There has been much discussion on this topic among Green Party Black Caucus  members during the annual meeting of the Green Party here in Durham. Some of us have acknowledged our bias towards Henry Louis (Skip) Gates. The  story told below provides some important information about Cambridge and the  Gates incident. Some of us thought it was Gates who called Harvard to further  confirm his status. Never the less, Gates expected special treatment from the  police because he is a professor at Harvard. Gates lives in the Harvard Square  area and not in the field area of the plantation known as Cambridge. Gates is  your consummate House Negro . Cambridge is not unlike many areas where ivy league schools control the   town. Providence (Brown) and Durham (Duke) are two other places I know a little  about. Brown, Duke and Harvard are the main source of employment in their towns.  The schools are often referred to as plantations by conscious Afrodescendents  who live and work in the towns. All of the schools pride themselves on liberal  attitudes towards race. However, every school has issues with labor rights for  service employees. The lowest paid employees at Brown, Duke and Harvard fought  for years to get union representation. They still fight every day for basic  rights on the job and living wages. There is a house versus field employment  situation at all three institutions. Obama is in the spotlight to play out his role as number one House   Negro . Once again, Obama is reminded that he strayed too far from his comfort   area of the plantation. His liberal supporters are not comfortable with him   supporting any outrage or resistance to the usual treatment of Afrodescendents.  Even if it happens to another House Negro . The pressure should now be on Gates and all public intellectuals to say   more and do more in support of us working the field. Will they speak out in   support of us who can't retreat to Martha's Vineyard or some other affluent zip  code when we're under fire by overseers in this police state plantation known as  the USA? For now, Gates is all about Gates. Trying to get up with his colleague in   the White House, Gates looks for unity among the House Negro class to help him  out of his moment of straying too far off the plantation. The sum up of the discussion among members of the Green Party Black  Caucus in Durham, Gates, you're on your own. Will Gates and other public intellectuals engage in some introspection   while one of their own is in the White House? Time will tell........ Theresa El-Amin Durham NC

Hi Sister Theresa,   I hope you are well.   I read you post and thought that it was politically and ideologically misguided. While there are class contradiction, the reality we have witness with both Skip and Obama is that white supremacy sees them both as Black people regardless of there class privilege. Further, it is all of our responsibility to oppose racist attacks. Everyday working black folks and our young people get stop and humiliated by police overseers. It is time that we put the rhetoric of building a united front in practice. We need to concentrate on building power to raise our demands and not surrender it to the likes of Gates and Obama. While some of us have small _base_s, this is not enough to have personal and small organizational networks. We need to build a mass movement rooted in various classes to struggle around the principle contradictions that we all get smacked upside the head by - otherwise we will only isolate ourselves further by writing our own press releases.   Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the issue and I hope you will consider mines.   Revolutionary Love and struggle.   Brother Tony Menelik Van Der Meer   I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.. April 4th, 1967 A Time To Break The Silence Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

From: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Subject: [BlackLeftUnity:2043] Gates To: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Cc: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Date: Sunday, July 26, 2009, 8:14 AM There has been much discussion on this topic among Green Party Black Caucus members during the annual meeting of the Green Party here in Durham. Some of us have acknowledged our bias towards Henry Louis (Skip) Gates. The story told below provides some important information about Cambridge and the Gates incident. Some of us thought it was Gates who called Harvard to further confirm his status. Never the less, Gates expected special treatment from the police because he is a professor at Harvard. Gates lives in the Harvard Square area and not in the field area of the plantation known as Cambridge. Gates is your consummate House Negro . Cambridge is not unlike many areas where ivy league schools control the town. Providence (Brown) and Durham (Duke) are two other places I know a little about. Brown, Duke and Harvard are the main source of employment in their towns. The schools are often referred to as plantations by conscious Afrodescendents who live and work in the towns. All of the schools pride themselves on liberal attitudes towards race. However, every school has issues with labor rights for service employees. The lowest paid employees at Brown, Duke and Harvard fought for years to get union representation. They still fight every day for basic rights on the job and living wages. There is a house versus field employment situation at all three institutions. Obama is in the spotlight to play out his role as number one House Negro . Once again, Obama is reminded that he strayed too far from his comfort area of the plantation. His liberal supporters are not comfortable with him supporting any outrage or resistance to the usual treatment of Afrodescendents. Even if it happens to another House Negro . The pressure should now be on Gates and all public intellectuals to say more and do more in support of us working the field. Will they speak out in support of us who can't retreat to Martha's Vineyard or some other affluent zip code when we're under fire by overseers in this police state plantation known as the USA? For now, Gates is all about Gates. Trying to get up with his colleague in the White House, Gates looks for unity among the House Negro class to help him out of his moment of straying too far off the plantation. The sum up of the discussion among members of the Green Party Black Caucus in Durham, Gates, you're on your own. Will Gates and other public intellectuals engage in some introspection while one of their own is in the White House? Time will tell........ Theresa El-Amin Durham NC

Peace Brothers and Sisters: I too agree that we must see this as an opportunity not particularly on a   national level but specifically, in the hoods and villages from which many of us  live and engage struggle daily.  For example, this has assisted us in   furthering our pressure to bring the US DOJ into Philadelphia PA (not   Mississippi) due to the overwhelming numbers of black men killed at the hands of  Philly cops.  They kill and beat with full immunity, the DA who is a known  racist woman Lynne Abraham nor the slap happy slave Charlie Ramsey, the black  police commissioner will do everything to concert their energies to   keep cops from being arrested and forget about prosecuted.  We had to take   this fight for justice beyond PA, the governor is from Philly. So, yes, although ideologically and philosophically I differ with Gates and  his type, however, we must seize the time when the opportunity to educate the  broader mass, especially Black and Brown people about the continued inequalities  that are still very evident in America, despite having a Black president.   The ruling class hates this...that's why we must the issue front and  center. Keep the door of your mind open, so that new thoughts can permeate,  even if it is just for healthy debate. More power! Sista' Paula (Aya) **************A bad credit score is 600 & below. Checking won't affect your score. See now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221323048x1201367271/aol?red... D=62&bcd=JulyBadfooterNO62)

Racial Profiling The Truth About Racial Profiling: Seven Facts Amnesty International USA  (AIUSA) defines racial profiling as the targeting of individuals and groups by  law enforcement officials, even partially, on the basis of race, ethnicity,  national origin, or religion, except when there is trustworthy information,  relevant to the locality and time_frame_, that _link_s persons belonging to one of  the aforementioned groups to an identified criminal incident or scheme. As  documented in the AIUSA report _Threat and Humiliation_ (http://www.amnestyusa.org/racial_profiling/report/rp_report.pdf) : Racial Profiling,  National Security, and Human Rights in the United States, the U.S.  continues to use race, color, ethnicity, national origin and religion as a proxy  for criminal suspicion, in violation of international treaties to which it is  party. The clear alternative is for law enforcement to focus on actual criminal  behavior rather than characteristics such as race, religion, ethnicity, or  nationality.       1.  A staggering number of people in the United States are subjected to racial  profiling. Approximately 32 million people, a number approximately equivalent  to the population of Canada, report they have already been victims of racial  profiling. Victims of racial profiling include Native Americans, Asian  Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Arab Americans, Iranian  Americans, American Muslims, many immigrants and visitors, and under certain  circumstances, white Americans. Cathy Harris exposed practices of racial  profiling at the US Customs Service     1.  Racial profiling can sometimes have devastating and deadly consequences.  Victims of racial profiling are sometimes further victimized by acts of police  violence and brutality. This is illustrated by numerous reports AIUSA  received, including the case of Santiago described in the report Threat and  Humiliation. Santiago, an epileptic black man who wore dreadlocks, was killed  because police automatically assumed that a black man seizing on the floor  must be on drugs. Officers reportedly threw him on the ground, placed a knee  on his back and caused him to stop breathing. He was given oxygen, gained  consciousness for a short while, was handcuffed and taken to the hospital  where he died.       2.  Racial profiling undermines law enforcement efforts. Racial profiling has  reportedly undermined important terrorist investigations in the U.S.,  including the Oklahoma City bombing in which the white male assailant, Timothy  McVeigh, was able to flee while officers reportedly operated on the theory  that Arab terrorists had committed the act. Similarly, during the   Washington, DC-area sniper investigation, the African-American man and boy who  were ultimately convicted for the crimes were able to pass through multiple  road blocks with the alleged murder weapon in their possession, in part  because police profilers theorized the crime had been committed by a white  male assailant.       3.  Racial profiling is a proven failure in the 'War on Drugs.' Statistics  show that using racial profiling to interdict highway-bound drug couriers is  not just wrong, but ineffective. A survey by the Department of Justice in 1999  reveled that while officers disproportionately focused on African American and  Latino drivers, they found drugs more often when they searched whites (17%)  than when they searched African Americans (8%). A similar survey in New Jersey  found that although people of color were searched more frequently, state  troopers found drugs in vehicles driven by whites 25% of the time, by African  Americans 13%, and by Latinos 5%. According to a study of the US Customs  Service's practice by Lamberth Consulting, when Customs agents stopped using  racial profiling to target potential smugglers and began focusing on  race-neutral factors such as behavior, they increased the rate of productive  searches by more than 300%.       4.  Racial profiling has not worked in the 'War on Terror.' Racial profiling  gives terror networks a formula for greater success by tipping them off about  who needs to be recruited in order to be more successful. This is illustrated  by the experience in World War II when–despite the massive internments of  Japanese Americans and visitors–none of the people convicted of spying for  Japan were of Japanese or Asian ancestry. Moreover, the arrests of John Walker  Lindh (a white, middle-class male) and Richard Reid (a British citizen of West  Indian ancestry) confirm that effective law enforcement techniques must rely  solely on behavior and not race or nationality in order to ensure security.       5.  Racial profiling is a human rights violation. Racial profiling violates  international standards against non-discrimination and multiple treaties to  which the U.S. is party, including the UN Convention for the Elimination of  All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the International Convention on  Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).       6.  The administration has not kept its promise to end racial profiling. Both  President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft are on record opposing  racial profiling. Just after the September 11th attacks, the Attorney General  repeated his promise. However, since then, the administration has allowed  important anti-racial profiling legislation to languish, and has yet to act on  the recently introduced End Racial Profiling Act of 2004. At the same time,  the administration has expanded the use of racial profiling in immigration and  law enforcement policies. Furthermore, the 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of  Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies contains several flaws, including a   national security exception for the use of race, a lack of enforcement  mechanisms, and no mandate for data collection on law enforcement practices   **************A bad credit score is 600 & below. Checking won't affect your score. See now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221323048x1201367271/aol?red... D=62&bcd=JulyBadfooterNO62)

Sister Paula this is good information.   Brother Ajamu Baraka,   _base_ on point # 6, can CERD in conjunction with other organizations call for a broad national forum (Peoples Assembly) on Racism, Genocide and Reparations? This should include all of the groups who have been coming together to address some of these issues as well as reaching out to new groups. Racial profiling is a human rights violation. Racial profiling violates international standards against non-discrimination and multiple treaties to which the U.S. is party, including the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).   Brother Tony Menelik Van Der Meer   I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.. April 4th, 1967 A Time To Break The Silence Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.