Marian's Blog

Chocolate City, a film on Washington, DC and gentrification

In recognition of our colonised status, people around the world can help by taking a symbolic break from even uttering the words "Washington" and "Washington, DC." Leave our name out of conversation and put a blank space in print. Besides the general public, those encouraged to promote, observe and abide by the boycott should include bloggers, teachers and professors, clergymembers, tourists and tour guides, travel agents, economists, journalists, scientists, activists and politicians. To do so will send a powerful message in contrast to the real lack of power of our city's mostly Black and mostly Black women residents. Washington, the city, always has been about far more than national and international politics and tourism.

(In Washington, an image of DC native son the late Marvin Gaye shows up only in a vodka advert. U.S. Capitol with "don't walk" sign. Photos property Marian's Blog)

In fact, DC's reality remains hidden: a majority-Black American city with a buried yet deeply rooted history (and identity) as the former capital of the U.S. interstate slave trade. People live here, and for many years the majority of Washington's citizens have been Black Americans; or at least we have been the vast majority until the very recent past. Washington as a majority Black city has always been subjugated and segregated. We have been and are under attack. In spite of the presence of international organizations and the embassies of nations around the world, little news of the real DC and our status seems to get out, even and especially among journalists. Along comes a film to break the silence: CHOCOLATE CITY, a documentary by filmmakers Ellie Walton and Sam Wild. Just as they would have bought Black Americans' ancestors as slaves, property developers have bought my town and the local population is being forced out using means that are mostly foul. CC focuses on the displacement and dispersal of the community of 400 families who lived in public housing called Arthur Capper Homes. The film has two de facto "stars", Arthur Capper resident Debra Frazier and Anu Yadav, a performance artist of South Asian origin. The two form unlikely yet complementary poles in the moving narrative. A quickly built official website for Chocolate City is down now seems to be back up after having received so many hits it temporarily exceeded its bandwidth. I'm also pointing readers to Jennifer Tchinnosian's 6 Feb 2008 review in George Washington University's student paper, the Daily Colonial, a name which is wholly a propos.

3 votes shy: Dems Baucus, Byrd & GOP halt S. 1257, DC Voting Rights

I couldn't believe the news at mid-afternoon today that on a 57 "yes" to 42 "no" voice vote, the U.S. Senate today failed to endorse S. 1257. This bill finally would have given Washington, the District of Columbia its own voting representation in the House of Representatives. Can any Americans truly be proud of, or indifferent to, this outcome?

This probably is particularly sobering for 87 year old, former Massachusetts senator Edward Brooke, a Republican who is Black. Despite his best bi-partisan efforts, today's vote split along party lines. With eight exceptions, other Republicans voted against 1257 despite the fact that its major compromise would have given Utah one more congressional seat.

Call your U.S. senators today in favor of S. 1257 - DC Voting Rights!

According to DC Vote, today is the second annual National Call-In Day for U.S. voters to ask their U.S. Senators to vote YES on S. 1257 - the DC Voting Rights Act. DC Vote says Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing S. 1257 to the Senate floor tomorrow, 18 September. You can call your two U.S. senators on the following 866 number before 5PM U.S. Eastern time today. Ask them to please vote to pass the DC Voting Rights Act - tel: 1.866.346.3008. Or call on 1.202.224.3121 and ask for your senators' offices. Ask friends, family and colleagues to do likewise. If you're not American but know others who are, ask them to do the same. And thanks. What's at stake is (finally) granting equal participation in the House of Representatives to the people of Washington, DC. You'd think we already had this right, huh?

Americans whose home is "the Nation's Capital" - Washington - have waited patiently and protested very peacefully for a very long time. We're again asking our sister and fellow citizens for a modicum of equal status. Even if we win tomorrow, we'll still be unrepresented in the U.S. Senate. 

One battle at a time. The House of Reps already has approved this change. Now the decision is up to the 100 senators who control DC's future yet are only based in Washington to represent all the other Americans out in the lower 48 States plus Alaska and Hawaii.

"Washington City", as we once were called, has been the US capital since the early 1800s. Enslavement of Black Americans in DC only ended in 1862. So why have Washingtonians been so long excluded from equal representation?

Earlier today, a Democratic email colleague shared the fact that Sept. 18 is "Constitution Day" in the U.S. I'd never heard of it but as a proud native of the District of Columbia it's hard to wrap my mind around, and just as difficult to describe, how it feels knowing every moment I've lived in Washington, I've been de facto excluded from, politically voiceless in and invisible to, our national system of "representative democracy."

June: Caribbean American Heritage Month 2006

Props to our Caribbean cousins/sisters/brothers for Caribbean American Heritage Month 2006. Jasmyn Cannick has a good link on her site where she writes about Oakland, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee's 2005 proclamation, with a list of a few US folks of (recent) Caribbean descent/origin, like California's Mervyn Dymally, "the first foreign born member of the United States Congress, Marcus Garvey, Sidney Poitier, Colin Powell, Cicely Tyson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Shirley Chisolm." The folks are even going to show us how to play cricket on the National Mall in DC. Do they plan to let women join in? More events and details at CaribbeanAmericanMonth.org site.

State of the Black Union on CSPAN!

My brother just shared with me that the annual, public, free SOBU conference - the State of the Black Union - sponsored by broadcaster Tavis Smiley, is now being televised on CSPAN. Tavis says there are 5,000 persons attending the conference in Houston, Texas, plus scores more watching nationally and internationally via CSPAN. Thanks bro. Check it.

International relations workshop for 'global South' young scholars (but not global South in Europe & North America)

June 15 is the application deadline for the first Workshop of Young Scholars from the Global South (WYSGS), 9–16 Oct 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland. The programme is for "outstanding young scholars ... specializing in the study of international relations," and is hosted by Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Unfortunately in the "Global North" there still exists the blatantly neocolonial yet accepted-in-many-influential-quarters practice of others continuing to define the local European and North American communities of colour - the South in the North - so we have no chance of inclusion in a programme like WYSGS. Others are defining "Global South" as "countries belonging to the former ‘third world’." Nonetheless peoples of Southern origin located in the North were and are Third World peoples. The programme encourages women to apply. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. GIIS says it's looking for candidates close to completing their Ph.d at a "southern university". At this point I have to wonder "aloud" whether GIIS has ever heard of the economic, social and political conditions under which Black America's HBCUs - "historically Black colleges and universities" came into being in the US. That is, if they've even heard of HBCUs, let alone visited an HBCU campus. [See political cartoon below.] Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah graduated from historically Black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. So did my Great Grandfather, Rev. George Richard Brabham (Presbyterian). Long before most "Global North" universities began accepting them, Black HBCUs in the US welcomed thousands of "Third World" students and staff and faculty from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Whites from America and Europe also have been included. And the HBCU welcome has been social as well as academic. Meanwhile regardless of location most predominantly white schools have to admit they're still "working to improve" an often chilly "social climate" toward students of colour. But maybe it's not like that in Switzerland. I digress.<grin> WYSGS's working language will be English. Check all requirements on their website and email a "letter of self-introduction and motivation," a detailed CV, contact info for 2 referees and a 2000-word Ph.d. project summary to "southworkshop at hei.unige.ch." If you don't have email, send application in an envelope marked WYSGS to: Ms Denise Ducroz, Graduate Institute of International Studies, 11A Avenue de la Paix - 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Be sure to mail so it arrives in their office before 15 June. Good luck, buona fortuna and bonne chance!

I figured I'd insert fabulous political cartoon (which isn't copying worth diddly) from a 1940s Black American newspaper - probably Black press of the day in Saint Louis, Missouri. Better copy of Charles H. Ware's cartoon shows Black American child looking from a distance at then-whites-only Washington University, St. Louis, MO; captioned simply: "I will be ready" - referring to unknown future when and if Black Americans would be allowed to attend Washington U.- and thousands of other US schools. Washington University in St. Louis only admitted Black American students in 1947 or 48; approx. two (2) graduate students. In spite of obvious talent cartoonist Charles H. Ware - like other writers, photographers, cartoonists of colour - could not get published in America's white-run press, a fact little changed in 2005. Will locate St. Louis Black paper that published.

Roberta Flack, Please come Home??

I see Black Mountain, North Carolina (near Asheville) now has its own news website - Black Mountain News. As its name implies Black Mountain, NC (zip code 27811) is up in the mountains. What too many of us don't know is that reknowned singer/songwriter ("Killing Me Softly")  Roberta Flack is a native of western North Carolina and of Black Mountain. (For a better idea of where Black Mountain is, just click on the tiny map.) 

A lot of Black Americans who know a bit about her think Roberta is originally from Washington, DC. Yes, she did go to Howard University and before becoming famous she taught music in DC public schools. But R. Flack is a homegirl from the mountains. And consequently what at least one of us - namely me, with family roots in the same place - would like to know is whether after many, many decades and at least a couple of centuries there's (yet) any place of respect and belonging for us in these western North Carolina & East Tennessee mountain communities our Black American families are from. Just like Roberta Flack we have deep roots in Southern Appalachia USA. All we ask now is some kind of positive sign.

Gina Paige's Lecture This Saturday in Atlanta: Africa, DNA & Genetics

We don't know Gina Paige yet, but we are familiar with the scientific DNA genetics work of Dr. Rick Kittles, founder of the DNA testing firm African Ancestry.com.

Dr. Kittles (and also Dr. Mark Shriver at Pennsylvania State University) was a consultant to that excellent BBC television special that's still changing our lives and turning people's heads - Motherland: A Genetic Journey. So if everything is 'on track' Gina Paige is scheduled to give a lecture this Saturday, 5 March, at noon and again at 3:00 pm at the Family Reunion Conference at the Hilton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, GA. This is sponsored by the Family Reunion Institute based somewhere at Philadelphia's Temple University (maybe in Pan African studies??). Be there or be square...

Do You HBCU, Too? America's Historically Black colleges & universities

But first... a Happy Birthday shout-out to "Joey"!! Happy birthday, Joe and many happy returns of the day. Don't forget to make a wish.

Today's BHM term (Black History Month) is HBCU. For the uninitiated that's historically Black colleges & universities. I was born at an HBCU (Howard, where my uncle and later my cousins graduated), grew up at an HBCU (Southern), and attended a third HBCU (Lincoln, in Pa, where my great Grandfather Reverend Brabham graduated in 1894).

Anybody else remember "vespers"? Vespers was the religious service everyone on campus attended every Sunday evening in the campus chapel. It was quiet, beautiful and gracious. Actually I miss it. I attended with my parents, brother and sisters at Southern University (the blue & gold) where my father taught. If you HBCU or want to learn how to, visit HBCU Network and find out what's going on.

Ossie Davis. We send love to Ruby Dee. In 1965 he gave eulogy at Malcolm's funeral

"He was a voice for justice - and what a voice it was. Ossie Davis, 87, the actor, writer and social activist who died Friday, had the kind of rich, soulful, sonorous delivery that seemed to arise as much from his conscience as his vocal cords.

But it wasn't just timbre and elocution that made Davis, who starred on Broadway and in movies such as "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and in TV productions such as "Roots: The Next Generations" (1979), famous and beloved. Davis and his wife, actress Ruby Dee, who survives him, seemed always in the center of a political storm. They were blacklisted during the McCarthy era for communist sympathies; they marched and picketed in major civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s. Davis also delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965. And it was Davis who gave voice to the United Negro College Fund mantra, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" in the well-known ad campaign. ..."

Black History Month... Ossie Davis goes home. I didn't know this news when I quoted M.L. King in an earlier blog. - Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Ossie Davis knew alot about not keeping silent. Read the rest of Julia Keller's syndicated article from the Chicago Tribune.