Bahitawis, the Holy Men of Ethiopia

Religion | 16. May, 2010 by Ras Jahlisaha & Sister Isheba Tafari |

The Name Bahitawi is VERY interesting. Even though in Ithiopian Geez it is rendered as one who dwells in the desert. In Ki Kami or Ancient Egyptian the Names meaning is more telling The way YhWh is written in Medw (Ancient Egyptian is IHUH or IHWH. The name was a transposed version of the actual name of the God in order to keep the pronunciation of the God's Name from the regular parishioners since only the High Priest was supposed to know the TRUE name of the Deity. The transposed version of HuHi is YHWH. Ba means Soul in Ki Kami and is depicted HIEROGLYPHICALLY with a Bird having a Human Head. This is because the soul is said to travel from realm to realm between the world of the Living and the world of the Dead. Kind of like a human Sankofa bird. The name Hi is the transposed name of Yah which was spelled IH instread of YH but are phonetically identical. Tawi is the Ki Kami word for two lands normally as in the term Sema Tawi meaning unifier of the two lands Northern and southern Egypt but in this case it would be the Two Lands as in the World of the Dead and the World of the Living. So in MEDW the name Bahitawi would translate as One whose soul travels between the world of the living and the world of the dead to unite with Iah or Yah eternally. - Khalif 'Ras' Williams

Ethiopia is the oldest Christian country in the world, having accepted Christianity as its state religion early in the 4^th century. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church belongs to the five non-Chalcedonian or monophysite churches and traditionally is closely linked to the Coptic church of Egypt. From the Middle East, the orthodox tradition of contemplative monasticism and radical asceticism came to Ethiopia with the ‘nine saints’ of the 5^th century. Nowhere in the world have Christian asceticism and mysticism survived as intact up to the present day as in Ethiopia and her bahitawis.

Bahitawi means, in the ancient Ethiopian language Ge’ez, ‘one who lives in the wilderness’. It is the name given to a certain type of monks who are most commonly found in the forests and caves near the monastery of Debre Libanos and near Lalibela in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Today’s estimated 7000 bahitawis are part of a long tradition that includes many of Ethiopia’s most revered saints, such as St. Tekle Haymanot and St. Gebre Menfes Kidus. But although these saints, whose lives are briefly outlined below, have set examples of holy, ascetic lives, every bahitawi lives according to his own individual calling. By definition, one cannot choose to become a bahitawi; one is called by God to a life of austerity and renunciation.

St. Gebre Menfes Kidus was born in northern Egypt, where he lived as an ascetic in the desert before being called by God to Ethiopia, to the mountain of Zuqwala near Debre Zeit. His hair was over 3 m or 10 ft long and his beard measured 45 cm or 1½ ft. His body was covered with hair; apart form this, he was naked. He neither drank water nor ate food, except occasionally some desert fruits or roots. He could fly on the winds and performed 40,000 prostrations (bowings) every day while reciting the 150 psalms of David and other scriptures. Lions and hyenas escorted him wherever he went. He had visions of God and the Trinity and was taken up to Heaven and back several times before he died around 1430, over 300 years old. His life was spent in prayer in order to release the souls of countless sinners from hell.

St. Tekle Haymanot was born in the 13^th century in the central Ethiopian province of Shewa as son of a priest. His mother had long been barren, and the birth of her special son was prophesied by the archangel Michael. Zara Yohannes, as he was called then, performed miracles even as a child. As a young man he had a vision of Christ who told him to become a ‘fisher of souls’ and gave him powers to heal the sick and raise the dead. When his parents died, Tekle Haymanot gave away all his possessions and became a priest. He travelled to various holy places in Ethiopia and even to Jerusalem.

He performed 700 prostrations every night and could walk on water. He finally came to Gerarya, today Debre Libanos, where he founded the monastic order there and then entered a small cave, never to leave again. He fixed sharp knives to the walls of the cave that could pierce his body and remained standing there in prayer, without ever sitting down, for many years until one of his legs fell off. The saint continued his austerities on one foot until he died at the age of 99 and was buried in his cave.

More about the liguistics behind the name Yahweh from Gerald Massey: Jehovah- The name Jehovah derives from Yhwh or Yahweh. In Egyptian this would have been written with the glyphs Two Reeds, an Arm, and a Reed Shelter (or twisted wick), a Chick and Reed Shelter. One reed represents the letter 'i', and two are usually pronounced as a long 'i' - 'eeee'. The Arm is like a guttural 'a', pronounced 'ah' from the throat. A soft 'h' is represented by the twisted wick glyph, and a Chick is transliterated as a 'w', but is sounded as 'oh' or 'u'. Yahwh should therefore be voiced as 'Iah Oh'.

Several characteristics of the bahitawis of Ethiopia are contained in these stories as recounted in the Meshafe Senkesar, the Book of Saints of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church:

• Bahitawis are called to their lives as renunciates directly by God in visions. A bahitawi may be, but doesn’t necessarily have to be, a monk in one of the Ethiopian orders. Even today, men and sometimes women disappear from their workplaces or homes suddenly, leaving the world behind them.
• They usually wear dreadlocks – long, matted hair – and do not cut their fingernails. This is done as a sign that they do not care for their bodies, but only for the spirit. Bahitawis are Nazarites as described in the Bible in Numbers chapter 6. Many bahitawis never leave their caves, and as a consequence their bodies are wasted and very thin.
• They perform various, sometimes radical austerities. All bahitawis are monks. Most eat very little, often only a handful of chickpeas soaked in water or a handful of roasted wheat or barley per day. Some don’t eat anything at all for years, but live on the spirit alone. Some take vows of silence, others never sleep, but spend their nights in prayers, prostrations or meditation. Some stand upright for years, others sit in one spot without moving.
• As their name suggests, bahitawis usually live as hermits in caves, far away from all human contact. What little they eat is brought to them by the faithful who leave the food in a designated place. Bahitawis don’t normally attend mass or other religious functions, but may sneak into a church alone at night.
• The aim of all the austerities, deprivations and prayers it to save sinners from damnation. Bahitawis do not aspire to spiritual heights for themselves, but sacrifice their lives for the benefit of others.
• Bahitawis, both in ancient times and today, are known to perform miracles. They are not attacked by wild animals, may not be visible on a photo taken of them, or remain dry while walking in heavy rain.

The following stories of modern-day bahitawis show the individual character of each ascetic’s calling:

Bahitawi Gebre Medhin was born in the Amhara region of Ethiopia about 50 years ago. He entered a monastery as a child, then lived in a cave while still very young. After years of solitude, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary who told him to go to Shewa. He walked for hundreds of miles until he met a wolf who showed him a water spring on Entoto mountain above the capital Addis Ababa. But the priests of the church on that mountain chased him away, and he returned to his cave, only to have a second vision which again commanded him to go to Entoto. Once there, the priests confronted him again, until a serpent fell from the sky at their feet. Gebre Medhin prayed, ‘In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God,’ and the serpent disappeared. Satisfied with this proof of his authenticity, the priests let him stay.

The spring proved to be ‘tsebel’ or holy water, which has healing properties. For the last 35 years, Gebre Medhin has been living on Mount Entoto, every morning ‘baptising’ hundreds of people with the holy water in a special compound near the spring which one is only allowed to enter after purifying oneself for a week and abstaining from sex, alcohol and cigarettes. After the morning ablutions with the ice-cold holy water and a prayer service, the faithful then have to drink, before taking in any food, five litres of the spring water. All manners of diseases, including AIDS, are said to have been healed in this way. Gebre Medhin also exorcises ‘devils’, and none of his helpers can spiritually control evil spirits as he can.

His personal power is at first disguised by his humble, unassuming appearance: He has no dreadlocks and always wears sandals and a simple training suit with the traditional white blanket and the small hand-held cross of a priest. He speaks gently and laughs a lot. Gebre Medhin plants wheat and teff (a kind of millet) on his fields and owns a herd of sheep. Every day his women followers prepare the traditional Ethiopian pancakes called injera and a lentil stew which he shares with the two dozen priests and laymen who join him for evening prayers at his humble home. He does this so naturally that one doesn’t notice at first that the bahitawi himself doesn’t eat anything but chickpeas soaked in water. He spends all night in prayer and meditation before getting up at 3 o’clock to perform the first ‘baptisms’ with the holy water.

A friend shared the following story of an encounter with a bahitawi: She was spending lent, the two months’ fast before Easter, in Addis Ababa, daily attending mass at St. Urael church. One day around noon, an ancient bahitawi with white locks that hung down to the ground entered the church compound. He was clad only in a loincloth; his body was extremely emaciated, and in his hands he held a Bible and a whip. It turned out later that he and two other hermits had walked to the capital from Lalibela, hundreds of miles to the north, after receiving visions. The bahitawi immediately began prophesying. He warned the faithful that they were only paying lip service instead of following the teachings of Christ. He chastised the priests as well as laymen for their worldly, unholy lifestyle and stressed that the end of days and the last judgement were near and that ones should repent and change their ways in order not to be damned to all eternity. He accentuated his prophecies by whipping himself on the back until streams of blood ran down his shoulders. The priests and congregation were all terrified. When the deacons offered him some food to calm him down, he flung it away, shouting that he would not partake in their sins, and sat down under a tree to read his Bible.

The two examples above show the spectrum of the bahitawis’ relationship to the church establishment: whereas Gebre Medhin is well-respected and often participates in church services in his area, the latter bahitawi went on direct confrontation course with the priests. Since bahitawis take their authority directly from God and do not need to answer to any abbot or bishop, they are mystics rather than religious practitioners. Even in the west, mystics and prophets such as St. Francis of Assisi have often criticised the church for its love of wealth and secular power. And yet, bahitawis such as Gebre Menfes Kidus are today revered as saints. The mystic bahitawi is the correction rod that keeps the established church from forgetting all its principles. He preaches in the tradition of Old Testament prophets and is often persecuted like them. During the reign of the current patriarch of Ethiopia, Abuna Paulos, many bahitawis have been imprisoned and even killed for criticising the church’s arrangements with the secular government of Ethiopia. The patriarch argues that bahitawis are hermits and have no business coming to the city to prophesy. They, however, follow God’s direct commandments in their visions undeterred by threats.

Bahitawis are given great respect in Ethiopia due to their austere lifestyle and their mystic calling. Their dreadlocks appearance is understood by the people as part of their spiritual lives which are truly ‘separated unto God’ in the tradition of the Nazarites. The difference between religious practice based on tradition and spiritual mysticism based on direct contact with God is clearly seen even in modern day Ethiopia. Whereas the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows the worldwide trend to water down its principles in order to please its dwindling congregations, allowing the shortening of the fasts and the eating of fish while fasting as well as permitting women to enter the church in trousers, the bahitawis do not change or compromise.

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Moreinfo on the etymology of the name YHWH by Gerald Massey:

Jehovah

The name Jehovah derives from Yhwh or Yahweh.    In Egyptian this would have been written with the glyphs Two Reeds, an Arm, and a Reed Shelter (or twisted wick), a Chick and Reed Shelter.     One reed represents the letter ‘i’, and two are usually pronounced as a long ‘i’ – ‘eeee’.     The Arm is like a guttural ‘a’, pronounced ‘ah’ from the throat.     A soft ‘h’ is represented by the twisted wick glyph, and a Chick is transliterated as a ‘w’, but is sounded as ‘oh’ or ‘u’.     Yahwh should therefore be voiced as ‘Iah Oh’.

When read correctly there is no mistaking the name.    Iah is another name for Horus, the Son of God.

Massey – ‘Ancient Egypt’ – ” Hebraists have surmised, and some Hebrews (known to the writer) have admitted, that the prefix B in B’ Jah (B’ Jah is Jehovah, Isaiah 26:4, and B’ Jah is his name) is an abbreviation for the name of Baal.      If written out fully this would read, Baal – Iah = Baal is Jah.      Bealiah is a proper name in the book of Chronicles I. 12:5, in which we see that Baal-Iah as divinity supplied a personal name.      Thus the Baal who is Iah – would be the Iah who was one of the Baalim; and the earliest Baalim were a form of the seven companions, like the Kabarim and Elohim, which are followed in the book of Genesis by the god named Iahu-Elohim.      The one god in Israel is made known to Moses by the two names of – Ihuh and Iah.      Now a priest of On (Osarsiph) would naturally learn at On of the one god Atum-Ra, who was Huhi the eternal in the character of God the father and ?u in the character of God the son, which two were one.      In accordance with Egyptian thought, that which was for ever was the only true reality.      This was represented by Huhi the eternal.      And Huhi is the god made known to Israel by the priest of On.      Gesenius derives the name of Ihuh from a root huh, which root does not exist in Hebrew.      But it does exist in Egyptian.      Huh or heh signifies ever, everlastingness, eternity, the eternal.      Huhi was a title that was applied to Ptah, Atum-Ra, and Osiris, as Neb-Huhi the ever-lasting lord, or as the supreme one, self-existing, and eternal god, which each of these three deities represented in turn as one divine dynasty succeeded another in the Egyptian religion.      An eternity of existence was imaged by the Egyptians as ever-coming or becoming; hence ever-coming or ever-becoming was a mode of imaging the eternal being.      Thus the one god as their Huhi was not only he who is for ever as the father, but also he who comes for ever as the son.      This visible mode of continuity by means of coming naturally involved becoming, according to the Egyptian doctrine of kheper, which includes ever-evolving, ever-transforming, ever-perpetuating, ever-becoming, under the one word kheper.      Thus the name of an eternal, self-existent being which in Hebrew can be traced as Huhi, the name for the one eternal, ever-living, ever-lasting god as Egyptian.      And now for the first time we can distinguish the one name, Ihuh from the other, Iah, if only on Egyptian ground.      “Iu”, with variants in Au, Iau, Aui, and others, is also an Egyptian word, but with no linguistic relationship to the word Huh.      Iu is likewise the name of an Egyptian god, as Iu-em-hetep, he who comes with peace, who was primarily the son of Ptah, and who was repeated in the cult of Atum-Ra as Nefer-Atum.      In fact, Atum-Ra is both Huhi and Iu as the one god living in truth, the father manifesting as the ever- coming son, who was Iu-sa the son of Iusaas in the cult of On.      All that was ever represented to the Jewish mind by the name of Ihuh (Ihvh or Jehovah) had been expressed to the Egyptian by the word huhi or, later, hehi.      As Egyptian, “huh” signified everlastingness, millions of times, eternity, and “Huhi” was also a name of their god the eternal.      It had been a title, we repeat, of Ptah, of Atum, and of Osiris, each in turn, in three different cults at Memphis, On, and Abydos. Huhi, then, was the eternal as the father; he who always had been, ever was, ever should be, and hence the everlasting god.

Iu was the ever-coming son, Iu-sa or Iu-em-hetep, the son who comes with peace as periodic manifestor for the eternal father.      Thus the One God of the Jews was Egyptian in this twofold character, both by nature and by name.

The change in Israel from the worship of El-Shaddai to the worship of Ihuh, from the Eloistic to the Jehovistic god, corresponds to the change from the stellar to the solar worship in the astronomical mythology.      El in the highest was the star-god on the summit of the mountain, who in the Kamite mythos might be Sut, Seth, or Anup at the pole.      The pole was represented by the mount, one Egyptian name of which is Sut, denoting standing-ground.      The ruler of the pole-star was the lord of standing-ground or station at the fixed centre of the heavens.      The highest El was the eighth of the Ali or Baalim.      In Hebrew he is called El-Shaddai, commonly rendered the powerful or mighty one.      Another rendering, however, of the name is more than probable.      This was the most high god, El-Elyon, whom the Phoenicians also called Israel.      As Egyptian, it was Anup on the mount, or at the pole, the highest of the star-gods or Elohim who preceded the solar sovereignty of Ra.      El-Shaddai, who was Phoenician, and had been co-worker with the Elohim in the legends of creation, was succeeded and superseded by the god of two names who is made known to Israel as “Ihuh” and Iahu, or “Iao” = Egyptian Iu.      The Egyptian word Iu is also written Ì, with u inherent, and has the meaning of coming, come, to come, and is the name of the ever- coming and eternal child, Iu-em-hetep, or Iusa, the coming son.      In the Phoenician version the deity Iao = Iu is the coming son, the well-beloved, the only-begotten son of El, who was to be called Ieoud, the supposed prototype of “something to come” in Christianity (see Bryant).      The word Iu with these meanings in Egyptian agrees with Iah or Iahu in Hebrew, signifying come and to come.      Thus Huhi is equivalent to Ihu, and Iu is equivalent to Iao as or, the two forms of which name are different from each other at the root, but could be applied as two titles of the one god.

http://home.austarnet.com.au/calum/egyptj.html

Little-Known Black History Fact: New Orleans’ Faubourg Treme District

Some men in Faubourg Tremé in New Orleans are shown in this vintage photograph.

Faubourg Tremé in New Orleans was home to the largest community of free black and Creole people in the Deep South during slavery. By the way, the word “faubourg” is French for suburb.
Located on the northern border of the French Quarter above Rampart Street, Tremé was integrated with French Créoles during the 1800’s, many of whom fled Haiti during the Haitian Revolution. The area became home to prominent people like Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong.

In the city of Tremé, the free black residents were fighting for property rights in the Louisiana courts in the early 1800’s when most black were still bonded in slavery. The citizens were in a league of their own. Even during Abraham Lincoln’s administration, blacks from Tremé sent a delegation to meet with the president in the middle of the Civil War to demand voting rights.

Tremé was a mix of culture and status. There were huge mansions on Esplanade Avenue, 17th-century Creole Cottages, and, of course, there were shacks. The area is home to the famous St. Augustine Church of 1842 and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

In 1898, Tremé developed a “red light district” called Storyville. The area would develop the greatest jazz sounds known to music history. It would thrive until its demolition in 1917.

Tremé is now home to the famous Louis Armstrong Park, where the famous Congo Square is located; that’s the place were free and enslaved blacks were allowed to dance and congregate one day a week. Most recently, Treme is the centerpiece for the HBO original series, “Treme,” starring Wendell Pierce. The show focuses on the jazz heritage and culture of this historic part of the Big Easy.

Right-Wingers Aren’t the Only Patriots

Prison teacher and advocate Ikemba beaten while handcuffed at Ely State Prison, Nevada

by Free Marritte Funches Campaign

Marritte Funches aka Ikemba

On June 2, 2010, Marritte Funches, known affectionately as Ikemba, a longtime contributor to the SF Bay View, a mentor for consciousness and our brother on the frontlines of the plantations in Nevada, was attacked while shackled in chains by riot police in Unit 3 of Ely State Prison in Nevada when they wanted to conduct a cell search.What is understood by a sister who was called by Ikemba two hours after this attack is that he was told to take off his religious hanger and his ring, while he asked the officers to take it easy with his belongings. Apparently they did not like him asking this.

They took him handcuffed out of his cell, which is next to the Unit 3 shower, one of the officers busted his nose and his head was thrown against the wall for no reason. When he was brought back into his cell, he saw that photos from his daughter and from friends had been torn up and his legal work was spread around, marked with footprints of the officers, and coffee was spilled on the legal papers. The officers’ names are R. Remington and D. Homan. One of the officers is a defendant in a civil lawsuit that Ikemba filed last year.

Ikemba immediately filed an emergency grievance, which was denied by Correctional Officer Wagner. The reply was something like “you were just angry,” as if Ikemba had punched himself in the nose until it bled and had bruised his head himself. He was sent to the medical staff, but they said that there was nothing wrong with him.

What would you do if you were punched in the nose while handcuffed?

There was no camera when this happened, and they did not make photos. Convenient for the prison is what the observer would say.

Many people want to know why such attacks take place and what the warden is going to tell his personnel who conduct such violence to stop these attacks on handcuffed prisoners who did nothing to provoke an attack by two police in riot gear?

Many people want to know why these cases of violence are happening again and again in Ely State Prison? This is the third attack on a handcuffed prisoner there within about six months that has been told to the outside world. Who knows how many times it happens and no one outside the walls knows about it?

The riot on Jan. 31 started because a prisoner was taken away to the infirmary after he had been viciously beaten. How can the Nevada Department of Corrections ever say on their website that their mission is to “(p)rotect the public by confining convicted felons according to the law, while keeping staff and inmates safe?” What safety is there for the inmates in punching and slamming a prisoner against the wall while he is cuffed up?

And it is not only at Ely State Prison. There is a lot of officer-on-prisoner violence in the locked down units at Nevada’s High Desert State Prison too – locked down means the prisoners are locked in their cells 23 to 24 hours a day and allowed out only in handcuffs and shackles – and recently three suicide attempts were noted by prisoners on the locked down tiers within a period of three weeks. Those who tried to commit suicide – no one on the outside knows whether they succeeded or not – were not all prisoners who had been in solitary confinement for a long time, but only “recently” – for a few months.

How we can help

What can we do? Let the warden and the head of Nevada prisons know that a lot of people are worried about the use of violence in Ely State Prison and in other Nevada prisons and that this needs to stop now. Let the warden know that he should hold officers responsible when they use force and violence on prisoners and that he is ultimately responsible for the safety of prisoners and staff. Be polite and persistent in your message.

Forward your emails as well to the Board of Prison Commissioners, who consist of the governor of Nevada, the secretary of state and the attorney general. Keep a copy or forward it to the SF Bay View at .

If you cannot do this, then just send a colorful card to Ikemba and let him know you know about his situation and you support him. Address it to Marritte Funches, 37050, Ely State Prison, P.O. Box 1989, Ely NV 89301.

Thank you for your help. It is much appreciated by our brothers and sisters behind enemy lines!

Please email and call:

• Warden E.K. McDaniel, , (775) 289-8800
• Nevada Department of Corrections Director Howard Skolnik, , (702) 486-9990
• Members of the Board of Prison Commissioners,

There is a chance that your letter will be taken up at the next board meeting and published on the record, so state whether you want this or not.

Friends of Ikemba invite you to join them in the Free Marritte Funches Campaign. To learn more, visit Freemarritte.org.

It’s Time for African Americans to Lock and Load

I’m starting a new organization, and I’m inviting all African Americans to join. It will be called the American Rifle Association. Yes, it will be an organization for all blacks who love guns and all those opposed to gun control. (And of course, to avoid any accusations of discrimination, the organization will be open to people of all races who want to hang out with a lot of African Americans who carry guns.)

I’m calling it the ARA because the National Rifle Association already exists. Traditionally, black organizations called themselves “National” when a white-only “American” equivalent existed. For example, there’s the black National Medical Association and the formerly white-only American Medical Association. But we also switched up if the mainstream group was already “National,” like the black American Tennis Association, formed when the National Lawn Tennis Association was segregated. You get the idea.

I’ve been inspired by U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas’ spirited defense of the right of African Americans to own guns. That’s right: Justice Thomas, who rarely has much to say in predictably joining the court’s conservative majority, came out, ahem, guns blazing on the importance of guaranteeing black Americans the right to bear arms in the recent decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. As Courtland Milloy noted in his Washington Post column earlier this week, Justice Thomas sounds almost like a Black Panther. In his separate concurring opinion in the case, Justice Thomas listed (pdf) efforts before the Civil War to deny slaves and free blacks the right to bear arms. He even makes the point that an opponent of the 14th Amendment warned that to “[m]ake a colored man a citizen of the United States” would guarantee to him, inter alia, “a defined status … a right to defend himself and his wife and children; a right to bear arms.”

Someone less kindly than I am would say that Justice Thomas played the race card on this one, but that wouldn’t be fair. After all, the last time he referred to race at all was during his confirmation hearings in 1991, when he fended off the accusations of sexual harassment and charges that he was obsessed with pornography. At that time, the future Justice Thomas famously — and brilliantly — declared that he was being subjected to a “high-tech lynching,” effectively shutting down that embarrassing line of inquiry.

But let’s put all that aside for now. I don’t want to upset Justice Thomas. I’m hoping he’ll agree to be the honorary chairman of the American Rifle Association. I can see him joining a stellar board of directors made up of distinguished African Americans who have been unfairly persecuted because of unduly restrictive and discriminatory gun laws. My next target for the board is P Diddy, who was accused of pulling a gun in a nightclub when he was still hanging out with Jennifer Lopez under his old Puff Daddy alias. Then there’s Gilbert Arenas, the former Washington Wizards star, who did 30 days for waving guns around in the team locker room. Just waving them around, for gosh sake. I would want Lil Wayne to sit on the board too. Showing the injustice of making a rapper at the peak of his career serve a one-year sentence just for carrying a gun could do wonders for our fundraising abilities. Maybe that would inspire rapper Ja Rule to join as well; in August he goes to trial on felony gun-possession charges. Think of the rap song they could collaborate on, with P Diddy producing, to help us raise money.

I’m also thinking about former New York Giants star Plaxico Burress for the board. Yeah, I know, he shot himself in the leg with his own gun. But that’s exactly why we need the American Rifle Association. All those accidental shootings and drive-bys are the result of a lack of weapons discipline. The black community used to get proper training in the use of guns by being in the military. But with today’s all-volunteer army, African Americans are less likely to get that valuable training. And I think that has a lot to do with why guns keep going off and innocent children get shot so often.

My dream is to set up ARA chapters in every large and small city across the country with a significant black population. We will offer African Americans proper training in buying and using guns. I think the possibilities for growth are great. We can add shooting activities to black family reunions, where dads and moms and kids can learn the safe way to care for and handle AR-15s, Uzis, AK-47s and other weapons that already widely available in America. And think of the deterrence value when thugs, muggers and petty criminals who normally prey on our community have to worry that Grandma or the old man who used to be such an easy target might be “carrying.”

I think that once the heads of the NAACP and the National Urban League read Justice Thomas’ stirring language tying black freedom to gun ownership, it’s likely that we can get those organizations to add some red-blooded American activities to their annual conventions, like a deer hunt or a visit to a firing range to shoot off machine guns. Maybe we can do it right after the Sunday-morning prayer breakfast.

Now, I remember comedian Dick Gregory suggesting in the 1960s that the only way to get gun control in America was to start forming NRA chapters in the ghetto. But we’re post-racial, aren’t we? I can’t see the NRA, GOP or the Tea Party opposing the American Rifle Association. We’ll adopt a logo with an Uzi against a red-black-and-green background and an American flag. I can even see President Obama appearing at the first ARA convention, lifting that MAC-10 above his head and declaring, “They’ll have to take this out of my cold, dead hands!”

Joel Dreyfuss is managing editor of The Root.

The Black community is in the midst of a mental health crisis

There’s a relationship between freedom and mental health.

By: Marc Lamont Hill |

Thu, 06/24/2010 – 00:00

Mental health or lack thereof is at the root of a lot of society’s ails.

Last week, while celebrating his first NBA championship, Ron Artest made a different kind of history within the Black community. During his post-game interview, the mercurial Los Angeles Lakers star gave a public shout-out to his psychiatrist, whom he credited for helping him successfully navigate the pressures of playing on one of the biggest stages in professional sports. In doing so, as Mychal Denzel Smith brilliantly points out in his recent essay, Artest may have created new space within the public sphere for discussing Black mental health without fear and shame.

The need for reshaping and reinvigorating the public conversation on Black mental health could not come a moment sooner. Despite comprising only 12 percent of the United States population, Black people represent more than 25 percent of the nation’s mental health needs. Over the past 30 years, Black male suicide rates have climbed by more than 200 percent. The depression rate among Black women is 50 percent higher than their white counterparts. Rates of somatization — the emergence of physical illness related to mental health — occur at a rate of 15 percent among both Blacks and women, as opposed to 9 percent among Whites.

The rising mental health needs among Black people are further compounded by the continued lack of mental health service utilization within the community. While only one-third of all Americans receive care for mental illness, Blacks remain statistically less likely to access proper mental health services than other racial groups.

These numbers suggest that the Black community is in the midst of a full-fledged mental health crisis.

Social misery

Although it is necessary to shake the cultural stigmas that enable the current crisis— the view that mental health maintenance is anti-Black, anti-masculine, and anti-Christian— such work must be accompanied by an equally engaged effort to address the structural issues that compromise Black mental health. We must begin to spotlight the connection between mental health and other social problems plaguing the Black community. We must understand the collective power of social, cultural and institutional forces in producing, intensifying, and concealing the unique mental health issues confronted by Blacks in the United States.

While all racial and ethnic groups suffer from mental health issues, Blacks are a particularly high-risk population due to their overrepresentation in contexts of social misery. Currently, Blacks account for 40 percent of the country’s homeless population and nearly 50 percent of the prison population. Black children represent nearly 50 percent of all foster care and adoption cases. Additionally, almost 25 percent of Black youth are exposed to enough violence to meet the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. These conditions not only play a direct role in producing and exacerbating mental illnesses, they also create new levels of social marginalization and isolation that further distance vulnerable populations from the services that they need.

Poverty’s affect on mental health

Black mental health is further compromised by economic inequality. While 16 percent of the nation is uninsured, nearly 1 in 4 Blacks live without health insurance, thereby making it difficult to access appropriate mental health services. Blacks with health insurance still have average employer based coverage rates of only 50 percent, compared to 70 percent for their White counterparts. These conditions, combined with the disproportionate absence of living wages within the Black community, make mental health services financially nonviable for many Blacks.

While economically disadvantaged Blacks have access to government-run mental health resources, individuals often have to navigate an extremely bureaucratic and fragmented maze of mental health services. Those who ultimately receive services often do not obtain them through the actual health care system, but through agencies like public schools, welfare offices, and the court system— none of which have the appropriate resources. As a result, many poor Blacks receive uncoordinated, inconsistent, and ineffective levels of care that ultimately discourage them from utilizing the system.

Many of those in prison suffer from mental illness

In addition to poverty, the impact of the prison industrial complex on the current Black mental health crisis cannot be overstated. Beginning with President Reagan’s aggressive efforts to close mental hospitals and cut off federal aid to community mental health programs in the 1980s, the United States has witnessed a dramatic increase in its homeless population. Concurrent with this neo-liberal assault on the welfare state, neo-conservative lawmakers successfully aimed to criminalize ostensibly anti-social behaviors like panhandling, public drinking, and public urination, all of which are routinely linked to mental illness. (As with with nearly all criminal justice matters in the United States, arrests, convictions, and sentencing for these offenses are disproportionately assigned to poor Blacks and Latinos.) As a result, many individuals who would have previously been under medical supervision for their mental illnesses (including drug addiction) are now chattel within the for-profit prison industry.

The Department of Justice reports that nearly 16 percent of all prisoners are mentally ill. Also, many states, such as New York, have literally transformed mental health facilities into prisons, as well as devoted billions of dollars to the construction of criminal psychiatric wings within existing prisons. In addition to being fundamentally immoral, the incarceration of the mentally ill is largely ineffective, as federal and state prisons routinely fail to even identify, much less support or treat its mentally ill patients. As a result,  many prisoners fail to comply with prison rules and norms, thereby subjecting them to further punishment, social isolation, and abuse from both authorities and other prisoners. Many ultimately finish their prison sentences and re-enter the world with intensified illnesses due to prison trauma, making them a greater danger to society and themselves.

Historical context

Further complicating the Black mental health crisis is the deep and troubling relationship between Blacks, mental health institutions, and the State. Since slavery, the American scientific establishment has functioned as an ideological apparatus of White supremacy by advancing and normalizing claims of Black moral, physical, and intellectual inferiority. As a result, the last four centuries have witnessed the production of deeply racist beliefs and practices that justify the abuse, exploitation, and institutionalization of “flawed” and “diseased” Black bodies.

Early American studies of mental illness, which have since been soundly dismissed by the scientific community for their methodological biases, suggested Blacks were more biologically inclined toward severe mental illness than Whites. Pseudoscientific terms like drapetomania were developed to classify runaway slaves as mentally insane for “abandoning service.” Scientific reports even falsified 1840 Census data on lunacy rates in the North to suggest that freedom was literally driving Blacks crazy. In the 1960s, terms like “protest psychosis” were developed by psychologists to categorize civil rights activists as insane.

By using mental illness to justify the denial of full humanity, freedom, and citizenship to Blacks, as well as ascribe mental pathology to those who operate against the interests of the White supremacist capitalist State, the American medical establishment has engendered a healthy and persistent distrust among Black communities.

The relationship between Blacks and mental health institutions is further undermined by contemporary acts of intended and unintended structural racism. In 2010, Blacks continue to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia— a condition that has become increasingly imbued with violent and dehumanizing connotations since it became a “Black disease” in the middle of the 20th century— more than other affective disorders. In response, Blacks receive anti-depressant medication at a rate of 27 percent as opposed to 44 percent of Whites. When receiving the same medication, Blacks are statistically more likely to receive versions with more dangerous side effects. In addition, American mental health workers (only 4 percent of whom are Black) regularly ignore the role of racism, white supremacy, and the structural effects of poverty on the mental health of Black people.

Over the past four centuries, Blacks have fought to end economic exploitation and access to quality schools, jobs, and housing. As we continue to advance our struggle for full citizenship, we must also recognize the relationship between freedom and mental health. By examining the ways that mental health has been weaponized against Black communities by the State, we are able to develop a more informed and insightful analysis of social injustice. By understanding the social barriers to quality mental health, we are better equipped to effectively fight for justice and equality. Most importantly, by reimagining mental health as both a human necessity and a right of citizenship, we can begin our journey toward building the type society, communities, and individuals that we desperately need.

Marc Lamont Hill is Associate Professor of Education at Columbia University. He blogs regularly at MarcLamontHill.com. He can be reached at marc@theloop21.com.

Supreme Court’s handgun ruling is just another blow to black folks

The NRA and the Supreme Court couldn’t care less about the 30,000 Americans who die each year from gun violence.

By: Devona Walker

Tue, 06/29/2010 – 08:16

Black men are the most likely victims of the Supreme Court’s ruling

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Chicago’s handgun ban, but the ruling is not limited to the Windy City. This ruling makes it unconstitutional for all state and local and governments to restrict the right of Americans to own guns — inside the home.

Chicago will likely now go the way of D.C., when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its handgun ban in 2008. Following that court decision, Washington D.C. enacted several sweeping restrictions, regulating assault weapons, storage and license. The courts have upheld all those laws. In Chicago, a city that has been shaken to its core by recent spates of gun violence, hopefully there will not be any immediate ramifications.

“Chicago’s current handgun ban is unenforceable, so we are working to rewrite our ordinance in a reasonable, responsible way to protect Second Amendment rights and to protect Chicagoans from gun violence,” said Mayor Richard Daley at a news conference.

The problem here is that the U.S. Supreme Court really did not pass judgment on the real issue that is leading to handgun deaths around the country. The only thing that will put a dent in the surging rates of homicides by shooting in this country is federal handgun legislation. And that’s something that very few politicians have the political courage to address.

“If you want to save young black men’s lives, you need stronger federal laws that stop gun trafficking and that’s what we don’t have in this country…. That’s what we need to do legislatively, “ said Ladd Everitt, Communications Director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “The guys that really love guns in this country call their elected representatives all day, they are passionate and they don’t give up. They are making their case 24/7. Until we can match that intensity, why would even a Democrat listen to us?…… We have the numbers, but what we don’t have the passion.”
The core issue when looking at the firearm crisis in this country is the fact that local municipalities and states really can only do so much when it comes to getting guns off their streets. Police departments can actually do even less. The real issue is interstate gun trafficking. For instance, Boston has one of the most restrictive handgun laws in the nation, but 60 pecent of the recovered illegal handguns come from outside the state of Massachusets.

There are 10 states, in particular, that have scarcely adopted any of the handgun restrictions such as requiring a background check or time restrictions: West Virginia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, and North Carolina. It’s no coincidence that many of those states are the top handgun exporting states. Other states are on the top handgun exporting list as well such as Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to a report by Mayors Against Gun Violence. In 2007, more than half the guns recovered at crime scenes that crossed state lines came from the 10 top handgun exporting states. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms recovered 52,450 handguns at crime scenes that had crossed state lines.

Yet, comprehensive handgun legislation remains one of the most politically taboo issues you could imagine, not even a black President or a Democratic Congress dares touch it. Consequently, young black males, and increasingly females, continue to die due to gun violence.

Despite the high-profile news stories of Columbina High School and the shooting at Virginia Tech — which have actually done more to mobilize the anti-gun violence coalition than the images of young black and Latino men dying daily on the evening news — the fact is it is still largely an urban problem. It is not necessarily a black or brown problem but it is clearly and urban issue in nature.

Sixty-six percent of all murders are committed with guns. Roughly 73 percent of female murder victims are killed in the home, while 45 percent of men are killed in the home. Twenty-six percent of men are killed on the street. Almost 40 percent of homicides were related to an argument or conflict, one third were precipitated by another crime, and 20 percent were domestic violence related. Of the homicides precipitated by another crime, in most cases the crime was in progress at the time of the incident. Thirty-seven percent were precipitated by a robbery; 23 percent by an assault, according to the Brady Campaign.

Gun related violence is pervasive in urban areas, often the victims and/or perpetrators are juveniles and young adults. In 2005, the homicide rate in metro areas was 6.1 per 100,000 compared with 3.5 in non-metropolitan counties. In U.S. cities with more than 250,000, the mean homicide rate was 12.1 per 100,000.

But despite these dim facts, despite the fact that most Americans actually favor more restrictive handgun laws, we, as a nation, are still trapped into political submission by the NRA and gun rights advocates, whose numbers are miniscule in comparison.

The National Rifle Association hailed Monday’s ruling, saying it “marks a great moment in American history.” They say this Supreme Court Decision “is a vindication for the great majority of American citizens who have always believed the Second Amendment was an individual right and freedom worth defending.”

Each year, about there are about 30,000 handgun deaths in the U.S., that includes 12,000 murders. And in the U.S. there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation.

The Washington-based Violence Policy Center (VPC) stated, matter-of-fact: “People will die because of this decision.”

I have to agree. And you know what, many of those people are likely going to be black.

Devona Walker is TheLoop21.com’s senior financial/political reporter and blogger. Email Devona at devona@theloop21.com.

There’s danger in disarming Black communities

By: Marc Lamont Hill

Thu, 07/01/2010 – 20:42

Otis McDonald, lead plaintiff, speaks after the announcement of a ruling in their case seeking to overturn Chicago’s gun ban.

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a major decision. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court determined that the Second Amendment applies to the ability of state and local authorities to regulate gun laws. Although the decision promises to impact all sectors of the country, it will have its most immediate and direct effect on Black communities, which have the most rigid and repressive gun restrictions in the nation.

As someone deeply concerned with violence prevention, it is tempting to echo the angry sentiments of mainstream American liberals, who regard the latest decision as a major step backward. For them, gun ownership is an expendable rather than inalienable right, one that is worth ceding in exchange for a more peaceful society.  While I sympathize with such a desire, I find the cost of the ticket too high.

As citizens of the United States, we live in a nation founded on revolutionary violence and sustained through a range of violent practices. It was this belief in the redemptive possibilities of violence that informed the creation of the Second Amendment, which allows citizens to keep and bear arms to prevent the creation of an unjust, anti-democratic, or outright tyrannical government. In other words, American democracy is underwritten by the possibility that everyday citizens can fight back if the government no longer acts in the interest of freedom and justice. For Blacks, who have never received the full protection of the State, such a right must be viewed as an indispensable nonnegotiable component of complete citizenship.

Despite (or perhaps because of) its romantic cultural obsession with guns, the United States government has gone to great lengths to disarm Black bodies. From the pre-Civil War “Slave Codes” that explicitly prohibited Blacks from possessing firearms, to exorbitant post-war gun tariffs that priced Blacks (and poor whites) out of the gun market, the State has always attempted to take guns out of the hands of Black citizens. Such conditions rendered Blacks even more vulnerable to state sponsored forms of terrorism, abuse, and exploitation.

Although today’s gun control laws are facially neutral, they continue to disempower and literally disarm poor communities of color. Over the past 20 years, many states have imposed gun permit laws that allow police and other state agencies to determine which individuals are “worthy” of gun ownership. Gun bans against public housing residents, expressly designed to prevent violent crime, have served to disarm poor Blacks almost exclusively. While rural white communities have done little to encroach upon the gun possession rights of citizens, majority-Black urban centers like Washington, D.C. and Chicago have imposed draconian anti-gun laws on the community. Regardless of intent, these laws have a clear and disproportionate impact on poor people of color.

Nevertheless, I still recognize the relationship between handguns and the rising tide of violence in Black America. For this reason, I strongly support any attempts to prevent gun show sales, straw purchases, inter-state gun trafficking, and other loopholes that enable handguns to get into the hands of violent criminals. As opposed to the fanatical Right-wing gun lobby, I find no reasonable excuse for allowing private citizens to purchase extravagant machine guns, grenade launchers, and other weapons of mass destruction that have no sporting or self-defensive purpose.

Also, I see nothing wrong with having licensing procedures that prevent violent criminals and the mentally ill from possessing firearms. Contrary to what many have declared, however, such sensible provisions are not at odds with the Supreme Court decision. As the court’s majority made clear on Monday, there remains plenty of room to impose common-sense gun control on the state level, provided such measures don’t infringe upon our fundamental right to keep and bear arms.

Since 9/11, Americans have been coerced into sacrificing constitutional rights in the name of “peace” and “safety.” In addition to being largely ineffective, such sacrifices place us on a dangerous slide away from democracy and toward fascism. With regard to Blacks and gun control, this slide is particularly dangerous.

The past year alone has been marked by a rise in hate groups, gun-toting militias, and home invasions by rogue law enforcement agents, making Black citizens in need of more protection than ever. While it would be naïve to suggest that guns will solve the problem, it would be equally shortsighted to ignore the dangers of disarming Black communities. Rather than stripping citizens of their fundamental right to defend themselves against increasingly violent and immediate threats, we must begin to locate the true sources and solutions for our problems.

Marc Lamont Hill is Associate Professor of Education at Columbia University. He blogs regularly at MarcLamontHill.com. He can be reached at marc@theloop21.com.

“I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American…. No I’m not an American, I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy…. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of a victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”