Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. "The Ballot or the Bullet" is the name of a public speech by Malcolm X. In the speech, which was first delivered on April 3, 1964, at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland,Ohio, Malcolm advised African-Americans to judiciously exercise their right to vote, but he cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African-Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms. It was ranked 7th in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address. Close to 50 years later this speech is still relevant. "....22 million black victims of Americanism are waking up and they’re gaining a new political consciousness, becoming politically mature. And as they develop this political maturity, they’re able to see the recent trends in these political elections. They see that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. And that means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it. You’re in a position to determine who will go to the White House, and who will stay in the doghouse. You’ re the one who has that power....You’ re the one who put the present Democratic Administration in Washington DC. The whites were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House. When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor, what do you get out of it? ...... Anytime you throw your weight behind the political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race." Last week, we focused on the school to prison pipeline. Needless to say there are a myriad of issues requiring our attention. The statistics are staggering and the trend is continuing if not increasing. Armed guards in schools, zero tolerance policies, and draconian levels of punishment are turning some of our schools away from what they're supposed to be. We are well aware of the recent incident involving the arrest of a 16-year-old girl over a science experiment. There are those who feel the punishment was justified. During an interview on MSNBC Kharry Lazarre-White of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol said the line between a disciplinary infraction and a crime had become blurred in many U.S. schools. “It’s become blurred, one, because now you have police officers in schools,” he told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “So, you have police officers responding to issues that used to be that teachers or school safety officers responded to. Secondly, you now see this broad range of issues that would have never been seen as something to arrest a child. We have children expelled for singing too loudly in classes, for running through the hallway, for being late, but one of the most striking aspects of this is that the number one issue that you see leading towards this kind of expulsion is children who are refusing to respond to authority, children who are, quote, being defiant.” On April 24, 1867, the Ku Klux Klan held its first national meeting in a bid to organize and build structure among their many disparate groups. In 2013, one hundred forty six years later, the klan still exists. On Wednesday I spent the entire evening surfing through Ku Klux Klan affiliated websites. I read their literature, watched videos, and scanned through a ton of pictures. I even went so far as to attempt to join so that I can see the application process for myself. I must say that it was quite an eye opening experience. Although the outward projection of anger and hatred has diminished significantly, the values that the Klan hold near and dear to their heart have not changed a bit. They say that they no longer preach hate, now they only preach love. I guess there's a bridge in the middle of some swamp land that someone wants me to buy also. You might wonder why I am writing about the Klan. I'm writing for the same reason that I write about Claudette Colvin. I believe that if we have an understanding of the events that shaped our "American Experience" we'll be better positioned to discuss and address similar issues that we're facing today. I'm not a proponent of living in the past, the past is done, dead, and buried. What happened, happened and there's nothing we can do about that. What we can do is use our knowledge of the past to avoid future pitfalls
The movie "42" opened with rave reviews and high ratings. I found it to be a heartwarming movie with a wonderful "heroic" storyline. Jackie Robinson was indeed a trailblazer who paved the way for generations of athletes to come. It takes a person of character and strong intestinal fortitude to endure what Robinson went through in those early years. In an article by Mark Newman on the MLB.com website, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is quoted saying: "I've often said that baseball's proudest moment and its most powerful social statement came when Jackie Robinson first set foot on a Major League Baseball field,...and '42' captures that event brilliantly." Although every professional sport played today has been integrated, when it comes to ownership things are quite different. A Philadelphia Tribune article written in October 2011 stated a stark reality. In 122 sports ownership groups (32 NFL teams, and 30 each in the other three sports), there was just one Black majority owner among all of those franchises, in all of those sports. In 2011 basketball great Michael Jordan was the sole African American with a majority interest in a professional sports team, the Charlotte Bobcats.
Today marks the first anniversary of the creation of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility, launched in 2012 to promote and support programs, initiatives, and events that address some of the social, economic and political issues facing us today. We’ve come a long way in our first year and we’re looking forward to many years of service to our community at large. I hope that in some small way we’ve helped you to become more socially aware. I hope that we’ve inspired you to continue being socially responsible When I created the Marketplace the concept was quite simple, leverage social media to provide a vehicle for individuals to collaborate, unite, and effect change. My vision was clear and has not changed. I believe that if we create a mechanism for us to communicate and share information, a “Marketplace” of sorts, we will be in a better position to collaborate and work collectively. This is the reason the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility was created. |
EditorErnest R. Heyward is the Founder and President of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility Inc. Categories
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