Friday, October 29, 2010

The Gong Show Politics Of The Democrats And Republicans: No You Can't

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Special Report
Sterling, Virginia
October 29, 2010

Blogger Black Buzz states that he was informed by a very reliable source from Elko Nevada that the often misunderstood Sharon Angle has ordered a special broom for Halloween from the brainy, and confused Christine O'Donnell. Maybe Angle, O'Donnell, and Sarah Palin will get together on Halloween, and make and serve a concoction of 'Witches Brew to their misguided dumb followers.

I see that the unfaithful, disingenuous philanderer, deceitful, snake, cut-throat, Bill Clinton is up to his old tricks again doing what he does best (lying).
The bombastic house servant Kendrick Meek has given a convenient cover for Bill Clinton, who tried to strong arm Meek into dropping out of the U.S. Senate Race in Florida. Like a good faithful house servant Mr. Meek has denied that Slick Willie asked him to drop out of the race.
Sadly, a majority of so-called Black elected officials including the duplicitous tan face in the Oval Office in their pandering to white politicians and establishment powers have sold their families and traded their souls for a dry bone from the master's table for the honor of currying favor with whites in power. Many of these Black political leaders have not been as selective in their choices as a pet dog, moreover in their desire to be loved have required no more than a patronizing pat on the head, just like a dog.

The shameless idiot Charlie Crist is the tan version of Benedict Arnold Specter.
The pompous Harry Reid reminds me of a dejected misguided version of Mr. Peeper's, whose lost control of his classroom.

Someone has to convince me that the lying U.S. Senatorial candidate from the Nutmeg state Dick Blumenthal, is not related to the adulterer former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer. Eliot Spitzer and Dick Blumenthal have to be twin brothers. There had to be some Hanky-panky going on between those two families. Dick Blumenthal also claimed he was the Captain of the Harvard Swim team. Records showed that Blumenthal never swam on the Harvard swim team. Blumenthal couldn't even make the swim team at the lowly YMHA team in his hometown.

Florida Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Alex 4.0 in math Sink, sank so low in her spirited debate with the Hammerhead Ghost Rider Rick Scott that she used a cheat sheet in the debate. I wonder if Ms. Sink used a cheat sheet at Wake Forest University in getting that 4.0 in math?

The criminal enterprise (Koch Industries) is giving heavily to Barbara Boxer, and fringe extremist Tea Baggers.

Our Yes We Can President Obama, has
playing on the ignorance of young voters by trying to convince them, and college students to vote for the Party of Pelosi, and Reid. These are the same young voters, and college students that couldn't differentiate on the National Geo Exam whether Taipei was a City, Country, or an exotic Chinese food dish.
The Obama administration intentionally planted that non-sense about the explosive packages coming over to the USA from Yemen to divert the gullible public's attention away from the miserable unemployment statistics, and the poor economy as we head up to the election on Tuesday. The Obama administration wanted to appear (tough) as though they are doing something in fighting the war on terror as the November election rolls around.
As long as the Obama administration maintains its present posture of a blind, one-sided, naked policy that favors the rogue state of Israel, and wages wars against innocent Muslims civilians around the globe all Americans will be at risk anywhere on the planet.
The Chinese are building twice as many Carriers as the U.S. as the Obama administration has cut back tremendously in the defense area, which will cost thousands of Americans to loose their jobs and career's.
The Chinese are presently bullying Japan, and Obama appears dumbfounded as to what course of action to take against the Chinese intransigence, which will leave the Japanese no other alternative but to jump-start its own nuclear weapons program.
The little mentally challenged leader in North Korea is intimidating his fellow Koreans in the South on a daily basis as the Obama administration plays fake war games on the Korean peninsula.
Our Southern border with Mexico is one of the most unsafe places in the world, while the Obama administration is committing a slow form of genocide against the indigenous populations in Afghanistan and Pakistan in its alleged war on terror.
The narco- corrupt Karzai Government has accepted payoffs from the regime in Tehran, and the Obama administration doesn't seem to know how to get out of that albatross in Afghanistan. Guess what! Uncle Sam taint leaving Afghanistan with all that natural gas sitting over there with the Chinese, and Russians licking their chops jockeying for position.

* The Citizens United decision
allowed Karl "Deliverance" Rove to solicit funds for his own shadow party, which could spend unlimited amounts of money without disclosing its sources, while avoiding the Uncle Tom Michael Steele who heads the all white Republican Party. Yes I am fully aware of the fact that Party of Lincoln has few Negroes as members, and some of my best friends are Republican Negroes.

Don't believe all that misleading hype about Hillary Clinton not running against Barry. She hates Obama, and she will be running against him in 2012. Politics indeed makes strange bed-fellows.

*Rand Paul
of Kentucky was once denied membership in the Confederated Knights of the KKK because he was shown to be a coward, and with hostile Anti- Christian feelings against the Bible toting people in the Bluegrass state.

*Everyone knows that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas married a freak in Virginia Thomas because he couldn't find any colored woman who would engage in his kinky type of behavior. As the Chief Law Enforcement officer of the EEOC, Clarence Thomas sexually harassed more women at EEOC than Bill Clinton, Newt OverTheHill Gingrich, Juan Williams, Brett Favre, combined. Now we are stuck with Uncle Thomas's mentally deficient morally degenerate behind for life. We need a true Term Limit Movement in the USA.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took his colleague Elena Kagan out for a few rounds of skeet shooting on his property in Virginia, and Kagan came back without any injuries. I was glad to see Scalia didn't take bad shot Dick Cheney with him, and Kagan. I doubt seriously whether Kagan would have gone on that outing with Scalia if Dick Cheney would have been in the shooting party.
*Cheney's Haliburton is just as corrupt, and scandalous as BP.
*I understand that Dick Cheney's gay daughter has moved to Massachusetts, and joined the Barney Frank crowd.

*Can you imagine Valerie Jarrett running for the Barack Obama's old Senate seat in the state of Illinois? She is the light-skin female version of Clarence Thomas with a liberal spin.
*And why has Jesse Jackson Jr. been so silent these days? Maybe the Cat has his tongue.

*The Ambivalent Democratic Party only comes around pimping Black voters during election time, and who also has come to depend on the Black voters. The Democrats have always taken Black support, and our votes for granted. Black voters should ask the question what has support for the tan puppet in the White House gotten them? Sonja Sotomayor; Elena Kagan; Arnie Duncan; Tim Geithner; ObamaCare without a Public Option; GITMO inst closed; numerous broken promises; Race To The Top; Military Base Shootings; Underwear Bombers; A fringe nut flying a plane into a building in state of Texas; more parties in the White House in the history of the U.S; Plant closings; millions of jobs being shipped overseas; afraid and to timid to tackle the unfair Trade Laws; bumbling of the firing of Shirley Sherrod; failure to pay the Black Farmers is happening on Obama's watch, sky-high unemployment from sea to shinning sea; more home foreclosure's in the history of the Republic; Somalia is now an Al Qaeda proxy state; Al Qaeda is now threatening the entire Horn of Africa; There is no consistent governance in Yemen, and Obama's boys in the Military-Industrial-Complex can't wait to start a ten year war in said country; genocide is still being committed in Darfur against the native population; Slowly to act and respond to the BP oil spill, and failure to pay the citizens of the Gulf Coast in a timely reasonable fashion; much higher taxes at all income levels; Iran now is in the final stages of getting nuclear weapons; and the North Koreans have made a complete fool out of Hillary and Barry; failed Olympic bid for the corrupt city of Chicago; and the list goes on and on; (YES WE CAN)
This buffoon Geithner was at the head of New York Federal Reserve, and watched much of this financial crisis (meltdown) unfold as he provided a convenient cover for the likes of Bernie Madoff, Bear Stearn's, Lehman Brothers, and AIG to flourish, and run rough shod over the people's interest. Thus Obama, the tan puppet in the White House rewards Geithner with the job as Secretary of the Treasury. Isn't that an interesting chain of events?

YES WE CAN.........................................NO YOU CAN'T

GALA CELEBRATION SET FOR NIGHT OF GOBLINS: Big Parade To Highlight Halloween

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson & Saunders Archives
Special Report
Pittsburgh PA
October 29, 2010

The following article titled GALA CELEBRATION SET FOR NIGHT OF GOBLINS appeared in THE Pittsburgh Courier on October 24, 1947.

GALA CELEBRATION SET FOR NIGHT OF GOBLINS
Big Parade
To Highlight
Halloween
"Wonderful" will come alive for hundreds of Pittsburgh youngsters Wednesday, Oct. 30, when a horde of timid lions, ferocious phantoms and hobgoblins team with the Wizard of Oz to scour sections of the Hill District in search of the "Ghost of Halloween."
This mam mouth event is sponsored jointly by The Pittsburgh Courier and Hill City, with the additional support of progressive merchants in the Hill District. The Halloween festival is an effort to maintain the traditional spirit of Halloween and to reduce to a minimum the wave of vandalism which is the usual holiday threat.
PARADE ROUTE
The parade will form at 6:15 P.M. at the corner of Webster and Herron Avenues and proceed down Webster to Fullerton, over Fullerton to Centre and up Centre until it separates at the schools.
Through the courtesy of the Pittsburgh Board of Education the auditoriums of both schools have been provided for the children to enjoy free movies, games and refreshments. Merchants in the District will also provide prises for the prettiest and the funniest costumes.
James S. Robinson head of Hill City , has made extensive plans for the festival, which is expected to be the largest of its kind during the six year of sponsorship. Parents are urged to participate in the festivities.
All the lore of witches riding through the air- on rocket ships now rather than the traditional broom-aided and abetted by Superman and the Bat-woman, will excite the fancies of the children for a good old-fashioned Halloween with modern trim.
The move on the part of interested organizations and businessmen has been responsible for a decided drop in property damages, according to the police. This year with the added interest of parents, street fights and other mischief are expected to ebb to a possible zero.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Crime Institute Set at Duquesne

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson & Saunders Archives
Pittsburgh PA
October 28, 2010

The following article appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on July, 9 1947.

Crime Institute
Set at Duquesne

The second of a series of clinical institutes on delinquency and crime will be held at the Campus Theatre, Duquesne University, next Tuesday, under the auspices of Duquesne University and Mount Mercy College, Judge Ellenbogen, head of the Social Protection Board, announced this week.
The first clinic of the series was held this week at Carnegie Institute Lecture Hall and the University of Pittsburgh on Tuesday. At the morning session, students of the two colleges listened to Judge Ellenbogen, Walter Rome of the Juvenile Court Staff and Detective James S. Robinson, of Hill City discuss the rising tide of crime and delinquency.
Detective James S. Robinson, who heads up the Hill City organization, as an effort of the Pittsburgh Police Department/Public Safety to re-educate the underprivileged, delinquent child, and put him back into society as a law-abiding citizen, told the group that more individual work with a particular child, as well as mass panaceas to cure delinquency was needed.
Robinson cited the fact that just a few years ago, twenty-three children gangs roamed the Hill District, pilfering stores and threatening the proprietors." Today, Hill City, by creating a youth municipality, organized with all the legal officials of an adult city, has broken up that evil," said Robinson.
"CAN'T HIDE FROM KIDS"
"These Juvenile delinquents can hide from the police, but they cannot hide and they must associate with their fellow playmates. If the fellow playmates refuse to countenance wrong by belonging to and working in an organization such as ours, the juvenile delinquent is not only turned in but is given work to do in our organization and is reformed.
Mr. Robinson told of the case of a gang member, who became interested in music through Hill City and organized an Orchestra. Later the fellows went into a union and now they are one of the most popular musical aggregation in this district and are engaged in a legitimate gainful occupation, Mr Robinson said.
MASS ACTION O.K.-BUT
"Athletics, teenage canteens and clinics are fine, but more time must be spent with the individuals if we are to solve our crime problem,"Robinson said.
Judge Ellenbogen recited a numbers of statistics on crime problems and said that juvenile delinquent was high on such statistics. The juvenile delinquent of two or three years ago is just now beginning his professional crime career, the Common Pleas Court Judge added. He compared the six million criminal army in America with the twelve million army the United States used in World War II to fight a major war.
The afternoon session of this week's crime clinic was devoted to panel discussions of various phases of crime and delinquency and was held Tuesday afternoon in the Classrooms of the Cathedral of Learning.
Judge Ellenbogen Charmian of the Social Protection Board, will also serve as moderator of next week's clinics at Duquesne University. Father Francis P. Smith, President of Duquesne University; Rev. Francis X. Foley, head of the Sociology Department, Mt Mercy College; Dr. Francis McQuade, professor of psychology, Mt Mercy College; Claire McGinnis, Duquesne University sociology instructor; William McGowan, professor of sociology and former Morals Court magistrate and others will discuss the various aspects of juvenile delinquency.
The public has been invited to attend the crime clinics. The clinical institutes are sponsored by the Social Protection Board as part of the educational campaign preliminary to the essay contest being conducted by the Board on the prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Missionary Circle Meets

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Mrs Beatrice L. Saunders Robinson Project
Robinson & Saunders Archives
Special Report
Pittsburgh PA
October 27, 2010

The following article appeared in the New Pittsburgh Courier on Jan.24, 1970.
Missionary Circle Meets
The Women's Missionary Circle of Christian Tabernacle on Centre Avenue, closed the old year with a meeting hosted by Mrs. James S. Robinson of Knott Manor. Held in the Recreation Room of the Manor, the forty or more quests enjoyed the quest speaker, Mrs. Jesse Curry.
Mrs. Curry is famous for her"Flanneigrams" in color on the birth of Jesus. She tells her audiences that this is her ministry; the way she tries to reach the hearts of those who look and listen.
The Circle meets this month with Mrs Theo Starks. Installation of officers will take place.
President is Mrs Aluvia Butler; Rev Ellsworth Holmes is the minister.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Police Promise Quick Results In Hill Vice Clean-Up Drive

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Robinson & Saunders Archives
The James S. Robinson Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 26, 2010

The article titled Police Promise Quick Results In Hill Vice Clean-Up Drive appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier on June 8, 1946.

Police Promise Quick Results
In Hill Vice Clean-Up Drive

Superintendent of Police Harvey Scott, told the Courier Wednesday the people will soon be able to see some definite action from the police department in cooperation with the citizens' move to " rid the Hill District of wide open vice dens, " which was brought forcibly to the attention of Superintendent Scott and Mayor David L. Lawrence in a hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Representing an aroused public which has become aware of the dire need for immediate curtailment of the rapidly-increasing number of social problems affecting the youth of the community, a group of religious leaders, educators and members of the Parent Teacher Association asked the Mayor and Police department for aid in the "clean-up campaign."
The Rev. Cornell E. Talley, pastor of Central Baptist Church, and George W. Culberson, principal of A. Leo Weil School, served as spokesman for the group which requested: (1) an effective curfew law; (2) more police protection, with beat patrolman at certain sore-spots;" (3) continued campaigns against numbers rackets; (4) closing of houses selling liquor without license; (5) punishment of dealers selling cigarettes and alcohol to teenagers.
MUST PROTECT YOUTH
The Rev. Mr. Talley said: The alarming rate of juvenile delinquency, we admit is due to a great extent to parental neglect, but we know there are some things we cannot do. We have come to you because we are aware of the fact that you have the authority to protect our youth against such conditions.
"We want police in the district to stop some of the wide open gambling; to stop the sale of liquor to boys and girls and to close the numerous rendezvous which encourage youth to lead degenerate lives."
FACTS CITED
Citing the appalling facts about the high rate of delinquency and rapid spread of social diseases, Mr. Culberson told the Mayor: "We need policemen patrolling these streets. We need a curfew law which is effective. We are not proud of the record which shows that 50 per cent of the children in the Hill District come from broken homes, but there are people in the community who do care. This group here represents thousands of the citizens who are willing to cooperate fully with you and the city administration to alleviate some of the degenerating influences which have sent fifty seven out of every thousand children in the Third and Fifth Wards to Juvenile Court during 1945.
Mrs Walter Petty, a member of the Herron Hill Junior High School PTA said police are needed particularly on Herron Avenue. She said, Herron Avenue is one of the worst sore spots in the community. Many of the students of the junior high school have to pass in front of all of those taverns going to and from school.
Mayor Lawrence said he didn't know of there was a law limiting the number of beer gardens in a city block. He said, however, that the prevalence of taprooms in the area was improper" and promised to investigate the matter.
Among the community representatives at the conference were:
J. Allen Figurel, principal of Letache School; Dr. Louis Kolassey, principal of Miller Elementary School; Dr. John Mogart, principal of Herron Hill Junior High School; the Rev. Charles Foggie, pastor of Wesley Center AMEZ Church; Thomas Daly, political leader; James S. Robinson, director of Hill City Municipality.

Blogger Black Buzz notes that many of the bars on Herron Avenue, and throughout the Hill District were owned by Jewish Americans who did not live in said Hill District. Blogger Black Buzz also states that these same Jewish Tavern or Bar owners would not tolerate the number of nuisance bars in their own respective neighborhoods in such communities as Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Oakland, Highland Park section of the City of Pittsburgh.
Further all of the ministers in the above article lived in the Hill District. Most of today's ministers of Hill District Church Congregations live in such places as North Hills, Penn Hills, Churchill, East Liberty, Wilkins Twp., the South Hills, Bethel Park, Monroeville, Wexford, and other places. So how can these AWOL ministers feel a true connectedness to people in said Hill?
* Rev Talley is the father of my friend George Talley who played the bass fiddle in the Herron Hill Junior High School Orchestra, and they lived on Iowa Street in the Upper Hill.
*Rev. Foggie married my Centre Avenue YMCA swimming teammate ( Milton Swann's) mother, and she was related to one of my other swimming teammates at the Centre Avenue YMCA, and Herron Hill Junior High School (Morris Fountain Jr.). Morris's father, Morris Fountain Sr. owned the famous Fountain Funeral Home on Centre Avenue. Morris Fountain Sr., and Morris Fountain Jr were outstanding swimmers on the Schenley High School swim team.
* Dr. John Morgart was my principal at Herron Hill Junior High School, and he was later replaced by the late Jodie Harris who lived on Ewart Drive in the Hill District.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Allen R. Riddick Reports on News of Hill City, September 28, 1946

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson & Saunders Archives
Pittsburgh PA
October 25, 2010

News of Hill City
By Allen R. Riddick

This week we are most happy to report that cafes are doing their best to refrain from catering to minors. Special Patrolman Willis Wilson reports that some teenagers do try to crash the gates, but after being told they very graciously make their exit. This we find, is a full time job, because some youths are the type that will do right, so long as they know they cannot get away with wrong. We are compelled to stay on our toes to keep checking taverns and other places that minors have no business frequenting.
This summer we promised our Department of Recreation that this winter would find us with a new project in our game room, and that project would be a single bowling alley, along with others activities of the game room.
We hate to go back on our word, but it seems we won't be able to carry out our promise for some time because of the shortages of materials.
Plans are on foot for our annual Halloween celebration. Last year we had many more participants than we had facilities to handle. So this year we are taking no chances. Many had to be turned away because of a lack of space. Last year we had the use of McKelvey School Auditorium, which was not large enough for the crowd.
This year we have to use a second school auditorium because of regulations.
The Hill City Military Band will lead the parade this year which will be the cause for a bigger crowd and will serve to create the type of atmosphere that will make the celebration what it should be on that particular night.
STARTS CLASS
A request has been made by acting Mayor James M. Smith for boys 16 years of age or over, who are interested in Junior investigation at Hill City, to apply in person at Hill City, 2038 Bedford Avenue, any evening between 7 and 9 o'clock. Telephone AT 5908 or AT 5897
The School of Investigation is arranging classes for the very near future. The classes will include investigation conduct, fingerprinting, first aid and the art of self-defense.
Teachers will be James S. Robinson, James H. Williams, Milton J. Smith, Pronty L. Ford, and Robert Mason, who have been with Hill City for several years.
Class requirements are 5 feet 5 inches tall, and 120 pounds or over. Neat appearance and attendance of at least eight evenings a month. Classes start Tuesday, Oct 1, at 7 P.M., promptly at Hill City.

The James S. Robinson Jr Project: News of Hill City, September 7, 1946

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Robinson & Saunders Archives
The James S. Robinson Jr Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 25, 2010
( BBNS)

The following article appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier on September 7, 1946.
News of Hill City
By Allen R. Riddick
The Hill City all-military band will continue to hold its meetings every Monday and Wednesday afternoon having had a rest during the Labor Day. Bandmaster Ray Harris urges all to attend. The uniforms are expected in soon.
Assistant Director James H. Williams is now resting during his vacation after the return of Director James S. Robinson. Mr. Robinson returned this week in good spirits after his cheerful trip, and is ready to continue his fight against juvenile delinquency.
Our newly-decorated interior has just about reached its completion.
We are asking parents and friends to come in and view our gay surroundings.
The Girl Scouts of Hill City had a marvelous time at South Park, Saturday, Aug.31.
We wish to express our appreciation to the women's auxillary of Hill City.
Dr. Winstead and Dr. and Mrs Reginald Dixon, who donated the prizes.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Housewives Guild Announces Tea

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Robinson & Saunders Archives
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 20, 2010

The below article appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier on March 30, 1946.

Housewives Guild Announces Tea

The Beltzhoover unit of Housewives Cooperative Guild announced installation tea for Sunday, March 31, at the home of Mrs. Odessa West, 410 Michigan Street from 4 to 7 P.m.
The charming Mrs Addie Gupton will be mistress of ceremony and the very talented Mrs. Stella Ramsey will be the musical accompanist.
Among the interesting speakers will be James S. Robinson, director of Hill City; participants from his organization will include Rev. J.W. Henderson, pastor of St. Paul Methodist Church, and Rev. I.A. Jones, pastor of Beulah Baptist Church.
This program has been arranged so that spectators will hear Pittsburgh's most outstanding talent.
Competing in a popularity contest are Mrs. Willie Mae Cotton, Mrs. Odessa West, and Miss Cleona M. Donan, who is president of this unit.
Mrs Eva Dorcas is chairman.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Rangers Cliff Lee Stops The Bronx Bombers: Good Pitching Always Stops Good Hitting

BLACK BUZZ SPORTS NEWS SERVICE
New York, New York
October 19, 2010

New York..The Texas Rangers Cliff Lee pitched a masterful two hit shut-out over the Bronx Bombers last night while fanning 13 Yankees. Good pitching has always stopped good hitting regardless of the era in baseball.
Some of the most prominent run stoppers of all time were Steve Carlton, Lou Burdette, Big Don Drysdale, Bob Feller, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Lefty Grove, Dwight Gooden, Walter Johnson, Sad Sam Jones, Juan Marchial, Pedro Martinez, Big Don Newcomb, Leroy Satchel Paige, Jim Palmer, Allie Reynolds, Robin Roberts, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Bullet Bob Turley, Warren Spahn, Early Wynn, and the greatest of them all, Sandy Koufax. The Aspirin Tablet throwing Cliff Lee now joins that elite club of outstanding former hurlers who pitched in some of greatest contests in the 20th century.
The Texas Rangers are batting a slick 294 while the ever victorious Bronx Bombers are hitting 156 which is a formula for disaster. The Yankee pitchers can't stop the Rangers' brutal attack, and the boys from the Bronx bats are suffering from non-hittingitis.
This indeed is a do or die game tonight for the Yankees, and if they go back to Arlington Texas for the final and seventh game, I feel that the Rangers are going to hit Andy Petit all over the lot, which means the Texas Rangers will be capturing their first World Series title in franchise history.
A.J. Burnett will be starting for the Yankees tonight, and he hasn't pitched a decent game in 82 days. I think the long lay-off has really hurt the Yankee pitchers, and the timing of their batters is atrocious.
Can you imagine the Yankees winning the seventh game facing Cliff Lee in Arlington Texas? This just goes to show that the ball club with the highest payroll in the history of team sports (Yankees) doesn't necessarily have to win the title each and every year.

What did Yogi Berra say? "It ain't over till it's over."

How about those New York Yankees!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Kiwanis Club Of Avalon-Bellevue

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson & Saunders Family Archives
Pittsburgh PA.
October 18, 2010

The following article appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on January 18, 1947.

Kiwanis Club of Avalon-Bellevue
The meeting of the Kiwanis on January 20, was devoted to "Education of Kiwanis and Their Objectives for 1947." The program was very capably handled by our chairman, James Fleming, and assisted by Lynn Menold and George Wanner. George Caves was accepted as a new member at this meeting. We also had three visitors, Rev. William E. Collins, W. H. Barker, and Chester England.
January 20 to 25, 1947, is the 32nd anniversary of the Kiwanis Clubs.
With over 2,5000 clubs engaged in one co-ordinated effort it can be truly said of Kiwanis that "We Build for Peace-Patriotism-Opportunity."
At our next meeting on January 27, we will have as guest speaker James S. Robinson, director of Hill City Youth Municipality, who has accomplished great work in this locality.

*Blogger Black Buzz was a Charter Member of the historic Uptown Hill Kiwanis which was started in 1977.

Church Group to Hear Hill City Director

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The Saunders & Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh PA
October 18, 2010

The following article appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier on February 7, 1946.

Church Group to Hear
Hill City Director

James S. Robinson, director of Hill City Youth Municipality, will speak at the Christ Methodist Church Friday, Feb. 13, at 2:30 P.M. Mr Robinson who has done ooutstanding work in the field of crime prevention will discuss his work with delinquent youths. Members of the Hill City music classes will also appear on the program.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fairley Lauds Band Concert

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
The Saunders & Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh PA.
October 17, 2010

The following article appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph on July 12, 1945.

Fairley Lauds
Band Concert

Safety Director George E.A. Fairely commended the the Sun Telegraph Servicemen's Fund yesterday for providing transportation for the 35 piece Hill City Band to play at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Aspinwall.
The band played at the hospital last Thursday night under the direction of Raymond Harris.
James Williams, assistant superintendent of Hill City helped to arrange the concert, which proved a big sucess.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Girl Scouts Prepare Flowers for Hospitals

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
The Saunders & Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
October 16, 2010

The article titled: "Girl Scouts Prepare Flowers for Hospitals" appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph on January 24, 1945.

Allegheny County Girl Scouts will brighten up Easter for patients in district hospitals by decorating their Easter trays with gail-colored Easter baskets. The baskets have been made by girls of Troop 253 of Carrick, 342 of Edgewood, 238 of Penn Township, 484 of Hill City and 141 of Braddock.
Bedridden patients in Leech Farm Sanitarium, Columbia Hospital, the GAR Old Folks Home, Aspinwall Veterans Hospital, and the Braddock General Hospital are among those who will receive the baskets.

BLACK BUZZ SPEAKS
*Does anyone know if there are any active Girl Scouts Troops located presently in the Hill District section of Pittsburgh, PA?
At one time, the old Hill City Youth Municipality had the most comprehensive well runned all around youth and adult centered programs in the City of Pittsburgh which was due to the intelligent visionary leadership of James S. Robinson, Jr., his outstanding exemplary staff and the hundreds of highly sensitive skillful volunteers. Hill City employed such staff greats as Eunice Cook, James H. Williams, John A. Cundieff, Pronty Ford, Raymond Harris, Willis Brooks, Willis Wilson and Carl Redwood, Sr. who is the father of Carl Redwood, Jr.
Today, Carl Redwood Jr. is one of the truly exceptional men of color in the City of Pittsburgh, who has done yeoman outstanding work concerning a whole multitude of community development issues particularly with the shenanigans of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the City fathers over the building of the Consol Energy Center.
Kudos to Mrs. Redwood and the now deceased Carl Redwood, Sr. who did an outstanding job in helping to make Carl a champion and advocate for the people of the Hill District and throughout the City of Pittsburgh.
The legendary Hill City Band, led by Raymond Harris, was known all over the USA. The Hill City Band featured Thomas Turrentine Sr. and jazz greats, his famous sons Tommy, Stanley and Marvin Turrentine.
I played B flat clarinet in the famous Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra along with a sister of the Turrentines who played the violin, viola and the cello. Mrs. Turrentine, the mother of Tommy and Stanley was an excellent piano player.
International swimming Hall of Fame member and three time All-American, Nathaniel Clark, who was the first African American in the United States to score and place in an NCAA Championship in the sport of swimming while on scholarship at Ohio State University, and Nate played the oboe in the Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra.
Another legendary great athlete and my close friend, the late Barry Nixon of 556 Francis Street in the Hill District, played the french horn in the Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra. Other players in the orchestra were the late Ida Joyce Sharp who is the sister of retired Schenley school teacher, Anne Haley and who also lived on Francis Street. She played the violin, and the great Barbara Payne played the cello. The late Marsha Hord played the viola, Janis Harvey, Reverend Harvey's daughter of Iowa Street played the cello, and George Talley, the son of Rev. Talley, the pastor of Central Baptist Church, played the bass fiddle.
There have probably been more talented people to come out of the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA than any other community in the USA.
A countless number of other great Pittsburgh musicians got a lot of their musical training while playing in the Hill City Band.
Former Hill City Band members are presently living all over the City of Pittsburgh and throughout the USA. The Hill City Band performed at various functions in the City of Pittsburgh and played on many Sundays in the spring, summer and fall in the spectacular historic parades in the Hill District.
Pittsburgh Board of Education administrator retiree Tony Delaney, who lived in the upper Hill District, remembers playing in the famous Hill City Band, and has been quoted as saying that it was "one of the most rewarding experiences in her youth to play in the Hill City Band."
We are just beginning to scratch the surface in documenting the events and people that make up the James S. Robinson Jr. Project.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Obama’s cave-in to Israel: letter suggests US not honest broker

Black Buzz News Service
Nazareth, Israel
October 14, 2010

By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
5 October 2010

Jonathan Cook considers the significance of a leaked letter from US President Barack Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu which undermines Obama’s claim to be an honest broker and confirms suspicions that Netanyahu’s professed desire to establish a Palestinian state is insincere.

The disclosure of the details of a letter reportedly sent by President Barack Obama last week to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will cause Palestinians to be even more sceptical about US and Israeli roles in the current peace talks.

According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to Israel, many of them at the expense of the Palestinians, in return for a single minor concession from Netanyahu: a two-month extension of the partial freeze on settlement growth.

A previous 10-month freeze, which ended a week ago, has not so far been renewed by Netanyahu, threatening to bring the negotiations to an abrupt halt. The Palestinians are expected to decide whether to quit the talks over the coming days.
Netanyahu was reported last week to have declined the US offer.

The White House has denied that a letter was sent, but, according to the Israeli media, officials in Washington are privately incensed by Netanyahu’s rejection.

The disclosures were made by an informed source: David Makovsky, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a close associate of Dennis Ross, Obama’s chief adviser on the Middle East, who is said to have initiated the offer.

The letter’s contents have also been partly confirmed by Jewish US senators who attended a briefing last week from Ross.

According to Makovsky, in return for the 60-day settlement moratorium, the US promised to veto any UN Security Council proposal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the next year, and committed to not seek any further extensions of the freeze. The future of the settlements would be addressed only in a final agreement.

The White House would also allow Israel to keep a military presence in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, even after the creation of a Palestinian state; continue controlling the borders of the Palestinian territories to prevent smuggling; provide Israel with enhanced weapons systems, security guarantees and increase its billions of dollars in annual aid; and create a regional security pact against Iran.
There are several conclusions the Palestinian leadership is certain to draw from this attempt at deal-making over its head.

The first is that the US president, much like his predecessors, is in no position to act as an honest broker. His interests in the negotiations largely coincide with Israel’s.

Obama needs a short renewal of the freeze, and the semblance of continuing Israeli and Palestinian participation in the “peace process”, until the US Congressional elections in November.

Criticism by the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington may damage Obama’s Democratic Party unless he treads a very thin line. He needs to create the impression of progress in the Middle East talks but not upset Israel’s supporters by making too many demands on Netanyahu.

The second conclusion – already strongly suspected by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his advisers – is that Netanyahu, despite his professed desire to establish a Palestinian state, is being insincere.

The White House’s private offer meets most of Netanyahu’s demands for US security and diplomatic assistance even before the negotiations have produced tangible results. For Netanyahu to reject the offer so lightly, even though the US was expecting relatively little in return, suggests he is either in no mood or in no position to make real concessions to the Palestinians on statehood.

The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported on 1 October that senior White House officials were no longer “buying the excuse of politicial difficulties” for Netanyahu in holding his right-wing governing coalition together. If he cannot keep his partners on board over a short freeze on illegal settlement building, what meaningful permanent concessions can he make in the talks?

The third conclusion for the Palestinians is that no possible combination of governing parties in Israel is capable of signing an agreement with Abbas that will not entail significant compromises on the territorial integrity of a Palestinian state.
One US concession – allowing Israel to maintain its hold on the Jordan Valley, nearly a fifth of the West Bank, for the forseeable future – reflects a demand common to all Israeli politicians, not just Netanyahu.
In fact, the terms of Obama’s letter were drafted in cooperation with Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister and leader of the supposedly left-wing Labour Party. When he was prime minister a decade ago, he insisted on a similar military presence in the Jordan Valley during the failed Camp David talks.

Ariel Sharon, his successor and founder of the centrist Kadima Party, planned a new section of the separation wall to divide the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank, though the scheme was put on hold after American objections.

Today, most Palestinians cannot enter the Jordan Valley without a special permit that is rarely issued, and the area’s tens of thousands of Palestinian inhabitants are subjected to constant military harassment. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, has accused Israel of a “de facto annexation” of the area.

But without the Jordan Valley, the creation of a viable Palestinian state – even one limited to the West Bank, without Gaza – would be inconceivable. Statehood would instead resemble the Swiss-cheese model the Palestinians have long feared is all Israel is proposing.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

News of Hill City: By Allen R. Reddick, May 18, 1946

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Saunders & Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
October 14, 2010

The article titled News of Hill City by Allen R. Reddick appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier on May 18, 1946.

Hill City's director of Public safety, Willis W. Brooks, Eugene J. Durham, manager of the Roosevelt Theatre, and Robert Richardson, manager of the New Grenada Theatre, held a meeting recently concerning the destruction of seats in the theatres. This is a very important matter as it brings about the discomfort of the patrons. Such acts of vandalism reflect on the home training of the child rather than the developed instincts. Such acts also add to a long list of ill kempt places we have to attend. If the parent would stress to the child the necessity of being decent and thoughtful for the rights of others, such acts would not be committed.
Parents are urged to know the whereabouts of their children at all times, if possible. That harmless looking knife he has may bring sorrow to you. Some the cases that are brought into the offices of Hill City are absolutely amazing. According to Director James S. Robinson and Assistant Director James H. Williams, there is much to be done concerning the carrying of weapons by children.
The long awaited stage show at the Stanley Theatre will be presented Sunday May 26. This performance will include acts by members of professional teams and bands. The show promises to be one of the best in Pittsburgh history. The admission is only $ 1.20, tax included. Tickets may be purchased at Hill City, 2038 Bedford Avenue, or at The Pittsburgh Courier.
* Blogger Black buzz states that he remembers attending the New Grenada and the Roosevelt Theatres on Saturday afternoons back in the late forties and early fifties, and he found both theatres to be very clean, orderly with decent refreshments.
More aggressive, concerted, persistent action by the public is needed to restore the New Grenada to some semblance of its significant historical past in the context of the history of the Hill District. More importantly, the restoration or rebuilding of the New Grenada should not be relegated to a position of secondary consideration in the Renaissance of the Hill District.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Protest Rally ( Israel Ambassador At The University of Maryland, College Park Maryland

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
College Park, Maryland
October 13, 2010

On Thursday, October 14, UMD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is organizing a protest in response to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's visit to the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

Please note this will be a silent protest. All participants will be asked to wear tape over their mouths and to respect the silence of the events in order to make our message clear and powerful. Please wear black, feel free to bring signs, banners, flags, etc. Our message theme is "The Silenced Perspective". UMD SJP will be providing flyer's and fact sheets to hand out.
I hope you can join us and feel free to contact me with any questions:
240-335-0203

In solidarity
Natalia Cuadra-Saez
History and Classics
University of Maryland, Class of 2011
President, UMD Students for Justice in Palestine
President, Co-op Housing University of Maryland.

Columbus Day: A Symbol of American Values

Black Buzz News Service
Washington D.C.
October 13, 2010

Written by Solomon Comissiong
Daily Journal (Opinion), Education, Media, War and Peace
Oct 11, 2010

There are myriad vile symbols floating throughout the American empire. Due to mass governmental programming, most Americans are oblivious to these symbols and just how reprehensible they are. From the image of the Cherokee murderer, Andrew Jackson, on the twenty dollar bill to a bridge in Virginia named after the proud racist and illegal occupier of Haiti, Woodrow Wilson; there is no shortage of praise for these repugnant characters throughout the US. Vile human beings are routinely celebrated in almost every corner of American society, with little to no respect for the people who were irreparably damaged because of their actions, policies, and ideologies. Perhaps the most revolting aspect is the millions of children who are systematically programmed, each year, by way of narrowly framed (and often inaccurate) history and social studies lesson plans. Training youth in this manner is an almost surefire way to insure that America’s history of injustice continues—all in the name of domestic and global repression. Murder, pillage, and plunder have long been the order of the day; I guess that’s why devils like Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) are widely commemorated from the US’s stolen coast to stolen coast.

The US corporate media, its government, and its subpar government run school system are all very selective when it comes to discussing a wide array of crimes against humanity, especially the homegrown kind. What is even more reprehensible is that, routinely, the US celebrates some of the worse human beings this planet has ever known. As any morally centered person knows; celebrating people that were murderers, plunderers, war mongers, rapists, or racists (among other contemptible things), only serves to perpetuate those same actions by others. After all, especially from a child’s point of view, why would something/someone be celebrated if it/they were not commendable? What do we think happens to these children if there is no sane intervention comprehensibly educating them about the individuals and events being celebrated—they become adults espousing similar values. Those individuals become families, those families become communities and soon you have a nation coveting the socially deviant values of people like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. These two evil spirited men also happened to be the 40th and 41st presidents of the United States. Both men have airports (DC and Houston) named in their honor. If I had no prior knowledge of Reagan and Bush I might think they had to be upstanding men of character in order to have airports named after them. That flawed rationale could not be further from the truth.

Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, both, played major parts in the devastation and destabilization of countless communities within Central America via illegal wars and the covert funding of death squads. This is far from the extent of the damage or socially deviant value systems these “men” represented—-it is merely a snapshot of assorted aspects of their lives that is curiously seldom taught or reported on. Reagan, for instance, was a strong supporter of the oppressive white minority apartheid regime in South Africa. George H.W. Bush masterminded a covert program that sterilized more than 40 percent of Indigenous women without their consent and against their will. These are the kind of men deserving to have airports named in their honor? America seems to think so.

America has historically been a place where values are systematically set in place by the ruling/elite class (overwhelmingly white men). This trend dates back to the US’s illegitimate founding. The US Constitution and Declaration of Independence were established mostly by white men who enslaved black Africans. The contradictions riddled throughout those documents are numerous. Those documents spoke nothing of the countless people of color who were systematically slaughtered. Those documents were not written for those murdered, raped, and worked to death. Those documents do not honor those who had their tens of millions of acres of land stolen away by immoral and shiftless European thieves. Those documents spoke only in the interest of the ruling class and their decedents.

Make no bones about it, America is a stolen nation built on the backs and lives of hundreds of millions people of color. The original cultivators of the land, Indigenous Americans, were murdered off by the tens of millions. It was nothing short of genocide. It is seldom referred to as genocide because the people, slaughtered like cattle, happened to be Africans and Native Americans.

Many of the decedents of those true Native Americans find themselves isolated on government sanctioned internment camps, otherwise known as Reservations. This was not by accident, this was purposeful and systematic. Despite all that, white people continued to feel the need to portray Indigenous Americans as the “bad guys” within countless Hollywood westerns. That, too, was a slick part of the plan. Popularize white supremacy, as well as genocidal acts, and your crimes against humanity will be embraced by the non-critically adept. They understood then, as they do today, that there is a critical mass of the American populous more than willing to blindly follow. Those glamorized crimes will serve future plundering, war mongering and imperialist US governments all too well. A society that embraces the likes of Christopher Columbus, with holidays and parades, will be a society that, at the very least, accepts illegal wars and an out of control military budget—-to ultimately support those wars. You must have wars to justify the largest military budget on the planet. It will also be a society that produces the likes of Reagan, Bush, and so many others, to lead its sheep-like masses into ill-conceived wars—all in the name of test-tube “democracy”. Columbus, and his actions, is in many ways emblematic of the US government today.

Despite irrefutable historical record that Columbus was a murderer, rapist, torturer, kidnapper and mutilator he has been manufactured in to a hero within many US circles. School kids get the day off as if they are celebrating a saint. Few children will ever learn that Columbus routinely ordered his men to chop off the hands of Arawak boys. The man was a devil who brought hell to countless Indigenous people throughout the Caribbean. Even America’s unscrupulous third rate historians know this to be true; they just don’t give a damn about telling the complete truth. Far too many teachers still promote this devil as some kind of deity. Christopher Columbus was far from a skilled explorer. He was lost and discovered nothing. You cannot discover plots of land that people lived on (for thousands of years) prior to your arrival. The evil man never even set foot on what we call the United States. Nevertheless, the US government maintains Columbus Day as a federal holiday. I guess when the nation is built on an amoral foundation it becomes easy to celebrate certain people and their destructive actions. Destroying land, lives, and infrastructure seems to be the method of choice the US government deems fit in getting its way.

The current illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now “covertly” in Pakistan would make Christopher Columbus proud. The deaths of over one million Iraqi civilians, all in the names of selective “freedom”, “democracy” and imaginary weapons of mass destruction; probably provides Columbus brief solace as he roasts in hell. The US claimed to be in search of weapons of mass destruction; however, ironically, they have done the mass destroying. Are the one million civilian lives lost in Iraq ever placed in to context within the American corporate media? Not a chance. They, like many American schools, have become the greatest propaganda tool for the insatiable empire. Iraqi, Afghani, and Pakistani lives have been, essentially, made insignificant in similar fashion to the Arawak lives that Columbus and his men destroyed. US drone attacks continuously, and indiscriminately, rain their hell upon villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan. How is that not terror when there is almost always a likelihood that civilians will be “taken out”? Meanwhile in the US we live our sheltered and “privileged” lives programmed not to give a damn about the astronomical amounts of collateral damage being done—-all in our name. The Afghani civilian lives might as well be hundreds of years away like the tens of millions of enslaved Africans forced to work, day in and day out, on places like George Washington’s Virginia plantation.

With the subconscious and silent consent of tens of millions of Americans, these war crimes (crimes against humanity) will endure. They will see no end in our lifetime or in our children’s lifetime. Systematic imperialism does not end by wishing it away; it ends through the collective actions of an engaged populous. The US populous, as a whole, is far from being engaged—and that is by design. Unfortunately, we are not as collective as we should be, yet, to demand more from this non-representative US government. Far too many people are still drunk on Obama-aid that they refuse to demand an end to his war in Afghanistan, despite demanding that very same thing of the mental midget (George W. Bush). These wars are immoral regardless of who is president.

Sane and moral societies do not passively accept destruction and plunder in their name. They also do not accept the celebration and glorification of mass murderers like Christopher Columbus. This is all on our watch now. If the next generation inherits these values and grows up exalting the likes of Columbus; it was largely our collective faults. We will have allowed it to happen without reaching in to our humanity and doing what our so-called government refuses to do—-the right thing. It starts with us and it must start now. It can only be done with a critical mass that is engaged, galvanized, organized and most of all, consistent.

Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News media collective (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News) and www.yourworldnews.blip.tv

Monday, October 11, 2010

Christopher Columbus Was a Mass Murderer, Serial Killer, Lascivious Plunderer, Slaver Who Made It Possible for the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 11, 2010

Thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, over 3 million indigenous tribes were murdered, raped, and tortured between 1494 and 1508 in the Americas.
Thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, all of the Arawak indigenous
tribes were annihilated in the Bahamas along with the Taino of the Caribbean.
Thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, Cortez committed genocide against the Aztecs.
Thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, Pizarro committed genocide against the proud Incas of Peru.
Thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, millions of indigenous tribes contracted the European diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, diphtheria and smallpox to name a few.
Thanks to Mr. Cristoforo Colombo, the English settlers of Virginia
and Massachusetts committed genocide against the Powhatan's, Pequots and all the indigenous tribes from sea to shinning sea in the Americas.
Thanks to Cristobal Colon, over 30 to 100 million Africans were uprooted, transported and enslaved all around the globe in a brutal systematic campaign of genocide, and the pathologies of that genocide is still present in today's societies throughout the African Diaspora.
And America has the gall and audacity to celebrate this horrible, wicked, unsavory mass murderer, Christopher Columbus, with a national holiday is reprehensible and without just cause.
My poem titled the Massacre at Wounded Knee
is dedicated to my dad (James S. Robinson Jr.) who was a Dakota Sioux, and was very proud of his Native American and African American heritage.

MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE

Defenseless Men, Women, Children and little Babies
Were slaughtered,
And murdered like cattle,

Now you have the gall,
To rewrite the history books
And call it a battle.

It was a massacre at Wounded Knee,
In your so called land of the free.

Was it because of the color of my skin,
That you destroyed my culture and me
In your so called land of the free.

But I still have Hopes and Aspirations
That one day we will all be free,

Even a few of us remaining
At Wounded Knee.


The massacre at Wounded Knee occurred December 29, 1890 by members of the famous 7th Calvary, United States Occupation Forces.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Report: Schools, teacher ed programs ignore how kids really learn

Black Buzz News Service
Big Stone Gap, Virginia
October 8, 2010

The Washington Post/The Answer Sheet

This post was written by James P. Comer, associate dean of medicine at Yale University and co-founder of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program, and Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

At the request of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, with funding from a partnership between the Foundation for Child Development and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Comer and Pianta co-chaired a panel on developmental science issues for the national organization responsible for assuring the quality of programs that educate the nation’s teachers and school leaders.

The panel produced a report, "The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Help Educators Improve Student Achievement: Policy Recommendations," summarizing the panel’s two reports, all of which can be found here. It was released today.

By James Comer and Robert Pianta

Good teachers have always understood that students don’t learn in a vacuum: Kids can’t learn efficiently if they have to walk a gauntlet of gang thugs every day on the way to school, or if they suffer mental problems, or they were up half the night cowering from domestic violence.

Now a growing amount of developmental research confirms that as many of half of all students become chronically disengaged, contributing to the high dropout rates and achievement gaps that have plagued our schools for a generation.

There is good news: Research also shows that squarely addressing students’ emotional, social, and cognitive needs improves learning.

The problem is that this research isn’t being put to wide use.

So the question is this: What can educators and schools do to help students from challenging family backgrounds, or those who simply lack the motivation to learn?

That’s what we set out to answer in a new report commissioned by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and released today..

What we found was discouraging. Despite big advances in our understanding of how children and adolescents grow and learn, little of that knowledge has found its way into schools or educator preparation programs. If teachers don’t know how to address their students’ emotional, cognitive, and social needs, they face an uphill battle in improving student achievement, especially among “at-risk” populations facing persistent achievement gaps.

The blame lies mostly in the legacy of public education’s century-old roots, including the emphasis on outdated, industrial-era models of instruction and discipline. But over the last two decades, we’ve developed a strong base of research that compels us to be much more purposeful about putting actionable developmental knowledge in educators’ hands.

In classrooms where teachers address children’s individual emotional and social needs, you’ll see students doing challenging work at their own pace, either in groups or individually, as the teacher actively monitors and encourages their progress.

Research has shown a clear connection between these kinds of environments and student learning: A meta-analysis of 213 school programs that use developmentally focused approaches found an 11 percentile-point gain in student achievement, as well as reduced behavioral issues. Places where we’ve put such programs into place, such as Asheville City Schools in North Carolina, have also seen achievement gaps between black and white students narrow rapidly.

While such gains are encouraging, they are isolated. And we have failed to help teachers meld cognitive and social-development knowledge with instruction that also reflects what students are expected to know and be able to do.

Making matters worse, we’ve also failed to make these connections an integral part of what teachers learn as they prepare to enter the profession. Until we create a systemic way to verse teachers in developmental principles, we’ll be stuck with the scattershot approach to improving instruction that’s characterized much of education reform.

Putting our new developmental knowledge to work in classrooms will require more than just revising education textbooks. Translating scientific knowledge into educational practice takes research and real-world testing to identify teaching strategies that directly apply our understanding of students’ developmental needs.

The “connective tissue” bridging the world of scientific research and classroom instruction will need to be developed in schools of education, as will tools allowing prospective teachers to learn and test these practices in real-work settings before they enter their own classrooms.

We have an incredibly important opportunity to take this rapidly growing base of scientific knowledge and find the best ways to bring it to the classroom.

That’s especially critical in low-performing schools, where the evidence suggests that culturally specific knowledge of student development can help turn around schools serving high-poverty, high-need communities. The alternative is unacceptable: If we do not integrate what we know about how children grow and learn, we run the risk of losing another generation of learners.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Corporate Hip Hop, Corporate Media & Mainstream Black “Leadership”: Justified Comparisons

Black Buzz News Service
College Park, Maryland
October 7, 2010

Written by Solomon Comissiong
Daily Journal (Opinion), Media, Politics
Oct 3, 2010

One of my mentors once told me, “When it comes to 21st century black leadership in America, most of the people who are truly of value to our community, the masses may unfortunately never know about”. He then went on to explain that many (not all) who are truly doing progressive and potentially sustainable work on behalf of oppressed people, will never be given an opportunity to freely articulate their ideas and thoughts on the mainstream corporate media’s airwaves. When it comes to African/black “leadership”, the corporate dominated mainstream airwaves are reserved for black/African people who are deemed “safe” enough. In essence, these dis-action figures for hire, and their ideologies, are of no significant threat to an elitist white supremacist power structure that continues to bludgeon poor communities of color with oppressive policies and practices. The corporate media goons know all too well that when they ask many of their black guests to “participate” on various programs (emphasize the word programs) that they will only go so far in their non-critical analysis of America and its continued policy towards people of color, the world over. Having a “safe” person of color on their stations gives their mass programmed audience the illusion that they (the corporate media) accurately report on, and discuss, critical issues affecting so-called minorities. However, in all reality it is almost as staged as a Hollywood flick.

Many of the self-aggrandizing faces of color who routinely make their way on to the corporate media circuit have a proven track record of putting their own career oriented self interest ahead of those who need their issues discussed in an honest manner. If these activists for hire had proclivities for putting America’s continued racist, imperialist, and reprehensible records on display; they would seldom, if ever, be invited to “perform” on these shows. Their routine appearances are nothing less than made for TV staged performances. The corporate media, especially when it comes to television, understand all too well the age old adage, “out of sight, out of mind”. And they want to make sure that some extremely critical and complex social issues are kept, at the very least, on a simplistic level. This is why the corporate media will never feature progressive black and brown community activists discussing the vile roots and impact of police brutality within communities of color. They are adept at evading any substantive dialogue on institutional racism within 21st Century America. The corporate media plays as big a role as anyone (or anything) in perpetuating the lie that when an unarmed black person is murdered by the police it was in some way, directly or indirectly, linked to violence in their community. They will create a story that directs sympathy to the murderous police officer before it does the person of color who no longer has a life. Disproportionate poverty, lack of health-care, gentrification, unemployment, police brutality, and under-funded school systems are all major issues that are endemic within most black communities in America. These issues are unequivocally linked to generations of governmentally unchecked institutional racism. Any serious dialogue on these issues on: CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Fox News? Absolutely not! Those issues are very real for tens of millions of blacks/Africans in America. However, when you see black face on a program that is more than willing NOT to substantively address these issues, they have become a significant part of the overall problem.

Sound progressive ideas often play a significant role in galvanizing individuals and communities, alike, to adopt radically different approaches towards sustainable empowerment. When these ideas and perspectives remain stagnant or are limited to a few communities, it prevents those approaches from spreading like a wildfire of liberation, justice, and equality.

The Black Community cannot afford to allow these corporate manufactured so-called black “leaders” to dictate our collective agenda and pursuit of justice and equality. They are, in part, doing the bidding of white supremacy and corporate America’s overall interest. There are a great many committed and consistent black/African leaders doing amazing work in the fight towards completely liberating African/black people throughout the US, however just like a multitude of “underground rappers” they get no airplay. And because they get no airplay, unfortunately, they are outside of the hearts and minds of scores of black people outside their respective communities. This is the case with liberating underground rap music as is the case with progressive black/African leaders whose voices, ideas and visions are important in the overall struggle for justice and equality.

Rich white men knew exactly what they were doing when they invested hundreds of millions of dollars in to a cultural medium (hip hop) in which they did not give a damn about. They were primarily concerned with two things: money and stifling the progressive energy coming from Hip Hop music during the Golden Era of the genre (1986-1995/6). Hip Hop became another cash cow by which they could make billions from—-all the while ensuring that only the most racist and deleterious images made there way to their mainstream airwaves. The last thing these white men wanted was to continue to let the radical, and much needed, political perspectives of black and brown rappers to be made popular. The bucking of the “system” and the shifting away from a Euro-centric paradigm is exactly what the music from artists like, KRS-ONE, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Public Enemy (among a multitude of others), represented. These artists’ (and so many others) music spoke to black and brown youth of the 1980s and early 1990s like nothing before.

Embracing your African and Latino roots became increasingly popular and was the antithesis of what much of white America wanted us to do. They wanted us to shed as much of our cultural identity as possible in exchange for the same European-American value system that was responsible for much of our oppression. Hip Hop music gave youth like me added energy, ideas, and confidence to combat this systematic oppression (psychological, economic, and physical) head on. Hip Hop was educating black and brown youth in a way that the flawed and Euro-centric modeled American school system was clearly not willing to do. Hip Hop music of the liberating ilk was, and still is, a natural enemy of white supremacy, capitalism, and injustice. This is why today’s most popular rappers and images of “hip hop” featured are eerily reminiscent of the minstrel shows of yesteryear. Having black men and women parade around mainstream airwaves as modern day sambos, mammies, jezebels, and social deviants, is what makes media corporations, like Viacom and Clear Channel, comfortable. These are the safe images of people of color that they wish to make most popular and therefore socially engineer how people think of black people and even how black youth think of themselves.

The corporate backed mainstream rapper is ideologically similar to the corporate media manufactured black “leader”. The have both made decisions to advance their careers and deepen their bank accounts by shucking and jiving for white America, even at the cost of hurting their community. However, many young rappers made their decisions sub-consciously predicated on what was already popular within the mainstream’s airwaves. In essence, they had no point of reference by which to compare and contrast prospective routes to take as a fledgling rapper. In contrast, many of these made-for-TV black “leaders/activists” for hire consciously made their decisions to dilute information and messages in order to not upset their corporate media sugar daddies. If the money (or opportunity) is right, they have no qualms being as socially “safe” as the corporate media wants them to be—-after all they want to make sure they are invited back. There are far too many to mention, although it’s not hard to notice them if you keep your critical eye open. They are routine guests on CNN, Fox “News”, and MSNBC (to name a few). They will often take the mainstream route when asked to discuss race issues within America—always staying away from any response that might edify or heighten the critical consciousness of the masses that may be viewing. Perhaps this is most reprehensible about their actions—-they know all too well why the majority of African-Americans are suffering. They know that it is rooted in pure unadulterated institutional racism, capitalism and white supremacy. To call it anything else should be a crime, especially when people are literally dying because of its affects.

These black men (and sometimes women) have the audacity to ask us to blindly support a Democratic party that has nothing within its national platform addressing structural racism, police brutality, or gentrification. The Democratic Party continues to pimp the black community for their votes every two, four and six years. They are as useless to the black/African struggle for justice and equality in America as are the Republicans. Neither party stands as a viable option that could lead to tangible changes within our lifetimes. The Green Party is and has been a much better alternative, compared to the two corporate parties, for people of color’s quest for equality, justice, and an end to institutional racism.

The US Green Party ran two progressive women of color (Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente) as their presidential and vice presidential candidates in 2008. This is still a virtually unknown fact to most African-Americans thanks to the corporate media’s control on public consent. Black “leaders” who were paraded on the co-opted airwaves were of no help either as they used every opportunity to praise the Democratic Party and corporate America’s Manchurian candidate, Barack Obama. President Barack Obama never has been the candidate of “change” millions of people of color thought he represented. This is why he continually refuses to address or create any targeted plan to alleviate much of the systematic and disproportionate suffering within many black communities. Many of us allowed the media (and his campaign advisors) to build him in to something he was not.

If people of color are going to support this electoral system they might as well throw their collective weight behind a party that has many of their interests at heart, or create their own progressive working people’s party. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are beholden to their corporate interest, not the masses of people who are suffering under a brutal plutocratic political system.

In the same vein of creating and supporting models that support our interests (people of color, progressives, poor, and working class) we must no longer allow our movements and issues to become co-opted and suppressed by the corporate media and whatever regressive faces of color their try to parade on TV or radio. The corporate media’s job is to cater to their corporate clients, maintain the status quo, and keep the masses obfuscated and politically dumbed down. We must also see these so-called black “leaders” for what they are—-political and career opportunists. If they truly represented the radical social change we need in order to end systematic institutional racism they would never be invited to even appear on these shows. They know all too well the moment they start a dialogue about that on national television it will be their last time appearing on that program. It should be clear to us that their careers are more important to them than being the inconvenient hero they would like us to believe they are. They are not.

As long as we remain solely dependent on the corporate media for our information and to dictate what our agenda should be, we will continue to suffer the consequences. Therefore it is imperative that we work aggressively to expand our range of “non-conventional” means of communication when it comes to disseminating critical news and information. We need to embrace and support the radically progressive activists in our communities, create coalitions, and build our own independent media collectives that are solely in the interest of the people. Pooling our resources to purchase inexpensive hand-held video cameras and voice recorders will go a long way towards creating scores of community journalists and documentarians. This information can easily be uploaded on to a range of websites that we already utilize for entertainment purposes. Now is the time, more than ever, that we reclaim the public discourse of critical issues within our communities, and beyond.

Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News media collective (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News) and www.yourworldnews.blip.tv.

2 Responses for “Corporate Hip Hop, Corporate Media & Mainstream Black “Leadership””

Reply
kiksuya says:
October 3, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Excellent comparison Solomon!
I am quite tired of hearing Latino “leaders” parade around mainstream media professing their love for a country that has done nothing but dismantle democratically elected presidents and government officials in their homelands only to implement Right-wing Dictators trained at the Schools of Americans located in Fort Benning, Georgia as a means to see it through that U.S. corporate interest are the main priority. When the hell are you so-called Latino “leaders” going to wake the hell up and resist White cultural hegemony and revolt against genocidal consensus and policies in our homelands! When are you going to stop brown-nosing your “master”. We are not requesting amnesty or “assistance” because we need the White man to save us, this is a damn DEMAND that we are making to this government to respect our rights as human beings and to be treated as the first class citizens that we are! As the music group “Debajo del Agua” says people don’t cross borders they cross us!
I say all that to say that it is enough! Enough of this bullshit praising of White culture and its impositions on 1.5 or 2 generation immigrants and this desire of so many immigrants to assimilate and be “accepted” by white people. If you are a true progressive leader in the Black or Brown community you need to WAKE UP and start calling things what they are.
When Obama militarizes the border and allows these corporations to expand the wall on the U.S./Mexico border (which by the way is the same corporation who made the wall on the West Bank) or when he tells Black people protesting the inhumane execution of Sean Bell to “calm down and respect the laws decision” of impunity we should realize that he is nothing more than a black faced tool of White Supremacist America!
Just because someone is Black or Latino does not mean that they can not have the ideologies of White Supremacy and as Solomon stated in this article they are just as dangerous to our communities as those whom are white and have these Capitalist and Individualistic mentalities!

Reply
rabshakeh says:
October 5, 2010 at 12:15 pm
kudos to the author for this imperative revelation. the comparison between the black leaders & intellectuals that whore for the “news & info” branch of corporate media and the “gangsta” rappers that whore for the entertainment branch is right on target. it reveals the natures of both the corporate media and the african americans who’ve sold out the community to whore for the apparatus. this revelation further debunks the myth of the “liberal media.” if there really were any genuine liberal element in the corporate media, then we might hear some progressive voices on the news & info “programs,” and we also might hear some of the positive hip-hop artists who articulate struggle and solidarity. but that isn’t acceptable “programming,” in every sense of the term. so we can see both segments of the media working the one agenda of propagandizing the flow of information and ideas.
no doubt some people, even some white people, are able to recognize the negative messages and destructive impact of gangsta rap. but few are aware of the positive, critical messages espoused by “undeground rappers,” because they are “underground,” i.e. forced out of the mainstream by corporate media. but the other group you mention, the “safe negroes” who are trotted out to represent black people on the news, is another story. most people, especially white people, will believe these black leaders and intellectuals do, in fact, articulate the reality and the concerns of the black community. but as you make plain, this is far from the truth. who would compare the dignified minister or the esteemed professor with the thugged-out gangsta rapper? yeah, they don’t look at all alike, but they do in fact serve the same purpose for the domination system. thanks for helping us see through this subtle yet slimey deception from the corporate media.