Good morning, Netizens…

In this Spokesman-Review picture Spokane Mayor Mary Verner in front of Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick speaks against racist propaganda at a news conference Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, near the state line.

I will not and cannot denigrate nor contradict what the Illuminati of Spokane and Coeur d’Alene said during the press conference about racism, for they are right. We need to be aware of racist developments in our communities, to take strong stands against it, and to stop it before it gains a foothold. We cannot stand idly by while a vocal minority of Aryan racists foment racial hatred against persons of color. We should and must be heard speaking in one voice against race hatred.

However, our communities’ leaders also need to take a stand against abuses of other kinds as well. I would like to see a similar group of public officials take strong public stands against police intimidation, particularly of those mentally ill in our communities. Like race hatred, small steps have been already undertaken, but we must persevere. We must have the courage of our convictions to stand up and in one voice demand human dignity for all peoples, from all walks of life, and that decency and humanity be accorded to everyone, regardless of race, creed, color or mental health.

Not just when it is politically expedient.

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

[Portions Boston Globe and his attorney’s statement]

The arrest of a pre-eminent African-American scholar, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., at Cambridge University in broad daylight inside his own home serves as an additional wake-up call to all Americans that we need to teach civility to police. African-Americans are charging the police with racial profiling, but the telling of the tale only increases the anger being heard on both side.

Professor Gates had arrived home and attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’ luggage into his home. Professor Gates had just arrived from a trip to China where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America” and probably was suffering from jet lag.

A Cambridge policeman, responding to a complaint of two black men attempting to break into a house reasonably enough asked for identification, which was provided to him, a Cambridge University ID card and a driver’s license, both bearing the same address.

Professor Gates had already asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’ request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’ home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates. As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several more police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.

He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he ”exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

If this were you or I would we be charged with loud and tumultuous behavior, regardless of our racial makeup? Or would we be as loud and tumultuous as the police say Professor Gates had been? Wouldn’t you be loud and tumultuous if you were in the professor’s shoes? If this incident took place here in Spokane, wouldn’t police have applied a Taser to further pacify Gates, perhaps even put a mask on his face to prevent spitting? Is this racial profiling on the part of the police?

If either side had been polite to their counterparts could this entire affair been avoided?

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

Despite the fact we now have our first Black American as President, and despite all the warm, fuzzy feelings that members of various factions in this country sought to engender in all of us during the election campaign and resulting inauguration, my question on this otherwise luminous Spring morning is, just how racially integrated are we? Have we slipped a cog and suddenly our nation no longer has any regard for race or color or, as some have observed, are the old barriers still there, simply more congenially being ignored now?

This morning we are going to take a long, thoughtful look at two entirely different areas of the country, each of which has faced and is still facing the racial divide between Black and White.

About this time of year, high-school seniors begin a rite of passage, shucking off their glad rags they have worn all through high school in favor of formal ball gowns and tuxedos for the Senior Prom. Decades ago, I regularly used to visit Montgomery County in South-Central Georgia as a racially-divided state. There were still those ugly signs visible in various places throughout the town, “No Negroes” and “Whites Only” despite the fact federally-mandated racial integration had taken place several decades ago. I feel certain those signs are gone now, but apparently not forgotten entirely.

In a New York Times article written by Niko Koppel, with an excellent photo essay by Gillian Laub, the 54 students in the Class of 2009 at Montgomery County High School, on May 1, the white students held their senior prom. And the following night the black students had theirs. Although the school in south-central Georgia was integrated in 1971, by longstanding tradition, the prom remains segregated.

According to the article, it is not because of racial enmity, a hardened racial prejudice such as haunts the hallways of our racial history together, no. The kids mix well together, and if it were up to the majority of them, they would have one prom. This is just what is left over from the parents and grandparents of a different time in the racial history. It is slated to change next year. One prom queen, one prom.

Now we switch our view to Oakland and Piedmont, California, two areas about as culturally-diverse areas of the Bay Area as two areas can be. I lived in Piedmont one year, many years ago. Back then it was as lily-white as white could be, with high-end housing by the mile, and nary a black face to be seen anywhere.

One of the most-strident, deeply-entrenched factions of the Bay Area is changing, as a formerly predominantly-white church, the Piedmont Community Church, and a black church, the Imani Community Church, have been holding joint worship services for the first time in their joint histories.

The Imani Community Church and Piedmont Community Church decided that they would come together as one people. They will worship together periodically. They’ve started to mix into each others’ Bible studies. Their choirs sing together. Their children have gone on a mission trip together to Tijuana. On Sunday, May 3 and May 17, they had ceremonies affirming their covenant with each other.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life stated recently that mainline Protestant churches are 91 percent white, while historically black churches remain 92 percent black, according to extensive demographic surveys. It does seem that church people in all sorts of congregations regularly talk about being “brothers and sisters in Christ.” But few practice it with race in mind, and thus this mixing together of two separate churches from two racially-diverse population areas, is a change.

My opinion is thus: although the racial divide is still there, separating one race from another, the rift is healing slowly over time. From high school proms that have been separate but equal from one another in Georgia, to a predominantly-white church in Piedmont, California forming a bond with a predominantly-black Oakland Church, the separation between Black and White in modern America appears to be getting smaller, even in places far, far away from Spokane, Washington.

[portions quoted from The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle]

Just how integrated are we in Spokane? Are we getting better?

Dave