Anderson@Large

State of Denial

On Saturday, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. led a march in New Orleans’ 9th Ward to demand the right of displaced residents to go home.  Jackson said:

I see the Saints are back, the basketball team is back, the white-top tablecloths are back and Mardi Gras is back. But 250,000 people are not.

Jackson should lead a march on Foggy Bottom. Documents uncovered by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington show the State Department turned its back on Katrina survivors.

The Washington Post reports that only a fraction of nearly $1 billion in foreign aid for Katrina victims was accepted:

As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.

Titled “Echo-Chamber Message” -- a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again -- the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans “practical help and moral support” and “highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving.”

Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, like her patron George Bush, “doesn’t care about black people.”  So it's not surprising Rice's State Department feigned concern and spurned offers of assistance.

It bears remembering Rice had to be shamed back to DC after she was caught shopping for expensive shoes on Fifth Avenue while Katrina survivors were left stranded on rooftops.

To read the CREW documents, click here.

People Power

To end the week on a positive note, I want to commend Helen Little, Program Director of Power 105.1, New York City’s number one radio station, for taking a stand for decency.

Little, who’s black, recently announced the station will no longer allow degrading lyrics or banter on the air:

What we’re doing is holding labels and artists accountable for what they say and how they say it. Let’s not get it twisted. This isn’t what hip hop is about. What Imus said has nothing to do with hip hop. We’re not saying you can’t make this music, just we won’t play it. Our intention is to encourage people not to talk this way anymore.

At the National Action Network’s youth town hall meeting, Ed Lover, the station's drive-time DJ, added:

Hip hop has got to grow up. It’s part of the problem. It’s the most influential music for young children. It’s become a hustle rather than a music form… Labels tell them [wannabe rap MCs] if you want to be successful, this is how you have to do it.

Power 105.1 will no longer play offensive lyrics or say offensive things. It’s the public airwaves and we have to serve the public. The public has spoken and we have listened.

To send Sister Little some love, click here.

March for Decency

The hip hop beat goes on. Maybe.

The fallout from the Don Imus meltdown continues.

Hip hop impresario Russell Simmons has routinely asserted that rappers have "poetic license" to call each other the n-word and refer to black women as "bitch" and "ho." He would decry as "censorship" efforts to rid the public airwaves of misogynistic and racist lyrics.

But sensing a threat to corporate hip hop’s bottom line, Simmons is changing his tune. He now wants the record and broadcast industry to exercise "corporate social responsibility" and ban "extreme curse words."

In a statement, Simmons said:

It is important to re-emphasize that our internal discussions with industry leaders are not about censorship. Our discussions are about the corporate social responsibility of the industry to voluntarily show respect to African Americans and other people of color, African American women and to all women in lyrics and images.

HSAN reaffirms, therefore, that there should not be any government regulation or public policy that should ever violate the First Amendment. With freedom of expression, however, comes responsibility. With that said, HSAN is concerned about the growing public outrage concerning the use of the words "bitch," "ho," and "nigger" (n-word). We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words "bitch" and "ho" and the racially offensive word "nigger" (n-word).

Simmons’ proposal will not defuse the controversy. The public, who owns the nation's airwaves, has the power to further disrupt an industry that already is in a tailspin due to declining record sales.

The power of the people will be on display when the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network lead a March for Decency, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, May 3.

Marchers will wind their way through midtown Manhattan and stop at Sony BMG, Universal Motown Records and Time Warner to deliver their own flow:

Enough already. Enough of the misogyny. Enough of the racism. Enough of the degrading images of black women.

For more info, contact Tamika Mallory, director of NAN’s Decency Initiative, at 212/690-3070.

Border War

Earlier this week I was in DC, where I participated in Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2007 organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

For four days, concerned citizens come to the nation’s capitol to lobby elected officials to do the job only Americans can do: secure our borders and protect American workers.

Mobilized by talk radio hosts like Roger Hedgecock, citizen-lobbyists make congressional visits to ascertain Members’ positions on amnesty, guest worker programs and employer sanctions.

If they encounter any flak, they are instructed to call the communications center which relays the information to Talk Radio Row and Bloggers Row. They in turn alert their listeners and readers to light up the congressperson’s switchboard and overload the server with email.

Their goal as stated by FAIR President Dan Stein:

There’s an old expression that if you want to get politicians to see the light make them feel the heat. The collective energy over the next several days during Hold Their Feet to the Fire is guaranteed to make the special interest and open border politicians sweat. We are united here in Washington to oppose yet another plan from Congress and the White House to grant amnesty for illegal aliens and we are here to say enough is enough and to hold our elected representatives accountable.

The agenda included a private screening of Chris Burgard’s "Border," a film that graphically captures the chaos on our southern border and illegal aliens disrespect for American sovereignty and the rule of law.

Night after night illegal aliens trespass and trash private property and public lands, where they tear down fences and leave behind mounds of empty water bottles, clothing and backpacks.

"Border" also tells the story of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group of citizens who stepped in to do the job that President Bush refused to do. Armed with little more than determination, these citizen-sentries serve as additional eyes and ears for the woefully understaffed Border Patrol.

While Bush dismissed these fed-up Americans as "vigilantes," public pressure forced him to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. Today, Guardsmen occupy the spaces where citizen-sentries used to sit in their lawn chairs.

For info on how you can get involved, click here.

Tulsa Race Riots: Righting an Enduring Shame

Today at 10 a.m., in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties will hold a hearing on H.R. 1995, the "Tulsa-Greenwood Riot Accountability Act of 2007."

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., who wrote the legislation, said in a statement:

Congress and America have forgotten this horrible time in our history for too long. Tulsa’s black community was a tremendous example of self-sufficiency during segregation and Jim Crow, only to be destroyed in race riots. These families deserve the ability to seek justice in our court system and my bill would allow them to do that.

Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler added:

The Tulsa Riots are a shameful chapter in our history, events all too often skipped over in our national conscience. Tuesday's hearing will help Americans understand what happened in 1921 and offer a chance for Congress to right that wrong.

The bill would extend the statute of limitations for the survivors of this incident of domestic terrorism, all of whom are now in their 90s.  The witnesses will include:

• John Hope Franklin, Ph.D., Descendant of a Survivor
• Olivia J. Hooker, Ph.D. (and here), Survivor
• Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Lead Counsel for the Survivors

For info on the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, click here.

Three Times a Lady

In the coming weeks, I will give you the 411 on initiatives to combat misogynistic and racist lyrics on the public airwaves and publicly licensed cable franchises.

But for now, I want to remember a remarkable lady whose passionate commitment to justice was only exceeded by her beauty and style, the late Dr. C. Delores Tucker (and here).

More than a decade ago, C. Delores, as she was called, spearheaded a national campaign to hold the music industry accountable for sexist and violent lyrics. She held press conferences, picketed record stores, showed up at Sony and Time Warner shareholders’ meetings, and mobilized civil rights and religious leaders.

While gangsta rappers, including Tupac Shakur, vilified Dr. Tucker for her unbending efforts, I was proud to stand with her at many of her events.

On Wednesday, the Bethune-DuBois Institute will pay tribute to Dr. Tucker at its annual awards dinner:

As the president and founder of the Bethune-DuBois Institute, Dr. Tucker initiated a public campaign against gangsta rap for its vile and obscene portrayal of women in general and African American women in particular.

In the shifting public focus from Imus’s outrageous comments and punishment, numerous national spokespersons suggested that the campaign launched by Dr. Tucker against, to quote her, “the unholy coalition of gangstas from the streets and gangstas from the suites,” needs to be continued.

The struggle will indeed continue.

For ticket info, please call 301/562 8300.

Mother Earth

The events of this week are a vivid reminder that nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Rich or poor, black, white, brown or yellow, “when it all comes down, you’ve got to go back to Mother Earth.”

Sunday is Earth Day, go hug a tree.