Gonzaga University Die In

The Black Student Union at Gonzaga University sponsored a demonstration on December 11, 2014, to stand in solidarity with communities across America against police misconduct.

Spokane Solidarity with Ferguson MO

After the unjust decision by the grand jury, newly elected Spokane NAACP President Rachel Dolezal called for a solidarity rally at City Hall and a march through the downtown business district. Guesstimates of participants ran from 100 to 280. The City Hall Plaza was closed. Demonstrators gathered on the corner in front of the City Hall building. Young African American men lay down on the ground symbolically representing the corpses of Black youth in America’s streets.  The group was largely made up of college students including African Americans, Mecha members, Asian and white students. Members of the Spokane Socialist Alternative were represented, as was PJALS and GBLT.  Absent Without Leave were the usual participants in Martin Luther King Day march – politicians, preachers and institutional representatives. And maybe that was a good thing. With new leadership coming from a younger generation grassroots organizing may begin.

Add your comments and let us know where Spokane should go from here.

20141125_5907Add your comments and let us know where Spokane should go from here.

Chip Thomas Photographer: Exhibit SFCC Oct 27 – Nov 21

chip thomas 20141027_5248A

 

PAINTED DESERT PROJECT

Spokane Falls Community College Fine Arts Gallery Bldg 6 3410 W Ft George Wright Dr. Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri 8:30 am – 3:30 pm

James “Chip” Thomas moved to the Navajo nation in 1987 to work as an Indian Health Services Physician, where he continues to work and live. During this time he taught himself black and white photography and has been documenting the people of the Navajo nation ever since. Chip has always been interested in street art, graffiti and guerrilla art tactics and taken part in the practice of billboard corrections. Influenced by urban graffiti artists of American cities and street artists in Brazil, Thomas, a.k.a. Jetsonorama, creates his own version of activist art on the Navajo Reservation.  Full article and photographs

20141027_5247

MLK, Jr. Lecture: Dr King for the 21st Century

Michael Eric Dyson, Sociology Professor and Media Icon

Wednesday, January 29, 7:00 p.m.

To be video streamed from Washington State University Pullman WA
to the Spokane Academic Center Room 245 at 7:00 pm

The Spokane Academic Center address is 412 E Spokane Falls Blvd.

For more information contact Yvonne Montoya Zamora at montoyazamora@wsu.edu or 509.358.7554.

Please feel free to forward.

Yvonne

Black America Is Still Operating Same Way It Did In 1950s

Chicago Steam Fitting 1974

The Black Star Project

  • Founded by Phillip Jackson in 1996, The Black Star Project is an educational reform organization in the United States. Its focus is on eliminating the racial academic achievement gap by involving parents and communities in the education of children. (Wikipedia)

Will Globalization Destroy Black America?

Phillip Jackson, Executive Director

The lack of response to globalization by Black America is frightening and troubling. While much of the world has adapted to the new-world economy and new-world standards of existence, most of Black America is still operating much the same way it did in the 1950s and 1960s. But now, throughout Black communities in America, there is a whisper campaign by Black people who don’t know each other and Black people who live in different parts of the country, saying to each other, “We are in trouble!” We know it and the rest of the world knows it! Black America, as we know it, is in danger of not surviving globalization.

In the 21st century, there are only two kinds of people. Not Black or White, or rich or poor, or foreign or national. The two kinds of people in the world today are those who are educated and those who are not. Although education has become the new currency of exchange in the 21st century, the old American educational paradigm stopped working decades ago for Black Americans. Simply sending Black children to American schools without a clear purpose or goal has contributed to the demise of the Black community. Black America watched formerly third-world countries catapult over America to become educational super powers while America rested on its old, stale educational laurels and fell way behind much of the world in educational performance. And because Black America unthinkingly depended on the American education system to educate its children, we have fallen way behind.

Read More….. http://ourcommongroundtalk.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/will-globalization-destroy-black-america-l-the-black-star-project/

The solution

The solution to the issue of Black America’s poor response to globalization is to 1) Deconstruct value systems that have caused Black people to arrive at the precipice of non-existence; 2) Construct value systems that will rebuild the Black family as a purveyor of positive values, cultures, mores and education, and re-establish the Black family as the primary and most important social unit of our culture and society; 3) Embrace education as the highest value in the Black community; 4) Effectively manage the negative cultural influences that hugely impact the thinking and actions of Black boys; and 5) Understand that for the rest of existence, change is a required part of the living process. The faster Black America is able to put this plan into action, adopt these new principles and manage change, the more likely we will survive.

Today, many Black people seem to be having “cosmic flashbacks” to our time in slavery, which was the first crude effort at globalization that helped to set the stage for today’s globalization. For years, Black America was buffered from modern globalization by political boundaries and economic barriers. Now globalization has come to our country, our cities, our communities, onto our blocks and into our homes, schools and workplaces. Globalization has happened, whether Black America is ready for it or not. We still have time to make the necessary changes that will guarantee that Black people will survive into the 21st century and that we will thrive in this global economy. But there is not much time. With globalization, Black America has entered into the “Educate or Die” era. In this era, there are only two questions worth answering: “Will we change? Can we survive?” How we emerge from this era is up to us.

Join the Forum discussion on this post

Don’t Soak The Brother

Lonnie Johnson

Johnson Research and Development Co. founder Lonnie Johnson has been in a royalty dispute with Hasbro since February, when the company filed a claim against the giant toy company. According to King & Spalding, which along with the A. Leigh Baier P.C. law firm represented Johnson, Hasbro underpaid royalties for the Nerf line toys from 2007 to 2012. From ajc.com

Super Soaker Creator Gets a Whopping $73 Million Dollar Settlement!

 “In the arbitration we got everything we asked for,” said Atlanta attorney Leigh Baier. “The arbitrator ruled totally in Lonnie’s favor.” The attorney also said Johnson “is very pleased” with the outcome.

Who is Lonnie Johnson, African American born October 6, 1949 in Mobile, Alabama?

At Tuskegee he was elected into the Pi Tau Sigma National Engineering Honor Society and graduated with distinction in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation? ON and UP. Read bio at The Black Inventor.

See what making toys can do. Let us stop playing with toys when we can make them!

Tribute To Edward Thomas, Jr

Edwards bookcover

On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 Guy Thomas-Boudreaux  wrote:
Please enjoy this video which is a tribute to our father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7x8YMXVsy0&feature=youtu.be

Memorial services will be announced shortly.

An Event That Inspired The National

130629_7206ADear Yale Students and Extended Community,

Fifty years ago today our country experienced arguably the most important mass movement in US history refered to as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom or the Great March on Washington.  Ironically, the 50th anniversary lands on the exact day of the week, more importantly the nation’s first African American president will deliver the address.

It was this event (and others) that inspired the National and her young leaders in institutions of higher learning to make a profound difference.

In 1964 the Yale discussion group on Negro Affairs was formed as the University witnessed a significant (14) influx of black freshmen.  By 1966 the Black Student Alliance at Yale (also known as B.S.A.Y. or BSAY) was established to expand the voice of  black students at Yale.

The following year (1967) BSAY would sponsor a conference on Black Power in the midst of social unrest and rioting in New Haven.  By 1968 BSAY would expand the conversation and host a symposium entitled “Black Studies in the University” in order to explore “the intellectual value and relevance of studying and teaching the Black Experience … to their respective communities.”

This symposium hosted individuals such as Harold Cruse (author of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual) , Maulana Karenga, Alvin Pouissant, Gerald McWorter (Sociology Department,Fisk) and others.  The proceedings of the symposium would later be collected in a published volume and edited by Yale students Armstead L. Robinson, Craig C. Forster and Donald H. Ogilvie.  By mid-year (1968) a committee of students and faculty organized and called for a major in Afro-American Studies.

September (1968) ushered in the largest number of black students (70) to enter Yale, almost double the number the prior year.  By December of 1968 the Yale faculty approved the Afro-American Studies program and major.  The major would be offered for the first time in September 1969.  Arna Bontempts (noted American poet of the Harlem Rennaisance) would serve as a visiting professor at Yale.  The year 1969 also introduced co-education to Yale.

As the 1960s ended a new era of activism kicked of the 1970s with the Black Panther trials (April/May 1970) in New Haven and the creation of the Chubb Conference on the Black Woman organized by Sylvia Ardyn Boone (Yale professor of Art History) and Vera Wells, ’71.

The conference featured a speech entitled “Third World Women” by Shirley Graham DuBois (writer and wife of noted intellectual W.E.B. DuBois).  Other notables such as Maya Angelou, Gwendoyn Brooks and John Henrik Clarke were in attendance.

Today is a time to reflect and challenge a new generation of young people to stand tall as thought leaders and solid citizens.  John Henrik Clarke reminds us that history is a current event.  Let us all be mindful of today’s Anniversary and continue to make history.

Sincerely,

Dean Rodney T. Cohen
Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale

INTERNS WANTED

WANT TO WORK FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA?

AFRICAN AMERICAN INTERNS WANTED FOR 2013
WHITE HOUSE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Washington, DC (BlackNews.com) — The 2013 White House Initiative’s Year-round Internship Program provides current undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to learn about African American-focused education policy communications, and outreach at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Collecting and compiling research and data on African American education, institutions and communities; Performing data entry and managing the office database; Greeting and escorting visitors to meetings; Participating in strategic planning and staff meetings and other Department policy briefings and meetings relevant to the work of the Initiative; Responding to constituent inquiries verbally or in writing; and more.
Throughout the course of their internships, students will have the opportunity to attend and potentially lead in the planning and management of meetings, briefings and other special events on the Hill, at the White House and in other federal agencies.
To apply for the 2013 White House Initiative’s Year-round Internship Program, visit:
www.findinternships.com/2013/04/white-house-initiative-year-round-internship-program.html
To search hundreds of other internships, visit:
www.FindInternships.com

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Clinton School Team Takes 2nd in National Policy Competition

Aside

Angela BUKENYA

Angela Bukenya Spokane WA

A team of Clinton School students won second place Saturday in the finals of Policy Solutions Challenge USA, a national competition among U.S. schools of public policy, public affairs and public administration.
Clinton School students Mara D’Amico , Angela Bukenya , Christine Sumner and Jillian Underwood finished second among eight finalists for their presentation on “Responses to Childhood Obesity in the U.S.” which was the topic of this year’s challenge. A team from the University of Wisconsin finished first while Brown University finished third.
Other schools in the competition were American University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, University of Southern California and University of Washington.
The Clinton School team won the South Region competition in February and competed at the finals Friday and Saturday at the American University School of Public Policy in Washington, D.C.
For more information on Policy Solutions Challenge USA, visit  policychallenge-usa.org .