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Tess
Member
04-13-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 10:12 am
Perhaps, in an effort to enlighten the gentleman in question, he should go through the same experience and see if his first thought is, "Gee, I'll be glad a 100 years after I've been worked to death because my descendants will be grateful to be American citizens." I tend to think that his perspective might just change a tad. On the other hand, there are those whose minds are clamped shut tight enough that experiences or valid debate and opinions, no matter what they are, are futile. Perhaps that is the case with the gentleman in question. As I don't know that individual in question, I cannot make an accurate assessment. I can, however, clutch M's pearls in dismay over the reality that there are those who have these notions in their minds and honestly believe them to be true.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 10:21 am

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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 10:33 am
Ohmigosh, I can't believe somebody said that! It should be interesting to follow Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll's future career. He goes on to liken slavery to his own ancestor's migration to America because of the potato famine. Talk about singularly clueless.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 10:51 am
At least he can trace his family back... But I'm an American now so it shouldn't matter.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 12:57 pm
CONFEDERATE FLAG AT STATE HOUSE NAACP plans to re-ignite S.C. fight Clinton and Obama scheduled to attend Columbia MLK rally KATRINA A. GOGGINS Associated Press Leaders of the South Carolina NAACP will re-ignite their effort to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds this month. They hope the presence of two Democratic presidential front-runners adds weight to the annual rally. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are scheduled to attend the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday march and rally Jan. 21, just days before Democrats in this early primary state go to the polls. The NAACP hopes the candidates and the national attention they'll bring will spotlight the divisive flag that flutters alongside one of the city's busiest streets. "America is a mean country and South Carolina is a meaner state," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state chapter of the NAACP. "For the government of this state to continue to endorse bigotry, racism and white supremacy, we are going to continue to raise our voice and speak out against it." The banner -- a symbol of Southern pride to some and racism to others -- was moved from the Capitol dome seven years ago to a Confederate monument in front of the State House. http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/429686.html
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:34 pm

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:44 pm
Stance on compensation On several occasions Martin Luther King Jr. expressed a view that black Americans, as well as other disadvantaged Americans, should be compensated for historical wrongs. Speaking to Alex Haley in 1965, he said that granting black Americans only equality could not realistically close the economic gap between them and whites. King said that he did not seek a full restitution of wages lost to slavery, which he believed impossible, but proposed a government compensatory program of US$50 billion over ten years to all disadvantaged groups. He posited that "the money spent would be more than amply justified by the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social evils." His 1964 book Why We Can't Wait elaborated this idea further, presenting it as an application of the common law regarding settlement of unpaid labor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, January 18, 2008 - 8:07 pm
We could have done compensation instead of invading Iraq!
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Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 3:32 am
Take the 50 biggest inner city schools districts and spend a billion dollars each on upgrading facilities, equipment, and teacher training, as well as providing community services such as day care, job retraining, community centers, and you'd see a huge difference in all those things Dr. King mentioned. Instead this country spends it on killing those same kids it could be helping.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 10:32 am
Mike Carey Will be First African-American Referee in Super Bowl History Last year, the Indianapolis Colts' Tony Dungy became the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl. Twenty years ago, Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins became the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl. This year, Mike Carey will become the first African-American to referee a Super Bowl. link Damn shame that in 2008 there's still a first AA anything.
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Beachcomber
Member
08-26-2003
| Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 1:17 pm
Wow, that is surprising since there have been AA refs for so long. About dang time.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 10:34 am
Barak Obama Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama is especially proud of being a husband and father of two daughters, Malia, 9 and Sasha, 6. Obama and his wife, Michelle, married in 1992 and live on Chicago’s South Side where they attend Trinity United Church of Christ. The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history, the third to have been popularly elected, and the only African American currently serving in the Senate. Obama was born in Honolulu to a Kenyan father and an American mother. He lived most of his early life in the Pacific island U.S. state of Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Obama worked as a community organizer, university lecturer, and civil rights lawyer before running for public office. He served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he launched his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2003. In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's American middle class family. His knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind." The book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".
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Denecee
Member
09-05-2002
| Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 10:45 am
Aww, thanks for posting that Mocha! I can't believe he is only 4 yrs older, but I should believe it because he looks younger than me,lol. He has the vote of my heart.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 12:01 pm
Yw Denecee. I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier cuz this is history in the making lol.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 1:06 pm
It will be such a relief to have an intelligent president again if he wins (or also if Hillary wins). You don't get into Harvard if you are a dummy. You don't make Harvard Law Review unless you are extremely bright. You don't make president of Harvard Law Review unless you are freaking brilliant. AND charismatic.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 2:48 pm
On Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 10 PM [check local listings], Unity Productions Foundation will present on PBS “Prince Among Slaves,” a one hour film on the inspiring story of an African Prince who endured forty years of slavery without ever losing his dignity or hope for freedom. Winner of the Best Documentary award at the 2007 American Black Film Festival, this true story was directed by Emmy Award winner Bill Duke and narrated by Hip Hop artist Mos Def. For More Information, visit www.princeamongslaves.tv.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 2:51 pm
1788. The slave ship Africa set sail from the Gambia River, its hold laden with a profitable but highly perishable cargo—hundreds of men, women and children bound in chains--headed for American shores. Eight months later, a handful of survivors found themselves for sale in Natchez, Mississippi. On the slave auction block, one of them, a 26-year-old male named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima made an astonishing claim to Thomas Foster, the plantation owner who purchased him at auction: As an African prince, highly educated and heir to a kingdom, this bedraggled African’s father would gladly pay gold for his return. Foster dismissed the claim as a tissue of lies. Abdul Rahman, trilingual, a successful military general and true heir to a West African nation the size of Great Britain, did not return to Africa for 40 years. In that time he toiled on Foster’s plantation to make his owner rich. He married a fellow slave, Isabella, and they had nine children. Gradually, he also became the most famous African in America, attracting the support of such powerful men as President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay. ------------------ I'm not sure if I'll watch or not.
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Friday, February 01, 2008 - 8:09 am
That sounds interesting as well as sad. I hope i can getthis show on my pbs station. At least he got to return to his home, but after 40 years, who knows how bittersweet that would be.I'm glad his story wasnt lost to history, as so many are, and he lives on in this documentary.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, February 03, 2008 - 11:28 am
What slavery did to Africa To mark the start of Black History Month, a calculation of what the continent lost February 03, 2008 Louise Marie Diop-Maes We know much about 16th century sub-Saharan Africa from surviving remains, archaeological excavations and written sources. There were integrated kingdoms and empires, with substantial cities (60,000 to 140,000 inhabitants) and significant towns (1,000 to 10,000); and less organized territories with large scattered populations. People practised agriculture, stock-rearing, hunting, fishing and crafts (metalworking, textiles, ceramics). They navigated along rivers and across lakes, trading over short and long distances, using their own currencies. In the 14th century the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta praised the security and justice of the Mali empire. Until the arrival of firearms, the Arab slave trade was insignificant in relation to economic activity and population. At the beginning of the 16th century, Leo Africanus noted in his Description of Africa that the king of Borno conducted only one slaving expedition a year. Everything changed when the Portuguese reached the area south of the Congo River and conquered Angola. They attacked and destroyed the main ports on the east coast, and overran Mozambique. Firearms enabled the Moroccans to destroy the Songhai empire in just nine years. Thousands were killed, or captured and reduced to slavery. The victors carried off men, animals, goods, precious objects. <snip> Africans were killed in raids or during the journey from the interior to the coast. They committed suicide or died resisting embarkation. They died because the disruption of existing political entities provoked further raids and internal wars. They died as populations fled from greedy slavers. They died of disease, and of hunger when their crops and supplies were destroyed. They were also killed by firearms, bad liquor, declining hygiene and the loss of inherited knowledge. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, February 04, 2008 - 6:27 pm
Well crap the show's not even listed on our PBS station.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 12:11 pm
Here's another PBS program, premiering tomorrow (you can check your local listings at the PBS home page - just select the show title and then enter your zip code)... African American Lives 2
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, February 11, 2008 - 12:29 pm
Wellll my exdh and mom and aunt are down in DC searching thru the National Archives for our family trees. My mom found that her grandmother's family came from VA. So far that's all she found lol. My ex found that someone in his family (can't remember who) had 7 kids where 5 were catagorized as mulattos and the other 2 were catagorized as black per the Census. Same parents too. Very odd lol.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, February 11, 2008 - 12:30 pm
Isn't it interesting to look back into the family tree? It's amazing what you find. I wonder why they categorized the family in two different ways.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, February 11, 2008 - 12:48 pm
Yep Mamie. And that's what I was wondering too. I'm thinking maybe they went on skin color alone? Those 2 may have been a few shades darker than the others? Who knows.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Monday, February 11, 2008 - 9:43 pm
If there is anybody here who has done the DNA thing and found out what country in Africa was your likely origin, let me know. I am visiting several countries on the west coast of Africa in March and April. Ghana, The Gambia, Senegal, Togo, Namibia. I could bring you a souvenir - or a rock, or some dirt. TVCH member Sage got me into bringing back rock or shell or sand souvenirs. It is kind of cool actually.
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