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Opinion
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Education reform is not to blame for nation’s segregated school By Kevin Chavous It is the great irony of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark desegregation case that celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The segregation CHAVOUS in our schools has gotten even worse, not better. Back in 1954, 17 states still had segregated schools and with court order from the highest court in the land, they were forced to desegregate. How successful were they? Not very. Take Missouri, one of those 17 states. Its most populous city, St. Louis,still is one of the most segregated cities in the country and its schools are just as
The Gantt Report The 2014 Political Pimp Move By Lucius Gantt With President Barack Obama’s assistance, certain Democratic candidates have mastered the “Political Pimp Move”! Now I know many GANTT readers of The Gantt Report don’t like for me to write anything bad about the Commander in Chief but those that truly know me
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segregated as the urban area. But St. Louis is not alone, or even an outlier. New York City, home of the nation’s largest school district, is the most segregated in the country. In the past few weeks, in a host of opinion articles and media interviews, status quo defenders of America’s public school system sought to explain this troubling situation by focusing on their usual villains – those urging comprehensive education reform. They suggested that enduring racial divides in our schools were to be blamed on charter schools and newly emerging educational options, such as vouchers. Donna Brazile, for example, cited charter schools as part of the segregation problem in American edu-
cation. As much affection as I have for Donna, it’s not a serious argument when the fact is that charter schools make up only 6 percent of the nation’s public schools. Worse still, top officials in the Justice Department seem to believe in this mythological link between education reforms and segregation. Last year, the Department filed for an injunction to block the Louisiana school voucher program that was designed for low-income and predominantly minority kids who were and remained trapped in failing schools. Using the spurious argument that the program exacerbated segregation, the Justice Department asked the Court to “permanently enjoin the State of Louisiana from awarding any
know that I try to write the truth and I don’t care if national, state or local politicians like it or not! With that said, if you desire, you can skip this column and go straight to the comics or funny pages. The word pimp first appeared in English in 1607 in a play entitled Your Five Gallants. It is believed to have stemmed from the French infinitive pimper meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle pimpant meaning alluring in seductive dress. Pimp used as a verb, meaning to act as a pimp, first appeared in 1636 in a book called The Bashful Lover. A pimp can also mean “a despicable person”. Many people wrongfully describe pimps as people that take money from women but the truth of the matter is that a pimp will take money, or anything of value, from whomever he or she can. African Americans are the deciding factor in any close election because Blacks usually vote in blocks and non-Black voters are pretty much divided and will vote for a variety of candidates. Instead of catering to their most loyal supporters, instead of patronizing businesses owned by your most loyal supporters, instead of speaking out strongly on issues of interest to your most loyal supporters and instead of giving your most loyal, voting supporters opportunities to participate in political purchasing transactions, the political party that African Americans love the most chose to pimp Black voters! Can I prove it? Yes! No matter how much love Black people show their political party of choice and the candidates that run for office under that party’s banner, Black people get screwed just like a two dollar wh*re on the bad side of town. They take our endorsements, they take our volunteerism, they take our campaign contributions, they take our enthusiasm, they take our political love and what do we get for it…..absolutely nothing! Now is the time, late in the 2014 campaign season, when politicians start showing up at Black churches. Politicians never go near a Black church, or any other Black community institution, until election time. And when they get to church, they bring their lies, they bring the false promises and they bring their political con game that suggests politicians from one political party are different and are better than candidates from opposing political parties. Malcolm X once suggested one party is composed of political wolves and the other is full of political foxes. A fox and a wolf are both canines and either party Black people choose to support they will still end up in the dog house! Today, many Black voters are like dogs in a sense of the word. A dog oftentimes rummages around garbage cans and he’ll find something that looks good and smells good but is also not good for him. When the dog eats things that are not best for him usually he will throw the bad food up but soon the dumb dog becomes so mesmerized and infatuated with what looked good he will try to eat his own vomit.
Black voters are the same way. No matter how many times they have been lied to by politicians they love, no matter how many times they have been ignored, rejected, neglected, used, abused and taken advantage of by the political party that they love, just like the dog, Black voters continue to cast their ballots for candidates that literally make them sick! In 2014, if Black people run to the polls to vote for candidates that hate Black people, that hate to spend money with Black people, hate to hire Black people and hate to speak strongly about Black issues, African American voters that vote for devils just because they are in a political party that you prefer are not only political punks and tricks, those kinds of Black voters are traitors to their race! Now, quickly, what does Barack Obama have to do with all of this? Well, the President is supposed to be the leader of the Democratic Party. In other words, if you control a political party, that party should do nothing that you don’t agree with. Not only does the President agree with the way African Americans are treated by the political party they love the most. President Barack Obama is helping that party treat us with malcontent and disrespect! Can I prove that, too? Yes, again! If it is not party policy, why does every Democrat say President Obama’s name when courting Black voters. Someone told Democratic candidates to spend all campaign money with non-Blacks and someone told the candidates, to get Black votes, all you have to do is say “I support Obama”. I did what I could to help President Obama win two presidential elections. What did I get from President Obama? I get at least ten emails a day from klansmen, neo-nazis and red-necked crackers begging me for money for white candidates to spend with white political vendors. President Barack Obama decided to give every piece of Black data to every pale faced candidate he could give it to. But he won’t give you data on how to reach Goldman-Sachs, Lehman Brothers of AIG insurers because they are white people and you are dumb Black voters. No, Black candidates can’t get data about white campaign contributors or white voters but anybody Black that ever gave a dime to President Obama has his name, address, email, phone number and other information given to any sheet-wearer, swastika wearer or modern day overseer that asks President Obama’s political party for Black data. To me, unauthorized use of Black personal data is like identity theft! I’ve gone much too far in this week’s column so I’ll just end by saying we’ve been voting for the lesser of two evils for far too long. In 2014, we need to vote for candidates that will vote for us, spend with us, respect us and want us. The idea of pimps and politics should be discarded and trashed like the people that suggest such ideas! (Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” in digital or paperback versions and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net
Ninety-one percent of 8 million enrollees have paid their premiums By Roger Caldwell It is now 2014, and Americans have forgotten the success of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Everyone is talking about President Obama’s dismal poll
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GUIDELINES The Westside Gazette welcomes your letters. Letters must be signed with name clearly legible along with a phone number and complete address. No unsigned or anonymous letters will be considered for publication. The Westside Gazette reserves the right to edit letters. The letters should be 500 words or less.
numbers, where only 40 to 39 percent think he is doing a good job. These numbers are the worse since he has been in office, and the Congress is talking about suing his administration. Everywhere you look CALDWELL around in the world there is war, and the hawks in the country are ready to spend billions to take the fight to America’s enemies. For the last few weeks, it appears that the only discussion in America is on the President’s foreign policy. The media and our political leaders want instant solutions, but that will never happen. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
school vouchers.” Here are the facts. In Louisiana, 93 percent of the children benefiting from the Louisiana Scholarship Program are minorities, all of whom attend underperforming schools and are from low-income families. An independent analysis of the Louisiana voucher program concluded it has “no negative effect on school desegregation.” Those who take part in the program overwhelmingly are moving from one segregated school to another. The new school just happens to be a better school for them academically. The bitter truth is that America’s schools have been segregated long before the advent of education reform, charter schools, opportunity scholarships and virtual learning. How did they become that way? America is a segregated country, both racially and socio-economically. White and middle class, Black and brown suburban flight left our city schools with primarily low income kids of color. Segregation is a fact of life in school systems in urban cities across the country. If our Justice Department is serious about attacking segregation in K-12 education, wouldn’t it make more sense to sue New York than Louisiana? Or Missouri, especially since it was one of the 17 states ordered to desegregate? So how do we end segregation? If you ask me, it all starts with education. And school choice isn’t its cause but its antidote. The education reform and educational choice movements grew out of a desire to address our collective failure to give our least privileged citizens the education they deserve – not the education to which they’ve been condemned. Blaming those of us who believe in reform and choice doesn’t do anything to help those kids. It’s just a distraction. Getting our kids in good schools is part of the solution, not the problem. Let’s celebrate those outlying – but growing – educational choice programs that are educating kids that otherwise wouldn’t be edu-cated. Every student who receives a worthwhile education becomes one more child who can thrive in an integrated world. And for goodness sake, let’s stop finding reasons to fight against the innovation, creativity and success we are seeing in education that our citizens want and need.
Social issues and moral values conflict beyond equality By Derek Joy And so, the war is on... Just like the late Marvin Gaye recorded a landmark album What’s Going On? - as the Vietnam War raged JOY on. Curiously, media reports and some historians often credit the War on Terrorism as America’s longest war. Fact is, America got involved in Vietnam in 1959 - earlier by covert efforts. It lasted until 1975. That’s 16 years, much longer than the War on Terrorism has spanned. Just mentioned that as an appetizer. Set the table for a curveball. Now, get up on this! Here it is, a time when Jews mark the beginning of the solemn holy day of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. It’s year 5775 on the Hebrew calendar. And, in America, Judaism stands as the equal of the world’s great (popular) religions. Right there alongside Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Even satanic followers can be found in ample numbers. The United States Constitution legislated “Certain inalienable rights” for the citizenry. Freedom of religion is most definitely one of those rights. Quite different from other countries that demand the practice of one religion. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Fla. NAACP pushing for medical pot By Clarence V. McKee Surprise, Surprise. The Florida NAACP has endorsed a November ballot initiative, MCKEE “Amendment 2” that would legalize so-called “medical marijuana.” Well, not really a big surprise. The National NAACP and affiliates in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and California have supported decriminalization or outright legalization of marijuana for recreational or medical use. Although not mentioned by the Florida NAACP as a basis for their support of the amendment, those above and many others cite the disproportionate marijuana arrest rates of Blacks as a main reason for supporting legalization. To them, it is a civil rights issue. This is a silly argument and compares apples to oranges. If the NAACP believes that the problem of disproportionate marijuana arrests is solved by legalization, would they agree that any disproportionate arrests of Black males for domestic violence or other crimes should require criminalization of those offenses? No way. In a July statement on this issue, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said, “We agree that the criminal justice system is in need of reform and that disproportionally exists throughout the system. Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan Administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns and has appeared on many national and local media outlets. Read more reports from Clarence V. McKee (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Discovering longer wait time for Affordable Medical Health Care By Phillip L. Wright, PhD. Here is what I have discovered about the new legalized Affordable Health Care Act, which is also known to some of us as Obama Care. Currently in WRIGHT 2014, nearly all of my medical appointments have an overload of patients to be seen. The reason is that patients now have the new Affordable Health care insurance and there are so many more people insured. However, with so many more patients needing medical attention it caused a deficiency of accurate and complete data processing of patients’ medical information. This has become a medical dilemma, probably across the United States in the Medical Facilities. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Report card on BlackAmerica By Lee A. Daniels NNPA Columnist Some might think the annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage the U.S. Census Bureau released last week had a DANIELS distinctly repetitive tone to it. Albeit with a few exceptions, the words “not statistically significant” aptly fit the very small increases or decreases of most of the measurements that comprise the year-to-year tally. But that doesn’t make the document itself is insignificant. For the report – a critical report card on the well-being of American society as a whole – underscores long-term economic trends that represent a clear and present danger to the viability of the broader society and to Black Americans in particular. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
The CBC – then and now Talk is no substitute for action By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist Too often people who have experienced and endured long term oppression and suffering take for granted some of the socioecoCHAVIS nomic and political indicators of progress. In other words, it is important periodically to assess both the setbacks and the gains that Black America has made during the past 50 years. I regularly attend various Black conventions and conferences. Over the past few years, I‘ve noticed the emergence an underlying pessimistic subtheme that increasingly permeates the gatherings of Black Americans. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Columnist Have you ever seen a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taking part in a panel discussion? It’s likely he didn’t have time BURKE if he were asked. It’s also likely that in the 1950s and 1960s, he wasn’t asked much. The period Dr. King conquered was a time of action. The actions Dr. King took got results and won huge victories. Last year, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This year, we are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)