Racism in The Marine Corps and in the Military.

This is more about history than it is about racism.

With the beginning of World War II African Americans would get their chance to be in “the toughest outfit going,” the previously all-white Marine Corps.  The first recruits reported to Montford Point, a small section of land on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on August 26, 1942.  By October only 600 recruits had begun training although the call was for 1,000 for combat in the 51st and 52nd Composite Defense Battalions. 

Initially the recruits were trained by white officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) but citing a desire to have blacks train blacks, the Marines quickly singled out several exceptional black recruits to serve as NCO drill instructors.  In January 1943, Edgar R. Huff became the first black NCO as a private first class. In February Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson, a 19-year veteran of the Army and Navy, became the first Drill Sergeant.  By May 1943 all training at Montford Point was done by black sergeants and drill instructors (DIs), with Johnson as chief DI.  Both Johnson and Huff would be renowned throughout the entire Marine Corps for their demanding training and exceptional leadership abilities.

The men of the 51st soon distinguished themselves as the finest artillery gunners in the Marine Corps, breaking almost every accuracy record in training.  Unfortunately, discrimination towards African American fighting abilities still existed and when shipped to the Pacific, the 51st and 52nd were posted to outlying islands away from the primary action.  The only Montfort Marines to see action, and record casualties, were the Ammunition and Depot Companies in Saipan, Guam, and Peleliu.  Private Kenneth Tibbs was the first black Marine to lose his life on June 15, 1944.

Sources:
Gerald Astor, The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Novato, Ca.: Presidio Press, 1998); Gail Buckley, American Patriots (New York: Random House, 2001); Bernard C. Nalty, The Right to Fight: African-American Marines in World War II (Washington, D.C.: Center for Military History, The United States Army, 1985).

I'm posting this subject here after having found out a few uncomfortable things about many of the Dark Green Marines I have recently reconnected with on a few other sites who all seems to have the same issues with certain treatment from their commands on and around Cherry point.

Now, I also remember the stories of the Montford Point Marines and their struggles in the Corps and how this also relates to this subject.

The subject I'm speaking of is Racism in the Marine Corps.

And for over 20 years I kept a personal shame of having had such a short term in the Corps that ended at the Cherry Point. And it wasn't until I became reconnected with a few old Marine buddies from school and from My time on Cherry Points Base that I found need to reach out to others and ask if anyone else has noticed or heard of this kind of issue growing around the Marine Corps? Especially around the Coastal area of NC in or around Cherry Point.

Here was My story in short...

My miserable time was in Cherry Point right after finishing My training at Ft Bliss where I got busted in rank two stripes and a nice notch out of My pay for a charge from some grunt lifer sgt that I beat up (defending My gurlfriend's honor) off base and didn't know he was a Marine and he reported for duty and I was the duty... And there I was reporting for duty as a buck private only to find out that My racist ass top at school was best friends with the new top I got stuck with and he chewed Me a new asshole the first day reporting and gave Me hell every chance he got.

And to add insult to injury My girlfriend got married and I had to find out from her parents after we had made plans for her to move to NC with me and marry Me. And My image of that great life in the Corps was dying fast as My top and his boys played with the UCMJ so much that I had more article 15s than Chesty Puller. And then I found out that something sneaky with our weapons in the Armory with missing parts from rifles that had not been used by us and reported it and shit hit the fan some more. And then I broke My leg playing football and still had to walk Guard duty with a cast on, and My family was having personal troubles I could not deal with from that distance and I was getting mess duty and guard duty every holiday I was on base almost. And no matter how many maritoious(sp) masses I got I got busted for something. And that shit never let up and there was no jumping MOS's with the amount of money they put into My training.

So it all ended with Me having to fight a court marshal that ended with Me having a choice of putting My top and damn near the whole food chain all the way up to Master sgt on charges after they found out about all the treatment I had recorded and them leaving Me back on base unsupervised during a NATO exercise in Navada. And I had two choices...

Court Marshal My chain of command and try to stay in one of two places I could be in My MOS or leave. And I didn't want to go but I had a critical MOS so I did. And they made My last days even more hell and even fucked up My paperwork to such a degree that I didn't even know what My discharge was until I got back to Atlanta... My car was stolen the day before I left and I was stuck with too much shit to fit on a Greyhound.

So let's just say that My most miserable time in the service was on cherry Point where right off base friends and family of many on base paraded in full uniform with the WPM(White Power Movement) and I never knew that in My SRB was the history of My family in the civil rights movement and I got stuck with some of the oldest racist asses in the corps in a unit that really never was useful in battle...lol

So I never did My 4 years by a few months.

And I wanted to live all My days in the Corps, until I woke up and found Myself back on the streets fighting the same shit I thought I was getting away from in the service.

The sunny side to all of this is all the people in question were made to retire instead of being court marshaled.

So I guess My story could be called a miserable time in Cherry Point and Havlock NC...lol

respect

"Please note that I did not try to personally call My treatment from many of the other Marines racist. But I always felt that it could not have been as bad as I found it in My journey in the Corps until lately as I started to find out from others similar stories like My own."

...

Now here is where I'm at now...

After talking to at least 5 Marines that I have reconnected with as of late. Each of them all had a similar issues and even similar discharges. ALL around the same era and time frame. And all but one were all attached to MAG28 during the 80's.

At least half of them were all rather contacted by CID or reported racial activity to CID or some form of JAG.

On Camp Lajune(sp) there was a report of Marines in uniform passing out flyers for a KKK and Local White Power meeting off base.

I personally had issue with a few "Light Green" Marines who actually had a KKK Robe in their locker that they removed only for inspection and personal use.

There was even a White Power celebration and parade in the city of Havlock that took place yearly right in front of the front gates of Cherry Point.

...

So I'm wondering if anyone has any memory of racial tension or even racist acts within the Marine Corps?

Not that it really matters...lol

But I have really been wondering about how known racism has been within the Marine Corps.

evil stare

respect

Reality check or stay in the cheep seats... 2010 You have arived at the promise land.

It's 2010...

A new Decade.
The change has come.

Time to shake the bonds of insecurity and mental slavery and hit the bricks like everybody else!

The only thing stopping you now is yourself.

And that old slave mentality you think you still got to bitch about.

You got a Black President.
Rather you like it or not.
That means you aint got nothing to complain about no more.

Time has changed.

So get off your fat lazy ass and do something!
*evil grin*

It's just that simple!
Just listen/read what Ole Russel Simmons said:

Message For The New Decade

At the dawn of a new decade, we have arrived at a moment unlike any other in the history of our beautiful nation. We have endured the brutality of slavery, we have survived the pain of Jim Crow and we have overcome segregation to declare our dignity and equal rights. We witnessed and participated in one of the greatest achievements in the history of our country when we elected our first black president, Barack Obama. And here we stand, with great opportunity, this year, this decade, to once and for all, emancipate ourselves from the mental slavery that is limiting our society and our people from moving forward.

To remove these shackles forever, we must take advantage of the opportunities that we have created. To me, during segregation, the black community was strong, because we had black dentists, doctors, drug store owners, grocery store owners, and many other business leaders providing our community with care and services. Integration came and although it gave us much more freedom and liberty, it also presented new challenges that we continue to face.  New  cultural and entrepreneurial groups came into our communities and took over many of these businesses and destroyed potential economic opportunities. However, now more than ever, the 89% of this country that is not black, is thirsting to buy our products and follow our cultural lead. If we ignore this 89%, we will never be able to move forward. We should not limit ourselves to just interact and do business with each other. I don't want to address just 11% of the population. I want to speak to100% of America. If I had segregated myself and  my businesses when I started Def Jam, then I never would have brought Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC to the Mud Club in the Village, which was a White club. Black people didn’t like rap music, they rejected it at first. It was the White press that made us popular…the first time I heard my record on the radio was in Amsterdam on a Dutch station! I say all this, not to criticize you, but to challenge you to recognize your power.

I am saddened by many of my peers who continue to perpetuate the notion that diversity is wrong. When  black TV executives compare the multiracial programming I produce to “black” shows on their networks, it reminds me that we are also responsible for limiting ourselves. When online “black” gossip sites make an issue of inter-racial dating it exhibits our own responsibility for not progressing forward. If you only interact with “your group” in university or the work place, you not only do yourself and your company a disservice, you diminish the possibilities of a generation.   We have nothing to fear from integration because our culture is the New American Mainstream, the entire world is embracing us.  It’s our time to be open to the world.  At this point in our history as a people, we must uplift each other and encourage each other to change how we see in the world. It is honest integration that the next generation is bringing and they are challenging the old guard to step down and stop their old ways.  Similarly, too many mainstream companies today are limited by their inability to honestly integrate some of the most powerful American ideas because of their lack of diversity.  To speak to the new America, you have to completely rethink your “diversity” approaches in an integrated, fast-forward way, or risk being overtaken by an unstoppable tide of demographic and cultural change.

So, as we enter this new decade, let’s practice loving everybody and everything. Let’s be proud of our diversity and make sure it means what the word actually is supposed to mean. Let us not be agents for others to co-opt, let us be the agents of change. It is the wisdom from having experience and inside perspective from the most important cultural phenomenon our country has ever seen that this new generation carries forward. And damn, it is exciting.

-Russell Simmons

OUT WITH THE OLD
In with the new!

So are you ready?

*blank stare*

I wanna say you are but I doubt it!

As I glance around at many of you and your words it's the same old sad shit.

Waiting on a handout.
Blaming the invisible white man.

Well all bets are off now.

The only thing stopping you now...

Is you.


You are standing on fresh new images of change.

You may not see them right now.
But it's here.


Now what you gonna do?






respect

Anthrax in drum skins?

At first I though it was a act of terrorism.
And then I did a search.
And this is what I found.

How dangerous is drum making?

http://current.com/1rkua4c

A second drum maker in two years has died after apparently inhaling anthrax spores from animal skins. What are the risks of this seemingly safe job?

Fernando Gomez had been in intensive care for more than a week after handling animal skins at his drum-making workshop in London. But his condition deteriorated over the weekend and the 35-year-old died from inhalation anthrax on Sunday night.

Two years earlier, Christopher Norris, a craftsman from Scotland, died after inhaling anthrax. But are these cases a coincidence or a cause for alarm?

In the UK, the death of Mr Gomez is the second case in more than 30 years. Across the world, there are four other known cases since 1974 of drum makers dying from anthrax.

It is difficult however to put these figures into context. There are no official statistics on the numbers of drum makers and handlers of skins for drum making in the UK come in many guises - the amateur attending drumming workshops, the professional who tends to work independently, members of African communities who carry out repairs and the drummer who replaces his skins himself.

African drumming is growing in popularity in the UK, but any drumming community is informal and loosely-knit.

Health experts do stress though that cases of death from anthrax are extremely rare among drum makers, and drum players are in no danger at all.

Anthrax is a naturally occurring disease, which can sporadically affect cattle and goat herds, as well as more exotic animals such as llamas, yaks and bison, all around the world.

The skins of cows and goats, in particular, are used to make traditional African drums. Outside of the African tradition, drum skins are usually more processed and come prepared without any hair.

Most European drums are made from man-made fibres, except for some antique orchestral drums and the Irish Bodhran, made with goat or deer skin.

Drum makers say hides produce a better sound and are gentler on the hands.

Dr Phil Luton, of the Health Protection Agency, said the "vast majority" of skins imported for drum making would not be infected with anthrax.

Anthrax can be contracted through cuts to the skin (cutaneous anthrax) or by inhaling the spores (inhalation anthrax), the latter being the harder to detect and to treat.

Drum makers are at risk, however low, during the preparation of the skin, which involves stretching it over the frame and scraping hair from the hide to give it a smooth finish. The danger lies in inhaling agitated spores or an open wound becoming infected.

RESPIRATORY ANTHRAX

Spores Bacillus anthracis organism produces spores that exist in the environment, often in soil
Inhalation Humans exposed to animal skins may breathe in the spores, but cannot pass on to other humans
Trachea Larger spores lodge in throat and windpipe
Lungs Some spores are destroyed by immune system, but smaller ones may penetrate alveoli within lungs
Consequences If untreated, flu-like symptoms are followed by severe breathing difficulties, blood poisoning and shock, usually fatal

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) says there are no other occupations known to be at risk, as jobs like rug making are more rigorously regulated.

In the case of drum makers, the HPA advises carrying out work in a well-ventilated space and to avoid breathing in dust. It says it will be reviewing its advice once the findings of the investigation into Mr Gomez's death are available.

Drum maker John Sullivan, also known as Bodhi, uses the common-sense approach, which has worked for him for the past 20 years.

John Sullivan has been making drums for 20 years

He makes djembes, a goblet-shaped West African hand drum, by carving a solid log from hardwood and covering it with goats' skin imported from Gambia and Senegal.

He says he is careful not to cut himself when shaving bristly hair off with a double-edged razor blade and has considered wearing rubber gloves.

When rubbing down a bristly skin, he goes outside and checks the wind direction to ensure any spores blow away from him.

The 54-year-old, from the Suffolk coast, said the latest death had made him think twice about his own safety, but not enough to stop.

"I have been doing it 20 years and I'm still here," he said.

Found on the BBC network.

And now I think about the news of the woman in the US that also caught a illness from anthrax in a drum circle in the US.

New Hampshire Woman Diagnosed With Rare Type of Anthrax After Attending 'Drumming Circle'

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581460,00.html

CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire woman diagnosed with a rare gastrointestinal anthrax case may have swallowed spores propelled into the air by vigorous drumming, a state health expert said.

Officials haven't confirmed how the woman contracted the disease but are focusing on a drum circle gathering she attended Dec. 4 at the United Campus Ministry center in Durham shortly before becoming ill. Public health officials who learned of her diagnosis last week immediately began investigating, and earlier this week shut down the ministry center after anthrax spores were found on two drums.

Some health officials believe it's the nation's first case of gastrointestinal anthrax, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is unsure.

Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, an adviser to the state's public health division, said one theory is that the woman ingested airborne spores from a drum's animal-hide covering.

"This was a wild type of anthrax that is found ubiquitously in our environment. It can become stirred up or agitated to a place where it briefly suspends in the air, and this patient likely contacted it on her fingers and introduced it into her mouth or inhaled a ... spore into her mouth and then swallowed it," she said.

Two recent U.S. anthrax cases involved African drums covered with animal hides, but those involved spores that were inhaled or entered through the skin.

On Tuesday, officials said spores also were found on an electrical outlet and that antibiotics and vaccines would be offered to about 80 people, including about 60 who attended the drum circle as well as University of New Hampshire students who lived in the building and those who worked there.

Samples have been sent to the CDC to determine whether the patient's anthrax strain matches that found on the drums or electrical outlet.

The ministry center is not part of the university, but it houses students and runs a variety of campus-based programs. Pastor Larry Brickner-Wood, the center's director, said the monthly drum circles involve people playing hand drums and other percussion instruments to build community spirit and promote well-being.

"Our thoughts and prayers remain with this young woman and her family," he said.

Anthrax is a potentially fatal disease caused by bacteria. There are three types of infection based on where the disease manifests itself: inhalation affecting the lungs, cutaneous affecting the skin and gastrointestinal affecting the digestive tract. Infection from natural sources such as animal skins, soil or contaminated meat is rare in developed countries, but occurs regularly in poor nations. It is not transmitted from person-to-person.

In 2007, two members of a Connecticut family were treated for skin anthrax traced to animal hides used to make African drums. In 2006, a New York dancer and drum maker who collapsed after a performance in Pennsylvania recovered from the first case of naturally occurring inhalation anthrax in the United States since 1976.

According to state public health officials and The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases there have been no previous confirmed cases of gastrointestinal anthrax in the United States. A Minnesota farm family was believed to have symptoms of the disease in 2000 after eating meat from an infected cow, but blood test results from exposed family members were negative, state health officials said.

A CDC spokesman did not have details of any other U.S. cases but said the agency's Web site and literature from CDC authors indicate that gastrointestinal anthrax and exposure have rarely been reported.

The last New Hampshire anthrax cases were in 1957 when there were nine cases — four skin and five inhalation — in employees of a textile mill in Manchester. Since then, there have been 11 cases of naturally occurring anthrax in the United States.

In 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to journalists and two U.S. senators in the weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At least four people, including two postal workers and a photo editor, died from exposure to those letters, and more than a dozen others became ill.

And not that it made any more sense.

But it didn't sound like a act of terrorism.

And that is a good start.



respect

My favorite seldom known quote!

"The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed. But the vast majority who've sat idly by..."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The worst sin I have seen is the amount of people around Me who have become that Majority that still sits and bitches from the cheap seats at and about the few who don't mind getting dirty for a greater cause than just their own image.

If you don't stand for something?

You are doomed to fall for anything.

And too many people don't mind.

respect

We ALL owe Uncle Tom a apology. And everyone we have ever called his name in vain.

My Grand Fathers family are from Locus Grove Ga.

His Brother was named Tom Harris. He was also the spiritual teacher for that area and everyone would gather on his land in the back of the house and have "church"... They called Him Uncle TH and not Uncle Tom because of the "Bad rap" the name Uncle Tom was associated with.

I remember as a child asking Him why He didn't like being called Uncle Tom and He said because that was a "Bad Word" for black people.

*blank stare*

Now this last comment reminded Me of a certain ignorance that our people (Colored folks as they called themselves back then) seemed to still suffer from today.

I read the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. And I was moved by Uncle Toms devotion to his people and his character in that Novel. And I wondered how and where at what point did the name of that character become offensive to POCs. And all I could find was TWO issues. Ignorance and the fact that Uncle Tom was of lighter skin. But nothing else. And I even did a search for more answers today and all I found was others who questioned the reason why Blacks and POCs considered the name Uncle Tom to be a insult after all this time we have had to research this issue and READ the actual book!

Turns out that the problem is the folklore that is more powerful than the facts within our own race. Because the Phrase "Uncle Tom" is STILL considered a offensive word used by other blacks and POCs against each other.

And then I reflect back to My family back in the "Country" and the words and the image of My Uncle TH when He told me of that meaning. And I think of the amount of pain and ignorance that My own people have put each other through to such a degree that we can't even understand the importance of that book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and it's influence on the WORLD at that time and the American people as well as blacks and POCs. THAT BOOK was one of the most POWERFUL Novels of it's time and was even noted as one of the influences that made the World view of this country's history and treatment of blacks and POCs in this country ring the alarm for protest of this country and even caused the call for Civil War. The Book it's self was outlawed in this country for a while and the image of Uncle Tom was manipulated to such a degree that even black folks and POCs who had the chance to LEARN the TRUTH about that folklore did nothing still to this day. And That Book is a very important part of our history too. And it shows that all the images of slavery during that time were not all ugly and we were not all useless and powerless even in slavery.

I remember a few college educated black folks use that word against Me in a discussion about our history that got heated over My impression of our history and their emotional instinct to find nothing good about our past. And even as I questioned had they READ the actual book Uncle Tom's Cabin and if they knew the history behind the book all they did was shut down and consider Me less than a honorable black Man in their yes.

I now relate that conflict with the same issues I have had with many of the so called educated blacks and POCs on this site and around the net who seem to have the same bigoted traits towards others who don't agree with their ignorance and emotional traits that are connected more to folklores they know very little about more than they care to find they may be Mis-educated.

I live in a city that was a focal point to the Underground Railroad and the first point of freedom for many in slavery. In a city built by both slaves and free blacks and POCs who are all on record for their contribution to this country's growth and history. Some of which is still unknown or ignored by many who claim to be educated to some degree. And many of them graduated from HBCU's without common knowledge of their own history enough to not consider our past as painful as they think and feel.

I remember being called a Uncle Tom by a black educated person for telling them that blacks fought on the side of the Confederacy and were Republicans in the south before the Civil war. And I was shocked at their ignorance as well as their consideration of being more educated enough to be right without having to do the research.

So when I read the title of this thread?

I think about how much and how little many people especially Americans know about their own history and the history of WHY race is such a big issue between so many people in this country.

And if you were to ask anyone who has a issue with racism "why" and how did it get to such a painful emotional instinct. The ONLY thing that can say is because that is what they were taught.

And then I wonder to Myself. What was My Uncle TH teaching all of them Colored Country people back int that day. And what effect did it have on the people today and how they deal with race and each other.

And why is race still such a issue to many people who never suffered the amount of racism that was penned as being racism in America.

And all I can come up with is ignorance is what ignorance does.

Here's one of the best post I have read on this subject...

http://evz-yoyo.blogspot.com/2009/08/irony-of-uncle-tom.html

The Irony of Uncle Tom.

Boy, Uncle Tom's Cabin has really gotten a bad rap.

Many Black folks cringe when the subject is brought up.
Not to say that Black folks are so literary, whether they hail from the Ivy league or the ghetto, that their taste for fiction has lead to a unanimity in distaste for the 19th century work.
Far from that. The main ingredient in their taste is the name of the book and it's connotation to kow-towing Blacks.

I can speak personally about that same feeling for it resided within me.
I've always been hesitant about the book.
As an analogy, it's as if I had never tasted honey and for the first time, I stood by a beehive in a net mask, as angry bees buzzed and attempted to sting and kill me, as a tender pulled honeycomb from deep within the bowls of the insects lair and then implored me to taste the golden sap of the bees vomitus.
Well, taste I have, and I love it.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book is much the same.
What on the surface may appear, sound like and feel racist, is but the most sweet delicacy of thought and exposition.

I never really understood the role of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the history of the United States.
It was always included in discussions of abolitionist movements, and as a seminal piece, but the impression formed within my mind was that this novel was blaxploitation, and that it's success was, rooted in the same vein as minstrel shows, stepin fetchit, hattie mcdaniel, bill bojangles robinson and a host of other negative depictions of Blacks.
Seeing drawings from the book, or posters, they were all in a manner of Black supplication to Whites.
Uncle Tom is often pictured with a young white girl, much the same as "Uncle Remus"
And there you have it. The old, aged, supplicating, Black slave, and the golden, beautiful flower of humanity, White girl.
There is much more to the relationship, but just as a picture tells a thousand words, the words of love and love of Christ were not words told in that picture.

The folks who have damned Uncle Tom, could have chosen another character to hold forth as a champion of the novel. They could have chosen Eliza's husband George.
Light skinned from several generations of plantation rape and sexual exploitation of Black women,
George was proud, held himself in a princely manner, was intelligent, industrious, proud and willing to fight to the death in order to achieve his freedom. A man who once he got his freedom, he relocated to France with his family and earned a College education. Then returned to America with his family before heading off to Liberia to take part in the great experiment of creating a free, new and world recognized nation and home to a new generation of Black power and self-sufficiency. This man was a production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's immense faculties, and he was a model for the future coming of Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Robert F. Williams, E.D. Nixon, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Huey Newton.

And yet in this, many Blacks could find fault. For his light skin would be seen as a commentary on his intelligence and worth, despite the fact that George himself states his own wish that he were "two shades darker, rather than another shade lighter". A man who was Black, suffered as a Black and was proud and loving of his Blackness. Yet in this character, Stowe did not use him to comment on in-race hierarchies. He was a man, complete and whole and an undeniable product of years of the parallel track of sexual bondage and sex trade of Black women that sat squarely and equally protected within the evils of Slavery itself. how many Blacks in the south, after 200 years of rape and sexual exploitation, did not have White blood? Was there not much debate about the "percentage" of blood that made one Black? 1/32nd Black was "Black" that's if you had a single Black great-great-great-great-grandfather... And bottom line, if your mother was "Black" it made no difference, you were a slave. Surely there were probably many children that were so white in appearance, that it would have been "unconscionable" to place them in the field among those that look obviously Black. but such occasions were rare. There are more than a handful of U.S. Presidents that have had offspring with Black mothers and it is alleged that 5 U.S. Presidents (not counting Barack Obama) were African Americans.

And so race, is the history of the United States.

I assumed that the books popularity and oblique role in abolitionism was in perhaps the anger and rage it caused within abolitionist.
I didn't understand it fully.

My curiosity has been in this way pricked and sedated over the years.
I was ok with the book, and it's legacy being so closely identified with the black struggles and sufferings during slavery.
None of us had any choice in it's history.

But reading Frederick Douglas' "My Bondage, My Freedom" he spoke in a neutral tone about Uncle Tom's Cabin." He may have praised it a bit. He did not shrink from it, nor feel offended by it. The subject matter was distasteful, but it seemed more from the subject matter itself, rather than the perspective or wounds inflicted by the piece.

And so, If Frederick Douglas, as intelligent, acute of mind, a former slave, and leader of the Black abolitionist movement, was fine with Uncle Tom's cabin, then what right have any present day Blacks to object? In fact, it would seem that the proper course would be to read the book.

And read it I did.

could a more beautiful book be written?
In the world there are in truth, two kinds of books.
Truth and Fiction.
In my experience the most powerful Truth has come from those who have survived incredible situations, such as memoirs from Treblinka, Sudan, slave narratives, shipwrecks, natural disasters, people against the odds who miraculously survived. In these stories, the only thing to be done, is to tell the tale. circumstance provides all the drama. The experience is the setting. The task, is to survive. These stories are the most powerful. Not the dramatized.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" captures the power of such truth and tells a story built upon innumerable stores of Truth, reinterpreted and woven together, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her intent, her history, her family, the time, the circumstance, the reception and it's importance all play but minor roles to the overwhelming beauty and skillfulness of the prose.

All of which adds up to the inescapable conclusion that to call someone an "Uncle Tom" is so completely backwards and misbegotten to the Truth of Uncle Tom.

Even the Title, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a reference to a line by George Shelby, a soon to be ex-slave owner, who frees his slaves, and allows them to work for wages, free from the capriciousness of death and re-sale. He tells them to look upon the cabin of Uncle Tom and let it forever be a memorial to the man, his beauty, his immense love and faith, as well as the preciousness of freedom.

All of this must be contrasted with the reality that today, to be called an Uncle Tom is to be called less than a man..
in reality, Uncle Tom was Christ-like.
He endured his fate like Christ.
refusing to do wrong. refusing to hate, refusing to betray trust and loyalty. shielding others, being selfless, and always in the bountiful grace of his lord and savior.

Uncle Tom is surely one of the most beautiful, moral and meek martyrs there ever was or could be.
He in fact gave his life and was beaten to death for not divulging the whereabouts of two female runaway slaves.
He even told his "Masser Legree" that he knew where they were, but the regardless of what happened, he could not, would not ever betray them. and for this he was beaten to death. and with his dying breath, he forgave his attackers and prayed to God for their salvation.

And now we call "Uncle Tom's" the guys who have the exact opposite of the qualities of the original.

And Harriet Beecher Stowe, hastened the end of slavery and struck one of the mightiest, if not the mightiest blow against the entire system of slavery. A staunch abolitionist, daughter of a preacher, sister of a preacher, from a family of abolitionist. she did everything she could to lay the thing bare.

This book was the second best selling book in the United State in the 19th Century, right behind the bible. You'd be hard pressed to find any book, by any author, written at any time that was more respectful, more praising of Blacks, more condemning of slavery than Uncle Tom's Cabin.

it is truly an irony, that as we've matured in the battle against discrimination, we have trampled this holy book underfoot, and declared it a racist artifact, despite it's power, it's beauty, it's intention and the vast work that it achieved in the struggle for freedom.

And if there could be any doubt in the minds of any as to the motivation, intent, truth, morality and ethics of the author, then they should forsake the reading of the book, and read chapter forty-five (45) the last chapter. There, plain and simple, is where the truth lay for all those who have any desire to know of it, and once having read it, there should be no need for speculation, interpretation, analysis, debate or deconstruction.

The real issue now is not who is at fault for the mis education of not just the negro but of the American people?

But HOW are we going to Re educate the American populace who now suffers from the ignorance of a mis quoted history of their own past?

respect

I'm kinda famous now I'm a cartoon in the Washington Post!

I bet you can find Me!

respect

The Matrix pays Black Female Author for theft of the concept and movie idea.

Author of the Matrix Sophia Stewart

I knew there was a deeper connection to the Matrix and it's story line than the "white washed" movie version we all know.

And here's the real scoop!

This little known story has met a just conclusion, as Sophia Stewart, African American author of The Matrix will finally receive her just due from the copyright infringement of her original work!!!

A six-year dispute has ended involving Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers. Stewart’s allegations, involving copyright infringement and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow presiding.

Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over 2.5 billion dollars.

Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, ‘The Third Eye,’ copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.

According to court documentation, an FBI investigation discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from the original film, in an attempt to avoid penalties for copyright infringement. The investigation also stated that ‘credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers.’ These witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart’s original work and that it had been ‘often used during preparation of the motion pictures.’ The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have Stewart’s case dismissed, without success.

Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart. Some who have researched her history and writings are open to her story.

Others are suspicious and mocking. ‘It doesn’t bother me,’ said Stewart in a phone interview last week, ‘I always knew what was true.’

Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media coverage. Though the case was not made public until October of 2003, Stewart has her own explanation, as quoted at aghettotymz.com:

‘The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time Warner…. this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media… let me give you a clue as to what they own in the media business… New York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, DreamWorks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow and many, many more! They are not going to report on themselves. They have been suppressing my case for years.’

Fans who have taken Stewart’s allegations seriously, have found eerie mythological parallels, which seem significant in a case that revolves around the highly metaphorical and symbolic Matrix series. Sophia, the Greek goddess of wisdom has been referenced many times in speculation about Stewart. In one book about the Goddess Sophia, it reads, ‘The black goddess is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix.’

Although there have been outside implications as to racial injustice (Stewart is African American), she does not feel that this is the case. ‘This is all about the Benjamins,’ said Stewart. ‘It’s not about money with me. It’s about justice.’

Stewart’s future plans involve a record label, entitled Popsilk Records, and a motion picture production company, All Eyez On Me, in reference to God. ‘I wrote The Third Eye to wake people up, to remind them why God put them here. There’s more to life than money,’ said Stewart. ‘My whole to the world is about God and good and about choice, about spirituality over ‘technocracy’.’
If Stewart represents spirituality, then she truly has prevailed over the ‘technocracy’ represented in both the Terminator and the Matrix, and now, ironically, by their supposed creators.

Stewart is currently having discussions with CBS about a possible exclusive story and has several media engagements in the near future to nationally publicize her victory. June 13th 2004. Sophia Stewart’s press release read: ‘The Matrix & Terminator movie franchises have made world history and have ultimately changed the way people view movies and how Hollywood does business, yet the real truth about the creator and creation of these films continue to elude the masses because the hidden secret of the matter is that these films were created and written by a Black woman…a Black woman named Sophia Stewart. But Hollywood does not want you to know this fact simply because it would change history. Also it would encourage our Black children to realize a dream and that is…nothing is impossible for them to achieve!’

Greg Thomas, Editor

Now does this change the image of the Matrix theory for you now?

And she is sexy too!

respect