Question: What is the reverse of ACTING WHITE?
Acting White: NPR News & Notes
Yes, I said it. Mr. "Harvard Educated" Acting White blogger - James C. Collier not only has a blog called Acting White, he truly Acts White. Mr. James Collier recently wrote a post on his blog. So in keeping with his opinion that I am just a blog re-poster, I have taken the liberty of re-posting his recent post, and his scathing comments about me. My responses to this "La Shawn Barber, wannabe" are post are in red italic. this guy is truly trying to make a name for himself as the new conservative blogger. Now trying to peddle black women into the arms of white men. this guy is stuck in the unrealistic fantasy dreams of some of our greatest American dreamers like MLK. Here is some of what this guy had to say in his recent post:The wonderful people at National Public Radio (NPR) saw fit to invite me onto one of their dailies, News & Notes, for a blogger round table discussion on black topics in the news. The host, Farai Chideya, a fellow Harvard alum, does a great job of ‘herding cats’ around issues of interest. Here is a link to the program, if edutainment is what you seek – and it was indeed quite ‘spicey’ as the producer Devin Robins describes it.
AAPP: We agree, they are wonderful people at National Public Radio (NPR). The host, Farai Chideya, does a great job! I guess the fellow "Harvard" alum comment was, important to say for the Acting White Blogger. You see Mr. Collier seems to believe readers of his blog need to know that he graduated from "HARVARD" university. You see what he is saying is, white folk I'm one of those good Ivy League coloreds. "I'm one you."
My goal was to not make a big fool of myself or my blog, and I am happy to say I almost achieved it.
AAPP: You got to be kidding me. A black man who tells black woman to go out and find yourself a white guy. You made a fool of yourself Mr. Acting White.
Really, I was OK except for a brief moment when my hearing-aid seemed to quit working, and I don’t even own one. We were having sound disruptions in the Cal Berkeley studio, but I cannot say this is the cause of my lapse.
AAPP: Mr. Acting White, When you think and try your best to act white your brain lapses. Stop being surprised brotha, it is what it is.
The question lobbed to me was about class conflict between black women and men, relative to marriage, and I think the danger of it threw a circuit-breaker in my head(phones). The answer that failed to come out was that professional black women who marry blue-collar black men should be prepared to live with the clinking of mimosa glasses and beer bottles. For some this trade-off is fine, for others it will be too much.
APPP: Mr. Acting White, The white guys that you want Black Sista's to hook up with are big beer drinkers. And sista's better get ready for those white guy's to call her a Ni#*!@ and his family and friends too. Oh, that's right you probably want our sisters to marry HARVARD white guys.
The other bloggers on the program included La Shawn Barber, a very sharp, no nonsense woman who does not mince words or conclusions when it comes to what ails black folks. Some of my detractors have lumped me in with her and I now consider this a compliment. The third blogger was LN Rock, of African-American Political Pundit, a re-poster of black blogs who has a penchant for pouring gasoline on himself and lighting a match, as he did today.
AAPP: I agree La Shawn Barber, a very sharp, no nonsense woman who does not mince words or conclusions when it comes to what ails black folks. The problem is most times her neo conservative observations and conclusions are based are based on the same premise of your observations - Stupidity, ignorance and hatred for ones own people.
LN distinguished himself in two ways, first by declaring that post-Katrina New Orleans would eventually be 100% black-free, as the result of conspiring whites. Farai’s amazement could not be contained.
AAPP: OK, 100% exclusion of black folks from New Orleans cannot be realized by the U.S. government, but they sure can give it a hell of a try. Who would have thought that hundreds of thousands of black folks would be dislocated from New Orleans even today. Who would have thought our people by the thousands would be moved off their land and placed in toxic trailers?
While we spend billions of dollars every month to rebuild Iraq. Farai’s amazement could not be contained? My Amazement cannot be contained that you don't get it. But then again, you have to many more important things to do to research what is going on in New Orleans with black folks. But hey, You have you "Acting White" Blog to work on.
He followed this with the accusation that black women who marry non-whites are traitors and that I must be married to a white woman because I support black women marrying whoever they want, including white men.
AAPP: The great thing about Blogging and America is everyone has a right to their opinion, including you. And guess what ME too. I do believe that black women who marry non-whites are traitors. Black women should be committed to the advancement of our people.
For me, I like my coffee black. the darker the berry the sweeter the juice, and we should always remember Black Don't Crack. oops, you don't know any of those words... your too busy trying to get black woman to marry others, while you got yours. No
At the risk that he will no longer pilfer my blog, I will say he has a set of knuckles growing out of his forehead.
AAPP: Acting White, You can do better than that. A HARVARD educated man like you who loves to Act White. Come on dude, At the risk that I will no longer pilfer your blog? I'm not sure if you remember recent history, but you asked to cross post on my other blog African American Opinion. And yes, it is a blog with post from other Black Bloggers, fully linked and credited. Now all of a sudden, Mr. HARVARD educated, says I pilfer your blog? Don't do that to yourself, you have not reached that level of Acting White Greatness.
I will say he has a set of knuckles growing out of his forehead.
That Hurt! Ouch, How White of you!
Nevertheless, I thought the show was a great chance for a live ‘dust-up’ of the issues of the day. The N&N team seem like a hustling bunch, with good instincts for what matters to people. I look forward to more opportunities like this, knowing that there is always the risk of the late hit out-of-bounds, by bloggers who shall not be named.
Ditto
James C. Collier
Acting White: NPR News & Notes
AAPP: I guess Mr. HARVARD Acting White needs to read more than the Harvard Press.A 20-Point Plan To Destroy Black New Orleans
By Robert D. Bullard, Feb 01, 2006 San Francisco Bayview
As reconstruction and rebuilding move forward in New Orleans and the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast region, it is clear that the lethargic and inept emergency response after Hurricane Katrina was a disaster that overshadowed the deadly storm itself. Yet, there is a "second disaster" in the making - driven by racism, classism, elitism, paternalism and old-fashioned greed.
The following "Twenty-Point Plan to Destroy Black New Orleans" is based on trends and observations made over the past three months. Hopefully, the good people of New Orleans, Louisiana, the Gulf Coast and the United States will not allow this plan to go forward - and instead adopt a principled plan and approach to rebuilding and bringing back New Orleans that is respectful of all of its citizens.
1. Selectively hand out FEMA grants. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is being consistent in the slow response in getting aid to Katrina survivors. FEMA's grant assistance program favors middle-income households. Make it difficult for low-income and Black Katrina survivors to access government assistance. Direct the bulk of the grant assistance to middle-income white storm victims. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and several other legal groups have sued FEMA over its response and handling of aid to storm victims. FEMA has referred more than 2 million people, many of them with low incomes, to the Small Business Administration to get the loans.
2. Systematically deny the poor and Blacks SBA loans. Screen out poor and deny Black households disaster loans. The New York Times editorial summed up this problem: "The Poor Need Not Apply." The Small Business Administration has processed only a third of the 276,000 home loan applications it has received. However, the SBA has rejected 82 percent of the applications it received, a higher percentage than in most previous disasters. Well-off neighborhoods like Lakeview have received 47 percent of the loan approvals, while poverty-stricken neighborhoods have gotten 7 percent. Middle-class Black neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city have lower loan rates.
3. Award insurance claims using the "wind or water" trap. Because of the enormity of the damage in the wake of Katrina, insurance companies will categorize a lot of legitimate wind claims as flood- or water-related. The "wind or water" problem will hit Black storm victims hardest because they are likely to have their insurance with small companies - since the major firms "redlined" many Black neighborhoods. Most rebuilding funds after disasters come from private insurance - not the government.
4. Redline Black insurance policyholders. Numerous studies show that African Americans are more likely than whites to receive insufficient insurance settlement amounts. Insurance firms target Black policyholders for low and inadequate insurance settlements based on majority Black zip codes to subsidize fair settlements made to white policyholders. If Black homeowners and business owners expect to recover from Katrina, then they must receive full and just insurance settlements. FEMA and the SBA cannot be counted on to rebuild Black communities.
5. Use "green building" and flood-proofing codes to restrict redevelopment. Requiring rebuilding plans to conform to "green building" materials and new flood-proofing codes can price many low- and moderate-income homeowners and small business owners out of the market. This will hit Black homeowners and Black business owners especially hard since they generally have lower incomes and lower wealth.
6. Apply discriminatory environmental clean-up standards. Failure to apply uniform clean-up standards can kill off Black neighborhoods. Use of full-scale cleanup of white neighborhoods to residential standards, while allowing no cleanup or partial cleanup - industrial standards - of Black residential neighborhoods. Failure to clean up Black residential areas can act as a disincentive for redevelopment. It could also make people sick. Use the argument that Black neighborhoods were already highly polluted with background contamination, or "hot spots," exceeding EPA safe levels pre-Katrina and thus need not be cleaned to more rigorous residential standards.
7. Sacrifice "low-lying" Black neighborhoods in the name of saving the wetlands and environmental restoration. Allow Black neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East to be "yielded back to the swamp" while allowing similar low-lying white areas to be rebuilt and redeveloped. This is a form of "ethnic cleansing" that was not possible before Katrina. Instead of emphasizing equitable rebuilding, uniform clean-up standards, equal protection and environmental justice for African American communities, public officials should send mixed signals for rebuilding vulnerable "low-lying" Black neighborhoods.
8. Promote a smaller, more upscale and "whiter" New Orleans. Concentrating on getting less-damaged neighborhoods up and running could translate into a smaller, more upscale and whiter New Orleans and a dramatically down-sized Black community. Clearly, shrinking New Orleans neighborhoods disproportionately shrinks Black votes, Black political power and Black wealth.
9. Revise land use and zoning ordinances to exclude. Katrina can be used to change land use and zoning codes to "zone against" undesirable land uses that were not politically possible before the storm. Also, "expulsive" zoning can be used to push out certain land uses and certain people.
10. Phased rebuilding and restoration scheme that concentrates on the "high ground." New Orleans officials are being advised to concentrate rebuilding on the areas that remained high and dry after Katrina. These areas are disproportionately white and affluent. This scenario builds on pre-existing inequities and "white privilege" and ensures future inequities and "white privilege." By the time rebuilding gets around to Black "low-lying" areas, there are not likely to be any rebuilding funds left. This is the "oops, we are out of funds" scenario.
11. Apply eminent domain as a Black land grab. Give Katrina evacuees one year to return before the city is allowed to legally "take" their property through eminent domain. Clearly, it will take much longer than a year for most New Orleanians to return home. This proposal could turn into a giant land grab of Black property and loss of Black wealth they have invested in their homes and businesses.
12. No financial assistance for evacuees to return. Thousands of Katrina evacuees were shipped to more than three dozen states with no provisions for return - equivalent to a "one-way" ticket. Many Katrina evacuees are running short of funds. No money translates into no return to their homes and neighborhoods. Promote the "right to return" without committing adequate resources to assist evacuees to return.
13. Keep evacuees away from New Orleans jobs. The nation's unemployment rate was 5 percent in November 2005. The November 2005 jobless rate for Katrina returnees was 12.5 percent, while 27.8 percent of evacuees living elsewhere were unemployed. However, the Black jobless rate was 47 percent in November compared with 13 percent for whites who have not gone back.
Katrina evacuees who have made it back to their home region have much lower levels of joblessness. This is especially important for African Americans whose joblessness rate fell over 30 percentage points for returnees. The problem is that the vast majority of Black Katrina evacuees have not returned to their home region. Only 21 percent of Black evacuees have returned compared with 48 percent of whites.
14. Fail to enforce fair housing laws. Allow housing discrimination against Blacks to run rampant. Katrina created a housing shortage and opened a floodgate of discrimination against Black homeowners and renters. In December 2005, the National Fair Housing Alliance found high rates of housing discrimination against African-Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In 66 percent of the tests conducted by the NFHA, 43 of 65 instances, whites were favored over African Americans.
15. No commitment to rebuild and replace low- income public housing. Shortly after Katrina struck, even the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spoke of not rebuilding all of the public housing lost during the storm. The HUD secretary's statement is a powerful signal to New Orleans' poor that public housing may not be around for them to return to.
16. Downplay the Black cultural heritage of New Orleans. Promote rebuilding and the vision of a "new" New Orleans as if the rich Black culture did not matter or act as if it can be replaced or replicated in a "theme park" type redevelopment scenario. Developers should capture and market the "Black essence" of New Orleans without including Black people.
17. Treatment of mixed-income housing as superior to all-Black neighborhoods. First, there is nothing inherently inferior about an "all- Black" neighborhood - or an all-Black anything for that matter. Black New Orleanians who chose to live in neighborhoods that happened to be all-Black - whites have always had the right to move in or move out of these neighborhoods - should not be forced to have their neighborhoods rebuilt as "integrated" or "multicultural" neighborhoods. Also, "mixed-income" housing, to many Blacks, conjures up the idea of 10 percent of the fair market housing units set aside for them. Many Blacks are battle-weary of competing for that 10 percent. New Orleans was 68 percent Black before Katrina - and most Black folks were comfortable with that.
18. Allow "oversight" (overseer) board to manage Katrina funds that flow to New Orleans. Take away "home rule," since the billions of Katrina redevelopment dollars that will flow to New Orleans is too much money for a majority Black city council and a Black mayor to oversee or manage. More important, the oversight board will need to represent "big- money" interests - real estate, developers, banking, insurance, hotels, law firms, tourist industry etc. - well beyond the purview of a democratically elected city government to ensure that the vision of the "new" New Orleans, "smaller and more upscale," gets implemented.
19. Delay rebuilding and construction of New Orleans schools. The longer the New Orleans schools stay closed, the longer the families with children will stay away. Schools are a major predictor of racial polarization. Before Katrina, over 125,000 New Orleans children were attending schools in the city. Blacks made up 93 percent of New Orleans schools. Evacuated children are enrolled in school districts from Arizona to Pennsylvania. Three months after the storm, only one of the New Orleans' 116 schools was open.
20. Hold elections without appropriate Voting Rights Act safeguards. Almost 300,000 registered voters left New Orleans after Katrina. The powerful storm damaged or destroyed 300 of the 442 polling places. Holding city elections pose major challenges regarding registration, absentee ballots, city workers, polling places and identification for displaced New Orleanians. Identification is required at the polls, and returning residents may not have access to traditional identification papers - birth certificates, drivers' licenses etc. - destroyed by the hurricane. More than three months after Katrina struck, 80 percent of New Orleans voters have not made their way back to the city, including most African Americans, who comprised a two-thirds majority of the population before the storm.
Most of the estimated 60,000 to 100,000 New Orleans residents who have made it back are white and middle class, changing the racial and political complexion of the city. Holding elections while the vast majority of New Orleans voters are displaced outside of their home district and even their home state is unprecedented in the history of the United States, but it also raises racial justice and human rights questions.
Robert D. Bullard is the director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
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