Motley Moose – Archive

An historic event is taking place in Washington D.C. this week. The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

August 4-6

“I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – partners with America on behalf of the future we want for all of our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility and mutual respect.”

President Obama

President Obama in August will welcome leaders from across the African continent to the Nation’s Capital for a three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the first such event of its kind. This Summit, the largest event any U.S. President has held with African heads of state and government, will build on the President’s trip to Africa in the summer of 2013 and it will strengthen ties between the United States and one of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing regions. Specifically, the August 4-6 Summit will advance the Administration’s focus on trade and investment in Africa and highlight America’s commitment to Africa’s security, its democratic development, and its people. At the same time, it will highlight the depth and breadth of the United States’ commitment to the African continent, advance our shared priorities and enable discussion of concrete ideas to deepen the partnership. At its core, this Summit is about fostering stronger ties between the United States and Africa.

The theme of the Summit is “Investing in the Next Generation.” Focusing on the next generation is at the core of a government’s responsibility and work, and this Summit is an opportunity to discuss ways of stimulating growth, unlocking opportunities, and creating an enabling environment for the next generation.

I made a response to Rand Paul’s address at the Urban League Convention in Cincinnati, July 23-26, 2014 in which he dubbed himself a “minority”, in “What not to say to black people when you are Rand Paul“. I want to share this opinion piece with you from Stephanie-Rawlings Blake, the mayor (D) of Baltimore MD.

Opinion: Blacks shouldn’t be fooled by Rand Paul

While I applaud anyone’s efforts to reach out to the black community and share ideas that would improve our families’ lives, Paul doesn’t understand a very important piece of the puzzle: earning our trust. For Paul to claim to stand up for our values while opposing policy after policy that advances our community is not the way to do this.

Paul’s long and troubled history with civil rights issues is generally well known around Kentucky and in Washington, D.C., but for many Ohioans, it’s time to take a closer look. Discussing the Civil Rights Act, Paul criticized the law, even emphasizing that he believes private businesses should be able to do whatever they want, including discriminate. He explained his opposition by saying, “I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership.”

This view goes against what the Civil Rights Act was put in place to correct, and I thought this law was settled 50 years ago. Apparently, Paul is ready to relitigate our nation’s progress on civil rights. And last year, when the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, how did Paul respond? He commented, “We have an African-American president.” He also supports voter ID laws that disproportionately impact communities of color and women, saying, “There’s nothing wrong with it. … I don’t really object to having some rules with how we vote.”

She concludes:

So as Paul spends time in Cincinnati today, don’t let him fool you. To see what he really believes on issues critical to the black community, look no further than the actions he’s taken, the agenda he pushes, and the offensive words he used for years before he decided to run for president.

Right on Ms. Mayor!

In his relentless southern avenger mode to pursue and persuade black voters to become fans Rand Paul continues to suffer from foot-in-mouth disorder.

At the Urban League, Rand Paul says he’s a minority because of the “shade of his ideology” :

Rand Paul addressed the Urban League this morning in Cincinnati and in a TelePrompTer speech that included a quote from Malcolm X, Kentucky’s junior Senator and famed opponent of the Civil Rights Act declared himself a minority.

Apparently opposing the Civil Rights Act is the same as being Black or Hispanic. And according to Rand Paul, all of his libertarian and Tea Party supporters are just as punished as actual minorities because of the “shade of their ideology.”

Seriously.

Oh well-This proves black folks ain’t buying the crazy (from his home state press coverage):

Sparse crowd hears Rand Paul’s Urban League speech

CINCINNATI – U.S. Sen. Rand Paul isn’t going person to person to try to sell his message of a more inclusive Republican Party to minority groups.

But with only about 60 people gathering to hear Paul’s highly anticipated speech to the National Urban League on Friday morning, it sure felt that way.

From Wonkette:

Rand Paul Is Also A Minority And Will Lead His Libertarian People Out of Bondage

Poor Rand Paul. It’s hard out there for a libertarian, what with The Man always trying to keep him down, pointing out the ridiculousness of his ideology and how it never holds up in real-life scenarios. But what can a man like Rand Paul do except keep fighting the good fight, keep on keeping on to the water’s edge, because Rand Paul has been to the mountaintop, Rand Paul has seen the Promised Land, and he yearns for the day when all little boys and girls, black or white, yellow or red, liberal or conservative or libertarian or communist, will be judged not by the color of their skin or the content of their political ideology, but by whatever’s left. Character? Sure, let’s go with character.

Twitter has taken up the theme at #RandPaulMinority

One of my favorites so far is:

Because not being allowed to own another human being is tyranny. #RandPaulMinority

– John (@Sottisier) July 26, 2014

Yo’ Rand.  Perhaps you should know that a lot of us hear “libertarian” as “libert-aryan”

Crossposted from Daily Kos

Wingnuts are at it again-frothing at the mouth about Attorney General Eric Holder. Not that they have stopped since he was confirmed by the Senate on February 2, 2009. But the escalation of their hate has moved from contempt of Congress to cries of “impeach…impeach!”

I refuse to link to right wing sites-take my word for it, the attacks are vile. The comment sections are even worse. I think he is the “2nd most hated by racists” black man in America-after the POTUS.

He knows it. It doesn’t stop him from speaking out-which he did in depth in an interview with ABC News’ Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, which has escalated the calls for his removal.  

One of the things that for me is disheartening is the lack of national attention being focused on the Moral Mondays grass-roots fusion movement that is growing throughout the south.

We cannot depend on the Traditional Media (TM) to carry the message. While TM sources are willing to pay tribute to civil rights history events, and commemorations for fallen martyrs, they are far less apt to give headlines to, and follow the groundswell of support for the pushback against Republican repression of voting rights and civil rights.

We have the responsibility to do the work carrying the message, using our social media – email, facebook, twitter, tumblr, you tube and on blogs.

It is not a matter of the information being unavailable.  

I can’t begin to tell you how many political people I know who failed to learn about the 80,000 plus people who went to Raleigh and marched back in February.

At that time, the Freedom Summer 2014 organizing was announced.  Well – that time is here – Now.  

Well they have done it again. By “they” I mean the mostly white male honchos at National Public Radio. You may not have heard about it, yet. This is par for the course for NPR. Back in 2008 I wrote “NPR cutting black journalist Farai Chideya“. More about the history of all this in a bit-but first, the latest.

NPR’s “Tell Me More” which is hosted by Michel Martin, will be no more as of Aug 1. It is the only NPR program specifically targeted at a “diverse audience” as they put it, meaning African Americans.  

Lots of times we don’t put faces to the voices we hear on the radio. So you may not know who Michel Martin is.  

A brief bio:

Michel McQueen Martin is an American journalist and correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio. After ten years in print journalism, Martin has for the last 15 years become best known for her news broadcasting on national topics.

A Brooklyn, New York native, Michel Martin attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire as part of the fifth class of females to graduate from the formerly all-male school. In 1980, Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, then pursued post graduate work at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C.

After working the local news beat for The Washington Post and becoming White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Martin joined ABC News in 1992. At ABC, Martin has reported for Nightline, and was awarded an Emmy for a report that aired on Day One. In 2001, she hosted the PBS show Life 360. Since April 2007, she has hosted Tell Me More for National Public Radio (NPR). As the host of Tell Me More, Martin focuses heavily on topics of race, religion, and spirituality. Upon the announcement by NPR of the cancellation of Tell Me More, to be effective 1 August 2014.

I was thinking this week about some of the things I am often told, in a purportedly complimentary mode, about my speech, and writing ability. Have heard these things since I was a child, and after a while it gets tedious. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been told I’m “articulate”, “well-spoken” or simply “you write so well” from teachers, acquaintances, employers and strangers I’d be rich. I get it tossed at me in two modes- folks who assume cause I’m black that my speaking and writing American Standard English is some major achievement-and for those who have mistakenly assumed I’m Puerto Rican that somehow I’ve managed to transcend Spanglish/broken English as my primary language. I used to snap back and say “what do you expect from the daughter of a PhD in English Literature and Drama?”, adding, “I speak Middle English too” and then spout Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Prologue…”Whan that aprill with his shoures soote, the droghte of march hath perced to the roote, and bathed every veyne in swich licour “. I don’t bother any more. I just lift an eyebrow.

I was reminded of this when listening/watching Jamila Lyiscott’s Ted Talk this week.  

Father’s day has come and gone again for this year but the myths and memes about black fathers live on. We know how black women are portrayed as welfare queens and grifters. We know young black men are cast as thugs and young black women as promiscuous.  There is push-back against all of those stereotypes from those of us on the left but it’s important to do some myth-busting about the group that rarely garners respect – outside our own community.

Black fathers.

As a black woman, I’m used to living with racial hatred against me and mine. It’s just one of those things that is part of the wallpaper of my life. When you are black it just “is”. It doesn’t take over my life, and I don’t worry about it daily. It’s just the the way my world is ordered-with an underlying malaise you start learning to live with as soon as you are old enough to know you are somehow “different”. Have lived through segregation and Jim Crow signs, seeing the Klan up close, and being spit on, beaten and jailed when fighting back. I’ve had partners and friends shot down by racist cops. I deal with racial microaggressions daily.

I also know that on the left that we have white allies against racism, and that’s important. But too often that alliance is to stop racism against blacks, or latinos or asians or native americans, and there is not enough discussion about how racism and white supremacy affects white people.  

In 2012, Natasha Trethewey was appointed as State Poet Laureate of Mississippi and also   became the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate. In 2013, she was appointed for a second term.

In June, a new poet laureate will be appointed, but before Trethewey leaves, I wanted to take a moment to say “thank you”.

Thank you for your poetry and prose.

Thank you for representing so much of what we as women, as black women, as Americans face in today’s world.

Thank you for weaving so much history into what you write.

Thank you for exploring the complexities of race, racism and identity and oppression.

Thank you for portraying those who are often forgotten.