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From our Mailbag 10/31/02 - 11/15/02



by G21 READERS (Like You!)

THE WORLD - From Darryl C., Hershey, PA, USA:

SUBJECT: Shelby Steele

Bravo, my brother, bravo! I read Prof. Steele's piece twice and it was only on the second reading that I could begin to discern what his argument was. The problem, as I see it, is that regardless of the merits of his claims it is preposterous to claim that blacks have lost or are losing their sense of themselves as individuals. I am genuinely surprised that Lewis Lapham would even bother to publish an essay that sheds, IMHO, absolutely no light on the problem of individualism and black identity. To borrow a phrase from the late, great Ralph Waldo Ellison, I knew that Steele was "buggy-jiving" when he wrote in such complimentary terms about Elridge Cleaver. This is the same Elridge Cleaver who once wrote that James Baldwin's real problem was that he wanted to have a baby by a white man or who wrote that before he raped white women he practiced raping black women. I suppose this is what Steele meant by "writing with real fire and eloquence."

Darryl C.


RAHEEM RESPONDS: Mr. C.,

Thanks for reading my little essay and taking the time to write in. I'm glad brother Rod decided to hip me to that article, because I might have missed it, and -- as I'm sure you'll see on this page -- it's one that obviously touched a nerve out there. Stay Black! -- RR


From Paul P., (No City Provided,) USA:

SUBJECT: Last Intellectual etc.

In both the Baldwin analysis and his take on Cornel West's move from Harvard to Princeton, Mr. Steele is avoiding saying explicitly that these are examples of Black people getting something they did not deserve.

I think he is very explicit. "[Baldwin's] fame was out of all proportion to his work". "West's achivements are simply not commensurate with his position as a University Professor -- a rank normally reserved for Nobel-level accomplishment."

What damned meritocracy, Shelby? What country are you living in?"

Last time I looked, there weren't a lot of Black CEOs of multinational corporations or wives of billionaire Blacks enjoying mimosas with the Ladies Who Lunch."

I believe that the NFL is a meritocracy of football players but there are very few Asians playing. Does that mean I'm wrong and it ISN'T a meritocracy? Do you think that the NFL is actually rigged against Asians? These huge, talented Asians show up to try out but nobody lets them play?

There is no doubt that there is a problem of financial inequality. Nobody would argue with that. The question is whether the modern cause is racism.

Steele says no. You say yes.

Steele says (persusasively, in my mind) that it is destructive to _assume_ that the problem is racism because then you must also assume that the solution is in someone else's hands, rather than your own. Perhaps the real problem is that Blacks are waiting for prosperity to be handed to us them as reparations (in both the formal and informal sense) rather than going otu and fighting for prosperity the way Asians and Hispanics are.

Whether or not you agree, it would be at least a sign of respect to address Steele's argument rather than a straw-man argument.

The last time I looked, Shelby, a brother's qualifications for a job were only one factor in his actually getting that job for the same pay as a member of the White Boys' Club.

In my experience (as a Black man in the technology industry), they are the main factor. I acknowledge that your experience may be different. Furthermore, you've ignored an important point of Steele's argument:

"There is one last obvious but unassimilated fact: ethinc groups that hae asked a lot from their individuals have done exceptionally well in America even while enduring discrimination."

Think of the "kikes", "slanty-eyes", "pakis" and probably in the future the "spics". What do these groups have that differentiates them from the groups that haven't gotten ahead like Blacks and Native Indians? They never had a sense that white people owed them anything. They said: "We'll build what we have to ourselves."

The last time I looked, our government had reported that our schools were effectively segregated once more and few -- if any -- brothers were even getting into institutions of higher learning to hold the kind of privileged fellowship position you now enjoy.

So you figure that few Blacks get into institutions of higher learning because universities look at their application forms, see they are Black and reject them? I think it is more likely that Blacks tend to have lower high school grades. And the solution to that comes from within the Black community, not outside.

And the last time I looked, the civil rights struggle was still an on-going project.

It will be forever incomplete. When will it be complete enough that Blacks can take responsibility for themselves and stop requiring special treatment?

Or to put it another way: we've been trying the Jesse Jackson approach since the late sixties. When will we admit it is failing and try a different approach? Like looking for the solutions to our problems _within_ ourselves?

The reason the civil rights project is on-going and incomplete, I would argue to Mr. Steele, is because people like him insist on continuing to spread this false myth of Black privilege. It's insidious. It won't go away. The neo-cons like Shelby continue to spread this myth the same way their predescessors did the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Ronald Reagan did the urban legend about "welfare queens" riding around in Cadillacs.

Just FYI, I'm anything but a neo-con. I'm leftist on issues like taxes, drugs, heath care, education and so forth. I think that the American health and education systems are terrible.

I have recently come around to a different view on the issues of Black civil rights because I can see that NOTHING HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED by the modern civil rights movement. Since MLK died it has been a total waste of time and Black people are just as bad off as they were back then. There was more progress made in ten years of the original movement than in thirty years since then. When will Blacks admit that we need a new strategy?

The modern movement is an embarassment. It is rife with anti-scemitism. Jesse Jackson goes to jail to defend Black students _right_ to be violent and not be punished for it.

"The lawsuit claims the school district's zero-tolerance policy violated the students' civil rights and prevented them from getting a fair hearing."

a cathedral of words

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The word civil rights used to mean something. A truly progressive Black movement would see a zero-tolerance towards violence policy as wonderful example of setting a high standard and requiring Blacks and Whites alike to live up to it.

We shall not have overcome, Shelby, until your myth of Black privilege is a thing of the past and the issue of race is acknowleged, as W.E.B. DuBois asserted, as the central problem of our century. That day will arrive when we are all truly looked at as simply members of a human family, with all of its privileges and all of its responsibilities; when brothers aren't simply asked to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but acknowledgement is made that they don't have any damned boots;

People come to America without bootstraps every day. Every damn day. The boostraps are there to be found.

and when even revisionists like you recognize that being Black is not being part of a special group.

So if you believe that being Black is not being part of a special group then I guess you are against affirmative action??

Paul P


RAHEEM RESPONDS: Mr. P.,

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to write in about my article. The whole point of writing here at all is to open dialogue.

That said, I also gottah say that I always find it amusing when Yuppies and Buppies call themselves liberal or leftist on issues like healthcare, etc. -- issues that directly affect them and their wallets BUT toe the neo-conservative line when other folks might also want to belly up to the government handout trough. Kindah strikes me as selfish and hypocritical. How about you?

One more thing, like someone else wrote in, how do you defend your fellow-traveler Steele putting Eldridge Cleaver up as an example of an "authentic" Black man while dumping on James Baldwin? I just gottah wonder.

As to Asian football players, I guess you never heard of Jesse Saporo. He played for San Francisco, FYI.

Now let's see if I can get to the main points of contention you have with my analysis of Mr. Steele's Black bashing. If I'm reading you right, Mr. P., and remember, I'm not as intellectually astute as yourself, Mr. Steele or even our Editor, here's what you're tryin' to tell me:

1. I needed to show why/how racism was a factor that impacts the economic inequality that uninformed Blacks like myself complain about.
2. In your view and Mr. Steele's Black people don't "...build what we have ourselves."

Okay, my brother, here's the short response to your first challenge: I come over to your house and kidnap your wife, your son and your daughter. I take them over to my place and have them build my house, raise my crops and my children. Hell, I don't have to pay them jack. They're my prisoners in a country that doesn't even speak their language. I've got it made!

One day I wake up with pangs of conscience, years later, and tell their descendents, "Gee, sorry about that. It's a big world out there and you can get by I'm sure. Good luck." I chase them away from my place at gunpoint.

I suppose, Mr. P., you'd argue that my criminal act would have no impact whatsoever on their economic prospects or those of their children. Okay, fair enough. Let's take it a bit further.

They're still in my country now (how they gonnah get back home?) and they've learn the language, but because of a blue stripe on their hands everyone knows they are among the folks me and others kidnapped and abused. That blue-stripe gave us kidnappers the right to write it into law that the kidnapped folks weren't even real human beings. Are you following the analogy yet, Mr. P? NO IMPACT? Are you crazy?

Excuse me, Mr. P. I was startin' to sound like an angry Black man for a moment, wasn't I?

Your second point, and Steele's, is that old one usually trotted out about now, "Other groups make it. Blacks are just lazy and want a handout." Let me focus on your own words: '..build what we have.." I'll start answering your question with a question: Who built the agricultural system in the South that enriched the new nation called America, Mr. P? Was that your "pakis", "kikes" and "spics"? Who built railroads and skyscrapers and highways and fought in every single war this country had including the Revolutionary War?

That was someone else I guess. Not Black folks. I'm totally deluded.

Mr. P., I try to contain my anger when I come across people like you parroting the neo-con lines that sound so damned reasonable while TOTALLY BASED ON MYTHS AND BIAS. I really do. But then I remember all those Black school teachers, dock workers, ministers, janitors, lawyers out there who are still fighting the good fight without their blinders on. Those folks aren't askin' for a handout, Mr. P., they are just askin' for equal treatment! Those are folks who don't try to re-write history to fit the Whitewashed view. And I look at the disproportionate amount of brothers in the American gulag. That's when I get mad.


From Erin, (No City Provided,) USA:

SUBJECT: Your response to Mr. Steele

Very nice. You articulated that quiet well. Very humble, yet bold. I was curious if he has responded yet? It's funny....I was so impressed with his essay, and being white, I know I had no place to respond (or would I even ever have a THOUGHT to to be honest)...but reading did instigate some serious provoking thought. It's very interesting to see such contrasting views....I love seeing both sides of any and every coin....

Thanks again...Erin


From Elizabeth H., New Orleans, LA, USA:

SUBJECT: g21

Hello Rod! Long time no talk...I have been enjoying your editorials as of late, and am amazed at the scope of work your e-mag puts out every week. Who would have thought under that calm, water-off-a-duck's-back exterior lies this prolific ball of angst and ideas.

Cheers!


From Mattie Lennon, Dublin, IRELAND:

SUBJECT: Peggy Sweeney

Hi Rod,

a few weeks ago you put up my piece on Peggy Sweeney. Well her new video "Kerry ; A Kingdom of Song" is out now and available from: Peggy Sweeney
Mountcoal, Listowel,
Co. Kerry,
Ireland

Price: 18 Dollars (inc P&P)

Will you give it a mention?

Mattie


From Frank M., (No City Provided,) USA:

Raheem:

Bruthah, you're not helping to dilute or argue his point by claiming you didn't get him the first time around. My question to him is how he doesn't see himself as a pawn. It's not white guilt he should be carping about but white privilege. That is our detriment. Greater than anything else.

Frank J M


Geder, Oakland, CA, USA:

SUBJECT: About Shelby Steele

Radio Raheem,

I see you keep a fresh supply of batteries nearby.

I, too, had to read that Harper's article a couple of times. At first I thought that distractions were keeping me from understanding it.

Next, I realized that I was reaching for the dictionary way too much. And I'm a 51 year-old product of the State University of New York and many marches, sit-ins, protests, etc. Shelby Steele is not Franz Fanon. So what's my problem?

You nailed it. It was a jumbled text of hinting and suggesting that striving for individualism (read black conservatism and anti-affirmative action) is a good thing. I'm in his age group/generation and it only took me ONE Great Society inspired gig to realize the traps in that program; not four.

I'm not going to break down his article in this e-mail. Just want to say thanks for confirming that I'm not tripping! Now, to find the person who suggested I buy that magazine....

Geder
(I'm in Oakland also)
Peace
"Guided by the Ancestors"


From Amowi P., (No City or Country Provided):

SUBJECT: college course material

I would like to have my Contemporary Africa course students read the story "Discovering Home" in hard copy. What would be the legitimate way to do this?

Thank you
Amowi P.


ROD RESPONDS: Dr. P,

Feel free to either print it out directly from the Web site or write to Binyavanga Wainaina directly at [the e-mail address provided] to see if he can provide you hardcopy.

Regards,
Rod


From Tom M., Astoria, NY, USA:

Rod,

I read with much interest 'The Monaghan Dublin Bombings' by Joe O'Neill in the current 'Irish Eyes' page. The Wild Geese Today (http://www.thewildgeese.com) and Paramount (http://www.paramountclassics.com/bloodysunday ) are currently in the midst of an 8 week promotion of 'Bloody Sunday' as it opens in theatres across the US. I attended the opening of the movie here in New York. It was as real as it gets!

It galvanized my resolve to do whatever I could do, to make sure the truth is told. I've had the privilege and honor of meeting both Don Mullan and David Tereshchuk. With his Irish lilt, his polite demeanor and lucid wit, Don Mullan is everything everyone loves about the Irish and then some! David is an honorable Englishman, a journalist, who was present in Derry that fateful day as a correspondent for one of the British news services, covering events in the 6 counties. He has come forth to tell the truth and is a collaborator on the project. In fact, he's been summoned to London to provide testimony in the ongoing Saville inquiry, convened by Tony Blair, in the hopes (we hope!) of finally bringing closure, to have the truth told and justice served.

'Bloody Sunday', Sunday, January 30, 1972 was the day when unarmed Irish civilians of Derry City, engaged in a peaceful civil rights march, were set upon by the British Army, ostensibly engaged in 'riot control'. The aftermath of this terrible day saw the wounding of 14 and the murder of 14. For our part, we can right this terrible wrong, in some small measure, by speaking up and telling the truth in such numbers that the whole world will have to listen, so that no such thing will ever happen again, anywhere!

With a worldwide distribution, G21 has the potential to reach thousands and in doing so, would help tell the truth and dispel the myriad lies and distortions that have been told to an ignorant and naive world. If you agree and are willing, we would appreciate a link placed on the 'Irish Eyes' page or whatever page you deem appropriate. The budget for 'Bloody Sunday' was paltry by Hollywood standards, less than $4M, US. As such, the primary aim and purpose of the movie is not a commercial one but one to spread the truth far and wide that a peaceful, civil rights demonstration by the residents of Derry City were brutally cut down on their own soil by agents of a foreign army. Adding insult to injury to this dark, ignoble deed, the Queen of England awarded medals to the soldiers who perpetrated these murders!!

Just as a reference for you, the following is an example of a recently distributed promotion. We thank you for whatever exposure you could provide.

Begin Promo

Please visit http://www.thewildgeese.com, The Wild Geese Today -- The Epic History and Heritage of the Irish is featuring the hard-hitting, Paramount production of 'Bloody Sunday'. Thirty years after the British army shot 27 protesters and onlookers in Derry, the struggle of the victims' families for the truth has finally borne fruit. The Saville Commission will render a verdict, yes, but the gunmen also face the court of public opinion -- in movie houses across the continent. Author Don Mullan tells us why seeing this film matters.

SEND US YOUR 'BLOODY SUNDAY' TIX and you could win a prize

WGT is proud to announce an eight-week promotion of the extraordinary docudrama "Bloody Sunday," now making its way to theaters across the United States.

For the next 8 weeks this page will feature the hard-hitting, Paramount docudrama 'Bloody Sunday'. Sunday, January 30, 1972 was the day when unarmed Irish civilians of Derry City, engaged in a peaceful civil rights march, were set upon by the British Army, ostensibly engaged in 'riot control'. The aftermath of this terrible day saw the wounding of 14, the immediate murder of 13 with one lad finally succumbing to his wounds and later dying, bringing the total to 14 murdered, 13 wounded. This despicable act of cowardice and cruelty, visited on innocent people in their native land by an alien army, came as a result of live-fire ammunition being used by British 'Paras' with wanton disregard for and depraved indifference to human life. For our part, we can right this terrible wrong, in some small measure, by speaking up and telling the truth in such numbers that the whole world will have to listen, so that no such thing will ever happen again, anywhere! Please add your voice to the long-silent voices of those gunned down that fateful day in Derry City by signing our guestbook: http://www.thewildgeese.com/guestbook/addguest.html

End Promo

Slainte W
Tom M,
Associate Producer
The Wild Geese Today -- The Epic History and Heritage of the Irish
Published by GAR Media
38-11 Ditmars Boulevard, #193 | Astoria NY 11105-1803
v: 631-447-5339 | f: 208-978-9998 | e: tmadigan@thewildgeese.com


ROD RESPONDS: Tom,

Thanks for visiting G21 and for writing! We love hearing from our readers and I'll certainly forward your words on to Joe O'Neill.

Actually, the article you reference is of some long standing. Nonetheless, we'd be more than pleased to link to your worthy project.

Cheers,
Rod


From Ed C., Bloomfield, MI, USA:

SUBJECT: You give Love A Bad Name!!

Dear Charlie:

It's Uncle Eddy, Mr. Ed, the Italian __hole from Michigan that was always crushing on your game. Loved your articel - brutal as I was at times(myself, I once shipped Rod some DHEA tablets, figuring a little "lead in his pipe", might turn up the light in his head), you were pretty much 95% there. 'Bout the only thing I wouldn't join ya on is the "pro girl" action - the high disease and/or robbery risk is pretty scary, but hey, it's your body.

Peace,
E.C.


CHARLIE THE TUNA RESPONDS: Italian Man! I think you got it wrong (need I say "again""?) about the Mexican pros. This here is like Amsterdam where they got papers and such! And the gov'ment down there makes sure this is regulated so there ain't no risk of crime, either. It's a horn-dog's Paradise.

As to Mr. Rod, all I can do is wag my head. We both gottah hope some woman just comes along and puts him out of his misery. Either that, or he takes the priestly vows. Back at ya! Stay Hard.


From Clint B., Chicago, IL, USA:

SUBJECT: Freedom Road

Hello Rod -

I happened upon an internet article you wrote in February of 2000 concerning the film Freedom Road (with relation to Bush & McCain and the election). I am currently researching the Red Shirts, whom you mention in your article as having been portrayed in the film. I have personally never seen the movie and unfortunately my local video store doesn't have a copy of the film either. Do you mind, then, filling my in on some of the specifics of the representation of the red shirts in this film? Were they identified specifically as "Red Shirts" or were they simply wearing shirts of that color. Furhtermore, was there any mentioning of their organization and their collaboration with the Ku Klux Klan, or was this information merely implied? Thank you for any help you could offer.

Regards //
Clint


ROD RESPONDS: Clint,

Thanks for writing and reminding me of a very moving film that -- considering that I churn out so many articles each week -- dropped from my aged memory. Sorry to hear it's not available in your local video store. I'd suggest placing an order as the film is based on historical fact and Mohammed Ali does a journeyman job under the circumstances.

The Red Shirts proudly identified themselves as such and did fraternize with the Ku Klux Klan. It's another sad part of the history of this country that too few people know about.

But some of us do. Start with a Google search is my suggestion and expand from there.


[EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the high volume of mail we've been receiving recently and the length of some of our authors' responses -- ahem! -- space does not permit including all of the e-mails in our bag this edition.

We'll pick it up next edition. We apologize for any inconvenience. See you in two weeks!]

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