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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 3:45 am
Ladytex, I have heard the term but I didn't fully understand. Thank you so much for your posting .. what an important day that we all should understand and celebrate! 
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 4:55 am
yw, that's what I try to do, post things for us all to learn from and understand.
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Spangs
Member
10-07-2005
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 11:15 am
still nursing the hangover from all the festivities yesterday, but am truly smiling at the post about juneteenth that you posted Ladyt.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 11:26 am
I figured you were either hungover or still drunk from the party in Austin, Spangs
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 11:56 am
That's what I figured too.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 4:10 pm
Thx LadyT, I kinda knew about Juneteenth but not the whole story, thx for posting that.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 4:38 pm
I have to admit I didn't know the origin of this celebration; thanks, Ladytex!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 3:16 am
She's a keeper.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 4:02 am
thankie 
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 1:48 pm
Black men quietly combating stereotypes By ERIN TEXEIRA, Associated Press Writer Sat Jul 1, 12:30 PM ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060701/ap_on_re_us/men_surviving_blackness_1 NEW YORK - Keith Borders tries hard not to scare people. He's 6-foot-7, a garrulous lawyer who talks with his hands. And he's black. Many people find him threatening. He works hard to prove otherwise. "I have a very keen sense of my size and how I communicate," says Borders of Mason, Ohio. "I end up putting my hands in my pockets or behind me. I stand with my feet closer together. With my feet spread out, it looks like I'm taking a stance. And I use a softer voice." Every day, African-American men consciously work to offset stereotypes about them — that they are dangerous, aggressive, angry. Some smile a lot, dress conservatively and speak with deference: "Yes, sir," or "No, ma'am." They are mindful of their bodies, careful not to dart into closing elevators or stand too close in grocery stores. It's all about surviving, and trying to thrive, in a nation where biased views of black men stubbornly hang on decades after segregation and where statistics show a yawning gap between the lives of white men and black men. Black men's median wages are barely three-fourths those of whites; nearly 1 in 3 black men will spend time behind bars during his life; and, on average, black men die six years earlier than whites. Sure, everyone has ways of coping with other people's perceptions: Who acts the same at work as they do with their kids, or their high school friends? But for black men, there's more at stake. If they don't carefully calculate how to handle everyday situations — in ways that usually go unnoticed — they can end up out of a job, in jail or dead. "It's a stressful process," Borders says. Melissa Harris Lacewell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, says learning to adapt is at the heart of being an American black male. "Black mothers and fathers socialize their sons to not make waves, to not come up against the authorities, to speak even more politely not only when there are whites present but particularly if there are whites who have power," she said. "Most black men are able to shift from a sort of relaxed, authentically black pose into a respectable black man pose. Either they develop the dexterity to move back and forth or ultimately they flounder." It's a lot like a game of chess, says 43-year-old Chester Williams, who owns Chester Electric in New Orleans. He has taught his three sons, ages 16, 14 and 11, to play. "The rules of the game are universal: White moves first, then black moves," he said. "Black has to respond to the moves that the whites make. You take the advantage when it's available." Twenty-year-old Chauncy Medder of Brooklyn says his baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts make him seem like "another one of those thuggish black kids." He offsets that with "Southern charm" he learned attending high school in Virginia — "a lot of 'Yes, ma'ams,' and as little slang as possible. When I speak to them (whites), they're like, 'Hey, you're different.'" Such skillful little changes in style aren't talked about much, especially not outside of black households — there's no reason to tip your hand. As Walter White, a black sales executive from Cincinnati, puts it: "Not talking is a way to get what you want." He recalled that, "as a child, we all sat down with my mother and father and watched the movie 'Roots,'" the groundbreaking 1970s television miniseries tracing a black family from Africa through slavery and into modern times. The slaves were quietly obedient around whites. "But as soon as the master was gone," he said, "they did what they really wanted to do. That's what we were taught." Historians agree that black stereotypes and coping strategies are rooted in America's history of slavery and segregation. Jay Carrington Chunn's mother taught him "how to read 'Whites Only' and 'Negro Only' before she taught me anything else," said the 63-year-old, who grew up in Atlanta. "Black parents taught you how to react when police stopped you, how to respond to certain problems, how to act in school to get the best grade." School is still a challenge, even from an early age. Last year, Yale University research on public school pre-kindergarten programs in 40 states found that blacks were expelled twice as often as whites — and nine out of 10 blacks expelled were boys. The report did not analyze the patterns, but some trace it to negative views about black boys. Black male children are often "labeled in public schools as being out of control," said Lacewell, who studies black political culture and wrote "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought." "If you're a black boy who is smart and energetic and always has the answer and throws his hand up in the air," she said, "you might as a parent say, 'Even if you know the answer you might not want to make a spectacle of yourself. You don't want to call attention to yourself.'" Bill Fletcher still has nightmares about his third-grade teacher, a white woman who "treated me and other black students as if we were idiots," he said. "She destroyed my confidence." But his parents were strong advocates, and taught him to cope by having little contact with teachers who didn't take an interest in him, said Fletcher, former president of TransAfrica Forum, a group that builds ties between African-Americans and Africa. As black boys become adolescents, the dangers escalate. Like most teenagers, they battle raging hormones and identity crises. Many rebel, trying to fit in by mimicking — and sometimes becoming — criminals. "They are basically seen as public menaces," Lacewell said. Rasheed Smith, 22, a soft-spoken, aspiring hip-hop lyricist from the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, recently tapped his long fingers, morosely counting his friends killed in neighborhood violence in the last five years — 11 in all. Few spent much time beyond their blocks, let alone their neighborhood. Some sold drugs or got in other trouble and had near-constant contact with police. Smith has survived by staying close to his family. He advised: "With police, you talk to them the way they talk to you. You get treated how you act." Twenty years ago, Carol Taylor's teenage son — now a lawyer — was mugged twice near their Brooklyn home, but police officers "treated him like he had done the mugging," she said. She wrote and self-published "The Little Black Book: Survival Commandments for Black Men" filled with tips on how to deal with police: keep your hands visible, carry a camera, don't say much but be polite. "Don't take this as a time to prove your manhood," wrote Taylor, a retired nurse and community activist who said she's sold thousands of the pocket-sized, $2 books. And more general advice: "Learn to read, write and type, and to speak English correctly. This is survival, not wishful thinking. If you are going to survive in America, go to college!" One selective business program at historically black Hampton University in Virginia directs black men to wear dark, conservative suits to class. Earrings and dreadlocked hairstyles are forbidden. Their appearance is "communicating a signal that says you can go into more places," said business school dean Sid Credle. "There's more universal acceptance if you're conservative in your image and dress style." One graphic artist says he wears a suit when traveling, "even if it's on a weekend. I think it helps. It requests respect." But in the corporate world, clothing can only help so much, said Janet B. Reid of Global Lead Management Consulting, who advises companies on managing ethnic diversity. Black men, especially those who look physically imposing, often have a tough time. "Someone who is tall and muscular will learn to come into a meeting and sit down quickly," she said. "They're trying to lower the big barrier of resistance, one that's fear-based and born of stereotypes." Having darker brown skin can erect another barrier. Mark Ferguson has worked on Wall Street for 20 years. He has an easy smile and firm, confident handshake. "I think I clean up pretty well — I dress well, I speak well — but all that goes out the window when I show up at a meeting full of white men," says Ferguson of New Jersey, who is 6-foot-4 and dark-skinned. "It's because they're afraid of me." "Race always matters," said Ferguson, whose Day in the Life Foundation connects minority teenagers with professionals. "It's always in play." Fletcher knows his light brown skin gives him an advantage — except that he's "unsmiling." "If you're a black man who doesn't smile a lot, they (whites) get really nervous," he said. "There are black people I run across all the time and they're always smiling particularly when they're around white people. A lot of white people find that very comforting." All this takes a toll. Many black men say the daily maneuvering leaves them enraged and exhausted. For decades, they continuously self-analyze and shift, subtly dampening their personalities. In the end, even the best strategies don't always work. "I've seen it play out many times" in corporations, said Reid of Global Lead. "They go from depression to corporate suicide. Marital problems can come up. He loses all self confidence and the ability to feel manly and in control of his own fate." Sherman James, a social psychologist at Duke University, studies how the stress of coping for black men can damage the circulatory system and lead to chronic poor health. Black men are 20 percent more likely to die of heart disease than whites, and they have the highest rates of hypertension in the world, according to the National Medical Association. The flip side, black men say, is that many learn to be resilient. Ferguson recalls when a new Wall Street colleague, minutes after meeting him and hearing he grew up in a housing project in Newark, N.J., asked if he had been involved in "any illicit activities" there. He shrugged it off. Over the years, as he has earned promotions and built client relationships over the phone, he has learned to steel himself for face-to-face meetings — for clients' raised eyebrows and stuttered greetings when they see he is black. "It just rolls off our backs — we grin and bear it. You can't quit," he said, sighing heavily. He vents his frustrations to mentors and relaxes with his wife and young children. "Then you go back," he said, "and fight the good fight."
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 2:27 pm
So ver true. Thx for posting this Ladyt.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 3:12 pm
Excellent article, Ladytex. One of my team mates was a HUGE black man. He practiced a lot of the techniques described in the article, particularly those described by the tall man. When we were working he described himself as a preacher with a gun. The bad guys thought they needed to be worried about his size, but their real worry was the fire and brimstone if he got rolling on their butts.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 3:38 pm
Lol I can imagine Zuzu.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Friday, July 14, 2006 - 10:01 pm
The 1.3 Percent Doctrine By Scoop Jackson There's a story I tell whenever I go to a high school or college to speak. I ask everyone to tell me how many black professional basketball players they know. Depending on the size of the room, 90 percent of the time, the students say they can name most of the players in the NBA. There are roughly 350 players in the League, about 85 percent of them black. We usually round to about 300 -- therefore, the students claim to know for a fact that there are 300 professional basketball players. Then I ask them to name 300 black sportswriters. The room always gets eerily quiet. Beyond mortuary. Michael Wilbon's name comes up, Stephen A.'s, "that black man with the beard who's on 'SportsReporters' a lot" gets mentioned (for the record, William C. Rhoden), and, if they're seriously official with their sports journalist knowledge, Phil Taylor and Ralph Wiley will get nods. Past that, more silence. Then I make a point. "Do you know why you can't name 300 black sportswriters?" I say to them. "Because 300 of us don't exist." The room becomes less quiet. Mumbling. Private conversations break out. Then I make the point: "Which means you all have a better chance to make it to the NBA then you do doing what I do for a living." I wish I wrote well enough to describe the looks on their faces. Every time. The story I came to tell received some publicity recently. The story is about a research project initiated by the Associated Press Sports Editors and under the direction of Richard Lapchick (who contributes to ESPN.com) of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida. The study looked at how many black sports editors at APSE newspapers there were in America. It was a study that came back with these numbers: four out of 305. Last week, Norman Chad, syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, wrote a column headlined "I'm in the White Business." Four out of 305. Enough to make a white journalist turn white. Or write about. It's a story that the fewer than 300 black sportswriters have been talking about for years, but it took a white writer to bring it to the masses. And now that it's out, it must be accompanied by substance. Not that Mr. Chad didn't do the story justice, but this study is about just us, the 1.3 percent and those who live with this number every day, the ones who won't get the opportunity to become editors of the pages of sports. It's a story we've been screaming forever, but no one wanted to hear. One that we've all thought was one of the biggest in sports, but no one wanted to read. Four out of 305. Chad said the number was "like Gilbert Gottfried's hit rate at a singles bar." To us African-American sportswriters and editors, it was more like our reality finally coming to life. <snip>__________________________________________________ The rest of this article can be read here
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Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Friday, July 14, 2006 - 10:23 pm
Great story Ladytex. Not a great situation, but powerful story.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:17 am
President Bush Addresses NAACP Convention CQ Transcripts Wire Thursday, July 20, 2006; 11:30 AM BUSH: Thank you very much. Bruce, thanks for your introduction. Bruce is a polite guy. I thought what he was going to say, "It's about time you showed up." (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) Ain't I glad I did? See, I see this as a moment of opportunity. I have come to celebrate the heroism of the civil rights movement and the accomplishments of the NAACP. (APPLAUSE) I want to talk about ways to build what the NAACP has always sought: a nation united, committed to destroying discrimination, and extending to every American the full blessings -- the full blessings -- of liberty and opportunity. (APPLAUSE) It's important to me. It's important to our nation. I come from a family committed to civil rights. My faith tells me that we're all children of God, equally loved, equally cherished, equally entitled to the rights he grants us all. For nearly 200 years, our nation failed the test of extending the blessings of liberty to African-Americans. (APPLAUSE) Slavery was legal for nearly a hundred years and discrimination legal in many places for nearly 100 years more. Taken together, the record placed a stain on America's founding, a stain that we have not yet wiped clean. (APPLAUSE) When people talk about America's founders, they mention the likes of Washington and Jefferson and Franklin and Adams. BUSH: Too often they ignore another group of founders: men and women and children who did not come to America of their free will, but in chains. (APPLAUSE) These founders literally helped built our country. They chopped the wood, they built the homes, they tilled the fields and they reaped the harvest. They raised their (sic) children of others, even though their own children had been ripped away and sold to strangers. (APPLAUSE) These founders were denied the most basic birthright, and that's freedom. Yet through captivity and oppression they kept the faith. They carved a great nation out of the wilderness and later their descendants led a people out of the wilderness of bigotry. Nearly 200 years into our history as a nation, America experienced a second founding, the civil rights movement. Some of those leaders are here. (APPLAUSE) These second founders, led by the likes of Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr., believed in the constitutional guarantees of liberty and equality. They trusted fellow Americans to join them in doing the right thing. They were leaders. They toppled Jim Crow through simple deeds: boarding a bus, walking along the road, showing up peacefully at courthouses or joining in prayer and song. Despite the sheriff's dogs and the jailer's scorn and the hangman's noose and the assassin's bullets, they prevailed. (APPLAUSE) I don't know if you remember, three weeks ago I went to Memphis, Tennessee. (APPLAUSE) (LAUGHTER) A lot of people focused on the fact that my friend the prime minister of Japan was an Elvis fan, because we went to Graceland. BUSH: But we also went to another stop, a stop Reverend Jesse Jackson knows all too well, a painful moment in his life and in the life of our nation reflected in the Lorraine Motel. The prime minister and I went there. It's now the National Civil Rights Museum. By they way, if you haven't been there, you ought to go. (APPLAUSE) One of the people greeting me there was Dr. Benjamin Hooks. (APPLAUSE) Good to see you again, sir. He led me out onto the balcony of room 306. I remember Dr. Hooks pointed to the window that was still half cracked -- you know what I'm talking about Jesse. It's not very far away. It's a powerful reminder of hardships this nation has been through in a struggle for decency. I was honored that Dr. Hooks took time to visit with me. He talked about the hardships of the movement. With the gentle wisdom that comes from experience, he made it clear we must work as one. And that's why I have come today. (APPLAUSE) We want a united America that is one nation under God... (APPLAUSE) ... where every man and child and woman is valued and treated with dignity. BUSH: We want a hopeful America where the prosperity and opportunities of our great land reach into every block of every neighborhood. We want an America that is constantly renewing itself, where citizens rise above political differences to heal old wounds, to build the bonds of brotherhood and to move us ever closer to the founding promise of liberty and justice for all. Nearly 100 years after the NAACP's birth, America remains an unfolding story of freedom, and all of us have an obligation to play our part. (APPLAUSE) I want to thank your chairman, Julian Bond, for his introduction. And thanks for greeting me today, Mr. Chairman. (APPLAUSE) I asked him for a few pointers on how to give a speech. (LAUGHTER) It doesn't look like they're taking. (LAUGHTER) I want to thank Roslyn Brock, the vice chairman of the board, as well. (APPLAUSE) I thank all the board members, all the participants, all the members of the United States Congress for joining us today, as well. (APPLAUSE) Congratulate Bruce Gordon on his strong leadership. (APPLAUSE) I've gotten to know him. See, shortly after he was elected, he came by the Oval Office. He doesn't mince words. (LAUGHTER) It's clear what's on his mind. He's also a results-oriented person. (APPLAUSE) I'm pleased to say that I have -- I'm an admirer of Bruce Gordon, and we've got a good working relationship. (APPLAUSE) I don't know if that helps you or hurts you. (LAUGHTER) But it's the truth. I admire the man. We've had frank discussions starting with Katrina. We talked about the challenges facing the African-American community in the -- after that storm. We talked about the response of the federal government. And, most importantly, we talked about the way forward. We talk about what we can do, working together, to move forward. And as a result of that first meeting, we found areas where we share common purpose and we have resolved to work together in practical ways. BUSH: I don't expect Bruce to become a Republican. (LAUGHTER) And neither do you. But I do want to work with him. And that's what I'm here to talk to you about. (APPLAUSE) And so we've been working together in helping the citizens along the Gulf Coast recover from one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history. You know, when we met, I told Bruce that I would work with the Congress to make sure we dedicated enough money to help the folks. He, kind of, looked at me like, sure, he's heard these political promises before. It's not the first time that he'd heard somebody say, "Well, we'll work together to see if we can't get enough money." And I suspect he might have thought, "Oh, he's just trying to get me out of the Oval Office." (LAUGHTER) But I meant what I said. And I want to thank the United States Congress for joining with the administration. BUSH: We've committed over $110 billion to help the people on the Gulf Coast. (APPLAUSE) That's money to go to build new homes, good schools. Bruce and I talked a lot about how do we make sure the contracting that goes on down there in the Gulf Coast goes to minority-owned businesses. (APPLAUSE) The road to recovery is long and difficult, but we will continue to work together to implement the strategy that Bruce and I worked on, along with other people, like Donna Brazile and other leaders. We've got a plan and we've got a commitment. And the commitment is not only to work together, but it's a commitment to the people of the Gulf Coast of the United States to see to it that their lives are better and brighter than before the storm. (APPLAUSE) We also work together to ensure that African-Americans can take advantage of the new Medicare drug benefit. Look, I understand that we had a political disagreement on the bill. I know that. But I worked with the Congress to make sure that the days of seniors having to choose between food and medicine is over. And that's the case of this new Medicare benefit. (APPLAUSE) The federal government pays over 95 percent of the cost for our nation's poorest seniors to get this new drug benefit. And I want to thank the NAACP for recognizing that it's important to help our seniors sign up for this benefit. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: We put politics aside. "We said the day is over of arguing about the bill. Let's make sure people receive the benefits of this bill." Bruce Gordon has shown leadership on this important issue, and I want to thank you for that. (APPLAUSE) Now, we'll work together. And as we do so, you must understand I understand that racism still lingers in America. (APPLAUSE) It's a lot easier to change a law than to change a human heart. (APPLAUSE) And I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party. (APPLAUSE) I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African-American community. For too long my party wrote off the African-American vote and many African- Americans wrote off the Republican Party. (APPLAUSE) That history has prevented us from working together when we agree on great goals. And it's not good for our country. That's why I've come to share with you. We put the interest of the country above political party. (APPLAUSE) I want to change the relationship. The America we seek should be bigger than politics. And today I'm going to talk about some areas where I believe we can work together to reduce the obstacles for opportunity for all our citizens. And that starts, by the way, with education. (APPLAUSE) Surely, we share the same goal that we want an excellent education for every child -- not just some children but every single child. You know, I can remember being the governor of Texas -- I don't know if there's any Texans here or not. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: Tell them, "Hi," at home. (LAUGHTER) You know, I remember going to a ninth grade class when I was the governor. It was in a neighborhood that's a low-income neighborhood there in Houston. And I asked the ninth grade teacher -- I said, "How's it going?" The man looked me in the eye and said, "My students cannot read." That's wrong to hear a ninth grade teacher say, "My students cannot read." I decided to do something about it when I was the governor, and I decided to do something about that when I became the president. See, we must challenge a system that simply shuffles children through grade to grade without determining whether they can read, write and add and subtract. It's a system -- see I like to call it this -- we need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. (APPLAUSE) If you have low expectations, you're going to get lousy results. We must not tolerate a system that gives up on people. So I came to Washington and I worked with Democrats and Republicans to pass the No Child Left Behind Act. Let me tell you the strategy behind the act. It says that the federal government will spend more money on education in primary and secondary schools, and we have increased the budgets by 40 percent. It also says that, "In return for additional help, you must measure." We didn't say "the federal government's going to measure," we said, "We want the local -- the states and the local districts to measure." And so why do you ask that? Why do you say that, "In return for increased money, you need to measure"? And the reason why is because in order to solve a problem, you've got to diagnose the problem. Measuring results can tell us whether or not teaching methodology is sound. BUSH: Measuring results can enable us to figure out which children are falling behind early. You know, one of the interesting things about the No Child Left Behind Act, it says that when we find a child falling behind early, there'll be extra money for tutoring, extra money for help. The whole purpose is to make sure people are at the starting line. The whole purpose is to make sure that the teacher that told me that, "My children can't read," no longer happens in the ninth grade. Measuring helps us determine how we're doing. There's an achievement gap in America that's wrong for America, an achievement gap that says we're not fulfilling the promise. One of the barriers to opportunity, one of the obstacles to success is the fact that too many of our children aren't reading at grade level. And we know that because we measure. And we're doing something about it. Actually, the achievement gap is beginning to close. There's more work to be done. Measuring allows parents to see how the school that their child is going to is doing. It lets the parents determine whether or not they should be satisfied with the education their child is getting. I strongly believe that parental involvement is important for our school systems. (APPLAUSE) And I strongly believe a parent knows what's best for his or her child. BUSH: That's what I believe. And therefore, when we find schools that are not teaching and will not change, our parents should have a different option. If you want quality education, you got to trust the parents. You know, an amazing thing about our society today is wealthier white families have got the capacity to defeat mediocrity by moving. That is not the case for lower-income families. And so therefore, I strongly believe in charter schools, in public school choice. I believe in opportunity scholarships to be able to enable parents to move their child out of a school that's not teaching for the benefit of the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) I also understand that we've got to do more for primary -- more than primary and secondary education. I'm proud to report that, working with the United States Congress, the number of low-income Americans receiving Pell grants has increased by about a million Americans since I have become the president. Pell grants are an important part of educational excellence and opportunity. We're expanding money for our community college system. I met my pledge to increase funding for historically black universities by 30 percent. (APPLAUSE) Decent education is the gateway to a life of opportunity. It is a fundamental civil right. And I look forward to working with the NAACP to enhance educational excellence all across the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) Second, I hope we can work together in an America where more people become owners, own something, something that they can call their own. From our nation's earliest days, ownership's been at the heart of our country. Unfortunately, for most of our history African- Americans were excluded from the dream. BUSH: That's the reality of our past. Most of your forefathers didn't come to this land seeking a better life; most came in chains as the property of other people. Today, their children and grandchildren now have an opportunity to own their own property. And good policies will encourage that. And that's what we ought to work together on. For most of Americans, ownership begins with owning your own home. Owning a home is the way to build wealth. Owning a home is to give something they can leave behind to their children. See, one of the concerns I have is that because of the past, there hasn't been enough assets that a family can pass on from one generation to the next. And we've got to address that problem. And a good way to do that is through homeownership. (APPLAUSE) Owning a home gives people a stake in their neighborhoods and a stake in the future. Today, nearly half of African-Americans own their own homes, and that's good for America. That's good for our country. But they still got to do more. So we're working to do our part with helping people afford a downpayment and closing costs, helping families who are in rental assistance to become homeowners, helping people understand the fine print when it comes to mortgage documents. One of the things I want to work with the NAACP on is to encourage more people to be able to open the front door of the place they live and say, "Welcome to my home. Welcome to my piece of property." (APPLAUSE) I also want to work on homeownership and other areas. We want to see more African-Americans own their own businesses, and that's why we've increased loans to African-American businesses by 40 percent. (APPLAUSE) We're taking steps to make it easier for African-American businesses to compete for federal contracts. We're working to expand help to have African-American workers own a piece of their own retirement. BUSH: You know, one of my friends is Bob Johnson, the founder of BET. He's an interesting man. He believes strongly in ownership. He's been a successful owner. He believes strongly, for example, that the death tax will prevent future African-American entrepreneurs from being able to pass their assets from one generation to the next. He and I also understand that the investor class shouldn't be just confined to the old definition of the investor class. You know, an amazing experience when I went to Canton, Mississippi, I asked the workers there, who were mainly African- American workers, I said, "How many of you have your own 401(k)?" Nearly all the hands went up. That means they own their own assets. It's their money. They manage their own money. It's a system that says, "We want you to have assets that you can leave from one generation to the next." Asset accumulation is an important part of removing the barriers for opportunity. I think it's really important. And I want to work with Bruce. If possible, the federal government should encourage ownership in the government pension program to give people a chance to own an asset, something they can call their own. Ownership is vital to making sure this country extends its hope to every neighborhood in the United States of America. And I look forward to working with the NAACP to encourage ownership in America. (APPLAUSE) I want to work with you to make sure America's communities are strong. I got a friend named Tony Evans. Some of you may know Tony from Dallas, Texas. He was one time giving a sermon and I heard him speak, and I want to share with you what it was. He said -- he told a story about the man who had a crack on one of the walls in his home. So he got the plasterer to come by, and the guy plastered the wall. And about four days later, the crack reappeared. And he got another plasterer in, put the plaster on the wall, and it reappeared again. And he was getting frustrated. He finally called a wise fellow over. The man explained what the problem was with the cracks in the wall. He said, "Look, in order to solve the cracks on the wall, you have to fix the foundation." (APPLAUSE) BUSH: What I want to do is work with the NAACP to help fix the foundations of our society. We want strong families. (APPLAUSE) We want to help people who need help. (APPLAUSE) We want to help the addicted. We want to help the homeless. We want to help those who are trying to re-enter society after having been incarcerated. That's what we want to do. We want to help lives be improved. (APPLAUSE) Government can hand out money, and we do. But it cannot put hope in a person's heart, or a sense of purpose in a person's life. That's why I strongly support institutions of faith and community service all around our country. I believe in the neighborhood helpers and healers. And I put this policy in place. We provided more than $5 billion to faith-based groups that are running the soup kitchens and sheltering the homeless and healing the addicted and helping people re-enter our society, people who are providing compassionate care and love. Organizations of faith exist to love a neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves. And I believe it's important for government to not only welcome but to encourage faith-based programs to help solve the intractable problems of our society. And this faith-based initiative is being challenged in the courts. They claim that they fight the initiative in the name of civil liberties, yet they do not seem to realize that the organizations they are trying to prevent from accessing federal money are the same ones that helped win the struggle of civil rights. BUSH: I believe if an organization gets good results and helps people turn their lives around, it deserves the support of government. We should not discriminate based upon religion. We ought to welcome religious institutions into helping solve and save America, one soul and one heart at a time. Finally, you and I seek an America that that commits its wealth and expertise to helping those who suffer from terrible disease. We believe that every person in the world bears the image of our maker and is an individual of matchless value. And when we see the scourge of HIV/AIDS ravaging communities at home and abroad, we must not avert our eyes. Today, more than a million of our fellow Americans live with HIV, and more than half of all AIDS cases arise in the African-American community. This disease is spreading fastest among African-American women. And one of the reasons this disease is spreading so quickly is many don't realize they have the virus. And so, we're going to lead a nationwide effort. And I want to work with the NAACP on this effort to deliver rapid HIV tests to millions of our fellow citizens. (APPLAUSE) Congress needs to reform and reauthorize the Ryan White Act and provide funding to states so we can end the waiting lists for AIDS medications in this country. To whom much is given, much is required. This nation is a blessed nation. And when we look at HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa, we haven't turned away. We believe it is our nation's responsibility to help those who suffer from this pandemic. We're leading the world when it comes to providing medications and help. Today, more than 40 million people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS; 26 million of those live in sub-Sahara Africa, including 2 million children under the age of 15. We're calling people together. BUSH: We pledged $15 billion to provide medicine and help. We launched the emergency plans for AIDS relief. Before this AIDS emergency plan was passed, only 50,000 people in sub-Sahara Africa were getting medicine. Today that number's grown to more than 560,000 and more are getting help every day. By working together, we can turn the tide of this struggle against HIV/AIDS and bring new hope to millions of people. These goals I've outlined are worthy of our nation. You know, in the century since the NAACP was founded, our nation has grown more prosperous and more powerful. It's also grown more equal and just. Yet this work is not finished; that's what I'm here to say. The history of America is one of constant renewal, and each generation has a responsibility to write a new chapter in the unfinished story of freedom. That story began with the founding promise of equality and justice and freedom for all men. And that promise has brought hope and inspiration to all peoples across the world. PROTESTER: (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: Yet our founding was also imperfect, because the human beings that made our founding were imperfect. Many of the same founders who signed their names to a parchment declaring that all men are created equal permitted whole categories of human beings to be excluded from these words. PROTESTER: (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: The future of our founding to live up to its own words opened a wound that has persisted to today. In the 19th century, the wound resulted in a civil war. PROTESTER: (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: In the 20th century, denied African-Americans the vote in many parts of our country. And at the beginnings of the 21st century, the wound is not fully healed, and whole communities... (APPLAUSE) Don't worry about it. Don't worry about. JULIAN BOND (?): I know you can handle it. BUSH: I'm almost finished. BOND (?): I know you can handle it. (APPLAUSE) PROTESTER: (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: To heal this wound for good, we must continue to work for a new founding that redeems the promise of our Declaration and guarantees the birth right of every citizen. (APPLAUSE) For many African-Americans, this new founding began with the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A generation of Americans that has grown up in the last few decades may not appreciate what this act has meant. Condi Rice understands what this act has meant. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: See, she tells me of her father's long struggle to register to vote... (APPLAUSE) ... and the pride that came when he finally claimed his full rights as an American citizen to cast his first ballot. She shared that story with me. Yet that right was not fully guaranteed until President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. (APPLAUSE) President Johnson called the right to vote the lifeblood of our democracy. (APPLAUSE) That was true then, and it remains true today. (APPLAUSE) I thank the members of the House of Representatives for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. Soon, the Senate will take up the legislation. I look forward to the Senate passing this bill promptly, without amendment... (APPLAUSE) ... so I can sign it into law. (APPLAUSE) There's an old Methodist hymn that speaks of God guiding us with a hand of power and a heart of love. We cannot know God's plans, but we trust in his purposes, because we know that the creator who wrote the desire for liberty in our hearts also gives us the strength and wisdom to fulfill it. And the god who has brought us thus far on the way will give us the strength to finish the journey. (APPLAUSE) Thank you for having me. May God bless. (APPLAUSE) END Source: CQ Transcriptions © 2006, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 11:19 am
nice words ...
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 11:30 am
yep, just words.
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 11:37 am
My thoughts exactly.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 8:48 pm
Betcha Bill and Melinda Gates are doing more real good for people in Africa than the entire United States government.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:17 pm
words written for him
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Friday, July 21, 2006 - 5:03 am
Word Zuzu.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 5:31 am
Commencement at Morehouse College is a time of tradition and celebration - but perhaps more so this year. Amid lamentations about the dearth of black men in higher education, Morehouse graduated its largest class ever - nearly 600 educated African American men. No other institution in the world can match this impressive number. link
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 6:43 am
woohoo!!!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 7:03 am
I know. I really wanted one of my boys to go to Moorehouse but #1's dead set on going to school in Miami.
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