Group of African American Scholars Go Hard Against Henry Louis Gates

May 31, 2010 · Posted in african american scholars, black scholars · Comment 

Statement by the Committee to Advance the Movement for Reparations

We, the undersigned, take strong exception to the Op-Ed, “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game,” published in the New York Times, April 23, 2010 by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. There are gross errors, inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Gates’ presentation of the transatlantic European enslavement system. Moreover, we are duly concerned about his political motivations and find offensive his use of the term “blame game.” It trivializes one of the most heinous crimes against humanity—the European enslavement of African people. Gates contradicts his stated purpose of “ending” what he refers to as a “blame-game,” by erroneously making African rulers and elites equally responsible with European and American enslavers. He shifts the “blame” in a clear attempt to undermine the demand for reparations.

The African Holocaust or Maafa, as it is referred to by many, is a crime against humanity and is recognized as such by the United Nations, scholars, and historians who have documented the primary and overwhelming culpability of European nations for enslavement in Europe, in the Americas and elsewhere. In spite of this overwhelming documentation, Gates inexplicably shifts the burden of culpability to Africans who were and are its victims. The abundance of scholarly work also affirms that Europeans initiated the process, established the global infrastructure for enslavement, and imposed, financed and defended it, and were the primary beneficiaries of it in various ways through human trafficking itself, banking, insurance, manufacturing, farming, shipping and allied enterprises.

 

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Black News: Killer of Three Black College Students Gets 30-years to Life

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Institute for Black Public Policy

Nearly three years ago, two black college students and a friend were murdered in a schoolyard in Newark, NJ. Monday, a jury returned guilty verdicts for three of the murders and one attempted murder after deliberating for less than a day.
Rodolfo Godinez, a 26-year old gang member and native of Nicaragua, was convicted of all charges against him, including multiple counts of robbery, weapons possession and conspiracy. He can get up to 30 years to life for each murder count, and the sentences can be given out consecutively.
"This man will never see the light of day," said Robert D. Laurino, the acting Essex County prosecutor.
Sentencing for Godinez is set for July 8. His lawyer, Roy Greenman, said,"Obviously, there will be an appeal on a number of grounds," but he declined to state the grounds on which he’d be filing.
The prosecution did not assert that Godinez was the one who hacked at the victims with a machete or shot each of them execution-style, in the back of the head. He was argued, however, to be the one who summoned the other gang members to the schoolyard on the night when the murders took place. The murders were particularly chilling because all four of the victims were "good kids" with no criminal history and educational plans for the future.

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Dr. Julianne Malveaux Speaks on Financial Regulatory Reform

Financial Reform-The Devil’s In The Details

By Julianne Malveaux

Late last week, the United States Senate passed a financial reform bill by a vote of 59-39. Two Democrats crossed party lines, as did four Republicans to come up with the result. Now, the House, which has already passed financial reform legislation, and the Senate, will have to reconcile their versions of the bill. Now is the time for consumer advocates and others to counter the aggressive lobbying that will be done by banks and the auto industry to minimize the effects of legislation. This may also be an opportunity for the Congressional Black Caucus to raise its voice on the side of the many consumers who have been damaged by this financial crisis. While legislation is not meant to look backwards, but instead forward to prevent future crises, the CBC are among those who advocate for the least and the left out. Their perspective on financial regulation is badly needed.

The House would create a consumer protection agency that is freestanding; the Senate would house the agency inside the Federal Reserve Bank. In some ways having the Fed run consumer protection is like having the fox patrol the chicken coop. Isn’t this the same Fed that was part and parcel of the 2008 financial meltdown, the same Fed (then led by Alan Greenspan) that turned a blind eye to predatory and sub-prime lending and the market distortions that emerged from the packaging of substandard loan paper? The Federal Reserve theoretically already deals with regulation around credit cards and mortgages and to date they’ve not done a good job. What will change when they now have a consumer protection agency? Hearings, anyone?

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Dr. Boyce on MSNBC: Good ol fashioned Kentucky Racism of Rand Paul and the Tea Partiers – Click to watch

From the Kirwan Institute for the study of race and ethnicity – The Ohio State University

Before you convict Lawrence Taylor for rape, consider this

Before you convict Lawrence Taylor for rape, consider this

As the father of three girls, I am not interested in defending a standard racist, statutory rapist, child molester or sexual predator.  I don’t even like fellow college professors who think it’s O.K. to sleep with their students (I lost respect for a colleague over a case like this a few…

MAY 21ST, 2010 | AFRICAN AMERICANS, FEATURED | READ MORE


Dr. Boyce on MSNBC’s TheGrio.com

Would Rand Paul roll back the Civil Rights Act?

I don’t dislike Rand Paul, the Republican candidate for Kentucky’s U.S. Senate seat. He claims to believe in freedom, and he’s from Kentucky, just like me. But growing up under the fist of Kentucky racism affected me, and Rand Paul reminds me of the men and women who hurt me the most.

Paul is a member of the Tea Party and a political star. He mobilized more Republican voters for his primary than any candidate in the history of Kentucky, and he may even one day challenge Mitch McConnell for the Senate Republican leadership. His views are fresh and new, in a subtly racist sort of way, and he’s a perfect fit for the anti-Obama climate that has led to our nation’s racial roaches coming out of the closet.

Paul took some heat for comments he made about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is politically sacred ground that even his fellow Republicans won’t touch. The firestorm started when Paul said that it should be ok for restaurant owners to discriminate if they choose to do so. In other words, if Woolworth’s had not wanted Dr. King at their lunch counter, they should have been allowed to turn him away. But he then went on to say that any business receiving federal funding should not be allowed to engage in discrimination, that Martin Luther King is one of his heroes, and that he understands the fact that racism in America has become systematic.

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by Faye Anderson

It’s Election Day in Pennsylvania, where voters will decide whether Democrat-turned-Republican-turned Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter stays or, as expected, gets the boot.

Specter’s primary opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak, hammered him for voting against Elena Kagan’s nomination as Solicitor General of the United States.

In a floor speech on March 19, 2009, Specter said:

I have gone to really great lengths to find out about Dean Kagan’s approach to the law and approach to the job of Solicitor General and to get some of her ideas on the law because she’s in a critical public policy making position… We had an extensive hearing where I questioned her at some length. Written questions were submitted and she responded to them. I was not satisfied with the answers which were given and when her name came before the Committee, I passed.

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Teacher Uses Obama Assassination as Geometry Example

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

A teacher in Alabama apparently takes his geometry lessons a little too seriously. A high school math teacher was teaching his students about angles and used the assassination of President Barack Obama as his teaching example.
The Secret Service was alerted and the teacher was questioned by federal agents. He was not taken in to custody or charged with a crime.
"We did not find a credible threat," said Roy Sex ton, special agent in charge of Birmingham’s Secret Service office. As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we looked in to it, we talked to the gentleman and we have closed our investigation."
The teacher was explaining the use of angles by describing where you would stand if you wanted to aim and shoot Obama.

 

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Julianne Malveaux Questions the Kagan Nomination

I was among the many who were disappointed that President Barack Obama did not nominate an African American woman to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. After all, there are six white men, two women, one Latina and one white, and a nominal African American man on the Court.  Why not an African American woman?
The Black Women’s Roundtable, led by Melanie Campbell, was so disappointed that they shared their concerns with the President in a letter that spoke both to the contributions African American women have made and the qualifications of a few good women that President Obama should have considered before nominating Ms. Kagan to the nation’s highest court.

I won’t even speak on what I perceive as some of the shortcomings of the Kagan nomination.  The Solicitor General has earned the support of some colleagues that I fully respect, such as Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree.  At the same time, we have to pause at the fact that her definition of diversity is ideological diversity, not racial and ethnic diversity, and that she seemed to make Harvard a more welcome place for conservatives, if not for African American faculty.

 

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: How Should Black Women Feel About Elena Kagan?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

To the disappointment of the Black Women’s Roundtable, Elena Kagan was the latest white American to leapfrog in front of black women for a chance to serve on the Supreme Court. The second-class citizenship of African American women has been consistently enforced by our nation, going back 221 years to the date that the Supreme Court was founded. This nomination was especially disheartening for those who felt that the year of Dorothy Height’s death would be the perfect time for the nation’s first black President to do what should have been done long ago and nominate a black woman for the highest court in the land.

"Needless to say, we are disconcerted by the perceived lack of real consideration of any of the extremely qualified African American women as potential nominees," reads the statement released by the Black Women’s Roundtable.
After this is over, President Barack Obama will have serious trouble re-inspiring the millions of African American women who left the Hillary Clinton camp to back his "Hope and change" campaign. There was no logical reason for him to pass over a black woman for consideration for this post, only political reasons. Kagan was the nominee that could shore up the white female vote for mid-term elections and help the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party stop the bleeding set to occur in November. Roland Martin does a wonderful job of breaking down the losses within the black female demographic that are set to occur as a result of the Kagan snub on the Supreme Court.

 

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Black News: African American Scholars Speaking Up on Elena Kagan

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

I started the day thinking about Elena Kagan, Barack Obama’s most recent nominee to the Supreme Court. I was wondering how in the world the president could appoint someone who has no experience on the bench, given the number of highly qualified judges he had to choose from. Then I was informed that this might be a good thing, since the Republicans don’t have a judicial record to scrutinize. No problemo.

I then noticed that Kagan has past affiliations with The University of Chicago, The Harvard Law School and Goldman Sachs, and that she was appointed to her position at Harvard by Lawrence Summers, the head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. I was starting to get uncomfortable at that point, because Kagan’s appointment would mean that the entire Supreme Court would be filled with Harvard and Yale grads, which effectively says that every other law school in the country need not apply (so much for having a meritocracy). I also saw a very disturbing pattern of cronyism, elitism and Wall Street loyalty that lets us know that perhaps the President of Hope and Change is not quite what we ordered, making back room deals with his buddies, all for the sake of keeping American power locked into tiny social circles.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: Not Judging Lawrence Taylor, Not Yet

lawrence_taylor_rape

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, The Institute for Black Public Policy

Former New York Giant Lawrence Taylor has had a life that has been shameful, exciting, devastating and amazing.  He has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, whether you are referring to his physical prowess or his battle with drug addiction.  I can’t, for one second, pretend that I know how difficult it is to walk away from crack cocaine, but I believe thatLawrence Taylor had the strength to do it.

RELATED: Teen In LT’s Rape Case “Doesn’t Want To Ruin His Reputation”

I was proud to see Taylor rebuild his life after spending quite a few years making one mistake after another.  Just like on the football field, I wanted to see him succeed.  And he was succeeding, at least for a while.  Then came the rape allegations.

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Obama’s Supreme Court Pick Hired Zero Black Professors at Harvard

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Dr. Boyce Watkins’ Articles on MSNBC’s TheGrio.com



Consider this before crying "racial profiling"
America’s retirement crisis: The perfect economic storm
Obama’s financial regulatory reform risky but necessary
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Michael’s $500m debt: lessons we can all learn
BET brainwashing our kids
Dumb kids create a bad economy
What Obama needs to do in Africa
Lessons from Sonia and Barack
Obama champions the middle class and his Harvard pal
Raising the minimum wage helps, doesn’t hurt
Is racism fueling the ‘birther movement’?
The most racially charged stories of 2009
Holder should stop patronizing black dads for political points
NCAA’s educational mission is great scam of 21st century
Tiger Woods’ rep slips from Obama to OJ
4 reasons Obama is losing the popularity contest
3 ways to find financial freedom as unemployment rate rises
Setting the record straight with Heather Ellis
Where is the outrage and action for Heather Ellis?
Cleveland murders are a product of our own values
Ownership is key to unlocking true freedom
Why we will march for Heather Ellis
Megan Williams’ story is simply unbelievable
Heather Ellis’ story tells us why the justice system is broken
What you can learn from Dr. King’s family squabble
Blacks will fall in line with Obama on Afghanistan
Why Nike will just do it and sign Michael Vick
Can Ebony survive? 5 questions for black media in the digital age
A whole bunch of G-20 racket, but is anybody listening?
Race is Obama’s Catch-22
U of Michigan’s "optional" practices highlight need for reform
Stop hating on black female athletes
Race was never a factor in track star’s gender query
It’s clutch time and Obama needs to be like Mike
Teddy was a lion for civil rights
Cocktail of unethical behavior and incompetence killed MJ
Felix the Cat flap signals era of racial paranoia
The return of the prodigal quarterback
NCAA treating black athletes like second-class citizens
What we’re dying to see in Obama’s healthcare plan
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Obama Family Portrayed as Sanford and Son in Newspaper

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

Phillip Sciarello, a publisher and part owner of the Smithtown Messenger in Long Island, is defending his newspaper after a picture appeared that some believe to be a racist stereotype of the first family. The picture depicts Barack and Michelle Obama as characters from "Sanford and Son." The public backlash has led the paper to announce that it will issue a retraction in its next edition.
The picture is part of a "before and after" sequence of the last six presidents, showing how much they age once they get into the White House. The "after" photo of the Obamas show Barack Obama as Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) and Michelle Obama as Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page). The characters are standing ready to fight, as was typical on the 1970s television show.The pictures led the Brookhaven town board to remove one of the company’s sister publications, the Brookhaven Review, as an official newspaper. This means that the paper will no longer publish town government notices.
"The reference to racial stereotypes is where the line was crossed," Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko said to Newsday.
Hazel N. Dukes, president of the state NAACP conference, stated that the county should pull advertising from any publication that runs the photo.

 

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NCAA Signs Record Deal: Still Doesn’t Pay Athletes Anything

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is expanding, starting next season, but not on the large scale once expected.

The sport’s signature event will grow to 68 teams from 65 in conjunction with a new 14-year, nearly $11 billion television agreement with CBS and Turner Sports announced Thursday. That gives the NCAA a 41% hike in annual media and marketing rights connected to the tournament — and "financial stability through the first quarter of this century," interim President Jim Isch said — without the controversy of a more dramatic move to a 96-team bracket.

Negotiations with CBS/Turner, ESPN and Fox Sports initially had targeted a 96-team field, drawing concern and criticism from traditionalists and others over the impact on the tournament’s aesthetics, effect on college basketball’s regular season and conference tournaments and potential for further intrusion on players’ time and studies.

 

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Dr. Boyce and Ben Jealous Share Points of View on the Deal with Accused Predatory Lender Wells Fargo

theGRIO SPEAKS