Uptown Notes

Yesterday, at the age of 94, the unparalleled historian of the African-American experience John Hope Franklin passed away into the ancestral realm. While many may not be familiar with his name, if you took a Black Studies or African-American Studies course you likely came across his seminal textbook “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans.” One of my favorite posters hung in my graduate school advisor’s office with the words, “Which one did you learn from?” And it featured the then probably 6 editions of book neatly lined up. The image struck me because I could visually see the legacy that Dr. Franklin had passed down to generations of students of African and non-African descent. In addition to From Slavery to Freedom, Dr. Franklin authored over 15 books and ushered in great generations of historians and biographers, such as David Levering Lewis. One of the greatest marks of a person is not what they do when they are here, but what they leave behind and build for those behind them. I am glad to see that the fruit of John Hope Franklin’s work is already visible and we will continue to grow from his sage insights for generations to come. Rest in Power.

So yesterday I was all existential on twitter, which I rarely do, so today I’ll mesh my tweets with programming on my blog. I’m declaring this weekend “wellness weekend” because I was passed three events happening in NYC that stimulate the psychological, spiritual, mental, and physical.

On Friday, Iyanla Vanzant will be helping folks “Tap the Power Within” with spiritual and psychological wellness work. On Saturday, Queen Afua will be helping folks by sponsoring a free cleanse day to aid in physical health. And on Sunday, The Association of Muslim Health Practitioners will be stimulating the mind by sponsoring a discussion forum on Health care access entitled, “NYC Covering the Uninsured: Universal Health care, Hope, or Hype?. Links to each of the events are below. Take the time if you can to check out each event or one event, you’ll surely come back with good things.

Friday: Iyanla Vanzant- Recession is Creation…Tapping the Power Within - 1700 Fulton @ Boys and Girls High. Brooklyn, NY – 10 dollars entry. 7:30pm

Saturday: Queen Afua- Spring Equinox one Day Cleansing Fast – 2301 5th ave @ National Black Theater. Harlem, NY – Free, registration encouraged. 9am – 5pm

Sunday: AMHP – NYC Covering the Uninsured: Universal Health care, Hype, or Hope? 413 W 46th St. @ Hartley House. Ny, NY. – Free, registration encouraged. 2-4pm.

First, let me say that I pay little attention to the Pope or his statements. I spent eight years of my life in catholic school ignoring Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI has joined that club. In a recent visit to Africa, Pope Benedict exclaimed, “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the plane heading to Yaoundé. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

Okay, let’s do a little basic statistics/ research methods. I know, I’m doing the “professor thing” but trust me it’s important. We have a public health crisis and you suggest condom distribution increases the problem. To figure out if this is true, we need to look at the relationship between passing out condoms and cases of HIV/AIDS. Benedict is claiming that passing out condoms actually increases the epidemic.

Key term: correlation. Correlation essentially tells you how related two things are. In basic statistics you learn that things can be correlated with each other, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that one thing cause another.

Okay, now that we’ve got correlation down, let’s look at a classic example of why correlation doesn’t mean causation (the fancy way of saying one thing causes another).

Fact: As the number of ice cream cones sold increases, the number of homicides increases.

Not a fact: Folks who buy ice cream cones are homicidal maniacs and their lactose intolerance drives them to murder.

Reality: There are are more ice cream cones sold in the summer, homicides tend to happen in the summer. Just because they are related doesn’t mean one causes the other to occur.

See, now you see why Pope Benedicts statement is asinine and dangerous. Pope Benedict, saying that distributing condoms increases the problem would mean that condom distribution increased the epidemic. Ridiculous! Particularly on the continent, with many countries suffering from astronomical rates of HIV/AIDS, not distributing profilatics would likely increase the transmission of the disease. While Benedict is sticking with his sect’s insistence upon the non-use of contraception, following their doctrine could lead us further down the rabbit hole. Additionally, large numbers of married and unmarried people have HIV/AIDS, which essentially means advocating against contraception within relationships will likely increase the transmission of HIV/AIDS by exposing more people to additional hazard. You know, I can’t really figure out a way that the approach he’s advocating would be good for these countries ravaged by the most devastating disease of our time.

It worries me that people will follow the Pope’s statement and align themselves without seriously interrogating the “real world” implications of his doctrine. Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox… for right now.

On April 11th, V Day will be celebrated in Harlem with performances of the Vagina Monologues at 6 and 8pm at the Maysles Institute. The recent headlines have put domestic violence, sex and race on the national radar, though most of the conversations have been too shallow and misdirected for my liking (that’s for a different post). The Vagina Monologues is a uniquely powerful performance and movement to not only stop violence against women but also resurrect love for womanhood in a world where misogyny is the norm. Recently, I got a chance to see an all Filipina production of the Vagina Monologues put on by F.I.R.E. and was moved by the performance and discussions that ensued. While the Vagina Monologues is centered on women’s experiences, there is much to be learned as a man from it, if nothing else how our behavior influences women. I encourage you to visit the site for Harlem, get a ticket, donate and proudly celebrate V Day.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been working extra hard and haven’t had a chance to really blog or be caught up on the happenings. I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about Jon Stewart going off about Jim Cramer of Mad Money. Well, I’ve finally crawled from under the rock of my work and watched the interview with Cramer on the Daily Show from the 12th. Judging from the way it went, I’m pretty sure Jim Cramer wants to crawl under a rock now! It’s amazing that the faux news still does better coverage and investigation of the news than the real news does. Check the interview out below.

And yes, I do appreciate the irony that Bank of America commercials air before each online segment.

The Root has an interesting piece on the reclaimation or redefinition of Arab by Saaret Yoseph. What do you think about it?

The word “Arab” is used way too liberally in the American vernacular. Since 9/11 and the advent of our six-year war, the term has become a mutilated mainstay in public debate—a common appropriation, the de facto cultural label for all things Islamic, terrorist-related or alien.

During the last presidential election John McCain supporters used the A-word as an epithet against Barack Obama. And recently, Busta Rhymes put stereotypes to song—and dance—with his shameful single, “Arab Money.”

Thankfully, a culture coup is underway.

read the rest here

Today is a phenomenonally exciting day on the campus of the City College of New York. A series of lectures and talks will descend to bring some of the nation’s foremost scholars and activists, if you’re around you can hear Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton discuss “Race and the New Genomics.” The lecture will be in the Great Hall in Shepard Hall at 5:30pm.

After you’re done listening to a supremely academic discussion of race and science. You can head over to “Live from Death Row” featuring Pam Africa (remember Move in Philadelphia?), Yusef Salaam (remember the false conviction of the brothas with the central part jogger?), and others discuss the death penalty and its disproportionate use on poor, Black and Brown folks. This event is sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

These two events will likely be “contradictory” to many folks, but as an academic and activist, I think they really provide two great spaces to think about questions and realities of race. Check them out if you can!

Today is Biggie day, so I let the Black Frank White speak for himself.

Rest in Peace.

This week, my dear friend Yusef Ramelize, took on the issue of homelessness. No, he didn’t decide to volunteer at a soup kitchen. No he didn’t decide to give out change to someone he saw as he was exiting the train. No he didn’t email his friends and tell them they should join a “homelessness sucks” cause on facebook. He decided to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness by getting first person experience. Yusef is going homeless for one week.

Yusef’s challenge to himself is paired with raising funds for the Coalition for the Homeless. His site contains all the information you could want to know and great personal reflections on the experience before he began the week. He will continue to update the site when he returns from his stay. I wanted to shout him out for taking action, learning, and pushing us all to contribute not just money but serious thoughts to one of the world’s most pressing issues. If you can, please do donate to the campaign. While he will only remain homeless until Saturday, most people do not have a choice in when they receive shelter again. So he will continue until May 1st or until he reaches his goal of 5000 dollars to donate. Please spread the word!!!!

I’ve been very busy and going through a lot of late and had resolved I wouldn’t post much if at all this week. But I just had the PRIVILEGE of watching a short clip of a full length documentary entitled Broken Social Contracts by Laura L. Rahman. In the past few weeks there has been so much “back and forth” about Rihanna and Chris Brown that many folks have turned away from a dialogue that remains perpetually silenced: an honest and critical dialogue on violence between Black men and women. While I don’t know the creator of the piece, it immediately resonated with me because as an Alumnus of Morehouse it documents and challenges many of the standing sanitized commentaries on rape in the Black community, particularly between Morehouse and Spelman. I love the metaphor that is developed in the trailer, likely in the whole film, of a social contract that positions Spelman in silent service and allegiance to Morehouse and any rupturing of that contract somehow is heretical, anti-Black male or even really anti-Black.

A few years ago I wrote a post entitled “Playing the Rape Card” inspired by the tensions happening between Morehouse and Spelman around student rape. As I talked to brothers I went to school with and looked at comments on facebook about rape between Morehouse and Spelman I was disappointed. I was at first disgusted with our “knee jerk” reaction to allegations and our emphasis on “alleged rapes” when many of us have damn well known for years these issues plague our schools, communities and families. My post was well received by sisters who read it and commented, but very few from brothas. When I looked at my hit counter it was one of my “most popular” posts and when I asked brothas who read it their thoughts they said things like, “I agree.” But men weren’t really ready to “stand up and stand out” against the growing wall of ” Black male solidarity” with Morehouse. I found that brothers were silently consenting to my argument that rape is not fiction as well as silently consenting to rape. It’s time to break that silent consent as well. While I’m sure my post didn’t do much, I have high hopes that this film will begin to re-open that dialogue. I intended to just post the video quickly, but too many things came to mind. Thank you Laura Rahman for breaking the social contracts and I’ll continue to try to break silent consent.

Hattip to Byron Hurt for the video trailer.