Uptown Notes

So easily this is the busiest I’ve been in all of my graduate years, but it’s a good busy. But as Sherri-Ann taught me years ago, “Big tings a g’waan.” With that said here a couple of things are recently on my desk and of interest.

New polling numbers show continued loss of support for the MCRI which will be on the November ballot. Of course the (biggest) change is in the “undecided” voters, so there is still much to be decided. Story here.

The students in Baltimore are making big moves to demand their education from the State Board of Education. Biggup to the Algebra Project and their work out there. I’m loving the use of the constitution.

And for those who don’t know, it looks like my hard drive may have fried on my desktop, so that’s been an influence on my absence too.

hey all! it’s quite the pleasure to be a guest on blackatmichigan, a blog that has offered dumi and fellow scholars the opportunity to voice their much needed opinion regarding pertinent issues. i am no writer, but i do talk up a storm, so if this reads more like my diary than a professional piece, it’s probably because it is.

my thoughts…
this title was meant to address the urban youth of today, specifically drawn from the panel of students that i (along with fellow peers) hosted last week. i pondered this very question when i saw that, of the hour long panel [comprised of seven students: 3 athletes, one frat member, one law school student, one politically active student, and one “general” student] approximately 57 1/2 minutes were dedicated to the athletes. my blood boiled at the thought that this group of 7th and 8th graders from detroit would be so concerned NOT with what law firm the 3L law student is looking into, but with what league the football players played for in middle school. understandably, the media has a tremendous monopoly on our babies, with such focus being on entertainment, specifically, music and sports. we all know the drawn out story of the inner-city dreams of quick cash and immediate gratification – hell – with our generation being called “generation me”, there’s no question that we could care less about the welfare of all people, as long as “i get mine”. but i can’t be told that there’s no stop to this cycle. there HAS to be a way to end the drug-selling, basketball-shooting, rhyme-spitting imagery that encapsulates the thoughts of the children from my hood.

see? that right there. my hood. i’m not saying that i came from the most shoot-em-up run-for-your-God-forsaken-lives type of place, but the fact remains that i am the only one from my neighborhood that left out of the neighborhood for college, that doesn’t have kids, that has never had, dealt, or been shot over drugs, and will be leaving. yes, i’m abandoning my neighborhood, of which i am fully aware of the problematic middle-class exodus – no need to remind me. don’t judge me too quickly though: i am not only headed to another inner-city to ‘do my part’ there (atlanta), but i’ll be back someday/somehow/someway to work with detroit. back to the point, the old adage states, “if i can do it, so can you.” what was the main factor that separated me from my peers? well, this little exam that i took in the second grade allowed me to be placed on a track that veered right of my neighbors. this gifted and talented program that i was accepted into put me on the path of academic success. this alone, however, would not be adequate enough to get me through. had my mother not specifically given me the encouragement by normalizing the pathway to higher education, my dreams may have ended in high school. fortunately, college was not a question in my home, so making sure that grades, extracurriculars, and personal pursuits were in-line with this ideology was not hard at all.

so, what am i suggesting? that we take an entire group of parents, force-feed them with statistics and pamphlets that suggest it is all their faults that their children are suffering? that we level the “playing field” for k-12 schools so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed? that we, as college students, do a better job in mentoring and show students alternate routes and definitions to what success truly is and how to acquire such paths? you’re darned skippy.

we, as a society, do have a right and responsibility to make sure that our community is making it. too often we hear “it’s not my problem” or “maybe later”, but the time is now and the urgency is extreme. a statistic reports that only 11% of the population of detroit has a bachelors degree. 11%. it blows my mind that i just received mine on saturday, yet the vast majority of my fellow residents cannot say the same. how can the children know which way to turn if their maps are only limited to their parents experiences? we must provide outlets and information that better equip our children for their potential. affirmative action is no longer cutting it. vouchers is not going to cut it. and testing our children for the “no child left behind” bull will not give them the know-how for the remedy to this systemic problem. neighbors must demand more and better use of funding for schools from the state, and we must encourage our children to explore various routes to economic stability, not acquisition. rightfully so, i am an optimist, and i do believe in the power of mentorship, communication, and community upliftment. do i have specific plans? not now – i don’t think God has given me the blueprint yet. but i do know that the middle class and those with the education can no longer sit around and wait for those without the resources to help their children. we must take a stand and get our hands dirty, because if we don’t, who the hell will?

…///tomorrow///what the hell are we gonna do with these kids part 2: invisible children and international woes

Since you all have been clicking on her profile to figure out who she is and/or when she’ll be posting… I now introduce to you Riana E. Anderson. Riana is recent (like a few days ago) alum of U of M. Riana is a renowned U of M figure, having been president of the school’s chapter of the NAACP and spear heading a number of campus dialogues and political actions. But I can’t do her justice with these few words. I’ll let her speak for herself. Be on the look out for her post coming soon!!!

I know I’ve been absent. Much to comment on, but not much time. Making like the hands in the picture. I’ll be back, maybe my guest posters will pick up some slack for a brotha.

“Can you make me white?” -Alleged question asked by Dr. Dre to Suge Knight

A couple of years ago, I heard Suge Knight explain in an interview that he told Dr. Dre he could get him anything he wanted. In response, Dr. Dre responded, “could you make me white?” At the time, I definitely took it as a Suge story that he had concocted alone in prison (which it likely still is), but now thanks to the rise of “recreational genomics” it may be possible for Dr. Dre to become White! Kinda… The NY Times’ story “Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties” weaves a frightening story about the ways many people are pursuing their geneology.

Driving the pursuit of genetic bounty are start-up testing companies with names like DNA Tribes and Ethnoancestry. For $99 to $250, they promise to satisfy the human hunger to learn about one’s origins — and sometimes much more. On its Web site, a leader in this cottage industry, DNA Print Genomics, once urged people to use it “whether your goal is to validate your eligibility for race-based college admissions or government entitlements.

A couple of years back, my interest was peaked in racial admixture tests, but they were largely inaccessible to the general public. I had read about them in scientific journals. Hell, I even joked that I was going to test a friend of mine whose “pigment and facial features” made me leary he was purely European. But I didn’t think these ancestry test would so quickly evolve into mechanisms of privilege.

For Americans, or rich people at large, if you can fork over the money, you too can find a genetic footprint that may take you back to find some “minority blood.” I think it’s interesting how the Times piece, for the most part, concentrates on Whites finding ancestors of color, while Gates’ African-American Lives uncovered the prevalence of European ancestory among African-Americans.

Ultimately, the attempt to reduce race and ethnicity to scientific categories is going to be flawed. Though one may be able to trace their lineage to a given people, identification of a point of origin does not inherently make one a member of that group. Basic social identity research has demonstrated that repeatedly. By attempting to cash in on the “science” of race, we’re sidestepping what race and ethnicity mean historically and contemporarily. Lester Monts, U of M Senior Vice Provost comments, “If someone appears to be white and then finds out they are not, they haven’t experienced the kinds of things that affirmative action is supposed to remedy.” I’ve seen one website already say this diverges from the argument used in the Supreme Court decisions. *News Flash* legal arguments by a University and individual comments of University employees may vary. Using “science” to determine race is imprecise and does nothing to address the issue of lived experience. Some argue lived experience is the catalyst for the rationale of diversity. Until they can test if you’ve lived as a Black, Brown, etc. person I don’t see (bad) science coming into the admission process in a substantial way (besides the defrauding that folks are using right now to get into school).

Now a high cost alternative to recreation genomics (doesn’t that term just remind you too much of eugenics?) Black. White. The show is now over, I’ve pretty much reserved comment. Well here is my take, I LOVED IT!!!! Okay, so the show concept was decent, the make-up sucked (except in the case of Rose), and the people were poorly matched, but I think it was great. For me, it marked one of the best public examples of how not to have discussions about race. Steps to developing an under-developed dialogue on race:
1)paint people the opposite color
2)pick people who are assured their beliefs about race are correct
3)follow them with a large camera crew
4)have them reveal their “true” identities half way through the experiment
5)let them battle out their race issues without guided conversation (with the exception of two appearances by a therapist type person)
6) Stir and you end up with a terrible show

If I learned one thing from Black. White. it’s that I now have a perfect example for lectures of general perceptions of racism. Bruno is it. Unless someone walked up to Bruno, called him a nigger, told him they called him a nigger because he had Black skin, and they didn’t like him because of his black skin alone (remember can’t be anything else like dress, walk, social class) then there isn’t racism. Sheez. Well the show if nothing else reminds me of what my old computer programming buddies used to tell me “shit in, you get shit out.”

I needed a title and a semi-coherent link for these short blurbs!

Up first- Blue Devils and the DNA results. Gracias to Anon for posting a comment that informed me of the DNA evidence. I’ve been working some long hours and haven’t been able to keep up moment by moment. My quick opinion is that a lack of DNA evidence does not necessarily mean a sexual assault or rape did not occur. I’m not the first to suggest this, so I’ll let you all take a look around the net and on CNN, etc. for a more detailed explanation of this. To my knowledge the case is still eligible to be filed. Some have said the DNA evidence exonerates the Duke Lacrosse Team, but I think this may be a result of a little too much CSI on our parts. It will be interesting to see what the next couple of days bring. Regardless of the case, I think it remains really address that:
Race still matters! Obviously this incident has heightened Duke’s sensibilities to the importance of race. The issues of “town and gown” are real. I am however disappointed that not enough people are talking about the relationship between HBCU’s (NCCU) and PWI’s (Duke). This still seems like a pink elephant in the room.

On the Go Blue front, I neglected to post that next year’s president of the Michigan Student Assembly is Nicole Stallings, a Black woman. Congratulations Nicole. But my decision not to post on it was related partially to laziness and partially to her invitation to Michigamua, one of U of M’s senior “secret” honor societies. Michigamua has a long sorted history with relations to Native folks. In light of all this controversy, they publicly announced the members of their last two “prides” (though some pride members’ names are missing or recently dropped… wonder why?). They will announce a name change in the near future (in the meantime Goodspeedupdate is hosting a naming contest, go contribute). There will be a documentary run on them tomorrow also.

I’m not convinced that a name change will do away with their history. Nor am I convinced that they have likely flushed out their racial issues. I know a number of people have questioned why some people or communities can’t just “get over” the organizations use of race and move forward. I believe in transparency, when that is delivered, I’ll believe they are being straight forward. History has a way of repeating itself.

Onto the Black… Studies side of things. Today and Friday the Center for African and Afroamerican Studies at U of M is presenting a conference to honor the 35th anniversary of the center in honor of Harold Cruse. I’ll be checking out some of the events, good food for thought.

Aight, off to sleep, much work to be done… trying to get that degree, ya heard?

The people who genuinely need to read this post may never see it. I contributed to a piece for The Michigan Daily about self segregation. In it I try to explain a little about what is now being referred to as “the Black Hole”–you know, the mass of Black people in a public space that seems to constantly attract more Black people. I agree with everything I said in the piece, otherwise I wouldn’t have wrote it, but I’m not exactly sure this phrase came out correctly:

“I also relish the opportunity to be around other intelligent black people. Since this is the University of Michigan, a vast majority of us aspire to heighten our consciousness.

Sadly, that may not be the case for other parts of the world. The fatalist in me fears that I’ll never be around such a concentration of scholastically inclined black people ever again.”

My time at the University has been my first experience dealing with so many intellectual Black people. And I do fear that outside of the context of the University I will never find Black people this accepting and supportive of my own intellectual pursuits.

That being said, I don’t know how I feel about contributing to the notion that there are masses of dumb Black people roaming the non-Ivory Tower-lined streets–a notion which can be implied by my aforementioned fears. I only had 500 words so I didn’t have space to adequately qualify my sentiments.

I don’t want to be an elitist. I know there are non-academics who are extremely intelligent. My Grandfather was a bus driver in Detroit and he happened to be a genius, I’m sure he wasn’t the only one. Of course, my Grandfather probably would have been an academic had he not had to deal with being a Black youth in the Great Depression and all of the stuff that entailed, but I digress.

Also of note in the piece is that all of the students are minorities of some sort. I didn’t know who was going to be contributing but I was hoping for at least one white person. Instead there are three Black males (including myself), one international student who appears to be from the Indian sub-continent of Asia, and one half white/half Latino person who for the last several years has been embracing his Latino side. This fantastic representation makes it seem as though only non-whites are doing the self-segregating. As though white people in no way contribute to the clumping based on ethnic lines in the world. That’s ridiculous. But I can’t criticize the Daily because I work for them so I’d better stop now. I think I have authorization to post on the Daily’s blogs so maybe I’ll try to put a version of this up there. Until next time, Peace and God Bless.

edit: I have successfully posted to the Michigan Daily blogs. The message is slightly different. If you want to comment just go here

-David Betts

Aight there are a bunch of things that I wanted to get out there. So let’s count along together.

1 - One is for the date on Saturday, which is April 1st. The 1st traditionally marks the coming of April Fool’s Day. This year, I don’t want you to be the fool… so go to this rally and find out the things you been too embarassed, nervous or lazy to ask.

Take Action! Rally for Affirmative Action
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Congressman John Dingell, One United Michigan and the Washtenaw County Democratic Party Black Caucus would like you to join them. The “Don’t Be Fooled” rally is to shed light on and kick off the campaign here in Washtenaw County against the so called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative which is neither civil nor right.

Brown Chapel
1043 W. Michigan Ave.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197

2 - Two for the number of missing boys from Milwaukee. The media coverage, of course, has been pretty low. More info and discussion here.

3 - Three is for the number of times I wanted to throw up when I heard about the Duke Lacrosse and their “alleged” rape of two women. Rachel has provided a lot of links and information on her page.

4- Four is for the darn near 40 percent increase in the percentage of Black folks who use the internet! The digital divide is seeming to look different. Though we’re certainly not where we need to be yet.

aight, I’m tired of counting for now.

So in the past week (well 10 days), the NYTimes has run two pieces that have gotten a considerable amount of attention. The first “Plight Deepens for Black Men Study Warns” reports findings and some theories by the researchers behind the new book Black Males Left Behind. First, like most of the people commenting on this story, I have not read the book. My pockets are thinner than Nicole Richie in a fun house mirror (I know, that’s not right), so when I get a copy I can weigh in more soundly. The findings of the report did not shock me per se, but they did remind me that its clear Black men are becoming further marginalized from the center of American society*.

I however was intrigued by Orlando Patterson’s Op/Ed that ran on Sunday entitled “A Poverty of the Mind“. Patterson essentially argues that we have not been able to combat poverty and the condition of Black men in America because we have been afraid to tackle the issue of culture. Unfortunately he quickly creates a strawman of poverty research on black men. I could agree with him that researchers have been scared to tackle culture 10 years ago, but recently researchers have really grappled with the role of culture and behavior for Black and poor men (see Young, Lamont, there are more but I doubt you want a literature review). But for Orlando it is much more convient to say there is a fear of approaching the topic of culture and that until we take on culture, marginalization will remain.

While Patterson does prove, unlike many, that he has read up on the phenonmenon of “acting white“. He does quickly find other cultural dimensions to stress. This time, the masked culprit is hip hop culture.

I call this the Dionysian trap for young black men. The important thing to note about the subculture that ensnares them is that it is not disconnected from the mainstream culture. To the contrary, it has powerful support from some of America’s largest corporations. Hip-hop, professional basketball and homeboy fashions are as American as cherry pie. Young white Americans are very much into these things, but selectively; they know when it is time to turn off Fifty Cent and get out the SAT prep book.

For young black men, however, that culture is all there is — or so they think.

A couple of years ago Ron Ferguson argued that a possible reason test score gaps had widened between Blacks and Whites from 1998 forward was rap music and hip hop culture. I remember when I first heard this theory, I scouffed and thought it would pass with the night, but it stayed around. In fact, many still support this theory, which I find much akin to theories of acting white (e.g. present in places but likely overstated), despite the fact that test score gaps have begun to close again between Blacks and Whites… and rap is still widely popular. In Patterson’s view, Black men (not sure about women) lack the ability to code-switch, while Whites men are able to traverse dual realities. I must say that I do not entirely disagree with Patterson, but he misses how this occurs. Code-switching for Black folks has been a historical necessity. Even when our ancestors were enslaved, they had to act differently on the job or when under surveillence, than when not surveilled. So I would ask Patterson, which would be more likely to degrade a people’s ability to switch, music or marginalization? My obvious answer is marginalization. His response is cool pose. I do believe structural constraints beget cultural variations, but simply concentrating on culture is as short-sighted as simply concentrating on the structure.

It appears that Patterson could make a great argument for both the roles of structure and culture, but instead he claims that culture has been absent from our discussions of poverty. For those who don’t know, the title of this post is a throwback/homage to a highly influential chapter of the Moynihan Report. I find Patterson’s piece to largely be an update to this view, instead of matriarchy as a cultural determinent, he inserts hip hop culture (his perception of it at least) as the mechanism that keeps Black men ensnared in our social position.

I would love to know what Patterson thinks needs to be done to correct these cultural malfunctions? I guess the welfare to work approach didn’t work since he said Clinton’s Administration failed. Cultural training? What does he want to see happen? To close, I rework Patterson’s own words, what do you think?
Collecting transcripts of their views and rationalizations Leveeing critiques of research from an ivory tower towards the ivory tower is a useful first step, but won’t help nearly as much as the recent rash of scholars with tape-recorders NY times editorialists and readers seem to think.

*Unlike Orlando Patterson, I don’t think pursuing money and listening to music constitute incorporation into America’s mainstream