Followers can receive the following media delivered free of charge, if claimed via e-mail within the next 30 days! Limit one per claimant.
Vietnam: America's Conflict (cd set)
Quilting the Black-eyed Pea (collected poems, N. Giovanni)
Aren't We the Lucky Ones (cd), B. Ullman, R. Harney)
Economics for Dummies
On Bullshit, H.G. Frankfurt
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, M. Taylor
The Stuggle for Black Equality, H. Sitkoff
Malcolm X: The Last Speeches (Etd, B. Perry)
Gone Fishin, W. Mosley
A Great And Mighty Walk, J. H. Clark (cd)
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Incarceration Culture
It’s unlike me to openly share thoughts about something as profoundly sad as the loss of a family member. However, the outpouring of concern expressed for our family as a result of Scott Godfrey’s homicide compels it. And when real explanations are so apparent, there is little need to wonder, why? So, while we wait for justice to ensue, I cannot help but to observe the looming despondency amid the youth of Pleasantville. Anytime you have significant numbers of young people more confident about their ability to navigate their way through family court than they are the graduation requirements of secondary school, you have despondency.
If we make the mistake of over sympathizing with the family of one shooting victim we was loose the moral force to make a difference in the events leading up to the next rash of violence. One day it looks like a shooting. The day prior it looks like a group assault on a student in the broad light of mid-day traffic. What will it look like tomorrow? So, I don’t want people to see Scott’s shooting as disconnected to the larger story. It is not.
This shooting is the result of an increasingly intractable disquiet over Pleasantville; one that has been long developing. Its factors are numerous and various: The struggle to improve academic achievement among students is well known. And the effect of lagging academic success leads to further economic disadvantages locally. Like a cycle, creeping poverty and unemployment rates among residents in the municipality contribute to waves of youth burglaries, assaults and robberies that blight the quality of life and summon more of the same. No, these incidents are certainly not peculiar to Pleasantville, but it seems like the city is accumulating its share more rapidly every year. And, I suspect, at a rate disproportional to the county census.
Still, examining statistics alone runs the risk of detaching people from the heart of the matter. My concern is that Pleasantville is fast becoming irrevocably victimized by a more insidious factor – an incarceration culture that competes as fiercely for the minds and loyalties of the cities’ young as do any of its learning centers, athletic clubs, or houses of worship. It is a culture that results from over exposure to the of criminal justice system. Where young people are not intimidated or ashamed by juvenile court appearances, and where release dates for young adults are regarded as ‘homecomings.’ When the stigma of being incarcerated wanes, and the coping habits of ex-offenders become common place habits among the young and not-so-young in a community, school officials find it nearly impossible to reverse its effects on education.
Needles to say, there is a role for school in the reclamation of the city’s youth. As long as children from families who worship on Sunday continue to fail academically and socially, and the children from families who worship on Friday exhibit a cavalier disregard for instruction, and when children from any background continue to exercise a reflexive defiance of those in authority, there remains a prominent place for clergy too – and anyone else who can turn around this ominous frame of mind.
The next time I am asked, how is your family doing? I may well give into my own impulse to respond honestly by saying… “Fine, Thanks. But how do you think Pleasantville is doing?”
If we make the mistake of over sympathizing with the family of one shooting victim we was loose the moral force to make a difference in the events leading up to the next rash of violence. One day it looks like a shooting. The day prior it looks like a group assault on a student in the broad light of mid-day traffic. What will it look like tomorrow? So, I don’t want people to see Scott’s shooting as disconnected to the larger story. It is not.
This shooting is the result of an increasingly intractable disquiet over Pleasantville; one that has been long developing. Its factors are numerous and various: The struggle to improve academic achievement among students is well known. And the effect of lagging academic success leads to further economic disadvantages locally. Like a cycle, creeping poverty and unemployment rates among residents in the municipality contribute to waves of youth burglaries, assaults and robberies that blight the quality of life and summon more of the same. No, these incidents are certainly not peculiar to Pleasantville, but it seems like the city is accumulating its share more rapidly every year. And, I suspect, at a rate disproportional to the county census.
Still, examining statistics alone runs the risk of detaching people from the heart of the matter. My concern is that Pleasantville is fast becoming irrevocably victimized by a more insidious factor – an incarceration culture that competes as fiercely for the minds and loyalties of the cities’ young as do any of its learning centers, athletic clubs, or houses of worship. It is a culture that results from over exposure to the of criminal justice system. Where young people are not intimidated or ashamed by juvenile court appearances, and where release dates for young adults are regarded as ‘homecomings.’ When the stigma of being incarcerated wanes, and the coping habits of ex-offenders become common place habits among the young and not-so-young in a community, school officials find it nearly impossible to reverse its effects on education.
Needles to say, there is a role for school in the reclamation of the city’s youth. As long as children from families who worship on Sunday continue to fail academically and socially, and the children from families who worship on Friday exhibit a cavalier disregard for instruction, and when children from any background continue to exercise a reflexive defiance of those in authority, there remains a prominent place for clergy too – and anyone else who can turn around this ominous frame of mind.
The next time I am asked, how is your family doing? I may well give into my own impulse to respond honestly by saying… “Fine, Thanks. But how do you think Pleasantville is doing?”
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Getting Somewhere with Black Youth Today
Several days ago, a teacher at my school thought it collegial to forward an article from the web that desperately emphasized the need to intervene upon the disappointing cycle of underachievement and desperation that afflicts too many African American males today. Notably, many groups and subgroups in our society are afflicted with some measure of lagging success or social malfunction. Being black – African American – I know that this cycle is interrupted all the time by scores of young men who excel despite all odds. However, even I must admit that real or merely perceived, black males have become the default image for despondency, and academic failure in our society.
I have always sought to assist in arresting the apathy and failure in my community since 1988 when I returned home from college and took my first “white collar” job with the Atlantic City Housing Authority. That was when I became absorbed in the all the usual statistics that support the generally (mis)perceived condition of black people. I remember when political scientists transitioned from using the phrase “economically disadvantaged” to “urban” to connote black communities – no matter the size and density of the cityscape. I remember when (government) money was made available to grant hustlers in our communities like me to save the “endangered species” that were supposed to be black males. And at the height of the “drug war” some brilliant bureaucrat - probably beguiling us same agency resource hustlers - in the name of saving our communities, came up with the notion to fund "mid-night basketball" leagues for our young men. And of course, many fell for it hook, line and jump shot. Why? Because it was another government hand out intended to placate us with money, and further retard our self-help instincts. That's why.
As a public school educator who takes his role seriously, I am compelled to respond when the issue of education – particularly the education of minority children – emerges. Here is how I responded to my colleague on the subject:
Subject: RE: America has lost a generation of black boys
Good post, Mr. [Colleague]. However, I have come to believe that a great number of our young boys are being ‘lost’ because we – some of us anyway – are spending disproportionate time on students who do (not yet) share our values. [Albeit for many reasons.] Meanwhile, scores of young men (and women) whom we can reach are not getting enough of our time and attention. Think for a moment about the dozen or so young men who, despite y(our) best efforts, never responded in any appreciable way to all y(our) tolerance and intervention. Then think of the many that went “under the radar” because their antics were not as dramatic; yet those students still needed direct guidance about the ways of becoming a man. They needed additional assistance – from men -- with algebra or science; needed help with communication skills; needed us to buy them a hair cut, dress shirt or tie; needed us to coach them for a job interview… And would have been far more receptive than the others.
Too many of us adults have a “messiah complex.” We want to bring forth Lazarus! We want to change the most wayward [students]. We want to show and prove how effective we can be on a given child. There are scores of young boys with the potential to really make their families and communities proud, but who, instead, are going to stumble or lurch into adulthood – notice I did not say manhood – unsure of themselves because we spent a disproportionate amount of time with incorrigible boys who tune us out before we start talking. As for the students with possibilities: At best these potential head of households will stay out of jail, and become harmless but docile members of their community. They will become dependent on their women folk for direction in life. They will have tenuous insufficient employment. While those in whom we have traditionally overinvested will likely test the ‘gangsta’ life anyway. When I started teaching in 1996-97, it was common among my peers to say, “If I can reach just one”… I never said that! I never liked those odds. To me, that was low aim. And an inadequate result for my time invested.
Finally, I think the article itself, while well intended, focuses on these same misguided themes. As a result, it is not a prescription for our boys; just another plaintive moan. One additional point – and being a church-going man I am sure you can appreciate this – Almost every story in the Bible about leading the multitudes teaches us that never has there been a time when all 'God’s Children' were saved at once -- no matter how prophetic the messenger! Lesson: It is those who willfully follow, who build a nation.
With All Respect Due,
Darren Palmer.
I have always sought to assist in arresting the apathy and failure in my community since 1988 when I returned home from college and took my first “white collar” job with the Atlantic City Housing Authority. That was when I became absorbed in the all the usual statistics that support the generally (mis)perceived condition of black people. I remember when political scientists transitioned from using the phrase “economically disadvantaged” to “urban” to connote black communities – no matter the size and density of the cityscape. I remember when (government) money was made available to grant hustlers in our communities like me to save the “endangered species” that were supposed to be black males. And at the height of the “drug war” some brilliant bureaucrat - probably beguiling us same agency resource hustlers - in the name of saving our communities, came up with the notion to fund "mid-night basketball" leagues for our young men. And of course, many fell for it hook, line and jump shot. Why? Because it was another government hand out intended to placate us with money, and further retard our self-help instincts. That's why.
As a public school educator who takes his role seriously, I am compelled to respond when the issue of education – particularly the education of minority children – emerges. Here is how I responded to my colleague on the subject:
Subject: RE: America has lost a generation of black boys
Good post, Mr. [Colleague]. However, I have come to believe that a great number of our young boys are being ‘lost’ because we – some of us anyway – are spending disproportionate time on students who do (not yet) share our values. [Albeit for many reasons.] Meanwhile, scores of young men (and women) whom we can reach are not getting enough of our time and attention. Think for a moment about the dozen or so young men who, despite y(our) best efforts, never responded in any appreciable way to all y(our) tolerance and intervention. Then think of the many that went “under the radar” because their antics were not as dramatic; yet those students still needed direct guidance about the ways of becoming a man. They needed additional assistance – from men -- with algebra or science; needed help with communication skills; needed us to buy them a hair cut, dress shirt or tie; needed us to coach them for a job interview… And would have been far more receptive than the others.
Too many of us adults have a “messiah complex.” We want to bring forth Lazarus! We want to change the most wayward [students]. We want to show and prove how effective we can be on a given child. There are scores of young boys with the potential to really make their families and communities proud, but who, instead, are going to stumble or lurch into adulthood – notice I did not say manhood – unsure of themselves because we spent a disproportionate amount of time with incorrigible boys who tune us out before we start talking. As for the students with possibilities: At best these potential head of households will stay out of jail, and become harmless but docile members of their community. They will become dependent on their women folk for direction in life. They will have tenuous insufficient employment. While those in whom we have traditionally overinvested will likely test the ‘gangsta’ life anyway. When I started teaching in 1996-97, it was common among my peers to say, “If I can reach just one”… I never said that! I never liked those odds. To me, that was low aim. And an inadequate result for my time invested.
Finally, I think the article itself, while well intended, focuses on these same misguided themes. As a result, it is not a prescription for our boys; just another plaintive moan. One additional point – and being a church-going man I am sure you can appreciate this – Almost every story in the Bible about leading the multitudes teaches us that never has there been a time when all 'God’s Children' were saved at once -- no matter how prophetic the messenger! Lesson: It is those who willfully follow, who build a nation.
With All Respect Due,
Darren Palmer.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Haiti
Anyone interested in learning why Haiti is so vulnerable to poverty and exploitation should read Randall Robinson's, Unbroken Agony. If you did not know already, you will learn why western governments owe a huge debt to Haiti, and why they should help stabilize the country's government, economy and infrastructure without delay or grudge.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Book Review
Michael Muhammad Knight chronicles his expansive tour of Muslim shrines, from North American to the Middle East, in his impressive anthropological book, Journey to the End of Islam. Knight writes as irreverently as he does intelligently when he muses about his experiences with people and places that span the scope and depth of Islamic culture. From urban Muslim griots to Sufi prophets to the most clinging Wahabists, Knight shows himself adept with the numerous schools of Islamic thought. And he, more than anyone I have read or heard lately, asks some of the most important and provocative questions about the faith. I recommend Journey for thoughtful, truth-seeking Muslims, and for anyone who wants to survey the vast diversity comprising the global Muslim community.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
School anti-bullying policies too weak, report says - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News
School anti-bullying policies too weak, report says - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News
Posted using ShareThis
Great sentiment!... but you cannot legislate kindness. Every teacher will tell you how they actively discourage taunting and bullying whenever it rears its head. Every administrator worth their salt will make it clear that bullying and harassment is against the rules for student conduct, and they will make deliberate efforts to arrest it. However, as children lurch into maturity, they will insist on having their own standards for interacting with each other; and adults cannot manage peer interactions all day. As a middle school administrator and parent of "tweens" I can verify that students have a host of socio-political identity groups where they retreat for affirmation. Not all of them are equal. Some groups are structured around what is most popular. Others -- thank heaven -- are based around academic achievement, while still others are misfit groups who sometime draw scorn from the majority of their peers. Nevertheless, not every cold stare, rebuff or round of name calling spells doom for an adolescence's self-worth. Kids seem to survive it all... They all ways have.
Instead, using character education and present school law, adminstrators must continue to set the proper tone in schools, encourage staff to be vigilant about blatant taunting and bullying, and judiciously assign consequences for the more serious infractions of intimidation, harassment and fighting. I beg your pardon, but this [initiative] sounds like more appeasement. And I smell grant money, staff hires and more monitoring of local public schools at the root of it.
Posted using ShareThis
Great sentiment!... but you cannot legislate kindness. Every teacher will tell you how they actively discourage taunting and bullying whenever it rears its head. Every administrator worth their salt will make it clear that bullying and harassment is against the rules for student conduct, and they will make deliberate efforts to arrest it. However, as children lurch into maturity, they will insist on having their own standards for interacting with each other; and adults cannot manage peer interactions all day. As a middle school administrator and parent of "tweens" I can verify that students have a host of socio-political identity groups where they retreat for affirmation. Not all of them are equal. Some groups are structured around what is most popular. Others -- thank heaven -- are based around academic achievement, while still others are misfit groups who sometime draw scorn from the majority of their peers. Nevertheless, not every cold stare, rebuff or round of name calling spells doom for an adolescence's self-worth. Kids seem to survive it all... They all ways have.
Instead, using character education and present school law, adminstrators must continue to set the proper tone in schools, encourage staff to be vigilant about blatant taunting and bullying, and judiciously assign consequences for the more serious infractions of intimidation, harassment and fighting. I beg your pardon, but this [initiative] sounds like more appeasement. And I smell grant money, staff hires and more monitoring of local public schools at the root of it.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Health Care Muse
Just thinking on health care reform...
I believe it is going to result the same way that compulsory education has. The public option may very well result with the poorest people on those rosters. Whereas the relatively affluent will elect to pay for premium insurance plans with better features, just as more affluent people now spend money to send their children to better schools. Some people will work harder or save more, so that their families are not relegated to neighborhood clinics where people might experience substandard care from less than professional providers. The market will continue to reward private insurance companies who pay for the the best service providers and give superior customer service.
People will continue making decisions about where to live based on the quality of schools, but also on the quality of the public health infrastructure. Ten years after universal health care is in place, this disparity will become evident. Nevertheless, reforming the reform will prove difficult because public health care employees will have unionized, as public school teacher did, and the electorate will have become use to another tax on their incomes or property.
I believe it is going to result the same way that compulsory education has. The public option may very well result with the poorest people on those rosters. Whereas the relatively affluent will elect to pay for premium insurance plans with better features, just as more affluent people now spend money to send their children to better schools. Some people will work harder or save more, so that their families are not relegated to neighborhood clinics where people might experience substandard care from less than professional providers. The market will continue to reward private insurance companies who pay for the the best service providers and give superior customer service.
People will continue making decisions about where to live based on the quality of schools, but also on the quality of the public health infrastructure. Ten years after universal health care is in place, this disparity will become evident. Nevertheless, reforming the reform will prove difficult because public health care employees will have unionized, as public school teacher did, and the electorate will have become use to another tax on their incomes or property.
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