disoriented

The End of Segregation — Why Isn't Anyone Celebrating?

The dis-oriented author was in Atlanta last week. While there I read on CNN.com that one of the last bastions of racism and segregation, one of the last hold outs of Jim Crow was coming to an end in Georgia. It seeed to me that this should be cause for celebration. Perhaps Jesse Jackson or Kweisi Mfume or even Al Sharpton would be there to pound the last nail in the coffin "of separate but equal".

My father was black (well, at least half black). When he came from Jamaica in the 1950's he had to ride in the back of the bus all the way across the south. The experience troubled him and while we as travelled all over the country on vacation, he never once took us to the deep South.

Apparently I just don't get it, I would have thought that ending institutional racism would be cause for celebration — I could hardly have been more wrong.

The headline read "Georgia's only black engineering program set to close". When I read the headline I did a double-take. Hmmm... black engineering? I was an electrical engineering student (before switching to mathematics and computer science). I know some mechanical engineers, chemical engineers and my wife is a domestic engineer. But black engineering? What in the world is black engineering?

As I read further, it turns out that black engineering isn't an engineering discipline at all. The article refers to the engineering department at Clark Atlanta University, a traditionally black university. I find it absurd that in the twenty-first century we still have  traditionally black (ie. segregated) universities.

Several faculty and students in the program have sued to try and prevent the program from being shut down. Last week marked the passing of Rosa Parks. Her defiance of Jim Crow was the spark the fueled the civil rights movement in this country. Am I the only one who sees the irony here? Rosa Parks is not yet laid to rest and the beneficiaries of her legacy are doing all the can to re-segregate themselves.

CNN opened by saying:

Yemaya Stallworth came to Clark Atlanta University to get an engineering degree at a school where her teachers and classmates looked like her: black.

According to Kester Garraway, a senior in mechanical engineering:

There's a dire need for us to produce black engineers, the faculty can better relate to our struggles — some of us need that one-on-one time that we get at CAU.

I suppose after graduating from Clark Atlanta, graduates will be prepared to work on black engineering projects for black engineering firms. They will of course work for black managers and serve black clients. They will hear from black consultants and hire black accountants.

Having studied in the engineering program at a major (traditionally white) university, I can tell you that blacks would have trouble fitting in — just like whites — since everyone in engineering these days is Asian.

Ethnic Cleansing

According to the Wikipedia the phrase ethnic cleansing comes from the Cerbo-Croatian: etničko čišćenje. The word is usually applied to forced migrations (like the Cherokee and the Trail of Tears) or genocide(like the Tutsis in Rwanda). The dis-oriented author is dismayed to see in my own country a form of ethnic cleansing taking place.

No, I don't meant the ethnic cleansing of voters rolls in 2000 and 2004 as some have reported. I am talking about an issue that has faced this nation from the outset — I am talking about the systematic attempt to eradicate every trace of Native American influence, culture and identity from our collective consciousness.

I am talking about the NCAA.

According to NCAA president Myles Brand, the NCAA Executive Committee has ruled that they will not:

conduct championships on the campuses of member institutions where the use of nicknames and mascots representing American Indians is considered hostile and abusive

According to the Brand editorial there are 18 out of over 1000 institutions that are affected. Only 18? Really? The NCAA's policy covers much more than Indian mascots. According to the NCAA press release:

But as a national association, we believe that mascots, nicknames or images deemed hostile or abusive in terms of race, ethnicity or national origin should not be visible at the championship events that we control.

In light of the NCAA's position I would like to share with readers the mascots that will need to change, the number of schools that use the mascot and why they are unacceptable:

3	Argonauts	A Greek tribe
	Aztecs	A Mexican Tribe
	Athenas	Sexist, anti-Greek, religious
	Boilermakers	anti-blue collar
	Boxers	anti-Chinese
8	Braves	anti-Indian
6	Cavaliers	anti-English
	Celtics	anti-Irish
	Celts	anti-Irish
	Chieftans	anti-Indian(changing to Skyhawks)
	Chippewas	anti-Indian
	Choctaws	anti-Indian
9	Cowboys	anti-Cowboy
27	Crusaders	anti-Muslim
	Dons	anti-Mexican/Spanish
4	Dragons	anti-Chinese
	Dutchmen	anti-Dutch
3	Flying Dutchmen	anti-Dutch
	Friars	anti-religious
	Guachos	anti-Argentine
	Grenadiers	anti-English
	Highland Cavaliers	anti-Scottish
5	Highlanders	anti-Scottish
	Illini	anti-Indian
9	Indians	anti-Indian
	Irish	anti-Irish
	Lumberjills	sexist
	Maccabees	anti-Jewish
	Matadors	anti-Spanish
	Moccasins	anti-Indian
	Mocs	anti-Indian
	Mohawks	anti-Indian
2	Moundbuilders	anti-Indian
	Musketeers	anti-French
	Nanooks	anti-Inuit
	Norse	anti-Norwegian
3	Quakers	anti-Duck ;-)
	Ragin' Cajuns	anti-French
3	Redmen	anti-Indian
20	Saints	anti-Muslim
10	Scots	anti-Scottish
	Scotties	anti-Scottish
	Seminoles	anti-Indian
	Sioux	anti-Indian
16	Spartans	anti-Greek
	Swedes	anti-Swede
	Tartans	anti-Scottish
	Texans	anti-Texans
44	Tigers	anti-Tamil Tiger
	Tommies	anti-English
	Toreros	anti-Spanish
	Toros	anti-Spanish
	Tribe	anti-Indian
	Vandals	anti-Hun
18	Vikings	anti-Viking
15	Trojans	anti-Trojan
	Trolls	anti-Troll
	Utes	anti-Indian
	Warhawks	anti-Indian
26	Warriors	anti-Indian
	White Mules	self-explanatory
	Women of Troy	anti-Trojan,sexist

Maybe the student body at UC Santa Cruz was right. When they voted for a change in school mascot they chose the Banana Slug.

You go girl!

The disoriented author notes that racism is in the news once more. I am not talking about Edgar Ray Killen getting the 60 years he deserves in the Mississippi Burning case. I am talking a serious injustce.

The incident I read about shows just how little the world has changed. How no matter what one achieves in life, color matters. My white readers cannot understand this it is something we people of color have to bear on our own.

I am talking about the blatant racism shown to Oprah Winfrey by the staff at Hermès Paris.

According to CNN, last week while in Paris, Oprah was planning on going to dinner with Tina Turner. On the way she decided to stop by Hermès and by a watch as a gift for Turner.

When Oprah got to the store it was 6:45pm and the store had been closed for 15 minutes. The store was setting up for a private PR event. Oprah talked to a clerk and then a manager but they would not let her in.

An Oprah spokesperson said that Oprah:

will discuss her 'crash moment' when her show returns from hiatus in September

[For the un-enlightened, Crash is a movie and a crash moment is when one feels discriminated against because of their skin color.]

Reports differ on the details. Some say that the store was having trouble with North Africans and that is why Oprah was not admitted. Regardless, Hermès has apologized and invited Oprah back to shop with them.

So now Oprah is a victim of racism. Well sister, (the dis-oriented author is part black so it's OK for me to say that) I have been a victim too. I remember a time when I drove up to a McDonald's drive-thru window right before closing at 10:59pm. I was the third car in line. As I was pulling up to order at 11:00pm they turned off the lights and shut down.

Racist pigs! Just because I am a dis-Oriental they refused to serve me! How dare they!

So Oprah, the disoriented author joins you in solidarity. The next time I am in Paris on the Faubourg St Honore I will not walk into Hermès and buy that $400 scarf for my wife.

I agree that since we are minorities everyone should give us special privileges like letting us shop after hours. You are the modern day Rosa Parks!

You go girl!

If Only More of us Were Black

In one of the first articles on this site I lamented that churches had voluntarily given up their First Amendment Rights by accepting 501(c)(3) or tax-exempt status. Somehow I failed to note that some churches get both 501(c)(3) status and the ability to speak out on political issues and even endorse candidates. Which churches get these special privilieges — black churches.

In Florida this weekend, John Kerry went to church twice. First he went to a Catholic Mass which according to Kerry aides (as reported by Associated Press) was for personal worship rather than for any campaigning.  Does that mean that the second church visit was for campaigning?

The second time Kerry went to Church was at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Miami. During the campaign Kerry has made it a habit of appearing at black churches. This time he was accompnaied by the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. During the service parishioners waved fans passed out by the Kerry campaign.

Perhaps if more of us were black — my church could also ignore the rules governing 501(c)(3)'s.

In this country we have developed a patronizing attitude towards minorities. In the name of compassion we choose not to criticize minorities ever. So what if black churches do not follow the IRS regulations regarding political activity — after all they have been through, they deserve a break. The problem is that we now have a culture within a culture that Bill Cosby described by saying, "They think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere." Cosby said this before a shocked audience at Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH/Rainbow Coalition meeting.

The problem isn't black culture the problem is black seperatism within American culture. Clearly our nation has had a painful journey to granting equal rights to blacks. But it seems that in this society where rights are equal — blacks are retreating to the days of seperate but equal. One need only look at our nation's colleges with their black homecomings, black dorms, black study halls, etc. to see that black seperatism is on the rise.

So what message does Kerry take to black churches? The message is always the same. Bush and the Republicans want to send you back to the plantations. They want to dis-enfranchise you. You cannot succeed without special assistance. Kerry said, "Never again will a million African Americans be denied the right to exercise their vote in the United States of America ..." This is the message that John Kerry is taking to black churches across the nation.

I don't know which bothers me more. That this is what passes for hope or that black audiences seem to be eating this stuff up.