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Of 9 finalist for Massachusetts 2004 teacher of the year, 4 were from Springfield. All four teach at schools headed by Black principals, including the winning Black teacher from Commerce High School, where a small group of White teachers continue to harass the principal for her insistence on supporting students. I make this point to counter the subtle suggestions by some that Springfield’s schools are suffering because Black principals are not up to par. Those making such suggestions ignore the fact that the decline in Springfield schools took place when de facto discrimination against qualified Black candidates kept White principals at the helms whether or not they were competent. One must remain ever mindful of the abundant praise in the mainstream press for Putnam High while it had a White principal, even while we now know it was in a steady state of physical and academic erosion and decline. Quiet as it’s kept, Black principals are presiding over a successful revolution in education in Springfield schools.

WELL, YOU CAN’T EXPECT EVERYTHING!

Four times the superintendent of the Lawrence, Mass. school system flunked the Communication and Literacy skills test that all Mass. teachers and administrators are required to pass to remain in the system and people are defending his right to stay in the system anyway because he is an effective administrator. Don’t these defenders recall MCAS and the 4200 students who were denied a high school diploma for the same reason? They certainly know that this same superintendent placed 24 teachers on unpaid leave for failing the same test. Whatever happened to “fundamental fairness?”

A Black minister in Shreveport, Louisiana offered to pay White people $5.00 an hour to attend Sunday service at his church and $10.00 an hour to attend Thursday evening service. He said by way of explanation, “The most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning at 11’clock. The Lord is tired of it, and I’m certainly tired of it. This is not right.”

FAIRNESS FOR BLACKS IN AMERICA?

Jason Blair, the Black New York Times reporter who was fired for making up fake stories landed a job with Esquire magazine. Historically, the careers of Black folks have been permanently ended by such lapses in judgment while White folks, after a short pause have continued and, in some cases, expanded their careers. Maybe equity isn’t so elusive after all. (By the time this story went to print, Esquire had rescinded its offer to Blair explaining that the article he was to write was only intended as a joke but lost its element of surprise when it became public prematurely. Some things never change! afterall)

An African woman named Jane, who was beaten, raped and tortured in Uganda, came to America after her husband was killed looking for political asylum. She appeared before Boston’s White federal immigration judge, Thomas M. Ragno. In a loud mocking voice, Judge Ragno said to her, “Jane, come here. Me Tarzan.” Then he laughed and talked in open court about how funny Tarzan cartoons were. He is now on forced administrative leave pending an investigation. Unfortunately, he has a twenty-year reputation for similarly gross behavior, including an incident in which he ordered a Sudanese refugee to recite the Ten Commandments to prove he was Catholic. Not surprisingly, other immigration judges grant asylum in 17 to 25% of their cases while Judge Ragno allows just 3%.

EXCUSE ME MR. CROW
“There has been a strong shift from Jim Crow – the overt manifestation of racial hatred by individuals in White society to James Crow, Esquire – the maintenance of racial inequality through covert processes of structure and institutions.” (Marc Moral, new president of the National Urban League.) In his speech at the National Urban League convention, Mr. Moral reminded listeners that a record high 17 percent of Black Americans had a Bachelor’s degree but in at least 12 states more African Americans are in prison than in college.

BANKRUPTCY HAS GONE MAINSTREAM

Personal bankruptcy filings are expected to reach 1.65 million in 2003 and Black people are still embarrassed at the thought of legally writing off cumbersome debt. White people are doing it by the millions against corporations and banks that have always received their own share of government bailouts. The right to start over again debt-free has become as American as apple pie and Black people should start taking advantage of it before White people change the rules. After all, the Republican Congress has tried for two years to push through legislation that would make it more difficult for people to write off bad debt. If only they would do the same for banks, Wall Street Brokerages and big business!

Yes! The National Democratic Party has finally discovered the Republican

way by appointing a young, White male to head the Democratic National Convention in Boston next year. Catering to Boston’s well-deserved anti-Black reputation pleases the bigots and reminds us that the party to which we are so faithful still can’t find room for us at the top.

President Bush has chosen not to meet with leaders of the NAACP and the Conference of Civil Rights, an umbrella organization. After meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus once, he has refused to meet with them again. Bush has chosen to meet only with those Black leaders he considers safe in the prehistoric tradition of those in the White community who believe that they can choose our leaders.

HOW TO INCREASE POLICE ON THE STREETS

Send all your drug pushers, thieves and murderers to the Library and Museum Association Quadrangle and you are guaranteed to increase police presence in Springfield. At a time when violence in the Black community was reaching record highs and community folks were least protected and political leaders were blaming it all on budget cuts, all it took was one victimless shooting at the quadrangle for the powers that be to recruit the state police to assist city police. Maybe we should move the Quadrangle to Mason Square.

JUSTICE!
If a videotape shown on national T. V. of a White policeman brutalizing a handcuffed Black teenager is not enough for a conviction of the police officer, what must Black people in this country do to get justice?

WHAT’S IN A BLACK NAME?
This is really crazy! None other than the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, using validated techniques, tested businesses on how they responded to resume inquiries to their help wanted ads from applicants with Black-sounding names versus those with White-sounding names. It turned out that those with White-sounding names received 50% more callbacks than those with Black-sounding names. To add insult to injury, if those with White-sounding names had enhanced credentials on their resumes, their callbacks increased by 30% while callbacks did not increase at all for those resumes with enhanced credentials with Black-sounding names. The results were “remarkably uniform across occupations and industries.” Nor did they change for federal contractors, for whom affirmative action is better enforced or for employers who list themselves as an “Equal Opportunity Employer” in their ads.n