Dr. Lester K. Spence

Somehow I missed Gary Dauphin’s take on John McWhorter. I’m interested in McWhorter about as far as I can throw him, but what I am becoming more interested in are the politics of The New Accomodationism.

Accomodationism refers to the ideology taken up by blacks in the Jim Crow era. Given the pervasive nature of Jim Crow terrorism blacks had to decide whether (and how) to fight, or to go along to get along. This latter strategy involved using various means to change the self-image of black people as well as their image in the minds of whites. It also involved various forms of self-help either through religious, fraternal, professional, or educational institutions, or through various media publications. But the one strategy that was largely disavowed was that of political and economic action against the terrorist regime. The best way for black success was to accept the contours of Jim Crow and to do everything they could to help themselves within those confines (along with getting out of the way of whites).

What we are dealing with now is nothing less than a new form of racial accomodationism. When was the last time that someone posited that structural factors were responsible for black life chances, without qualification? That is, instead of saying “well, we know that some police have it out for black people…but yet and still black crime is real”, saying “some police have it out for black people and we need to figure out how to deal with this.”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Who would it be?

I think I cribbed this meme from one of my man Gary Dauphin’s, deli.icio.us links.  Whatever the case, another Michigan alum answers the question definitively.

For a longer list check this one out.

Now check the dates out on these posts.  I wonder how long it’ll be before bloggers are digging for old posts like DJs go digging in crates.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Minister Farrakhan is giving the Nation of Islam’s annual Savior’s Day Speech in Detroit on Sunday, and I’ve been asked to participate in a roundtable for this event, which may be his last, due to his failing health.

My feelings about Minister Farrakhan are mixed.

On the one hand there are critiques of white supremacy, of black leadership, that for a number of reasons only Farrakhan has made.  The Nation of Islam as an economic and social engine provides him the relative freedom to go places nobody else goes.  Last year’s State of the Black Union event was hosted by a local mega-church minister who had given his support to Bush during both elections and afterward.  Of course he wasn’t the only minister–a number of black ministers have expressed support for Bush.

But while other panelists at the State of the Black Union event tiptoed around the issue lightly, only Farrakhan called the ministers out for who they were.  Black people need to hear this critique, and they need to hear it made eloquently and powerfully.

But on the other hand Farrakhan’s mode of leadership as expressed by his speeches and his organization, is anti-democratic with a capital A. Because he literally represents the mouth of God to folllowers, he can’t be wrong.  Because the organization is private, there is no transparency (we can’t see the books, nor all of his activities).  Because the organization is private there is no way for citizens in general who are NOT members of the Nation of Islam, to hold him accountable.  What this means inevitably is that Minister Farrakhan rather than being a “black leader” should be thought of more as a “black voice”.  In fact I’d make similar cases for Sharpton and Jackson.

I expect the Minister to skirt around WHO his successor will be.  But at the same time I expect him to deal head on with the possible crisis that the Nation faces after he passes, to keep what happened to the Nation when Elijah Muhammad passed away, from happening to the Nation again.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

When political scientists think about “running the numbers” what we normally think about is some form of quantitative analysis. In my case, I’m thinking about multivariate regressions.

When Chris Jordan talks about running the numbers he’s got another thing in mind altogether. It’s this type of work that got me interested in the possibilities of photography as an intellectual art form. Take a look. Think Warhol with a political kick.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A few years ago when I was starting the postdoc in Baltimore, I met a powerful MD/MPH named Sekai, who was studying HIV/AIDS on both the domestic and international level.  She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

Her last name?  Chideya.

She had the same eyes as Farai, and was from Baltimore too (turns out her mother lives up the street from me!).  So I figured, PhD that I am, that they must be related.   And I was right!  Not only were they related, they were roommates in San Fran….where they set me out with dinner during one of my visits to the area.  Farai told me she was working on an NPR deal, and she also told me that she’d put me down because she was interested in my work.

Now how many times have you been told you were going to be put down, only to be…jacked put down?  Yes, that’s what I thought.  Me too.

So I thanked them for the lovely dinner–the Chideyas (ALL OF THEM) know how to set it out!  And didn’t think about the NPR stuff.  Too much work to do.

A few years later, this is how that story ends.  And I owe Sekai and Farai.

Which brings me to Jimi. Jimi and I go back to the Africana.com days–(shouts out to Kate Tuttle, to Gary Dauphin the money man, and to Zakia Carter!), and we’ve hollered probably once or twice when we needed information and advice.  I was interested in doing some editorials and was interested in his spin, he was interested in teaching a class and wanted mine.

Anyway, Michele Martin is doing her thing and Jimi gives me a call about an idea.  He wants to have kind of a barbership session on her show.  And wants me to be down.

Jimi and Farai probably differ on a whole lot of things.  But being people of their word ain’t one of them.  So I knew that when he put the word in, we’d be good to go.

So we taped two bits yesterday.  I’ll let you know when you can listen to them.

A shout out also goes to my wife.  One of the hardest things to do in the modern era (or any era for that matter) is to be a good spouse, parent, worker simultaneously.   I am not that good at what I make LOOT doing, much less be a good parent, and spouse as well.  The phrase “something has got to give” has a picture of me and my wife, on the cover.  We are simultaneously a picture of the model black American family (wife, husband, five children, all healthy and *relatively* sane, all educated, all possessing a love of learning and each other, and all beautiful except for the daddy), and of the stresses and strains that crack many up in a bad way.  Here I’m talking about the stresses of homeschooling, having only one income living on the east coast, and working crazy hours to get job security.

This ain’t no joke.

So an extra shout out to her.

As you were…..

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.
Thanks to Think Progress.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video. Thanks to the folks at Hip Hop Politics.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It’s been widely thought that the reason that HIV/AIDS was so hard to fight was that it morphed…changing shape in a way that prevented standard approaches to dealing with disease.  As soon as you develop a method of dealing with one form, another form develops.

But researchers have found that this may not be the case.  This is a significant breakthrough.  Articles like these very rarely deal with the creative process itself.  I would be interested in knowing what led the researchers to pursue this line of inquiry.

Thanks to Angry Biscuit.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So I’m watching Sweetback’s Badass Song for the Black Power Fantasies course I am co-teaching with Stanford Carpenter. What we don’t really have a handle on is how transformative the black power period was. There are a whole set of propositions that those of us born after 65 take for granted, that I’m not sure was taken for granted by our predecessors. I’ve never taken the “white is right” koolaid for example. I’ve never believed that black people were less than. I’ve never judged the beauty of black women using white standards.

Never.

What Black Power was about at its best was actually recreating a racial sense of self that was more appropriate for the present and also for the future. But while it succeeded in changing our attitudes about what was possible for black people in and out of America, it also ended up reifying some problematic tendencies. Take Sweetback’s Badass Song. (more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while now. No time like the present:

Compendium of Public Radio Podcasts –Access to over 900 public radio programs throughout the globe.

45 Free Cutting Edge Books–Many authors are starting to release their works digitally through a creative commons license.

Ten Democracy Projects in Seven Minutes–I’ve written about the need for transparency in my discussion of open source black politics before. These tools are easily portable to deal with the issues black communities face.

Seven Rules for Maximizing Creative Output–With the increase in stimuli it is becoming harder and harder to generate the discipline needed to create. Here are ways to deal with the challenges modern life places on the artist.

A challenging web riddle–Speaking of distractions! I’ve only gotten to level two. (Because I’m trying to maximize my creative output, remember?)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites