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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 7:42 am
Jones returns Olympic medals and accepts two-year ban By Gene Cherry Mon Oct 8, 11:30 PM ET SALVO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones has relinquished the five Olympic medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Games and accepted a two-year ban after admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Monday. The medals -- three golds and two bronzes -- were turned over to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) on Monday and will be returned to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for awarding to the appropriate winners, USOC chief executive Jim Scherr told a teleconference. The USOC also called on U.S. athletes who competed in the medal-winning 4x100 and 4x400 meters relays with Jones in Sydney to return their medals because, Scherr said, they were won unfairly. After years of denial, Jones told a U.S. court on Friday she had taken the banned substance known as the "clear" from September 2000 through to July 2001 in violation of International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and USADA rules. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 1:06 pm
Brownback to pitch proposal apologizing for slavery Says he expects a fight, won't call for reparations By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | October 16, 2007 Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican trying to inject new life into his beleaguered presidential campaign, plans to offer a resolution this week for Congress to apologize for slavery and segregation. Brownback, of Kansas, told The Boston Globe's editorial board yesterday he will join an unnamed Democrat in sponsoring the proposal. He said he expects a tough fight on the resolution, even though it will not include any call for reparations. "They were federal policies," he said. "They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of day acknowledging those, taking ownership for it, and asking for forgiveness." link
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 2:59 pm
Yesterday in 1968: Black athletes make silent protest
1968: Black athletes make silent protest Two black American athletes have made history at the Mexico Olympics by staging a silent protest against racial discrimination. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medallists in the 200m, stood with their heads bowed and a black-gloved hand raised as the American National Anthem played during the victory ceremony. The pair both wore black socks and no shoes and Smith wore a black scarf around his neck. They were demonstrating against continuing racial discrimination of black people in the United States. As they left the podium at the end of the ceremony they were booed by many in the crowd. 'Black America will understand' At a press conference after the event Tommie Smith, who holds seven world records, said: "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say 'a Negro'. We are black and we are proud of being black. "Black America will understand what we did tonight." Smith said he had raised his right fist to represent black power in America, while Carlos raised his left fist to represent black unity. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. He said the black scarf represented black pride and the black socks with no shoes stood for black poverty in racist America. Within a couple of hours the actions of the two Americans were being condemned by the International Olympic Committee. A spokesperson for the organisation said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit." It is widely expected the two will be expelled from the Olympic village and sent back to the US. In September last year Tommie Smith, a student at San Jose State university in California, told reporters that black members of the American Olympic team were considering a total boycott of the 1968 games. 'Dirty negro' He said: "It is very discouraging to be in a team with white athletes. On the track you are Tommie Smith, the fastest man in the world, but once you are in the dressing rooms you are nothing more than a dirty Negro." The boycott had been the idea of professor of sociology at San Jose State university, and friend of Tommie Smith, Harry Edwards. Professor Edwards set up the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) and appealed to all black American athletes to boycott the games to demonstrate to the world that the civil rights movement in the US had not gone far enough. He told black Americans they should refuse "to be utilised as 'performing animals' in the games." Although the boycott never materialised the OPHR gained much support from black athletes around the world. In Context That evening, the silver medallist in the 200m event, Peter Norman of Australia, who was white, wore an OPHR badge in support of Smith and Carlos' protest. But two days later the two athletes were suspended from their national team, expelled from the Olympic village and sent home to America. Many felt they had violated the Olympic spirit by drawing politics into the games. On their return both men were welcomed as heroes by the African-American community but others regarded them as trouble-makers. Both received death threats. Thirty years after their protest, the two men, who went on to become high school athletics coaches, were honoured for their part in furthering the civil rights movement in America.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:15 pm
I remember it well.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:52 pm
I was a youngster, but mama made sure I knew what was going on and why.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, October 28, 2007 - 11:34 am
I thought this was powerful... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBH57BWhpE
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Sunday, October 28, 2007 - 12:33 pm
beautiful ...
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Jan
Moderator
08-01-2000
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 10:06 am
WOW Ms M. Beautiful!! I came to post this story because I just do not know what to make of it and wondered what you all thought. Toronto has a large black population, a lot of it made up of immigrants from the Caribbean. There is a growing unrest in the schools as poverty consumes many of them. ( our school system funding is different here by the way, more universal, less funded by local taxes in an attempt - not always successful - to make it more fair) The Ont government is now looking into a "new idea" to help these students - I do really believe that their motives are pure but I just don't know what to make of it. It just doesn't sound right but they claim it is working well in the USA Toronto Star THE SCHOOLS DEBATE Black only, but don't use the 'S' word Children are thriving in Afrocentric schools south of the border. Advocates argue that progressive segregation is the only way to reach troubled students. n Ontario, it would be a first. But across the United States, dozens, possibly more than 100 black-focused schools have existed for decades and get rave reviews from students and teachers. From junior kindergarten to Grade 12, African-centred schools with black teachers, Swahili rituals and an African-based curriculum have become a popular and seemingly successful way to boost marks and morale among urban black children often left behind by mainstream public education. "Public schools have failed African-American students, which is shown in lower graduation rates and lower achievement," says education professor Carol Lee of Northwestern University, founder of the Betty Shabazz charter school in Chicago, whose three campuses boast 825 students from kindergarten to Grade 12. Another African-centred school is run by Chicago's public school board and a new private African-centred school will open next year. "More than 77 per cent of our students achieve at or above normal on Illinois state tests," Lee said. "We've had grads go on to Princeton, Stanford and in international relations at The Hague. They all work very effectively in their professional lives because they assume the world is open to them." A group of Toronto parents is pushing for an African-centred grade school in Toronto that would seek to bolster black children's attitudes and achievement. While it is not clear if a racially segregated type of school designed for a society with a history of slavery would translate to Canada, a country built largely on immigration, many Canadian eyes are turning south of the border to see how such schools work. And it's not just about learning that one of the atomic bomb scientists was black. It's not just about Milwaukee students building papier maché statues for a provocative Black Hall of Fame in their school; with murdered rap icon Tupac, black Hannibal on his elephant and Emmett Till, the Mississippi teen whose brutal murder by whites in 1955 helped ignite the civil rights drive. It's not even about black Chicago children learning that the fall of Napoleon can be fully understood only in light of the Haitian slave revolt. Black-focused schools, say those who run them, are about more than black studies. Whether private, public or the independent "charter schools" so popular in the United States, the goal of an African-centred school is to create a black community of positive adult role models; a kind of urban village that feels like family, say educators, where children are guided to look past the negative caricatures of blacks in pop culture and see their future as players in the wider world. Then, and only then, are black children ready to learn, says Taki Raton, founder of the African-centred Blyden-Delany Academy in Milwaukee, an elementary school in a poor neighbourhood where student scores approach the national average. To start, Raton says, teachers must be black. "The model has to be black; a black child has to connect to a black role model – a multicultural curriculum misses the point. <snipped for length>
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 10:15 am
I'm of 2 minds about this Jan. On one hand I like the idea of an afrocentric curiculum(sp). But there also has to be balance. Because when they leave the school they have to deal with the 'real world' where we're still the minority. You need to learn how to deal with all races, all cultures etc.
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Jan
Moderator
08-01-2000
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 10:34 am
I so agree. I think the curriculum is so worthwhile but I hate the idea of segregation. On the other hand, I went to a grade school segregated by gender which worked well. What about opening the school to any race but keeping the afro centric curriculum with black teachers etc. So the learning would be afrocentric but even white students could go. Probably not many would BUT then it could not be taken as segregation? Does Howard allow white students if they want to go??
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 10:57 am
Oh yeah Howard allows all students. All HBCU's do in fact. And yes I think the schools should be open to all races.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 11:29 am
I'm undecided. I think if all schools were adequately funded with equal staff with a curriculum that was not Caucasian based, but more real, then I think the Black kids would thrive. I'm all for some Black role models, but I think the kids should have role models of all races, sexes, etc. The history books need to be redone because many of them seem to think it's enough Black History to have Harriet Tubman, ML King, Jr., etc, but not Matthew Henson or Lonnie Johnson or Dr. Charles Drew. However, in the real world, the kids thrive in such ethnocentric societies because they are taught to value themselves. Once they are taught that they are of worth, it's amazing what else they can be taught ...
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Jan
Moderator
08-01-2000
| Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 11:45 am
maybe the answer is to have this kind of school in the "formative" years for sure - ie through middle school up to high school - then go more general after that? And I so agree about history books - and not just for the historical black figures but also for Natives and Hispanics and Asian etc. just for instance, without the asians would we even have national railways . The saying in Canada is that there is a dead asian for every mile of track laid. and when it comes to the Native Americans, there is a real failure in the history books. I've always been impressed by the words of one chief whose name I cannot even remember "you made us many promises but you kept only one - you promised to take all of our land- and you did" As for Hispanics, well without them would there even be a southwest.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 6:42 pm
this may be promising! Scientists Cure Mice of Sickle Cell Anemia WASHINGTON - (AP) Scientists have the first evidence that those "reprogrammed stem cells" that made headlines last month really have the potential to treat disease: They used skin from the tails of sick mice to cure the rodents of sickle cell anemia. At issue: Turning adult cells into ones that mimic embryonic stem cells, master cells that can turn into any type of tissue. When scientists announced last month that they had successfully engineered embryo-like stem cells from human skin, it was hailed as a possible alternative to ethically fraught embryo research. But no one yet knew whether those reprogrammed cells could create functioning tissue just like natural embryonic stem cells can. Thursday, scientists in Alabama and Massachusetts reported a key next step when they used the technique to give mice with sickle cell anemia a healthy new blood supply. The study, published in the journal Science, doesn't bring this potential therapy closer to people just yet. Big hurdles remain, including a risk of cancer from the reprogramming method.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 7:04 pm

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Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
| Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 7:18 pm
Please Dear God let it be as soon as possible. My BFF husband died with this and it was a long painful time, he would get better and then worse, so many blood transfusions and we spent lots of time in the hospital with them. Tragic...and now she worries about her two sons and grandchildren.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, December 10, 2007 - 7:05 am
On December 10th in history: In 1950, Ralph J. Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first black American to receive the award. In 1964, Martin Luther King Junior received his Nobel Peace Prize.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, December 10, 2007 - 7:34 am
Ralph Bunche Biography on the Nobel Prize site.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 20, 2007 - 8:39 am
He is Legend Will Smith breaks the belief that a young black actor can't be Hollywood's leading man By John Horn and Chris Lee December 20, 2007 In Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, the apparent last man on Earth is described as "born of English-German stock" with bright blue eyes. When the latest movie version of the 1954 sci-fi thriller opened last weekend, Matheson's hero was played by the notably not English-German Will Smith. It wasn't always destined to be that way. Over the course of I Am Legend's 13 years of development, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas were all at one point slated to star. But Smith may be the most bankable of the bunch. "He's the youngest, biggest star in the world," says Todd Black, who produced Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness. "Globally, he's more popular than Leo [DiCaprio] or Brad Pitt." At a time when the world is growing more multicultural by the minute, movie studios cling to the notion that black performers cannot sell as many overseas movie tickets as their white counterparts. But Smith is shattering that perception. http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bal-to.legend20dec20,0,1085697.story
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, December 23, 2007 - 8:28 am
Catching the natural wave: Black women learning to love hair's true texture By TINA EZELL HULL After decades of using straightening relaxers and texturizers, more black women are ditching the lye, embracing their hair's natural curl and bend, and wearing their hair in a variety of natural styles. While going from processed to natural isn't a quick change, those who have are loving it for myriad reasons, from the way their natural hair feels to the way their hair makes them feel about themselves. "I began to know who I am as an African American woman, seeing the beauty of not wanting my hair straight anymore," said Tamarla Adams, 39, a teacher with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the University of Phoenix. She began growing out her hair in 1996 after years of perming, gradually trimming the straighter relaxed ends as her curlier natural hair grew in, moving from braids to her current long dreadlocks. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, December 31, 2007 - 10:05 am
In Memoriam – Saying Goodbye to the Black Icons, Known and Unknown, Who Passed in ‘07 Date: Monday, December 31, 2007 By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com They were civil rights pioneers, entertainers, writers, sports legends and journalists. Some broke new ground; others brought us art, beauty and comfort. Some provoked discussions in homes, bars and barbershops across the country and still others brought us the real story behind the inner workings of government and industry. BlackAmericaWeb.com looks back at the lives and the accomplishments of some of those black Americans lost this year: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/inmemoriam1231
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 9:24 am
New Jersey weighs becoming first northern U.S. state to apologize for slavery The Associated Press Tuesday, January 1, 2008 TRENTON, New Jersey: New Jersey lawmakers begin considering this week a measure that would make theirs the first northern U.S. state to offer an expression of regret for slavery, an institution that one Republican lawmaker said blacks today should remember led to their becoming Americans. The resolution, which is to be discussed in a state Assembly committee on Thursday, expresses "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery and apologizes for the wrongs inflicted by slavery in the U.S. If approved, it would make New Jersey the fifth U.S. state to offer a similar apology or expression of regret for the institution that served as a catalyst for the U.S. Civil War, the only war to be fought on American soil. New Jersey is viewed largely as a progressive state that has already approved same sex unions and recently became the first state in over 40 years to abolish the death penalty. But ahead of the slavery resolution's consideration, Republican lawmakers spoke out against the bid, with one saying it would be meaningless. "Who living today is guilty of slave holding and thus capable of apologizing for the offense?" asked Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt. "And who living today is a former slave and thus capable of accepting the apology? So how is a real apology even remotely possible, much less meaningful, given the long absence of both oppressor and victim?" http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/01/america/NA-GEN-US-Slavery-Apology.php
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 9:25 am
I'm sorry but I have a real problem with the bolded statement. He's basically saying we should be thankful for slavery because it led us to be here now. Wow you really think we're better off?? You meaing the person who made that statement.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 9:29 am
You mean this statement...But, on a current note, if slavery was the price that a modern American's ancestors had to pay in order to make one an American, one should get down on one's knees every single day and thank the Lord that such price was paid," Carroll said. What the hell?! If you had to be a slave to become an American, you should be thanking the Lord?!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 9:41 am
Yep that too Mamie. I had to read it bout 5 times cuz I just couldn't believe it. Smh.
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