Skin tone more important than educational background for African Americans seeking jobs

Writer: Philip Lee Williams

Source: University of Georgia

Everyone knows about the insidious effects of racism in American society. But when it comes to the workplace, African-Americans may face a more complex situation–the effects of their own skin tone.

For the first time, a study indicates that dark-skinned African-Americans face a distinct disadvantage when applying for jobs, even if they have resumes superior to lighter-skinned black applicants.

Matthew Harrison, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, presented his research today at the 66th annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Atlanta. Along with his faculty supervisor, Kecia Thomas, a professor of applied psychology and acting director of UGA’s Institute for African American Studies, Harrison undertook the first significant study of “colorism” in the American workplace.

“The findings in this study are, tragically, not too surprising,” said Harrison. “We found that a light-skinned black male can have only a bachelor’s degree and typical work experience and still be preferred over a dark-skinned black male with an MBA and past managerial positions, simply because expectations of the light-skinned black male are much higher, and he doesn’t appear as ‘menacing’ as the darker-skinned male applicant.”

While there have been other studies of effects of colorism socially, this is the first study designed specifically to examine how it operates in hiring and in the workplace.

In America especially, Harrison says, when people think of race or race relations they commonly think of black and white. In fact, skin tone differences are responsible for increasing differences in perceptions within standard racially defined groups such as “blacks.” This diversity within races based on skin complexion has a long history but only recently have researchers begun to understand what these differences can mean.

Participants in the study that Harrison, himself an African American, directed for his master’s thesis included 240 undergraduate students at the University of Georgia, some of whom participated in the study voluntarily, while others got class credit for their involvement. While there were a disproportionate number of females in the study (72 percent), this was due to the high percentage of women majoring in psychology at UGA and was adjusted for in reporting the research.

Each student was asked to rate one of two resumes that came with one of three photographs of a theoretical job applicant (one man, one woman) whose skin color was either dark, medium or light. Harrison manipulated the skin tones of the applicants with Adobe Photoshop so facial characteristics could not be included in how the students rated the job applicants.

“Our results indicate that there appears to be a skin tone preference in regards to job selection,” said Harrison. “This finding is possibly due to the common belief that fair-skinned blacks probably have more similarities with whites than do dark-skinned blacks, which in turn makes whites feel more comfortable around them.”

Harrison refers in his paper to numerous studies that show that light skin is almost universally valued among all racial groups. Hierarchies based on light skin are prevalent in Hindu cultures in India, for example, and in Asian and Hispanic cultures as well.

“While the respondents in this study were University of Georgia students, we think we would find the same response no matter where such a study was done in the country,” said Thomas. “When you consider that probably no more than 1 percent of industrial and organizational psychologists are black, you can see why a study like this just hasn’t been done before regarding colorism in the workplace. There are real-world consequences to these issues.”

Harrison said he was surprised that skin hue was even more important than education in evaluating job applicants.

“Given the increasing number of biracial and multiracial Americans, more research similar to this study should be performed so that Americans can become more aware of the prevalence of color bias in our society,” he said. “The only way we are going to begin to combat some of the inequities that result due to the beliefs and ideologies that are associated with colorism is by becoming more aware of the prejudices we have regarding skin tone due to the images we are exposed to on a regular basis.”

Society, he said, equates lighter skin with attractiveness, intelligence, competency and likeability, while we are often given a “much more dismal and bleak picture” of those who have darker skin.

“The more we challenge these images and our own belief systems,” said Harrison, “the greater the likelihood we will judge an individual by his or her actual merit rather than skin tone.”

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The Academy of Management is a leading professional organization for scholars dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge about management and organizations. Founded in 1936 by two professors, the AOM is the oldest and largest scholarly management association in the world. Today, the group has more than 16,000 members from 97 nations.

Reprinted from:

www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/060815_SkinToneStudy.shtml

Miracle twins, one dark-skinned, one light, born to interracial couple

Florence Addo-Gerth with husband Stephan Gerth and their twin newborns. There is only a one in a million chance of giving birth to twins with different skin colors.

Miracle twins, one dark-skinned, one light, born to interracial couple

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com

Miracle twins, one dark-skinned, one light, born to interracial couple

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2008/07/17/2008-07-17_miracle_twins_one_darkskinned_one_light_.html#ixzz0WIFmKmif

With this kind of luck, they should have played the lottery.

A German woman has given birth to twins with different colored skin – a one in a million occurrence, medical experts said.

Florence Addo-Gerth, 35, gave birth to the two boys, Ryan and Leo, on Friday, July 11th, according to London’s Daily Mail.

The mother is originally from Ghana, while the father, Stephan Gerth, is from Germany.

The two infants, who caused quite a commotion at the hospital in Lichtenberg, Germany, where they were born, have already started to demonstrate different personalities as well.

Light-skinned Ryan is “spirited,” while Leo is “laidback.”

The proud papa said he was surprised by the children’s different skin colors, but he is just happy that they’re healthy.

Read more:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2008/07/17/2008-07-17_miracle_twins_one_darkskinned_one_light_.html#ixzz0WIFXxMLz

Words of Wisdom

The Paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers: Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints: we spend more but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more convenience, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; More medicine but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, but not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window, buut nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and time when you can choose eioither to make a difference or just hit delete.

Author Unknown

One of my favorite pieces serious food for thought. I wish the author made himself known.

This is an image of what European global expansion and colonialism has done to people of African descent worldwide. Capitalism is the living vampire sucking the life blood of African People

A poignant discussion on the significance of the ancestral altar called a Jengil visually seen as a circle of stones. Master Naba (R.I.P.) a teacher of mine explains.

The Jengili (An excerpt from Master Naba’s Book on Reincarnation)

By Naba Lamoussa Morodenibig

Jengili

The Jengili is currently described by ethnologists as an ancestral altar marked by a circle of stones. This is only an honest description of what they can see. Now let’s go to the real face of M’TAM.

As explained in the previous Philosophy Podium the borders between the material and the non-material universes, as perceived by a human, present more challenges to human intelligence than any other areas. These borders are as clear and as confused as those existing between the solid world and the fluid world, or the border between the Earth and the waters. One is initially tempted to believe that the two worlds are separated: water lies on the Earth, and the Earth is surrounded by water. For humans to be able to explore the seas, it becomes necessary to identify areas on the Earth that are firm and solid enough for construction, so that their structures won’t sink into the sea, and yet deep enough in the sea to be close to the deeper waters for construction of their harbors and ports.

The Jengili is an ancestral altar marked out with a circle of stones, but offerings or sacrifices in it are directed to the mother of the ego or to the mother of the paternal ancestors. What we are today is a result of what we’ve been as a group of intelligences ready to go through cycles of reincarnation, and what we are today is also the result of intelligences that will constitute us after the individual journey through cycles of reincarnation and transformation. Cycles of reincarnation and transformation are under the rulership of the God KHEPRA. The intelligences that constitute the energetic identity of every individual come from diverse elements of nature and the universe; the easiest intelligences to explore are the ones transmitted through those channels of the elements of nature that are also easiest to follow and manipulate such as blood, water, milk, sperm, saliva, etc.

For example, it is very easy to understand that every individual is born from a mother and a father who are humans. At the second level, it is easier to recognize a mother than a father. At the third level, as we compare a child with its mother, one can now presume that all that a child has that is not shared with the mother comes from the father. At the fourth level, one can equally presume that all that a child doesn’t have in common with the parents comes from the grandparents…etc. We would like to affirm that the elements of nature and the universe in one’s identity are found through the readings of the BAYUALI and YENU.

It is this simple principle that led to the first temples ever built by humans. Every element that is part of universal energies is a deity and deserves to be honored as a God. It is from this principle that pyramids and temples that still impress us today were constructed, that is as expressions of human genius. Let’s observe that the leaders of modern religions have also constructed cult areas, but these should not be compared with the JENGILI. The JENGILI is not an area for religious prayers. The JENGILI is a spiritual reality.

When Romans decided to create their own JENGILIs, they adopted the same procedure as Greeks. They tried to establish a relationship of spiritual and technical cooperation with Africa to provide priests for their initiations and control of their spiritual work in the Roman and Greek Jengilis sent to them. This cooperation continued until the year 635 of the Christian period when it ended because modern religions changed their goals. The idea of a religious doctrine directed toward social organizations and structures was much more powerful and could serve their individual thirsts for glory far better than a religious doctrine directed toward cultivation of spiritual qualities.

It is very important to understand the magnitude of spiritual importance of the JENGILI. The JENGILI is considered the holiest area of a city, village, house or room. A novice can start by reserving a corner of his or her room, a corner of the house or circle of stones that he or she should call the JENGILI. They should keep it clean and holy and should meditate around the JENGILI only when they consider themselves clean enough.

This could appear to the mentality of the ignorant masses of today as a simple piece of information concerning the customs of some anonymous tribes on the other side of the world. These ignorant masses, conditioned by a modern social system that only leads to mutual and self-ignorance, are reduced to never knowing which questions to ask themselves… have we ever asked ourselves why modern religions are striving to fight what they call “idolatry”? Why are they striving to construct monuments, holy places, and temples? We all know that these religions are only excuses to prevent humans from exploring their true nature and possibly discovering their powers and forces. The idea of monuments or holy places has never been suggested by politicians (meaning a leading class of a society), by the masses or even by artists. It is a purely spiritual concept and a technique of spiritual advancement. Nowadays, Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments are intentionally presented as a mystery, with the goal of leading the fertile minds of certain individuals to speculations that can occupy the attention of the public and distract them from the obvious realities of the modern lies.

Of course, with the intellectual and spiritual laziness of modern people, so ingeniously orchestrated and encouraged by the educational system, modern religions can only proclaim themselves to be spiritual by the simple fact of making their believers recite prayers without raising in them a single doubt about the solidity of their basic principles…

The Jengili is the essential base of a human’s spiritual life. Its function is to serve as an energetic navel on every individual and, at the same time, as an umbilical cord through which the energies flow from material and non-material forms. It is generally the place where the individual’s destinies are expressed in their energetic form, transcending space and time. Our energy dialogues with Earth through the Bayuali and the Yenu happen in the Jengili. Manifestations of the consequences of our behaviors are, on the social level, perceived as maledictions or benedictions from the Jengili.

Another way of explaining the value of the Jengili is through the Bayuali and the Yenu. The Bayuali is generally defined as the energetic channel through which Earth energies are emitted in response to cosmic energies, the goal being to express the energetic identity of the Earth through every one of its components. The Yenu is generally defined as the channel through which Cosmic energies are directed toward the center of the Earth through its every component. The Cosmic energies, arising on the level of every component of every planet, come through the Jengili.

The circle of stones in the house has no other goal than to materially represent the altar. Let’s notice that the JENGILI is the only place that holds complete non-material proof of existence through all the cycles of reincarnation. In the JENGILI, one can invoke all of one’s ancestors and their reincarnations. This is why the Jengili is perceived as the basis of our projections toward the future.

This brief article on the Jengili should be placed very high in our consciousness. It is not a text that should call for the judgments or the personal analysis of the reader. I allowed myself the liberty of opening one of the doors to the Light – doors that were closed for ignorant and mere mortals – because today’s world is hungry and thirsty for liberating knowledge. This book is coming as the liberator of consciousness and souls. It is bringing the vital waters to the souls that have died of thirst, and as the elders in Africa say, one who is dying of thirst should not judge the hand giving the pot of water.

Picture I took at the temple complex of Sakkara, Kmt 2007

http://www.blackstarnews.com/

Obama Not First U.S. President of African Ancestry

Abraham “Africanus” Lincoln

[Post Election 2008]

When President-elect Barack Hussein Obama was born in 1961, interracial marriages enjoyed no constitutional protections. Thus, Obama’s right to travel with both his white mother and Black father in many states was forbidden. His travel, with his parents, would have been banned below the Mason-Dixon line. Change arrived in 1968.

The marching feet and protest songs of Blacks gave rise to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Without the Black and/or Latino vote, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Indiana and Ohio would have been scored in Sen. John McCain’s presidential column. Change in presidential politics arrived in 2008. Without the Voting Rights Act of 1965, McCain would have been given the keys to the White House, since his 279 votes in the Electoral College would have been sufficient to defeat Obama. The successful candidate needed 270 votes out of 538 votes in the Electoral College. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but the Supreme Court gave Florida’s votes in the Electoral College to Gov. George W. Bush. Florida took Black voters back to Christmas Day 1951.Harry and Henrietta Moore died from the dynamiting of their home. Gore refused to raise a claim of racial discrimination before the High Court.

Black people had a reason to be elated on Election Day, but it was not because Obama was the first person of African ancestry to receive keys to the White House. He was the seventh person of African ancestry to be given those keys. Six presidents of African ancestry have preceded him. White supremacists have the power to classify and define all residents in the United States. One drop of African blood will do the trick. This drop of blood must be powerful, because it automatically makes a white person Black.

In cartoons, for example, President Abraham Lincoln was described as “Abraham Africanus, the First.” Warren Harding refused to deny that he had African ancestors. Calvin Coolidge attributed his mother’s dark skin to her mixed Indian ancestry. A body of literature exists on Black presidents in the White House. It includes books by J.A. Rogers, Dr. Auset Bakhufu and David Coyle. These books point out that six presidents had African blood, but were able to pass for white.

Federal law enforcement agents from the Justice Department seized and destroyed all copies of William Chancellor’s book on Warren Harding and also seized and destroyed a Life magazine depicting a photo of President Dwight Eisenhower’s mother. She was a “mulatto.”

Assuming that Obama was the first Black president in the United States, this alone is not the legitimate reason for elation. Something else is significant in Obama’s presidential victory. The world has never witnessed a person from an oppressed group at the bottom of a country’s political hierarchy going to its zenith. Although Obama is not a descendant of enslaved Africans, he is a member of a historically despised group in the United States. His wife, Michelle, is a descendant of enslaved Africans. Her life has been negatively affected by both race and the legacy of involuntary servitude. Obama’s life has been negatively affected by race.

We are witnessing a replay of Reconstruction. I imagine that the same reaction would be occurring in Israel if a Palestinian had been elected prime minister of Israel. The ruling class in any diverse society is typically xenophobic. Compare the Untouchables in India.

In Reconstruction, whites envisioned a Black, hostile takeover of state and federal governments. Whites armed themselves to the teeth. History is repeating itself. The gun is an equalizer, and the right to “keep and bear arms” is the equal protection clause of the Second Amendment.

Despite the recession, whites are zealously exercising rights under the Second Amendment. It is no accident that the Supreme Court waited until 2008 to definitively interpret the right to “keep and bear arms.” Whites have been arming themselves since this historic ruling. While this presidential election may have been a land-slide in the Electoral College, it was certainly not a land-slide in the popular vote. Even with a bad economy, McCain was still able to muster 46 percent of the popular vote. Obama received 52 percent of its vote. Moreover, the Republicans still have the South and the Great Plains in their back pocket.

This means that most whites who voted for Obama voted their interests and not their ideologies. The only option for whites in 2008 was suicide. Whites may be irrational over the question of race, but they are not insane. Obama had the only lifeline. What was remarkable about Election Day 2008 was the geopolitics of race. The Confederate States of America, consisting of 11 states, remained virtually intact. Missouri and Kentucky enjoyed a dual status during the Civil War. They voted for McCain. Florida, North Carolina and Virginia went for Obama because of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and carpetbaggers. Geopolitics in the United States is rooted in Article IV, Sec.3 of the U.S. Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance; the Missouri Compromise; and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Dred Scott v. Taney became the final blow. The Supreme Court decided the question of land use in the United States. The Missouri Compromise was invalidated. “No Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect” was obiter dictum. Obama has his work cut out for him. He promised to obliterate the politics of blue states and red states. His intention is to cement a United States of America. He expressed his intention at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. This was also the aim of Lincoln, who said, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all slaves, I would do it.”

Malcolm X said, “By any means necessary.” Obama is following in Lincoln’s footsteps. Lincoln also said in 1858, “I agree with Judge Douglas. A Black man is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas and the equal of every living man.”

Booker T. Washington made a similar argument at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895.His speech was not only aimed at this country’s immigration policy, but it was also his offer to surrender the social and political right of Blacks. A year later, the Supreme Court agreed.

Even if Lincoln had not been assassinated, he would have, nonetheless, failed in joining together a divided nation because his plan was to exclude Blacks. Hopefully, Obama will not make the same mistake. Black soldiers saved the Union, and Black votes launched Obama into the White House.

It is amazing that Lincoln and Obama have sought to cement the separatist politics of Hamilton and Jefferson. Two men of African ancestry divided the country, and two men of African ancestry pledged to unite it. A leopard cannot change its spots. Red states and blue states are, respectively, code words for Confederate States of America and “Federalist States of America.” United States of America is a misnomer. The election of Obama shows that whites can vote their interests while retaining their ideologies.

Nov. 19—UAM weekly forum at the Elks Plaza, 1068 Harriet Tubman Avenue (Fulton Street) near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is free. Dec. 6—Alton Maddox and Dr. Leonard Jeffries will conduct an “Advanced Seminar on Critical Thinking and

Systems Analysis” at City College in the NAC Building, 141st Street and Convent Avenue in Harlem. For admission information, call (718) 834-9034.

See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net for “Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” “Black Solidarity Day,” “A Political Guide to Election Day 2008,” “Election Day: A Family Affair in New York” and “Emergency Plan for Election Day 2008

by Bouneith Inejnema Naba

like their Roman Xtian predecessors it is modern day Xtians and Muslims including some of African descent that are destroying the traditional African Worship places and spaces on the continent in the name of “spreading the gospel”. Why can’t they let people worship their own deity the way they see fit? I took this photo in Egypt @ Luxor Temple it shows a Xtian Roman archway disrespectfully carved into a most holy section of the temple. Xtians and Muslims alike all over the continent are known to commandeer the most sacred parts of our temples to build their mosques and churches sometimes building them right inside of Egyptian structures. They call us pagans but they make sure they follow our traditions closely enough to usurp the sacredness of our holy spaces.

Gaining control over a society or people can be achieved in many ways. The most aggressive and obvious way to dominate a society is by force, and one look at world events is all it takes to recognize that this practice continues to thrive. Other tactics used by those who wish to control the world are more subtle and thus more powerful and include imperialism through entertainment, education, religion, and psychological beguilement.

European socieites are very adept at both the forceful and subtle tactics of imperialism. Missions are sent to non-European societies to evangelize the heathens who have not succumbed to religious pressure, and projects to educate village children are on the rise. American music is piped through radio airwaves, and Hollywood movies are featured at local theaters. Indigenous youth are convinced that America, Germany, France, and other European countries are the best places on Earth and that the modern culture is superior to their own; children are being torn from the arms and protection of their parents psychologically and morally.

Naturally, news of imperialistic events is kept from our ears. The mainstream media dare not disobey the powers-that-be and thus only tell stories of American heroism, aid, and interests. Actions of imperialism happen daily, insulting the culture and intelligence of wise men, women, and children across the globe.

US Propaganda via Ivory Coast Radio

April 14, 2005 marked the inauguration of a community radio station in Tiassale, Ivory Coast, a town of 60,000 residents. The name of the radio station, Tiassale Rural Local Radio, is ironic as the station is funded by foreign governments and is thus working to serve foreign interests rather than the traditional cultural and spiritual interests of the area. While the funders and directors of the radio station call it a community station, the project is nothing but a badly-hidden project of imperialism.

The project was funded by the United Nations, who furnished $15,000 towards the station. The Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Abidjan provided computers, microphones, loudspeakers, books, cassettes, tables, and paintings of US culture. The mayor of Tissale provided the building from which the radio broadcasts.

The goal of the radio station is supposedly to allow broadcasters to reach listeners in remote parts of the country (spreading imperialism deeper into Africa) and to wage campaigns on issues of importance to the governments involved in the station. Issues such as civic education (obedience), peace and stability (passivity), democracy (political propaganda), HIV/AIDS (promotion of Western medicine), environmental protection and free press (as approved by governments), and grassroots participation (governmental control over information) will be treated on air. A US spokesperson claimed that the USA was happy to be a partner in the station to help promote a free-flow of information between the grassroots population and opinion leaders.

Intelligent people realize that this project is nothing but an imperialistic arm of the USA and UN that is aimed to train the minds of the locals into being Westernized.

Christians Destroy Shrines to Cleanse Land

Christians in Mbaise, a community in Imo State of Nigeria, destroyed over 100 traditional shrines in the name of God in early May, 2005. The event was organized by the United Congress of Mbaise Christians and occured during a three-day weekend Restoration Crusade.

Over 66 denominations and Christian groups made up the over 1.5 million people taking part in this spiritual destruction. The United Congress of Mbaise Christian group is a movement that is intended to use pure Christian values, ethics and dynamic relationship with the God’s power to achieve the total emancipation of the Mbaise nation spiritually, economically, and politically.? Thus, Christian values encompass destroying spiritual temples and monuments, disrespecting other people, and violence towards deities so that the Christian agenda can be met.

Shrines were destroyed in Umuhuokwuato, Mbuto, Lorjni, Uvuru, and Lagwa, Evangelist Umar Ukpai, one of those who ministered during this crusade, said. It will not end there, it’s a continuous thing. Weve taken the bold step. It’s going to be well in Mbaise land. According to Ukpai, traditional shrines have been a barrier to the development of the land and a thorn in the side of those who wish for the land to be destined to Jesus. Ukpai also claimed that the destiny of Mbaise people will soon be changed for the better now that the shrines have been destroyed. It’s going to be well with Mbaise land, he said. It is certain that the lives of the locals will be changed after this deliberate destruction of spiritual monuments, although a change for the better is unlikely, as the locals now must re-establish the presence of the Gods in their communities. Restoring prosperity to Mbaise land will never come with Christianity or Islam, but with the return of purely traditional spiriutality and culture.

Christians Insult Temple

In an place known throughout the area for traditional healing and spirituality, a Christian bishop challenged healers in their temple. Bishop Eria Luzinda, accompanied by fellow sheep in the flock of Jesus, disrespected the temples by conducting Christian prayers of nonsense to counter the excessive activities of traditional healers in the area.

Luzinda claims that the land on which traditional healers and priests are practicing belong to the church. (Interestingly, the Christian church is the newcomer in the area, while the traditional healers and temples have owned the land since before the White man even knew that Uganda existed!) The police-escorted Christian prayers on the land was an attempt to drive out those who were promoting traditional healing and evil acts. After the insult and while the Christians were satisfied that their prayers had harmed the healers, traditional priests kept their patience and wisdom and merely continued singing traditional healing songs, as they knew that the Christian prayers were ineffective and useless.

Events such as these happen every day around the world. The aggression of Christian and Muslim believers and foreign governments continues to rise, and they think that the world is theirs for the taking. While traditional healers, priests, and initiates stand strong in their culture and spirituality, others who have not benefited from true education are more easily swayed and convinced to succumb to the religious and government propaganda. This means that the entire world is in danger, and the religions and governments will stop at nothing to achieve their agenda. We must wake up.

Death Row: A View from the South October 16, 2009

As a child, when I thought of the prison system in the South, I thought about images I’d seen in old black and white documentary films and archival photos taken in the 1920s and 1930s, of African American men shackled together on chain gangs and on “work farms.” About death row.  About images like the one above.  To me, the “face” of death row prisoners was the “face” of people of color, people who were poor, people who couldn’t pay for quality legal defense, who found themselves imprisoned and condemned to die, whether they were actually guilty or not.  People like nationally broadcast radio morning talk show host Tom Joyner’s maternal great-uncles, executed in 1915 in South Carolina for a murder they didn’t commit.  This week the State of South Carolina pardoned them posthumously, albeit too late for the great-uncles and their families to fully enjoy the justice that was finally served.  Economically disadvantaged people like Cameron Todd Willingham, innocent and executed, the focus of NCADP’s “Shouting from the Rooftops” campaign.

Walter Rhett, an African American blogger in Charleston, South Carolina, was born in Charlotteville, Virginia and raised in South Carolina where Joyner’s great-uncles Thomas and Meeks Griffin were wrongfully convicted and executed nearly a century ago.  His perspective on capital punishment, “Death Row,” can be found at http://bit.ly/1SGxUv.

Every time I thought I have found the worst atrocity committed against Black people I find something worse than the previously thought worst atrocity this was one that caught me by surprise many years ago. Now nothing surprises me…

Man as a Trophy: Stuffed African

Picture of this terribly exploited ancestor. May he rest in eternal peace

The Windy City is known throughout the Midwest for its numerous museums that are thought of as being top-notch learning institutions. A museum, in theory, is a place where one can find objects and specimens of all walks of life, whether it be archelogical findings of ancient tools or artwork, modern-day famous oil paintings, dinosaur skeletons, or replicas (or stuffed specimens) of exotic sea or animal life. Virtually every schoolage child visits at least one museum during his or her elementary school years, and the Chicago tourist does not feel satisfied with their experience of the city without visiting at least one of the huge museums during their stay. Museums have, in fact, become an appointed authority of science and education for the modern human. But how does one react when one realizes that the giant rhino that is displayed behind the protective glass barrier was once a living being? What legitimate excuse will one give when asked why an American (or European, or Mexican, or African) museum has the right to proudly display an Egyptian Mummy who was disturbed from his peace, stolen from his resting place, and displayed as an object or commodity? What possible explanation can be given for the display of a stuffed human being in a museum showcase?

The Earth Talk feature in the previous issue brought the case of Ota Benga – the African Bushman who was displayed in the famous New York Zoo – to public awareness. Public reaction was, of course, mixed with feelings of rage, disbelief, hurt, and anger. Who could have imagined that a human being could be locked inside the primate house and displayed as a “missing link”? It is true that human history is tarnished with many stories and events that are swept under the table and hidden from public awareness, and the case of the stuffed African man is yet another of these episodes. It was in October of the year 2000 that the Darder Museum, a small museum in Banyoles, Spain, returned the body of a stuffed African bushman who had been on display for over 100 years, to his home in Africa.

The African is thought to be from the Botswana/South African area of the Motherland, although his name and ancestors are not known. The body was stolen from his grave on the night of his burial, stuffed, and brought to Europe in 1830 by Edouard Verraux, a French taxidermist. The body was primarily displayed in Paris as part of an exhibition of stuffed animals until Frances Darder purchased the body in 1888. The town of Banyoles later inherited the body with Darder’s entire collection. The stuffed African had been on display without protest until 1992.

It was the Olympic Games that brought controversy to the stuffed African in the Spanish museum. A Haitian doctor practicing in Spain asked that the body to be removed from display due to its racist nature, but the directors of the museum refused. The doctor began an Olympic boycott, giving the issue international attention. Both the museum faculty and the citizens of Banyoles were strongly opposed to returning the stuffed man to his home and claimed that the body was its central exhibit. Meanwhile, admission fees were raised and visitor attendance tripled. The body was finally removed, however, and after eight long years of delays, he was returned to his homeland.

This story is just another example of the cruelties of the system of colonialization and power. Most of us cannot imagine such a thing happening today, yet there is evidence of this attitude in our own city! The Field Museum of Chicago is very proud of its Ancient Egypt display consisting of ancient artifacts, hieroglyphs, and mummies. Most of the items on exhibit have been stolen from Africa. The bodies on display have been uprooted from their resting place and stolen from their ancestors. The “treasures” and mummies have been plundered from tombs and graves. Meanwhile, the public does not protest, and many do not consider the exhibit offensive, but rather educational. Yet nowhere in the world is there an exhibit featuring the stolen remains of a White man. European ancestors are not uprooted from their graves and put behind a glass case in a museum; burial chambers are not broken into, and rings, jewlery, roseries, and spiritual items are not stolen.

The fact is that most people of today feel very removed from the mummies they see, the treasures they admire, and the stuffed corpses they view. Yet the stuffed African man could be an ancestor of yours! While we are sickened at the idea of somebody digging up our grandfather’s grave and stealing his body and jewelry, the public attitude changes when the shoe is put on the other foot. We should consider the honorable African Bushman who was stuffed and put on display as our ancestor, and we should consider the bodies of the mummies currently on display in the same manner.

Another picture of this terribly exploited ancestor. May he rest in eternal peace

A Chronology of key events in the Congo

Colonization of the Congo
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO
Population: 52 million
Capital: Kinshasa
Major languages: French, Lingala, Kingwana, Kikongo, Tshiluba
Main exports: Diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt, crude oil

1200s – Rise of Kongo empire, centred in modern northern Angola and including extreme western Congo and territories round lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga (now Shaba).

1482 – Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao becomes the first European to visit the Congo; Portuguese set up ties with the king of Kongo.

16th-17th centuries – British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants engage in slave trade through Kongo intermediaries.

Belgian colonisation

1870s – Belgian King Leopold II sets up a private venture to colonise Kongo.

1874-77 – British explorer Henry Stanley navigates Congo river to the Atlantic Ocean.

1879-87 – Leopold commissions Stanley to establish the king’s authority in the Congo basin.

1884-85 – European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold’s claim to the Congo basin.

1885 – Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself.

1891-92 – Belgians conquer Katanga.

1892-94 – Eastern Congo wrested from the control of East African Arab and Swahili-speaking traders.

1908 – Belgian state annexes Congo in the wake of condemnation of widespread human rights abuses there.

1955 – Belgian Professor Antoin van Bilsen publishes a “30-Year Plan” for granting the Congo increased self-government.

1959 – Belgium begins to lose control over events in the Congo following serious nationalist riots in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).

Post-independence turmoil

1960 June – Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.

1960 July – Congolese army mutinies; Moise Tshombe declares Katanga independent; Belgian troops sent in ostensibly to protect Belgian citizens and mining interests; UN Security Council votes to send in troops to help establish order, but the troops are not allowed to intervene in internal affairs.

1960 September – Kasavubu dismisses Lumumba as prime minister.

1960 December – Lumumba arrested.

1961 February – Lumumba murdered; organized by the US and Belgian.

1961 August – UN troops begin disarming Katangese soldiers.

1963 – Tshombe agrees to end Katanga’s secession.

1964 – President Kasavubu appoints Tshombe prime minister.

The Mobutu years

1965 – Kasavubu and Tshombe ousted in a coup led by Joseph Mobutu.

1971 – Joseph Mobutu renames the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko; also Katanga becomes Shaba and the river Congo becomes the river Zaire.

1973-74 – Mobutu nationalises many foreign-owned firms and forces European investors out of the country.

1977 – Mobutu invites foreign investors back, without much success; French, Belgian and Moroccan troops help repulse attack on Katanga by Angolan-based rebels.

1989 – Zaire defaults on loans from Belgium, resulting in a cancellation of development programmes and increased deterioration of the economy.

1990 – Mobutu agrees to end the ban on multiparty politics and appoints a transitional government, but retains substantial powers.

1991 – Following riots in Kinshasa by unpaid soldiers, Mobutu agrees to a coalition government with opposition leaders, but retains control of the security apparatus and important ministries.

1993 – Rival pro- and anti-Mobutu governments created.

1994 – Mobutu agrees to the appointment of Kengo Wa Dondo, an advocate of austerity and free-market reforms, as prime minister.

1996-97 – Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment.

Aftermath of Mobutu

1997 May – Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture the capital, Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila installed as president.

1998 August – Rebel forces, backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops, advance towards the capital, Kinshasa; the intervention of troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola turns the tide and the rebels are pushed back.

1998 September – Kinshasa, comes close to running out of food, while rebels face defeat in the west and thousands of the rebels who narrowly failed to reach Kinshasa are captured. Despite this, rebels in the east continue fighting.

1998 October – Rebels capture the government stronghold of Kindu in the east as more peace talks break down, this time in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

1999 February – Rebels say they have launched a major new offensive on three fronts in the north and the southeast as refugees flee the fighting.

1999 August – All rebel groups sign a peace agreement in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

1999 October – Amid allegations of ceasefire violations, rebel groups turn down an invitation from President Laurent Kabila to take part in a national dialogue on reconciliation.

2000 February – Ethnic fighting erupts between communities in the rebel-held east. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council authorises a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the ceasefire.

2000 August – Leaders of the countries involved in the Congolese civil war – Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe – as well as President Kabila meet in Lusaka to assess implementation of the previous year’s peace agreement.

2001 January – Some three thousand Congolese soldiers held in camps in Zambia are sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The troops fled into Zambia following an upsurge of fighting with Rwandan-backed rebels in the border area in December.

2001 January 17 – Congo president Laurent Kabila is killed by one of his bodyguards. The assassination came at a time of mounting discontent in the army, which had recently suffered setbacks in the civil war. Three generals were arrested the previous week. The Belgian Foreign Ministry was the first to claim that they had been reliably informed of the president’s death while Congo officials were reporting he was alive. Congo officials confirmed his death on January 18.

Laurent Kabila, Joseph Mobutu, Patrice Lumumba

Whites Genetically Weaker Than Blacks, Study Finds

Friday , February 22, 2008

White Americans are both genetically weaker and less diverse than their black compatriots, a Cornell University-led study finds.

Analyzing the genetic makeup of 20 Americans of European ancestry and 15 African-Americans, researchers found that the former showed much less variation among 10,000 tested genes than did the latter, which was expected.

They also found that Europeans had many more possibly harmful mutations than did African, which was a surprise.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com’s Evolution & Paleontology Center.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com’s Natural Science Center.

“Since we tend to think of European populations as quite large, we did not expect to see a significant difference in the distribution of neutral and deleterious variation between the two populations,” said senior co-author Carlos Bustamante, an assistant professor of biological statistics and computational biology at Cornell.

It’s been known for years that all non-Africans are descended from a small group, perhaps only a few dozen individuals, who left the continent between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.

But the Cornell study, published in the journal Nature Thursday, indicates that Europeans went through a second “population bottleneck,” probably about 30,000 years ago, when the ancestral population was again reduced to relatively few in number.

• Click here for the Cornell press release, and here for the full article in Nature.

The doubly diluted genetic diversity has allowed “bad” mutations to build up in the European population, something that the more genetically varied African population has had more success in weeding out.

“What we may be seeing is a ‘population genetic echo’ of the founding of Europe,” said Bustamante.

The Cornell team hopes to study other population groups in search of similar results.

For example, Native Americans show even less genetic diversity than Europeans, having descended from a few thousand people who entered North America about 10,000 years ago.

That fact was reinforced by a larger-scale study, also published in Nature, led by scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Virginia who analyzed genetic samples of 485 individuals scattered around the globe whose DNA is recorded in a French databank.

As would be expected with the “out of Africa” theory, the researchers found Africans had the greatest amount of genetic diversity, followed in turn by Middle Easterners, then Europeans and South Asians at about equal levels, then East Asians.

Native Americans had the least genetic diversity of all, indicating that part of the world was settled last.

“Previously, we’ve been able to look at the genome and say, ‘This part is from Africa, this is from Asia,’” explained Virginia research Andrew Singleton to Wired News. “Now we can look past that and say, ‘It’s from this part of Africa or Eurasia.’”

• Click here for an abstract of that study in Nature.

A third study, published in the journal Science on Friday, may be the most fascinating of all.

Drawing on 935 individual samples from the French databank, a Stanford University team found deep traces of long-ago population movements, all originating from a “ground zero” in Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania.

For example, the Pygmies of the Congo forest were found to be quite close to the Bushmen of Namibia — but both were very different from most other sub-Saharan groups.

The fierce and proud Bedouin nomads of the Middle East actually have a lot of European and South Asian blood.

The Asian-looking Hazara of Afghanistan are correct in claiming ancestry in Mongolia, but the Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, may be disappointed to discover they’re actually two peoples, one north, the other south.

Native Americans have at least one closely related group in Asia — the Yakuts of eastern Siberia, who themselves are related to other hunter-gatherer Siberian tribes, some of whom build wooden teepees.

The Basques in northeastern Spain and southwestern France may be right to demand their own nation — they’re not closely related to anyone else. Surprisingly, neither are the residents of Sardinia off the coast of Italy.

As with the other large-scale study, the Stanford team found the greatest diversity outside of Africa among people living in the wide crescent of land stretching from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to northern India.

Not only was the region among the first colonized by the African migrants, they theorize, but the large number of European and East Asian genes among the population indicates that it’s long been the human highway, with large numbers of migrants from both directions conquering, trading and generally reproducing along its entire length.

• Click here for the abstract of the Stanford study, and here for a comprehensive write-up of all three studies in the Washington Post.

Source

President Obama Returning to the House the WE Built by Khalif ‘Ras’ Williams

We live in a time when everyone in America is looking for a new way to come together and rise up as a nation. Robert F. Kennedy shortly before he died predicted we would see a black president at the turn of the new millennium. We are now at the turn of the new millennium and we have elected our first black president of the United States.  Click link for the rest of essay:

This is a video presentation of an essay I wrote right around the time Obama was finalizing his push towards the White House at the end of his political campaign. It is called President Barack Obama: Returning to the House that WE Built. The video shows that as much as Obama is today considered an anomaly because he is the First African American to become President of the United States, the truth is that he belongs to a long line of governing and military geniuses that helped shape a lot of human history Black people who are seldom acknowledged, especially by people of African descent. Though I have many feelings about him personally as far as the quality of his presidency, versus what he promised before getting into office, this video puts him in his proper historical perspective. Big Up to my friend Joe ‘Serpico’ Augstell for the collaboration in the creation this video.

For more info on Obama connection to his roots in Merita (African) Culture and African systems of governance see: Egyptian-American Connection from Narmer to Obama