"Pick Somebody Up"

________________________________________

"Giant Steps"

funkypinksoul | March 12, 2008

March 12, 2008 -- At the jazz workshop in 7 Pecados with the amazing Raul Midon. Here he was joking about how easy it is to sing some mainstream song and get paid for it, rather than focus on something that only a few people understand, but is beautiful to you.

"I can play Giant Steps!"
"So what?"

Giant Steps is a piece that has a rapid succession of key changes, from E to G to Eb back to G, back to Eb then B, on so on. 

If you find something complicated, it's just because you're not used to it.

________________________________________

"I Just Called To Say I Love You"

Coco Mbassi [Cameroun]- "Na Menguele"

Occupied Bodies

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – Occupied Bodies: Women of Color Speak on Self-Image – Deadline October 15, 2010

I am soliciting essays for an anthology on women of color’s self-image/body image as shaped by family, friends, media, society, history, lived experiences, etc. I’m looking for smart, accessible, and snappy personal narratives that also offer nuanced analysis of the underlying constructs that affect how we perceive ourselves. Exploring intersectionality of identities is extremely important. I particularly want the voices of women of color that are not often heard to be represented, such as trans* WOC, disabled WOC, queer WOC, WOC outside the U.S., WOC with eating disorders, working class/poor WOC and fat WOC. Of course, all the varied perspectives any woman of color can offer are welcome.

This is an exciting project, as this topic has not been explored in depth and including such a diverse collection of viewpoints before. The final manuscript will be submitted to relevant independent publishers.

——
Some possible jumping off points include, but are not limited to:

• What images of yourself were instilled in you by your parents/guardians/other family members when you were a young child? What positive or negative encounters with adults as a child helped shape that image?
• If you were born in a country other than the U.S. and then immigrated to the U.S., how did the society in which you were born play a role in your developing self-image, and what contrasts did you find difficult to navigate between the two societies?
• How did the media you consumed as a child/teen shape your body/self image today? How does it complicate it? How does the media you consume NOW affect your body/self image?
• How did pressure from family and friends affect the way you perceived yourself after you were old enough to take care of yourself?
• How did you feel about societal beauty and body standards as a teen? Did you rebel, or conform by any means necessary to avoid confrontation?
• How has the globalization and dissemination of the Western beauty ideal affected you and women of color worldwide?
• Debunk this: “in some cultures they ______”, – deconstructing a commonly held belief about an ethnic group’s relation to body (such as the black community supposedly being OK with fat).
• If you’re queer, how has being a queer woman of color affected your self-image and how you desire your partner to look? If you’ve had partners who were also women of color, did/do you gaze upon them with the same critical eye you reserve for yourself? Why or why not?
• If you’re a trans* WOC, how was your perception of your gender identity shaped? How has your self/body image changed over the years and have there been any other shifts in your thinking about your self/body image? How does being a WOC interact with your trans* identity? How does it affect how other people perceive you and your gender?
• How has being a disabled WOC affected your body/self image? Do you feel it’s a detriment or a positive part of your person? How did you come to terms with your disability, or has it never been problematic for you?
• As a fat WOC, has weight shaped your self/body image your whole life? Have you developed an eating disorder? Was it exacerbated by there being virtually no resources for women of color, especially for fat WOC?
• Are you a sexual assault/rape survivor? How did that trauma affect your view of yourself?

——-
If your experiences overlap on any of the suggested jumping off points, PLEASE feel free to explore that.

Guidelines:

• Deadline for submissions is October 15, 2010;
• Submissions should be saved in Word format or Rich Text, double spaced, size 12 Arial or Times New Roman;
• 500 to 5,000 words;
• Include RELIABLE contact information and a brief biography;
• Only e-mail submissions will be accepted, however, if you can’t arrange that please contact me and we’ll work something out.
• Send submissions to: occupiedbodies@gmail.com;
• Again, the deadline for submissions is October 15, 2010.

Who I Am:
The woman spearheading this project is Tasha Fierce, a freelance writer who also happens to be a fat, queer, disabled woman of color. I’ve written about race politics, fat acceptance, disability and feminism in several zines, including Evolution of a Race Riot and the zine I edited from 1998-2001, Bitchcore. I have contributed to Jezebel several times, the fat acceptance blog Shapely Prose, the race & pop culture blog Racialicious, and the feminist disability activism blog FWD/Forward. My work has also been featured in The Huffington Post. I live, love and write in Los Angeles, California. You can regularly read me at my own blog, Red Vinyl Shoes (http://redvinylshoes.com/blog) and on Twitter as @redvinylshoes.

A PDF copy of this call for submissions can be found here.

Donations are greatly appreciated. All donations will only be used to cover costs and time spent getting the anthology to print. You can donate here:

Further information can be obtained by using the contact form below:

Your Name:

(required)

Your Email:

(required)

Your Website:

Your Message:

 

 

 

 

Ethnic Canons in Global Contexts - April 7 – 10, 2011

full name / name of organization: 

MELUS/USACLALS Joint Conference

contact email: 

robinfield@kings.edu

cfp categories: 

african-american

american

cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches

ethnicity_and_national_identity

film_and_television

gender_studies_and_sexuality

general_announcements

popular_culture

postcolonial

twentieth_century_and_beyond

25th Annual MELUS/USACLALS Joint Conference
April 7 – 10, 2011
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL

THEME: Ethnic Canons in Global Contexts
As an ongoing and vital process through which societies and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communications, economics, and politics, globalization addresses the transnational circulation of ideas and languages. Its impact on literature is manifold, with both positive and negative associations, wherein cultures receiving outside influences ignore some, adopt others as they are, and then immediately start to transform others. Certain aspects of globalization – such as hybridity and multi-rootedness – are increasingly present in literary texts as we witness ways in which they shape new literary forms, interrogate existing canons, and explore the emergence of ethnic canons.

We invite paper abstracts and complete panels, workshops, and roundtable proposals on all aspects of the multi-ethnic literatures of the United States and elsewhere. We are particularly interested in proposals that explore globalization in terms of its influence on ethnic canons, and vice versa, and encourage presentations on all global frameworks of analysis, such as Atlantic studies, global feminisms, pan-Africanism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, global indigenous studies, etc. Submissions should detail requests for specific audiovisual equipment, if needed. We also ask that a proposal for a complete panel, roundtable, or workshop include a short description of the central topic, supplemented by brief abstracts of individual speakers’ contributions.

Deadline for abstracts and proposals (250 words in Word or rtf format): NOVEMBER 15, 2010

PLEASE NOTE: e-mail abstracts to: John Hawley at jhawley@scu.edu AND to Prof. Nora Erro Peralta and Prof. Taylor Hagood at melus2011@gmail.com

CFP: Obama, Race, and Empire (journal; 5/1)

Saturday, 06 February 2010 12:39 administrator

Extended Deadline: July 30, 2010

agency, an online, peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal, invites submissions for its inaugural issue, a special issue on Obama, Race, and Empire. The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States in November 2008 was hailed by many as a transformative moment in the history of race relations within the United States, and the USA’s relationship with the global community. Yet, Obama’s first year as President has resulted in frustration for many of his supporters, as policy goals remain goals not achievements and the USA continues to be seen by many as oppressive and imperialist.

agency invites submissions of essays critically reflecting on race and empire in the aftermath of the historic election of Obama to the presidency. How has Obama’s presidency transformed (or not) conceptions of race and America’s place in the world? How have perceptions of Obama and America shifted in the period since his inauguration? What does the prominence of backlash groups like the truthers and the Tea Party movement reveal about race and empire in the contemporary USA?

agency is an interdisciplinary journal of the humanities and social sciences, and we will consider submissions working within or across any disciplines associated with the humanities and social sciences (and beyond). The ideal agency essay is scholarly and rigorous but also accessible and engagingly written.

Submissions should be 4000-5000 words and should be formatted in accordance with the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook.

The deadline for submissions is 30 July 2010. Please submit submissions via email to the editor, Dr. Douglas Ivison, at douglas.ivison@lakeheadu.ca This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

agency is published by Lakehead University’s Advanced Institute for Globalization and Culture (http://theagency.lakeheadu.ca).

February 20, 2009

Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918

By JEFFREY B. PERRY

Reviewed by Scott McLemee

 

In the early years of the 20th century, Hubert Harrison was among the country's best known and most brilliant African-American intellectuals. His reflections on the state and methods of literary criticism appeared in The New York Times. Scores more essays ran in scores of other publications. He lectured on history, sociology, and popular science to audiences both black and white -- quite literally in the street, at times, where he drew large crowds and worried the police. Any heckler who dared to challenge Harrison soon thought better of it; his witty replies reduced them to laughter, if not shamefaced silence. Well before the Harlem Renaissance, he worked out ideas and strategies that would echo in the civil rights struggle and the black power movement of later decades.

But by then, the source of that echo was long forgotten; Harrison had disappeared from the story of the struggle for racial justice and meaningful democracy. The circumstances are so paradoxical that it hurts. For the very qualities making him such a catalytic force -- independence of spirit, headstrong radicalism, and love of argument for its own invigorating sake -- also made him enemies. There is a price for speaking one's mind, and Harrison paid it. Following his death in 1927, no tribute to him appeared in the country's most prominent journals of African-American thought.

This intriguing figure has been rediscovered only over the past decade or so, thanks almost entirely to the efforts of Jeffrey B. Perry. If ever a scholar has served as recording angel -- rescuing memory from the ruins of time -- it is Perry, who spent decades researching Harrison while employed as a postal worker. In 2001, he edited The Hubert Harrison Reader, which provided a generous selection of writings otherwise scattered in crumbling periodicals, many of them now very rare. His new book, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918, is the first part of a two-volume biography.

It portrays not only the life of a complex individual but also the world of a lost civilization. To see Harrison whole means reconstructing an era when self-educated young black intellectuals created literary societies to exchange books and argue over them -- an era when open-air meetings gathered around street-corner orators who lectured on evolution, feminism, and other controversial topics.

Born on the small Caribbean island of St. Croix in 1883, Harrison was in many ways like other immigrants who reached the United States in 1900. He was "thwarted by limited educational, political, and occupational opportunities at home," as Perry puts it, and possessed of both "a desire for more education and a propensity for self-education." He found work at the post office in New York while attending high school classes at night, where he soon won acclaim for his oratorical skills and "exceptionally thorough" command of classical and English literature.

That Harrison did not continue to university studies is something of a puzzle. But it is clear that Harrison found ample exercise for his talents in African-American literary circles, and in the growing Socialist Party, which by its peak in 1912 had elected hundreds of candidates to office around the country. He wrote theoretical essays showing a deep interest in contemporary social thought, bourgeois and Marxist alike. And he kept up a vigorous schedule of lectures, often holding more than 1,000 listeners rapt as he spoke for two hours or longer.

A memorable description of Harrison in this period comes from Henry Miller -- a profoundly apolitical writer but one who, decades later, recalled being awestruck when the speaker mounted his soapbox. "There was no one in those days," Miller recalled in his autobiographical novel Plexus, "who could hold a candle to Harrison.... He was a man who electrified one by his mere presence. Beside him, the other speakers, the white ones, looked like pygmies, not only physically but culturally, spiritually." When interrupted by a question or a diatribe from the crowd, Harrison "always retained his self-possession, his dignity." He would cock his ear "to catch every last word" then smile broadly and reply -- "always fair and square," wrote Miller, "always full on, like a broadside." (How he would fare today, in an era of sound bites and fractional attention spans, is a melancholy thought.)

Harrison's range of interests was encyclopedic, but he found his center of gravity as a thinker and activist in the fight for African-American rights. He occupied a distinctive -- and, apparently, rather uncomfortable -- position within the debates of his era. Harrison had no use at all for Booker T. Washington's program of slow economic improvement and patient accommodationism. The struggle against racism and for full equality could not be postponed. (Perry documents that Harrison lost his job as postal clerk through the efforts of Washington's cronies.) Yet he was also at odds with the perspective of Washington's most prominent critic, W.E.B. Du Bois, who championed a struggle for civil rights under the leadership of the black community's "talented tenth."

As a socialist, Harrison advocated class struggle as the necessary basis for real change. But here, too, he ran into conflict. Blacks were excluded from all but a few unions. Some leaders of his own party were unabashed white supremacists, and socialist newspapers ran racist jokes and cartoons. Harrison fought to make the party take seriously its own professed commitment to solidarity among all workers, but it was a losing battle.

Driven out of the party in 1914, Harrison set off to create a "New Negro Movement" that attracted wide support in Harlem. One of its adherents was a newly arrived Jamaican immigrant named Marcus Garvey, whose own black nationalist organization would soon outstrip Harrison's efforts. Perry's second volume will cover the final years of Harrison's short life (he died at the age of 44), which included a complicated relationship with the Garveyite cause.

While it is unlikely that either Martin Luther King or Malcolm X ever heard of Hubert Harrison, he would have recognized each of them as an inheritor of his own efforts. As for Barack Obama -- well, I suspect Harrison would give the president a hard time, in a good-natured but serious way. It is difficult to picture Hubert Harrison overawed by the trappings of office, and impossible to imagine him biting his tongue for anyone.

Kwame Dawes on PBS

Poet Kwame Dawes teamed up with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to create a multimedia Web site called "HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica." The interactive site pairs his poetry with music, essays and video from people living with the disease and their caretakers.

"Altar" poem and photo essay

This video is part of a multi-media reporting project, produced by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, that explores the human face of HIV AIDS in Jamaica. 
See all related reporting, poetry, photography, music, and videos at: www.livehopelove.com 

Credits: Poet: Kwame Dawes Photographer: Joshua Cogan Slideshow: Bluecadet interactive Music: Kevin Simmonds 

Visit: www.livehopelove.com for more information

============================================

LIVE HOPE LOVE Multimedia Website

GO HERE TO ENTER THE MULTIMEDIA WEBSITE

Things that make you go hmmmm…

By Sergio, on July 10th, 2010

Tambay’s recent post of a clip from the Arsenio Hall show reminded me of something somebody once told me about him. But before I get to that, a brief refresher.

All of you I’m sure remember triangle head Arsenio and his catchphrase made popular as the title for this article. Back during the late 80’s to early 90’s, was there anyone hotter on TV? His show was created to lure young viewers to late night TV, and did it work ever. His show was a super smash hit, and everybody who was anybody and who wanted to show how  ”hip” and “cool” and “with it” they were, made tracks to Arsenio’s show. (Remember Bill Clinton wearing shades and blowing his sax with Arsenio’s band? Believe me, he won the presidential election right at that moment.)

He was as big as anyone could be on TV despite the fact that 1) he wasn’t all that funny and 2) his whole “hipper-than-Thou” persona come off as forced and phony. But what the hell? Lots of people bought it, until he and his show got played out by 1994, and his ratings sunk faster than the Titanic, and the show was canceled. (And countrary to popular belief, it wasn’t the infamous appearance by Minister Farrakhan that resulted in his show’s cancellation. Just the opposite; Farrakhan’s appearance on the show was a desperate, last minute attempt to boost badly sagging ratings but to no avail)

 

Well, as I was saying, someone I know who’s been in show business for quite a long time told me once that in Hollywood Arsenio was looked on as a baffling mystery. In that, at the height of his popularity, Arsenio was offered everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. Multi-picture movie deals, TV producing deals, book deals, everything. But he never took advantage of any of it. Nothing. To show business execs back then, Arsenio was letting a golden opportunity slip by and there was no explanation for it. Was it fear of failure? Fear of success? Maybe a miscalculated strategy that misfired? Nobody knows. All they knew was that he blew it. Big time.

Which makes one ponder what might have been if he did take on all those offers? Where would be today? (Instead of auditioning to host Deal or No Deal which went to Howie Mandel, the only person in Hollywood whose career at the time was even colder than Arsenio’s.)  He might have been the biggest box office star in the world and people instead would be saying Will WHO? Or he could have gone the TV mogul route and right now be the biggest TV producer even larger than Jerry Bruckheimer. Or maybe nothing would have happened and he would be where is today; working the 4PM to midnight shift at a KFC at La Brea and Crenshaw in L.A. Who knows? Kind of makes you go hmmmmmm……

July 10th, 2010 | Category: Hmmm...

2 comments to Things that make you go hmmmm…

• THAT DUDE

  July 11th, 2010 at 2:05 am · Reply

  The Farrakhan booking wasn’t an attempt to boost ratings. It was him booking who he wanted..and he paid big for that choice. It was one of many things that hurt his relationship with the studio and network that helped end the show.

  The reality is he didn’t make the right choices afterward, and he tricked off a lot of opportunties.
  Like a lot of black folks in Hollywood who either don’t get or don’t listen to the right advice.

  Of course, subsequent attempts to launch a black talk show have made all of use appreciate Arsenio’s talents a lot more than we did back then.

• Baddest Blackman

  July 11th, 2010 at 6:50 am · Reply

  Are you kidding me?

  I think Sergio is sadly mistaken and may not have a full understanding of racism in this country. More accurately how racism works in this country.

  Arsenio was huge, bigger than all the other talk show hosts at his time. You had to put two or three other talk show host together just to match his numbers and his viewers crossed every demographic. So even if his numbers where to dwindle he was still outperforming all the other talk show hosts.

  As for him passing up opportunities, Cmon folks, you know what comes attached to those deals. Rumpelstiltskin taught you that when you where like 6years old. Arsenio was smart and he rolled with money. Magic Johnson and Eddie Murphy – the highest grossing black actor of all time! What happened to his career was a result of him exerting his power and authority to have Farrakhan on his show. After that show the entire industry put an ABP out on him. Don’t believe me, google The Hollywood Ten,

============================

Friends get together and chat… Eddie Murphy (who was on a high at the time – the black Hollywood celebrity of the moment), Arsenio Hall (whom we could say was also at his peak), with a surprise appearance by Michael Jackson (who was certainly flying high, 2 years after the release of his Bad LP, although not quite as high as he may have been previously)… in 3 parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Some Thoughts on “Acting White”

by Latoya Peterson

Over at Slate, Richard Thompson Ford promises to teach the readership “How To Understand “Acting White,” which immediately prompted an eyeroll from me. The article opens:

Some black students in the 1990s had a derisive name for their peers who spent a lot of time studying in the library: incog-negro. The larger phenomenon is all too well-known. Many blacks—especially black young men—have come to the ruinous conclusion that academic excellence is somehow inconsistent with their racial identities, and they ridicule peers for “acting white” if they hit the books instead of the streets after school. The usual explanations for this self-destructive attitude focus on the influence of dysfunctional cultural norms in poor minority neighborhoods: macho and “cool” posturing and gangster rap. The usual prescriptions emphasize exposing poor black kids to better peer influences in integrated schools. Indeed, the implicit promise of improved attitudes through peer association accounts for much of the allure of public-school integration.

(Side bar: has anyone else heard incognegro applied in that way? I haven’t, but maybe I’m missing something…)

At any rate, Thompson is exploring a new book by Stuart Buck, a white adoptive parent of black children who believes he has the answer:

But suppose integration doesn’t change the culture of underperformance? What if integration inadvertently created that culture in the first place? This is the startling hypothesis of Stuart Buck’s Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation. Buck argues that the culture of academic underachievement among black students was unknown before the late 1960s. It was desegregation that destroyed thriving black schools where black faculty were role models and nurtured excellence among black students. In the most compelling chapter of Acting White, Buck describes that process and the anguished reactions of the black students, teachers, and communities that had come to depend on the rich educational and social resource in their midst.

Yawn. My boyfriend’s grandmother delivers this speech every Tuesday. The “integration fucked us up” meme runs deep, and not just in terms of education – I’ve heard it apply to black business ownership, housing, art – just about anything that we used to own and operate before segregation ended. I’m not sure why Buck thinks he’s stumbled upon something new – there is a certain set of older black folks who will happily explain all the unintended consequences of desegregation if you just ask. However, this was the most emailed article on the Slate site on the 6th, so it’s worth taking a longer look at this alleged phenomenon and why it is such a popular explanation for the achievement gap.

Thompson explains the main thrust of Buck’s ideas:

Like the Moynihan Report’s account of the “tangle of pathology” that kept black families mired in poverty, the “acting white” thesis has been attacked as an insult to black culture, an instance of blaming the victim. In taking on not only black culture but also school desegregation—the defining achievement of the civil rights movement—Buck is sure to be tarred as a callous bigot by uncharitable critics. But he tiptoes through the minefield with nuance and compassion. He credibly (and repeatedly) insists that he supports school desegregation but wants to be forthright about its unintended consequences, so we can find ways to contain them.

Buck proposes a grab bag of alternatives to insisting on blanket integration. His approach is attractively pragmatic and results-oriented. “[W]e should be tolerant of educational experimentation,” he writes; “it’s not as if our nation’s inner-city public schools have a stunning record of success that would thereby be jeopardized.” For the most part, his specific proposals are familiar. For at-risk kids, Buck endorses everything from vouchers to exclusively black-male charter schools to the novel idea of replacing individual grades in integrated schools with academic competitions between teams of students.

Again, nothing really new or novel here. I watched Waiting for Superman (discussion forthcoming) which is about school reform and all of these ideas were touched upon or floated during the course of the film. While I had a few issues with the conclusions in Superman, I felt that film was solid in exploring the core issue – our schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for life in general (forget college) and the students who suffer the most have access to the least resources. Interestingly, in the film, the concept of “acting white” was never raised. Nor was the concept raised in a recent front page Washington Post story about Sousa High School, a low performing school that is 99% African American and 80% low income. In Jay Matthews’ discussion of the article, where he raises a lot of issues around the circumstances of Sousa, the term “Acting white” is still nowhere to be seen on the page.

So why does this idea keep surfacing again and again when discussing black students and scholastic achievement?

Gene Demby, writing for the American Prospect’s TAPPED blog, checks out John McWhorter’s review of the book and points out the obvious:

Despite McWhorter’s protestations, though, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of this meme, and Buck’s reading of it in particular. Buck has said that he learned of this phenomenon after he and his wife adopted black children, and other white adoptive parents had also said that their children were teased by black kids for acting white. I don’t mean to trivialize how unsettling this must have been to those parents, and how much it hurts for those kids to have their blackness called into question. But why is it a shock that black kids who are raised by white people might face extra hurdles in being accepted by other black kids? And if Buck’s kids are indeed academic standouts, why attribute the taunts to the fact they’re achievers and not, you know, because their parents are white? This is a pretty telling conflation, I think.

But setting aside Buck’s particular situation, we know that in integrated schools, black students are less likely to be placed in Advanced Placement classes and more likely to be placed in remedial ones. Black students are also more likely to be punished more harshly for the same infractions committed by whites. A consequence of that disparity means that black kids who are academic will be spending most of their school days and class time in the company of nonblack kids. Again, it’s not clear that those kids are being told they’re acting white because they’re in AP classes and not because of the company they keep.

(It’s worth noting that Buck appears in the comments section to Gene’s post and mentions he dedicated “a whole chapter” to other factors like, oh, poverty. I’m not jumping on my educational reform soapbox in this post, but I will say I feel really strongly about the need for students to be sheltered from life’s chaos, and how that plays into the ability to achieve in school. This is something many wealthier kids receive access to [i.e. a depressed parent receiving treatment] and that poorer students are just left to cope with [see the last page of the Sousa article I linked for more examples.])

Also at TAPPED, Jamelle Bouie uses his personal experience to poke more holes in the theory:

I’m with Gene; as a nerdy black kid who was accused of “acting white” on a fairly regular basis, I feel confident saying that the charge had everything to do with cultural capital, and little to do with academics. If you dressed like other black kids, had the same interests as other black kids, and lived in the same neighborhoods as the other black kids, then you were accepted into the tribe. If you didn’t, you weren’t. In my experience, the “acting white” charge was reserved for black kids, academically successful or otherwise, who didn’t fit in with the main crowd. In other words, this wasn’t some unique black pathology against academic achievement; it was your standard bullying and exclusion, but with a racial tinge.

What’s more, it seems that Buck, McWhorter, and Thompson are working under the assumption that this stigma is at least somewhat responsible for poor academic performance among black kids. If we are going to assume these taunts evince some unique black pathology, then it’s worth actually looking at the data on black educational achievement. Matthew Yglesias checks out data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and finds that since 1978, the “math gap” between black and white students has steadily closed:

This isn’t a direct rebuttal of Buck, McWhorter, or Thompson, but it should cast doubt on the idea that desegregation has somehow been worse for black educational achievement.

Now, this doesn’t excuse any of the intra-racial bullying that can occur, or that many kids do receive the “acting white” charge at some point in their school careers. But how prevalent are these attitudes, and how do they impact scholastic achievement? Over on Very Smart Brothas, the Champ holds court on the idea, ultimately concluding the acting white myth was overblown.

one of the most ridiculously realistic scenes in movie history occurs about an hour into akeelah and the bee. if you recall, akeelah gets clowned and dismissed by her brother, namond brice, who also assumes that the neighborhood dopeboy he hopes to work for would find akeelah’s spelling bee competition as simple and stupid as he does. instead, the dopeboy gives akeelah encouragement, tells akeelah about the poems he used to write, and even orders namond to help his little sister study.

this scene is ridiculous because the neighborhood dopeboy is played by the rubberband man, a guy who screams “thug” about as loudly as donnie mcclurkin screams “straight”. but, it’s realistic because this actually does happen. as anyone who’s actually lived in or taught at an inner-city school district will tell you, the school and neighborhood thugs are usually either indifferent towards or encouraging of kids that seem to have a bit of “talent”, whether it’s academic or athletic (as long as they don’t snitch, of course).

2. smart kids don’t get picked on just because they’re smart, but…

…nerdy kids do. and, this happens everywhere, not just in the inner-city. regardless of their socioeconomic or racial background, nerds get teased because, well, they’re nerds, and socially awkward kids are easy targets.

i know this seems obvious, but it just annoys me when people act as if nerdy kids are “allowed” to be nerds everywhere else except the hood. i’m amazed at how easily we’ve allowed this context-less meme to spread, especially since it basically calls us a nation full of crabs. sh*t, there’s a reason revenge of the nerds is such a cult-classic. it’s a vicarious revenge fantasy for nerds, their opportunity to reverse the sh*t that happens to nerds everywhere, and it’s filled with gratuitous boob shots.

that’s actually two reasons, but you get my point.

3. some young adults actually do act “white”…and they do deserve to be picked on

by acting “white” i’m not referring to using proper english, listening to weezer instead of weezy, not using washcloths, or even dating outside of your race. but, there are people who do their absolute best to rid themselves of any apparent trace of black culture, and those people deserve to be admonished.

i won’t go into too much detail about how exactly “doing your absolute best to rid yourself of any trace of black culture” is defined, but i will say that its definition is somewhat similar to porn’s: you know it when you see it.

I’ll raise the Champ one – having the perspective of being nearly a decade out of high school and even farther from middle school, I’ll even say that most kids experience some kind of alienation over their natural talents or interests. In school, these types of experiences cut a bit deeper, since our identities are still being formed. Hence why these stings last so long (and in the case of John McWhorter, the emotional scarring he received from childhood taunts will inform his writing for a lifetime.)

One of the VSB commenters, Jen, has my favorite response to the entire situation:

CAN YOU READ??

This girl has said that Black children made fun of her for being high-achieving BECAUSE SHE LIVED IN A WHITE NEIGHBORHOOD AND PLAYED THE F*CKING OBOE.

This doesn’t make sense in any context. I am not “reframing” her experiences–she is reframing her experiences. Living in a white neighborhood and playing the oboe are not markers of high achievement. So, if somebody tells you that you are “acting white” because you live in white neighborhood and play the oboe, they are not telling you that you are “acting white” because you are a high achiever.

As a kid with non-traditional interests and a race-neutral accent, I was told on more than one occasion that I “spoke like a white girl” or was doing “white people sh!t” or other such foolishness. But never–ever–did anybody Black ever mock me for being intelligent OR for being successful at what I did. I have never experienced it. So I didn’t bring up these experiences. Why? Because they are about as relevant to the topic as being told you were acting white for playing the oboe is. IF YOU HAVE PURPLE HAIR OR PLAY THE GUITAR OR SPEAK “THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH” OR DRESS LIKE A PREP GROWING UP, LITTLE BLACK KIDS ARE GONNA TELL YOU YOU’RE ACTING WHITE. But once again, THIS IS IRRELEVANT BECAUSE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING HIGH-ACHIEVING.

Also, while you are trying to be snarky, you seemed to have missed the fact that multiple people have described Black children in white-dominated environments, who are taught that every pathology under the sun is Black. THIS is where this intelligence = acting white foolishness DOES come into play. It is a feature of Black children’s dumbass parents thinking that they have done their children a service by sending them to the wolves to be educated.

So why are Barack Obama, Bill Cosby and other such out-of-touch folks all on the television telling God and everybody that this is something coming out of our community? It isn’t. THIS is my point. The Black community has enough problems. Thinking that intelligence is a marker of whiteness is NOT one of them. While you are running around trying to embrace this bullsh!t, you need to be trying to discredit it so that when you stick your unfortunate kids in a school wherein s/he will be “one of two” the other one won’t be telling her she “ain’t Black” because she doesn’t push crack like Jeezy-from-the-BET claims he does.

I could really relate to Jen’s comment, partially because she called out my high school life.

As a kid with non-traditional interests and a race-neutral accent – check
I was told on more than one occasion that I “spoke like a white girl” or was doing “white people sh!t” or other such foolishness. – check
But never–ever–did anybody Black ever mock me for being intelligent OR for being successful at what I did. I have never experienced it. – Agreed. I got teased for a bunch of random things, from wearing JNCO jeans to general strangeness. But being smart wasn’t a liability, even in the many occasions where I was tracked into regular classes after a move and had to wait a few weeks to enter the gifted track again. Intelligence is a positive quality, and most people recognize that on at least a basic level.
IF YOU HAVE PURPLE HAIR – check. Sally’s Rose Red hair tint turns purple with sun exposure; they may have stopped making this hair tint.
OR PLAY THE GUITAR - check. They gave guitar as a class, which was my first exposure to Prince.
OR SPEAK “THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH” -check, kinda. I;ve been told I sound white on the phone about as often as I’ve been told I have a slight Southern drawl.
OR DRESS LIKE A PREP GROWING UP – check. I was never preppy (just not our area), but there was definitely a divide between suburban style and urban style.

But all that aside, again, I don’t see a lot of compelling evidence for the “Acting white” charge actually lowering academic achievement, especially when there are so many compelling reasons why students begin falling behind at earlier and earlier ages that have less to do with culture and more do with with how our societal structures around class and access. There’s a whole other discussion about the changes in how we educate children, and for what purpose, but that will have to wait for another post.

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Comments

1. Ladyrindy wrote:

   I have been told that I “act white” by people of all minority races, which really pisses me off. I have never understood why speaking with intelligence, working hard to obtain good grades & having goals is considered “white.” When did this crap start and how can we get it to stop?

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 9:21 am ¶

2. n wrote:

   Context matters. While some may not grow up in an environment where excelling academically or having intellectual interests is not seen as “acting white”, many many do. I was one.
   I won’t say it is the only reason, but as we like to say “black culture” is not monolithic.
   I’ve been finding this article in all its permutations very frustrating because it seems that a lot of people believe that if it was not their experience, then it wasn’t and isn’t the experience of others.

   One reason it is frustrating is because I grew up with parents and some teachers who could not conceive of children being bullied for their intelligence and success. My friends and I went to a poor school and spent a fair amount of time trying to dodge the ass whippings from other students we;d get if we excelled and the ass whippings we’d get from our parents if we failed.

   I know kids who dropped out and even committed suicide because their parents were on their asses about their grades and so on, but refused to understand that they were at school quaking in fear and trying to stay alive because some assholes had caught a case of, “Oh, you think you’re smart,think you’re white, think you’re better than us” and were just waiting for any slipup to assault them.

   But instead of protecting them or understanding the culture they were coming up in, the parents and even some teachers refused to believe it because it didn’t jibe with their experiences, and then blamed the kids and said they were making excuses.

   I think in all of the situations when we’re dealing with black on black violence, we have a problem figuring out what to do. When black men assault black women, when cops arrest black criminals who’ve terrorized black people, when black students bully black students we don’t seem to know how to respond. Do we rush to protect and defend the “victims” or do we rush and try to defend the “perpetrators” who we suspect are being unfairly maligned due to racism.

   Many of the parents and teachers I mentioned grew up in segregated black Kumbaya Happiness Shangri La and could not and refused to believe THEIR own people were treating their children this way. My mother only accepted it when her grandkids began high school and it truly broke her heart to face the reality that the sense of unity, community and family she had always believed in did not exist anymore.

   But sometimes, its just ugly and we can be our own worst enemies. It may not be everyone’s reality, but it is for some.

   So I’m not willing to just dismiss the issue out of hand and say its overblown. Does this occur universally? No. Does it occur?Yes.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 10:23 am ¶

3. jen* wrote:

   As another recipient of the “acting white” descriptor, I have to second [or third] Jen’s comment that the impetus was unrelated to being intelligent – it was related to being socially awkward, shy, and kind of a teacher’s pet…(besides the general preppy stuff). Some of it might also have been due to actually having a white mom.

   and THIS:
   But why is it a shock that black kids who are raised by white people might face extra hurdles in being accepted by other black kids? And… why attribute the taunts to the fact they’re achievers and not, you know, because their parents are white?

   Gene hit it on the head with that one. I’m stymied how a random white adoptive parent of black children could actually write a book about a supposed ‘black community meme’, when they are obviously NOT a part of the black community. Big HUGE Fail for Buck and his supporters.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 10:45 am ¶

4. JihadPunk77 wrote:

   very important, excellent post. I like this the best:

   smart kids don’t get picked on just because they’re smart, but…

   …nerdy kids do. and, this happens everywhere, not just in the inner-city. regardless of their socioeconomic or racial background, nerds get teased because, well, they’re nerds, and socially awkward kids are easy targets.

   I went to a public high school that was full of privileged, upper class white students who were obsessed with being on the Honor Roll and getting good grades. No one made fun of them. But, everyone picked on the nerds who were socially awkward (yes, these nerds were smart but they had poor social skills)…. yet no one picked on the smart (popular) students who had good social skills, played sports, were involved in the Drama Club, and participated in the Honors Club (I forgot what’s that club called). oh yeah, and all the students who were picked for the Prom King and Queen, were smart, too.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 10:50 am ¶

5. JihadPunk77 wrote:

   I came across an important article yesterday that everyone should read. This article discusses how minority students (Black, Hispanic, Arab, Indigenous/Native American, etc…) face more health and success obstacles than white students do. Please have a look:

   http://tinyurl.com/22r4aa5

   “Moreover, 58 percent of the respondents said white children in the community where they work have “lots of opportunity” to live and play in healthy environments, safe from lead and other toxins, but only 42 percent said the same about African American children. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said that white children have a good chance at having a healthy birth weight, but only 48 percent said the same about Latino children. And 59 percent of the respondents said white children have lots of opportunity to play in homes and neighborhoods without violence, while only 36 percent said the same about Latino children, 37 percent said the same about African American children and 42 percent said the same about American Indian/Alaska Native children.

   “These results are alarming because the inequities within a given community are so clearly visible to people who work with children and families,” said Matthew Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., who directed the study and is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases in the CHEAR Unit at the University of Michigan Medical School. “Because they see firsthand the education and health opportunities for children in the communities where they work, they have a different perspective than parents or policymakers. Their views are absolutely essential to improving opportunities for young children at the community level.”

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 10:55 am ¶

6. Barbara Smith wrote:

   Latoya,

   this post is on point. I am a faculty member in Education (and African American) and the whole “acting White” discussion has set my teeth on edge for YEARS.

   There is very little evidence to support the notion that African Americans as a GROUP do not value education (which is assumed by the dominant narrative of “acting White.”) Rather, African Americans highly value education and since slavery have thought it to be an important part of mobility in the U.S.

   Of course there are African Americans who do not value education (as there are White people, etc. who also do not value it – Sarah Palin), but as a group, African American children respond that they plan to get college degrees in pretty high proportions.

   Sure, actual attainment does not reach these levels, but the kids see value in it early.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 11:16 am ¶

7. TMA wrote:

   I co-sign quite a bit of what n said. I read and commented on the thread at VSB Latoya referenced in her OP. (And it’s funny that Latoya highlighted a comment from Jen. I had an exchange with her as she attempted to “shout me down” and dispute the validity of my experience and make it seem exceptional.) While not all black children/people see being smart and doing well academically as “acting white”, there are certainly some who do. That was my experience growing up.

   It’s interesting, in the past 5 or 6 months, I’ve seen posts on this topic at Ta-Nehisi’s blog for The Atlantic, We Are Respectable Negroes, and Postbourgie. All of the posts expressed a meme similar to the one referenced in this post and on VSB; if you were black and were picked on as a child or adolescent, it wasn’t because you were smart, an academic achiever, or spoke “The King’s English”, it was because you were a socially awkward nerd who dressed funny, looked funny, and read weird books or played odd instruments…like the oboe. Many of the authors of these posts seemed to think that because that was their experience it didn’t happen to anyone else. While it can be difficult to try look back on our past and any awkwardness, weirdness, or nerdiness we may have possessed objectively, when I honestly think back, I know that personally, I was often singled out for being in AG classes and “talking white.”

   Maybe one of the differences is school population. Maybe this occurs more in integrated school settings than in those where the majority of students are black and/or brown. I went to majority white schools until college, so I’m not sure if things would have been different if I’d gone to predominately black schools.

   Another problem is that the current school system gives short shrift to black students. Black students are tracked into remedial classes more often and do not have as much access to gifted programs and AP classes. So there’s definitely systemic problems hurting the education of many black students in the U.S.

   However, I think that we as a community also hurt ourselves. Having gone to majority white primary and secondary schools and a HBCU for undergrad, I have to say that black folks like to police the behavior of other black folks. It’s like there are approved ways to be smart and/or involved in extracurricular activities. For instance, track & field is a cool sport for black people; wrestling and soccer not so much. It’s cool to read books that are assigned to you for a class, but reading books outside of class…why? And why are you reading Ayn Rand instead of Terry McMillan? At my HBCU, the unofficial motto was “work hard and kick it hard.” But the thing is, if you’re really working hard academically (especially in a science major, which I was), you won’t have that much time and/or energy to “kick it hard on the yard.” It can all be very confusing. And the childhood teasing does sting and is hurtful. Yes, children can and do achieve in spite of the teasing and taunts, but that doesn’t make it easier or right. And, in my experience, it can come from family and folks at school.

   I love black people. I really do. But I have no interest in pretending that there are some things that happen within our culture that. are. not. helpful. We have to work on healing within while simultaneously fighting external, systemic issues. It’s not easy. But that’s what it is.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 11:16 am ¶

8. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   @n and @TMA –

   I can respect your experience. But the problem with these conversations is that it (1) excuses problems with a discussion of pathology, (2) it is a false diagnosis, (3) like the Moynihan report (which was name checked in the Slate article), it is positioned to become foundation for future policy.

   If every single black child pledged to stop teasing each other for “acting white,” these problems would still exist. Is it an internal, community problem? Yes. But it is not an explanation for the achievement gap, and I don’t need 40 years of shitty policy around a relatively minor contribution to some major issues.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:04 pm ¶

9. klgaffney wrote:

   This post nailed it. I got abuse about everything from my hair to my clothes to the music I listened to, to the way I stammered on about “Brave New World.” I was a social mess. I got respect about two things: One was being a good artist, and the other was about being intelligent. Honestly, I remember being resentful about that, too—how no one wanted anything to do with me, I was totally “being black wrong,” but if I got an award, everyone wanted to claim me all of a sudden.

   I could easily see how some aspects of intelligence–the lack of social skills, the reading of books by old dead white guys, and the babbling on aimlessly about such would get the kind of reaction that someone might MISTAKE for overall intelligence/achievement bashing, by an outside observer or even by the kid that’s being bullied. The thing is there’s a whole slew of nuance being missed, and I do think that being white parents of a black child they should be a LOT more careful about the kind of messages they’re throwing around.

   On the other hand, I can also mention a lot of experiences that nobody seems to know what to do with, except deny. And why IS bashing people for speaking a different way any more acceptable? We do a lot of things to ourselves and each other that are seriously not helping.

   Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:09 pm ¶

10. Just A Thought wrote:

    I hated the article reviewing the book, and based on additional information you gave LDP, I am pretty sure I’d hate the book.

    The “Acting White” bullying depends on context. I’ve only gotten it when my diction and accent were different from most of the black people I was around. I was bullied a bit for being a teacher’s pet in school, not as much for having good grades. Especially not after getting into the gifted/college-prep “schools of choice.” And it extended beyond the school. Everyone in the city knew that the kids at these schools of choice were smart, and it was respected and admired (although there was some latent jealousy every now and then). I could freely take my 5ft science fair boards, my violin, my 3D DNA model on the city bus (high schools didn’t have school buses) without hearing nary a perjorative remark or threatening gesture from the “regular” students. If I didn’t have on fashionable clothers, however, I might get picked on for that.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:16 pm ¶

11. Val wrote:

    This. “acting White” meme and others achieve exactly what they are meant to. They take our humanity away by reducing all of us to pathologies.

    You don’t have to see Black students as individuals as long as you can pin a pathology on them. Then they are all alike. And when they fail it can be said that it was because they’re Black and not because of outside forces.

    And if Black students fail because they’re Black then no one has to feel guilty and no one really has to do anything, except make people aware of Black pathologies.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:25 pm ¶

12. miga wrote:

    I mean, yeah there are people who make fun of you for “being smart,” but those kinds of people are everywhere- it’s not really exclusive to the black community. And as for “acting white,” I got that alot in middle/highschool but it wasn’t because of my grades. It was because, like other people have commented, I didn’t fit in culturally. The people who are going to mess with you will pick on ANYTHING they can find.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:25 pm ¶

13. Beth wrote:

    re: “incognegro,” I’ve heard it used to describe someone who is able to pass. (And, usually, someone passing for the sake of being a sort of “racial spy” than for personal gain.)

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:28 pm ¶

14. shemari wrote:

    I have to take some issue with this article. I attended school in Detroit (K-12) and graduated from high school in 1986. I lived in poor to working class neighborhoods while growing up. I also experienced being ridiculed for grades/intelligence and saw others done the same way. It wasn’t called “acting white” though. You were teased for being in the smart class or talking proper English. You know actually wanting to learn or applying what you learned. To a child it felt like being or appearing smart, unless it’s street smarts, was a sin.

    The whole thing about kids getting teased for being a nerd and not for being smart is a joke. You can be labeled a nerd (in Black neighborhoods) without looking like Steve Urkel. Carrying too many books, carrying an instrument, going straight home, being in the house too much, etc. can get you labeled a nerd. Aren’t those some of the markers of higher achieving kids? Sure I knew some kids who fit into the street scene more easily and earned good grades. For them the jig was up once they got to high school. They couldn’t attend school regularly or take challenging courses without being found out. The few I knew were like that ended up dropping out of school.

    @n – You summed up a lot of my feelings in your comment. I have an older friend from the South, who based on her utopian childhood, could not conceive of Black children teasing other Black children for “talking proper.”

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:33 pm ¶

15. TMA wrote:

    @Latoya: I agree with you that kids teasing other kids for “acting white” is not the major cause of the achievement gap and that eliminating this phenomenon will not magically solve all that is wrong with the education system (especially as it pertains to black children) in the U. S. I just wanted to point out that this does happen, and not just to those who are “nerds.” And that’s definitely not the meme that I’ve seen going around in some parts of the black blogiverse.

    Regarding Stuart Buck and his book, I think he’s coming at this as an outsider who just “discovered” this issue because he’s now raising black children. I wouldn’t expect him to have any (new) insight. Unfortunately, I think non-black/mainstream media will see this as an “I told you so” and run with it. Also, like n, Buck is just rehashing things my mother, father, aunts, uncles, and family friends (who mainly went to segregated schools) have been saying for years (and years and years). Like you said, this book and likely much of the discussion it brings up is not going to help solve the actual issues with the achievement gap.

    I’m beginning to think that only grassroots, radical change can help to turn the tide in our educational system. I have a a couple of friends that work with black students in extracurricular educational programs. One of them runs a Saturday school for black children that is centered around a culturally competent curriculum. She’s made real strides with her students and is in the process of expanding her program to bring it to other cities in the northeast. They’ve inspired me to start developing a program for high school students to get them interested in careers in the allied health professions and fitness, while providing them with practical skills they can use to earn money while they’re in school. I really think that positive change is going to start from the bottom up.

    All that to say, I think it’s up to those who have the time, energy, interest, and wherewithal, to start assisting those who are most at risk and sturggling. I also hope that system change is possible, but I know that it takes time to change massive systems. And while attitudes are not all there are to this issue (and may play a very small part), I do think they’re important. I don’t see why we can’t start working on changing them while also agitating for revolution on a systemic level.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:33 pm ¶

16. Lola wrote:

    I was told I sounded white or proper. I was also very shy and did not have the in style clothes/shoes. I also lived on the white side of town and have a biracial mother. Other kids who were outgoing did not get made fun of for being smart in our predominately black school.

    The media loves black pathology, it is their favorite headline and automatic best seller but it is not the truth.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:34 pm ¶

17. Celeste wrote:

    So if you’re socially awkward black child who is not picked on for your grades but you are picked on for: speaking proper english, not wearing big huge gold chains, not wearing the latest kalvin keni or cross colours, not having breasts before 6th grade, not having a cute black button nose, not having a big enough butt and not having sex by 7th grade then you didn’t experience “acting white” discrimination? Interesting……… I have to second N and TMN, this is a big huge eraser of black intrarracial discrimination and violence that’s perpetrated on the nerdy. Only the cool smart black children are deserving of a somewhat peaceful existence everyone else whose hair was set on fire better get crackin on some social skills?
    Sometimes maintaining high grades also involves participation in other *gasp* non- cool, white behaviors. I guess I could have had my sexual debut at 12, smoked weed and still have ended up where I am today. Or I might have ended up leaving my baby on someone’s doorstep like one of my other socially awkward gifted program classmates allowed a more popular boy to “practice” his sexual techniques on her since she wasn’t pretty or cool enough to be his girlfriend.

    If every single black child pledged to stop teasing each other for “acting white,” these problems would still exist. —-I think it would help a lot if we stopped defining blackness by the lowest common denominator.

    But it is not an explanation for the achievement gap, and I don’t need 40 years of shitty policy around a relatively minor contribution to some major issues.——–I agree with that, but this whole acting white problem is something that could be fixed ourselves without a big interevention from society at large, right now, if we actually had the will to do it.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:46 pm ¶

18. Darth Paul wrote:

    I can’t speak for growing up black, but plenty of chicanos gave me antinerd shyte growing up. I hated sports (terrible mark against any male in the US), loved books, had high grades, eventually joined band and orchestra. Never once, though, were their insults tied to acting gabacho or white (I was more routinely called a geek or a queer). I spoke better Spanish and had a MUCH firmer grasp of chicano history and issues than most of them, despite being only half chicano.

    I should also point out that I discovered JRR Tolkien’s books (a significant landmark in nerd-dom) in 4th grade via my best friend at the time, who was a black dude in all the gifted courses I was in. He was never accused of acting white either. Quite the opposite- he wasn’t considered “ghetto”, but he was very liked and respected (not just by the black kids, either). Anyway, power to the nerds!

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:49 pm ¶

19. Latoya Peterson wrote:

    @Celeste –

    I fully agree with Jamelle here. Acting white is a race based permeation of standard bullying, no more, no less. It’s not a defense of atrocious behavior – and most of us in the article detailed how we were subject to the same types of bullying growing up, and concluded it was more awkwardness than achievement that was the issue. Is that shit ok? No. But it ALSO is not an explanation of the achievement gap, point blank.

    And when folks like Buck write their books and make their speeches, and write their papers, they are advocating for some form of action to be taken based on this concept of acting white, without any hard data on what that does to achievement.

    Kids can be assholes, and most of the people who are famous or successful point to times in which they were bullied for being who they are. It’s a shitty thing, but its a standard part of life. So I’m not sure what recourse you think will happen – if white people had solved the bullying problem,we could just copy their model, but as the Champ said, there’s a reason why Revenge of the Nerds is a cult classic. And again, while ending all of the racial policing that happens would make a lot of individual lives easier, I’m not seeing where it would magically produce educational reform.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 12:58 pm ¶

20. Beth wrote:

    Is it possible to acknowledge that black kids can and do get teased for “acting white” without pathologizing (sp?) black folk at large? I’m not saying that I have the capacity to do it, but I think it is possible.

    Re: Jen’s VSB comments, while the things she mentions aren’t necessarily about high academic achievement, they certainly are about privilege. Expensive preppy clothes, access to a musical instrument and lessons, and speaking a certain way (perhaps because a parent had gone to college, or because one parent didn’t have to work and had more time to spend reading to a kid in pre-K, etc, etc) are far easier with more money. Money also makes it easier to gain access to “gifted & talented,” honors, and A.P. classes. Since tracking (deciding what kids will end up in more rigorous classes) happens early and often at the whim of a teacher who may be racist or at least have a lot of difficulty imagining a black child in a “gifted & talented” class, is it any wonder that some of those who manage to get there have a bit of class privilege on their side (like a parent who has a work schedule that allows time to meet with a teacher, or a parent that has a higher degree than the teacher, etc). The conflation of race class is nothing new, and could be at play in at least some of the “acting white” issues. That said, it doesn’t make much sense to me to get scarred from tauntings by folks who likely had a harder time than me.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 1:06 pm ¶

21. shemari wrote:

    Another thing I wanted to address was the whole “Black people value education” thing.
    I see a disconnect between what gets said and what is actually getting done.

    I moved away from Detroit to raise my child. My son had a lot of difficulties with school from the beginning, so I’ve had to spend a tremendous amount of time and money to get him through. This included efforts aimed solely at him to joining and helping to run a Black Parent Support group as well as being a visible and active volunteer throughout the school district. I’ll try to keep this short, but here are some things I’ve seen.

    1) Black parents often don’t have enough information or the right information on how to help their children succeed academically.

    2) Black parents can’t or don’t want to put in the time or spend the money necessary. It’s an uphill battle having to fight against low expectations for and bigotry against Black children, both in majority Black and integrated cities. Some parents can’t do it. I’ve also met some who refuse to do more.

    3) Some would say that American culture in general doesn’t value education. I know I’ll get a lot of hell for this, but it seems like in the Black community it’s valued even less. I’ve seen Black parents spend way more money and time investing in their future athletes than their future scholars. This is even when their child is talented academically (or in some other way such as music or art) and plays a sport.

    I don’t discount the fact that Black children in schools have issues with not enough resources (in Urban areas), low expectations, and bigotry. I just don’t see a whole lot of effort on the adults part to remedy the situation. Parents (mine included) send their kids to school dressed, fed, rested and expect the child to come out educated in the end. It’s a nice dream, but it just hasn’t panned out that way.

    Finally, I live in an area of my city that has a high concentration of Asians. The schools in my part of the city have the best test scores. I have a Kumon nearby where the students are at least 75% Asian, some starting while barely out of diapers. A lot them look like Steve Urkel, yet they don’t get teased by their fellow Asians for being nerdy.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 1:15 pm ¶

22. Premmy wrote:

    @n & @ TMA

    I think a lot of stuff people think are related to “being smart” aren’t, in fact that, A problem I see in a lot of nerds.

    How you talk?(The Queen’s English)

    Not related to your intelligence, no matter how much Grammer geeks (They’re fixated on it, that makes them geeks) like to have superior attitudes about it

    The things you like?
    ( Music, clothes, sports)
    Not related to your intelligence.
    I’m sure you find your interests intellectually stimulating, but that’s a matter of opinion.

    The point being made is that these kids were made fun of primarily (I say primarily because I won’t disregard experiences with individuals with their own issues regarding their intelligence venting that on smart people) for being DIFFERENT from the norm, which, most definitely sucks, sure, but isn’t necessarily a uniquely black thing.

    TMA you talked about the “work hard, play hard” thing and how that didn’t work for you because you had to work harder….. If you sacrifice other things in your life in favor of another, you’re a geek, that’s the definition of Geek, a focus on a certain thing. People who aren’t geeks strike a balance in their lives in all things.

    The thing you happen to be a geek about isn’t the popular thing, so you were probably ostracized for that. That’s terrible, but it’s not something that only happens to black folks, the “Color” of it might be different, but it’s still just people picking on geeks.

    The Black guy who plays guitar and likes hockey is “Acting white”

    The White guy who raps and likes basketball is “acting black”

    Reading is good and necessary, but reading recreationally is a matter of personal taste, not a sign of intelligence. I love when I find a book that grabs me, but I’m also aware that that doesn’t make me smart, despite what people think.

    I know of people who love to read simplistic books that I wouldn’t find intelligent, so when people tell me they love to read, I always ask “What kind of books do you like to read?”

    It’s not always about social skills either

    People who do Y have preconceived notions about the people who do X

    Studios kids have their ideas about what kids who skate are like and vice versa.

    Posted 09 Jul 2010 at 1:20 pm ¶

23. [NOTE: There are over seventy (70) comments. Go here to read all the comments.]

Hell Has Come to South Louisiana

Story by Dahr Jamail
Photography by Erika Blumenfeld

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

Clint Guidry is a shrimper from Lafitte, Louisiana. As we sit together, he shows me a picture of his house with 18 inches of water in it as a result of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

In his deep voice, he looks me in the eye and says, “My fear is repeating this situation, but with this water with oil on top of it.”

Guidry represents all the shrimpers in Louisiana, given that he is the Shrimp Harvester Representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force that was created by the state’s governor.

Prior to this fishing season, he, like the rest of Louisiana’s fishermen, was excited for good season, with the price of shrimp per pound finally weighing more in their favor.

“We were primed for a great season,” Guidry says, “And it all got taken away.”

Unlike most fishermen who’ve had their livelihoods decimated by BP’s oil disaster, Guidry has chosen not to work for BP doing skimming and booming operations with his boat.

“I worked for Brown and Root in the oil industry,” Guidry informs, “I know the dangers of oil and chemicals, so there’s no way I’m going to go work out in this stuff. Instead, I’m trying to help make sure BP is paying people, and being safe. But I’m not accomplishing either one yet.”

Guidry is incensed at what he is seeing.

“There has been a BP cover-up from day one,” he says, as I write furiously in my notepad, trying to keep up, “The US Government, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], the Coast Guard, NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health], all of them are in on it.”

On May 24th, in Galliano, Louisiana, Guidry testified to a delegation of US Senators, Congressmen, and Agencies and departments under Obama’s administration. He sent the testimony to the president as well, urgently requesting help.

Here is his testimony, verbatim:

–

My name is Clint Guidry. I am a third generation Louisiana Commercial Shrimp Fisherman. I am sixty-two years old and a lifelong resident of Lafitte, LA. I am a Vietnam Veteran and the son of a WWII Veteran.

I am on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Shrimp Association and the Shrimp Harvester Representative on the LA Shrimp Task Force created by Executive Order of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

I have been invited here today to testify about the current disaster that is occurring concerning the blowout and oil spill from the British Petroleum (BP) DeepWater Horizon Catastrophe and what effects it is having on the fishermen and the families I represent.

Ladies and gentlemen, HELL has come to South Louisiana. A HELL created by British Petroleum (BP) and a failed U.S. Government response to the disaster.

First of all I would like to put into perspective BP’s role in this disaster and show them for what they are.

BP committed fraud in furnishing oil spill response data required to obtain a permit to enable them to drill the MC 252 location. The reality is they were not prepared to handle or control a blowout and resulting oil spill of this magnitude. Simply put, they LIED.

BP, in their haste to cut corners and save money in the completion process on the well location at MC 252, exhibited willful neglect in their duties to complete the well safely which led to the blowout and explosion that killed eleven people. Eleven souls that will never come back. Eleven families with mothers and fathers and wives and children. Children who will never see their fathers again.

This neglect and loss of life constitutes negligent homicide and all involved should be arrested and charged as such.

So now I have established what kind of people we are dealing with, LIARS and KILLERS. It appalls me that they are still in total control of this disaster after almost a month has passed.

Now I would like to speak about our Federal Response to the disaster.

The first response to the disaster was the U.S. Coast Guard, who has assumed duties of protecting BP and aiding them in downplaying the spill, providing BP representatives with armed guards to keep away the press and TV camera crews and sending representatives to local communities to provide false information on safety and health dangers related to the oil spill and the chemical dispersants used.

The second response came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who in an effort to minimize the spill and save BP face, unleashed two dangerous chemical dispersants which were injected into the water column at the sea floor and sprayed on the surface over the oil and workers in the areas of the spill and along the coast close to coastal fishing communities. These chemical dispersants contain solvents that are dangerous to marine populations in the Gulf and coastal estuaries and were never fully tested for dangers to humans. In the product sheets for these chemical dispersants, there is always a disclaimer: “This listing does not mean that EPA approves, recommends, licenses, certifies or authorizes the use of this product on an oil discharge.”

And that IS exactly what EPA did and is still doing with total disregard to marine populations that will collapse because of it and human populations that will get sick and may die because of this decision.

“Kill the Ocean, Save the Beaches,” a “Trade-Off” decision. Under what logic does this work? The Gulf is the Mother and the Estuaries are the nurseries. If the Mother dies, there will be no children to incubate.

The reality is the oil and chemical dispersants are entering our estuaries as we speak. The “Trade-Off” logic FAILED.

As I stated, I represent commercial shrimp fishermen. I have members, friends and family presently working to contain and clean-up the spill. They are relating to me BP’s total disregard for providing workers with proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

I have extensive experience working with hazardous chemicals associated with petroleum. In the 80’s and 90’s I worked with Brown and Root Industrial Services as a supervisor, General Superintendant and Area Superintendant. I supervised maintenance work in oil refineries and was responsible for worker safety and getting the work done on time. Safety and health of my workers ALWAYS came first with me.

I am being told by workers and family members that proper respiratory protection is NOT being provided to the fishermen workers.

Petroleum, as it surfaces and spreads over the water and heats, releases dangerous carcinogens and these carcinogens are most concentrated directly over the leaking well and surrounding area where my fishermen are working. There has been NO respiratory protective PPE issued to workers working directly over this most dangerous area, even as a precaution to have available given they are working 60 miles offshore. In fact, when some individuals brought their own respirators, they were told by BP representatives on site that if they wore the respirators they would be released from the job. That disturbs me greatly.

My fishermen are more concerned with losing their jobs and the income they desperately need to pay bills and feed their families than their health. From years of experience I know that, when protected, work in very hazardous environments can be completed safely using the proper PPE.

Is BP sacrificing my fishermen’s health and lives to protect themselves from liability issues at a later date?

How can we believe liars and killers when they say the worksite is safe?

This is the same game plan Exxon used in Alaska 20 years ago and Alaska fishermen ¬never collected a penny in settlements from Exxon for sickness and deaths related to working clean-up after the Valdez spill. Exxon never issued respiratory protection to fishermen in the Valdez spill.

These workers safety issues are my top PRIORITY and need to be addressed IMMEDIATELY.

If we are going to allow BP “We the people” 5th Amendment rights in court and use “Taking of Future Profits” to let them off the hook for full responsibility of this disaster, we will be playing the same part as the Alaskans did in the Exxon Valdez Playbook that BP is using on us.

It is past time for our elected officials, Departments and Agencies to abandon the influence of “Big Oil’s” “Big Money” and do what they were elected and appointed to do, represent and protect “We the People” who voted them in office.

This Administration needs to treat BP like what they really are, LIARS and KILLERS and take control of this monumental disaster.

This administration was elected to office on a platform of “CHANGE.” So far, as it applies to “Big Oil” it is business as usual. The only change we are experiencing in dealing with “Big Oil” is being “Short-Changed.”

On behalf of the Commercial Shrimpers I represent and the coastal communities who are losing their way of life, I ask that you take control of this out of control situation.

Clint Guidry
Louisiana Shrimp Association

–

Like so many others in Louisiana who have any affiliation with the response effort to the oil disaster (which is basically everyone), as his statement indicates, Guidry is appalled at the seeming lack of concern about the heath effects of the dispersants on response workers.

“There are incidents the Coast Guard itself has recorded and documented of planes spraying Coast Guard boats, platforms, and fishermen with dispersant,” he tells me, “Our biggest battle now is trying to get people protected, and it’s pissing me off.”

Guidry is hearing directly from fishermen he knows participating in the response effort, and they are telling him they are being sprayed.

To make matters worse, despite BP being directed by the so-called EPA and Coast Guard on May 26 to dramatically decrease their use of dispersant in the Gulf, recently released Coast Guard records show that BP has exceeded dispersant limits on a near daily basis since that order.

Guidry, like everyone I’ve met thus far in Southeastern Louisiana, is all too aware of the fact that, as he succinctly stated in his testimony, “Hell has come to South Louisiana.”

Yet he knows the future could bring even worse. “If we have another bout of storms during August, September, and October, which is our severe storm time, that brings one Category 3 hurricane, we’ll have oil and dispersant everywhere. Every area of Southern Louisiana beyond hurricane protection will lose their homes, their living, and their heritage.”

Guidry speaks fondly of how he used to fish for Tuna out in the area where the well is gushing oil into the Gulf.

“Blue, White, Brown Tuna, Marlin, Sailfish, it is all out there,” Guidry says urgently, “This disaster has punched holes in our marine eco-system that we won’t know about for a long time. We don’t know what we’ve done.”

A short while later Guidry invites us, along with several other friends, on a short boat ride up the Bayou. He expertly guides his boat across the water while pointing out dormant remains of the local commercial shrimping industry.

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

“Nunez Seafood is the only processing plant we have in Lafitte,” Guidry explains, “That’s where we used to box and freeze our shrimp before it would be sent out across the country. Right now, that freezer space should be completely full of shrimp.”

Tracy Kuhns, the executive director of Louisiana Bayoukeeper, is riding with us, and watches me staring at the empty facility, that is also surrounded by many empty shrimping boats.

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

“We went from a fishing village, to an oil town,” Tracy adds as we pull away from the emptiness that used to be Nunez Seafood.

posted by Dahr Jamail | July 11th, 2010