Happy Thanksgiving Day Family

Happy Thanksgiving Day Milwaukee!

Washington Post: Blacks Hit Hard By Economy’s Punch

Read the complete article here.

Milwaukee’s Sports Destiny On His Back

It’s been years since I’ve attended more than a couple Milwaukee Bucks game in a season. This year I’ll be in the building for more than half the games (if BJ3 doesn’t get hurt). I still watch the games this year and cannot believe this kid is this good so soon… it’s unbelievable to think he will get better. Is this what the Bulls fans felt like when they watch Air his rookie season? This must be how Cavaliers fans believed when King James laced them up after leaving Akron prep basketball.

I love this feeling!!!!!

MPS: Personal Responsibility and Milwaukee’s Racial Climate

Everybody understands how essential it is to our children and to the future of Milwaukee to see long-term, permanent improvement in the performance of MPS. One-in-three students don’t graduate, four-in-five of those who do graduate aren’t prepared for regular college courses at MATC or UWM; they have to take remedial classes first. The difference in test scores between black and white students in Wisconsin, something that we seemingly just assume to be a fact of life here, is higher than basically anywhere else in the United States. Meanwhile, it’s been found that there are millions of dollars of waste in MPS (see report here). Such waste is a big deal, especially considering that MPS is the 3^rd largest employer in the State of Wisconsin. We’re all paying more money than we should for a mega-system that is failing our children and our community.

So major, actual changes need to be made and stakeholders have come out of the woodwork with their suggestions. Plans have come out from WEAC, for mayoral governance (see fact sheet here), and against mayoral governance. Mayoral governance in particular has spawned a lot of debate, and success under this system is difficult to achieve and requires a lot of hard work and quality leadership. Despite the challenges, New York City decided to continue mayoral governance recently because, according to them, mayoral governance led to more accountability, money, and leadership.

There are many opponents to mayoral governance, and it’s been suggested that proponents are being led by money. It is true that the mayoral governance initiative, something that could have just as easily been pursued five or ten year ago, seems to be at least partly based on a promise of federal funding, and who knows what sorts of political deals have been made behind closed doors.

But it’s also clear that a different kind of money is at the heart of the desire for change. The link between education and economic growth is ridiculously strong. A stronger education system means higher lifetime individual earnings, less crime, more positive contributions to society, more business attraction to the community (Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!), and higher home values. The link between economic development and early childhood education, in particular, is especially strong. It can be said that the success of MPS is the single most important factor when looking at the future of Milwaukee. It is in EVERYBODY’S interest to see a strong MPS, and while ulterior motives are often present in politics, I don’t believe that anybody involved here wants MPS to fail.

Yet, the debate over MPS is “tearing Milwaukee apart.” Rep. Polly Williams called mayoral takeover “a power play conspiracy by four white men.” School Board President Michael Bonds whipped out the race card, calling the attempt at mayoral governance racist. Mayor Tom Barrett responded to the racism charge by saying that President Obama’s Education Secretary is a proponent of mayoral governance, so it’s not racist. This is the equivalent of someone saying that they are not a racist because “their best friend is black.” This tepid response is a credit to the toxic racial climate that exists in Milwaukee and to Barrett’s lack of courage. He should have said that he wants MPS to succeed, that he believes mayoral governance is the best route to that success, and that any accusation of racism is false, irresponsible, ignorant, divisive, and a complete insult.

But, many in the community do see racial undertones to the MPS debate. Why? Rep. Tamara Grigsby seems to provide the best guidance in a recent interview. Grigsby states that “in general in other places the mayor has appeased the needs of his highest voting wards which also don’t tend to be the most low-income communities.” School Board Director Terry Falk covered similar ground. The implicit belief is that mayoral governance means white people taking control of MPS, and of the future of Milwaukee’s minority communities, away from the minority communities themselves.

To be sure, Grigsby is speaking common sense. The mayor of any city is going to appease those who vote more so than those who don’t. What really bothers me about this sort of comment and the thinking of many mayoral governance opponents is the implicit assumption that low-income people in Milwaukee (read: minorities) can’t dictate the actions taken by their mayor. Why not??? Milwaukee is a minority-majority city. We have the numbers necessary to control city-wide elections.

But that’s only in theory. In reality, as Grigsby indirectly indicates, minorities don’t vote in as high percentages as the white population in Milwaukee. In the 2008 local elections, the TOP SIX (of 15) voting aldermanic districts, in terms of voting percentage (total votes/district population), elected white aldermen.

Instead of seeing the failure to take ownership and responsibility for our futures, local leaders seem to see depressed voting in minority communities as a permanent reality. The idea that minorities can’t take care of themselves and need politicians to protect them from their unwillingness to empower themselves in the voting booth is precisely what is wrong in Milwaukee.

Too often, it seems that the only thing that activates the black community politically is race-baiting. Call a school plan racist, and all of the sudden you get packed rallies and demonstrations in front of politicians’ houses. Suggest that the treatment of a gangster politician is race-based, watch as he gets over 2,000 votes while sitting in jail. Voters came out to support President Obama, but what about the local elections that have a more immediate impact on our communities?

There isn’t enough personal responsibility in Milwaukee, and the city’s black leadership rarely calls it out. Instead of playing the race card and opposing things like mayoral governance because black people don’t vote enough, play the real leadership role and get people off their butts! Not by race-baiting, which just divides an already hyper-segregated and divided city even further, but by encouraging the community to empower itself in the voting booth. While they’re at it, how about getting after the parents who aren’t instilling the value of education in their children? No movement on MPS will be successful unless the parents step up and play the role. Teachers don’t raise kids.

Frankly, I’d rather see mayoral governance than the current status quo. I’d rather give minority communities the chance to control the mayor with their majority population status than stick with a system that is obviously a failure.

That said, a good overhaul of the school board would be better than either mayoral governance or the status quo. But I can’t take any plan of this sort seriously until, at the very least, they offer to move school board elections to even years, so that school board elections can have the same prominence as other local elections. Not that this would be a cure-all, but it would help. The school board has to be more accountable than it is.

The MPS debate is a case study on Milwaukee’s incredible race issues. Rather than focusing on our shared destiny and mutual interest on a critical issue, groups fall back to their separate corners, try to take away one another’s power and call each other racist, all while seemingly accepting the reality that minorities don’t vote enough. There is not enough leadership here.

Black Cowards + Black Abortions = Black Genocide

Warning: I’m about to say some ish that needs to be said! Buckle up and hold on!

How come the only Black Person in Milwaukee with a microphone, pen or TV camera that speaks out against Abortion being wrong is Conservative Talker James T. Harris? How come? How come Milwaukee’s Black Media stays silent in speaking out against Planned Parenthood and their execution of our Black Future? How come Black Politicians don’t pass legislation that will prevent young girls from having their bodies operated on and God’s gift of life murdered while they wipe the blood from between their legs? How come… how come?

What are we doing Black People? On one hand we fight for our children to have an education, food, shelter and future. On the other, we stay silent as the innocent life just a few months old is lynched and denied a destiny. Those who say nothing are cowards… those whom have a voice or power to stand up to this madness and say nothing are traitors! Our babies are slaughtered as animals in clinics around this country and Black People say nothing. You are cowards!!!!!

How many of you Black People were at church today and heard from God? How many of you know the books of the Bible back and forth yet say nothing about Abortion? Black Politicians, Democrats, Republicans… Roe vs. Wade means what to you? The law of the land? Or is it something you just don’t care to get your hands soiled upon? Go ahead and keep turning your back you cowards… keep avoiding the issue that Black Babies are being butchered under the guise of a woman’s right to choose. I ask you today, choose what? To kill an innocent, pure, potential-filled life?

Many of us often look back to the past to see men and women of courage and conviction. Is there any wonder why when discussing Abortion… there are no men and women of conviction that will stand up in the Black Community to fight this horror. Who is the SELLOUT? Millions of Black People have been murdered at our own hands… those Beautiful, Black Babies were gifts to the world. How many Dr. Kings, Dr. Wests, Morrisons, Ellisons, Hughes, Parks, Tubmans and Douglasses were lost?

How come those that came before us knew better than us… read this wisdom and reflect on what you/we need to do.

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” Fredrick Douglass

“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” Sojourner Truth

“Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.” Marcus Garvey

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” Mother Rosa Parks

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“The time is always right to do what is right.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Black Movie Review: Precious

A film as lost as the girl it glorifies

By Courtland Milloy

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Now that I have seen the movie “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” I’m all the more bewildered by its enthusiastic reception, especially in the white media. The fictional story revolves around a black teenager, Claireece “Precious” Jones, who is raped by her father, gets pregnant by him — twice — and endures the depravity of her psychopathic mother.

The Huffington Post raved: “This is a film that doesn’t shy away from the depths to which human beings can sink. . . .” You’d think the movie was a documentary.

The independent film, directed by Lee Daniels and adapted from a 1996 novel by the poet Sapphire, raked in an impressive $6 million during its weekend debut. Little wonder, though, given all the media buzz.

The New York Times Magazine featured the movie as a cover story last month and declared: “Precious is a stand-in for anyone — black, white, male, female — who has ever been devalued or underestimated.”

Let’s see: I lose my job, so I take in a movie about a serially abused black girl and I go, “Oh, swell, she’s standing in for me.”

Maybe there is something to the notion that when human pathology is given a black face, white people don’t have to feel so bad about their own. At least somebody’s happy.

Sexual abuse is certainly an equal-opportunity crime, with black and white women similarly affected. But only exaggerated black depravity seems to resonate so forcefully in the imagination.

White suburban boys are so fascinated by it that they fueled an explosion of gangsta rap — misogynistic lyrics against a backdrop of booty-shaking black women.

Of course, “Precious” would not have received nearly as much media buzz if Oprah Winfrey and Tyler “Madea” Perry had not signed on as executive producers. Oddly, neither has made a movie about rising above a challenging background and becoming a wealthy and influential entertainer.

Asked by Entertainment Weekly magazine why she got involved with the project, Oprah said: “I realized that, Jesus, I have seen that girl a million times. I see that girl every morning on the way to work, I see her standing on the corner, I see her waiting for the bus as I’m passing in my limo, I see her coming out of the drugstore, and she’s been invisible to me.”

Instead of making a movie about how she beat the odds, Oprah has taken to divining ugly life stories from black girls she passes in her limo. Maybe the Obama girls should stay off the sidewalk for a while.

In “Precious,” Oprah and Perry have helped serve up a film of prurient interest that has about as much redeeming social value as a porn flick. In it, we glimpse a sweaty, faceless brute of a black man raping the girl while her mother watches from a doorway. Two children are conceived in incest.

“The Jones family home is an amber-lit hell, and we’re not initially sure whether Precious is a prisoner or a participant in it,” says Time magazine. “The movie allows moments of judging Precious . . . then begins to roll out a series of nightmares that last the whole day long: rape, incest and a mother so lacking in human decency that she not only aided in a father’s lust for a child but also considered the child as a witting rival.”

Rolling Stone gave “Precious” 3.5 stars out of four. Three X’s would be more like it.

I watched the movie at a theater in Alexandria where showtimes are nearly around the clock, from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 a.m. The audience was mostly black women and teenagers. When the lights came up, all of the moviegoers appeared sullen and depressed.

After escaping the abuse of her home life, Precious ends up in a halfway house. She is still functionally illiterate and has two babies to care for, one with Down syndrome.

Strangest of all, many reviewers felt the movie ended on a high note. Time, for instance, wrote that Precious “makes an utterly believable and electrifying rise from an urban abyss of ignorance and neglect.”

Excuse me, the movie ends with the girl walking the streets, babies in her arms, having just learned that her father has died of AIDS — but not before infecting her.

The story is set in 1987, before AIDS treatment became widely available. Precious is as good as dead.

At the Cannes Film Festival, members of a mostly white audience gave “Precious” a 15-minute standing ovation.

I guess they can hardly wait for the sequel.

MALC, AFL-CIO To Hold Healthcare Reform Presentation

Milwaukee Awarded Keep America Beautiful (KAB) “Graffiti Hurts” Campaign Grant