theblackbottom

Ask Faces of America host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
America has been called the land of opportunity, the land of immigrants, and the great melting pot. Whatever you call it, it is home to rich family histories that weave national origins, religions, and cultures together. This week, PBS stations will begin airing a special series called “Faces of America” that delves into just a dozen of those rich histories. (check local listings)

Renowned historian and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the highly-anticipated series. He builds upon the success of previous PBS series “African American Lives” and “African American Lives 2”, using tools of genealogy to explore what makes America. You will probably recognize many of the guests whose family origins Gates traces, such as comedian Stephen Colbert, actress Eva Longoria and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Their stories, and nine famous faces, highlight the diverse yet shared American experiences.

We are delighted that Gates is back on PBS and that he is our guest here on Inside PBS. Gates will take your questions about the “Faces of America” this week. Leave your questions in the comments section below or via Twitter (@PBS) or via our Facebook fan page and we’ll post his answers next week.

Stephanie Chang is the deputy director for the Campaign for Justice, a board-based group of organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum fighting for a fair and effective public defense system in Michigan. Ms. Chang works with the Campaign communications team and manages coalition building and public education efforts. She previously served as an organizer for Michigan United/One United Michigan, building local volunteer-led coalitions to educate the public about affirmative action and Proposal 2 in 2006. Ms. Chang is a University of Michigan-Ann Arbor graduate, with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Asian Pacific Islander American Studies.

Imagine being accused of a crime and not having the money to hire an attorney. You have only minutes to talk to your attorney before your court hearing – and this is the first time you have met her. Finding a quiet place in the hallway to talk is not an easy thing. You notice your attorney has a stack of files with her – she is currently handling hundreds of cases. You realize she may be flipping through your file just for the first time today. Imagine that even though your attorney has the best intentions, she has little to no access to expert witnesses or investigators to build your defense.

Whether it is your brother, your niece, your neighbor or yourself in this situation – is this the kind of justice system we want in Michigan? We deserve so much better. As noted in Laura Sager’s October 2009 commentary, Michigan has been singled out as one of the worst in the country when it comes to upholding the constitutional right to counsel. The National Legal Aid and Defender Association study (2008) painted a bleak picture of our state’s failures.

My parents came to this country for opportunity and because they believe in an America in which all people are treated fairly and justly. The system we have right now for delivering public defense services upholds neither core value. Despite the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment promise, the quality of representation you receive may depend on how much money you have or which county you happen to be in. We need a system that upholds everyone’s constitutional right to effective defense representation.

On December 9, 2009, Rep. Amash (R – Kentwood) and Rep. Constan (D – Dearborn Heights) introduced historic reform legislation. Michigan House Bill 5676 would bring about long overdue changes by putting in place a system that is up to par with national standards and that has adequate state funding.

Now picture this –instead of lacking access to critical resources and not having any required training, a public defense attorney now has undergone training about mental health and substance abuse issues. She has standards to follow – the individual has talked to her before his or her court date. Because of that conversation and because of her training and experience, she can identify critical issues at the front end and advocate for alternative programs. Instead of incarceration, treatment or counseling to address the root issues at hand becomes a real possibility.

Can you imagine how much taxpayer money would be saved if we had a working public defense system? Diverting individuals from jail or prison time to more effective and less costly alternatives would make a big difference. In addition, a study from the State Appellate Defender Office indicates that nearly $70 million in prison costs would be saved in just five years simply by eliminating sentencing errors – often caused by lack of training for defense attorneys, lack of time and the complexity of sentencing in Michigan. Moreover, we could save additional millions of dollars in wrongful conviction lawsuits. Eddie Joe Lloyd spent 17 years in prison before DNA evidence proved him innocent. Add the cost of his incarceration to the $4 million settlement and, as a taxpayer, it is crystal clear why we need reform.

Cost savings in incarceration are at the end of this road. It will take a working public defense system to get there.

From Citizens for Traditional Values to the American Civil Liberties Union, from service providers to legal professionals, and with leaders across the faith spectrum all a part of the Campaign for Justice coalition, Michigan truly is coming together for public defense reform. Change is sorely needed – to protect public safety, to improve cost efficiency, and to uphold constitutional rights and fundamental fairness.
People from all over Michigan are sharing with the Campaign for Justice why they support public defense reform. Michigan lawmakers should take note. We hope you can assist by contacting your legislator to support public defense reform. Also, we hope you can encourage your legislator to attend the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus luncheon event on Wednesday, February 10, to celebrate Black History Month. The event takes place at 11 a.m. at the State Capitol. Jo-Ann Wallace, the President and CEO of National Legal Aid and Defender Association, will be the featured speaker.

Join the movement for reform at www.mijustice.org and sign up for updates!

Hip Hop Activist reports via vlog on the one year memorial of Oscar Grant. In case you were unfamiliar with the Oscar Grant story here’s a quick summary according to wikipedia:

“The BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant was a fatal shooting in Oakland, California, United States, in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009.[1] Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train returning from San Francisco,[2] BART Police officers had detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. Mehserle stood, drew his gun and shot Grant once in the back. Grant was unarmed.[2][3][4] Grant was pronounced dead at 9:13 am the next morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland.”

Davey D Last year holding the elected officials accountable a year ago about this very topic!

Once you learn how to read, you will be forever free!–Frederick Douglass

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We at theblackbottom.com strongly encourage you to make your friends and family aware of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, February 7, 2010. We are dying without a fight by our silence about this disease that disproportionately affects our communities. We urge you to where a red ribbon as a sign of your solidarity and awareness. And most of all, sisters and brothers use condoms and talk to your sexual partner(s) about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. As a way of maiking our readers inform we aks to you to go to the Center for Disease Control HIV/AIDS and African Americans. Let us educate ourselves.

When it comes to HIV/AIDS, the famous saying of when White America has a cold – Black America has the flu rings true when it comes to this disease as well. Every year in the United States, since the epidemic began in 1981, Blacks have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.

More than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States, Blacks account for more new HIV infections, AIDS cases, people estimated to be living with HIV disease, and HIV related deaths. Even though Blacks make up 13% of the US population, we account for about half (49%) of the people who get HIV and AIDS. Blacks don’t live as long as people of other races and ethnic groups with AIDS, due to a multiple level of barriers (i.e. poverty, stigma, etc.). Blacks have more deaths due to HIV/AIDS than any other racial/ethnic group.

When looking at the disease from a gender perspective, for Black Men, the most common ways of getting HIV are: (1) having unprotected sex with another man or woman who has HIV; and (2) sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV. For Black Women, the most common ways of getting HIV are: (1) having unprotected sex with a man who has HIV; and (2) sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV. Blacks at higher risk for HIV are those (1) who are unaware of their sexual partner’s risk factors; (2) with other STDs (which affect more Blacks than any other racial or ethnic group); and (3) who live in poverty (which is about one quarter [25%] of all blacks).

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Black America is a continuing public health crisis for the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at the end of 2006, there were an estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV infection, of which almost half (46%) were Black.

In 2007 alone, Blacks accounted for 51% of the 42,655 (including children) new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 34 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting. Also, Blacks accounted for 48% of the 551,932 persons (including children) living with HIV/AIDS in 34 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting.

There are a number of challenges when it comes to preventing HIV in Black American communities:

• Sexual risk factors include high-risk sexual contact such as unprotected sex with multiple partners or unprotected sex with persons known to have or be at a high risk for HIV infection. People may be unaware of their partner’s sexual risk factors or have incorrectly assessed them.
• Injection drug use may add to the higher rates of infection for Blacks. In addition to being at risk from sharing unclean needles, causal and chronic illegal substance users may be more likely to engage in unprotected sex under the influence of illegal drugs and/or alcohol .
• Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) continue to be experienced at higher rates within Black communities, more so than any other race/ethnicity in the United States. The presence of certain STDs can significantly increase one’s chances of contracting HIV infection. A person who has both HIV infection and certain STDs has a greater chance of spreading HIV infection to others.
• Lack of awareness of HIV status is risky for Black men and women. In a recent study of men who have sex with men (MSM) in five cities, 46% of the Black MSM were HIV-positive and 67% of those men were unaware of their infection.
• Stigma, a “negative social label that identifies people as deviant”, also puts too many Blacks at a high risk of infection. Any behavior deemed deviant (i.e. MSM) has been highly stigmatized. Many at risk for HIV infection fear stigma more than knowing their status, choosing instead to hide their high-risk behavior rather than seek counseling and testing. Therefore continuing to be at risk of contracting and passing it on to infect others.
• The socioeconomic issues associated with poverty, including limited access to high quality healthcare, housing and HIV prevention education may directly or indirectly increase the risk factors for HIV infection for Black people.

Given the aforementioned challenges, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day becomes crucial in working to stem the tide of HIV and get those who test positive linked to care and treatment services.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will deliver her eighth and final State of the State address to citizens hungry for a vision of better times ahead.

Interested to know how do the readers of www.theblackbottom.com rate our Governor’s 8 year tenure… please gives us feedback!

Governor Granholm sits down with CNN’s John King to talk about current events in Michigan and the nation.

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NAACP flunks GOP on civil rights – Glenn Thrush: NAACP flunks GOP on Civil Rights February 04, 2010
Categories: House Republicans NAACP Flunks GOP on Civil Rights
The NAACP is out with its annual report card, and Republicans have been awarded Fs virtually across the board, thanks to their position on a variety of civil rights issues, most notably their killing of the D.C. voting rights bill.

[PDF of the rankings.]

The ratings were on a variety of Congressional measures the organization deemed to be civil rights- related, including the nominations of Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, expanding children’s health insurance, hate crimes legislation, foreclosure and credit card bills, the stimulus and the D.C. voting and gun rights votes.

Some quick-take bullet points:

• All Senate Republicans got an F but two (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Maine — they got Cs).
• All Senate Democrats and Independents got As, Bs or Incompletes.
• Senator Arlen Specter (R-to-D-Pa.) got a B.
• All House Republicans got an F except six — five of whom got Ds; one got a C: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.
• House Republicans scored the lowest of any subgroup.
• All But 23 House Democrats got As, Bs or Incompletes.
.• All representatives who scored 100 percent were Democrats.
• Among Congressional Black Caucus members, all but two got As. Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who is moderating his stances in prep for a gubernatorial run, got a B.

Via www.Politico.com

Black unity is not personal conformity. Being politically unified as Americans of African descent has nothing to do with our individual tastes, predilections, or, even, the people we love and make love with. I grow irritated when someone suggests that I am not “black” because I like symphonic music. This kind of silliness comes from blacks and whites alike that believe there is a certain essential way to be “black.” Let me put it bluntly, black people are entitled to enjoy a diverse range of activities and lifestyles. What I am describing is not personal behavior or individual likes and dislikes, but a political ideology.

Black unity grew out of the American slave experience and traversed the one hundred years of legal and cultural apartheid in the United States—the Jim Crow years. Those struggles formed and deformed many of our great grandparents, grandparents, and our parents—notions of individual respectability guided their politics for the most part. The respectable argument went something like this: “If we individually behavior well American society will appreciate our individual merit and white society will have nothing to fear simply because of our skin is café au lait, creamy, brown, or dark chocolate.” By the 1930s black folk pretty much concluded that simply being well mannered and behaved was not enough to end racial bigotry. Many black leaders joined with labor, religious organizations, civil rights organizations, and political radicals discarding individual respectability as a way of negotiating the entrenched racist cultural attitudes and politics. From 1940 until 1972 black political struggle unified around key areas, even when black people disagreed internally about cultural and social class attitudes. Roughly they supported these social issues:

• Labor and economics. Overwhelmingly black women and men were agricultural and urban working-class laborers. The right to bargain fairly and collectively was essential to daily lives of nearly all African Americans. This was tied to the protection from employment discrimination and the rights to better wages, which were essential in fostering a more holistic black community.
• Federal and state laws must not be allowed to discriminate on the bases of race, creed, sex or color anywhere
• Voter protection. African Americans as citizens of the United States had the right to vote. Their right to make their political voices known should not be impeded by bogus tactics implemented by state governments.
• The right to a public education. From 1870 a struggle has ensued for a public education system that is equally funded and represent the interests of black communities.
• The right to fair trials. Extra-judicial Lynching was the key issue. Convict-leasing system and police brutality all were protected by many state courts laissez faire collusion with sheriffs and juries.

This was always a mishmash and a pragmatic ideology. These were some of the interrelated objectives that various black ideological leaders could agree upon. They shared a functional political ideology, if not a fullydeveloped political philosophy. Central to most of their ideological concerns was the idea of expanding democracy to benefit all Americans.

There are some who argue that the age of Jim Crow is behind us and African Americans are entitled to live without being constrained by the America’s historical past. I respect where the argument wants to go, but I do not agree with it. Black political unity is still needed. The same issues that our grandparents organized around and that formed their operational political ideology have not disappeared, even in the age of Obama.

Black unity must be guided by the understanding that not all black people will agree with the communitarian understanding of black politics that I am arguing for here. There are black folk who are genuinely libertarian and free-marketers. Of course, I disagree with their individualist ideology and argue for a collectivist or a communal political ideology as the most sensible way to address the needs of middle class, working class, and poor black folk. Here are some of my points:

• Labor and economics. Collective bargaining and better wages are still a necessity for black people’s living conditions. In a world dominated by Wal-Mart pay scales of our inner city neighbor we must join those fighting decent wages and health care benefits. Not everyone is going to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Black workers need protection.
• The Courts: the judicial system at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels continue run amok of the rights of blacks and browns who are indigent. It is not convict-leasing anymore. Today the courts overwhelmingly punish the indigent much harsher and with those felonious convictions black women and men lose their citizenship rights in many states around the country.
• Sexual discrimination: While racial discrimination has to an extent been legally removed we still have in our communities women and men who are LGBT and face new kinds of discrimination in terms of their rights to benefits to their partners and how they treated in the general society.
• Poverty: the battle to end poverty has not ended. In fact poorer black communities are isolated geographically from employment opportunities as never before. They are removed from job, exposure, and are in disastrous location. Need I remind people of the vivid scenes of New Orleans when the levees broke?
• Public Education: State funding systems have never fully alleviated inequality and racial discrimination that black children faced. Schools that serve black children are still grossly under funded.

Black unity is not a litmus test of a prescribed notion of “blackness.” It is a mobilizing philosophy that empowers black folk  to take action against the structural forces that circumscribe our lives. The goal of “Black unity” as a political point of view does not end with black folk being the winners and “others” being losers. Its larger purpose is to make American democracy richer and more beneficial to each and everyone of us who live in this country and who inhabit our world.