University Vows To Bounce Back

2005-09-04T01:23:00.000-04:00

One of the premiere predominantly black institutions of higher learning in the south, recently listed as one of the best colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report's college rankings, finds strength in its past and resolves to continue living up to its mission and legacy, despite the destruction brought by Hurricane Katrina.

Howard University, the "Black Harvard" Opens Its Doors To Students Affected By Katrina

2005-09-04T01:04:00.000-04:00

Also known as "The Mecca," (because virtually every great black intellectual leader of the past 150 years from Frederick Douglass in the 1800's to W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Martin Luther King, Jessye Norman, Toni Morrison, Nelson Mandella and Malcolm X in the 1900's, to Cornell West and Maya Angelou in the 21st century has ended up their at some point in their careers either as students, speakers, or teachers) the university will allow students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, to enroll without having to pay additional fees or tuition.

URL to statement by Howard president H. Patrick Swygert:
http://www.howard.edu/newsevents/announcements/05-09-01katrina.htm

Ku Klux Klan Protests Meeting of Pro Gay Methodists

2005-09-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

Group demonstrating against the Klan asked by police to leave

"George Bush doesn't care about black people!"

2005-09-03T01:21:00.000-04:00

Kanye West Slams President Bush On Live Telecast for Hurricane Katrina Relief

Why I Don't Watch "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy"

2005-09-02T02:38:00.000-04:00

(Editorial commentary by ACyanideCynic)

I must be the only person in the world who has never watched a full episode of A&E’s mega hit “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy”. I’ve never even bothered to check the listings to see when it shows. Aside from the fact that there is not a single black man or minority of any sort, as far as I can tell, among the “Fab 5”, as this group of gay makeover specialists is called, and the offensive, racist advertisement used to market the show in it’s first season (“Somewhere in Uganda, a gay baby is running naked!” shouted as the leader of the group holds up a horrendously ugly and outdated item of clothing. For some reason, I never found that the least bit funny), there is also the fact that the show is based on its own brand of horrendously ugly and outdated stereotypes.

These stereotypes include the notions that all gay men are style mavens with hearts of gold; they have impeccable taste, are always abreast of the latest trends; always know how to put together the perfect outfit or throw the perfect party; have a natural knack for interior design, are sophisticated, eccentric and worldly yet safely Eurocentric, are always there to “fix” things, and can do all of this while keeping you fully and completely entertained, usually with ribald and sardonic humor or gossip. In other words, ALL gay men are every straight woman’s best friend- because in spite of their gym memberships and wife beaters, they are essentially girl-like, but in that “non-threatening” way that other women can be, and without the sexual tension or suspicion that can occur with straight “guy friends”. Gay men are innocuous and safe. They are virtually human pets who clean up after themselves.

To me, shows like “Queer Eye”, “Queer as Folk”, and “Will and Grace”, embody the modern, sexual-orientation-identified version of images portraying the prototypical racist stereotype of black people in television characters of the past such as Amos ‘n Andy, Steppin’ Fetchit and Buckwheat; they exploit and inaccurately portray significant numbers of the people purportedly represented by them for commercial gain.

Of course, the heterosexual flip side of this stereotype is that straight men are all of the bad, gauche things gay men are not, and straight women are not only bad at “fixing” things, but they are in fact not to be trusted to do so-especially when what needs to be fixed is your man. “Queer Eye” seems to tell heterosexual women, and the marketers who target them, in a tongue in cheek way, “If your man is a bumbling Neanderthal when it comes to style and romance, take him to the nearest ‘fix it fairy’ who will not only ‘fix’ him for you, but make your life together more perfect, and in the process, help rid the world of overbearing machismo and all manner of fashion faux pas. All this in less than one hour, and with more product placements than you can shake a stick at.”

Of course, not only is this ridiculous, it also, regardless of the comic relief value, reinforces ideas about gender and sexuality that are as appropriate and useful today as a Model T at the Daytona 500. If the producers of the show really want to be hip and modern, how ironic is it that the premise of their show is based on such old fashioned stereotypes?

HBCU Texas Southern Opens Doors To Displaced Students From New Orleans Colleges

2005-09-02T01:52:00.000-04:00

200 Students from New Orleans registered at Texas Southern in one day

Black Colleges Suffer In Katrina's Wake

2005-09-02T00:58:00.000-04:00

Used to struggling to keep their doors open, institutions face toughest challenge in recent memory.

Black Colleges, Students In Louisiana Band Together In Katrina's Terrible Aftermath

2005-09-02T00:53:00.000-04:00

At least two organizations, including the United Negro College Fund, to offer assistance.

Foreign Students Missing From New Orleans HBCU's After Katrina

2005-09-02T00:48:00.000-04:00

Students from Africa and the Caribbean attending HBCU's (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in Louisiana haven't been heard from since the storm.

Southern University in New Orleans Offers Hotline for Students, Empolyees Seeking Information Regarding Katrina

2005-09-02T00:36:00.000-04:00

No word yet on other HBCU's, including Dillard and Xavier in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area. Communications will apparently remain down for the forseeable future. As information becomes available, it will be posted here.

Response to Katrina: Relief For the Rich, Disaster For the Poor

2005-09-02T00:15:00.000-04:00

Perhaps if there was enough water, food and shelter for poor folks suffering in the aftermath of Katrina, they wouldn't be shooting guns and scavenging for food and diapers...

Blues Legend Fats Domino Found "Shaken" But Alive In Baton Rouge

2005-09-02T00:09:00.000-04:00

Domino "lost everything" and is staying with a friend until he can return to New Orleans.

California Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill

2005-09-01T23:52:00.000-04:00

Bill's passage marks first time a state legislature has passed such a bill without a court's intervention.

Katrina Gives Bush Gas Issues

2005-09-01T23:47:00.000-04:00

As residents of New Orleans face hunger, disease and homelessness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Pres. Bush contemplates how the disruption of gasoline distribution in the Gulf brought on by the storm might disrupt the economy.

Louisiana Governor Gives "Shoot To Kill" Orders to National Guard Troops in Katrina's Wake

2005-09-01T23:40:00.000-04:00

Hungry, homeless residents of New Orleans must deal with law enforcement that will "shoot first, ask questions later".

Most Who Couldn't Escape Katrina Are Poor, Black

2005-09-01T23:24:00.000-04:00

The majority of those stuck in the chaotic mess of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are poor black folks- surprised? You shouldn't be...poor folk and black folks tend to bear the brunt of many of our nation's social ills.