Black Buzz

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Picture of a Hearing as a Result of Arrest by James S. Robinson, Jr., Director of Hill City

2012-01-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
January 13, 2012

The above arrest by James S. Robinson, Jr. was a result of him catching people involved in prostitution and the solicitation of minors. Because of this arrest, Jim Robinson was visited at the Hill City location on Bedford Avenue after hours by two off duty police officers from the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh who physically attacked Mr. Robinson. The officers who attacked Mr. Robinson ended up having to retire from the police force due to crippling injuries. Jim Robinson would not tolerate on his watch anyone trying to solicit a minor for immoral purposes.

Jim Robinson is believed to be one of the first person of color in the United States to be a Master in Martial Arts as noted in the above Identification Card.

* Ronald B. Saunders is the son of James S. Robinson, Jr.

Yvette Carnell: Presdent Obama Says He’s Kept His Promises, I Disagree

2012-01-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
Long Island, New York
January 13, 2012

Yvette Carnell: Presdent Obama Says He’s Kept His Promises, I Disagree

by yvette

During his trek through Iowa, Republican candidate Mitt Romney repeatedly needled President Obama for failing to keep his campaign promises. Now, the Obama campaign has responded with a video outlining the promises candidate Obama made and the ones President Obama kept.

On the issue of promises kept, Obama is both right and wrong. He’s kept his promises to some while simultaneously betraying his commitment to others.

At the behest of gay rights activists, Obama repealed DADT. And at the encouragement of public opinion, President Obama is reducing our footprint in Iraq, even though some of our U.S. troops are being replaced by paid mercenaries.

The key question, though, isn’t whether President Obama has worked to keep his promises, but whether he’s been effective. Yes, President Obama worked to overhaul health care, but he wasted an entire year and the bulk of his political capital on a tepid health care bill. And in recent months, the Obama administration has been repealing parts of the very same health care law it passed. For example, the long term health insurance plan was dropped from the health care law back in October.

In his Iowa win speech, candidate Obama said, “I’ll be a President who finally makes health care affordable and available to every single American”. We’ll see. But thus far, it doesn’t appear as if Obamacare is the law to make that happen. It may be a bill that another, much bolder, Democratic President can use as a stepping stone to make health care affordable, but it’s certainly not the end game.

And Obama did give middle class and working people a tax cut, but he gave even more in the way of bailouts to special interest groups and bankers. So, there’s also the question of proportionality. It’s not just a question of whether Obama worked to fulfill some of his promises, but whether or not he was effective and whether or not he made the people who voted for him a priority over the corporations and lobbyists. Judged by that criterion, I believe President Obama’s first term has been an epic failure.

A Visit To The Amish Countryside in Volant PA

2012-01-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Special Report
Wampum, PA
January 11, 2012

by Tricia

Volant, Pennsylvania resides on land bought from the Native Americans in 1784. The first gristmill was built on the Neshannock Creek in 1806. Later another mill was built in 1812 and it still stands on that location that is downriver from the original mill.
Volant soon became a bustling village thanks to the mill and the railroad. But the great Depression caused its economy to slow, and it returned to being a sleepy rural village. A Renaissance began in 1984, and the mill opened as a gift shop, followed by many quaint and interesting stores, such as the James Creek Galleries, Attic Treasures and Volant Miniature Shop.
My family and I, one lovely summer afternoon in August 2010 enjoyed visiting many of these shops. While my sister and I were touring one of the shops in which a special artist was featured, my brother-in-law decided to leave and to wait for us in the shop's very spacious yard which had picnic tables set up for the guests. The store owner provided my brother-in-law with a fresh tray of hot cookies and apple juice while he was sitting on a bench next to the shop. Later, the store owner insisted on providing him with another tray of cookies, which he turned down. Great hospitality!
We especially liked the self-guided driving tour of the Amish farmlands, which included Teena's Quilt shop and the famous covered bridge. We purchased several nice items from Teena, who is the owner of Teena's Quilt shop, which was located on an Authentic Amish farm. Teena also informed us that many of the famous quilts were made by her relatives and other young women in the Amish Community.
We also purchased a basket of Chambersburg Peaches from an Amish vendor on one of the back roads. The Amish people were quite friendly and conversed with us on many varied topics. We toured the famous " Cheese House" and then drove to New Wilmington and had a very tasty scrumptious meal at the Tavern on The Square. The Tavern on the Square is located on the site of an Underground railroad station that was used during the time of slavery.
We do hope to visit Volant again soon.

U.Va.'s King Commemoration to Feature Belafonte, Mfume and More

2012-01-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

U.Va.'s King Commemoration to Feature Belafonte, Mfume and More

I like to see all who can attend show up for this historic event.

Education Week Lists U.Va. Professors Among Nation's Most Influential Education Thinkers

2012-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Education Week Lists U.Va. Professors Among Nation's Most Influential Education Thinkers

The only schools to place more on the above list was Harvard and Stanford. The University of Virginia came in third place.

WAHOO WA!

Black Politics, Campaign 2012, and Tomorrow

2012-01-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
Special Report
Pittsburgh, PA
January 2, 2012

By Fred Logan

December 8, 2011

This robust national black debate that we hear day-in-and-day-out about Barack Obama and the black community is one of the very best things to happen in a very long time. It must also be one of the greatest political gifts that a black US president could possibly bestow on the black community. This is particularly so given all of those systemic constraints that a whole bunch of black people vehemently argue are on any such president.

We are indeed indebted to and should send our most heart-felt thanks to President Obama for his invaluable, though unintended, contribution to African American political struggle. Just how warmly he would receive our “Thanks” is another subject for debate.

Some prominent African American personalities including Dr. Cornel West and the Reverend Al Sharpton have jumped in the fray. But far more important still, we find the same political debate raging on black talk-radio and on neighborhood street corners, during church meetings, in Black Studies organizations, newspapers, taverns, beauty salons, and even around the dinner table. It seems to be everywhere.

We would not be arguing as long and hard as we have been about the president if Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton or any other white president was sitting in the White House. We must be honest and tell the truth about the debate. It’s “a Black Thing,” regardless of who claims the United States has transcended race. We ain’t , yet!

We have been complaining for decades that the black community needs, desperately, a dramatic up surge in mass black politics. Well this is it, not all of it by any means, but certainly an important part of it.

This often heated debate tells us some important things about where the black community is at the moment on a given issue. As black public opinion shifts, we have an indication of what some segments of the community can be organized to do politically. You can bet the sitting president very closely monitors the political moods and swings of his core, most loyal constituency.

This dispute over Obama and the black community will intensify throughout the 2012 campaign. Some black people have criticized Cornel West for some pointed remarks he made about Obama. But we must remember West’s remarks were no harsher than some of the comments Obama said to several of his liberal critics. We can not let the heat of the debate deter us. Black people are bound to exchange some very strong words during the campaign.

The black community, particularly black people who see themselves as progressive left-activists, must raise this debate to a higher more critical level. We must continue to critically examine Obama’s relationship to the black community. We must also examine the state of black politics itself, independent of Obama. And we must devise strategies and tactics to build and sustain partisan black political power-bases on the local level where African American people live out their daily lives and wage their day to day struggles.

Here is another way to say the very same thing. Black people must put black politics at the top of their agenda for the 2012 US presidential campaign. Along with all of the other domestic and international priorities on the black agenda, black politics itself must be on that agenda in 2012, and for each and every primary and general election, each and every year.

The 50- year mark of the 1965 Voting Rights Acts will be upon us in a minute. The black community must mark this with a rigorous, intensive, comprehensive critique of African American electoral politics over the past half-century. Also, it is way past time for a rigorous intensive black audit of the so-called post-black, race-transcending politicians of African American ancestry who have held public office across the county since at least the hey days of former US Senator Ed Brooke. We must ask and answer how the quality of black life faired during the tenures of these post-black mayors, city council members and other officer holders? We must compare “black politics” to post-black politics

We must also very carefully critique the various goals and objectives of Obama’s black supporters. Some are motivated solely by racial pride. And the primary goal for some is to gain something for themselves.

A lot of Obama’s most diehard black supporters will never admit it. But they are hypocrites. Yes, they certainly do adore Barack Obama as much as they claim. But they are even more infatuated with white power. So, they worship Obama because he is black and sits on the political throne of white power. These Obamaphiles would also worship most any mainstream black politician female or male—say Colin Powell—who won the White House.

These are some of the very same people who always bad-mouth the call for black power in African American life, but idolize white power. They worship the dollar, the mainstream corporate media, various white ethnic groups, and so on. Their love of white power transcends their love of Obama. And Obama loves white power, despite his occasional colorblind utterances.

These are also some of the very same black people who have argued long and loud since Obama took office for the black community to lay low and “give the brother a chance.” Don’t criticize the president, they scold. Way, way too many black people did lay low and gave Obama a “chance,” while he expanded American military aggression in the Middle East and Africa, while the economy continues to stagnant and devastate low and middle income people, and while a sometimes teary-eyed, pragmatic president appealed to the morality of an immoral GOP for “compromise.”

While the black community was lying low, however, the US right aggressively mobilized and organized its national base and dominated the political vacuum produced by the lull in mass black political mobilization. This grave error has been the major failure of black politics since Obama won office in 2008. It is also one of the greatest errors in the history of black struggle. It has yet to receive the black critique it demands of us all.

The establishment media and black folks who tail behind the media have heaped praise and encouragement on the national Occupy protests. By now, we must have noticed this is the same media and many of the same black people who have been bad-mouthing black protests during the Obama era!

Black politics must not be based on the asinine argument, we hear each day, and not criticize the president. Obamaphiles argue that US reactionaries will overhear this black criticism, and use it against the president. Not only the right, but other special interests groups, will manipulate this nonsense—that’s what it is—to stifle black public criticism of the status quo and to stymie the black strategizing, organizing, and struggle that go along with it. If black people continue to lay low during the 2012 campaign, that’s a signal for Obama to continue to avoid “black concerns” again should he be reelected. Contrary to Obama’s uncritical black supporters, his second term might well be more conservative than the first. One thing for sure, a black lame duck president will have even less influence with both parties during his second term.

Also, the US right argues and fights. Some Tea Party chapters don’t even speak to each other. And they don’t give a hoot about what black folks might over hear. What makes them look so ominous to some of us is the absence of comparable black mobilization and organization.

We know that hand-in-hand with black criticism must be struggle, not just criticism by itself. That’s just griping. The material and subjective rewards from we gain from waging black struggle nullifies anything US reactionaries and others may over hear us say about Obama.

Another equally asinine argument we constantly hear everyday in the black community contends black people should not ask the federal government for programs that only help black people. In reply, black people should ask, why not? American farmers, for example, request help for farmers. US big banks, another example, are quick to ask the US government to assist big banks. In their respective requests, these farmers and big banks never ask for help for black people or for anyone else.

The Obama administration argues, and his black apologists repeat, farmers, big banks and similar special interest groups will spend their federal aid monies in the US economy and this will stimulate the overall economy, and this will—according to bourgeois economic theory—benefit the country as a whole, not just the immediate recipients.

African Americans also spend their monies in the domestic economy at Verizon, Wal-Mart, you name it. Most everyone should know by now that black folks’ little bit of money is notorious for circulating faster than white folks’ great big money. So, on average, it stimulates the economy faster. Doesn’t Obama know where black people spend their money? Or, does the American president believe that black people here in these United States of America spend their money in the Republic of New Africa?

When black people request federal aid for the black community, they never say just help us, but don’t help anyone else. Black people, at large, want and support similar aid to Native Americans, Latinos and the society at large.

As the establishment dictates, Obama very often soft shoes race when black people raise issues related to white racism. But the liberal, moderate, and conservative wings of the US establishment—and this includes the Obama administration—gladly point to the president’s “blackness” to fend off any charges from foreign critics of American racism. So, “race,” does indeed still matter to the beneficiaries of the status quo when race supports the interests of the status quo.

Obama’s eagerness to publicly scold the US black community and African heads of state says loud and clear for all who would heard that in a tight 2012 campaign with the GOP, his political survival instincts would direct him to come out and harshly chastise the black community at large—including his black apologists—to court so-called white independent voters, and to take the black vote and black concerns for granted. The black community would be wise to be on watch for this in the 2012 campaign.

Directly tied to this, Obama’s 2012 victory is so dependent on the b lack vote that just a 10% stay at home by 2008 black voters would be disaster for Obama. It would indicate and an even larger drop off by non-black voters. This underscores Obama’s political dilemma with “race’ in a racist society.

Taking their cues apparently from Nietzsche, the centurions of the status quo have officially proclaimed, in unison, “Black politics is dead!” You must have heard them say that by now. We hear it every day and everywhere. Case closed! If this proclamation is true, then we are duty bound to ask, “What under the sun is the establishment’s definition of alive?” Is it the Tea Party? Or, is it the Democrats? Or is it the Republican Party?

Mainstream US politics from liberal to moderate to conservative and back (not that far) is dumb founded. It can’t truly admit, let alone address, the major global crisis it faces in the present era, the “passing into history of American world predominance.” This “passing” is not something new. The late African American political economist Robert S Browne told the black community about this some four decades ago. Since then, the world has witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and countless other unthinkable world-shaking events, including even a black president of the United States. Still the era of American world domination continues to past before our eyes. From this perspective, the dumb founded politics of the establishment looks more “dead” than the black politics it mocks, ridicules and condemns. [i]

Today is December 8, 2012. It has been exactly three years one month and four days since Obama won the White House on November 4, 2008. Black people all across the city of Pittsburgh still adore him, many still wear Obama t-shirts, and a lot of black folks still have his 2008 campaign signs posted in their front windows or front yards for the whole world to see. Everyday, they also argue and debate with each other about the president just as hard as black people do anywhere else in the United States.

However the election to the White House of the first African American president has had very little, if any, impact on black electoral politics in Pittsburgh. This seems to also be true in many other parts of the country. In May 2009, city councilwoman Tonya Payne lost in the majority-black 6^th district primary race. Perhaps her support for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primary cost her some votes in the tight 2009 council race. But this is conjecture; she lost by a small margin some 228 votes. [ii]

Obama has paid several visits to Pittsburgh. He also selected Pittsburgh as host city for the Nov. 2009 G-20 Summit. Some very perspective black politicos saw in some of these moves Obama trying to help boost the statewide political profile of then incumbent Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato to help Onorato’s impending 2010 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. If these politicos were correct, Obama’s behind the scenes support was not enough. Onorato, a traditional white centrist-Democrat lost—even in his home base, Allegheny County—to Tom Corbett, a run-of-the-mill conservative GOP politician. [iii]

Compare Obama’s victory to Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory. Obama himself has on occasion praised Reagan. Both came to the White House with a multitude of enthusiastic supporters, who were fired-up and rearing to go. Following Reagan’s triumph, conservatives won office all across the land, north, south, east, and west. This was the immediate direct product of a grassroots conservative movement and Reagan’s coattails. Right wing reactionaries did not tell their supporters to lay low and give Ronnie a chance. They mobilized, organized and won.

Obama has not aggressively encouraged progressive grassroots political mobilization and organization to counter the right. He was not the product of a progressive movement. And Barack Obama has no coattails.

It is a long standing scared tenet of US politics that elected officials first and foremost do their best to mobilize the political clout of their core base, their most loyal supporters. Obama has been a glaring except to this tradition, at least in Pittsburgh. Here is something important to ponder. During their respect presidential campaigns, Democratic contenders Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore and John Edwards all paid a visit to the Hill District on some other predominately black Pittsburgh neighborhood. Obama did not during his campaign.

George Bush was powerful in Washington because he was powerful back home in Texas. Political influence on the national level begins with political clout at the local level. The immediate local level is where you must build your power base for both local and national political power.

The African American community in Pittsburgh does not have a local political power base. The black debate engulfing the 2012 presidential campaign offers black people in Pittsburgh a truly historic opportunity to help establish a partisan black political power base in this city.

Before we make further reference to Pittsburgh, however, several extremely important points must be clearly stated. First, the electoral process, which includes “The Black Vote,” can not, in and of itself, liberate African American people from the domination of the American race, class, and gender status quo. Long before US politics reaches a crisis stage where the black vote in coalition with other progressive special interests groups have the potential to overturn the status quo through the ballot box, long before then the American establishment will have stopped abiding by the results of the electoral process.

Last point before returning to Pittsburgh, African American politics can be, and have been, progressive, mainstream moderate, or reactionary. By far, the vast majority are in the second category, Democratic Party moderates. This includes most black political organizations and the black community at large. The black community must build progressive political institutions based on the political interests of the community at large to wage the political struggles that promote and defend its interests.

Over sixty years ago, Black people in Pittsburgh read the 1950 US Census report. The city’s 20^th century population was at its peak with 671,659 residents. The Pittsburgh region was one of the world’s largest heavy manufacturing centers. It was the nation’s 12^th largest city. The census counted 82,453 Negros in Pittsburgh. They were segregated largely in the center city Hill District neighborhood. Sixty year later, the 2010 census found only 305,759 people living in town. Along with countless other rust-belt locales, Pittsburgh lost its heavy manufacturing base and much of its population during the past half-century. It no longer ranks among the nation’s 60 largest cities.

Today, the private and public education industry and the health care industry are the most prominent sectors of the city’s white collar economy. A super market chain, Giant Eagles, is the largest private employer. Compared to many other large urban areas, the region’s cost of living is less expensive. This is, however, only because of the weak local job market. Pittsburgh does boast some attributes from its heydays. These include two major US universities. It also includes major league baseball, football, and hockey teams with a well entrenched regional fan base, but also which in today’s major league sport market would never consider locating in a metropolitan area the size of Greater Pittsburgh.

The 2010 census counted 79,710 black people in Pittsburgh. This is down from the 90,750 black people in the 2000 report. Based on income, the black population is now more dispersed throughout the city. Pennsylvania’s largest enclave of black people outside of the Philadelphia area is in the far eastern end of Pittsburgh and the adjacent borough of Wilkinsburg and parts on Penn Hills.

The widely reported University of Pittsburgh 2004 Benchmarks Reports found, “Comparisons of African American conditions in the 70 largest cities, 50 largest counties, and 50 largest metropolitan areas show that African Americans children, working-age adults, and elderly in the Pittsburgh area are among the most disadvantaged in America.” The recent census reports ranks the black community in Pittsburgh with the highest poverty rates in the 40 largest US metropolitan areas. The social and economic woes of the region are intensified and magnified in the black community by the interlocking combine of race, gender, and class inequities. In this respect and others, Pittsburgh is consistently an American city. [iv]

A recent study, Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II cites some of the countless civil rights, education, and other social struggles that the Pittsburgh black community has waged over the past 60 years. These struggles increased the social space—jobs, housing, education, etc.—black people occupied in Pittsburgh.

For the past 77 years, Pittsburgh politics have been Democratic Party politics. This is to be expected in an historic blue collar town. The city’s last Republican mayor, John S. Herron, left office in 1934. The primary goal of black city-politics has been the acquisition of patronage and other goods and services for the black community. Traditionally, city and country government were the major sources that delivered goods and services through the vehicle of the local Democratic Party committees to Irish, Italians and other European ethnic groups. The black community has long sought its equitable share of the Pittsburgh patronage pie. However, when district elections reforms in recent decades increased the number of African American city council members, school board directors, and county council representatives, the size of city and county governments declined.

The city and county both lost a great deal of commercial properties. ALCO, Gulf Oil, and Rockwell are some of the international corporations who moved from the city over the past 40 some years. Many former appointed government jobs, Pittsburgh police for example, have become civil services, and others have been eliminated. The Pittsburgh patronage pie is not nearly as large as it used to be.

Pittsburgh black elected officials and Democratic committee representatives have been able to obtain some goods and services for the black community. But they have lacked the institutional base to adequately fight for their constituents in a local, long stagnant regional economy dominated by race, class, and gender bias.

As yet, not one of the African American politicians who has been elected from a majority-black city, county, or state district in Pittsburgh has established a strong district advisory committee, political action committee war chest, or any other type of power base. PAC’s and advisory committees are two of many forms political organizations can assume.

The Black Women’s Political Crusade and the Allegheny County Black Political Assembly are two of the numerous efforts that rose and fell in the on-going struggle to build a local black political organization. Black organizations have lacked the reward and punish patronage-mechanism that has been the foundation of the local GOP and Democratic Party machines. For the same reason, local white political organizations outside of the two major parties have failed to build a strong political base.

A very interesting, important and ambitious current project is the New York State Freedom Now Party that is being spearheaded by Brooklyn city council representative Charles Barron and a multicultural coalition of progressive activists during the reign of a black Democratic US president.

Black Pittsburgh may not be ready—yet—f or an independent political party. But this does not excuse its failure to establish less ambiguous but important institutions to serve its interests. Black politicians often make the lame argument that they represent not just black people but also Asians Americans, Latinos and other non-African Americans, and they can not discriminate against them. They do represent more than just their black constituents. And these black politicians must do all they can to help all of them. This does not conflict. Obviously, a politically strong black community can do infinitely more to lend material and moral support to its allies than a disorganized politically weak black community.

It must be made clear. None of these organizations or institutions we cited can, either individually or together, guarantee that the black community will win each and every political battle it encounters with the establishment. What they can do is help maximize the community’s political power to wage these inevitable struggles.

Notwithstanding a black president in office, we still find African Americans everywhere who remain cynical and distrust the American political system. They share a vexing question common to many oppressed people. Can they employ the same political system, which down through history has exploited and oppressed them, as a weapon in their struggle for liberation?

Conscious of this or not, all black people engage this question in all political encounters and the answer we receive always reflect the moment and is never permanent. Yes, a black president sits in the White House, but the jury is still out on this question.

Here we should keep in mind that positive things often come from negative things. We can grow the most beautiful flowers and most nutritional vegetables with decadent bovine manure. Likewise, we can, at times, exploit the inherent contradictions in the decadent American political system, which historically ordained and codified the ground rules for slavery, sharecropper-feudalism, and present-day post de-jure, but still de facto white racism to advance the struggle for African American Liberation. And just as in fertilizing flowers bovine manure is what it is, the very same holds true of the US political system, when we exploit its contradictions in the struggle for black liberation. The struggle for equitable goods and services cited earlier is vital for the survival and development of the black community. It is, in fact, the only goal of many black elected officials and also many of their African American constituents. The totality of black politics, however, demands other equally important components.

Among other things, progressive black electoral politics and black elected officials must always pursue the highest ethical practice; constantly for the equitable distribution of goods and services; be rooted in African American culture; persistently organize, mobilize, and educate the masses; be accountable and in deference to the masses; integrate electoral politics with direct action and other modes of social struggle; and relentlessly struggle for immediate and long range democratic social change. Perhaps the major failure of black electoral politics has been the failure to systemize and pursue these components in its practice.

Black people will vote for Obama in 2012. That’s not at issue here, even though Barack Obama is not, and no evidence says otherwise, the MLK-progressive many black people force themselves to believe and vehemently argue he is. Some of Pittsburgh most passionate black Obamaphiles were very angry with the Obama Justice Department for not filing federal civil rights charges against three white city police officers who savagely beat an unarmed black high school honor roll student, Jordan Miles, in January 2010 near his home. Despite this and other grievances they have with Obama’s policies, he will get their vote. [v]

Self-respecting black people cannot vote for Obama’s Republican opponent, who will and must run the standard GOP “Southern Strategy” campaign based on open opposition to African American people. In US presidential elections, the black community is always faced with the choice between a Democrat or a Republican. This is often called a choice between “the lesser-of-two-evils.” But a vote for Obama does not by any means exhaust the black political potential for campaign 2012.

Step back to 2011. Three African American candidates, the incumbent Ricky Burgess and his opponents Lucille Prater, and Charlene Mitchell, ran in the 2011 Ninth district Pittsburgh city council race. The campaign followed a long established pattern. The candidates repeatedly raised the issues of community development, access to city services and other vital concerns in the majority-black ninth district. But the candidates never addressed how the black community could be more effectively organized to fight for these concerns. They did not address the state of black politics in the Ninth district.

In 2012, concurrent with the presidential race, Pittsburgh based state legislators Joe Preston and Jake Wheatley, will be running for their seats in predominately African American districts. The state is faced with a major crisis in public education funding. State government cut $930,000,000 from the 2011-2012 public school budgets. Some 10,000 public schools employees have been furloughed. Essential public school programs have been eliminated all across the state. This has unleashed a groundswell of grassroots support that crosses race, income, and political party lines. How will the black community in these two state legislative districts be organized to join in the state-wide struggle for more public education funding from the state government? The status of black politics must be made an issue in 2012.

In 2013, the issue of black politics must be addressed front and center for the black community to tackle the important issues in the Pittsburgh school board and Allegheny County council races. In each and every election, the black community must monitor and critique the on-going development of its political organization, resources, and strategies. Pittsburgh here is used as a local example of the national black community.

The importance of the 2012 campaign in all of this can hardly be overstated. Unprecedented black attention and concern will be focused on the campaign. A heated black debate rages over the first African American president who is running for reelection. This offers black people an historic opportunity to elevate the level of their on-going debate, struggle hard, and raise the content and character of African American politics from the bottom up. It may never come again in the history of history.

Probably, no one states this critical point better than the veteran African American scholar and activist David Covin. “Finally,” Covin tells us, “we must use the opportunity President Obama … (has given) us… Not every historical period is propitious for organization and mobilizing effective political action. When such times arise, we must grab hold of them and wear them out.” [vi]

(END)

End Notes

[i] Robert S. Browne, “The Black Community and Contemporary Economic Dynamics,” The Review of Black Political Economy, Vol. 6, No. 2, Winter 1976, p. 147. This 1975 essay is still an extremely important analysis of key national, international issues and the black community.

[ii] Pennsylvania Governor election results – Politics – Decision 2010 .elections.msnbc.msn.com/ns/politics/2010/pennsylvania/governor/

[iii] Ralph Bangs. “ Highlights of the Black-White Benchmark Reports”,www.ucsur.pitt.edu/files/frp/BWHighlightsReports.pdf

[iv] Joe W. Trotter and Jared N. Day. Race and renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II. (Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press,) 2010

[v] Tony Norman. “Justice Department came up short in Jordan Miles case.” www.post-gazette.com/pg/11130/1145351-153-0.stm

[vi] David Covin, “Is Obama’s House our House?” The Black Scholar, Vol. 38, No 4., Winter 2008, p.49.

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Activities Report for January 1946

2011-12-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
December 8, 2011

Couric, Ackerman To Speak on 2012 Graduation Weekend

2011-12-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Katie Couric, Val Ackerman To Speak on 2012 Graduation Weekend At The Univeristy of Virginia

Letter to the Editor of the University of Virginia Alumni Association Magazine, Fall 2011, Titled: Food Talk

2011-12-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
Charlottesville, VA
December 1, 2011

["Consequences of Dinner," Summer, 2011] was a very informative and well-researched article. My parents owned a chicken store in Pittsburgh in the late 1940's, and we fed our chickens only certified natural corn feed, soybean mash and fish meal. We also gave our hens a high concentration of calcium, plus oyster shells, and gave the chicks only certified purified water. We never let our chickens eat scraps and their diet didn't contain hormones or antibiotics. Chicks came from a farm that didn't use pesticides or commercial fertilizers and the entire environment where we kept the chickens was spic-and-span. My mother would bake, broil, fry, grill and roast her chickens. They were the most tender and tasty birds I have ever eaten.

Ronald B. Saunders
Scarsdale, New York

HOLDING AMERICA AND OBAMA ACCOUNTABLE: CRAFTING A PROTOCOL AND PRACTICE — PART I

2011-12-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
Mound Bayou, MS
December 1, 2011

Los Angeles Sentinel, 11-24-11, p.A7
DR. MAULANA KARENGA

     In the precise measure that a people perceives themselves as their own liberator and realizes that no leader or ally is a substitute for their own work and struggle to lift themselves up and advance forward, that people begins to open a critical path in history to a new, upward and uplifting way of living and being human in the world. Likewise, in the precise measure that a people advances and practices without exception or excuse the principle that no leader, person, people or society is exempt from rightful criticism and accountability, that people rejects an immoral silence in the face of evil, and demonstrates the praiseworthy capacity for self- and social criticism, indispensable and morally compelling for correction of errors, evils and flaws humans are known for.
     We are at a particularly critical juncture in our history as a people and in the history of this country, a juncture at which the policies and functioning of this society are palpably and patently harmful to its people and itself, as well as to the world. And yet, we are told and made to feel we cannot criticize it without being condemned ourselves, considered unpatriotic and disloyal, and as offering aid and ammunition to a long list of real and imagined enemies and thus a potential, if not real, "person of interest" by the police and intelligence agencies of the country.
     And for us, as a people, it gets even deeper and more complex and problematic. For we are also given similar restrictions concerning criticism of the country’s leader, President Obama, from within the African American community. Clearly, we cannot blame U.S. history on Obama or be unmindful of his efforts to "promote the general welfare." Certainly, he inherited chaos, corruption, wars, waste, the progressive erosion of civil and human rights, shameless deference to the rich and disdain for the poor, and a host of other problems too numerous to name. Indeed, Obama campaigned and came to power condemning and calling into question all these ills. Now that he is at the head and helm of the country, he must also accept a just measure of responsibility for the way the country is moving since he has been president, regardless of obstacles and opposition.
     Surely, we recognize that the Republicans, Tea Partiers and other rightists have dedicated their political lives to ensuring Obama’s failure and humiliation for both
     And, of course, we as an African people bear a special share of the responsibility for not seriously holding the country, Congress, and the President accountable as is our tradition, and for not rebuilding our Movement to ensure and increase our capacity to do this and truly transform society. Surely, it is our special and unique responsibility as a people, who have since our arrival in this country served as a moral and social vanguard, to uphold in thought, speech and practice our ancient and ongoing social justice tradition. Politicians, administrations, governments and even allies come and go, but our moral obligation rooted in and expressed through our social justice tradition and the righteous struggle we wage to honor it, keep it alive and advance forward in the interest of our people, this country and the world are indispensable and enduring. some of what the American government is doing here in this country and around the world. Indeed, to claim he is not responsible is to claim he is not the leader, only a pathetic puppet, a role which he and all his advocates will vociferously deny and denounce. not practice these himself. And he also has the moral responsibility to do what he can through the authority and power of his office in the resistance to evil and wrong in the world and in advancing good. Moreover, he cannot adopt the policies, practices and personnel of the right and then ask for special exemption or brotherly and sisterly understanding, because of their relentless savage and racist attacks on him. imploding from within or being exploited from without. Thus, there is an urgent need to craft a protocol of exchange among ourselves that offers a framework in which we can conduct our conversations in the most meaningful, measured and fruitful way. about us, about how we see and assert ourselves as a people, if we are to honor our history, improve the current conditions of our lives and forge a future reflective of the highest African and human ideals and aspirations.
     President Barack Obama called on us and all Americans to join him in winning leadership of this country and we, as a people gave him over 95% of our support and approval. He is now the country’s leader and thus, neither he nor we can rightfully claim he is not responsible for at least
     Likewise, to claim to be its leader and to have no responsibility for the course of this country at home and abroad is to deny his role as a moral agent, a human being capable of distinguishing right and wrong and acting accordingly. For regardless of his ability or inability to pass bills, overcome right-wing opposition and control his party or raise them from their supine position of silent and submissive reception of rightist aggressive assertions, he still has the moral responsibility to, at least, speak out against injustice, oppression and exploitation, war, waste and other wrongs and
     The coming election will no doubt compel us to discuss President Obama in ways and to an extent we have not done before, especially what he really means to us as a people, and our increasingly diverging views on what he has done or has not done for us, the country and the world. But we must be careful to do this without
     This means always being mindful of the fact that in a larger sense, this needed conversation is not simply about Obama or the election, but racial and political "reasons." And thus, they share no small measure of responsibility for the crisis in this country, as well as the Democrats, liberals, and leftists, who offered Obama little public aid or advice to check or challenge these "wild west" and "savage south" opponents. Likewise, those of us, progressive intellectuals, activists and concerned citizens alike, who conveniently or unconsciously confused Obama the man for the Movement, itself, and refused to build a Movement and hold him accountable and aid him in keeping the campaign promises as he, himself, had asked, clearly share responsibility for many of those things which have gone grossly wrong and are in dire need of being set right.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition, www.MaulanaKarenga.org.

U.Va. student project aims to allow women in combat

2011-12-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
Charlottesville, VA
December 1, 2011

Tally Parham, shown at right in 2003, flew combat missions in Iraq. Now, as a lawyer, she is the lead counsel for The Molly Pitcher Project at the University of Virginia. (Staff Sgt. Derrick C. Goode | U.S. Air Force)

By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 27, 2011

Four University of Virginia law school students - assisted by a professor and a high-flying law school alum - are gearing up to fight for the right of women to serve in combat, and they're interested in finding women in the military who want to join them.

Their effort, dubbed The Molly Pitcher Project, seeks to end military policies that categorically bar women from serving in units engaging in direct ground combat. The project takes its name from the woman who took over loading and firing a cannon after her husband fell ill during a Revolutionary War battle.

In the 1990s, Congress repealed laws banning women from flying combat aircraft and serving on warships. But positions in infantry and armor units, as well as special operations, are still off-limits. Earlier this year, a congressionally mandated commission recommended lifting all combat restrictions; Pentagon leaders are studying the issue and are expected to report back to Congress on the issue soon.

Kyle Mallinak is one of the second-year law students inspired to work for change after discussing the issue in a law and public policy class last spring.

He emphasized that the aim isn't to change physical fitness standards or establish a quota for women. The goal is to allow women who meet the military's standards to serve in any job. Women make up about 15 percent of the active-duty military.

"This is not about diversity at its core. It's not about a belief that we need a certain amount of women in everything," Mallinak said. "It's about individual dignity."

Anne Coughlin, the professor who taught the course and serves as a sponsor for the project, said women should be allowed to compete for jobs in elite units.

"We're not asking for special privileges, but if there are women who are fit and want to step up, the military should allow them," Coughlin said.

The military acknowledges that it can't operate in combat theaters without women in the ranks, Coughlin said, noting that in Iraq and Afghanistan, women have been killed in action and some have been awarded prestigious medals for bravery under fire.

"What we're just asking them to do is acknowledge, formally, publicly, honorably, what these women are doing," Coughlin said.

The Pentagon could propose that women be allowed to serve in some or all billets that are currently off-limits. Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, has said he would like to see more jobs in combat battalions open to women, though he has stopped short of calling for an end to all gender-based limits.

The Pentagon could decide to change its policies on women in combat without congressional approval - doing so would require only notifying lawmakers. That's different from the landmark decision this year to allow openly gay men and women to serve in the military, a change that required Congress' support.

Another way to end the restrictions would be to challenge them in court as unconstitutional.

"It would be perfectly fine for us to never see a courtroom," Mallinak said, "But given the glacial pace that change comes at the Pentagon, we'd want to be prepared to litigate if necessary."

That's where Tally Parham comes in. Parham, who graduated from U.Va.'s law school in 1996, recently agreed to serve as lead counsel for The Molly Pitcher Project. An attorney in Columbia, S.C., she also knows a thing or two about serving in combat: as an F-16 pilot with the South Carolina Air National Guard, Parham flew air strikes in Iraq in the opening days of the war in 2003.

"I think the No. 1 test for the composition of any military fighting force is, what enhances combat effectiveness? What enhances military readiness?" Parham said. The most important individual traits for military success are skill, courage, determination and discipline, she said. "We've proven over and over and over again, none of those qualities are gender-specific."

Although Parham continues to serve in the Guard, she's involved in The Molly Pitcher Project as a lawyer and private citizen, and is working on the effort pro bono.

She said she understands that women on active duty, especially young ones, might not want to make waves by talking about what they can't do in the military. As a young pilot trying to prove herself, she said, she tried to stay away from discussions about gender and simply focused on doing her job as well as she could.

"I'd always hoped that at the point where we had large numbers of women in the leadership, change would just naturally occur," Parham said.

But that hasn't happened, so it's time to do more, she said.

"If there are women out there who are willing to challenge these issues of unfairness, then I'm happy to be their advocate."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com

Commentary of the Black Buzz News Service.

The Black Buzz News Service supports the ideas and concepts in the Molly Pitcher Project by four University of Virginia law school students, a law school faculty member, and the highly distinguished lead counsel Tally Parham.

We believe that as citizens of the United States of America, females should enjoy all the rights and privileges enumerated in the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT of the United States Constitution.

Wherein the practice of barring women solely on the basis of their sex from certain combat roles in the United States Military which is supported by public tax dollars appears to be a blatant violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

It is also our position that there shall by no restrictions/prohibitions on females serving in any combat role or capacity in all branches of the United States Armed Forces including the NAVY SEALS, DELTA FORCE, ARMY RANGERS, SPECIAL FORCES in the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy.

The physical fitness readiness standards in all training for combat military positions should be the same for women as men in all branches of the United States Military Armed Forces. The United States Military should not be required to make a reasonable accommodation for women in their efforts to integrate women into all combat positions in said forces.
Women should have to meet the same high standards and physical qualifications as men without any exceptions for all combat positions in said military.
A good efficient soldier must have the following characteristics in order to be effective:
1. High level of Skill
2. Great Courage
3. Great Determination
4. Great Discipline

* Any lowering of the physical fitness readiness standards solely on the basis of sex will harm the efficiency standards that are needed to accomplish the mission of the United States Armed Forces.
Further we believe that women should be given the right and opportunity to succeed or fail on their own accord for any combat position in any branch of the United States Armed Forces.

By Ronald B. Saunders

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: December 2, 1947 Article from the Pittsburgh Courier Titled: Students Offer Plan To Renovate Hill City

2011-11-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Porject
Robinson Family Archives
November 12, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: 1946 Article from the Pittsburgh Courier titled: New Training Course Starts At Hill City

2011-11-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
November 12, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: 1946 Article from the Pittsburgh Courier titled: New Sports Club Founded For Boys in Hill District

2011-11-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
November 12, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Rare Photograph of James S. Robinson, Jr. Checking Over a Collection of Dangerous Weapons Confiscated by Hill City Officers from Offenders

2011-11-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
November 12, 2011

Center Avenue YMCA Pittsburgh, PA History: Article from the Pittsburgh Courier, 1946 "Gay Northeasterners Plan Splash Party

2011-11-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
November 12, 2011

Note that the use of "Gay" in the title of the organization did not denote in the 1940's, a special type of sexual orientation, lifestyle or behavior.
Director of Hill City Municipality, James S. Robinson, Jr. and his aides provided security for the above event.

Shorter University in Rome, Georgia Requires Employees to Sign a Statement Rejecting Homosexuality

2011-11-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Athens, Georgia
November 9, 2011
BBNS

Rome... Shorter University, a Southern Baptist/ Georgia Baptist Convention affiliated institution in Rome, Georgia recently began requiring employees to sign a "personal lifestyle statement" saying they are not gay, or risk being fired, according to news reports. Further the statement adopted on October 21st requires employees to affirm that they reject "all sexual activity not in agreement with the Holy Bible, including, but not limited to, premartial sex, adultery and homosexuality."
May I suggest that said Shorter Institution also include in that lifestyle statement "pedophilia".
Shorter University is a religious institution and under the United States Constitution they do in fact have a right to practice all the tenets of their faith beliefs, regardless of how repugnant those beliefs may be perceived or appear to individuals outside of their faith community.

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Newspaper Article from the Pittsburgh Courier Titled: Santa Will Drop Gift Into Every Chimney

2011-11-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 6, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Executive Staff Photo 1946

2011-11-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 6, 2011

From left to right: Pronty Ford, assistant director, James S. Robinson, Jr., director, Jean Swan, secretary, Raymond Harris, band director

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Newspaper Article from the Pittsburgh Courier Titled: Sleuths 'Do Drop In' HILL CITY, POLICE RAID NITE SPOT, January 20, 1945

2011-11-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr, Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 6, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Picture of Billy Speelman Riding on His Horse, "Parson" in the First Pittsburgh Indoor Horse Show Held for the Benefit of Hill City

2011-11-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 3, 2011

Picture featured in the Pittsburgh Sunday SUN-TELEGRAPH Jan.21, 1945

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Rare Photo of Pittsburgh's First Indoor Horse Show which was Held for the Benefit of Hill City

2011-11-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 3, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Letter from Irving K. Furst Per the Direction of Eliot Ness, Director of the Division of Social Protection

2011-11-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives and Collection of Papers
Pittsburgh, PA
November 3, 2011

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Rare Photo of Ladies' Auxiliary of Hill City and Executive Staff

2011-11-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
November 3, 2011

Pictured in the back row are staff of the Hill City Youth Municipality. From left to right: Pronty Ford, James S. Robinson, Jr, director, Jean Swan and Raymond Harris, band director.
The public's assistance is requested to help identify any of the members of the Ladies' Auxiliary.

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Photo of Staff and Volunteers, 1947

2011-10-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
October 17, 2011

James S. Robinson, Jr. standing in center; Raymond Harris, band leader is on the far right.
Others pictured are not identified.

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: What It Is, What It Does, How It Affects You

2011-10-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
James S. Robinson, Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
October 17, 2011

Obama and Bush Administrations Complicit With Bankers’ in Massive Foreclosure Scheme

2011-10-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

Black Buzz News Service
Silver Spring, MD
October 17, 2011

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The robo-signers kept stealing as a matter of routine, while the Obama administration pretended it was on the side of the people.”

Both the Bush and the Obama administrations are complicit in the gargantuan and ongoing corporate conspiracy to unlawfully foreclose on the homes of millions of Americans. The U.S. government, through its quasi-private housing corporation Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is supposed to oversee the millions of mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae, collaborated in the so-called “robo-signing” scheme [5] that has allowed banks to repossess homes without proof they own the mortgages to the houses.

That’s the scenario that emerges from a new report [6] by the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Agency. It is an indictment of the clear complicity of two administrations – one Republican, the other Democratic – in the total abrogation of the rule of law as it pertains to Wall Street. The report shows that the Bush administration was made aware, back in 2003 that banks were engaged in wholesale fraud and theft of properties of American homeowners. The housing bubble had not yet burst, but the banks were gobbling up properties, especially defaulted sub-prime mortgages that had been targeted at Blacks and Latinos. But, because of the banks own practices of bundling mortgages into securities and then immediately passing them on to suckers down the line, the banks did not have clear title to the properties. They sold them anyway by forging signatures by the millions. Theft and fraud were standard practice on Wall Street, and both the Bush and Obama administrations knew it, and protected the bankster criminals. Law firms did much of the criminal dirty work. At least one legal outfit in Florida processed 75,000 robo-signed signatures a year for Fannie Mae.

“It is an indictment of the clear complicity of two administrations – one Republican, the other Democratic – in the total abrogation of the rule of law as it pertains to Wall Street.”

The Bush administration was alerted to these activities eight years ago, but did nothing. And, after Fannie Mae became bankrupt and was absorbed [7] into the federal government in 2008, the Obama administration continued to protect the Wall Street conspirators. The robo-signers kept stealing as a matter of routine, while the Obama administration pretended it was on the side of the people by launching what it promised would be a $50 billion Home Affordable Modification Program. It was all a sham. Relatively few [8] homeowners were saved. The reason was that the Obama administration’s priority was the same as the Bush administration’s had been: to smooth the process by which the banks could clear up foreclosures and pass the bad paper on to the federal government, putting the people’s bank account deeper and deeper in the red.

The robo-signers kept signing, and they are still at it, with the full protection of the Obama administration. The Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who issued the damning reports, says the agency still claims to be deciding what to do about the robo-signers, eight years later. The agency issued a statement that it would do something by September of 2012 - just before the presidential election.

To apologize for President Obama by claiming that he “inherited” the housing mess from George Bush is like saying that Al Capone inherited his criminal enterprises from previous gangsters. Obama is just as much a conspirator with Wall Street as Bush, and he has signaled he intends to keep the mega-crime going right up till Election Day. He's a gangster, pure and simple.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, to go BlackAgendareport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com [9].

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20111005_gf_FannieMaeRoboSign.mp3

Hill City Youth Municipality Pittsburgh, PA: Photo of Volunteer Leading Girl Scouts of Troop 484 Hill City

2011-10-15T10:29:00.000-07:00