September has been a busy time for young conservative leaders across American campuses. More onslaughts onto the freedoms of college students have been launched in hopes to turn more campuses in a pivotal election year more conservative. Several YP4 bloggers are documenting the damage:

It is rather a Herculean task to find a global, all-encompassing
definition of “African music.” Moreover, defining “African music” would
inevitably be in relation to another type of music; rhythm is to
African music as melody is to western music (Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoke).
Consequently, when we try to define “African music” we are
intellectually better served to find certain “commonalities” that
Scholars generally agree to be the representative characteristics of
“African music.” In relation to the diaspora, it is historically
accurate for us to narrow our focus in defining music to West Africa
rather than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. In truth, “the western
world is perhaps most familiar with the cultural activities of African

Much of the change of the “African Diaspora,” into a stubbornly
different culture from their origins is very much illuminated by the
momentary “back to Africa movements” espoused by men like Marcus
Garvey. Many of these movements, starting with the establishment of
Liberia as a free state on West Africa as well as the Rastafarians who
were given refuge in Ethiopia, presupposed an automatic reintegration
into “African culture.” On the contrary, the reintegration of the
members of the “African Diaspora’ associated with the Atlantic Slave
Trade parallels the reintegration of the “Jewish Diaspora” into
orthodox Judaism or simply their “homeland,” Israel; the difficulty of
the latter is similar to the former. This difficulty of reintegration

“The African Diaspora:” Deconstructing Common Knowledge

I retook methods courses this past year, as I am adding special ed. to my child dev/elem. ed. credential. Practice helps me with mastery, and I didn't want to glimpse new knowledge and drop it, so I made categorized lists of useful websites for teaching.

History/Social Science and Info Tech are probably the most useful to this group, or scholarships (for both young folk and re-entry folk). Info Tech is pretty catch-all, includes computer science, web 2.0, engineering k-12, social networking, politics. (Some politics in hss, too.)

Feel free to skim and use anything you can or pass it on.

Greetings!

   I've had the chance to meet with wonderful people at this conference. Thank you for the opportunity. Those that I haven't met with, I am interested in historical and cultural development. I am collaborating with The Sankofa Saturday School porgram which is held in Queens, New York at The African Poetry Theater for children ages 5-17.

    I hope to start an Afro-centric library at the school. At the Sankofa Saturday School, we also hope to expand the current curriculum. Also, I am in the midst of planning several cultural events that involve the children and the community. This is the first program at the Queens site, there is one is Brooklyn, New York that has been a three year success. We hope for the same in Queens.

Press Release:

STUDIES SHOULD MORE ACCURATELY REFLECT HISTORY

State lawmakers yesterday introduced legislation that will require schools to focus on the advanced civilizations of Africa instead of the most primitive Africans who did not represent the continent.

The bills have been introduced by Rep. Brenda Clack (D-Flint) and Rep. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek).

Nofs, who serves on the Advisory Board of the non-profit Ending Stereotypes for America, explained that it's important for world history instruction to accurately portray ancient civilizations.

"The history of Sub-Sahara Africa has been grossly distorted for too long," Nofs said. "This has helped to foster false stereotypes that can lead to discrimination, violence, and a dangerous ignorance about Africa that could have national security implications."

In 2001, at the UN-sponsored World Conference Against Racism, African nations demanded a clear apology for slavery from the former slave-trading countries and colonialist countries, with no success. Unfortunately, I am not surprised that judges in the USA are also saying that descendants of slavery can't seek reparations, especially from banks who hid their slave trading and slave-owner supporting past.

Yesterday, an appeals court in Chicago rejected a bid to a slave reparations suit. Judges said slave descendants cannot seek reparations from some of America's largest banks, insurers, and transportation companies who profited from slavery. Companies like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Aetna transported slaves and issued loans to slaveholders so they could buy other human beings.

All people who have been historically marginalized and victimized in this country deserve a level playing field. Reparations are not the only step toward leveling an incredibly unfair playing field, however they could help to start healing over 200 year old wounds.

Reparations can come in many forms: land, social services, government payments, and private payments. I understand the argument that the US relies on self-reported racial categories, and for this reason, I argue that instead of private payments, public payments should be made to improve communities, create programs, and promote diversity and access to services.

Japanese Americans who were placed in internment camps received reparations. As a result of this precedent, it is unjustifiable that other historically oppressed and exploited people aren't given the same rights and access to resources to build strength in their communities. Even though some Native American tribal groups have received some compensation for land taken from them in treaties, they have not been adequately compensated.

In spite of the fact that African Americans who live today didn't directly suffer under slavery, we carry the burden of this peculiar institution with us in every aspect of our lives.

How can you be expected to "pull yourself up by your own boot straps" when you still have inadequate access to health insurance and good schools?

Affirmative Action and programs of this kind are like reparations because they give us a chance to access education and careers that our ancestors who died before us dreamed about. In order to move on from a painful past, we need resources to empower us. Without this, a select portion of the population will continue to control the majority of the nation's wealth and power.

I like politics, which is good because it's what I do for a living, but what I really love are books.  How fortuitous, then, when a really good book is about politics.  Talk about two birds with one stone . . .

The last great book I read was "The Plot Against America" by Phillip Roth, and if you ask my friends, they'll attest to the fact that I simply can't shut up about it.  Sure, the story is interesting, but it's Roth's political astuteness that makes the book not just entertaining, but relevant.

The premise is almost childishly simple: when FDR stands for his third term, he's challenged by Republican Charles Lindberg who runs on an anti-war, isolationist, and vaguely anti-Semitic platform.  He wins.  The rest, as they (don't) say, is counter-factual history.

Since the corporate media has hardly mentioned this story, I think I can safely assume that most of you haven't heard about fifteen-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza- an Iraqi girl who lived in Mahmoudiya. Yes, this incident is minor compared to the rest of the slaughter that the U.S. occupation of Iraq has caused, but it is poignant nonetheless...