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.

Martin L. King III's sober, inspiring "Poverty in America", from 14-15 Nov on American Life TV

Whatever else Martin King III may need for his new venture, you have to give him credit him for excellent timing. King has announced he is ready to take up his father's fight against poverty. No one else with a stature that approaches his and that of his family is doing anything as ambitious or potentially far-reaching. The elder son of Martin and Coretta Scott King has produced a powerful documentary, in which he travels the USA to carry on his parents' legacy. On Wednesday, 24 October, King's foundation, Realizing the Dream, and Baby Boomer-oriented American Life TV put on an impeccable premiere for King's new documentary, Poverty in America. Also taking part in the film's Wednesday evening premiere was American Life TV journalist (and Kentucky native), Nick Clooney. Clooney is better known to some as the brother of the inimitable vocalist Rosemary, and father to actor George. King reminded premiere guests that 2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the historic yet nearly still-born Poor People's Campaign. Martin L. King, Jr. begun that Campaign, giving his life virtually on its maiden voyage. In the first week of April 1968 King, Jr. and scores of others committed to the Civil Rights Movement went to Memphis, in west Tennessee, to support that city's striking sanitation (aka "garbage") workers. With Dr. King's world-changing assassination the Poor People's Campaign not only began in Memphis, it was pretty much cut down there. Poverty in America is narrated by longtime King family friend and Movement veteran Andrew Young. Almost a third of Americans are poor or barely surviving on low-incomes and pretty minimal government benefits.

In person, and in the documentary Wednesday night, King III sounded almost eerily like his dad. His final assertion in the documentary: "We can build a society where everyone gets a fair chance to succeed, despite the circumstances of thir birth. That's what my father fought for, and that's what I'll fight for." Well, God bless him. Seeing the (opposite) direction the U.S. has steadfastly travelled the past four decades, MLK III has the anti-poverty territory pretty well to himself. I've posted my photos of the premiere to my Flickr website.

Burma's Saffron Revolution: Violent crackdown on day 10

The violent crackdown everyone dreaded is on in Burma. International press are reporting one Japanese man is dead after being shot today by soldiers. This now brings Japan (also a Buddhist country) into the picture. The military controls Internet service within Myanmar and are blocking access to certain blogs, but word is getting out anyway. Several deaths have now been reported. Are the attacks on Buddhist monks, nuns and civilians the beginning of the end of Burma military rule? Where is India's voice? In a muted response China is now telling Burmese authorities to show "restraint". Thailand claims nothing unusual is going on. What about Europe, and Germany in particular? India and Germany both are said to have commercial ties to the Myanmar regime. U.S.-based Chronicle of Higher Ed links to New Mandala academic group blog which has lots of info and in turn links to Burmese site Kachin News Group in English and Burmese. There's also the link to Awzar Thi's Rule of Lords blog with compelling photos of what's now called the Saffron Revolution. Representatives of the people's movement say their non-violent protests are no fluke and the people will not give up. 

Team in Training: help Mel cross finish line(s) for cancer research

My friend Mel ('a girl') is doing Team in Training to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She and I (and a bunch of other civilian folks we know) have been together through thin and thick, doing human rights & election work in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Macedonia - but the other day she actually had to bike like halfway across the planet - or a similar distance. At least in my vivid imagination. So please visit Mel's training & fundraising page and make a donation. Thanks! Hang in there, John! Go, Mel!

"Captured Africans," Kevin Dalton Johnson's quayside work, Lancaster UK

'SWIM WITH SHARKS', originally uploaded by MarianDouglas.

Alasdair Pettinger's image of Johnson's sculpture somewhere near Lancaster's Millenium Bridge. The saying "to swim with sharks" began in the slave trade when sharks changed course to follow ships loaded with captured Africans, waiting for humans to jump or be thrown overboard. The permanent installation "Captured Africans" was conceived by Jamaican British artist Kevin Dalton Johnson who himself is a descendant of these kidnapped Africans. The section of his sculpture in this photo illustrates how in 17 years from 1745 to 1762 alone thirteen "slavers" (ships) sailing from Lancaster delivered almost 2,200 Africans into slavery and oblivion. We must add these numbers of people to all those trafficked through other UK ports and add those to the parallel Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Danish-Norwegian slave trades. Also the Arab slavers in the Indian Ocean trade in Africans.

Frantz Fanon and France's Wretched of the Earth

I'm remembering the brother of a friend of mine from the Maghreb - northern Africa. Yes - Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Algeria and several other countries beyond are in and are part of Africa. My friend's older brother was killed some years ago - murdered it seems - in a small town in France; a town I visited. To my knowledge up to now no one has ever been arrested, let alone tried for this young man's tragic and unnatural death. I don't even have any idea whether French local authorities investigated the circumstances of his death. Last year in 2004, in spite of our collective efforts and dialogue at the 2003 European Social Forum (ESF/FSE) right there in France, in St. Denis and in Paris, there was precious little global recognition of France's history and responsibilities in Haiti during the 2004 bicentennaire - bicentennial - of the entire world's first modern Black republic. In spite of all this I maintain my love of France, though certainly not uncritically. I have lived and worked, struggled, learned and shared in France. Now national authorities have activated a state of emergency - un etat d'urgence - for the first time since Algeria's war of independence against France as European colonial occupier. There's a huge gap of both time and politics from 1955 to now. Yet not nearly enough has changed it seems. Coincidentally, the Bandung Conference in Indonesia also took place in 1955. Two of my blog categories are "Bandung+50" and "Wretched of the Earth?" I was very much influenced in choosing these themes by a person, a Black Frenchman and an historical cousin - another person of African descent from the Americas - named Frantz Fanon. Fanon authored two seminal works of "anti-colonial revolutionary thought, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), works which have made Fanon a prominent contributor to postcolonial studies." Fanon died of cancer in Washington, DC on 6 Dec. 1961. In 1964, after his death, his third book appeared in English as Toward the African Revolution. Black Skin, White Masks originally was titled, "An Essay for the Disalienation of Blacks." The above quote is from Prof. Deepika Bahri's informative Fanon website. Bahri, from India, is associate prof of English and director of Asian Studies at Emory University in the US. Her site also notes British director Isaac Julien's 1996 film on Fanon - Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, available from California Newsreel. Read more of this post below...

FRANTZ FANON, MD (1925-1961):

Native of MARTINIQUE, Caribbean Americas

Rosa Parks' American Life: 1913-2005

Rosa Parks has died at the age of 93. Mrs. Parks was well-known and yet she was one in a long line of Black American women who were willing to live by their integrity and courage. This is a photo of Ms Parks in 1955 as she was being arrested for ... basically for being Black and not accepting the proscribed and subjugated space to which Blacks are still regularly assigned. There are at least three lessons to keep in mind from Mrs Parks' life and exoerience. Obviously she was not a very darkskinned individual, and yet some people maintain the artifice that pretends that lighter-coloured skin in and of itself is an adequate shield to protect some people of African descent from social discrimination and human rights abuse. That's a lie. The second point goes to political and social gender reality as lived by Black women and often also other women of colour. In 1955 Ms Parks was expected - by law - to give up her bus seat to a white male. That reality goes against popular "one size fits all" visions of gender relations, both internationally and in the USA. International mythology tells us that women supposedly are "respected and protected" by men. No white woman would ever be required to give up her seat or anything else to a Black man, and yet Rosa Parks went to jail for not getting up and moving to give her place to a white man. The third point goes back to the first and regards Mrs. Parks' appearance. It is possible that - like many millions of Black Americans and other African descendants in the Americas - one of her two male grandparents quite likely may have been a white male. So many experiences, so many ironies in one American woman's life. Thank you, Ms. Rosa Parks.

No "Race or Gender" in Political Appointments?

Conservative CNN television commentator Lou Dobbs poses the loaded question: "Do you believe race or gender should be a determining factor..." in jobs and nominations for various positions? Before anyone rushes in with "Oh gee, of course not" - guess what...  Surprise...

They already are:

photo: Tina Hager

White House photo

George Bush in Jackson Square: "Opportunity" or Opportunist?

George (Bush) is now on his what, uh... 53rd(?) trip down to New Orleans & other parts of the stricken Gulf Coast. Of course George carries with him a few more crumbs to spread (kind of like something else), even as he and his posse pass an Estate Tax repeal to relieve the suffering of the Super-Rich (Bush's base) while screwing the rest of us (including Katrina and Ophelia victims) with a new bankruptcy law. In Jackson Square "George the un-frugal Conservative" proposes big spending to rebuild New Orleans & the Gulf. It was Republicans who used to call this "throwing money at" a problem. News commentators note Bush never mentions 'sacrifice', nor how we are going to repay Chinese or other international lenders - to whom we are in major hock already. Bush thinks he also wants to re-define 'credibility'. Good luck, George. Meanwhile Louisville Courier Post political cartoonist Nick Anderson skewers The Bushter with his "HURRICANE LATRINA" cartoon. I'm loving it. Oh, and by the way... more than a few people consider New Orleans' Jackson Square "unlucky" if not downright evil. It's named in honor of the same Andrew Jackson who inaugurated the US federal Indian Removal policy and infamous Trail of Tears. As with the siege of Iraq, Katrina is well on the way to becoming yet another Bush "adventure" not turning out quite as George would like.

The Superdome May be Condemned

Hurricane damage at the New Orleans Superdome is so bad it may need to be torn down.