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A public schools demolition crew is in charge at the U.S. Department of Education. As documented by People for the American Way in their mid-November report, “Funding a Movement,” in the last two years the department has doled out more than $75 million to education privateers and pro-voucher con artists hell-bent on subverting the very concept of public education.

The Bush men never had a public mandate for their privatizing mission, so in the late Nineties they invented a “movement” to create the illusion of a “grassroots” groundswell for vouchers. Hard Right foundations provided the seed money and infrastructure for a network of pro-voucher front organizations whose maintenance has now been assumed by the U.S. taxpayer. “The Bush men are determined to convert the U.S. Department of Education into the incubator of a private school system,” we wrote in last week’s Cover Story, “Bush’s Phony ‘Grassroots’ Voucher ‘Movement’ – School Funds Diverted to Subvert Public Education.”

It is impossible to distinguish between these groups’ Hard Right foundation-inspired political activities and the mandates of the federal grants. “[S]ince many of the organizations benefiting from Department of Education grants have a pro-voucher or education privatization ideology,” the PFAW report concludes, “there is no way of knowing whether federal tax dollars are in fact being used to implement NCLB or to further the ideological agenda of right-wing organizations.”

Bush starves his own No Child Left Behind project, while his privateers flourish under Education Secretary Rod Paige, the former superintendent of Houston’s schools. Paige orchestrated that system’s smoke-and-mirrors “miracle” – higher test scores achieved by keeping thousands of “slow” students in the ninth grade until they finally dropped out.

$75 million buys lots of smoke and plenty of mirrors, when one considers that the total yearly budget of the NAACP, a strong opponent of vouchers, is just $28 million. Public funds now subsidize the voucher propaganda activities of front organizations like the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), which was created out of whole cloth by the racist Bradley and Walton Foundations. It is from these prefabricated fronts that the Right seeks “to create an ‘alternative’ Black political leadership and to simultaneously sunder the ties between African Americans and organized labor, particularly teachers unions.”

Vouchers’ rich, white roots

Despite the “grassroots” masquerade, one need only follow the money trail to establish the thoroughly corporate nature of the voucher “movement.” MediaTransparency.org has done excellent work in exposing the rich, white roots of the BAEO and scores of other corporate foundation fronts.

Yusef Mgeni, Director of the Office of Educational Equity for the Saint Paul, Minnesota public schools, sent us a link to an invaluable organizational map of the pro-voucher network. We’re proud to pass along TeacherProfessionalism.com’s “Framework for Understanding the Anti-Public School Movement.”

http://www.teacherprofessionalism.com/UnderstandingtheOpposition.html

Mr. Yusef Mgeni also had nice things to say about :

I enjoy your site immensely and find it provocative and real "Black."  Remember, "A man can't ride your back, unless it's bent. . ."  Keep up the good work.

It is difficult to overstate the sheer mendacity and raw gall of the Right’s voucher advocates. The same forces that have historically starved public education for African Americans now prescribe a private solution to the ills of urban education, seeking to profit from the misery they have helped to create. considers vouchers to be the poison dart in the Right’s anti-Black arsenal, the product of sadistic minds. In our July 11, 2002 issue, we wrote:

African Americans, who possess little power and less money, and have yet to experience the full fruits of democracy, now find themselves ploys in the Hard Right's obscene and cynical war to destroy public employee unions and privatize education for the benefit of the rich. Fully aware that Black communities are in need of, literally, everything, the ultra-conservatives dangle vouchers. In return for these tokens of dubious value, we are expected not only to jettison our few allies in the political arena, but to purge our own leadership and principles, as well.

What Black America needs is more democracy, more resources, and more power to put those resources at the service of Black children. Instead, the Right offers vouchers.

Yasmin Hams, of Kansas City, Missouri, isn’t buying it.

The article about "Bush's Phony Vouchers Movement" is an eye opener.  I witnessed first hand the terrible condition that the KC School District was in. In the public schools in the 60's and the 70's, we received the worn, torn and ragged with missing pages "books" they gave us to read and learn from. My heart was broken knowing that white kids always had brand new books and we got their 2 year old editions.  It broke my heart even more when my son experienced similar situations: no books, wrong books, books still in the warehouse, a brand new library with no books, a computer room with no computers.  Why? Because there were white people who would not and did not send the requisitions through so the schools could have all their supplies.

It was appalling to go to PTA meetings and see no books in the classrooms – only a teacher (white) sitting there with a smirk on his face. My son said "Mom all he does is sit there and we just sit there."  This is a blatant crime to commit on our children, yet through all of our protest nothing was done to improve the conditions. It has been 40 years and I still see no great improvements.  Now they come up with another plan to deny the poorest the right to a free education.  If you do the math the capacity of private schools is much smaller than public schools, so who is going to be at the bottom as always? Us.  I hope that one day we will have real democracy when it comes to education because right now Black communities are under siege and our education is one of the "Bush regime's" targets.  If Bush steals this upcoming Presidential election, education as we know it will become extinct to our own grand children.  America needs some "Divine Intervention" to save us from the grip of "Damnation."

John Sibley Butler is a voucher proponent.

Let us not forget that the most prestigious schools in America are black private schools; they include Tuskegee, Morehouse, Dillard University and a host of others.  They carry the load for leadership in black America.   Also in southern cities blacks are starting private schools by the truckloads, a return to a tradition that was started at the turn of the century.  It would be great for black parents, not the federal government, to make decisions about where children go.  Of course blacks with money have been sending their children to private schools for years, especially in the north.  It is difficult to think and act like free people, but this is required in a free society. 

We join Mr. Butler in appreciation of the historic contribution of Black private schools, although that has nothing to do with efforts to privatize public education. We then recalled that Butler had written to us back in January, touting the miraculous workings of the marketplace. “Who cares who the President of the U.S. is?” Butler wrote. “You have to work yourself into wealth and prosperity.”

He sounds very much like the crowd assembled by rightwing foundations to form the BAEO, many of whom are in the business of education and hope to profit from privatization.

National Whitewash Day

We anticipated that our November 27 “holiday” Cover Story might depress some readers, centered as it was on the extermination of Native Americans and enslavement of Africans. The U.S. holiday is a lethal, merciless celebration, a monstrous whitewash of history whose imposition cannot be allowed to pass without protest and truth telling. We looked forward to “The End of American Thanksgivings: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing.

The Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the Pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the Pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning. In light of this carefully nurtured fable, whatever happened to the Indians, from Plymouth to California and beyond, in the aftermath of the 1621 dinner must be considered a mistake, the result of misunderstandings – at worst, a series of lamentable tragedies. The story provides the essential first frame of the American saga. It is unalloyed racist propaganda, a tale that endures because it served the purposes of a succession of the Pilgrims’ political heirs, in much the same way that Nazi-enhanced mythology of a glorious Aryan/German past advanced another murderous, expansionist mission.

We were pleased to learn that Dany Hartman appreciated the piece.

Your "thanksgiving" piece was outstanding.  Good work. I sent it on to all of my friends. Please, by all means, keep up your good work.  In these dark days we need as many voices of reason and clarity as possible.

Mahtowin Munro was busy on the day in question. He’s Co-leader, United American Indians of New England, the group that organized a “National Day of Mourning” at the scene of Pilgrim crimes.

Thank you for your impassioned article on the American "thanksgiving" holiday.  You and your readers might not be aware that there has been a Native-led protest in Plymouth, Massachusetts on "thanksgiving Thursday" every year since 1970.   We talk about the true history of the pilgrims and of thanksgiving, as well as about conditions today in Indian Country.  We also march through the streets of Plymouth.  Although only Native people speak at National Day of Mourning (we think that there should be at least one day a year when white people stop talking on our behalf and when folks can stop and listen to us for a few hours), we sincerely welcome our non-Native allies.  For more information, see our website at: http://home.earthlink.net/~uainendom/

Attack of the soul snatchers

Some aboriginal people are said to have avoided cameras, fearing the contraptions would capture their souls – a scary notion given the Bush White House’s relentless Black photo and video trophy hunts. Freedom Rider columnist Margaret Kimberley revealed the soul-snatching truth in her December 4 piece, “Bush to Central Casting: ‘Send Black People.’”

One of the first things I noticed when George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency was his obvious love of putting black people in photo opportunities. How better to prove the compatibility of conservatism and compassion than with a healthy dose of contented black faces. I always imagined his advance team screaming into their cell phones anxiously awaiting reconnaissance for campaign events. “No black people? Find another place!” My suspicions were proven correct on Thanksgiving when our President pulled off yet another propaganda coup by flying to Iraq for Thanksgiving dinner with the troops.

Ms. Kimberley noted the gross photo-exploitation of Black GIs during Bush’s Iraq airport visit, although she is “hesitant to criticize a soldier far from home who has a chance to pose for a photo with the President of the United States.” It’s the political soul-sellers she’s worried about – leaders of Black groups like the National Medical Association and the National Black Chamber of Commerce, who posed teethily as advertisements for Bush’s Medicare Bamboozlement Plan. Kimberley fears there are more shameful photo-ops in store.

What will happen next year at the Republican convention? Will every speaker be black instead of every other speaker as at the 2000 convention? If I turn on my television and see Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan I don’t know what I will do. Maybe that will finally push me over the edge and send me to a nation that doesn’t rely on imagery to make me feel good.

Toni Odom has a laugh you can hear all the way from Chicago. She writes:

I truly admire and love your writing and I couldn't agree with you more regarding the imagery used by the current administration. You hit the nail on the head! I'm with you – if ReRe's boobs and Chaka's Weave show up at the convention – I gotta go Rasta and head for the Islands! LOLOLOL.

Proud of you my Sistah!

We’re all quite proud of Toni Odom, whose book of poetry, “Sistahs N’ SistaHood,” is the perfect holiday gift.

A fellow named David gives Kimberley stellar ratings.

It is not possible to communicate to you here how much I enjoy your writings on .  

You are incisive and brutally frank in expressing your views, a trait which is sadly missing in this country and especially missing among the so-called "Black Political Leadership.” Your use of the English Language is exhilarating and brilliant.

Congratulations, keep up with the good work. I look forward to reading your comments on the burning issues in Black society today.

Leutisha Stills is tired of Black celebrities that smile for the highest bidder. She writes from Oakland, California.

I thought I would send you a note and let you know how much I appreciate writing like yours that cuts to the chase.  Whenever I see Black divas performing for the Republican Party (aka Vanessa Williams singing at Ah-nold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial inauguration) I want to hurl.  As says of such people: "They have stained Black people's honor, voluntarily."

I'm not for embracing our Black celebrities who act like they don't know us until they get in trouble (ala O. J. and Kobe, and now Michael).  I've often thought that our race is probably the most forgiving race on the planet, and that's probably been our saving grace.  My argument is we probably shouldn't be unwilling to forgive one's transgressions; maybe just not be so "quick-on-the-draw" in issuing out forgiveness.

The Republican National Committee hasn't gotten the message that African-Americans can't be fooled because you parade Condi, Colin, Ward, Rod, Armstrong and those Blacks running think-tanks that serve as a front for doling out school vouchers, in front of us to get us to accept them or their message.  Especially when their actions speak much louder than their words.  Will the Black "moderates" of the Congressional Black Caucus ever get the message and stop the futility of trying to build bridges with these mentally deranged individuals?  Or are we doomed to forever be sold out just so they can have a comfortable life at our expense?

It is writings like yours, and publications like that continue to remind me that I'm not in the fight alone, and it appears that those numbers are increasing everyday.  Some day our message will be heard – I just want to experience it when it happens.  Keep writing.

By coincidence – or possibly not – Harry Kendall also hails from Oakland.

What a wonderful piece of writing! It's really nice to read what one is thinking.  Especially those of us who always seem to vote for the losing candidate or believe in the idea ridiculed by the mainstream.  Thank you!

And here’s another one: Aaron Ledet is from Oakland, too. Let’s call him Mr. Eclectic.

I'm a grad student in the school of Public Policy and Administration at USC.  About twice a month, I frequent all the Black political web sites I know of, from the "Policy 21" group to the "Black Commentator."  Whether partisan or non-partisan, dem or rep, I enjoy reading and discussing issues concerning my people with my people, whether we always agree or not. I don't have a "party affiliation," for as Malcolm X said, "The Democrats are foxes and the Republicans are wolves."

I read your column (and enjoyed its raw cynicism) on the Black Commentator about "Bush to Central Casting."  The following is a quote from your article that caught my eye:

"The Republicans express the worst kind of cynicism by using black faces as a cover for their policies. They know that black people, even those who want to meet a President, are not going to vote for them. Colin, Condi and turkey on Thanksgiving won’t change minds in voting booths. The Democratic nominee, whoever that is, will get at least 90% of the black vote and Republicans know it."

I agree with the first sentence in this statement (to a degree), but Democrats do the same thing. I don't think that the GOP is sacrificing Cabinet positions simply to recruit the black vote because they've proven they don't need the Black vote to win.  I think the deciding factor for Bush putting those people in their positions has to do with their history of supporting him and his policies.  No president will put someone in power that they don't think they have a handle on.  Replacing Condi and Colin with whites won't make anything better.

However, at the same time, I do realize the political significance of any president putting multiple blacks in visible positions of influence (an incredibly recent trend in federal politics).  And like you, I do not assume that his intentions are completely admirable. 

And as a non-partisan, I see no difference in Bush having Aretha sing than if Gore had Aretha sing.  Neither one goes home at the end of the night and dreams about how wonderful black people are.  No matter who was in power, Clinton or Bush, I can only remember my East Oakland Neighborhood getting worse and worse and more young blacks pregnant or in jail. 

I think the brightest political future for blacks will show us casting aside partisan politics and using our resources together for the improvement of our people.   Why should we be playing these same "political games" (for the same reasons) whites play when our situation in this country is so drastically different? We can take advantage of Bush just like some of us took advantage of Clinton. But that's just my opinion.

Anyway, keep up the good work and I will keep reading it.

Ms. Kimberley replied:

I am glad you enjoyed reading my column but if you responded to what you call "its raw cynicism" you missed the point. It is our system that is cynical and confuses persons like yourself so much you become incapable of taking a political stance of any kind. No where in your letter is it clear what you advocate. I find it interesting that someone studying public policy would not have any discernible political belief other than to call himself non partisan. You only say what you are not (republican or democrat) but you do not say what you are. Are you a social democrat, anarchist, libertarian, communist, black nationalist or adherent of some other political movement? Where do you stand Mr. Ledet?

I will accept that conditions in your hometown are unchanged regardless of who is in the White House, but that makes it all the more important for an educated person like yourself to clearly formulate a political point of view. Your graduate degree will be of little use to East Oakland if you quote Malcolm X but have no ideas of your own to offer.

The terrible realities of life in America make it easy to throw up our hands and say a pox on both your houses. As a student of politics you should realize that the powers that be rely on your frustration to create and sustain the conditions that exist in your neighborhood. If our only response is to say that there is no difference between a fox and a wolf then they will be able to do what they want in East Oakland and every other community in this country.

Good luck with your studies. 

Ms. Kimberley last month called for fewer politicians and more thought and discussion in Black churches on the next MLK Day. “In 2004 they should request the speakers who inundate their churches to address the issues raised in the Riverside Church speech as they relate to the war in Iraq,” she wrote, in “A Time to Break the Silence: Reclaiming Dr. King.”  The theme should be ‘A Time to Break the Silence on Iraq.’”

Antonio Cutolo-Ring is already rethinking the occasion.

Thank you for your column in The Black Commentator on Martin Luther King's foresight and courage in speaking out against the Vietnam war in 1967.  Your linking this speech to the current situation in Iraq is timely and absolutely relevant.

I was unaware of Dr. King's specific words in objecting to the Vietnam War. Your quotes from his speech show how the same forces that pushed us into Vietnam are currently at play in Iraq.  I will keep this in mind as we approach Dr. King's next birthday celebration, an election year and the continued tragedy being played out in Iraq. Again, thank you for your column.

Kudos for Tim Wise

has been known to have strange effects on people. Luckily, our impact on Mr. M.L. Mosley has been beneficial, overall.

Just want to let you know I enjoy your website.  Came across it about nine months ago and my Thursdays have never been the same. A lot of times I know I should be in bed, because I get up early.  But, I'm glued to my computer screen reading the great and truthful articles in your Commentary.

People just don't know they're not getting real news from the mainstream (corporate) media.

I like the articles written by Tim Wise a lot. Its good to know some white people think like he does and express it. Keep up the excellent work.

Here’s a link for fans of Tim Wise, the tireless anti-racism activist, lecturer and author:

http://www.speakersandartists.org/People/TimWise.html

Rights in their own land

In our October 23 issue, we republished Geneva Horse Chief’s Indian Country Today account of an Amnesty International USA hearing on police abuse of Native American rights. The event was organized by Amnesty’s Tulsa chapter. Kurt Wise is the group’s Webmaster.

You published the link to Amnesty USA several times in the articles.  I was hoping you might publish a link to Amnesty International’s Tulsa Chapter as well.

So, here it is:

http://www.AmnestyTulsa.org

”Tarbaby” General

African American federal workers at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal call him the “Tarbaby” General. On December 16, the top brass will throw a party for Larry Dodgen to celebrate his promotion to commanding general of the hyper-security Space and Missile Defense Command installation, outside Huntsville, Alabama. According to a statement by the Redstone Area Minority Employees Association (RAMEA), Gen. Dodgen is a habitual user of the racial epithet.

“MG Dodgen admitted to the Birmingham, AL press and in his sworn testimony this year that he used the racial epithet in the past. He was called as an Army EEO witness after one his managers used the term in an official email to allegedly insult Dr. Clara West, a black AMCOM engineer. MG Dodgen also admitted in his testimony that ‘Tarbaby’ is used at the Pentagon. Dr. West is the Class Agent in a Title VII complaint filed last August in the Northern District of Alabama by nearly 50 minority workers alleging racial discrimination and harassment at AMCOM.”

“The Pentagon is the eyes and ears for dedicated US military personnel who are dying in Iraq and around the world,” said Matthew Fogg, executive director of RAMEA. “’Tarbaby’ has historical racially hostile implications and now, a possible ‘Three Star’ General has given all black US Army personnel something to really be concerned about inside the high command headquarters around Washington DC.”  Gen. Dodgen’s promotion party will be held at Fort Myer, in suburban Virginia.

Longtime readers of should be familiar with the controversy at Redstone. In our fourth issue, June 7, 2002, we investigated the “Tar Baby Outrage: Racism and Corruption at Redstone Arsenal.

White managers at one of the nation’s most sensitive military installations routinely assault Black employees with an archaic racial epithet, undermining even the pretense of unified national resolve in the “War on Terror.”  At Huntsville, Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal, a military and civilian culture holds sway that seems to revel in the language of unrelenting war against the humanity and dignity of African Americans.

What do they call a Black Ph.D. at Redstone?  Tar Baby.

Never, ever forget

Dehumanization is a necessary prelude to genocide. Once the dehumanization project has been accomplished, there is no limit to the crimes that can be committed against the victims. In the not so long ago United States, Blacks often found no sanctuary from ritual, murderous assaults by racist fiends – frequently including hundreds and even thousands of the “best white citizens” of the neighborhood.

We recommend the photo-film of James Allen’s exhibit, “Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America.” The pictures are the Truth. View the film and click on the Forum page.

Without Sanctuary

http://www.musarium.com/withoutsanctuary/main.html

Keep Writing.

gratefully acknowledges the following organizations for sending visitors our way during the past week:

All Facts and Opinions

Black Electorate

Liberal Oasis

Black Planet


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