Why Jesse Why? is the question Margaret Kimberley asked in her Freedom Rider column last week (April 7, 2005).

Does it concern Rev. Jackson that the Schiavo case is already being used to stack the judiciary with conservatives? It must be clear to Jesse Jackson that publicly choosing sides in this story puts one of his feet in a different camp. If he sides with Tom DeLay on any issue then he has to accept responsibility for the consequences.

Reader Elaine Farran hopes our politicians were listening.

Thank you for that truly brilliant article.

As we all waited for Democrats and Progressives to make a statement, it was a ray of hope to see Jackson emerge - until we realized he was on the wrong side!

We all abhorred that tragedy, but even I, a non-entry in political terms, could see where the Schiavo case was heading with the neo-cons.

So glad you added your voice to the discussion. If only our politicians were listening.

We also heard from Dan Elliott of Sacramento.

Dear Freedom Rider -- Just a note to compliment you on standing up to Jesse Jackson & the chorus of sycophants who will now attack you as a heretic.

Brother Elliott informs us he was a Run Jesse Run precinct-walker 1984/88 and a donor to the Rainbow Convention, 1989.

In the March 31, 2005 issue of , Freedom Rider took aim at Self Hatred at Harvard.

Nothing can ruin a Sunday morning like a New York Times magazine article with a dubious title such as, “Toward a Unified Theory of Black America.” The alarm bells are immediate because the Times loves to give attention to black people who are either in jail or on welfare or who have impeccable credentials but who are horribly confused.

Roland Fryer is in the latter category. He is a 27-year old assistant professor of economics at Harvard. His ideas explain why economics is called the dismal science. The word dismal doesn't begin to describe the damage to black people that Fryer and his ilk can cause.

Dean Chambers of Oakland, CA was pleased Margaret stuck her fork in that Fryer.

Thanks for challenging this ongoing proliferation on conservative black pseudo-intellectuals. If you are black and want to get rich, all you have to do is get a degree from a prestigious white university and start criticizing black people; get a book deal, the marketing is a given. After that your road to fame and fortune is on the fast track. If you come from the ghetto you might score extra points, even though I seriously doubt all the hype and biography of some of these people.

When Sylvester Stallone was marketing Rocky he was telling everyone he was from Hell's Kitchen in New York, but of course he grew up in the suburbs of Philly. So many actors have done the same thing and you know the stories of some of these people like Fryer may be a bit distorted as well. But really that is not the main issue as you know; the main issue is that they are simply tools that are used to absolve white guilt and provide some black people with a false sense of direction, i.e., that we have totally arrived and that race is now irrelevant.

Who was it that said perhaps the worst thing about racism is not what white people or oppressors do to the oppressed, but what it makes them do to each other? I think it was Nathan Hare, the notable black psychologist, who lives here in the Bay Area. Ward Connerly, Shelby Steele, Condeleezza Rice, and Clarence Thomas come to mind when I think of this image.

Well, I am just so happy that you stay at it. Keep challenging them and provide people like us with some validation that we see what we do see: a serious psycho-social illusion, developed via the tricknology of money, fame and fortune and the Willie Lynch psychology of divide and conquer. It is really sad how many of our own brothers and sisters get caught up in it. Stay strong, and remember we will win this struggle, ‘cause we know good will overcome evil!

Last week (April 7, 2005) Dr. Martin Kilson of Harvard began a three-part series entitled "Probing the Black Elite’s Role for the 21st Century".

In this essay I want to reflect on the issue of what the outreach-to-Black-masses-leadership profile of today’s Black elite should be by looking back historically to how this leadership profile evolved out of fragile Free Negro communities in the pre-Emancipation Era.

Dr. Kilson has been contributing to since our second issue in May of 2002. Every offering from him has been thought provoking.

Reader J. Hutton provides evidence this series is not an exception.

You must be aware that when any Black folk read or hear of a "Black Elite", he, or she, immediately thinks they belong to the class.

Probably because everyone possesses a talent of some sort. I submit that merely being an intellectual and/or a leader does not a qualify one for belonging to an elite class. They might become qualifications when our standards become those created by we ourselves. Among those qualifications should be listed 'serving our people'.

Perhaps then, fewer of our talented tenth will not find it so easy to join our enemies. As things stand now, almost our entire formal education is that chosen by white folk.

Entertainment industry attorney, Marlin L. Adams, Esq. accuses Dr. Kilson of blowing smoke.

Hey ,

I read Martin Kilson's article in anticipation of a real analysis rooted in a thorough presentation of facts and the positing of a clear reference point.

However, Kilson failed to deliver on all fronts. His article is a simple recitation of facts devoid of analysis and synthesis.

E. Franklin Frazier's point was simply dismissed, without delving into the damning evidence of "play-play" attitudes amongst the bourgeoisie, attitudes that ultimately led to the impotence of the current Black bourgeoisie (75% of all Black business grosses $25k or LESS; only 450k or so Black folks in America earn $75k or better).

The last thing we need is another sleep inducing panegyric about how well some of us are doing.

Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Glen Ford responded to Atty. Adams.

We know for a fact that Dr. Kilson's intent was not to describe "how well some of us are doing." Rather, his series (three parts) focuses on the obligations to the rest of us that, historically, the relatively small number of Blacks who are "doing well" have recognized, through outreach mechanisms to the masses. With all due respect, we think you have misjudged Dr. Kilson. Possibly, you expected him to say things that he, in fact, did not.

Indeed, the striking aspect of Kilson's data is that the "striving" class was so small.

There are two more parts to Dr. Kilson's trilogy. Please approach them with an open mind.

Part II appears in this issue.

David T. Gray, who reads in Claremont, NH found his juices flowing last week after reading "A Riddle For Black Conservatives: What Would Happen If Terri Was Toya?" by Guest Commentator Rev. Reynard Blake, Jr.

This article describes perfectly the rank good-ol-boy stench emanating from DC right now, with a helping of spineless Demlicans who signed that ridiculous legislation into law. Not to mention the craven, boot-licking media at their servile best. A few observations:

The media would have ignored the incident if Terri had been Toya because the Good Ol Party would have also ignored it and not necessitated the media's obliging response.

The American public disapproved of the government intrusion into the Schiavo case by a 83% majority and this disdain grew as the media turned up the exposure. This despite said media perfidiously portraying the incident as tearing Americans apart thus justifying the limelight. But this is a favorite stratagem of the Four Stooge Media that serves three purposes:

They can manufacture a story and sustain it for as long as politically advantageous to them.

They can show their bona fides of "high standards and balance" and thus obviate any insinuation of liberal media bias by such GOP nutzoids like L. Brent Bozell III of the Media Access Project. They supply the bulk of the heat to the media through accusatory phone calls and avalanches of e-mails and have been credited as stopping the network presentation of the TV movie "The Reagans" because it was not a fitting panegyric to his manufactured illusion that bolsters quite a few planks of the GOP platform.

His "image" can now be embellished at every opportunity now that he has passed and can not shatter the illusion by opening his mouth or showing himself in public. He was "discouraged" from making an appearance at the RNC's that were held prior to his death and effectively ushered to the sidelines when his cowboy spirit got stoked up.

In a "your either with us or agin' us" type White House tyranny the media must present themselves as dutiful lapdogs willing to carry water for the Bushies or describe the sweet smell wafting from White House whenever the Bushies decide to make a fecal donation to the Constitution.

In the not too distant future when the Black Intellectual Community, hosted on C-SPAN by Tavis Smiley, has a forum on an issue of special pertinence to the Black community they put to the Black Conservatives the question of What If It Was Toya? Could prove very enlightening.

I think that the question posed in one article in , Why Jesse Why? is a real head-scratcher, considering the lack of a mention of the Black American baby who was denied life support through the Futile Care Law signed into law by a pro-life pretzel in the White House.

Since there was no Storming of the Bastille after the results of the 2004 election the Bushies see themselves as impervious to any kind of scrutiny or challenge to their exercise of power.

I feel they are in for a rude awakening, I just hope the people don't wait too long for the catharsis.

The first sign could be the denial of UN basher John Bolton to the UN as American AMBASSADOR! Ambassador of What? Deviltry.

Radio BC

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