(NAME-MCE) Name-mce Digest, Vol 721, Issue 1
Abington-Pitre Aeve
asa6869 at louisiana.edu
Thu Jan 31 09:56:34 EST 2008
I use Paul Kivel exercises with great success... all age groups an genders.
-Dr. Aeve Abington-Pitre
Assistant Professor - Department of Curriculum and Instruction- 337.482.1618
NCATE Coordinator - College of Education - 337.482.1422
evepitre at louisiana.edu
337.482.5904 (Fax)
---------- Original Message -----------
From: mukh at email.sjsu.edu
To: name-mce at nameorg.org, name-mce-request at nameorg.org
Sent: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:20:08 -0800
Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Name-mce Digest, Vol 721, Issue 1
> Can anyone suggest simulations, like the ones on race [Blue
> Eyes/Brown Eyes] that are available or that people use to teach
> about sexism and gender discrimination?
>
> Carol Mukhopadhyay
>
> Quoting name-mce-request at nameorg.org:
>
> > Send Name-mce mailing list submissions to
> > name-mce at nameorg.org
> >
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> > than "Re: Contents of Name-mce digest..."
> >
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. Re: Parents complain lesson on racism was too upsetting
> > (dee36392 at msn.com)
> > 2. Real Origins of Clinton as The first Black President
> > (Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor))
> > 3. Re: Parents complain lesson on racism was too upsetting
> > (Bill Howe)
> > 4. [Fwd: Morrison -Clinton as the first black president - ]
> > (Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor))
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:07:21 +0000
> > From: dee36392 at msn.com
> > Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Parents complain lesson on racism was too
> > upsetting
> > To: "NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education
> > EmailDiscussion Group" <name-mce at nameorg.org>
> > Message-ID: <BAY136-DAV406AD259F02F7F3D38F739C350 at phx.gbl>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
> >
> > This teacher should have known better. This is no different than the bkue
> > eyes/brown eyes activity which has cost some teachers their jobs!
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Anselmo Villanueva" <anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
> >
> > Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:55:55
> > To:name-mce at nameorg.org
> > Subject: (NAME-MCE) Parents complain lesson on racism was too upsetting
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Parents complain lesson on racism was too upsetting
> >
> > A Martin Luther King Jr. Day lesson about racism and segregation angered
> > some Idaho parents, who said the exercise was too upsetting to their
> > children. Fifth-graders were assigned to a yellow or green group and told
> > not to talk to or use the same bathroom as anyone in the other group. One
> > teacher said he has included the lesson in his class for 16 years with no
> > complaints. Times-News, The (Twin Falls, Idaho) (01/23)
> >
> > Complete story below.
> >
> >
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/local_state/129254.txt
> >
> > School exercise draws heat
> >
> > Jerome parent says MLK Day activity went too far for fifth-graders
> > By Andrea Gates
> > Times-News writer Twin Falls ID
> >
> > A Martin Luther King Day lesson intended to teach hundreds of fifth-grade
> > students about racism, segregation and tolerance was more disturbing than
> > educational, one parent said.
> >
> > About 200 to 225 fifth graders from Summit Elementary were randomly
assigned
> > a color, yellow or green, and teachers told them not to talk to peers of
> > different colors. Bathrooms were segregated, and videos about the issue
were
> > also shown to kids, said school staff.
> >
> > The exercise deeply disturbed some students, said Mike Stokes, the
parent of
> > a 10-year-old.
> >
> > "It kind of blew me away. I found her lying in her room crying," said
> > Stokes. "I don't feel that's the right way to teach."
> >
> > Stokes said he heard some students threw things like pencils and paper at
> > others.
> >
> > Principal Alice Hocklander, however, said she had no knowledge that
things
> > were thrown.
> >
> > Not all fifth-grade teachers chose to participate in the activity, which
was
> > done last year with sixth-graders. Monday was the first time it was done
> > with fifth-graders, school staff said.
> >
> > Stokes said he also heard that during the exercise teachers called some
> > students names, such as "stupid."
> >
> > One teacher, John Derr, said he has done the exercise for 16 years
without
> > any complaints.
> >
> > "I didn't observe nor hear the word stupid," said Derr, who is also a
> > part-time sports writer for the Times-News.
> >
> > Derr said the exercise was meant to bring alive the lesson of King, and
to
> > show students what it's like to be judged by color rather than character.
> > Teachers also had discussions with their students about feelings after
the
> > exercise.
> >
> > Most students understood what was going on and went along with it, but a
few
> > got a little emotional, Derr said. So teachers reminded them it was just
an
> > exercise and told them not to take it personally. But some fifth-graders
> > seemed more emotional about the exercise than past classes have been, he
> > said.
> >
> > "What we're trying to do is teach a message," said Derr. "As educators,
> > sometimes we can talk a lot about a particular topic, but for the
students
> > to actually experience it, that's the greatest teacher."
> >
> > But Stokes said this is not a lesson kids should have to go through. And
> > now, he said, he's considering pulling his child from the school
district.
> >
> > "That's something devastating to kids that young - look how many years
it's
> > been since that's happened," Stokes said. "If that's how they treat
> > students, there's got to be a better school around."
> >
> > Summit teachers are now reviewing the exercise.
> >
> > "We're going to take a good, hard look at this" said Hocklander. "We
have a
> > very caring staff and we wanted this lesson to be something they'd
remember
> > ? But not negatively."
> >
> > Andrea Gates can be reached at 735-3380 or Andrea.Gates at lee.net.
> > _______________________________________________
> > This is a mailing of the National Association for Multicultural
Education -
> > (NAME) Listserv list - www.nameorg.org. The materials included reflect
> > diverse perspectives of NAME Listserv participants and do not necessarily
> > reflect a position of the National Association for Multicultural
Education.
> > If you would like to subscribe (or unsubscribe)to this listserv go to
> > http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org. You can
read
> > all past postings in the archives at
> > http://mail.nameorg.org/pipermail/name-mce_nameorg.org/
> >
> >
> >
> > Name-mce mailing list
> > Name-mce at nameorg.org
> > http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:46:12 -0800
> > From: "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)"
> > <tdlists at multiculturaladvantage.com>
> > Subject: (NAME-MCE) Real Origins of Clinton as The first Black
> > President
> > To: MCP at edchange.org, Name-mce at nameorg.org
> > Message-ID: <479F6664.6040201 at multiculturaladvantage.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> >
> > Our first black president?
> > It's worth remembering the context of Toni Morrison's famous phrase
> > about Bill Clinton so we can retire it, now that Barack Obama is a
> > contender.
> >
> > By Elizabeth Alexander
> >
> > Jan. 28, 2008 | Toni Morrison's statement that Bill Clinton is America's
> > "first black president" has been repeated so often that it even came up
> > as a question to Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential debate on Jan. 21.
> >
> > We are now at a moment where more and more voters are showing that they
> > are willing to elect an actual black president. In his historic and
> > overwhelming South Carolina victory, Obama won a majority of whites
> > under 30, along with the vast majority of African-Americans and most
> > women. Real and urgent issues affect black people all across the nation.
> > Endless joking about Bill Clinton's being America's first black
> > president steers us away from serious and long-overdue conversations
> > about race, as well as accountability on the part of both Clintons -- as
> > well as all of the presidential candidates -- with regard to
> > African-Americans. Even Morrison (who endorsed Obama today) might agree
> > that her phrase has been distorted and overused, and is confusing our
> > discussions about race today.
> >
> > Morrison made the comment only once, in a short essay in the New Yorker
> > in the aftermath of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impending
> > presidential impeachment proceedings. As far as I could find, she has
> > never used the phrase again and has not disseminated it beyond the New
> > Yorker piece. Her words have been used frequently and almost always out
> > of their original context, as a way of signaling Bill Clinton's supposed
> > comfort with and advocacy for black people, to the extent that Hillary
> > Clinton even attempted to joke that she was "in this interracial
marriage."
> >
> > A look at the context of the words at the source is illuminating.
> > Morrison began by describing a nation glued to unseemly details of Bill
> > Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, as Kenneth Starr pursued
> > his investigation and Republicans cheered him on. She questioned the
> > pitch of Starr-fueled hysteria, and said: "Years ago, in the middle of
> > the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin
> > notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any
> > actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime
> > ... The always and already guilty 'perp' is being hunted down not by a
> > prosecutor's obsessive application of law but by a different kind of
> > pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards of those he breaks."
> >
> > Morrison was not saying that Bill Clinton is America's first black
> > president in a cute or celebratory way, nor was she calling Clinton an
> > "honorary Negro." Rather, she was comparing Clinton's treatment at the
> > hands of Starr and others with that of black men, so often seen as "the
> > always and already guilty 'perp.'" Even in its original context the
> > comparison doesn't quite work. African-American men have been demonized
> > for centuries without having done anything but be black men, while
> > people of all political stripes would likely agree that Clinton put
> > himself in a compromised position with the Lewinsky situation, even if
> > the political reaction was out of proportion to his alleged "crime."
> > Morrison seemed here to be making a dark admonishment about what it
> > means to be tarred with the same brush that has punished
> > African-American men throughout this country's history.
> >
> > Once we stop rehashing this term out of context, we can stop accepting
> > as a given that African-Americans have already had their black
> > president, and focus instead on this actual African-American candidate
> > we have before us, Barack Obama. We should also ask real questions about
> > the Clinton legacy vis-?-vis African-Americans, instead of accepting
> > uncritically that they have always worked to advance the interests of
> > black people. We shouldn't forget the fates of Lani Guinier and Jocelyn
> > Elders, for instance, as we evaluate President Clinton's record in
> > advancing African-American appointees.
> >
> > I am not arguing that the Clintons have done nothing to advance the
> > cause of civil rights. I am saying that they get too much credit for
> > their record, as well as for their supposed cultural comfort with black
> > people. Both Clintons came of age during public desegregation, in which
> > they like many other whites were exposed to black people in schools and
> > in the workplace to a greater degree than those who came before them.
> > Their apparent comfort with black people is generational, not an
> > occasion for widespread celebration. I daresay George W. Bush shares
> > that same comfort being in proximity to African-Americans, given all the
> > hours he spends sweating on the elliptical machine next to Condoleezza
> > Rice. His appointments of Colin Powell and Rice are inarguably historic.
> > Given the way the phrase has been used, you might think that Bush could
> > be termed a black president, too.
> >
> > "Black" isn't a cute moniker, a stylish accoutrement, nor a "down-home"
> > way of speaking. An actual black man now stands before the nation,
> > making the case for why he thinks he is the best choice for president.
> > Regardless of what happens in the weeks and months to come, America is
> > listening.
> >
> >
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/01/28/first_black_president/print.h
tml
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:47:13 -0500
> > From: "Bill Howe" <bill at billhowe.org>
> > Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Parents complain lesson on racism was too
> > upsetting
> > To: "NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education Email
> > Discussion Group" <name-mce at nameorg.org>
> > Message-ID:
> > <d7c555be0801290947r2ca918b6h5e0f3e680a77ba83 at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> >
> > In the past when I have used Jane Elliot's Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes video, I
> > have gotten some comments from teachers that they would never do an
exercise
> > like that because of fear it would traumatize their students. Some of
these
> > same teachers are also insensitive to the fact that many minority
students
> > live this on a daily basis, not just an exercise during Black History
Month.
> > Where is the outrage over that?
> >
> > On Jan 28, 2008 4:55 PM, Anselmo Villanueva
<anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Parents complain lesson on racism was too upsetting
> > >
> > > A Martin Luther King Jr. Day lesson about racism and segregation
angered
> > > some Idaho parents, who said the exercise was too upsetting to their
> > > children. Fifth-graders were assigned to a yellow or green group and
told
> > > not to talk to or use the same bathroom as anyone in the other group.
One
> > > teacher said he has included the lesson in his class for 16 years with
no
> > > complaints. Times-News, The (Twin Falls, Idaho) (01/23)
> > >
> > > Complete story below.
> > >
> > >
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/local_state/129254.txt
> > >
> > > School exercise draws heat
> > >
> > > Jerome parent says MLK Day activity went too far for fifth-graders
> > > By Andrea Gates
> > > Times-News writer Twin Falls ID
> > >
> > > A Martin Luther King Day lesson intended to teach hundreds of fifth-
grade
> > > students about racism, segregation and tolerance was more disturbing
than
> > > educational, one parent said.
> > >
> > > About 200 to 225 fifth graders from Summit Elementary were randomly
> > > assigned
> > > a color, yellow or green, and teachers told them not to talk to peers
of
> > > different colors. Bathrooms were segregated, and videos about the issue
> > > were
> > > also shown to kids, said school staff.
> > >
> > > The exercise deeply disturbed some students, said Mike Stokes, the
parent
> > > of
> > > a 10-year-old.
> > >
> > > "It kind of blew me away. I found her lying in her room crying," said
> > > Stokes. "I don't feel that's the right way to teach."
> > >
> > > Stokes said he heard some students threw things like pencils and paper
at
> > > others.
> > >
> > > Principal Alice Hocklander, however, said she had no knowledge that
things
> > > were thrown.
> > >
> > > Not all fifth-grade teachers chose to participate in the activity,
which
> > > was
> > > done last year with sixth-graders. Monday was the first time it was
done
> > > with fifth-graders, school staff said.
> > >
> > > Stokes said he also heard that during the exercise teachers called some
> > > students names, such as "stupid."
> > >
> > > One teacher, John Derr, said he has done the exercise for 16 years
without
> > > any complaints.
> > >
> > > "I didn't observe nor hear the word stupid," said Derr, who is also a
> > > part-time sports writer for the Times-News.
> > >
> > > Derr said the exercise was meant to bring alive the lesson of King,
and to
> > > show students what it's like to be judged by color rather than
character.
> > > Teachers also had discussions with their students about feelings after
the
> > > exercise.
> > >
> > > Most students understood what was going on and went along with it, but
a
> > > few
> > > got a little emotional, Derr said. So teachers reminded them it was
just
> > > an
> > > exercise and told them not to take it personally. But some fifth-
graders
> > > seemed more emotional about the exercise than past classes have been,
he
> > > said.
> > >
> > > "What we're trying to do is teach a message," said Derr. "As educators,
> > > sometimes we can talk a lot about a particular topic, but for the
students
> > > to actually experience it, that's the greatest teacher."
> > >
> > > But Stokes said this is not a lesson kids should have to go through.
And
> > > now, he said, he's considering pulling his child from the school
district.
> > >
> > > "That's something devastating to kids that young - look how many years
> > > it's
> > > been since that's happened," Stokes said. "If that's how they treat
> > > students, there's got to be a better school around."
> > >
> > > Summit teachers are now reviewing the exercise.
> > >
> > > "We're going to take a good, hard look at this" said Hocklander. "We
have
> > > a
> > > very caring staff and we wanted this lesson to be something they'd
> > > remember
> > > ? But not negatively."
> > >
> > > Andrea Gates can be reached at 735-3380 or Andrea.Gates at lee.net.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > This is a mailing of the National Association for Multicultural
Education
> > > -
> > > (NAME) Listserv list - www.nameorg.org. The materials included reflect
> > > diverse perspectives of NAME Listserv participants and do not
necessarily
> > > reflect a position of the National Association for Multicultural
> > Education.
> > > If you would like to subscribe (or unsubscribe)to this listserv go to
> > > http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org. You can
> > > read all past postings in the archives at
> > > http://mail.nameorg.org/pipermail/name-mce_nameorg.org/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Name-mce mailing list
> > > Name-mce at nameorg.org
> > > http://mail.nameorg.org/mailman/listinfo/name-mce_nameorg.org
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Bill Howe
> >
> > Travel to China - June 1-14, 2008 - 12 nights - (Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin,
> > Yangshuo & Shanghai) Teachers & Health Care Professionals -
> > http://www.billhowe.org/China2008.htm > Feb 1 deadline to register.
> >
> > Web - http://www.billhowe.org
> > Blog - Travel - http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/
> > Blog - Multicultural Education - http://billhowe.org/MCE/
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:08:01 -0800
> > From: "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)"
> > <tdlists at multiculturaladvantage.com>
> > Subject: (NAME-MCE) [Fwd: Morrison -Clinton as the first black
> > president - ]
> > To: scifinoir2 at yahoogroups.com, MCP at edchange.org,
> > Name-mce at nameorg.org
> > Message-ID: <479F6B81.3090504 at multiculturaladvantage.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: [NPHC] Clinton as the first black president - Morrison
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:59:20 -0500
> > From: Mia Brydie <miabrydie at bellsouth.net>
> >
> >
> >
> > http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html
> >
> >
> >
> > Toni Morrison
> >
> >
> > Clinton as the first black president
> >
> >
> > /New Yorker/, October 1998
> >
> >
> > /Thanks to the papers, we know what the columnists think. Thanks to
> > round-the-clock cable, we know what the ex-prosecutors, the right-wing
> > blondes, the teletropic law professors, and the disgraced political
> > consultants think. Thanks to the polls, we know what "the American
> > people" think. But what about the experts on human folly?/
> >
> > This summer, my plan was to do very selective radio listening, read no
> > newspapers or news magazines, and leave my television screen profoundly,
> > mercifully blank. There were books to read, others to finish, a few to
> > read again. It was a lovely summer, and I was pleased with the decision
> > to recuse myself from what had become since January The Only Story Worth
> > Telling. Although I wanted cognitive space for my own pursuits, averting
> > my gaze was not to bury my head. I was eager for information, yet
> > suspicious of the package in which that information would be wrapped. I
> > have been convinced for a long time now that, with a few dazzling
> > exceptions, print and visual media have thrown away their freedom and
> > chosen jail instead--have willingly locked themselves into a
> > ratings-driven, moneybased prison of their own making. However
> > comfortable the prison may be, its most overwhelming feature is loss of
> > the public. Not able, therefore, to trust reporters to report instead of
> > gossip among themselves, unable to bear newscasters deflecting,
> > ignoring, trivializing information--orchestrating its minor chords for
> > the highest decibel--I decided to get my news the old-fashioned way:
> > conversation, public eavesdropping, and word of mouth.
> >
> >
> > I hoped to avoid the spectacle I was sure would be mounted, fearing that
> > at any minute I might have to witness ex-Presidential friends selling
> > that friendship for the higher salaries of broadcast journalism;
> > anticipating the nausea that might rise when quaking Democrats took firm
> > positions on or over the fence in case the polls changed. I imagined
> > feral Republicans, smelling blood and a shot at the totalitarian power
> > they believe is rightfully theirs; self-congratulatory pundits sifting
> > through "history" for nuggets of dubious relevancy.
> >
> >
> > I did not relinquish my summer plans, but summer is over now and I have
> > begun to supplement verbal accounts of the running news with tentative
> > perusal of C-SPAN, brief glimpses of anchorfolk, squinting glances at
> > newspaper--trying belatedly to get the story straight. What, I have been
> > wondering, is the story--the one only the public seems to know? And what
> > does it mean?
> >
> >
> > I wish that the effluvia did add up to a story of adultery. Serious as
> > adultery is, it is not a national catastrophe. Women leaving hotels
> > following trysts with their extramarital lovers tell pollsters they
> > abominate Mr. Clinton's behavior. Relaxed men fresh from massage parlors
> > frown earnestly into the camera at the mere thought of such malfeasance.
> > No one "approves" of adultery, but, unlike fidelity in Plymouth Rock
> > society, late-twentieth-century fidelity, when weighed against the
> > constitutional right to privacy, comes up short. The root of the word,
> > /adulterare, /means "to defile," but at its core is treachery. Cloaked
> > in deception and secrecy, it has earned prominence on lists of moral
> > prohibitions and is understood as more than a sin; in divorce courts it
> > is a crime. People don't get arrested for its commission, but they can
> > suffer its grave consequences.
> >
> >
> > Still, it is clear that this is not a narrative of adultery or even of
> > its consequences for the families involved. Is there anyone who believes
> > that that was all the investigation had in mind? Adultery is the
> > Independent Counsel's loss leader, the item displayed to lure the
> > customers inside the shop. Nor was it ever a story about seduction--male
> > vamp or female predator (or the other way around). It played that way a
> > little: a worn tale of middle-aged vulnerability and youthful appetite.
> > The Achilles' heel analogy flashed for a bit, but had no staying power,
> > although its ultra meaning--that Achilles' heel was given to Achilles,
> > not to a lesser man--lay quietly dormant under the clich?.
> >
> >
> > At another point, the story seemed to be about high and impeachable
> > crimes like the ones we have had some experience with: the suborning of
> > federal agencies; the exchange of billion-dollar contracts for proof of
> > indiscretion; the extermination of infants in illegal wars mounted and
> > waged for money and power. Until something like those abuses surfaces,
> > the story will have to make do with thinner stuff: alleged perjury and
> > "Lady, your husband is cheating on us." Whatever the media promote and
> > the chorus chants, whatever dapples dinner tables, this is not a mundane
> > story of sex, lies, and videotape. The real story is none of these. Not
> > adultery, or high crimes. Nor is it even the story of a brilliant
> > President naive enough to believe, along with the rest of the citizenry,
> > that there were lines one's enemies would not cross, lengths to which
> > they would not go--a profound, perhaps irrevocable, error in judgment.
> >
> >
> > In a quite baffling and frustrating manner, it was not a "story" but a
> > compilation of revelations and commentary which shied away from the
> > meaning of its own material. In spite of myriad "titles" ("The President
> > in Crisis"), what the public has been given is dangerously close to a
> > story of no story at all. One of the problems in locating it is the
> > absence of a coherent sphere of enunciation. There seems to be no
> > appropriate language in which or platform of discourse from which to
> > pursue it. This absence of clear language has imploded into a surfeit of
> > contradictory languages. The parsing and equivocal terminology of law is
> > laced with titillation. Raw comedy is spiked with Cotton Mather
> > homilies. The precision of a coroner's vocabulary mocks passionate
> > debates on morality. Radiant sermons are forced to dance with vile
> > headlines. From deep within this conflagration of tony, occasionally
> > insightful, arch, pompous, mournful, supercilious, generous, salivating
> > verbalism, the single consistent sound to emerge is a howl of revulsion.
> >
> >
> > But revulsion against what? What is being violated, ruptured, defiled?
> > The bedroom? The Oval Office? The voting booth? The fourth grade?
> > Marriage vows? The flag? Whatever answer is given, underneath the
> > national embarrassment churns a disquiet turned to dread and now anger.
> >
> >
> > African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in
> > the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs:
> > white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker
> > than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's
> > lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness:
> > single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing,
> > McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually
> > all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to
> > disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced
> > sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was
> > metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black
> > men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how
> > smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will
> > put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow,
> > albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job,
> > sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to
> > boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your
> > expletives belong to us."
> >
> >
> > For a large segment of the population who are not African-Americans or
> > members of other minorities, the elusive story left visible tracks: from
> > target sighted to attack, to criminalization, to lynching, and now, in
> > some quarters, to crucifixion. The always and already guilty "perp" is
> > being hunted down not by a prosecutor's obsessive application of law but
> > by a different kind of pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards
> > of those he breaks.
> >
> >
> > Certain freedoms I once imagined as being in a vault somewhere, like
> > ancient jewels kept safe from thieves. No single official or group could
> > break in and remove them, certainly not in public. The image is
> > juvenile, of course, and I have not had recourse to it for the whole of
> > my adult fife. Yet it is useful now to explain what I perceive as the
> > real story. For each bootstep the office of the Independent Counsel has
> > taken smashes one of those jewels--a ruby of grand-jury secrecy here, a
> > sapphire of due process there. Such concentrated power may be
> > reminiscent of a solitary Torquemada on a holy mission of lethal
> > inquisition. It may even suggest a fatwa. But neither applies. This is
> > Slaughtergate. A sustained, bloody, arrogant coup d'?at. The Presidency
> > is being stolen from us. And the people know it.
> >
> >
> > I don't regret my "news-free" summer. Getting at the story in that
> > retrograde fashion has been rewarding. Early this week, a neighbor
> > called to ask if I would march. Where? To Washington, she said.
> > Absolutely, I answered, without even asking what for. "We have to
> > prevent the collapse of our Constitution," she said.
> >
> >
> > We meet tonight.--Toni Morrison
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > This is a mailing of the National Association for Multicultural
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> > End of Name-mce Digest, Vol 721, Issue 1
> > ****************************************
> >
>
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