From our Mailbag 06/28/03 - 07/19/03




by YOU

THE WORLD - From Sanjay, (No City Provided), CA, USA:

SUBJECT: Connerly Initiative

Radio Raheem,

I read your critique of Shelby Steele's article in Harper's. Based on this, would it be correct to assume that you're against Connerly's upcoming initiative to ban the state from collecting data on race of individuals?

Thanks.
Sanjay


RAHEEM RESPONDS: My first response, Sanjay, was gonnah be that I'm damned sure I'm against any idea comin' out of Ward Connerly's head. But that's too flip. Fact is, I think racial data, especially census data, is important because of the way our politicians portion out the pieces of the pie. If that ever changes, then I'm all with Ward.


From Thomas B., (No City Provided,) USA:

SUBJECT: 40 Acres

From 2002 "President Lincoln recognized this simple principle and made a covenant with Black Americans to provide 40 acres and mule for their services so that they would have some chance of making it in a nation whose laws are predicated on principles of property. "

I have lots of land. I'll give you 40 acres, if you can provide one tiny bit of historical proof that that actually happened. And you know what? You will not be able to find one single shred of evidence. Sherman made a battlefield order, but it was never endorsed or approved by the Government, or anyone acting as an authoritative figure for the US government.

Looking forward to your reply.


RAHEEM RESPONDS: Some people make it too easy.

Mr. B., either you're arguing that General Sherman was not an "authoritative figure" of the United States government when he basically conquered the South during that war, or that President Lincoln (or subsequently Johnson) rescinded the order. Neither happened.

Where can I pick up the deed to the 40 acres you just publicly offered me?

antidote to
the mouthpiece media

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From Nathaniel L., New Orleans, LA, USA:

SUBJECT: hey rod

i have not talked to you in a while ... I'm nathaniel, i came and saw you at spotted cat a few times (childhood chum of Linnzi Zaorski).

I thought you might need some cheering up, so i wanted to pass along this link (maybe you will laugh as hard as i did).

just go to the google mainpage and type in "weapons of mass destruction" ... do not hit return, or search - instead click the "i'm feeling lucky" box :

what follows next is sheer joy !!!

or just go directly to the link http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

other than that - i am terribly sorry about the "arrest" and if you would like - i can get you in contact with an ACLU attourney that i am in good with. she specializes in things like this.

-nathaniel

From Darryl C., Hershey, PA, USA:

SUBJECT: Bob Powers

Is Bob Powers kidding about record companies needing to make a fair return on their investments? İThere is no justifiable reason, for example, for the company that now owns the Blue Note catalogue to charge consumers $12 to $20 dollars for music that was recorded 30 to 50 years ago just because the music is now being re-recorded onto compact disks. İHell, the company is still using the wonderful photographs and covers that graced the covers of the original vinyl records. İI won't download any music from the Internet because I strongly feel that recording artists and musicians deserve to be paid for their work but I won't defend recording companies that charge outrageous prices for music that sounded pretty damn good three, four or five decades ago when it was released on vinyl. İBy the way, can Bob tell how us much more in royalties is the estate of, say, Lee Morgan or Grant Green, is receiving now that Blue Note is asking you to pay three times more for their music than what it cost when it was all so new and fresh?

Darryl C


BOB RESPONDS: Mr. Cox makes good points. I don't claim to be an expert on the business part of the music business. I do know that companies dealing in jazz operate onİslim margins, the demand for jazzİreachingİa tiny percentage of the fans of today's pop music.

Jazz musicians, I suspect, are seldom able to put all their children through college on their CD royalities. But jazz always has been something done for the love of it, or because its players can't NOT play jazz. I don't endorse the idea that jazz players should be ripped off, but the record business is just that, a business.

Musicians don't have guns held to their heads before signing a contract with a record company. There are pressures, certainly, but I don't automatically assume that the record barons are making their millions off the backs of the innocent but naive performers.

In other words, both sides are not without blame, as in many other walks of life.

Bob Powers
"Powerssound"


From Mputhumi Ntabeni, Queenstown, SOUTH AFRICA:

SUBJECT: LETTERS

Rod,

i thought our readers might be interested in hearing Adam's side of the story corcerning the piece "White Guilt and Black Agression." I've enclosed an excerpt from the letter he wrote me afer he read the article.

best of luck in your case, and take care.

Friend,

Its is with just as much interest that I finally got around to reading your piece in last month's G21 as frustration that I cannot find what would have made the perfect response t o your sentiments, from an essay I had to write last year for my cultural history class...did I already send you that on on the paradox of Africanist History? I do hope so.

But overall, it was fascinating to see my words so well integrated into your thoughts on these matters. I often just shoots words off to friends in fits of creativity, and reflect little on them afterwards. Perhaps I might reflect more on them beforehand, I think, considering your subtle annoyance at some of my words. I hope that you took my darker phrases about the noble savage as not my own opinion, but rather simply plucking from the verbiage of oppression which so populated my education in colonialism. But I see that even if annoyed, you transcended any small minded sentiment to arrive at a deep and properly digested reflection on issues of race and identity.

Its amazing how we may deal with these issues on such a constant basis that they amount to a room temperature reality of our existence, juggling identiy conflict as an underlying aspect of being from which it cannot be separated, as you may find in your own occasionally precarious existence and my own, enmeshed as I am in learning the landscape of urban education. I mean, being white I represent a certain identity to my Latino students (white=authority=police=oppression) from which I also feel estranged confused and suspicious. But one thing I have learned in the last few weeks is that such meditations, while rich in potential, must be transcended in order to get to the real work at hand. For me, that means educating children. This is somewhat comforting to my overactive mind, just as the business which this phase in my life has eaten up almost free moment that I might have had. I like to busy. I need the structure.

much warmth,
Adam
NYC, New York
USA

From Katherine W., (No City Provided), USA:

SUBJECT: grr...

hey there... i don't know if there is any way you could forward this to stuart altman (if you have his e-mail address on file), but if you could, i would greatly appreciate it. i was disturbed to read altman's january 13, 2003 reaction to pro-anorexia/bullemia websites: "ana & mia: the coffin twins." a section of the article states:

"These websites also come with galleries of pictures of these Pro Ana women where you see more bones than a Steven King horror movie. The crazy part is these girls think they look beautiful. Like one girl who said she wants "razor ribs." I have been in a few conversations with men about what attracts us most to the female body. Of course we throw out butt, breasts, face, and some even toes, but I have never heard a guy say he fell in love with her razor ribs. It was also funny that one of these girls that sent in her pictures was still very much overweight. I guess she's Pro Ana just in spirit."

ok, it's one thing to disapprove of websites such as these, but it's quite another to do so while at the same time poking fun at the "very much overweight" girl who is "Pro Ana just in spirit." reading that line made me sick. do you think people with anorexia just decide to become anorexic and all of the sudden their bones start popping out? everyone had to start somewhere. there is no reason why someone who is overweight cannot have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bullemia. i do not cheer on eating disorders, but rather offer support to those who are struggling, in hopes that i may help them through to recovery. for you to make fun of the girl who sent in her picture only encourages this deadly behavior. i mean, it's highly doubtful that she read the article, but if she had, what message would it have sent? that she's not a good enough anorexic. that she needs to work harder at it. to eat less. to run more laps. to feel even worse about herself and her body.

she didn't read the article, but so many others did, and it sent this message: 'i don't support pro-ana/mia sites... but some of girls on these sites are still too fat anyway.' and that's the way you tear people down in order to drive them to the very behavior against which you are preaching.

katherine w


STUART RESPONDS: Dear Grr....

I find it amazing that many people are disturbed by my article but not by these websites. Please keep in mind that though it was a serious subject it was also a humor article(at least I hope it was). For a woman who is overweight to be on anorexic website is just as ricidulous as me with my nine inch biceps to be on a pro steroids website. I was not saying that this woman couldn't be or wasn't good enough to be anorexic it just seems unusual.

Just because you are overweight does not mean you can't be made fun of. Though those jokes are usually old and lame. However, there were lots of shots taken at other types of women in the article from razor ribs to Ally McBeal which don't seem to bother you.

I don't believe my comments in any way encourage this deadly behavior. This girl had obviously already been familiar with these website which taught you how to be more of an anorexic without people knowing. There is nothing I could that could come close to this.

I think it is very kind of you to help these women in recovery and keep up the good work.İ

Stuart Altmanİ

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