BLACK RABBI REACHES OUT TO MAINSTREAM OF HIS FAITH

Sally Ryan for The New York Times

Services at Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, which has more than 200 members.

By NIKO KOPPEL

Published: March 16, 2008

CHICAGO — Having grown up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Capers C. Funnye Jr. was encouraged by his pastor to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he became a rabbi.

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A Black Rabbi on a Mission  

Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., top, at Beth Shalom, and the choir, led by Nashone Weyudah, foreground. “I am a Jew,” the rabbi said, “and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers.”       Sally Ryan for The New York Times

Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., top, at Beth Shalom, and the choir, led by Nashone Weyudah, foreground. “I am a Jew,” the rabbi said, “and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers.”

His congregation on the Far Southwest Side of Chicago is predominantly black, and while services include prayers and biblical passages in Hebrew, the worshipers sometimes break into song, swaying back and forth like a gospel choir.

As the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and of numerous mainstream Jewish organizations, Rabbi Funnye (pronounced fun-AY) is on a mission to bridge racial and religious divisions by encouraging Chicago’s wider Jewish community to embrace his followers — the more than 200 members of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

“I am a Jew,” said Rabbi Funnye, “and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers.”

As a teenager, Rabbi Funnye said he felt disconnected and dissatisfied with his Methodist faith. He embarked on a spiritual journey, investigating other religions, including Islam, before turning to Judaism. He said he found a sense of intellectual and spiritual liberation in Judaism because it encourages constant examination. “The Jew has always questioned,” he said.

Like their rabbi, a majority of Beth Shalom’s members came to Judaism later in life, after wrestling with contradictions and questions that they found in their own earlier beliefs. Many refer to their religious experience as reversion, rather than conversion, and feel a cultural connection to the lost tribes of Israel. They say that Judaism has renewed their sense of personal identity.

There are no firm national statistics on the number of African-American Jews, said Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Usually referred to as Israelites or Hebrews, they have historically been seen to stand apart in theology and observance from the nation’s approximately 5.3 million Jews, mainly of Ashkenazi, or European, ancestry, and have largely been ignored by the broader Jewish community. Rabbi Funnye hopes to change that by speaking about his congregation at synagogues throughout Chicago and across the country.

“I believe that people cannot know you unless you make yourself known,” he said. “The only way to do that is to step outside and not fear rejection.”

To spread his message, he also serves on the boards of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the American Jewish Congress of the Midwest. In addition, he is active in the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, focusing on reaching out to other communities of black Jews around the world, including the Falashas in Ethiopia and the Igbo in Nigeria.

Occupying a former Ashkenazi synagogue, Beth Shalom is in the Marquette Park neighborhood. It is just blocks from where Chicago’s Nazi party used to march and where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was struck by a rock while protesting against segregated housing in 1966.

The congregation was founded in 1918 as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association by Rabbi Horace Hasan from Bombay. Members include some Hispanics, African-Americans and whites who were born Jews, as well as former Christians and Muslims. In line with traditional Jewish law, Beth Shalom does not seek out converts, and members must study for a year before undergoing a traditional conversion ritual. Men are required to be circumcised, and women undergo a ritual bath in a mikvah.

Many worshipers feel that their devotion to Judaism is misunderstood.

“When the broader community thinks of a Jew,” Dinah Levi said, “we don’t fit the profile.” Ms. Levi, 57, raised as a Baptist, is vice president of Beth Shalom, where she said she feels at home with spiritual elements that incorporate the African-American experience. “Since we are a varied people as written in the Torah,” she said, “I think the religion can be embraced by a multitude of people.”

Beth Shalom’s service is somewhere between Conservative and Modern Orthodox observance with distinctive African-American influences. Men and women sit separately as the liturgy is read in English and Hebrew. Some members kiss their prayer shawls, pointing to the Torah, as is the practice in traditional synagogues. A chorus sings spirituals over the beat of a drum.

Across America, black congregations have been active since the early 20th century. In the past, efforts to reach out to the mainstream Jewish community have been met with suspicion and rejection, said Lewis R. Gordon, the director of the Center of Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University. That is why many groups stay separatist, aligning themselves more with black nationalism than with traditional Jewish groups.

“People ask me, ‘As if you aren’t already in a bad enough situation being black, why would you want to be Jewish?’ ” said Tamar Manasseh, 29, a lifelong member of Beth Shalom.

Ms. Manasseh, wearing a Star of David around her neck, attended Jewish day school and is currently planning her daughter’s bat mitzvah. “I can’t change being Jewish just the same way I can’t change being black,” she said. Close to completing her rabbinic studies, she will be among the first black women to be ordained as a rabbi, according to Rabbi Funnye, her mentor.

After a Saturday service, Rabbi Funnye has a quiet moment in his office. On the wall is a 1930s black-and-white photograph of members of an African-American congregation. The men, all in prayer shawls, look out before an opened Torah. “We’re not going anywhere,” said Rabbi Funnye, smiling confidently, “I’m going to reach out until you reach back.”

(Article courtesy of The new York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

RELATED LINKS: NPR – RABBINICAL BOARD GETS ITS FIRST BLACK MEMBER:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88650380&sc=emaf

NEW JERSEY TEEN ARRAIGNED IN SEX ASSAULT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT

By JEFFREY GOLD,

ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 12, 2008

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – One of three New Jersey teenagers charged with gang raping a special education student pleaded not guilty Wednesday as investigators began evaluating the mental capacity of the alleged victim.Romal Roberts, 18, appeared by video conference for his arraignment and public defender Regina Lynch entered a not guilty plea for him. He was in jail on $300,000 bail.

Roberts and two 16-year-olds are accused of assaulting a 16-year-old female schoolmate from Montclair High School on March 6 at Roberts’ home in Montclair, an affluent New Jersey suburb 15 miles west of Manhattan.

Roberts, in orange jail garb, answered some questions about his name and address as he stood handcuffed.

Outside court, Lynch said Roberts he came to the United States at age 5, but she declined to say where he was born.

In court, state Superior Court Judge Amilkar Velez-Lopez directed that federal immigration authorities be notified to determine if Roberts is in the country legally. Immigration authorities had no immediate information regarding Roberts.

It appeared that no family or friends of Roberts were in court for the nine-minute hearing.

He faces 18 charges in a criminal complaint that indicates some of the attacks included the use of a broomstick, weapon or stick. In some instances, the assaults involved more than one attacker, court records show.

Nine of the charges are for aggravated sexual assault, which each carry up to 20 years in prison; nine are for attempted aggravated sexual assault, which each carry up to 10 years in prison. Several of the charges are based on the girl’s diminished mental capacity.

The juveniles face similar charges, prosecutors said. The names of those teens would not be released unless they are tried as adults.

The case has drawn parallels to a notorious crime in a neighboring town in 1989. Several Glen Ridge High School athletes served prison terms after being convicted in the sexual attack of a mentally retarded 17-year-old girl who also attended their school. Those attacks also used a broom handle and other objects, and were witnessed by about a dozen boys. The case was dramatized in an ABC television movie in 1999.

In the Montclair matter, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said it has subpoenaed records of the 16-year-old girl to better understand her capabilities.

“We don’t know the actual mental status of the girl,” office spokesman Paul Loriquet said.

Lynch, the public defender, said there was little she could say on behalf of Roberts since she was only handling the arraignment and another defender would be handling the case. She said Roberts had no prior criminal record.

The school district would have no immediate comment because of the continuing criminal investigation, spokeswoman Laura Federico said.

Authorities said they learned of the attack after the girl told a friend on Friday. The girl was then examined and treated at a hospital, revealing evidence of sexual trauma, Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow said.

Authorities said the assaults happened after a number of teens came to the 18-year-old’s unsupervised home between 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. March 6. Classes at the high school were staggered to accommodate testing, so it was not clear if the teens were cutting classes, police said.

It was not yet known if others witnessed the attacks or if anyone recorded it, Loriquet said.

The younger teens charged in the case were being held at the county youth house, authorities said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

PICTURES OF THE DAY, 3-18-2008

Senator Barack Obama delivered a sweeping assessment of race in America and renewed his objections to controversial statements by the pastor of his church, as his wife, Michelle, with a family friend, Martin Nesbitt, listened at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Photo: Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

 

• Article: Assessing Race in America, Obama Calls Pastor Divisive

(Photos courtesy of The new York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/18/nytfrontpage/20080318POD_index.html )

MCCAIN’S CHURCH HATES AMERICA, CLINTON’S FRIENDS DO TOO—BUT, LET’S GET THE BLACK GUY (OR NOT?)

Frank Schaeffer – Huffington Post

March 18, 2008

Obama called us to our better selves today. Never mind that! Here’s the latest new outrage from Obama’s pastor! FOX News, CNN, MSNBC are all about to start playing new secret footage of Rev. Wright screaming:

If you lust after any woman grab a knife and gouge out your right eye and throw it in the trash. And if you’re going to use your hand for masturbation cut it off or you’re going to hell. I haven’t come here to make peace but to bring war. I’m here to set a man against and his father and a daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me and who doesn’t want to get killed for me is damned. You mess with my people and you’ll wish you’d hanged a stone around your neck and drowned yourself before I’m done with you!

Except, Obama’s pastor didn’t say any of that — Jesus did.

So I guess all Christians must be disqualified from running for president. How can we trust any candidate that follows a violent Jewish-supremacist like Jesus? He called a woman of another race a dog just for talking to him! He said his enemies would all burn in a lake of fire…

There may be a few secularists out there who have never been to old-time church but the rest of us know that hyperbole, overstatement and ranting and raving (from the left or right) is a time honored style of preaching in just about every denomination — other than in particularly boring Unitarian churches.

Religious biblical overstatement started with Jesus, actually with God the Father, who tended to do things like kill the whole of humankind to make a point to Noah. Most churchgoing Christians know how to take this stuff in the Bible, or from our preachers. That’s why most Christians don’t lop off their arms and penises when they feel lust. That’s why even though Jesus said he only came to save Jews some of us “filthy dogs” (as Jesus called non-Jews) still believe in him. That is why reasonable people of good will who hear a black (or white) pastor saying “God damn America” in the context of a moralistic tirade know they’re watching theater.

But fair is fair. So where are the clips of me in Falwell’s pulpit (back in the early 1980s before I dropped out of the evangelical movement) preaching to five thousand cheering white fundamentalists while I shouted; “God hates America for the murder of the unborn! We should be destroyed!”

When my late father — Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer — and I were the guests of Jerry Falwell at Liberty Baptist College, Falwell said to us quite casually and seriously, while speaking of the “homosexual problem,” that: “If I had a dog that did what they do I take it out and shoot it.” And when it came to saying God was damning America he and Pat Robertson sided with the 9/11 hijackers by saying the terrorist’s actions served America right and were God’s punishment. Yet John McCain went to Liberty Baptist College and spoke for Falwell, in order to “mend fences” with the Religious Right. He said he no longer believed that Falwell was “an agent of intolerance.” And Rudy Giuliani gladly accepted Robertson’s endorsement. So much for the Republican “mainstream.”

Fair is fair. So where are the clips — playing incessantly next to Hillary Clinton’s picture — of her antiwar friends and Bill Clinton’s fellow draft dodger members of the New Left, cursing and damning America during Vietnam War protests and since? The company that Bill and Hillary kept in the late 1960s through the 1970s was defined by damning America and sometimes by rooting for the North Vietnamese. Anti-American spewing also came from left wing white preachers. Read the fiery sermons of the late Episcopal bishop of New York Paul Moore, Jr. who raged against America.

Bishop Moore, in his 1997 autobiography, Presences: A Bishop’s Life in the City, wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the United States “like a wounded rooster crowing on the top of the dung heap.” Blaming “corporate greed and lust” as well as “unbridled nationalism” for manufacturing causes for war, Moore cursed America as often as he served communion.

McCain is an Episcopalian. Where are the clips of the anti-American rantings of Bishop Moore and not a few other Episcopalian pastors and bishops, next to McCain’s picture?

Want to play this smear-by-association game? Okay, while McCain was a prisoner of war his bishop Moore was rooting for McCain’s torturers. How can McCain be a member of that denomination and be a real American, let alone commander in chief? Isn’t it time he explains his anti-American white associations? Isn’t it time McCain gives a speech to explain what it means to be a white in bed with hate-America white liberals..?

Okay, I’m being sarcastic, this is silly. And that’s the point. From the other guy’s point of view all religion and politics is extreme.

Preaching is a style of communication with its own cadences that is easy to mock and/or twist-by-sound-bite. The Clinton’s smear machine, now tied to the FOX smear-machine, is playing a very dirty game. And the Clinton’s know better.

As I recall both Clintons have been in plenty of black churches and understand the preaching style. If the Clintons were authentic progressives, or even authentic patriots, or just ordinary decent Americans, or just members of the Democratic Party who wanted their party to win in November, they would have led a furious defense of Obama and his pastor by putting things in perspective.

If the Clintons were decent people Obama would never have had to give a speech on being black and being a presidential candidate, let alone explain his pastor. The Clintons would have stepped up for him. And if FOX News, MSNBC, CNN et al. weren’t playing a filthy game for ratings this wouldn’t be a story.

As Obama said in his March 18, speech:

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed.

Part of that discrimination that needs addressing is to stop playing the sorts of games that have been played by the white Republicans and the Clintons.

As Jesus said to the Pharisees: “Ye hypocrites!”

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of “CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.

(Article courtesy of the Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com )

1.	Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer (Hardcover – Oct 5, 2007)  (45)

HOUSTON CONGRESSWOMAN SEEKS JUSTICE REVIEW OF W. VIRGINIA TORTURE CASE

March 14, 2008, 8:40PM

© 2008 The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Houston congresswoman has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the torture of a black woman by seven white people to determine whether federal hate crimes should be pursued.Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, also said two defendants who were sentenced Thursday on state charges should not have the option of parole.

“I have asked the Justice Department to review the circumstances and determine whether there is a viable case under federal law,” Lee told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday from her Washington, D.C., office.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia had announced in September that it would not pursue civil rights violations in the case.

The Justice Department’s Public Affairs Office did not immediately return an after-hours message left Friday.

Lee noted that Logan County prosecutors have gotten one conviction on a state hate crimes charge.

Authorities say 21-year-old Megan Williams of Charleston was held captive for several days last summer at Frankie Brewster’s trailer in Big Creek. In addition to beatings and assaults, authorities said Williams was forced to eat animal feces and was stabbed. She was rescued by sheriff’s deputies on Sept. 8 after they received an anonymous tip.

Karen Burton, 46, was the only defendant charged with a state hate crime. She was sentenced Thursday in Logan County Circuit Court to 10 years for violating Williams’ civil rights. She also received separate two-to-10-year sentences for assault charges.

Brewster, 49, received a 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree sexual assault.

Lee said federal hate crimes laws fall short of deterring such crimes.

“That is our intent, to look at the hate crimes legislation, not to discriminate against people or indict people unfairly, but to make the law comprehensive enough to be a deterrent,” she said.

“It is difficult when you can’t prove it’s interstate jurisdiction, for example,” Lee said. ” … It is difficult when certain groups are not protected by our hate crimes legislation.”

“Those are some faults that are really not acceptable.”

Lee said she also wants the laws revised to ensure people have the opportunity to petition the courts or the criminal justice system when a hate crime is committed.

“We must stand against the idea that it is OK to abuse, brutalize or kill someone because they are different,” she said.

Also, this article:

March 16, 2008

Benjamin Saji

Black and white in West Virginia: Will Megan Williams case reveal the progress of race relations, despite the outside interference?   http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200803150232

Hattip to Race, Gender, Justice:  http://racegenderjustice.blogspot.com

BLACK AMERICANS, THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY, AND CLINICAL TRIALS: A QUESTION OF TRUST

DID TUSKEGEE DAMAGE TRUST ON CLINICAL TRIALS?

Associated Press

March 18, 2008

• STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Studies disagree if experiment causes blacks to turn away from clinical trials
• Both contradict 2005 study saying blacks, whites turned away at same rate
• Experts: Economic barriers, time off to participate part of problem
• Studies: Black Americans must have proper access to clinical trials

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) — The infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a government experiment that charted the effects of the untreated disease on mostly poor and uneducated black men, was conducted for 40 years before it was exposed and ended in 1972 amid widespread condemnation.

The Tuskegee study plays a modest role in producing distrust, says Dr. Thomas LaVeist, study co-author.

A number of participants in the study died of the disease, which the men spread to women and to children at birth.

But does it still take a toll on the health of new generations of blacks?

Even the experts, apparently, can’t agree.

Two separate studies by Johns Hopkins University physicians took opposing sides on whether the Tuskegee experiment remains a significant factor in turning blacks away from clinical trials at a greater rate than whites. And both tended to contradict an extensive 2005 National Institutes of Health computer survey that found, in fact, blacks are no different than whites in the rate at which they take part in clinical trials when offered the chance.

Despite the different findings, researchers involved in the studies, along with others who work on minority medical issues, said more needs to be done to make sure blacks have proper access to clinical trials as well as medical care.

Fear of being improperly used

In research reported earlier this year, Johns Hopkins University doctors found that blacks were more reluctant than whites to take part in medical studies because they fear being improperly used as guinea pigs. Their lack of participation, the authors said, inhibits efforts to develop treatments for diseases that blacks suffer from in disproportionately large numbers.

“So long as the legacy of Tuskegee persists, African-Americans will be left out of important findings about the latest treatments for diseases,” said senior study author Dr. Neil Powe, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

“There is enormous irony that without African-American subject participation in clinical trials, we are not going to have tested the best therapies we need to treat African-Americans,” Powe said.

But less than three years earlier, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reached a different conclusion about the Tuskegee experiment. Their study published in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association found that few blacks had heard of the Tuskegee experiment and fewer knew accurate facts.

They agree with Powe that blacks are significantly more likely than whites to be mistrustful of medical care and clinical trials. But they don’t view the experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama, to be a major reason.

Tuskegee only a small factor

Dr. Thomas LaVeist, co-author and director of the Bloomberg School’s Center for Health Disparities Solutions, said the Tuskegee study plays only a modest role in producing distrust.

Instead, LaVeist said emphasis should be placed on contemporary factors that may make blacks less likely to want to participate: They’re more likely to go to lower-quality health care facilities, they have more difficulty getting appointments and they experience longer waiting times. All supporting the notion that blacks aren’t treated the same, he said.

“Of course, we cannot undo a historical event,” he said. “(But) to place so much emphasis on Tuskegee is to divert attention away from possible causes and solutions that could possibly be effective today.”

The Tuskegee Study was exposed by The Associated Press in a report in July 1972. To learn more about the disease, the federal program had enlisted 600 black men in the experiment — 399 with syphilis and 201 without it — in exchange for free medical exams, meals and burial insurance.

Those with the disease were not told they had it and were denied treatment with penicillin when it began being used in the mid-1940s. When the study was exposed, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100 others had died of medical problems related to it, at least 40 wives had been infected and 19 children contracted the disease at birth, according to federal records.

A lawsuit ended in a settlement providing at least $9 million to those harmed, Congress called for reforms to protect human subjects in studies, and in 1997 President Clinton apologized to survivors for research that was “deeply, profoundly, morally wrong.”

The legacy of the study has been cited by other medical officials, including those fighting the disproportionate number of blacks infected with AIDS in the past decade.

Asked less often

But the NIH computer survey released in 2005 found that minorities are actually willing to volunteer at the same rate as whites, but aren’t asked as often. The data was compiled from a range of trials and research over two decades.

“Our data suggest that when they’re eligible and know about a trial, they enroll at the same rates as non-Hispanic whites do,” said David Wendler, a bioethicist who helped lead the NIH research.

Wendler said he believes the Tuskegee legacy remains a problem, but feels it’s not nearly as significant a factor in people’s actual decisions as more practical concerns — whether they know about the trial, or whether they can take time off work.

Wendler said the results in the NIH study may differ from Powe’s because the institute researched actual trials while Powe’s involved hypothetical questions.

“What they found was that in response to those hypothetical questions, African-Americans are less trusting,” he said. “We know people have different attitudes toward hypothetical and real cases.”

The study by Powe and other Johns Hopkins physicians, released in the journal Medicine online Jan. 14, involved a random survey of 717 outpatients at 13 cardiology and general medicine clinics in Maryland from April to October 2002. Thirty-six percent of participants were black, the rest white.

Each participant was asked to enroll in a mock trial to test a heart disease pill and were given an in-depth explanation of risks and benefits by a physician, either black or white. Only 27 percent of blacks were willing to participate, as opposed to 39 percent of whites. Seventy-two percent of blacks said doctors would use them guinea pigs without their consent, versus 49 percent of whites.

‘Perception of harm’

“The thing we were surprised about was that African-Americans were two times or 200 percent more likely to perceive a chance of harm from participating in medical research,” Powe said. “That perception of harm accounted for why they were less willing to participate in a trial.”

Powe said the study provided several possible remedies, including an increase in the number of minority physicians involved in clinical research studies. Some 12 percent of the U.S. population is black, but only 4 percent are physicians.

He said health care providers need to do a better job at building trust with patients.

“We need to take time to communicate and explain what the risk and benefits are to participating in research and dispel myths that unrealistic harms could result,” he said.

Dr. Mona Fouad, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Minority Health and Research Center, said a number of reasons have been reported for low participation by blacks in clinical research. These include economic barriers, time off to participate, negative experiences in the medical system and the complexity of required procedures such as consent forms.

She said the latest Johns Hopkins study is important in underlining the need to reach out and develop culturally competent recruitment strategies.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

STUFF EDUCATED BLACK PEOPLE LIKE

Here is another blog that writes about “stuff’ (satire) that certain groups of people like.

Last month I posted about “Stuff White People Like”: https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/stuff-white-people-like/

Here is a blog that speaks of “Stuff Educated Black People Like”: http://stuffeducatedblackpeoplelike.wordpress.com/

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#20.  CORRECTING OTHERS

“Educated Black People Like correcting others. It does not matter the topic or situation, an EBP will never miss an opportunity to correct someone else. Hell, they’ll probably correct this post. An EBP will stop at nothing to show off their so called “educated” status. Whether it be correcting a co-worker on a point of information, or telling their 90 year old grandmother that it’s pronounced “sink” and not “zink”; an EBP knows no boundaries.

As soon as an EBP has completed one semester of college, they’ll behave as though they have just obtained a Ph.D in Everything; even though their GPA was a 2.0 and they never went to class. They will automatically become an expert on spelling, grammar, rocket science, and of course African studies. These EBP come home from college anticipating the opportunity for a family or church member to make a mistake. Watch out Rev. Jeremiah Wright! The degree to which an EBP corrects others depends on whether they are attending or have attended an HBCU or a majority white institution. If the EBP has attented a majority white university, they will be on correction overload; being around all those white students gives them a feeling of superiority to other blacks. They will even correct and attack other EBP who attend HBCUs. It does not matter where the mistake occurs, an EBP will loudly correct the person; embarrassing the non-EBP won’t matter as long as the EBP has had his time to shine. Correcting others gives them a sense that they are somehow better than the other person; which totally isn’t true. They may even sit down with a group of friends and point out the errors in grammar and pronunciation on what else, BET. It validates their “educatedness”.

#19.  OPRAH WINFREY

“EBP are constantly fighting at work or any place else to get ahead and/or be heard, while Oprah can tell white people to read a book or buy a CD and they do it without second thought. How else do you think Jamie Foxx sold so many albums? Oprah! And of course, don’t forget Tom Cruise’s hopping on the couch incident. What other black woman do you know that can make a rich, white man go crazy like he did without holding a gun or knife in her hand? It goes without saying that she can make white people famous. Not even white people cared about Dr. Phil or Racheal Ray until Oprah said they were acceptable white people.

If you are black and having problems getting a job/promotion or trying to obtain a loan, write to Oprah and ask her to do a show about how good it is to hire blacks or loan them money. Either the employer/loan officer or his wife will watch the episode and decide to follow Oprah’s suggestions. Look for your success to follow soon. White people follow Oprah like the Pied Piper! EBP like Oprah because she’s powerful, rich, and kicked Stedman’s trifling self out!”

#13.  TALKING ABOUT UNEDUCATED BLACK PEOPLE

“Besides themselves, EBP like talking about uneducated Blacks who disgrace their race. Most EBP hate those Blacks who are loud in public and draw unnecessary attention to themselves. EBP especially get embarrassed when they are out with their white friends and they run into an uneducated Black person. They usually want to run over and slap the uneducated Black in order to stop whatever stupid behavior they are doing, but of course, this would not be very educated of them.Most educated Blacks are embarrassed by the loud music and large rims uneducated blacks seem to love. Another favorite is poor grammar, which is usually spoken very loudly. When a group of EBP get together, they typically talk about all the uneducated Blacks they saw that day. Conversations on this topic can go on for hours and can range from slippers to do-rags worn in public! With uneducated Blacks constantly doing embarrassing things, this is a never ending conversation.”

#11.  TURKEY BACON/SAUSAGE

“Turkey bacon and turkey sausage allows the educated Blacks to have a happy medium. They get to enjoy all the aroma and (some) flavor of their traditional pork based breakfast sides while showing everyone that they are disciplined enough to kick out the swine. Educated Black people love when they go out to eat with friends and can order turkey sausage from the menu. They enjoy the looks and questions they receive about their selection. This gives them an opportunity to pass on their wisdom about turkey sausage being more healthy than the slab of bacon their friend just ordered… and everyone knows educated Black people like to pass on their wisdom!”

#4  NATURAL HAIR

“Educated Black people like natural hair. They love to show their pride for their race and culture by wearing their hair in its unrelaxed and natural state. This may include a range a styles, such as braids, twists, locs, or freestyle kinky/curly/coily tresses. Since natural hair is so versatile, they can rock any number of styles.

While educated Blacks love for people to admire their hair, they hate it when someone touches it without invitation or permission. And if you do touch it, they HATE stupid comments like, “Wow! I had no idea it was so soft!” That’s a surefire way to get told off. Educated Blacks also love for both Blacks and non-Blacks to comment on how much they love their hair. The standard comments are typically, “I love your hair!” or “I wish my hair could do that!” Educated Blacks love to encourage other Blacks to allow their hair to grow out in its natural state. However, what they love most is to give Blacks that wear relaxers guilt trips about how they are conforming to the European standard of beauty. It makes them feel so much better than you to know that they are educated and liberated enough to not have to be a conformist.”

The site is hilarious and dead-on in its discussions/satire. Go on over and read about the stuff (satire) that educated blacks like. It will make for a fun day. What the heck—we could all do with some laughter (satire) in our lives.

Life is serious enough. 🙂

Enjoy!

THE WORLD IN PICTURES

The World In Pictures

Wendell S. Scott Professional Photographer Wendell S. Scott, nephew of the founder of the Atlanta Daily World, and son of life-long Atlanta Daily World employee Emel Scott, has served as the paper’s vice president and director of operations since August 1997. Scott joined the staff of the Atlanta Daily World after five years of service in the U.S. Air Force in 1968. He oversees security, production, photography, circulation and operations of the newspaper. Full Story: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12751832&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

Brenda J. Turner Professional Photographer Brenda J. Turner, a credentialed photographer for Atlanta professional sports teams including the Atlanta Falcons, Hawks & Braves, is in the midst of producing a self-assigned series on African-Americans in Sports, including NFL Quarterbacks of Color, Negro Baseball Leagues Player. Her love of sports has led her to cover the 2001 NFL ProPowl Honolulu & 2002 and 2003 MLB Playoff Series, MLB and NFL Training Camps, 2003 NBA Allstar Game, Olympic Titan Games, SEC Championship, Celebrity Golf and Basketball Tournaments, 2004 Family Circle Tennis Cup. Full Story: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12751842&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

Willie E. Tucker Professional Photographer Willie E. Tucker of WETPhotographics started at the Atlanta Daily World as an independent photojournalist in the summer of 1995. His first assignments were on the music scene with the Classic Chastain Park Summer Series. Over the years his mission has been to photograph African Americans and others in the best possible pose. “All media is history and the photographer has a great part in how history is shown to future generations,” he says. Full Story:  http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12758546&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

Bud Smith Professional Photographer Bud Smith has over 35 years of experience as a freelance photographer. As a staff photographer for Motown and A&M Records, he had the opportunity to meet and photograph numerous celebrities and entertainers. Some of the people Smith photographed include Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Tina Turner. He was the requested photographer for the final tour of the Jackson Five Victory Tour in 1979. Smith’s work as a photojournalist has been featured in several national magazines including Ebony, Jet and Time. Full Story:  http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12758558&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

Susan J. Ross Professional Photographer Susan J. “Sue” Ross refers to herself as a photo-griot, specializing in documenting images which portray the comings and goings of the African-American community – cultural, social, political and economic. Ross combines her life’s work with her position in government administration for the City of Atlanta Full Story: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12758826&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

The Late Rogers Murphy Professional Photographer During his multi-faceted career, Rogers Murphy has photographed numerous subjects from public figures to corporate executives, from celebrities to ordinary people. As a visual artist, he works with various media including include framed art, photography and prints. In recognition of Murphy’s talent, his work has been displayed in several exhibitions including ones at the APEX Museum, Atlanta City Hall, Clark College (now known as Clark Atlanta University), Morris Brown College and the Emory University School of Law. Full Story: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12758800&BRD=1077&PAG=461&dept_id=480527&rfi=6

(Article courtesy of the Atlantic Daily World:  http://www.zwire.com )

CLINTON CALLS RACE CRITICISM A ‘MUGGING’

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The former president says he got a bum rap from the media.

By BETH FOUHYMarch 18, 2008 — Former President Clinton on Monday called the notion that he unfairly criticized his wife’s rival, Barack Obama, “a total myth and a mugging.” Clinton had compared Obama’s landslide victory in South Carolina’s Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson’s wins in the state in 1984 and 1988.

Clinton was widely criticized for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate. He was widely accused of fanning racial tensions.

“They made up a race story out of that,” Clinton said of the news media, calling the story “a bizarre spin.”

In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” broadcast Monday, Clinton said he had gotten a “bum rap” from the news media.

He made similar comments on CNN’s “American Morning,” calling the notion that he had unfairly criticized Obama in South Carolina as “a total myth and a mugging.” 

While campaigning in South Carolina in January, Bill Clinton complained that Obama had put out a “hit job” on him. He didn’t explain what that meant.

At an MTV forum for college journalists Saturday, Clinton said he knew as soon as Obama won Iowa’s caucuses Jan. 3 that he was on his way to wrapping up a large majority of black voters in other primary states.

“Iowa happened. The minute it became possible that he could be the nominee, he was going to win the lion’s share of the African-American vote,” Clinton said. “And I never begrudged it.”

He added, “Contrary to the myth, I went through South Carolina and never said a bad word about Senator Obama — not one.”

In South Carolina, the former president angrily lectured reporters, arguing that they were going easy on Obama while subjecting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to unfair scrutiny.

“I never heard a word of public complaint when Mr. Obama said Hillary was not truthful,” that she had “no character, was poll-driven,” Bill Clinton said earlier this year. “He had more pollsters than she did. … When he put out a hit job on me at the same time he called her the senator from Punjab, I never said a word.”

He was referring to an Obama campaign memo from last summer that criticized Sen. Clinton’s ties to India, referring to her as the “Democrat from Punjab.” The former president’s reference to a “hit job” evidently had to do with documents the Obama campaign once circulated questioning the former president’s financial dealings.

Campaigning for his wife in New Hampshire earlier in January, Bill Clinton called Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war a “fairy tale.”

BLACK ELECTED LEGISLATIVE WOMEN HONOR 2008 PIONEERS

By: Staff Reports

March 17, 2008

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The National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women honored several women business and civic leaders March 10 in a program at Twelve Atlantic Station. Photo By Bud Smith Photography Members of the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women join their 2008 Pioneer Women Honorees during their :March 10 “A Salute to Georgia Pioneer Women” at the Twelve Atlantic Station. They are GA Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salam, Shirl D. Smith, GA Rep. Sharon Beasley Teague, Oregon Sen. Margaret Carter, Monica Pearson, GA Rep. Georganna Sinkfield, Lani Wong, Marta Ezzard, M. Alexis Scott, Grace M. Lopez Williams and GA Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas. Honorees included Emma Darnell, Martha Ezzard, Valerie Richardson Jackson, Monica Pearson, Grace M. Lopez Williams, Lani L. Wong, Georganna T. Sinkfield and M. Alexis Scott. The women were recognized by the organization for their contributions through their professions and their community service. They were part of the program “A Salute to Georgia Pioneer Women.”

There are 225 Black women in legislatures around the country who are raising issues that are important to the entire community, said Margaret Carter, national president of NOBEL Women. These issues would not be raised if these women were not present in their respective legislatures, said Carter, who is a member of the general assembly in Portland, Oregon. Georgia State Rep. Sharon Beasley-Teague, who is national secretary, welcomed the supporters to the gathering. Also bringing greetings was Gloria Travis Tanner, national executive director of NOBEL Women. Tanner is a native Atlantan and former State Senator representing Denver, Colorado. Rep. Beasley-Teague is a Democrat representing House District 65 (Fairburn). She was first elected as a member of the General Assembly in 1992. She serves on the Games, Fish & Parks, Reapportionment and Ways & Means Committees. Besides Beasley-Teague, other members of the host committee who served as presenters to the honorees were Georgia Representatives Roberta Abdul-Salaam, “Able” Mable Thomas, Bettyanne Childress-Hart, Carolyn Hugley, Gloria Frazier and Gail Davenport. State Rep. Abdul-Salaam is a Democrat representing House District 74 (part of Clayton and part of Fayette counties). She was first elected in 2005. She serves on Economic Development and Tourism, Judiciary – Non Civil and Transportation committees. “Able” Mable Thomas is a Democrat representing District 43, Post 1. She is vice chairman of the Administrative Services Committee, and also serves on the Health and Human Services, Human Relations and Aging and Judiciary committees. Carolyn Hugley is a Democrat representing District 133 (part of Muscogee County). She was first elected in 1993. She serves on Appropriations, Ethics, Natural Resources and Environment and Rules Committees. Gloria Frazier is a Democrat representing District She was sworn in Jan. 8, 2007. She serves on the Banks and Banking, Human Relations and Aging, Public Safety and Homeland Security Committees. State Senator Gail Davenport is a Democrat representing District 44 (Clayton and Henry counties). She was first elected in 2006. She serves on Higher Education, Interstate Cooperation, Public Safety, Retirement and (ex-officio) Urban Affairs Committees. Other women honored by the group who could not attend were Xernona Clayton, Geraldine Ferraro, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Ingrid Saunders Jones, Georgia First Lady Mary Perdue and Georgia Chief Justice Leah Sears. Coretta Scott King was recognized posthumously.

 “Other women honored by the group who could not attend……Geraldine Ferraro…”

Hmm? I wonder why that is?