The Untold Story of Black New Orleans History

By Leland C. Abraham, Esq.

Outside of the New Orleans, very few of Black Americans have heard of this historic place. Faubourg Treme (hereinafter called “Treme”) was one of the first communities of black free men during slavery. Treme began as a plantation like any other plat of land during the time. Near the end of the 18th century, Claude Treme purchased the land. Within a few decades of this purchase, a canal was built that split the land. Some developers then began to make the land into neighborhoods. These neighborhoods would go on to house whites, creoles and free people of color throughout the 1800s.
Louisiana was a little different from the other southern states in that blacks could purchase their freedom. In fact, some blacks had their own slaves during this time period. Treme was extremely unique in that it was a precursor to a lot of black history. For example, the first black newspaper publication came from Treme. The Tribune started out as a French language publication but later became bilingual. This was important because after the civil war, the Tribune urged it black readers to “boycott” the rail system until there was equal treatment among the races. This would have been in the latter portion of the 19th Century, well before the “Birmingham Bus Boycott.”

Click to read more on YourBlackAttorneys.

Technorati Tags: black history,african american history,black news,african american news,black attorneys,african american attorneys,black lawyers,african american lawyers

Going Over the Line? PETA Comes Out as Racists

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals knows how to grab attention. And show off its laundry.

The animal rights group, which every year stages a protest at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, had two of its members dress in Ku Klux Klan garb outside Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Their goal, according to a post on the PETA website, was to draw a parallel between the KKK and the American Kennel Club. "Obviously it's an uncomfortable comparison," PETA spokesman Michael McGraw told the Associated Press.

But the AKC is trying to create a "master race" when it comes to pure-bred dogs, he added. "It's a very apt comparison."

The group passed out brochures implying the Klan and AKC have the goal of "pure bloodlines" in common.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Madison Square Garden | Ethical Treatment of Animals | Ku Klux Klan | Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show | Michael McGraw

"I can't speak for everyone, but the vast majority of the people exhibiting and handling and showing at Westminster are more interested in the health of dogs than anything else," Westminster spokesman David Frei told the AP.

"We want to produce the next generation of healthy and happy dogs," he said, "not just for the show ring but for the couches at home."

Bystander Fatima Walden told the AP the KKK imagery was inappropriate no matter what the message.

"They could have used something else as an example," she said. "You should be considerate to everybody."

Other than a shouting match during the hour-long protest, police said the scene remained calm.

 

Click to read.

Technorati Tags: black politics,racism,african americans,race

Judgmental Judges and The Art of Fear: Please Stop Being So Scary

Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

Hey peeps!

I recently visited students at two outstanding HBCUs: Kentucky State University and The University of North Carolina Central. I wanted to give a big "What up!" to our YBW family members in North Carolina and Kentucky. FYI - if you wish to join our Black Money Advice list (many of you seem to have an interest in money recently) - please click here.

Please also take a peek at our sponsors, GreatBlackSpeakers.com, the #1 Black Speakers Bureau in the world.

Finally, America's Black Celebrity Gossip Diva, Lady Drama, has a new online show. You can sign up for it by clicking here.

The article below clears up exactly how I feel about Bill Cosby. I don't hate the man - I just want to slap him sometimes....just kidding....we just have different ways of seeing the world, and I think it is through diversity of perspective that we find our way to progress. I believe Bill really does love Black people, and that makes me give him my respect.

====================================================================

Judgmental Judges and The Art of Fear: Come On People, Let’s Stop Being So Damn Scared
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

“‘White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism’, and that ‘all too many White Americans are horrified not with the conditions of (Black) life but with the product of these conditions-the (Black person) himself’. In a word, they are not horrified by injustice done to us in New York or New Orleans, in the schools, courts, streets, slums or prisons, but are horrified at the righteous anger we express, and the audacity not just to hope but also to resist injustice and oppression in its various forms.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I recently appeared on an episode of Good Morning America about a judge in Atlanta named Marvin Arrington. The show renewed my skepticism of mainstream media, and helped me remember why I love Bill Cosby so much.

Apparently, Judge Arrington was fed up with seeing one black defendant after another in his courtroom, and surely to the liking of Bill Cosby, Arrington took matters into his own hands. Judge Arrington took the unprecedented step of dismissing all of the white attorneys from his courtroom and holding a private session with the black defendants.

During the session, Arrington gave the defendants a piece of his mind, preaching values we can all agree with: hard work, good behavior, and human decency. He topped it off by reminding these men that they are destroying the black community with their behavior and that they just need to stop.

When Good Morning America called to ask me what I thought about Arrington’s actions, they spent more time asking me about Bill Cosby than Arrington. I was confused, since they apparently think I don’t like Bill Cosby. That’s not true. I have a lot of respect for Bill Cosby, but it is my respect for human empathy that leads me to share my point of view, even if Bill Cosby does not agree. I truly believe Bill Cosby cares for black people, even if he has a unique way of showing it.

The reporter asked me if I thought it could be appropriate for a black judge to have a conversation with only the black defendants, excluding everyone else from the court room. I informed the reporter that it’s O.K. for African-Americans to have private conversations, and the nature of the Marvin Arrington’s words would be the ultimate determinant of conversation quality.

Elitist finger wagging at members of an oppressed group is not only counter-productive, it is consistent with how minority groups are dealt with around the world. From the Turkish minority in Germany to the Aboriginal population in Australia, it is always the habit of the elite to presume that minority groups can’t fit in because they are just lazy, stupid and bad. But a conversation from a point of understanding might actually achieve something. The problem is that some judges feel they are only there to talk, not to listen or learn. Also, Bill Cosby has shown Michael Eric Dyson, Marc Lamont Hill and myself that he feels no obligation to listen to anyone.

Apparently, we have not yet created enough episodes of Fat Albert to earn the license of unconditional, single-minded self-righteousness.

I know a judge named Langston McKinney who would also hold the same kinds of private conversations as Judge Arrington. The difference with Judge McKinney, however, is that right after having a private conversation with black defendants, McKinney would be equally bold in having another “tough love” conversation with the very justice system responsible for giving these men longer sentences for the same crimes, inadequate legal counsel, disenfranchisement from voting and employment rights after they’ve been released and a horrifically bad inner city educational system that provides no options.

That’s what a real man does. You don’t just beat up on those who have less power than you, you go after those who might kick your ass.

I have never been one to say that either Bill Cosby or Judge Marvin Arrington hate the black community. I feel they both love African-Americans very much, and that is what distinguishes them from professional black bashers like Juan Williams at Fox News. But one thing Cosby might want to learn is this: given that all human beings are fundamentally equal and equally rational, individuals engaging in behavior that makes no sense to you are probably responding to factors that you have not taken the time to fully understand.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Inequality released a report citing that the United States has a horrific habit of incarcerating black men, giving them longer sentences for the same crimes, pushing them out of society and leaving them uneducated. It is hard to earn my respect when you accept rewards for attacking those who respond to the disparities, but you do not have the courage to address the disparities themselves.

If a husband is beating his wife because she talks too much, any man can come into the house and tell his wife to stop talking so the beatings will stop. Many men will not have the courage to confront the husband responsible for the abuse. America, according to the United Nations, has abused black families for the past 400 years and continues to do so until this day. Anyone can tell black people to stop misbehaving so the abuse will stop. But it is fear of losing stature with the oppressive majority that leads us to avoid taking further steps to actually deal with the abuse itself. Black people have survived this long by being AFRAID. There is the added opportunity to gain favor with the majority by allowing oneself to be used as an additional distributor of racial tyranny, hypocrisy and condemnation. That’s how you get invited to Fox News and Meet the Press, Cosby knows this.

Bill Cosby and Judge Marvin Arrington should learn that it’s time to stop being scared. If you are tough enough to yell at a poor single mother about how she raises her kids, then please be strong enough to yell at a court system that incarcerates black men 7 times more than it incarcerates white men. Be strong enough to address a public education system that puts black boys in special education 5 times more than white boys. Be complete with your boldness, and don’t feel that you are strong just because you can continue to pile onto the weakest members of our society. The same is true for any black man who is strong in “the hood” but afraid to go to the other side of town.

I had a friend who grew up in terrible conditions, went to a terrible school, was shot at on the bus stop and had a high school counselor that put her in special education. In spite of all this, she went on to college and had a great life. Her story would surely serve as a source of inspiration for one of Bill Cosby’s speeches. But my question is this: What if this girl had not been strong enough to overcome a situation that would have destroyed 90% of us? What if she’d shot a drug dealer, slept with a strange man to get money or became a prostitute to feed herself? Would that make her a terrible person or simply an individual who responded to a world that the adults around her have not had the courage to confront? Cosby’s argument that the little girl should “just behave herself” is not likely to be enough to help millions of children manage such dramatic racial inequality.

Barack Obama had it right. We must honestly talk about racial inequality, and we must begin the conversation with the correct assumptions. Mathematics teaches us that if you solve a problem using incorrect assumptions, this will lead to incorrect methods and ultimately, an incorrect conclusion. The simple-minded presumption that “black youth are simply screwed up” is not only incorrect, it’s what we’ve been hearing for the past 400 years.

To Bill Cosby and Judge Marvin Arrington, I say this: Come on people, we’ve got to have more personal responsibility than that. The same courage you command from youth to overcome the system must be the courage you possess when confronting the system. That’s REALLY how you keep it real.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is an Assistant Professor of Finance and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com. Please join our coalition at www.YourBlackWorld.com

Your Black World: Barack Obama Wrestles With Self-Hatred

Black Rage, Barack’s Redemption
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer - YourBlackWorld.com

Reprinted From Black Commentator

“In Chicago, sometimes when I talk to the black chambers of commerce, I say, ‘You know… A good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren’t throwing their garbage out of their cars.’”

-President-Elect Obama (April 2007).

“Y’all have Popeyes out in Beaumont? I know some of y’all you got that cold Popeyes out for breakfast. I know… You can’t do that. Children have to have proper nutrition. That affects also how they study, how they learn in school.”

-President-Elect Obama (February 2008).

“The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there [to equality]. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side.”

-President-Elect Obama (March 2007).

“But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men… You and I know how true this is in the African-American community… Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children… Any fool can have a child... [D]on’t just sit in the house and watch ‘SportsCenter’ all weekend long.”

-President-Elect Obama (June 2008)

…“We’ve all said in the black community, we don’t see all of who we are in, in the media. We see snippets… of our community and distortions of our community. So the world has this perspective that somehow Barack and Michelle Obama are different, that we’re unique. And we’re not. You just haven’t seen us before.”

-First Lady-Elect Michelle Obama (May 2007)

“[T]here’s always… doubt in the back of the minds of people of color, people who have been oppressed, who have never been given the real opportunities that you never really believe, that you believe somehow that somehow someone is better than you, you know deep down inside you doubt that you can really do this cause that’s all you’ve been told is no… And I think it’s one of the horrible legacies of racism and discrimination and depression you know it keeps people down in their souls in a way where you know sometimes they can’t move beyond it.”

-First Lady-Elect Michelle Obama (Nov. 2007)

A close look at the above-listed quotes would strike a curious chord in the reader. How can it be that a married-couple with identical political characteristics provoke such discord in their views on Race, and Black identity? After much deliberation, I’m convinced that President-Elect Obama’s disturbing perspective of the African-American community is not motivated by malice or cowardice, but simply a result of his upbringing. In other words, his distinctly condescending attacks on Black consciousness are merely a product of the overwhelming, disproportionate influence his White mother and White grandparents had on him. In contrast, Michelle Obama, raised by Black parents and nurtured in the womb of Black America, is prone to persuade a more empathetic view of the African-American community. It is virtually impossible for Barack Obama to have emerged from the loving arms of a woman who, “once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe,” and not have inherited some of such Negrophobia, which has cast dark shadows on Black male psyche. In Just Walk on By, Author, Brent Staples wrote of the degree of “lethality nighttime pedestrians” attribute to certain Black males who fit the kinds of cringe-worthy stereotypes which Obama’s grandmother (God rest her soul) must have expressed constantly. The impact of this on the young Barry cannot be overlooked.

Obama was also never immune to the toxic wrath of White-supremacy as a child. Whilst being called “Negro” at school, it is reported that he was “teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood - primarily because he was so different in appearance.” A neighborhood friend recalled how Obama, as a young man, was “built like a bull. So we’d get three kids together to fight him.” An outcast amongst his lighter-skinned friends, he was once thrown into a swamp, when a group of neighborhood rascals grew disturbed that he had decided to tag along with them. Being Black, in this young man’s mind, must have resonated more as a negative, than a positive. It is inconceivable for a love-starved bi-racial kid to undergo such traumatic experience, without incurring an indelible stain of self-hatred. It is in this vein, I believe, that President-Elect Obama attempts to win a battle with his childhood, by scapegoating the Black Community.

Barack Obama’s nonchalance toward Black folks can also be a product of his elite educational background. It is no secret that Ivy-League institutions, such as Harvard and Princeton, promote a deficiency in diversity, vis-à-vis the student/faculty body. Having bathed in the muddy waters of a racialized childhood, it is no insult to suggest that Obama was baptized in the Holy waters of white-dominated institutions, such as the Harvard Law Review, to cleanse all remembrances of his “dark” past, and start anew. On the other hand, Michelle Obama, though privileged with an equivalent share of elite education, had a much different take on life at diversity-deprived institutions: “Predominately White universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the White students comprising the bulk of their enrollments… My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.” It is, at this point, clear that the singular difference between Barack and Michelle’s racial ideologies is the background which supports them.

It must be noted that Sen. Obama’s irrational display of self-hatred is not an anomaly in a community literally taught to hate itself. Just this past week, TV Judge and Activist, Judge Mathis, hosted a Black Woman who claimed that 90% of the Black Women she had encountered embarrassed her so much that she often hoped to be white. Mathis, growing disgusted, recommended that this particular lady, just “get her face bleached” and get it over with. Mathis then felt the urge to question her: “If you could kill yourself and come back as white, you would do it, wouldn’t you?” And to total shock of the studio audience, the plaintiff responded in the affirmative, “Definitely.” Regrettably, this attitude is not uncommon to the Black experience in America. It has scarred the fabric of our humanity for generations, since slavery. Many historians would agree that every ailment which afflicts the conditions of Black America today is directly traceable to the horrific conditions that buried the dignity of Black folks for 400 years, and beyond. Self-hatred has proven to be a successful escape route for those Blacks/Browns seeking repair to their damaged self-esteem. This is why a president, who values the humanity of people of culture/color, must be acutely aware of the words he/she chooses in remonstration against such communities. If Barack Obama is unaware of this reality, well-informed counsels such as Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett must take a personal interest in educating him.

And now, to President-Elect Obama or any campaign staffers reading this: There’s only a certain amount of discomfort the Black Community can afford after being robbed of its culture, identity, intellectual contributions and pride. Many African natives come to the American shores and thrive in ways that, unintentionally, insult the dignity of their African-American family. This ability for African success in a foreign land often stimulates the claim that the problem lies not in the practice of racism, but indecision, by Blacks in America, to pick themselves up by their bootstrap and take personal responsibility for their actions.

Such inference is an assault on the legacy of the not-so ancient history of legal/physical slavery, which consistently strides to stifle the potential of Black/Brown peoples in our society. We did not ask for this. This truth, however, escapes many white brothers and sisters, who act as though Black people are preoccupied with excuses, and possess a fundamental lack of determination for success. President-Elect Obama, it is incumbent upon you to arrest this notion. Not advance it. The reason Black folks are so enamored of the concept of a Black presidency is because they have searched, endlessly for a public official who can take into account the integrity of their dignity and contribution to society. If the next administration is unable to do so, there is little hope left for this democratic experiment.

To anti-Obama Black progressives: President-Elect Obama is our brother – even though he’s acted in ways that contradict this reality. Whilst he might not exhibit an impassioned concern for the Black Community, his background mirrors one oh-so many of us were enshrouded in. I propose, humbly, that Obama be forgiven for his rabid attacks on the Black Community, and granted a chance at redemption. There’s no doubt that his outspoken, generalized and unilateral critiques of Black folks are unmerited. But I am convinced, however, that deep-down, he appears to hold dear the conscience of the Black Community. What our brother, President-Elect Obama deserves is re-education, not retaliation. For a man who, at childhood, was deprived substantive interaction with the other side of his DNA, there’s certainly much need for a reorientation of who/what the Black Community is.

Your Black World: Barack Obama Underlines Black CommUNITY

Barack Obama: The Test of Black CommUNITY
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer - YourBlackWorld.com

“But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People’s Democracy… The mass support of Obama by the national Afro-American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle… We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world... almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money. We need to make our move.”

- Renowned Poet and Activist, Amiri Baraka, in a speech earlier this year.

The Black CommUNITY has laid its bed and must now lie in it. To be sure, this author is not particularly pleased with the 95% level of unconditional support from the Black CommUNITY, vis-à-vis Obama’s presidential bid. Nevertheless, Obama’s unpredictable popularity within the Black CommUNITY is a testament to an often glossed over, deep-seated desire/potential for divine unity of the Black CommUNITY. Obama’s candidacy, thankfully, buttressed this reality in unequivocal terms. Many have privately joked, over the past week, about the seeming impossibility of the Black CommUNITY agreeing on any specific agenda, let alone a political one. Some have quipped that the last time such unprecedented levels of support was rendered in favor of anything, O.J. Simpson was on trial for double murder. The comedic value of such statement notwithstanding, its veracity is unquestionable. Having rallied around this man, with unwavering support, let there be no more excuses for our disunity, or inability to remain unified around the ultimate cause: Total liberation.

On at least three key issues, the world will need the assistance of the Black CommUNITY to emerge victorious: AFRICOM, GLOBAL POVERTY and RACIAL INEQUALITY.

On Africom, a militarization and heist of Africa’s natural resources, Obama’s thin record is troubling, at best. Sen. Obama has suggested that, “There will be situations that require the United States to work with its partners in Africa to fight terrorism with lethal force. Having a unified command operating in Africa will facilitate this action.” These “partners” in Africa knew better than to accept the offer to host Africom in their country. If the Black CommUNITY is to avoid being perceived as enablers of the rape and ravish of their brother/sister’s land, it must act now to prevent the germination of this unholy scheme. Inaction is not an option.

On Global Poverty, Sen. Obama has been extremely vague when addressing the plight of the impoverished. Ever since Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race, the issue of poverty dissipated into a nameless agenda. Edwards’ campaign of highlighting the ranging disparities between the Two Americas, as he called it, swiftly found itself under the rug. With John Edwards’ disappearance, following news of his extramarital deeds. Sen. Obama, having arduously solicited Edwards’s endorsement in the primaries, saw no more use for the man who launched his campaign in Hurricane-stricken New Orleans. Worse than the truncated highlights of poverty in the presidential race, was the narrow-minded belief that poverty in the U.S. best represents the world’s trauma. But long before folks in the U.S. were losing their jobs, humanity was at a loss for words, with people in Haiti, Cuba, Somalia, Ethiopia etc. living on less than a dollar a day. The Black CommUNITY must see to it that the struggle to put an end to global destitution is addressed within the next 48 months.

Racial Inequality has been, regrettably, sidelined in the course of the 2008 presidential bid. One esteemed newspaper would, upon Obama’s victory, declare racism a “myth.” The Black CommUNITY is, however, not amused. For a people who have suffered the brutal tyranny of oppression for centuries, such uninformed inferences are only a sobering reminder of the daunting task ahead. In the course of Obama’s presidency, there will be those who would seek to use a Black presidency as the avenue to make claims that Blacks have overcome every impediment put in way of their progress. The appropriate response should be to confront such challenges to our humanity head-on, but to also keep in remembrance our duty to achieve racial equality for every faction of society whose livelihood is daily suppressed by the egomaniacal appetite of big money corporations. We must side with our Latin-American brothers/sisters, and encourage them to fight, even harder, for the God-given right to a livable wage. We must, as well, consider the dignity of our Arab brethren as sacrosanct. Any and all attempts to dismiss their integrity should be forcefully admonished. The beauty of the Black CommUNITY lies in its inherent ability to fight on behalf of those who once oppressed it.

If President-Elect Obama’s recent appointments are any signal, it is clear that our unity is the only strategy capable of guaranteeing stability in the next 4 years. If we end up, 4 years from now, in worse shape than we are now, the blame must be squarely placed on our shoulders. Mass organizing, unrivaled in human history, seems to be the only solution for the dilapidated levels of humanity in which our people are presently entrenched. It would be a shame, a damn shame, if our judgment is clouded by the emotional pull of a Black presidency. Change certainly doesn’t come by wishing or hoping – the civil rights movement taught us that. It is written in one of the holy books, that “Faith without works is dead.” The neo-liberal fan base has displayed, following Obama’s victory, a sheer unwillingness to question, let alone to criticize, let alone to condemn any policies of an Obama administration, deemed deleterious to the internationally disenfranchised society. BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Dr. Lenore Daniels, expressed concern about this in her Election Special column, stating: “The day after, the Black Philadelphians on Chilton Avenue are still smiling. Still shouting Obama, Obama! It’s still incredible. An African American in the White House! In the meantime, President-elect Obama offers Congressman Rohm Emmanuel (D-Ill) the position of White House Chief of Staff. Pro-Israel, pro-war, Emmanuel! And the Left, waving a victory flag, says it will offer criticism - starting in January!” There’s no doubt that our work is challenging and confronting. However, if the Black CommUNITY was capable of transporting a relatively unknown Senator to the highest seat of the land, let there be no excuses for our negligence to do likewise in matters concerning, Social Justice, Economic Independence and Racial Equality. In the words of a departed civil rights hero, “Can we do it? We can do it, we shall do it!”

Reprinted From Black Commentator