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
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Director Of The Hill City Youth Municipality, Jim Robinson Receives A Letter In Response To His Letter Sent To Famous Chicago Crime Fighter Eliot Ness
BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Robinson & Saunders Family Archives
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA.
October 7, 2010
This is a letter my dad James S. Robinson Jr. who was the Director of The Hill City Youth Municipality, and Superintendent of The Friendly Service Bureau of the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety received as a response to his correspondence to the famous crime fighter Eliot Ness.
Note Eliot Ness became Director of the Government's Social Protection Program in 1942, after resigning from the position of Public Safety Director in the city of Cleveland Ohio.
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY
Office of The
Regional Director
11 West 42 Street
New York, 14 New York
February 24, 1944
Mr. James S. Robinson
Superintendent, Friendly Service
Bureau
Department of Public Safety
County Building
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Dear Mr. Robinson:
Your letter addressed to Mr. Eliot Ness, Director of the Division of Social Protection, has been referred to me for reply and action.
Since my area includes the City Of Pittsburgh, I am most interested in learning about your agency and its operations as it might effect the venereal disease control program. Needless to say, it will be extremely difficult to outline a program of methods used to combat venereal diseases without specific reference to your special interests. A comprehensive venereal disease program involves health, law enforcement, welfare, and other types of agencies each of which can engage in elaborate procedures which have direct bearing on the problem.
In all probabilities, I shall visit Pittsburgh some time during the month of March and would like very much to have the opportunity of meeting with you to discuss ways and means for enlisting your offer of cooperation. I will communicate with you as soon as I can set a definite date for a trip to your city.
Very truly yours,
Irving K. Furst
Regional Social Protection Representative
Community War Services.
Robinson & Saunders Family Archives
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA.
October 7, 2010
This is a letter my dad James S. Robinson Jr. who was the Director of The Hill City Youth Municipality, and Superintendent of The Friendly Service Bureau of the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety received as a response to his correspondence to the famous crime fighter Eliot Ness.
Note Eliot Ness became Director of the Government's Social Protection Program in 1942, after resigning from the position of Public Safety Director in the city of Cleveland Ohio.
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY
Office of The
Regional Director
11 West 42 Street
New York, 14 New York
February 24, 1944
Mr. James S. Robinson
Superintendent, Friendly Service
Bureau
Department of Public Safety
County Building
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Dear Mr. Robinson:
Your letter addressed to Mr. Eliot Ness, Director of the Division of Social Protection, has been referred to me for reply and action.
Since my area includes the City Of Pittsburgh, I am most interested in learning about your agency and its operations as it might effect the venereal disease control program. Needless to say, it will be extremely difficult to outline a program of methods used to combat venereal diseases without specific reference to your special interests. A comprehensive venereal disease program involves health, law enforcement, welfare, and other types of agencies each of which can engage in elaborate procedures which have direct bearing on the problem.
In all probabilities, I shall visit Pittsburgh some time during the month of March and would like very much to have the opportunity of meeting with you to discuss ways and means for enlisting your offer of cooperation. I will communicate with you as soon as I can set a definite date for a trip to your city.
Very truly yours,
Irving K. Furst
Regional Social Protection Representative
Community War Services.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Great American Swindle: How Americans are getting Robbed of Prosperity
Black Buzz News Service
College Park, Maryland
October 3, 2010
Written by Solomon Comissiong
Media, Politics, War and Peace, World News
Sept. 30, 2010
The late great Azanian/South African Human Rights Champion, Steve Biko, once said, “The most dangerous weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. Those are some of the most powerful and cogent words ever spoken, especially when the critical mind places them in context with modern day life in America. Most people, who were born, raised or have spent much of their formative years within the US (including the author) have been systematically programmed to truly believe that this country is the gold standard when it comes to prosperity. The misleading propaganda runs rampant throughout the imperialist empire. However, the notion of the US being the “gold” standard (in comparison to many other nations), could not be further from the truth—-unless you are member of the elite class that creates and helps promote that fallacious program.
For generations those who control every major apparatus within American society (government, education, media, and economy) have duped masses of the US Hoi Polloi into believing in a system that has systematically “pimped” them. And that is one of the great ironies of American society—many of its most oppressed have been trained to have blind and unwavering faith in a bloodthirsty capitalist system that has no regard for their wellbeing or overall prosperity.
The American capitalist system caters only to the elite class that operates its one dimensional gearshift. The rest are merely role-players needed to toil, day in and day out, chasing the elusive and rapidly declining dollar. They do this all the while unconsciously subjecting themselves to myriad unfriendly labor conditions and with virtually no socially conducive “safety nets”. The ruling class does whatever it can to retain as much capital as they possibly can, even at the expense of people—especially at the expense of the people. The ruling class and their pet monster (unfettered capitalism) eagerly strive to gorge their financial coffers. They generally care very little for the working class, so long as that class can continue to work for minimum wages instead of livable wages. The working class is to be continually “pimped” all the while receiving little to no security for themselves or their families. This is a vicious cycle that has metastasized itself throughout much of American society. The notion of rugged individualism is inculcated into the hearts and minds of many Americans regardless of their socioeconomic background. We are all to believe that if we simply work hard enough we can achieve the mythological American Dream. However, for most, they are unable to see that the American Dream they are chasing is simply that—-a myth. They are not supposed to see, or understand, the sick and twisted reality of why they live check-to-check never to get ahead. A recent survey has indicated that a whopping 77 percent of working Americans are living check-to-check.
The economic system that dominates American society is not built to sustain all or even most of its populous in prosperity. It is truly a system that is catered for the extremely wealthy and their families. While many Americans work multiple jobs only to make ends meet, the elite class enjoys capital gains tax benefits at almost half the rate of the working class. The gross contrast in tax rates should make most working class folk sick to their empty stomachs. They work day in and day out, pay 30 plus percent in taxes, get very little in return socially—meanwhile the elites pay 15 percent in taxes on things like capital gains and hefty inheritances (if anything at all), for exerting any labor at all. Why—because the elite class has the money to even influence the writing of tax laws that benefit their interests. It is not a government for the people; it is profits before the people.
I am far from the elite class however I, personally, would have no problem paying relatively high taxes so long as they primarily benefit the masses of the population. Unfortunately, in the US that is increasingly not becoming the case. In the US, we get the least “bang” for our buck, in comparison to many other industrialized countries. The tragedy is that few Americans even know this, thus they allow their energy and time to be directed towards trivial debates that often work against their own interests rather than demanding more from their plutocratic government. True, a portion of US citizens’ tax dollars go towards things like firemen and public works, however few know that over 53 percent of our tax dollars go towards an already over inflated military budget. Yes, over 53 percent. That is an astronomical number considering the seldom discussed fact that the US controls and maintains over 750 military bases worldwide! No other country even comes close. The US spends over a trillion dollars a year for military purposes when one factors in, military budget, wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), and nuclear armament. I wonder how many people, half of that amount, could insure, provide head start programs for children in low income communities, or revamping a vastly underfunded public school system (and no, charter schools are not the answer)? Check out the National Priorities Project to find out what kinds of things your tax dollars could go towards if there was a reasonable trade-off.
Little discussion as to how Americans are getting “pimped”, ripped off, and hoodwinked by their imperialistic government seldom, if ever, reaches the mainstream airwaves of the corporate media. The corporate media deliberately omits this type of information from their airwaves because they are as much a part of the elite class as the corporate democrats and republicans who have built their careers on misleading their constituents. And thus the tragic tale of oblivious Americans goes on. Far too many Americans are oblivious to the fact that their blind support of the US capitalistic system is partly responsible for their stagnant economic existence without fundamental human rights like: free quality healthcare, a livable wage, and access to a quality education from head start through college. These things that almost seem like utopian ideals to most Americans are actual realities in many other countries.
I recently had the privilege to travel to Norway to deliver a lecture on Hip Hop, Corporate Media and Social Justice. Had it not been for this opportunity I may never have traveled to that Scandinavian nation. While in Norway I was able to witness a populous whose government places the value of its people before profits. That, in and of itself, is antithetical to the social climate in America. Due to the fact that Norway does not spend 53 percent of its budget on illegal wars of aggression, they have the monetary resources to finance a top notch public school system, free college education for its children, universal healthcare for all, and a livable wage of more than 14 US dollars an hour. Norway even has a prison system that is based on reforming its inmates. Compare that to the US model that prides itself on dehumanizing inmates and places hundreds of prisons on the stock market under corporate supervision/ownership. The Norwegian government does this all with far, far less than the US’s gigantic overall government expenditure.
Few complain in Norway about their high taxes because they are able to tangibly benefit from what they get in return for them. Americans complain about their taxes for all the wrong reasons. Misinformed supporters of the Republican Party complain about high taxes all the while asking for tax cuts that will primarily accommodate their corporate puppet masters on Capitol Hill. They have been programmed like faulty robots to believe that tax cuts for the elite benefit them in some shape, form or fashion. Ironically many of these androids parrot their disdain for high taxes while having insufficient health insurance and virtually no way out of their economic purgatory. It does not matter to them that they get very little in return for their taxes (especially in comparison to other countries), or that their government uses their taxes for destroying lives in ill-fated wars (meanwhile 40,000 Americans die a year due to lack of health insurance); all that matters in their narrowly manufactured worlds is that they follow the socially engineered pack.
Unfortunately so long as the corporate media creates the agendas by which most Americans decide to fight for, their overall prosperity is doomed. The corporate media’s interest will always reside with that of their corporate and governmental clients. America is, without a reasonable doubt, a fascist state. The merger between the state and the corporation has been a reality for generations. Today’s America would be Mussolini’s “wet dream”. Until the masses of working class American’s stop allowing themselves to be systematically used by elitist politicians (and the corporate media), the vast majority this country’s wealth will continue to be concentrated in the slimy hands of the ruling class. Sadly far too many working class Americans have been trained to suffer peacefully, all the while supporting the corrupt system that treads upon their hopes and dreams. With unemployment, poverty and home foreclosures at rising and unacceptable numbers the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. It is time we all woke up, organized ourselves, created sustainable coalitions and demand (not request) that our tax dollars go towards our prosperity (jobs, justice, equality, education, peace, and healthcare)!
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News).
5 Responses for “The Great American Swindle: How Americans are getting Robbed of Prosperity”
Reply
Martin says:
October 1, 2010 at 9:09 am
Excellent reading. Very comprehensive except omits discussion of the central role of The Fed and fractional reserve banking in the demise of “the American Dream”. This is another of the key tools used by the plutocracy to enslave the workers in never ending debt.
Until The Fed is shut down, there can be no escape for the masses and they will always be unwitting slaves to debt.
But first the masses need to become aware – and so we need more articles like this. Thanks for posting.
Reply
weilunion says:
October 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Thank you Solomon for you write eloquently of the Great American Swindle.
This country seems to have two mythological narratives. The rugged Western saga of the go-it alone Gary Cooper; the other the Connestoga Wagon, the Western saga of the cooperative going out west.
but Marx was right as you state: the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class and until we can mobilize to afford an education for those oppressed mentally and materially the great unraveling of human lives will continue and the Whore House of free markets will become an international terror, as we see now and have for decades.
In 1958 the welathy paid 90 percent tax on everything over 425,000 and we had 39% of the entire work force in America in unions. Now, they sit by their pools, the bourgeoise, and they collect as financiers their ‘rents’ in the form of capital gains, paying only 15%. Clinton got them down to 39% of their ‘income’ not by capital gains, but they in reality pay nothing. During this time, 1958, putting aside the horrors of America this was supposed to be the Golden Years of Capitalism. Hight taxes on the rich, building of freeways, housing, public services and unionized paid jobs with benefits.
The Rich still had their Las Vegas’ and their Rat Packs and all the rest. But now we are down to 7% unionized, with most of us being ‘crew members’ for this or that corporation. And now the bougreoise not only outsources our work but is in the process of dismantling the entire social strcuture to outsource it as the British have.
The Scandinavian countries have or had, social democarcy. This ise not free market capitalism. They pay taxes but get something for it, not drones, war, imperialism and racism and sexism and homophobia.
But alas, as I write this the corprate news is censoring any news coming out of France or Spain where workers by the millions are on national strike.
It will take a great and grand mobilization to stop the state capitalists for they are now moving at lightening speed. Unless there is an organized working class, capitalism will continue to create and be the culture of cruelty it is.
Thanks for hitting the most important issue. Economics, the relations of production and who owns the means of them. For anyone who is interested in stoppoing the private ownership of the means of ‘educational’ production, which is going on now, then they must confront the little shop or horrors we call the capitalist system.
Danny
Reply
rabshakeh says:
October 2, 2010 at 2:52 pm
spot on. the american system of control is as ingenious as it is insidious. the american ruling class not only perpetrates a corporate colonialism enabling predatory capitalism [the "pet monster"] to run amok around the planet, enabled by outright military occupations and 750+ military outposts, but a domestic program of cognitive colonialism. that is, the occupation of the minds of the masses. americans have colonized minds, the myths of the ruling class thoroughly dominating their worldview and shaping their value systems. the gov’t doesn’t need to employ physical violence at home because the obedient masses unwittingly control themselves. the key to understanding this brainwashing is not so much in what americans think [most americans are incapable of critical thinking], but what americans believe. americanism is a belief system, a veritible religion, complete with rites, rituals, symbols, & holydays. that helps explain why americans react so violently when americanism is questioned/criticised, and why their beliefs are in clear contraposition to reality. yeah man, the swindle of the ages.
Reply
Jack Lohman says:
October 3, 2010 at 5:54 am
Excellent piece, but we have to quit skirting the issue (i.e. “a bloodthirsty capitalist system” and “because the elite class has the money to even influence the writing of tax laws.”)
This whole crash is due to one thing and one thing alone: political corruption that has allowed CEO greed to flourish because the politicians share in the profits via campaign contributions.
I call that payola and bribery, and these people should go to jail. You may call it “political support.” But as a retired business owner, if I had an employee (or board of directors) taking cash on the side and giving away corporate assets in return, I’d at least fire him and also try to have him jailed. Does this sound like what’s happening in the political world? We re-elect those b*stards.
Yes we spend 53 percent of our budget on illegal wars of aggression, but have you looked at the campaign cash coming from the defense industry? What would they do if there were no more wars? How about a military coup? What will happen when the wars end and Blackwater brings its private (and armed) troops back to the US?
Hey people… wake up.
Nothing is going to change until we have public funding of campaigns. But that is “fair” and our politicians do not particularly like fair.
Reply
rabshakeh says:
October 3, 2010 at 9:28 am
jack, if you’re suggesting that the current system would work if only we could end “corruption,” then you need to wake up. the system isn’t corrupt; it is working precisely as it is designed to work, which is for the few on the backs of the masses. its not about ending corruption, campaign finance reform, fixing the budget, cutting taxes, or any of the other reforms politicians trot out to keep us distracted. the system itself must be overthrown and the working class [the hoi polloi] must take control of its own destiny.
College Park, Maryland
October 3, 2010
Written by Solomon Comissiong
Media, Politics, War and Peace, World News
Sept. 30, 2010
The late great Azanian/South African Human Rights Champion, Steve Biko, once said, “The most dangerous weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. Those are some of the most powerful and cogent words ever spoken, especially when the critical mind places them in context with modern day life in America. Most people, who were born, raised or have spent much of their formative years within the US (including the author) have been systematically programmed to truly believe that this country is the gold standard when it comes to prosperity. The misleading propaganda runs rampant throughout the imperialist empire. However, the notion of the US being the “gold” standard (in comparison to many other nations), could not be further from the truth—-unless you are member of the elite class that creates and helps promote that fallacious program.
For generations those who control every major apparatus within American society (government, education, media, and economy) have duped masses of the US Hoi Polloi into believing in a system that has systematically “pimped” them. And that is one of the great ironies of American society—many of its most oppressed have been trained to have blind and unwavering faith in a bloodthirsty capitalist system that has no regard for their wellbeing or overall prosperity.
The American capitalist system caters only to the elite class that operates its one dimensional gearshift. The rest are merely role-players needed to toil, day in and day out, chasing the elusive and rapidly declining dollar. They do this all the while unconsciously subjecting themselves to myriad unfriendly labor conditions and with virtually no socially conducive “safety nets”. The ruling class does whatever it can to retain as much capital as they possibly can, even at the expense of people—especially at the expense of the people. The ruling class and their pet monster (unfettered capitalism) eagerly strive to gorge their financial coffers. They generally care very little for the working class, so long as that class can continue to work for minimum wages instead of livable wages. The working class is to be continually “pimped” all the while receiving little to no security for themselves or their families. This is a vicious cycle that has metastasized itself throughout much of American society. The notion of rugged individualism is inculcated into the hearts and minds of many Americans regardless of their socioeconomic background. We are all to believe that if we simply work hard enough we can achieve the mythological American Dream. However, for most, they are unable to see that the American Dream they are chasing is simply that—-a myth. They are not supposed to see, or understand, the sick and twisted reality of why they live check-to-check never to get ahead. A recent survey has indicated that a whopping 77 percent of working Americans are living check-to-check.
The economic system that dominates American society is not built to sustain all or even most of its populous in prosperity. It is truly a system that is catered for the extremely wealthy and their families. While many Americans work multiple jobs only to make ends meet, the elite class enjoys capital gains tax benefits at almost half the rate of the working class. The gross contrast in tax rates should make most working class folk sick to their empty stomachs. They work day in and day out, pay 30 plus percent in taxes, get very little in return socially—meanwhile the elites pay 15 percent in taxes on things like capital gains and hefty inheritances (if anything at all), for exerting any labor at all. Why—because the elite class has the money to even influence the writing of tax laws that benefit their interests. It is not a government for the people; it is profits before the people.
I am far from the elite class however I, personally, would have no problem paying relatively high taxes so long as they primarily benefit the masses of the population. Unfortunately, in the US that is increasingly not becoming the case. In the US, we get the least “bang” for our buck, in comparison to many other industrialized countries. The tragedy is that few Americans even know this, thus they allow their energy and time to be directed towards trivial debates that often work against their own interests rather than demanding more from their plutocratic government. True, a portion of US citizens’ tax dollars go towards things like firemen and public works, however few know that over 53 percent of our tax dollars go towards an already over inflated military budget. Yes, over 53 percent. That is an astronomical number considering the seldom discussed fact that the US controls and maintains over 750 military bases worldwide! No other country even comes close. The US spends over a trillion dollars a year for military purposes when one factors in, military budget, wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), and nuclear armament. I wonder how many people, half of that amount, could insure, provide head start programs for children in low income communities, or revamping a vastly underfunded public school system (and no, charter schools are not the answer)? Check out the National Priorities Project to find out what kinds of things your tax dollars could go towards if there was a reasonable trade-off.
Little discussion as to how Americans are getting “pimped”, ripped off, and hoodwinked by their imperialistic government seldom, if ever, reaches the mainstream airwaves of the corporate media. The corporate media deliberately omits this type of information from their airwaves because they are as much a part of the elite class as the corporate democrats and republicans who have built their careers on misleading their constituents. And thus the tragic tale of oblivious Americans goes on. Far too many Americans are oblivious to the fact that their blind support of the US capitalistic system is partly responsible for their stagnant economic existence without fundamental human rights like: free quality healthcare, a livable wage, and access to a quality education from head start through college. These things that almost seem like utopian ideals to most Americans are actual realities in many other countries.
I recently had the privilege to travel to Norway to deliver a lecture on Hip Hop, Corporate Media and Social Justice. Had it not been for this opportunity I may never have traveled to that Scandinavian nation. While in Norway I was able to witness a populous whose government places the value of its people before profits. That, in and of itself, is antithetical to the social climate in America. Due to the fact that Norway does not spend 53 percent of its budget on illegal wars of aggression, they have the monetary resources to finance a top notch public school system, free college education for its children, universal healthcare for all, and a livable wage of more than 14 US dollars an hour. Norway even has a prison system that is based on reforming its inmates. Compare that to the US model that prides itself on dehumanizing inmates and places hundreds of prisons on the stock market under corporate supervision/ownership. The Norwegian government does this all with far, far less than the US’s gigantic overall government expenditure.
Few complain in Norway about their high taxes because they are able to tangibly benefit from what they get in return for them. Americans complain about their taxes for all the wrong reasons. Misinformed supporters of the Republican Party complain about high taxes all the while asking for tax cuts that will primarily accommodate their corporate puppet masters on Capitol Hill. They have been programmed like faulty robots to believe that tax cuts for the elite benefit them in some shape, form or fashion. Ironically many of these androids parrot their disdain for high taxes while having insufficient health insurance and virtually no way out of their economic purgatory. It does not matter to them that they get very little in return for their taxes (especially in comparison to other countries), or that their government uses their taxes for destroying lives in ill-fated wars (meanwhile 40,000 Americans die a year due to lack of health insurance); all that matters in their narrowly manufactured worlds is that they follow the socially engineered pack.
Unfortunately so long as the corporate media creates the agendas by which most Americans decide to fight for, their overall prosperity is doomed. The corporate media’s interest will always reside with that of their corporate and governmental clients. America is, without a reasonable doubt, a fascist state. The merger between the state and the corporation has been a reality for generations. Today’s America would be Mussolini’s “wet dream”. Until the masses of working class American’s stop allowing themselves to be systematically used by elitist politicians (and the corporate media), the vast majority this country’s wealth will continue to be concentrated in the slimy hands of the ruling class. Sadly far too many working class Americans have been trained to suffer peacefully, all the while supporting the corrupt system that treads upon their hopes and dreams. With unemployment, poverty and home foreclosures at rising and unacceptable numbers the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. It is time we all woke up, organized ourselves, created sustainable coalitions and demand (not request) that our tax dollars go towards our prosperity (jobs, justice, equality, education, peace, and healthcare)!
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News).
5 Responses for “The Great American Swindle: How Americans are getting Robbed of Prosperity”
Reply
Martin says:
October 1, 2010 at 9:09 am
Excellent reading. Very comprehensive except omits discussion of the central role of The Fed and fractional reserve banking in the demise of “the American Dream”. This is another of the key tools used by the plutocracy to enslave the workers in never ending debt.
Until The Fed is shut down, there can be no escape for the masses and they will always be unwitting slaves to debt.
But first the masses need to become aware – and so we need more articles like this. Thanks for posting.
Reply
weilunion says:
October 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Thank you Solomon for you write eloquently of the Great American Swindle.
This country seems to have two mythological narratives. The rugged Western saga of the go-it alone Gary Cooper; the other the Connestoga Wagon, the Western saga of the cooperative going out west.
but Marx was right as you state: the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class and until we can mobilize to afford an education for those oppressed mentally and materially the great unraveling of human lives will continue and the Whore House of free markets will become an international terror, as we see now and have for decades.
In 1958 the welathy paid 90 percent tax on everything over 425,000 and we had 39% of the entire work force in America in unions. Now, they sit by their pools, the bourgeoise, and they collect as financiers their ‘rents’ in the form of capital gains, paying only 15%. Clinton got them down to 39% of their ‘income’ not by capital gains, but they in reality pay nothing. During this time, 1958, putting aside the horrors of America this was supposed to be the Golden Years of Capitalism. Hight taxes on the rich, building of freeways, housing, public services and unionized paid jobs with benefits.
The Rich still had their Las Vegas’ and their Rat Packs and all the rest. But now we are down to 7% unionized, with most of us being ‘crew members’ for this or that corporation. And now the bougreoise not only outsources our work but is in the process of dismantling the entire social strcuture to outsource it as the British have.
The Scandinavian countries have or had, social democarcy. This ise not free market capitalism. They pay taxes but get something for it, not drones, war, imperialism and racism and sexism and homophobia.
But alas, as I write this the corprate news is censoring any news coming out of France or Spain where workers by the millions are on national strike.
It will take a great and grand mobilization to stop the state capitalists for they are now moving at lightening speed. Unless there is an organized working class, capitalism will continue to create and be the culture of cruelty it is.
Thanks for hitting the most important issue. Economics, the relations of production and who owns the means of them. For anyone who is interested in stoppoing the private ownership of the means of ‘educational’ production, which is going on now, then they must confront the little shop or horrors we call the capitalist system.
Danny
Reply
rabshakeh says:
October 2, 2010 at 2:52 pm
spot on. the american system of control is as ingenious as it is insidious. the american ruling class not only perpetrates a corporate colonialism enabling predatory capitalism [the "pet monster"] to run amok around the planet, enabled by outright military occupations and 750+ military outposts, but a domestic program of cognitive colonialism. that is, the occupation of the minds of the masses. americans have colonized minds, the myths of the ruling class thoroughly dominating their worldview and shaping their value systems. the gov’t doesn’t need to employ physical violence at home because the obedient masses unwittingly control themselves. the key to understanding this brainwashing is not so much in what americans think [most americans are incapable of critical thinking], but what americans believe. americanism is a belief system, a veritible religion, complete with rites, rituals, symbols, & holydays. that helps explain why americans react so violently when americanism is questioned/criticised, and why their beliefs are in clear contraposition to reality. yeah man, the swindle of the ages.
Reply
Jack Lohman says:
October 3, 2010 at 5:54 am
Excellent piece, but we have to quit skirting the issue (i.e. “a bloodthirsty capitalist system” and “because the elite class has the money to even influence the writing of tax laws.”)
This whole crash is due to one thing and one thing alone: political corruption that has allowed CEO greed to flourish because the politicians share in the profits via campaign contributions.
I call that payola and bribery, and these people should go to jail. You may call it “political support.” But as a retired business owner, if I had an employee (or board of directors) taking cash on the side and giving away corporate assets in return, I’d at least fire him and also try to have him jailed. Does this sound like what’s happening in the political world? We re-elect those b*stards.
Yes we spend 53 percent of our budget on illegal wars of aggression, but have you looked at the campaign cash coming from the defense industry? What would they do if there were no more wars? How about a military coup? What will happen when the wars end and Blackwater brings its private (and armed) troops back to the US?
Hey people… wake up.
Nothing is going to change until we have public funding of campaigns. But that is “fair” and our politicians do not particularly like fair.
Reply
rabshakeh says:
October 3, 2010 at 9:28 am
jack, if you’re suggesting that the current system would work if only we could end “corruption,” then you need to wake up. the system isn’t corrupt; it is working precisely as it is designed to work, which is for the few on the backs of the masses. its not about ending corruption, campaign finance reform, fixing the budget, cutting taxes, or any of the other reforms politicians trot out to keep us distracted. the system itself must be overthrown and the working class [the hoi polloi] must take control of its own destiny.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
James S. Robinson Jr.'s Brown Ceramic Pheasant Bird Was on an Antique Table in the Judge Homer S. Brown Memorial Room at Virginia Union University
BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 2, 2010
My mother, Beatrice Saunders Robinson and my father, James S. Robinson Jr. received a postcard from Billie Byrd Brown, Judge Homer S. Brown's wife, stating that my father's brown pheasant bird was in the Judge Homer S. Brown Memorial Room at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. The picture on the postcard showed that the bird was positioned on an antique table in the Memorial Room. My father had donated the bird to Mr. and Mrs. Homer S. Brown for the Memorial Room in the late 1970's.
On September 15, 2010, I was informed by Selicia Allen, Director of Virginia Union's Archives Department, that the Homer S. Brown Memorial Room had been dismantled but that she had a record of my dad's brown pheasant bird on file. Mrs. Allen couldn't ascertain when or why the Judge Homer S. Brown Room was dismantled.
My dad was a man of many talents and making ceramics was one of his unique skills. I remember him saying that the Kaufmann's Department Store located in downtown Pittsburgh, PA wanted him to make his famous ceramic Christmas trees for them, but their price wasn't right.
The ceramic kiln oven that my dad purchased while employed as executive director of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center in Butler, PA is still in the downstairs area of said center. According to Kate Donnelly, the present executive director of the Dunbar Center, no one has used the kiln oven since my father left the center in 1960. Mrs. Donnelly also informed me that no one had those skills that my dad had.
My dad taught ceramic lessons to many people throughout the Butler Pennsylvania area as well as to juveniles at the Allegheny County Juvenile Detention facility which was previously located at 3333 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA. My dad made all A-1 plus first class ceramics.
This post is part of the James S. Robinson Jr. Project
James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Pittsburgh PA
October 2, 2010
My mother, Beatrice Saunders Robinson and my father, James S. Robinson Jr. received a postcard from Billie Byrd Brown, Judge Homer S. Brown's wife, stating that my father's brown pheasant bird was in the Judge Homer S. Brown Memorial Room at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. The picture on the postcard showed that the bird was positioned on an antique table in the Memorial Room. My father had donated the bird to Mr. and Mrs. Homer S. Brown for the Memorial Room in the late 1970's.
On September 15, 2010, I was informed by Selicia Allen, Director of Virginia Union's Archives Department, that the Homer S. Brown Memorial Room had been dismantled but that she had a record of my dad's brown pheasant bird on file. Mrs. Allen couldn't ascertain when or why the Judge Homer S. Brown Room was dismantled.
My dad was a man of many talents and making ceramics was one of his unique skills. I remember him saying that the Kaufmann's Department Store located in downtown Pittsburgh, PA wanted him to make his famous ceramic Christmas trees for them, but their price wasn't right.
The ceramic kiln oven that my dad purchased while employed as executive director of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center in Butler, PA is still in the downstairs area of said center. According to Kate Donnelly, the present executive director of the Dunbar Center, no one has used the kiln oven since my father left the center in 1960. Mrs. Donnelly also informed me that no one had those skills that my dad had.
My dad taught ceramic lessons to many people throughout the Butler Pennsylvania area as well as to juveniles at the Allegheny County Juvenile Detention facility which was previously located at 3333 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA. My dad made all A-1 plus first class ceramics.
This post is part of the James S. Robinson Jr. Project
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