For Those Women Wondering How They'll Divest & Where They'll Go

It's nice to see the media attention being given to Dr. Roxanne Shante this week. To bring you up to speed she was one of the earliest female MCs in hip-hop. She recorded Roxanne's Revenge which was a reply to UTFO's song Roxanne Roxanne. For a more recent comparison think of TLC's recording of No Scrubs. Either way it's been a long time! I've been meaning to write a post about the dearth of women in hip-hop but I find it so difficult trying to lift it up as a genre as a whole.

I had to double-check my Deploying A Little Negro Spirit music posts and sure enough I hadn't touched it with a ten foot pole. We won't be discussing the misogyny in rap/hip-hop because it's a rather moot point I think. The hateful attitude some black men have toward black women is obvious to anyone who wants to acknowledge it. So "music" being used to reflect that is just one of the ways they've been allowed to get away with it.

I had forgotten about Dr. Shante's story of triumph and she deserves the accolades. She signed a record deal and got swindled out of money. She was an unwed teenage mother living in a housing project in NYC. She could have faded into obscurity and continued down that path so many of us warn other women about. She obviously had a vision for herself despite her less than ideal circumstances. She didn't give up on herself or resign herself to a life of constant struggle. Why? She had a clause put in her contract that required her label to pay for her education for life. Of course the label tried to renege on the deal but she persisted. She went to college and continued to grad school eventually earning a Ph.D in psychology. She worked hard, studied hard and moved on. She's now a married mother of two with an education no one can ever take away.

We've discussed getting out of the Matrix and the death of the "black community" as a once-useful entity that doesn't sustain women. We should be free agents able to live our lives on our own terms. I don't think discussing the decay resonates with enough of us and things are far worse than many think. It can be difficult to see it when you're in the middle of it - or far removed from it. There's also a question about how challenging it may be for those who need to leave to separate themselves emotionally and physically if there are a lack of resources or children involved. Perhaps it needs to be stated that everyone who should get out won't. This is a continuing message for those who are willing and able.

Education can be one of the ways out. The Obama administration has a program for mothers to return to school or to start attending period. If you think about it that record label's promise to pay is akin to the financial aid awards that are available. There's a financial aid database you can apply through. Even for those that may have to bring themselves up to speed comprehension-wise or find a less expensive school by choosing a community college. Plus those schools just got extra funding since the 4-year universities tend to be better endowed financially.

The statistics already bear out that black women are finishing college at a much higher rate than black men. If you're living in an unsafe neighborhood or surrounded by people who think of failure as the norm it's best to leave as quickly and as safely as you can. Planning your move to a safer area may require you not sharing this information with anyone who'd seek to hold you back. You can go to the library and seek assistance with doing a search. Why not choose a school in a different city or move to a better section of town? With the state of the economy parents with physical custody of their children may be looking to split costs of living expenses. Of course screening is necessary but this is one way for people to pool their resources while taking a course of action.

It has to be better than living around people like the mother of one of the Dunbar Village suspects who says things like:

“So, if that’s the case they say my son raped somebody, how is that when, I got raped when I was little I told him about it and he was going crazy. They said I couldn’t have no kids I thank God I had 13 kids…

“They’re trying to give these kids, 50 to life, for something they probably ain’t gonna live to do.

“They should put them in a community education where they can learn that. You know like a program or something. Locking these kids up ain’t gonna solve nothing. You know."

You can choose LIFE versus DEATH. It's really that simple. This is also the time for all of us to evaluate where we stand in our lives. Obama is reappointing Bernanke to the Federal Reserve. There's quite a few finance experts who warn the economy is going to get worse - which is the opposite of the Bernanke's feel-good message. Unless you're in the upper wealth percentile or a banker I'd rather be prepared than lulled into a false sense of security. For all of our obstacles, hardships and reasons why we can't do something, perhaps this is the time to do a complete about-face. Since so many claim a special relationship with their version of God don't you think this would be the perfect time to put that faith in action?

Poor, Single, Overworked or Other: Are We Our Own Worst Enemies?

Have you ever been on a "diet" and found yourself eating junk food you'd never bought before? Do you claim to be broke but can't put down the credit card? Do you decry racism that personally touches you but say nothing about the sexism you personally engage in? Is it normal for you to say people are jerks and wonder why you have so few friends? Are you dissatisfied with your dating pool but you won't go outside your "acceptable" zone to meet a variety of people? Are you a cis-gendered person who won't acknowledge your homophobia or an LGBT who won't accept a transwoman and wonder why someone else is still oppressing you?

There may be institutionalized forms of oppression that have been in place for a long time but what are we doing to dismantle them? Or find a workable solution around them? If we want gender parity but ignore our own privilege how is it any surprise that there will be divided loyalties? If there is never going to be a level playing field why is the term equality being used at all? Isn't that a lie to keep perpetrating the concept when it will never happen? Who gets to benefit for keeping people in a permanent fly-over formation that never allows them to land?

I was reading this article in the Washington Post titled: Poor? Pay Up that posits being poor costs people so much more in basic expenses that they'll never be able to break the cycle. I like to label articles such as these, "You're already screwed so don't even try" diatribes which actually reinforce negative attitudes and weak choices. This article is being written under the guise of the sympathetic "liberal" slant that only reinforces helplessness amongst people who may already be downtrodden and depressed. It does nothing to get them (us) to change their way of thinking, which would change their actions, which would alleviate some of the problems they're facing. 

"The rich have direct deposit for their paychecks. The poor have check-cashing and payday loan joints, which cost time and money. Payday advance companies say they are providing an essential service to people who most need them. Their critics say they are preying on people who are the most "economically vulnerable."

Statements like these only reinforce a false argument. Most states now offer second-chance banking where you can in fact have a free checking out and set up online bill payments. At the very least you can stop going to the rip-off joints. So there's really no excuse. There's another segment of this indoctrination manual where a man complains about paying a $15 fee because he lost his drivers license. So instead of paying to replace it he pays the check-cashing fee instead? What does that have to do with being financially-challenged?

The article mentions that stats for those that live below the poverty line yet only focuses on those that live in "urban" read: Black residential areas. You know..the hood. People in rural areas have the same problems but their general makeup is different and why would the corporate media want to attach the face of poverty to someone white?! The only time dysfunction is ever shown as normative it supports their purpose by attaching it to Blackness.

It also feeds into the opposite reaction and charge of people not pulling themselves up by their "bootstraps". It's a little hard to do that when the boot is on your neck. Other times people don't have a boot..or shoelaces even. It's a nice way to reassure those suffering from "white angst" that they are still large and in charge afterall that guy in the White House is an anomaly compared to the rest of "those" people. 

The Real Black State of the Union Pt. 1

So I was reading this great post "Ours Is Not A Culture Of Failure" by Tami at What Tami Said which was in itself a critique of the article "Race Still Matters For Poor Blacks" by Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune and "Raising the Obama Generation" by Stephen Talty. There are some great points being made but there are some areas where we our opinions diverge. 

From Page's article: The National Urban League released its annual "State of Black America" report. Predictably, as with previous reports that the 99-year-old league has conducted since the 1970s, the state of black America is pretty miserable.

Blacks were twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be imprisoned compared with whites, the study said. Blacks also lost their homes due to foreclosure at a greater rate than other ethnic groups. This is partly because many blacks had been targeted for sub-prime loans during the economic boom, civil rights groups charge, even when their credit was good enough to get them into conventional loans. 

Mainstream black leaders tend to blame black poverty on external barriers like racism, discrimination and the disappearance of low-skill jobs. Conservative critics tend to blame black poverty on black behavior, attitudes and other "cultural" conditioning.

Blah, blah, blah! My response is: it sucks to be Black apparently. Do I really need a reminder of all the problems? These Civil Rights organizations are still not providing SOLUTIONS. Let's talk about the various social classes that exist that they'd like to otherwise ignore. Having access to resources and being not only encouraged but expected to excel does impact your life. Let's talk about white racism but we're not in a position to ignore how our attitudes and choices compound it.

Tami writes:  Are low achievement, unemployment, substance abuse or criminality elements of black culture? Native culture? Italian or Irish culture? White culture?

No.

And they are not the culture of the poor either.

But these ills are often the result of living forgotten in poverty in a country that is all about symbols of wealth and "getting yours." These ills are the result of no opportunity in the land of opportunity. These ills are the result of schools with old books or no books. These ills are the result of being warehoused in dangerous, rat-trap, public-housing high rises, and tenements, and reservations and isolated Appalachian villages and trailer parks. These ills are the result of inadequate healthcare and childcare.

I agree...but I don't. Apathy, anger, depression, hostility, hopelessness, mediocrity and imbalance. I think about how all of these things color challenging situations for people of color. We can only change the things we can control. The first thing we have to control is ourselves. Then we can address the ills of society. If you're running with a broken leg you won't get very far. 

 

If the "culture" hasn’t failed it is severely damaged. Or perhaps the question that should be posed is: “What Is Black Culture?” There are differences amongst ethnic groups of Blacks as well as different behavior patterns amongst the social classes. Of course individuals make personal choices that may differ from the majority of their group of origin but certain generalities do prevail. We're not all Middle Class and we don't all possess Middle Class sensibilities. Whatever that's supposed to mean today. 

I think we can safely establish a yard stick of a dominant generic “Black” by which non-Blacks may be attributing to us all because they don't do shades of grey, er black. It’s like lumping all Asians together or not realizing that China for example has something like 50 diverse ethnic groups. I will continue this conversation in another post because despite my efforts at editing I have so much more to discuss. 

John Merrow Series on Urban Schools

How I despise the term urban when it is used as code for Black. It's lazily meant to be all-encompassing but it negates the individual's experience and doesn't differentiate amongst social class. So we have a marketing term to sell cars but it's also supposed to describe the lifestyle of people who are categorized as a monolith. I live in the city but I am more urbane than urban, but I digress.

I was watching Newshour and saw an interesting segment on the New Orleans school system and how to best combat truancy. There's an entire series on NOLA and DC but you have to view them through the website directly. School Superintendent Paul Vallas seems like a man dedicated to fulfilling his job. He made one statement that was very telling about wanting to set standards that the "culture" had to fit and not the other way around. With the truancy problem amongst some students multiple strategies are needed to turn things around. At one point a teacher had at least 10 students who hadn't shown up for class and she expressed her frustration about having to repeat the same lessons repeatedly. It was such a disservice to those who came prepared to class. 

When you think about it, some people don't value education. We can certainly point to overcrowding or lack of materials or other situations that discourage learning, but as it's pointed out, ultimately it's up to the parents to monitor their children. They sent officers to search for wayward students who would be issued a summons if they were over 16 or sent to a center for an evaluation by a social worker. One student had a drug problem and wanted help. In another segment the parent of a 2nd grader complained about having to take a day off from work to attend court because her child had missed 21 days of school. She didn't appear on camera but asked the officers how many days would it take for further truancy for the State to take the child. She admitted that she didn't want her daughter. Yes, my jaw dropped! 

My experience with school was one of joy. I usually liked my teachers a lot and couldn't wait to go to school. In fact I much preferred school to being at home and joined a lot of after-school clubs for the camaraderie as well as to be a more attractive college applicant. You would have to be pretty disconnected and embroiled in family turmoil to intentionally skip school. The drop-out rates amongst certain groups of teens is as high as 50%. With no education, the chances of getting a job go out the window. That just fuels a cycle of illiteracy and crime. If you live in a segregated neighborhood that's just a time bomb waiting to happen. 

Blog Action Day 2008: Focus on Poverty

Well things are winding down and headed to the wire for the Presidential election in the US. I wrote a post a few days ago where I mentioned the lack of discussion about poor people by the major party candidates lately. Of course the corporate media in conjunction with the Republican party are trying to shift responsibility for the economic free-fall by blaming people of color and the poor when it is as always greed and no accountability that results in great profit and equally greater catastrophe. 

There has always been a group who've fallen through the cracks in this society but never have their numbers been as high as they are now. In fact there has been a record number of applicants requesting immediate assistance from their states. When I think of large corporations receiving billions of dollars and their executives multi-million dollar pay-outs but the family down the street gets nothing I know that we are living in a form of hell on earth. 

There have been key circumstances that strip people of their earning power and accumulation of assets in this country:

1.  The cost of health coverage - and by extension the lack of health. Having high-fructose corn syrup added to everything does not help! It's banned in Europe for a reason. 

2.  The over-valuation of property. If you managed to hang on to your house is it worth the same today as it was when you purchased it?

3.  The cost of good and services - up by x amount year and year. 

4.  Inflation versus salary. The cost of living goes up but the salaries do not meet the minimums.  

5.  Living beyond their means. Greed is not good. Having a plasma tv is not a necessity.

Now let's be clear that those of us that live in Western countries have a lot more than those who live in developing nations. By 'developing' it should correctly be identified as recovering from having its resources stolen or destroyed by their former colonizers.  

Now let's look at some solutions for emerging nations:

1.  Making sure there is a steady supply of clean water.

2.  Micro-loans being provided to women - who are then able to provide for their families. 

3.  Get rid of the debts owed to the World Bank and IMF. 

4.  Providing medicine and other medical services. 

These nations have to rebuild and shore up their infrastructure. In some countries where socialism is employed to even the playing field the citizens have a much higher quality of life. Sure the wealthiest of its citizens pay as much as 40% of their taxes, but they all have free health care, free schools including university, paid time off for primary care givers of children or the elderly, less crime and homelessness is practically non-existent. 

Capitalism may rule in this country but it only benefits a very limited few. Having that carrot dangled in your face about what you might possibly get does nothing to improve the quality of one's life. Being on the lower economic scale is not fun but having to go without food in this country is inexcusable. Let's acknowledge things are not working to our benefit and move on. 

Where's a good place to start?:

1.  Donate your time...and money. As bad as things may be they could be worse. We will find strength and purpose in helping other people. We will also regain some perspective. There was a time when we knew our neighbors. I think it would be a good idea to start caring about other people again just to remember that we're not so different after all. 

2.  Check out Volunteer Match and Charity Navigator. 

3.  Vote. Take responsibility for your gov't. 

4.  Develop a spiritual base, positive thinking, whatever you want to call it. 

5.  Decide that we have important core issues to resolve in this country that have nothing to do with race, religion or whether you want to have a beer with someone. 

As always the choice lies with us. We will sink or swim together. 

What's Good For the Goose Is Good For the Gander, Right?

So there was some foreign money involved in the $85B WELFARE CHECK issued to AIG, but the brunt of it is still being passed onto you, me and the future grandchildren we may never have. Who can afford to have kids? I'm not talking about draping them in designer duds for tots either. I'm talking about feeding them and having a roof over your head.

Yet Donald Trump and some of his more whiny Liberal For Pay peers want to complain about having to pay their FAIR SHARE in the form of capital gains or corporate taxes because it's sooo hard out there for a pimp, er billionaire. Oh sorry - everyone isn't a billionaire. Some of us are just RICH. As for the rest us:

• unemployed
• underemployed
• working two jobs 
• skipping meals to feed their children
• not being able to retire because Social Security doesn't cover rent
• filing for bankruptcy 
• displaced citizens 
• sick 
• down and out 

OR 

• lucky to still have a job but you finally get it that you'd better start cutting back 
  

Nobody asked me if I wanted to pay for this. I don't see the gov't calling me up saying they have a cost of living expense check with my name on it!! 

When it comes to being poor and/or disenfranchised does the gov't even know you exist? Or are we always used as a scapegoat example of the "ills" of society? As if hard work ALONE = RICHES. Isn't the deck in fact stacked against us already? 

I look at the executives running these companies and the politicians that passed the laws to benefit them and see a sea of white-skinned male faces in high places pulling aces from a pre-sorted stack all the time. Even when they're caught stealing or bilking their companies OR involved in some pay scheme donation scandal it barely registers a blip on the evening news. 

Meanwhile some other politician or teevee pundit is screaming on the boob tube about "urban" crime and "illegal aliens" being the cause of the apocalypse. 

Which brings me to One Drop's post over at Too Sense where he contrasts the gov't rescue of AIG versus the abandonment of New Orleans. It makes me mad all over again.

Because the government cannot be forced to compensate all of its victims, the only way justice could ever be done would be for the federal government to voluntarily decide to pay damages. Not being an economist, I don't have any numbers with which to calculate the total cost of rebuilding every home destroyed by the Corps. But I cannot imagine it costing $85 billion to do so.

The AIG bailout shows that the government is capable of massive cash outlays in responding to a crisis. Given sufficient will, the government has sufficient resources (or, at least, its Chinese lenders have sufficient resources). This is not a question of ability, it is a question of priority.

Priority indeed. We see where this current administration places its priority. Not in its citizens. In California our own Republican Governor has seen fit to veto the budget meticulously worked on by members of both parties. He sees fit to instead throw the would-be middle class bread and butter workers into poverty. See the majority in the Bay Area saw past the Hollywood glitter and did not vote for him in the first place but we get to suffer because the rest of the state did. 

California has the highest number of defaulted mortgages in the country. Rents are at an all-time high with the lowest vacancy rates ever because people have nowhere to go - except out of the state. We pay the uppermost sales tax rates.  All of those companies going under have numerous offices in this state as well. 

 

What we see happening now is just the beginning. Goldman Sachs, Wachovia and WAMU are very likely to be next. The gov't can't bail all of these companies out without a huge public outcry - at least I hope! 

Not when they left Gulf residents twisting in the wind and allowed the insurance companies to NOT pay the policies of those who'd met their end of the bargain. 

I hope I'll be singing a new tune come this November.